The
Third Constance Sherridan Hefner Memorial Exhibition
Hand and Eye: Artists-in-Residence 2002-2004
August 25 - October 10, 2003
Hand and Eye
features works
artists who were in residence at Wesley Theological Seminary during the
2002-2003 academic year, and those who will be part of the seminary community
during academic year 20032004. Sally Avignone, Sarah Demas, Hal Malone, and
Judy Shapiro, are already well known to many students, faculty and staff of WTS.
Jeffrey Lewis, Lilya, Sue Mink, and Jiha Moon will become familiar presences in
the studio in the coming year.
Sally
Avignone
is a stained glass artist whose recently-completed work,
Like a Root,
was created
under the Magi program which is administered jointly by the Luce Center for the
Arts and Religion and Catholic University. After its exhibition in the Dadian
Gallery, it will become part of the permanent collection at Catholic University.
Sarah
Demas
is a portrait painter whose quiet, patient eye captures both the likeness and
the spirit of those who sit for her. In
The Visit,
a work she
created while in residence at WTS, she reveals the mixed emotions of a group of
women and girls, changing clothes while visiting in the intimate setting a
bedroom. The soft colors and the postures of the women suggest memory and
loss, the mixture affection and impatience that is often characteristic of
families as relatives grow old.
Jeffery
Lewis
has been a Professor of Art at Auburn University in Alabama, has taught at
Dartmouth and Cornell, and lectured on encaustic painting in Iowa, Great
Britain, New York, and elsewhere. His delicate evocations of landscape glow with
an inner light. Their deeply textured surfaces reveal meticulous observation
coupled with a keen sense of abstract relationships, creating a sense of both
mystery and deep familiarity.
Hal
Malone
is a photographer whose day job as a social worker informs his mysterious
documents of daily life. In these three photographs, he captures moments of
strong emotion outlined against serene backdrops of sky and leaves. The women's
faces and gestures, frozen by the camera's shutter, point to something that
lifts them out of their ordinary selves.
The
artist known simply as Lilya taught for a time at UCLA and currently
lives most of the year in France. Her work is shown widely in Europe, and is
found in many collections, including that of the French Bibliotheque Nationale.
Her large, mixed media work, “The Flight of the Angel (1 1 September 2001),” is
a lyrical visualization of disintegration and reintegration, in which blue and
gold teardrops float through space, coming together through a kind of magnetic
attraction into larger forms that begin to suggest the presence of a winged
being.
Sue
Mink
is well known in the knitting community, having published many designs for
sweaters, shawls and other garments in popular knitting and craft journals for a
number of years. In this exhibition, in addition to finished work, she reveals
the background on some of her designs with preliminary sketches, stitching
guides, and photographs.
Jiha
Moon
is a Korean artist now living in the United States. Her mysterious paintings
suggest an inner landscape within which fragments of familiar images point
towards an ambiguous path. Intense colors and swirling forms are punctuated with
sharp lines and clear demarcations of shape, the traces of the artist’s double
vision of home.
Judy
Shapiro
is a quilter whose expertise on the historical Baltimore album quilts has given
her important insights into the lives of Methodist women in earlier times. She
also designs and creates vestments which bring a sense of joy and beauty into
liturgical celebrations wit h her craft and unexpected color combinations.
In
this exhibition, we say a fond good-bye to Sarah, Hal, and Judy, while welcoming
back Sally and greeting Lilya, Sue, and Jiha for the first time.
Deborah Sokolove
Curator, Dadian Gallery
