Opening reception First Friday January 3rd from 5pm-8pm
Show is open Saturdays noon-4pm through February 1st, 2025
FEATURING ARTISTS: Andrea Cope, Robin Mayberry, Tim Fowler, Colleen Monette, Ken Johnson, Kyle Wyatt, Jeannie Johnson. Mary Deifenbach Duke, Joanna Thomas, Christine Texiera, Janice Baker, Cynthia Martin, Tabitha Klucking, Beckey Parmenter, Lydia Huber, & Danney Parkins.
Show is open Saturdays noon-4pm through February 1st, 2025
FEATURING ARTISTS: Andrea Cope, Robin Mayberry, Tim Fowler, Colleen Monette, Ken Johnson, Kyle Wyatt, Jeannie Johnson. Mary Deifenbach Duke, Joanna Thomas, Christine Texiera, Janice Baker, Cynthia Martin, Tabitha Klucking, Beckey Parmenter, Lydia Huber, & Danney Parkins.
"Art-making is native to humans. We’ve been leaving our mark since Cro-Magnon Man loitered in Lascaux, sketching bison with ochre. Toddlers are so art-prone that they’ll turn every blank wall into a mural if given the chance. Humans everywhere are gifted with creative impulses, and many of us channel those impulses into painting, drawing, sculpture and other expressions of our unfurling minds.
And yet there persists an idea that artists are an exclusive club with secret handshakes and lineages. An artist is influenced by a particular school of thought and studies under respected mentors. An artist has been credentialed through formal education, an impressive CV, and gallery representation. An artist makes a living with their art.
This perception of who can call themselves an artist is a narrow path that limits those who have arrived at the art life through other channels. If an artist is a formally trained, professionally recognized expert, then who are the people who create work quietly, through trial and error, in their back bedrooms, having never been formally mentored or trained? How does an art-maker identify as an artist if they’re not stamped with the formative experience of art school? Who gets to decide if someone is an artist, and when does a maker of art get to claim the title for themselves?
It is these questions that led to the collection shown here in The Outsiders. The artists in this collection have not, for a variety of reasons, attended formal art training. Yet each of them has a long-term and disciplined practice, working through the discoveries that reveal themselves in the process of art-making itself.
If it is possible for an artist to attend formal training then of course that can be a huge benefit, providing artists the opportunity to hone their craft, to make connections and to commit to their creative voice.
But this collection seeks to encourage those who have not had that opportunity; or those who pursued other academic pathways in their college years; or those who started in formal art training and had their hearts thoroughly broken by the process; or those who never knew their hands were made to hold a paintbrush until later in their lives.
The Outsiders is a celebration of the alternate path: the unconventional, unexpected, under-recognized journey into the life of visual creativity. May it light your fire. "
-ROBIN MAYBERRY
And yet there persists an idea that artists are an exclusive club with secret handshakes and lineages. An artist is influenced by a particular school of thought and studies under respected mentors. An artist has been credentialed through formal education, an impressive CV, and gallery representation. An artist makes a living with their art.
This perception of who can call themselves an artist is a narrow path that limits those who have arrived at the art life through other channels. If an artist is a formally trained, professionally recognized expert, then who are the people who create work quietly, through trial and error, in their back bedrooms, having never been formally mentored or trained? How does an art-maker identify as an artist if they’re not stamped with the formative experience of art school? Who gets to decide if someone is an artist, and when does a maker of art get to claim the title for themselves?
It is these questions that led to the collection shown here in The Outsiders. The artists in this collection have not, for a variety of reasons, attended formal art training. Yet each of them has a long-term and disciplined practice, working through the discoveries that reveal themselves in the process of art-making itself.
If it is possible for an artist to attend formal training then of course that can be a huge benefit, providing artists the opportunity to hone their craft, to make connections and to commit to their creative voice.
But this collection seeks to encourage those who have not had that opportunity; or those who pursued other academic pathways in their college years; or those who started in formal art training and had their hearts thoroughly broken by the process; or those who never knew their hands were made to hold a paintbrush until later in their lives.
The Outsiders is a celebration of the alternate path: the unconventional, unexpected, under-recognized journey into the life of visual creativity. May it light your fire. "
-ROBIN MAYBERRY
The encaustic artwork of Robin Mayberry will also be featured in The Outsiders this January 2025.
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Artwork by Cindy Martin, and her work such as "Last Call", will be featured, along with other artists, at The Outsiders exhibition this January.
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Artwork by Lydia Huber
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Collage and poetry by Joanna Thomas will be a feature of The Outsiders exhibit.
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Assemblage by Tim Fowler
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