"Accessible Art" Exhibuts Joining Business with Art - Opening October 30 in 9 Host Venues
"Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is 'to fit together' and we all do this every day." - Sister Mary Corita Kent
"Fitting together" is at the heart of the Cultural Alliance of Western Connecticut's Accessible Art program, a year-long, multi-site series of visual art shows that joins business with art. The decade-old program has grown significantly, this year featuring more than 30 artists in 9 venues over 5 rounds of exhibition, more than 40 shows in all. Opening Monday, October 30th, Accessible Art runs through Friday, December 29th.
This final round of 2017 Accessible Art mountings will highlight the works of Alma Al-Faham (Danbury), Steve Bean (Danbury), Frederick P. Burger (Danbury), Anne Marie Foran (Newtown), Carol Gibson (Bethel), Crystal Keeler (Patterson, NY), Chris Ludwig (New Milford), Honorah O'Neill (Bethel), and Tara Tomaselli (Newtown). Hours at the venues vary, so call ahead. For more information about Accessible Art, call (203) 798 0760 or visit www.artswesternct.org All exhibitions are subject to change.
Alma Al-Faham
Pour Me Coffee & Wine Cafe, 274 Main Street, Danbury
Born and raised in Kuwait to a Syrian father and a Jordanian mother, Alma Al-Faham holds a BSc in Architectural Engineering. She has lived, worked and exhibited her art in Jordan, Greece, and the US, complementing her passion for art by taking extensive courses in painting and jewelry design in both Greece and Jordan. Poetry, the blue waters of the Aegean sea, and Damascene architecture are her sources of inspiration.
Steve Bean
YMCA's ESCAPE to the Arts, 293 Main Street, Danbury
Steve Bean possesses the soul of a wanderer. He earned a BA in Illustration and Painting at Western Connecticut State University, and has continued his own education and sought inspiration by exploring US National Parks from Alaska to Maine. Steve's unique style is a combination of the expressive quality of impasto painting with the fluidity of the sumi brush. He often uses cake decorating tips to create unique textures.
Frederick P. Burger
Danbury City Hall, 155 Deer Hill Avenue
For Frederick P. Burger, photography is all about recording the action of light on our world. His interest in the impact of man on the urban environment is evident in the way urban landscapes are changed by the choices of lighting used once the sun has gone down. His work strives to capture the ways in which artificial light are used to enhance and inform our perception of the man-made environments in which we live and play, whether they are stationary or in motion.
Anne Marie Foran
Mothership Bakery & Cafe, 331 Main Street, Danbury
Anne Marie Foran, whose show is entitled Water and Woods, works in a variety of mediums. She received her BFA from Marymount Manhattan College and has studied at the Washington Art Association. Her works have been awarded numerous prizes and she has been included in exhibitions at The Gallery of the Brookfield for the Arts and at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury. She is a member of the Washington Art Association and the Connecticut Society of Portrait Artists.
Carol Gibson
CityCenter Danbury, 268 Main Street
Carol Gibson says she is an "eclectic photographer." Her passion for photography has been instrumental in showing her the beauty in all of her surroundings. Her mantra is, 'Look up. Look down. Look all around. You never know what will be found.' Her greatest honor is seeing her photograph of the 9/11 Flag Memorial in Newtown CT hanging in the New York Stock Exchange. Her ultimate goal is to have it hang in the Oval Office.
Crystal Keeler
Filosa/Hancock Hall, 31 Staples Street, Danbury
In Frozen in Time, Crystal Keeler shows a deep passion for both science and the arts, for example, combining traditional and digital 3D sculpting techniques or abstract work mixing the effects of heat and gravity in a fast setting epoxy resin She has a degree in Media Arts & Animation. Her latest abstract series, from calm vistas reminiscent of a spring meadow or cresting waves on an ocean to dynamic expanding nebulas glowing in brilliant colors, each work represents a transient emotional state "frozen in time.'
Chris Ludwig
Bethel Public Library, 189 Greenwood Ave
"In my art," Chris Ludwig says, "the final versions rarely seem to resemble their source, which I guess can be the case for many of my observations. We see the world how we want to, and perhaps, not as it is. My art is an extension of my own reality or lack thereof."
Honorah O'Neill
Danbury Public Library, 170 Main Street
"I give flesh to monsters," proclaims Honorah O'Neill lightheartedly.
Tara Tomaselli
Hodge Insurance Agency, 283 Main Street, Danbury
Tara Tomaselli is a fine art photographer with over 20 years working in the industry. Primarily self-taught, she has been professionally exhibiting and selling her photographs since 2012. She notes,"When I come upon an interesting subject, I like to observe and take it in from all angles, then I hone in on what I feel is the most appealing part - most often a close up, showing the beauty in things no matter their current state, objects that are old, discarded, junked, rusted, decayed, interesting."
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