Final Crit, Decmber 4, 2013

It was a wonderful time at 1708 Gallery last night with my Mixed Media class taught by Amie Oliver. I was amazed at all the great work by my classmates.

Michelle McGrath - Beautiful work that I love. It reminds me of tearing something up and piecing it back together, stretched and tense and pulled tight, but back together.  Michelle painted the raised surfaces in such a way that tension was heightened.  Color really enhanced the strained, to the nth degree, feeling.  I can't believe how much painting Michelle did is a short time to complete her 2 ensembles.

Merenda  - The house of images was even more powerful to see after hearing Merenda's artist statement where I found out that her mother built houses. I love the light houses and all the textures that Merenda uses.  I think the suggestion that she expand the house so that there are negative spaces and irregular contours is great.  Merenda is a great community artist whose work I really enjoy.

Hope Harding - Each work is a special natural jewel.  As Hope mentioned in her artist statement, her work is like the memory of a quiet, thoughtful walk where rocks and leaves were found and treasured.  Her colors always enhance the quiet nature of the special object chosen.  I love the way she organised her work by size for the critique like Amie demonstrated in class.  Beautiful presentation.

Liz Hale - I really liked the neutral color of the river in the blue vertical work.  I think it was lovely with the blue-gray textured ground, and the photo collage.  I love the diagonal direction of the photographs that were collaged on all 3 works from the bottom or from an edge.  Liz's idea to evoke a memory or sense of a location that is not a strip mall with box stores is great.  Photo-transferred text added interest.  I agree with Amie and others that text could be expanded in ways that break form being a quote to spreading in more areas, running off the edge, becoming legible and illegible.

Cheryl Regan - I enjoyed so much how Cheryl changed the size and position of her subject, her son, and added birds to her paintings.  The two diptychs worked very well.  One was vertical and one was horizontal.  The footprint paintings were wonderful.  I liked quite a bit how Cheryl changed the sky in one of her landscapes.  She really brought everything that she was working on earlier to a new beautiful level. Loved the color.

Happy Krickovic - As if all the fabulous work from last class was not enough, Happy added four stunning new pieces that knocked my socks off.  They related so well to her earlier work and were so beautifully carried out.  I loved everything Happy created including the scanned work on paper.  Her great painting skills allowed her to fool the eye and play off textures on one another. I never wanted to stop looking.