Creative Thresholds

by Kim Vergil

Beyond the Curtain 20×20

Blizzard Conditions 24×30

Descending 30×30

Face à Face 24×30

Fenced 20×20

Fire in the building Hot Hot 12×12

Horse Rider 30×30

Miss Lady 30×30

Opening Celebrations 30×30

Place of Reflection 30×30

Portrait of a Masked Woman 48×36

Sitting with Fire 30×30

So Says…. The Sea 36×36

Tipped 36×48

Wolf and Company at the Door 30×30

Woman in a Red Dress 24×30

Artist: Kim Vergil

I can remember my dreams all the way back to my childhood and now, paying attention to and working with my night dreams has changed the way I see life and my creative process.  I am a Mixed Media artist working and living in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  Using my photographs of everyday life from the mundane to the fantastic as a starting point of raw material I collage them onto a canvas like we use the images from our everyday lives to create our dreams…  I use paint as the emotional energy that binds these images into a whole.  Then the adventure of discovery begins.  Once I have discovered the dream scene, dreamscape or dream mood that resonates for me within each piece I can return to a technique and sense of focus that fine tunes the story.  The hardest part and my goal is to work with and never lose any of the original energy, brushstroke and spirit within each piece. If a portrait shows up with one eye there is a reason and I leave it that way.  I always try to put ego aside and work as much as possible from the wealth of the creative, unconscious mind, that true nonjudgement part of ourselves, as possible.

I still get butterflies in my stomach every time I work on a piece and wonder where it will lead me next. Nothing is predetermined about my work.   An excitement of finding the characters and a sense of place is always present while I am in the creative place.  My work is about being curious about life and living and Searching and finding meaning within the Chaos.  I love to decode my night dreams and discover the messages from the deep that are revealed.  The imagination is filled with unlimited potential to decode, reflect, problem solve and grow. This work is about sharing portals into the imagination that create stories, my stories and your stories and sharing them out into the universe.

Dreaming is an essential part of our lives, learning to decode and use our dreams to understand the chaos of the world around us is a tool.  I feel part of my works are a playground for learning to seek out, find and see the world through new lenses.  Enjoying the process of searching and finding story.  Our stories…Then using these stories to look back at ourselves to better understand ourselves.  Every evolving, always changing and forever fascinating.  Welcome to the journey….

www.KIMvergil.com

https://www.facebook.com/ArtistKimVergil/

https://www.instagram.com/kimvergil/

https://www.pinterest.com/kimvergil/

by Jodie King

Go Outside and Play 72″ x 60″

Her Strength 24″ x 24″

Infinity 30″ x 40″

Make Love 60″ x 48″

Never Far Away 48″ x 48″

Stay True 50″ x 42″

The B’s 40″ x 40″

The Transition 30″ x 40″

Unite 24″ x 24″

You’ve Got To Believe 48″ x 48″

Artist: Jodie King

I use bold color, many layers of paint, and other forms of mixed media to create art that has been called “whimsical, sometimes deep, and always honest.” The layers of paint on the canvas create depth within the painting and symbolically reflect back the many layers of our lives. At the heart of my work is a call to all of us to live unapologetically, with joyful abandon and freedom.

My process involves journaling and meditating before any paint touches the canvas. Afterwards, using my gut/intuition as my guide, I make marks, write, and layer paint while letting go of what the final result may be.

Whether the painting is pure abstract or infused with vintage photography, the work is a bold expression of my voice as an artist and as a woman. The hard-won lessons of life, and sometimes the downright hilarious ones, reveal themselves in my work in unexpected ways. With intuition as my guide crazy, fun, and deep stuff happens on the canvas.

by Lynn Price

‘Pages of a Landscape’. 2017 Paper, stitch installation.

Pages of a Landscape paper stitch installation 1

Pages of a Landscape paper stitch installation 2

Pages of a Landscape paper stitch installation 3

Pages of a Landscape paper stitch installation 4

Pages of a Landscape paper stitch installation 5

‘Fragments of a Landscape’.  Paper, stitch, wax, wall-piece. The Nelson Regional Award, Changing Threads Contemporary Fibre Awards 2017.

Fragments of a Landscape Detail Paper stitch wax

‘Unknown Territory’.  A 25 piece, paper, stitch wax installation. The images depict ‘openings’ representing metaphorical windows into the unknown, designed to evoke a feeling reminiscent of a first encounter with somewhere unfamiliar and new. Winner of Dame Suzie Moncrieff Judges Award, Changing Threads Contemporary Fibre Awards 2016.

Unknown Territory paper stitch wax 1

Unknown Territory paper stitch wax 2

Unknown Territory paper stitch wax 3

Unknown Territory paper stitch wax 4

Unknown Territory paper stitch wax 5

‘When I Think of Home’ 2015. Machine embroidery, glass, wax installation.

When I think of Home II (1)

When I think of Home II Detail (2)

When I think of Home II Detail (3)

Artist: Lynn Price

I’m an English artist, from semi-rural Derbyshire, living and working in New Zealand’s beautiful South Island. I graduated with a BA Hons degree in Ceramics and Glass in 1984 and have been apprenticed trained in Siena, Italy during 1995. Since emigrating to NZ in 2006 I have found that living with a foot in two worlds offers endless scope for creative expression. Drawing was an integral part of my art training and I frequently feel the need to express my ideas through mark-making. I work in both glass and mixed media.

Uprooting myself from my homeland, took some courage, energy and faith in the future. As an artist, the experience also makes for complex influences that, willy-nilly, manifest in one’s work.

‘the power of a place where formative experiences helped shape identity lives on, a power more remarkable since it relies not on physical presence but only the act of remembering’.   John Percival, Return Migration in Later Life

From a migrant’s perspective, this quote resonates deeply for me. Through my art practice I address memory and nostalgic association with the landscape I call ‘home’, yet it references a narrative that can be read as personal or generic. I’m interested in the fact that we are able to bring associations to places and landscapes which, through memory, hold a resonance throughout our lives.

As I revisit these themes, memories ‘fine tune’, shift and idealise and I’m always surprised at how entangled I become in both the depth of the memory and the emotive response to it.

www.lynnprice.co.nz

www.instagram.com/lynnpriceart

www.facebook.com/lynnprice.nz

Lynn welcomes commissions and her studio is open by appointment.

by Susan Heggestad

Susan M Heggestad received her Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from the University of South Dakota, and her Masters of Fine Arts degree, with an emphasis in Printmaking, from SUNY at Buffalo.  She creates mixed-media works on paper utilizing collagraph, monotype, screen-printing, and relief processes, as well as larger works in sculpture and installation.  Her work has been showcased at the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Sciences in Sioux Falls, the Haydon Art Center in Lincoln, Neb., North Dakota State University in Fargo, as well as numerous other venues. In addition, she is the recipient of several awards, including a South Dakota Arts Council Artist Grant in 2007 and 2011, and is currently on the Artists in Communities and Schools roster for the South Dakota Arts Council.

Susan lives with her family in Vermillion, where she maintains a private studio, and works in public relations for her local public library.  For the past twelve years she has worked in this region with a particular focus on creating opportunities for artists, advocating for arts education at the state and local level, and working toward cultural development in her community.

Website: susanheggestad.com

Facebook: facebook.com/SusanHeggestadArtworks