In-Town Gallery Hosts 42nd Annual Holiday Show In November

Opening Reception Set For Nov. 4

  • Sunday, October 16, 2016

The membership at In-Town Gallery gets into a festive mood just before the holidays as they prepare the gallery for the reveal of new work.  As one of the oldest, continuously operating cooperative galleries, the tradition has been to keep things fresh by removing work shown for the previous six months.  Artists and crafts people work from May to November to create new pieces for the changeover show.  The opening reception for the new work will be held Friday, Nov. 4, from 5-8 p.m. 

The changeover show also welcomes the new members.  One wall will be devoted to examples of their work wile other examples will be interspersed throughout the gallery.     

Here are the reviews for the artists:

Miki Boni, a New York City native began her career in Manhattan’s East Village drawing street portraits.  With a degree in Fine Arts she relocated to Mexico to teach and exhibit.  With an insatiable appetite for travel her work often reflects her experiences and a list of shows and accolades too lengthy to list.  Miki and husband moved to Chattanooga as recipients of an ArtsMove grant moving to  Chattanooga’s Southside where she paints an endless parade of fantasy characters in her “Otherworldlies” series.   

Native Chattanoogan Lee Glasscock graduated from UTK with a BS Degree in Special Education.  Her artistic interest was sparked by her watercolorist grandmother.  Beginning in the 1990s she studied watercolor and china painting, moving on into jewelry design, acrylic and mixed media painting.  A charter member of Mixed Media Inspired Artists, she is part of a group begun by instructor, Sandy Paynter-Washburn.  As part of this group Lee has exhibited in shows throughout East Tennessee and Georgia.  Lee is also an active member of Tennessee Watercolor Society. 

Victoria Kile makes objects of clay that will enrich the lives of those who use them.  A BFA in Sculpture and an ME concentrated in severe disabilities from UTC led to teaching in area colleges and other arts centered venues.  Her pieces are decorative as well as utilitarian and quite a number of them are purely sculptural.  Her aim through the esthetics of her craftsmanship is to build relationships between maker and user of each individually created piece.   

Linda Kerlin and family moved to Jasper, Tn. from Wilmington, N.C. in 2001, purchasing some acreage and a home over 100 years old.  To the several outbuildings they added a rustic studio from which come the paintings inspired by the natural surroundings.  An accomplished member of Tennessee Watercolor Society, she has won awards and as an acrylic painter she tries to balance realism with abstraction.  “My work expresses the memories of nature and the many places I have lived,” says Ms. Kerlin. 

“I was fortunate to spend my childhood with adults who had a deep appreciation of of both God’s creations and the best of what mankind has made”, says Janice Kindred.  Add to that the beauty of music, art and culture and you have the inspiration for her approach to art.  “I pull together many materials, like a collection- gathered, thoughtfully arranged and reapplied until after many layers I arrive at a point of satisfaction.”  This mixed-media artist is a founding member of MMIA and has been featured in shows throughout the area.   

Tracey Paden says, “From the day I discovered silk and painting on silk with dye, I felt I had found magic.”  This love led her to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree at University of Tennessee followed by several years of teaching in New Orleans and Aspen, Co.  While teaching at Colorado Mountain College she met and married a Chattanoogan after which they moved to Lake Chickamauga and built their house.  Bright colors and pattern are the hallmark of the wearable art created by this artist who is also represented by many galleries including one in Laguna Beach, Ca., and several smaller ones from Jupiter, Fl. to Anchorage, Ak.   

James Tucker was born in Connecticut but spent most of his life in the South.  A graduate of University of Georgia he has also studied art at the Atlanta College of Art and Callanwolde Art Center in Decatur, Ga.  An active artist since 1976 he enjoys painting people in ways that suggest the stories in their lives,  usually providing some context for the figures but with intentional ambiguity.  “My goal is to have the viewer enter the image and form a personal narrative.”  Once the viewer connects with the painting the artist’s intent becomes irrelevant he says.  James and his wife live on the Cumberland Plateau near South Pittsburg.  

Fiber artist, Karen Viser grew up in Richland, Wa. then went to University of North Carolina majoring in piano performance.  From early childhood she learned dressmaking, quilting, beading, dyeing and knitting.  Teaching music and playing the organ for church services went hand in hand with fiber schools until she retired and now continues her art full time.  Traveling often to Baltimore, Md. where she studies French couture design, her use of dyeing, quilting and surface design makes for unique pieces.  “I do my fabric dyeing in an old airport hangar,” says Karen with a laugh.

Well known area artist Sandra Paynter-Washburn brings a depth of knowledge and boundless energy to the gallery.  Long time instructor in public schools and art venues throughout the Southeast she has inspired countless artists to achieve their best potential.  Her medium of choice presently is Acrylic Mixed-Media both abstract and representational.  Teaching at Art Creations inspired Sandy to organize a core group of advanced students to found the MIMA organization which, in addition to doing shows throughout the area, supports Second Life, an outreach program that helps women who have been exploited in sex trafficking.   

Meet the new artists, see all the new works and enjoy an evening with many artists at In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. on the North Shore.  Hours are 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday and until 8 p.m. on First Fridays, year round except major holidays.  Call 267-9214, visit www.facebook.com/iintowngallery


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