Flora Opening Reception

  • November 03, 2016
  • 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • McLean County Arts Center 601 N East St Bloomington IL 61701


The McLean County Arts Center presents the art exhibition Flora in the Armstrong Gallery November 3 - 26, 2016. The free and public Opening Reception will be on Thursday, November 3, 5 - 8 pm.

 Flora features the ceramics of Colleen McCall, paintings of Julie Nelson, and blown glass of Matt Urban. Each artist focuses of different characteristics and proclivities of plant life as subject matter and their unique relationship to their artistic media.

 Colleen McCall creates functional ceramics with colorful floral surface decoration. She states, “Decorated inside and out and from top to bottom, my hand built pottery is inspired by vibrant textile patterns and the unique shapes and textures in vintage glassware.” McCall hand paints layers of colored slips and delicately carves through to create details revealing the dark colored clay of the form. The bold and symmetric floral patterns offer notions of strength and order in nature like William Morris designs and Pennsylvania Dutch folk art.

 Julie Nelson paints floral still lifes from flower arrangements she creates. She states, “I work directly with no preliminary drawing.  Paint can be applied thickly or in washes.  Color generally is inspired by what I am observing, but can deviate.  I look for repeated rhythms in shapes and lines and a push and pull in positives and negatives and lines and areas of color.  This begins early on with the selection of elements for the still-life. These works are not meant to be true representations of what I am seeing, but, spontaneous reactions to the beauty found in nature.” Her paintings emphasize the wildness and uncontrollable nature of plants as the stems, leaves and petals tangle together on the paper. Growth and decay, life and death, order and chaos are often the message in still life.

 Matt Urban sculpts fruits and vegetables with blown and solid hot glass. His pineapples, pumpkins, and corn in beautiful transparent colors are complex iterations in delicate lines and full volumes. The bounty they symbolize is precious but powerful. Urban is offering his glass work at lowered prices for the Flora exhibition and 40% of each sale will support programming at the McLean County Arts Center.

 Colleen McCall is a studio artist and adjunct instructor of ceramics at Corning Community College in Corning, New York. She earned her BFA from Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, and her MFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, New York.

Julie Nelson is an artist and retired art museum professional in Quincy, Illinois. She earned her BFA and MFA from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. Nelson was the Executive Director and Curator at the Quincy Art Center for twenty years.

 Matt Urban is the owner and operator of Furnace Urbini Glass Works in Normal, Illinois. He earned his BFA from University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and his MFA from Illinois State University, Normal.

 Flora is generously sponsored by Julia Davis Law Firm, LLC and Robert McDonald & Company, P.C.

 The McLean County Arts Center is located at 601 N. East Street in downtown Bloomington. Arts Center hours are Tuesday, 10am- 7pm; Wednesday-Friday, 10am-5pm; and Saturday, noon-4pm; Sunday and Monday, closed. For more information, please call 309/829-0011, like us on Facebook, or check on our website: www.mcac.org. MCAC is supported in part by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. 




Mission Statement: We encourage and promote the appreciation, study, cultivation, development, and practice of art for the benefit of all the people, cultures and communities of McLean County. 


    
        "This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts"

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