DIANE KRUER

Statement
“The truth of a thing is in the feel of it, not the think of it.” Buckminster Fuller

Mixed media processes imparted directly on the image allow me to restore a sense of the senses, age and emotion.  I generally find the initial printed image directly from the camera or the computer a little too clean, too flat, still too much in my head.  I am drawn to smear and mess up the paper and image a bit for the piece to “feel” correct or accurately mirror my vision and experience.

Biography
BFA – Northern Kentucky University, MFA – University of Cincinnati.  I teach Art, I make Art.

GARRETT LANGEBARTELS

Statement:

I love seeing simplicity in the complex world that surrounds me, be it in cityscapes, mountains, oceans or anything else I might see in my day to day life. My art work aims to capture the simplicity of the world surrounding me.

Biography

Garrett Langebartels is currently finishing his studies at Indiana Wesleyan University. He manages an admissions call center for the university, and is a barista/roaster at Abbey Coffee Co. in Marion, IN. Garrett is a songwriter and leads a Christian worship band at his local church. He loves backpacking, rock climbing, surfing and pretty much anything that allows him to travel and be outside.

ALEJANDRO MANDEL

Statement

My work is concerned with art history and how it conditions the way I look at art. The Landscapes that are in this exhibit are taken from memory and they try to express the poetic and nostalgic aspect of the landscape we see in art books. Such artists as Corot and Courbet influence the visual aspects of the paintings.

Biography
Alejandro Mandel was born in Santiago, Chile. He studied art in Chile, Israel and the United States. He has a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in California and a MFA from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He currently works and lives in the Cincinnati area.

LAURA MARTIN

Statement

I find myself to be an Explorer and Visual Inspector, constantly looking for the hidden beauty in the urban environment. I hope to engage the viewer to look further into my art to see the visual qualities of the weathered, worn, and dilapidated structures or objects. The vivid colors of rust or layers of peeling paint can create images of art. I repurpose rusted and worn metals into my work - a salvaged bent metal scrap can inspire the start of a unique sculptural form and relay a hidden visual story. Photography and mixed media is the core of my studio work, often layering those pieces with found objects or metal to create a foundation or framework for the art. My sculptural work plays with how the various forms between the 2D work in conjunction with the 3D, hoping to create a connection between the viewer and the unique aesthetic qualities of the urban landscape.

Biography

Laura Martin is a mixed-media artist; her photos and art reflect the hidden beauty in the urban environment. She works as an Environmental Graphic Designer with the City of Cincinnati and has a studio at the Pendleton Art Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Photography and mixed media is the core of her studio work, often layering those pieces with found objects or metal to create a foundation or framework for the art. Her sculptural work plays with how the various forms between the 2D work in conjunction with the 3D, hoping to create a connection between the viewer and the unique aesthetic qualities of the urban landscape.

NICCI MECHLER

Statement
These tattooed ghost girls are part of an ongoing series examining aspects of beauty and vibrant color. Each begins as a portrait inspired by strangers, stories, or a poem. It is my aim to excite the eye, and to remind the viewer of someone they know, or perhaps someone they've only dreamed about.

Biography
Nicci Mechler (MA English + BFA Studio Art) splits her time between writing poetry & speculative fiction, editing the lit. mag. Sugared Water, and drawing girls with inky tattoos. She's hard pressed to go anywhere without a sense of wonder and a pair of red shoes.

LISA MERIDA-PAYTES

Statement
“My father’s taxidermist / slaughterhouse business was an overwhelming environment with powerful images of hanging carcasses of deer, piles of sawed off animal feet and freezers full of animal hides.  These images presented a lack of empathy for life to me as a child.

My objective is to conjure the past, present and future in order to invoke the contemplation of our existence. My work is to evokes the animal spirit that was once destroyed and to make amends for the discord and waste.  Uncovering the strength and beauty in frailty, I hope to leave viewers with a greater appreciation and respect for all life.”

