Terry Covington March and April 2016

Artist’s Statement

“I consider myself a self taught artist, although I did have high school art classes and one semester of community college “Intro to Art” classes.

As far back as I can remember I have been writing or drawing or creating in some way.  My first experience in three dimensional work came when I apprenticed as an aircraft mechanic.  I was taught sheet metal fabrication as well as the mechanical workings during the time I worked in that field.  I enjoyed them both and seemed to have a knack for fabrication.

When my husband died I threw myself into making art, converting our dining room into a studio.  Since then, almost twenty years now, I have worked at making art while being a single parent and trying to stay above water financially.  Some years I have been prolific.  Some years I have not made a thing.  I have learned when I am not making art of some kind I feel adrift, rudderless.  I need to do it.

I have always used the materials at hand.  I started with papier-maché because I didn’t have to buy any supplies except wall paper paste.  Newspapers are always around.  I originally built up solid to keep from having to buy materials to make a frame.  I like the heft of the solid pieces. I save colored tissue paper from birthday parties and other gift giving events.

I like the challenge of balance when I make larger pieces.  I also like to draw.  I occasionally make a painting. If I see an idea as three dimensional I make it that way.  If I see it as a painting, I make a painting.  I also sew and make whatever is needed around the house with whatever materials are at hand.

I make what I can with what I have because I am compelled to – both financially and emotionally.”

Here are several of Terry’s sculptures…

Duncan Stewart (1940 – 2013) Memorial Exhibit: January and February 2016 at Open Books

Many Pensacola artists were taught and influenced by Duncan Stewart, and he was a well loved and respected teacher and prolific working artist. Duncan was an art teacher at Pensacola State College and then the University of West Florida as well as a founding member of Art on the Tracks and Artel Gallery. His work primarily involved collage, but he was also a painter, print maker, and film director. Drop in to Open Books and take some time to view a sampling of Duncan’s brilliant creative work.

Duncan Stewart – Artist Statement:  (Taken from the Amici Exhibition Catalog, a Retrospective for Duncan and Hank Heuler, at the Visual Arts Gallery, Anna Lamar Switzer Center for Visual Arts, Pensacola State College, May 26 – July 23, 2009, Curated by Vivian Spencer)

 “I’ve always followed whatever direction interested me without concern for consistency of style or artistic career. Any career as a gallery artist I’ve been offered I have pretty well torpedoed by my lack of interest in that side of art. I taught for 35 years so I could follow my own artistic meanderings. These meanderings are expressed in the selection of work for this show – whatever interested me, for however long it interested me, in whatever way it interested me. A lot of these works relate to my travels, particularly Florence, Italy, and Mexico. I stopped painting for a long time but recently started again, and there are a number of paintings in the show. The show is not hung chronologically but more by techniques and approaches. I hope the viewer enjoys the digressions, splices, and crevasses that appear and disappear in my body of work.”

 

Carter J Gaston: November and December 2015 at Open Books

Well known Pensacola portrait and mural artist, Carter J, will be showing his skilled work at Open Books during November and December at Open Books. Here are some examples of his portraits:

Here is his wall mural at Belmont and Devillers Street in Pensacola:
And here are some of his recent paintings:

Vivian Spencer: September and October 2015 at Open Books

BIO: Anyone who has met Pensacola artist Vivian Spencer, knows she is passionate about the visual arts. With an undergraduate and a graduate degree in art, she is the Gallery Director for the Switzer Gallery, Pensacola State College. Vivian’s travels have taken her to countries rich artistic tradition such as Japan, Greece and Turkey; which have enlivened and inspired her work. Vivian’s photographs are in numerous prestigious public and private collections.

Artist Statement: Photography is a young medium which keeps redefining itself as it evolves. For me it is a fluid and malleable friend who is rich in endless variables and possibilities. My black box studio is the environment in which still life compositions are composed. It is only with careful lighting techniques that an image appears and takes on a life of its own.

The majority of images in this exhibition were created specifically for Open Books. My wish is to create awareness of the cultural resource this little, yet valuable resource provides to our community.

Donna O’Neal: July and August at Open Books

Artist Statement

In my ongoing artistic development, the majority of my work concerns spiritual growth. Drawing/Painting place me in a continual metamorphosis that reveal and transform me as I confront my materials and the changing world around me. My work concerns exploring the possibilities of transforming the drawn surface and making our souls touchable and putting it in a different dimension. The focus of my work is to make this connection viable to all.

The materials I use include all painting/drawing and metalwork tools. Drawing/Painting and Sculpture are my main interests. Learning and developing the art of Mexican metalwork has been both labor-intensive and given me meditation time.

My compositions become expressive grounds for the images that are imbedded in multi-layers. Markings appear and disappear within the surfaces, sometimes declaring themselves with absolute clarity and at other times disappearing beneath veils of color. The continual buildup of surfaces creates an “archeology” of metaphors, alternately covering and revealing important but indecipherable narrative material. There is an illusion that a message exists and that the work has a beginning and an end — an encoded story.

Here are some of Donna’s artwork: