Six Gallery One Artists Exhibit New Work With Guest Artists Karen Bartone and Mariette Brown

Aug. 15, 2011 - PRLog -- Six Gallery One artists – Nile Barrett, Ashby Carlisle, Denise Hartz, Diana Rogers, Maureen Squires and Jill Vaughn – exhibit new work along with guest artists Karen Bartone and Mariette Brown from Tuesday, August 16 through Sunday, October 14. The reception will be Friday, September 9, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

A sampling of what will be seen includes Ashby Carlisle’s recent series of sculptures inspired by the Ailanthus Altissima trees, commonly called Tree of Heaven.  Each piece in the series explores a different aspect of the relationship of heaven and earth. In the second in the series, gold-rimmed seed pods hang upside down from a wrapped arched branch, ready to release their seeds, and are created from international newspapers featuring Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and English (the languages of the four largest populations). Carlisle notes that these groups have the collective ability to influence values and ultimately the actions of people around the globe, planting seeds of change to manifest heaven on earth.  Carlisle attributes her flexibility regarding materials and ideas to her time at Beloit College in Wisconsin and its open non-traditional curriculum.

Guest artist, Karen Bartone followed the light as it changed over five days on a red door and its surrounding structure. The five resulting works became a journal of her  meditations on light and its ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.  Bartone remarks in her artist statement that the red door embodies the symbols of luck, prosperity, spirituality and strength, and it reminds her that the universe is large and we are small. She holds degrees in fine arts and psychology and is an alumna of Lyme Academy. She currently teaches at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Mariette Brown, also a guest artist, understands the balance required between the power needed to carve stone and the grace and sensitivity expressed in the finished sculptures.  In “Found Object,” one can almost hear the harmonic rhythms as her curvilinear forms play against the rivers of sepia tones that are exposed, and are punctuated by the staccato beat of her hammer and chisel as they transform the stone.  The titles of her work, such as “Danu’s Dog,” “Woman of the Wood,” and “My Beloved Tree,” reveal that nature, and traditional and personal mythology are her inspirations. It was a sculpture class at Rhode Island School of Design that set her on her path which would include The Carving Studio in Vermont and the Lyme Academy.

Gallery One at the Clayhouse is one of the few galleries on the shoreline that regularly shows abstract as well as representational work in a broad range of mediums and styles. It is located near HomeGoods in the Old Saybrook Shopping Center, 665 Boston Post Road (near Elm Street), Old Saybrook, CT. Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  Thursday 10:00 to 5:30. Sunday noon to 5 p.m.; closed Monday.