Guests attend the Oct. 6 opening reception of the Creative Art Society Fall Festival of the Arts show and sale, held at the Downriver Council for the Arts, 81 Chestnut Street., in Wyandotte.
Artist Laura Mocnik of Flat Rock shows her first-place pastel work “Then and Now” Oct. 6 at the Creative Art Society Fall Festival of the Arts show and sale held the Downriver Council for the Arts in Wyandotte.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – Live music played as guests browsed the art entries Oct. 6 as the Downriver Council for the Arts hosted the Creative Art Society’s 20th Fall Festival of the Arts show.
The exhibit runs through Oct. 24 at the DCA, 81 Oak St. Go to downriverarts.org for gallery hours.
Artist Laura Mocnik of Flat Rock, who received first place for her pastel work “Then and Now,” said she was in New York City two years ago for a gallery show, and while visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art she asked her great-niece to mimic the pose of a nearby sculpture.
“She did, and I took several photos of her, but I like this one better,” she said. “I did this one two years ago and I put it in the drawer, unfinished because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it, so, two weeks ago I took it out and finished it, and it kind of told me what needed to be done.”
Mocnik said it is intentional that her live model is colorful, while the background is monochromatic.
“I wanted to show more color on her to make her look alive, and then the museum more static and muted,” she said. “A lot of times I just feel my way; I don’t really have a plan, I just feel and let it talk to me.”
Artist Gregory Hass of Southgate shows his second-place acrylic work “Transformation” Oct. 6 at the Creative Art Society Fall Festival of the Arts show and sale held the Downriver Council for the Arts in Wyandotte.
Mocnik said art became her therapy when she was diagnosed with breast cancer 18 years ago.
“I do it for me more than anything,” she said. “If I sell it, that’s fine, but I’m not in the market to sell my work. It’s just what I love to do.”
Mocnik said it’s inspiring to be around so many artists who embrace beauty, love and who they are.
“I can see by looking at paintings the artist, and the artist’s hand and the artist’s soul and what they love,” she said. “It just speaks to you when you look at each and every painting.”
Artist Gregory Hass of Southgate, who received second place for his acrylic work “Transformation” said acrylic is the main media that he works with because it dries quickly, which he likes because he said he’s impatient.
“I don’t do portraits, I don’t do figures, and I decided to get out of my comfort zone and do a portrait,” he said.
Hass said he used reference photos to create the woman’s face and changed it “about five different times” because he couldn’t get it to look the way he wanted.
He said he likes autumn colors, especially brown, orange and yellow, and he wanted it to be borderline not realistic.
“I wanted her face to be determined and strong,” Hass said. “She’s transforming, the season’s transforming, fall changes and that’s how things get better and more beautiful in the spring the next time, so she’s going through the same thing transforming into something better.”
He said he does a lot of commission work for clients, and he does many landscapes on his own.
Artist Sally Morris of Wyandotte shows her third-place watercolor work “Happy Bouquet” Oct. 6 at the Creative Art Society Fall Festival of the Arts show and sale held the Downriver Council for the Arts in Wyandotte.
“One of my favorites is old rusty cars,” Hass said. “I like the patina of the metal and the rust and the paint, and I love old cars anyway, so that is one of my personal favorites, when I’m doing it for me.
“But I don’t do a lot of people, that’s why I decided to do it, because I’m not great at it, so I wanted to see if I could get a portrait of someone to look believable.”
A mechanical engineer by trade, he said painting is his creative outlet.
“It’s amazing to me that in a small area like this you can get this kind of quality, really,” Hass said. “I’ve done this a couple of times, now, and each time amazes me how many people do some work in this area, Wyandotte and Downriver.”
He said it is also heartwarming to see how many people attended the show opening.
Hass said practice is the key to success.
“My first painting I did a few years ago, because I didn’t paint — I was more sketch — was horrible,” he said. “But you practice, even when you don’t want to practice, you do it anyway, and you just keep trying and trying, and you learn techniques, and you learn color theory, you learn composition, and it all comes if you just keep doing it, putting paint to canvas, whatever you’re doing.”
Artist Sally Morris of Wyandotte, who received third place for her watercolor work “Happy Bouquet” said she also likes to work with pastels.
Artist Marilyn Bomarito of Woodhaven shows her Greystone sculpture with oil “Pocahontas – the True Miss America,” Oct. 6, which received an honorable mention at the Creative Art Society Fall Festival of the Arts show and sale held the Downriver Council for the Arts in Wyandotte.
“The watercolor bouquet was just something I wanted to look different, because I usually do pretty traditional work, and this one I just felt like I wanted to break out and do brighter colors and a little bit less usual,” she said. “A little more ‘out of the square’ for me.”
Morris said she has enjoyed the conversations she’s had with attendees at the opening reception.
“I had advice given, when I started painting, when you enter a show, don’t stand by your painting because there could be things said that you might not feel good about,” she said. “So, I always laugh when somebody’s talking to me and I think ‘any time now,’ but I just think it is so much fun to watch somebody enjoy your work and ask you questions about it, and it makes you feel more interested than you had been because you thought ‘gee, I never thought about that.’”
Artist Marilyn Bomarito, who received an honorable mention for her Greystone sculpture with oil “Pocahontas – the True Miss America,” said she took up sculpting to better understand the human body, which she felt would help her painting.
“It ended up overtaking my everything,” she said. “I love sculpture more than painting now.”
Bomarito said she finds it very rewarding to create something with clay.
“You start with nothing, and you end up with something beautiful,” she said.