Past Exhibition
Parallel Voices
Peg's Gallery
March 23, 2022 — May 4, 2022
PARALLEL: having the same direction, course, nature or tendency
Though we do not create right alongside each other, the voices, stories and narratives that speak out of our work run parallel.
As acrylic mixed media artists, we love to be lost in the process of creating, yet found amongst the colors of nature’s seasons.
Our botanical works both compliment and collide in this exhibit. Enjoy.
About the Artists
Helen Wilson
My love of all things Botanical began at a young age, as I grew up in Southern California playing daily in my Grandmother’s lush garden. I have fond memories of swinging from the branches of the avocado trees. My art career began as a middle school student doodling on cereal boxes, gum wrappers and phone books. This was a habit that adults did not always appreciate. At the age of 16 I was introduced to the wonder of a Rapidograph technical pen. I spent hours drawing and found art to be a means of communication. Entering into adulthood, and the world of work and family life, I set my artistic interests aside.
Jump ahead several decades and in the 90’s, my family and I moved to the edge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. My childhood fascination with the natural world was rekindled and I found myself needing to give voice to the botanical world around me. I discovered a fascination for the relationship between “outer and inner”. The dormancy of winter plants, the buzzing of the pollinators, the hidden work of chlorophyll, the rhythm of the seasons, the mystery of seeds and the amazing world of grasses became some of my themes. The infinite layers found in nature are a common thread throughout my mixed media process.
Also, I have come to consider that the botanical world has a message for us. There is more to life than meets the eye! Over several years, I tried many different artistic approaches and finally discovered my voice in the mixed media collage process. I actually devised my own process of 3-D paper collage, also considered as a low relief sculpture. I use acrylic paints, mediums, inks, mono-printing and the metal gilding process in my work. I also include asemic writing and numbers in many of my works as a means of giving voice to the botanical world. Recently, I have begun to use my process to create free standing paper assemblages.
Susan Mencini
Creating art for me is about the process. Our world is in a constant color change of seasons. Whether it is lovely greys of winter, pinks in spring, cerulean skies of summer or the sienna and ambers in autumn, they allow me to discover and unfold colors each season through painting.
Trees, their seasonal changes and growth have always been a favorite subject of mine. You find them plentiful in my seasonscapes. Each season unfolds into the next and there is a freshness, an awakening, even a rebirth. The beauty, the pain, the brokenness is lost to new beauty, new freedom and new grace.
