StarNews - The Fifth Element

Sunday, September 28, 2014

The WAE, StarNews Wilmington Arts and Entertainment

Fourth Friday: ‘The Fifth Element’ on display at ACME

Thursday, September 25, 2014 at 7:06 by Justin Lacy




ACME Art Studios presents the opening reception of “The Fifth Element,” an all-ladies group show featuring works by locals Sandra Ihly, Katherine Webb, Peggy Vineyard, Kate Sinclair, Closie Randolph, Justine Ferreri, Anne Sinclair, Leslie Pearson and MJ Cunningham.

“MJ Cunningham got the group together as a way for us to socialize, critique our work, and develop exhibitions,” mixed-media artist Pearson wrote in a Facebook message. For this exhibition, Pearson is exhibiting encaustic paintings she made using hot beeswax, resin, pigment, and heat.

“In this era of ever increasing technology usage,” Pearson said, “I value the authentic experience of working with my hands. And yet, I like to take advantage of what’s available in the digital world. For example, “Specimens,” a gridded wall installation of 15 small encaustic pieces, was created by taking digital photographs with my iPhone using a special macro lens attachment. The images were then printed out onto cotton and silk crepe de chine fabrics. The fabrics were then imbedded within layers of molten beeswax on a solid substrate. The images are of animal skulls I’ve collected over the years, and vintage maps.

“The effect of layering images into wax is particularly interesting in this work because the fabrics become transparent and the images merge with each other to become one element. The beeswax is brushed on while it’s in a molten state and then scraped back leaving a rich texture.”

“The Fifth Element” opens with a public reception 6 to 9 p.m. Sept. 26, in coordination with Fourth Friday Gallery Nights, a monthly, self-guided art walk throughout downtown Wilmington’s galleries and studios.

The show receives a closing celebration 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 17.

Pure Energy

Friday, September 26, 2014

Pure Energy: Female artists showcase ‘The Fifth Element’ at ACME

SEP 23 • 2014

One of the perks of being a member of ACME Art Studio is the opportunity to develop and host your own art shows. When 10-year tenant MJ Cunningham invited a group of divergent artists from the community to join her this go ‘round, it forged a new collective of women creators. Together they’ve tapped into the universe’s most mythical property: the fifth element.



SEA-FEARING ART: Anne Sinclair’s coast-inspired “Sea Myth” will be featured as part of “The Fifth Element.” Courtesy photo.

Cunningham best describes her art as exhibiting the style and aesthetics of Wabi Sabi. “It’s the beauty in things that are unfinished, that are dying, that are being born, and things just as they are,” she says.

Known for her simplicity and subdued, earth-tone landscape paintings, Cunningham woos onlookers with natural scenes from locations like O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM; however, lately she’s begun to let loose. Her unleashed technique and palette evolved from an abstract-painting workshop she taught recently. Her oil painting, “Glory at Dawn,” represents a surprise element.

“Dawn is a lovely, velvety time of the day, and out of it emerges a wonderful explosion of activity and color,” Cunningham describes. “I was at my easel, with a blank canvas [and] feeling bored with a recent series of landscapes that I was working on, and voila!”

The nurturing aspect of Wabi Sabi is reflected in Cunningham’s decision to invite eight fellow artists to exhibit work in her show, “The Fifth Element.” “All of the artists that I asked to be in the show are women that I greatly admire,” Cunningham states. “Not everyone knew each other, but from the beginning we gelled and were immediate BFFs!”

The eight women fill out Cunningham’s collective, Diverse Works. The group includes a self-taught sculptor, an impressionist painter and a mother-daughter duo. Their multifaceted techniques, mediums and personalities not only make them great artists but also skillful storytellers. The power of their newfound sisterhood is perhaps the best representation of what the fifth element is and why they claim it as the namesake for their first show together.

“Quintessence, or [the] fifth element is, by definition, pure energy—which is what we bring to this exhibit,” says Peggy Vineyard, a refreshing new addition to the Wilmington art scene.

