Artist Sasha Corder (left) and Gallery Coordinator Chris Bennett speak at the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces Through Art, which runs through March 9 and features artists from Dearborn’s Fishnet Studios, City Hall Artspace, the Fine Arts Studio and the Tead One Residency program.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – “Sharing Spaces Through Art,” the current exhibit at the Padzieski Gallery, features Dearborn-based artists from Fishnet Studios, City Hall Artspace, the Fine Art Studio and the Tead One Residency program.
The exhibit, which runs through March 9, was introduced during a Jan. 31 opening reception, which featured artists introducing their diverse collection of work, which include sculpture, mixed media and a piece with an alternative reality layer when viewed through a smartphone filter.
Padzieski Gallery coordinator Chris Bennett said the exhibit brings together diverse Dearborn studio artists for a unique group show.
“As a Dearborn resident, I love seeing so many active artists that live and work in Dearborn, that call it their artistic community,” he said. “It’s great to see so many talented artists that live here and work here.”
Artist Ralph Parus of City Hall Artspace speaks about his metal sculpture “3 Fruits” during the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces through Art, which runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.
Artist Ralph Parus, a 7-year resident of Artspace Lofts, who creates metal sculptures and jewelry, said his sculptures on display, which feature a fruit motif, are made using a hydraulic die forming technique. He creates the die shapes himself using a hacksaw.
Artspace resident and tapestry creator Monica Feliciano said she loves living in her bright and airy apartment, where she and others work at all hours of the day and night.
“I work mostly in fabric and textiles, and right now I’m into recycling fabrics,” she said. “I take a lot of people’s ripped up T-shirts and make rugs out of them, and scraps of material, because I’ve been a seamstress all of my life, so I use a lot of that. I can’t throw anything away, and it’s a problem with artists.”
She has two tapestries on display: “Maya Angelou,” in keeping with Black History Month, and Halloween-themed “Spider Web.”
Artspace resident Monica Feliciano speaks about her mixed media tapestries, “Maya Angelou” (left) and “Spider Web” during the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces through Art, which runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.
Bennett, a photographer who also lives at Artspace, displays his photographic work in lenticular printing form, in which the three- dimensional image has an illusion of depth and changes when it is viewed from different angles.
“If you remember those old postcards back in the day that would change when you angle them, that is what this is,” he said. “I give the printer two images, and he combines them and prints them, and each of these contain two images.”
One of his works is of Mount St. Helens in Washington, and the other showcases Colorado outdoor scenery.
“It’s still kind of a new process and I’m experimenting with how it works out, and what the effect is like, and how successful they are or not,” he said. “As you are walking by it, it will shift.”
Fishnet Studios Artist Martine MacDonald (left) speaks about her three oil-on-board series “Lark Becomes” during the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces through Art, which runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.
Fishnet Studios artist Martine MacDonald spoke about three oil paintings of her niece Lark, a professional costumer, wearing different pieces she has made.
She also has a full-length self-portrait of herself on display at the gallery, as well as the garment she wore, which is hanging next to the painting.
“That’s not because I am so enamored of the way that I look, but when I don’t do it right, if something goes wrong, I don’t disappoint anybody,” MacDonald said. “It’s just me.”
She also has sculpture on display at the gallery.
Fishnet Studios Artist Matthew Dietz talks about his three mixed media collages during the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces through Art, which runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.
Fishnet Studios artist Matthew Dietz’s mixed media collages, based on experimental drawings, are on display.
“I do a large batch of drawings and I will use them like palate cleansers, and a bunch of different stuff, so I’ll press them on the palette, I will cut them up and reassemble them, and just kind of see what happens from that,” he said.
Fishnet Studio artist Kayla Stafford, who has painted each of her grandparents, spoke about an acrylic portrait she made of her grandmother, entitled “Alcoholic Anonymous,” done in monochromic colors, with the aim of showing who she really was and her grandmother’s good qualities that impacted her.
“Despite the fact that my grandmother was an addict, she was also a wonderful person,” she said. “She had a great personality, she had so many talents – she flew planes and she hung out with eccentric rich people – and she had a very interesting life and she ran businesses.”
Fine Arts Studio resident Kathleen O’Connell first joined with artist Janet Kondziela in 2007 at a studio in Detroit, then moved with her in 2010 to a studio above Howell’s Bar in Dearborn, which burned to the ground April 25, 2014, destroying all their work within. Shortly afterward, they moved into a studio above Manno Clothing and Tailoring on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, where they now work with a third artist, Beth Rinna Brown.
“Working with other artists around is just a great experience,” she said. “It’s wonderful to have people to bounce things off of, and studio-mates to help bring you back from the depths of despair.”
Tead One Residency Artist Matt “Emskript” Thornton talks about his acrylic on canvas painting “Great Tire Wave” during the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces through Art, which runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.
Tead One resident artist Matt “Emskript” Thornton is a comic book artist and cartoonist who residency gave him an opportunity to paint and experiment in ways in which he normally would not do.
He said his work on display, “Great Tire Wave,” was an opportunity for him to explore acrylic paint, acrylic ink and mixed media, as well as using paint on paper and on wood.
He is a Navy veteran, and he currently works with a veteran art group.
Tead One resident artist Craig Blackmore’s acrylic painting “Glitch Girl” is on display, and can be seen differently when viewed through a smartphone alternate reality filter app such as the downloadable Eyejack.
“What I like to do with glitch art is typically take photographs I take of people on top of a glitch environment,” he said. “I’m trying to do something like that with the paintings where I do portraits of people on a glitch environment, and I have to stay true to my digital self, so I hide a digital layer, and to see it, you’re going to need a (smartphone) app, and looking through the viewer of a digital camera you see a layer hidden beneath the painting.”
Blackmore said that what you see on your smartphone screen is the digital illustration he did initially.
“It’s kind of my thing,” he said. “I like to create digital art hidden within physical art.”
Artist Marwa Hachem introduces young artist Zahraa Ahmad and her acrylic on canvas painting “Flock” during the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces through Art, which runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.
Marwa Hachem, who has a studio within Artspace, brought budding young artist Zahraa Ahmad, whose acrylic painting “Flock” is on display.
Hachem, who displayed a portrait she painted, “Coherence,” said she tries to combine Western with Middle Eastern culture in her art work.
In addition to being a working artist, Hachem teaches art to both children and adults.
Her young student Ahmed said she was inspired to paint birds by her pet cockatoo.
She said the three birds she painted are all different species, but they are all connected because they are all birds.
“Even though we are all different, we are all connected in one way,” she said.
For more information about the gallery show “Sharing Spaces Through Art,” go to padzieskigallery.org.
Fishnet Studios Artist Kayla Stafford talks about her acrylic on canvas painting “Alcoholic Anonymous” during the Jan. 31 opening reception for Sharing Spaces through Art, which runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.
Tead One Residency Artist Craig Blackmore talks about his acrylic on canvas paint “Glitch Girl,” which incorporates an alternative reality layer when seen through a smartphone Instagram or Eyejack app. The exhibit runs through March 9 at the Padzieski Gallery.