The Exchange Gallery

Every month VAE highlights the work of four or five exemplary VAE artists in its Exchange Gallery. This highly visible retail space in the front windows of VAE's City Market Gallery is excellent exposure for artists and a favorite shopping spot of patrons. Artists are juried into the space annually. For more information contact Meredith Burgess at 919.828.7834 ex 6853, or meredith@visualartexchange.org.

Click here to learn how to apply for your own featured artist exhibition!

August 2009 Exchange Gallery Artists:

• Greg Carter
• Melinda Fine
• Denise Sherman
• Jan Sullivan-Volz

Greg Carter

Developing the creative process as a problem solving tool - that is the responsibility of an art teacher. Whether that teacher is practicing fine or applied arts, in a studio or a digital environment, the teacher's core responsibility remains the same.

Creativity is possibly the most valuable problem solving skill that we have. It is a skill that allows us to cope with novel situations, and to create unanticipated solutions. It is a skill that we recognize as the clear perception of childhood. It is also a skill that can be refined throughout the course of one's entire life, or if once lost can be re-acquired at any time if one is willing.

The path one will take through life is unpredictable. Regardless of one's plan at any given point, knowing the next bend is impossible. For that reason, teaching particular skills that yield short-term results, rather than teaching process that teaches the skill of "creativity", does a disservice to the faith that our students place in us.

Creativity, or creative problem solving, is a skill that students can develop through out the course of our program. It is a skill that they will be valuable to them regardless of what career path they choose through life. It will enrich their lives, as well as the lives of all those around them - whether they are making paintings, or websites, or trimming hedges.

Melinda Fine

Using text, numbers, color and texture, my work depicts a broader, deeper impact of messages, the verbal, emotional, and logical content that informs communication We all are aware that so much more information than mere words passes between people when they interact. I explore the tension and music of communication. Simultaneously there is rhythm, order, and chaos. Rarely all is said and done. It is said, and what remains is the interpretive reverberation.

Denise Sherman

I am essentially a self-taught artist and am learning as I go along. Painting is a release for me from my work as a writer. I work as a journalist, and am an aspiring writer of fiction, trying to learn my craft.

As a child, I grew up painting with my mother's acrylics and watercolors. About four years ago, I picked up the paintbrush again and was ushered into a world of creative freedom. Painting didn't have to be serious like writing. I could just have fun. And that is how I began my play with paints.

I was freelancing and spending much of my time at home during those years. And often, the objects in my home were transformed by my imagination and made their way onto my canvas.

I use intense color in my work. For me, vibrant color expresses joy. As long as I can remember, I have identified with color. And it doesn't seem an accident that my work celebrates it. Some of my most joyful memories come from those long playful days of summer when the intensity of sunshine turned everything into a brighter version of itself.

Design also is important in my work. I like to create pattern and shapes. Akin to the primitives, I tend to flatten space, and distort perspective.

While I see painting important in its own right in my life -- on my good days --- I think it has helped me lighten my hand as a writer and rejoice with my painter's glee.

Because I wasn't a painter, I could become one. When I paint, I'm free.

Jan Sullivan-Volz

My art is an expression of life and the changes we all encounter. As an artist, I take materials and objects and transform them. This creation is the result of putting together accustomed objects to create something new, altered by the human hand in response to the human condition. The symbols are objects of the known world suggesting the unknown.

I am passionate about creating my assemblages and sculptures. Each creation is an adventure, a scavenger hunt, and a puzzle for me as I attempt to convey various stories and themes. I search for just the right object that will help create the saga of that piece. Often the work has to develop and season as the pieces of the puzzle find me or I discover them. As an artist, my palette is not waiting by my side but lying by the road or hidden in an obscure junk shop. My work deals with scenarios that intrigued me or scenarios that concern me. Some of the pieces are personal reflections of my journey as a human and an artist but many reflect social conditions or consciousness.

This is an exciting medium for me because I utilize painting, sculpting and putting my hands into any medium that may contribute to the assemblages. I strive to convey spirit in matter, in inanimate objects. There are many things lying about waiting to be discovered, to share their personality, their secret soul, their magic.

See previous featured artists:

July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007