Vineyard relocated to Wilmington from Houston, TX, where she recently wrapped a successful one-woman show at the Jack Meier Gallery. Her latest series, “Empyrean” (the highest heaven in ancient and medieval cosmology), is a tribute to her favorite aunt’s passing in June. The large, richly hued acrylic pieces chronicle her aunt’s journey to the ultimate heavenly paradise through thick layers of atmosphere and ethereal spacescapes full of billowing nebulous clouds.

The work of Katherine Wolf Webb also is influenced by loss. After her husband died two years ago, Webb needed to have control over something. Last year she began creating small, precise and intricate watercolor images of insects, with her own input of color and pattern. Her creations look like normal bugs but with a twist. She rearranges thir anatomy—a thorax here, some antennae there —so what’s left is an entirely new species. Her use of mixed-media card stock and patterned paper forms a playful study of an insect’s instinctive camouflage.

“[Insects] are that inexplicable energy—that fifth element, which includes so much intangible pathos, passion, love, and beauty,” she says. “The process leads me, and I follow to the best of my ability.”

Kate Sinclair represents the youthful nature of the fifth element. While she is the youngest member of Diverse Works, she has several art shows under her belt. Her style is heavily influenced by her travels throughout Europe— specifically Roman frescoes, which transport lush gardens to the indoors by utilizing lime plaster (a combination of hydrated lime, sand and water). Her most recent painting is of an imaginary bouquet of flowers, which gives the impression one could pluck them from the wall. The petal-soft image transmits a subtle, consistent energy that rises to form a vibrant plume of color like prismatic incense smoke.

As an added bonus, Kate will be sharing the experience with her mother, Anne Sinclair. A visual-arts teacher at Hoggard High School, Anne produces paintings inspired by natural light and the Carolina coast. It’s a pairing that’s long overdue, she shares. Although their techniques differ, Kate is excited for folks to make a connection between her and her mother’s work. Like her spectacular plants, Kate wants to grow in new directions with her mother and this new community of strong, supportive and creative women.

“We all have these varying perspectives, different lives, experiences, and painting styles,” she notes. “The fifth element is very much alive and breathing within each of us. It makes me very proud, to dig a bit deeper and to speak [and] paint with a more studied conviction. That’s always the goal isn’t it?”
DETAILS:
The Fifth Element

(Artwork by: MJ Cunningham, Justine Ferreri, Sandra Ihly, Leslie Pearson, Eloise Randolph, Kate Sinclair, Anne Sinclair, Peggy Vineyard, Katherine Wolf Webb)
ACME Art Studios, 711 N. 5th Ave.
Opening reception: Sept. 26, 6 p.m.
Shows through Oct. 17
www.acme-art-studios.com
(910) 763-8010

The Fifth Element




Please join us tonight at ACME Art Studios for the opening reception of the fifth element, an  art exhibition featuring nine award winning artists.

Leslie Pearson, Sandra Ihly, Katherine Webb, Peggy Vineyard, Kate Sinclair, Elosie Randolph, Justine Ferreri, Anne Sinclair, and MJ Cunningham.


Bowling

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

We went bowling with the forensic science and justice studies club tonight. I want the bowling ball I saw in the glass case.

Ghost Bar

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Tonight we went to the Ghost Bar atop the Palms Casino where we are staying. It was made famous during the early 2000's by the cast of The Real World. It has an outdoor lounge with the most amazing views of Las Vegas!

Vegas Day 2

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

More fun in Vegas at the Wedding Merchants Business Academy conference. A lot of information to absorb!

Vegas!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Love

Monday, September 15, 2014

An amazing night! Words can't express the cirque du soleil show we saw tonight. Wow!

Clean Sweep

Saturday, September 13, 2014

This morning the MU Criminal Justice and Forensic Science Association hit the streets of Fayetteville for an area beautification project. #trashpickup #wegotthis #stoplittering #imnotyourmotherpickupafteryourself

Morning Run

Saturday, September 6, 2014

It was a hotttttttt one this morning but I went for a run downtown and watched Fayetteville wake up. Coffee shops perking fresh brews, vendors setting up vegetable stands at the farmers market, and homeless people waiting for the library to open.

Zumba

Friday, September 5, 2014

So tonight I took advantage of a Zumba class at the spa I go to. In a nutshell...awesome! I can't wait to do this every Friday.

Friends

Thursday, September 4, 2014