Mixed Messages Art Show to Open at Kershner, Oct. 18

The Bruce S. Kershner Gallery in the Fairfield Library invites the public to a reception for “Mixed Messages” on Saturday, October 18 from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, with a talk by the artists at 5:30 pm. The show features four artists from City Gallery in New Haven: Sheila Kaczmarek, Mary Lesser, Paulette Rosen, and Karen Wheeler. It will run from October 12 to November 30 during library hours. 1080 Old Post Road in Fairfield. Go to www.fairfieldpubliclibrary.org or call 203-256-3155.
 
Ten years ago, Sheila Kaczmarek co-founded the City Gallery in New Haven. In addition, she serves on the Board of the New Haven Paint and Clay Club and is President of the Guilford Art League. Sheila studied art in London,  at UCLA in California, then in Brussels. After returning to the US, she was a member of a women’s collaborative. Her interest in three-dimensional art led to an apprenticeship in the ceramics studio of Guilford Handcraft Center for five years. She taught art to children in her studio until she found she needed to spend more time on her own work. For the last five years, she has been directing a class of adults in her studio.
 
She says she has always been fascinated by maps and sea charts.  “The inspiration for a  recent series I made on paper with mixed media was  taken from Ordnance Survey Maps in England.  ... the maps mark the presence of man-made features – stone walls, castles, prehistoric sites, stone-age quarries, standing stones etc.  These maps as well as showing me elevations and hiking trails also give me glimpse into the past and tell a story... I took sea charts of the Upper Cape  and of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and focused on the macro area of the seaboard where two or more land masses almost came together thus creating a narrow channel through which  the water is constrained to flow.  ...This tension  drives movement, sensation and activity  in biology, physics and in human behavior. My paintings are mixed media and comprise oil paint, collage, clay, and encaustic as well as pencil, oil stick and charcoal.”
 
Mary Lesser began drawing in childhood. She graduated from Brandeis University and worked as an artist showing and selling her artwork for ten years. Then, to support her family, she went to and graduated from Yale Law School and began practicing law. She continued to make and sell her artwork at the same time. After retiring from legal work , she attended and then graduated from a painting program at the New York Studio School in Manhattan.
 
Mary is a member of City Gallery, Connecticut Women Artists Association , Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Creative Arts Workshop and other professional organizations. She has had many one and two-person shows at City Gallery Rotunda Gallery, Creative Arts Workshop Small Gallery Willoughby Wallace Gallery and other venues.  She has been in numerous juried and invitational shows in the Eastern United States.
 
Mary says, “I am both a painter and printmaker. Although I sometimes work abstractly, most of my images are in some way narrative. The work in this show is new and represents a new direction and experiment for me. I start with a photograph which I have taken in mostly urban places. I then manipulate the image on the computer using photoshop software. I remove parts and draw added elements until I have a composition I find pleasing. I then reduce the age to stark black and white so that it resembles a linocut or silkscreen print. After I print out the image I add color with etching ink and rollers. The result is an archival print on archival paper of both digital and hand work.”
 
Paulette Rosen lives and works in Hamden. Her primary drawing medium is colored pencil over archival pigment prints. She makes books that include drawings and text, does bookbinding and box making.  Her artist books are in the collections of Trinity College, Connecticut College, Yale University and The Library of Congress. After a career in social services with children, she turned to making art full time. With a B.S. in Arts and Media and extensive training in the book arts, she teaches book arts to adults and children in schools and museums. She also conducts teacher training workshops in using book arts with young children. Currently she is head of the Book Arts Department at Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven where she has taught for sixteen years.
 
Paulette has been a member of City Gallery in New Haven since 2010, where she has had two solo shows. She has exhibited in curated shows at the John Slade Ely House, The Slater Memorial Museum, The Arts Council of Greater New Haven and Giampietro Gallery.
 
She says, “I always want to have a closer look at birds, through the binoculars or in my hand. I am intrigued by the layering of the feathers, the richness of the color, their learned and innate behaviors, and the merging of these parts into a coherent, moveable whole. ...These bird drawings begin as computer scans, that I do myself, of taxidermied birds. I alter them digitally and have them archivally printed. The resulting images are sometimes quite pixilated. The paper is then entirely worked with pencil, gouache, watercolor and water based crayon to both obscure and enhance aspects of the image. “
 
Karen Wheeler has a BFA from Indiana University and an MFA from Ohio University, and over thirty years of extensive exhibition and teaching experience. She has exhibited nationally in both solo and group shows, winning numerous awards, including the Southeastern Artist Fellowship. As an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop, Karen was Associate Professor of Art at Wingate University in North Carolina prior to her move to New Haven. She currently serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Bridgeport and Albertus Magnus College and is a member of City Gallery in New Haven.
 
Karen says, ”I enjoy the ancient art of papermaking equally with using the latest version of Photoshop, but within and beneath it all is a love of drawing. With this body of work, I digitally collaged images of my handmade paper formations, drawings & paintings to create new images. Qualities of translucence, veiling and revealing are further enhanced with drawing on top of the resulting prints. My objective for the viewer has always been to provide a sense of visual joy.”
 
The Kershner Gallery is funded by the Friends of the Fairfield Library and by donations from individual and business sponsors. To become a sponsor of the gallery, contact Liz at 203-246-9065.

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Submitted by Fairfield, CT

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