Featured Artists Exhibit Apr/May 2024
April 2 – May 11
Featuring Carol Retsch Bogart, Shelly Hehenberger, Linda Prager, and guest artists Doug Dotson and Jane Filer.
We’re holding a special closing reception for this show on May 10 from 6 pm -9 pm.
Carol Retsch Bogart
Carol’s love of collage and mixed media touches on all manner of materials. She’s experimented with textiles in recent years, and for this show, decided to dive deeper. In fact, six of the nine pieces are textiles.
“I am enthralled with textiles of other lands – from the silk kimonos of Japan to the cotton kantha cloth of India,” Carol said. She adds her own silkscreened cloth to the mix. She continues, “making marks, shapes, and images where none existed before forms a constant interplay between the materials and me.”
A former therapist, Carol has long been intrigued by the complicated nuances and layers of people’s lives, feelings and experiences. For this show she explores the layers of texture in cloth – some observable and some hidden – just as in our lives.
Shelly Hehenberger
Heavily applied textured layers of oil paint and cold wax mixtures help Shelly express her concept of “Earth Time.” That is the passively infinite movement of time which directs the path of all life.
Shelly’s goal is to invite you to contemplate Earth Time as you might approach the textural bark of a tree, or the persistent growth of stalactites in a cave, or the complexity of an ocean reef. These natural forms and patterns grow and reform like the layered surfaces of her paintings in this exhibit.
Shelly explains, “Through my work, I hope to remind the viewer (as well as myself) of our birthright connection to the mysterious expanse of Earth Time and to allow it to teach us a deeper way to live and breathe in this world.”
Linda Prager
Linda’s work is inspired by many things – architecture, nature, art in all its forms, and, the clay itself.
The pieces in this show express Linda’s reaction to the works of the other exhibiting artists. She explains, “I became excited thinking about how I could create work that would talk to, and connect with, their work.” Linda went with bolder, brighter color combinations for many of these piece, while some express softer, more muted colors to provide some quiet focus for the eyes, and to reflect Linda’s quieter thoughts.
As you look at Linda’s work, think about the layers of color and texture, and consider how that relates to the object’s form. These pieces are sculptural and beautiful, but they’re also functional vessels created for everyday use.
Jane Filer
In Jane’s work, you are transported to worlds of wonder and supernatural experiences. These colorful paintings tell stories rooted in what it means to be human.
Jane has made homes in North Carolina — at the beach and in the woods. She spends time in New Mexico and the Florida Keys. In her works, those environments are depicted in ethereal ways. She explains that her paintings, “are vehicles. They are equations and visual stories. They are teleportation beams, if you dare to take the ride. They are my offspring. They are what I have spent my life nurturing and putting out in the world.”
Doug Dotson
Doug creates pottery for daily use, looking to the simplicity and strength of natural forms for inspiration. He makes pots, “in a way that shows the marks of my hands, the tools I use, and the fire that transforms mud into pottery. I want the hardy, rustic feel and appearance of my pottery to be as grounding to the pot’s eventual owner as it is to me when I make it.”
