Join Rivery Gallery in the Bluff View Art District this Friday, April 3 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm for the free opening reception of their April exhibit.
View the new body of work by ceramicist Linda Crossan alongside the remaining woodblock prints of the late Sister Mary Grace Thul as well as the newest paintings by James Conner.
Enjoy the opportunity to meet exhibiting artist Linda Crossan and learn about the immense passions that inspire her work. Linda Crossan’s Story Bowls are inspired by the “different stages of our relationship to God” and her own “profound encounters with the spirit”. By focusing on the spiritual act of shaping clay, along with illustration and scripture, Linda emphasizes the significance of the bowl as a sacred vessel, representing a source of nourishment for the body and soul.
"The development of my work has been influenced by my years spent in the graphics community. As a designer, illustrator, I learned how to research and immerse myself in a subject so the work I produced felt organic and natural to who I am while speaking to the concept in an informed way," Crossan explains. "Years spent painting, drawing, working with color, and creating art in other mediums are now reflected in the clay work I produce. I love the unexpected and the space I have to make for the clay to become what it wants to be not always what I think it should be."
James Conner was born and raised in rural Mississippi and believes he was born to be an artist, as his first memories are of his drawing with pencil and paper before he was old enough to attend school. He later served in the U.S. Army as a graphic artist and illustrator with two tours of duty in Vietnam and Europe.
While working in law enforcement as a sketch artist in the Graphics Division of the Detroit Police Department, James realized that he wanted to fulfill his earlier desire to support himself with his art and, consequently, decided to return to the south.
"I paint with a passion, and that is a take from my life. When I returned home from Vietnam, I saw things in a way I’ve never seen them before. I try to capture my emotions as quickly as they emerge. I don’t have enough days left on God’s earth to spend weeks on one piece of work," says Conner. "When the passion has left, I want to move to the next work. I love painting the moment. I think like the universe, life and everything surrounding it is defined shaped and ruled by contrast."
Before becoming a cloistered nun, Sister Mary Grace Thul served a summer internship at the Cincinnati Art Museum, taught art in the Cincinnati public schools, and established a custom art business with two colleagues.
Sister Mary Grace entered the Dominican Monastery of Cincinnati in 1962 and in June of 2014 celebrated her Golden Jubilee of first profession. Sha exhibited widely and created many sculptures, paintings, and woodcuts, commissioned by churches around the country for liturgical use and purchased by collectors for their homes.
She once explained that her goals was to produce art that is contemporary enough to be accessible and widely spread to the people of today. She fely her artwork is was her way of living a contemplative life, and hoped that her my art would bring inner peace to the viewer.