Artist Statements
Jessica Smith
Leftovers, scraps, previously completed works, and informal materials create a dialogue in my work about material worth and misplaced value. My work is process driven, and there is an interaction between the materials I use and my ideas. There is a sense of urgency in the mark making that suggests necessity. Necessity is also suggested by the unfinished quality of the work. My imagery addresses gender issues, femininity versus masculinity, and objectification.
Rachel Blier
I love stories. Always have, in every form, from film to book to comic. I think what makes a story compelling is the same thing that makes a work of art compelling—the disconnect between the visual and the verbal. Words describe what cannot quite be imagined, and some qualities of images can never quite be put into words. Comic books and graphic novels interest me due to their fusion of the visual and the textual.
My work is influenced by colorful Western comics such as Sandman and by the reductive aesthetic of Japanese manga. However, my drawings and paintings are much more frenetic and messy than most comics, often including elements such as text and collage. I interpret stories and images, both displaying my thoughts (through, for instance, the inclusion of text, as in the transfer piece Objection) and obscuring it (said text is backwards in places, impossibly layered in others).
My ceramic work is small scale because I like that sense of intimacy. My subjects are creatures from no particular mythology, although I draw inspiration from a number of favorite books and comics. Much like the textual references in my drawings and paintings which fade in and out of legibility, the details of my ceramic pieces seem to emerge from the rough clay, conveying in clay the same sketchy quality as my 2D work.
Jacquelene Whelchel
I have always loved art and have shown a desire to express the internal, externally. Thoughts. Feelings. Convictions. Virtues. Sometimes I express ideas through symbolic figures and colors, other times through realism. I create works of art that express mystery and emotion because this is what this life is made up of. It is filled with unexpected surprises and feelings; and to capture this is in a painting is a great challenge that I try to attain. Recently, I have been exploring the great mystery of what art really, truly is. I am on this journey seeking to find an answer. An answer that cannot be found in a textbook. An answer that cannot be answered for me. An answer that I must discover through constant personal discovery; because perhaps the real answer of what art truly is varies by artist, and my own answer will be found after struggling ,searching, hating and even wrestling with my own art.
Justin Owens
My hometown is very small so I rely on what is close to me. I have never been abroad and have seen very little of my own country. The friendships and bonds I make are limited but are close-knit, loyal, and overflow with love. This frame of mind that has developed over the course of my life has affected my artwork. I appear in most of my art because it is the closest thing that I have to work with. Accompanying the self-image along the same vein of the familiar is the available, the nearby, the routine, and the mundane. It is easy to slide into habits where we overlook what we see or do everyday. I focus on these mindless processes and objects in order to reestablish their importance.
Meredith Langer
Inspired primarily by nature, my artwork invites people into my world; a simpler place that serves as an ode to the past. Passionate about traditional techniques, whether it’s taking a picture from an old camera or hand-spinning yarn, my work often conveys a modern perspective to the necessary methods of our ancestors. Hailing from Chadds Ford, my world is inspired by the seasons and nature of the beautiful Pennsylvania landscape.
My own perspective distorts particular memories, drawing attention to things that often go unnoticed and losing sight of the whole picture. My work acts as a device to show people how I see the world; to notice the detail in the veins of a single leaf. This inherent sensitivity to the things that surround me is uncontrollable and is embraced through every fiber of my work.
Rachel Zeiler
My work focuses primarily on painting and ceramics and has been described as “disrupting the mundane.” The pieces range in size, some ranging four feet tall and others five inches. My work addresses Repetition and Fragmentation, whether used as a grid to create an abstracted cityscape or as the negative space in a still life.
Line factors strongly in my work, some as the natural process of the firing if clay in ceramics, others to separate the picture plane and create a disruption. The painting crumble features this, the crack representing an interruption of space. I am to communicate a moment in time, one that goes by so quickly a person may not catch it.