Biography

Lisa Merida-Paytes holds an M.F.A. from the University of Cincinnati1997 and a BFA. from
the Art Academy of Cincinnati 1991.  Her work has been featured in exhibitions and publications, regionally, nationally and internationally for the past 15 years.  Recently, she has written and published her own curriculum, Special Studio Teaching Manual Series:  Preserving Memories with Paperclay, an Art-to-Art Palette Books publication. 

CHERYL PANNABECKER

Statement
In this set of work, I was interested in working with random shapes and textures and exploring what figures or stories emerged out of chance circumstances.  I used the clay and textured glazes to give the pieces a landscape quality.

Biography
Cheryl received a BA from Bluffton College in 1986 and an MFA in Ceramic Sculpture from the University of Cincinnati in 1990.  Cheryl works as an Artist Facilitator at senior centers, nursing homes and assisted living centers.  She gives arts workshops and lessons through the Alzheimer’s Association and through Creative Aging Cincinnati, as well as independently.  Cheryl resides in and maintains her ceramics studio in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood.

CARRIE PATE

Statement

These works are about whimsy, and intimate beauty. Capturing spirit on paper.

Biography

Carrie E.Pate received a Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati, 1990 and a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, 1985. As an artist she works in mixed media: paint, clay, pencil, earth and landscape materials. After graduate school, from 1990-1995, she worked as an outdoor educator, involving the public with issues concerning wildlife and the environment. She combined her Art with her commitment to preserving the outdoors, as part of a team that designed and created the public outdoor art projects ‘Earth Giving’ and ‘Sacred Embrace’. These, sculptural ‘earthworks’, are environmental restoration projects, using native prairie plants and honoring nature’s cycles. They are permanently located in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. In addition, Carrie was a co-presenter with Don Geiger at the Society of Ecological Restoration’s International Conference in San Francisco, California in 1999.

SARA PEARCE

Statement

My passion is reclaiming forgotten paper, and helping it tell a new story via collage. My work is mostly narrative. The process of collage making - from finding paper and composition to cutting and pasting - brings together my past careers, and interests, in a new and exciting way. I am intrigued by taking antique engravings of people, and transforming them into something far different from their original intention. I also am drawn to antique anatomical illustrations, which are integral to this series, The Third Eye. 

As tempting as it is to copy and enlarge images, my goal is to let the original paper tell the story, and to that end, I use paper from my vast collection of antique/vintage/recycled paper, and ephemera. I am on a continual hunt for the next perfect piece of paper, a hunt that has led me to dumpster dive, trash pick, make illegal u-turns, and spend hours sorting through flea market stalls and dusty book shelves.    

Biography

Sara Pearce is a Cincinnati-based collage artist, printer and graphic designer. Before fully focusing on her art, she began a long stint as an award-winning newspaper journalist (USA Today, The Orlando Sentinel, Cincinnati Enquirer, Nashville Banner, York Daily Record, Philadelphia Bulletin).

In 2008, she switched direction again to embark on a career as a full-time professional artist. She owns Paper With a Past and works from a light-filled studio at Cincinnati's Brazee Street Studios in Oakley. Her collages have been shown at Studio San Giuseppe (College of Mount Saint Joseph), Manifest Gallery and Research Center, The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Park National Bank Art Gallery (University of Cincinnati-Clermont College), 5th Street Gallery, Redtree Gallery, NVISION and Gallery one one. 

KATHLEEN PIERCEFIELD

Statement

I’ve always felt that our connection with the natural world is not merely physical, but also emotional; images and metaphors from nature are deeply embedded in language and literature, and even surface in our dreams.  Tapping into this connection is the focus of my work, and the process usually starts with close observation of nature itself.   I draw to record what I see, read to understand it, and then go on to infuse the image with stories of my own invention.  My intent is not to replicate the world my senses perceive, but rather to explore the moments and places where imagination and reality intersect.

Biography

Originally from the Chicago area, Kathleen Piercefield majored in studio arts at Murray State University in western Kentucky; studied watercolor at the Baker-Hunt Foundation in Covington; and earned a BFA in printmaking from Northern Kentucky University.  Her work has been exhibited regionally and nationally, and is in a number of private collections.