Noel Night: “Sticks & Stones” at Stronghouse

30 Nov Noel Night: “Sticks & Stones” at Stronghouse

Exhibit features the work of Meredith Nemirov, Susan Makara, and Susan L. Hutton, opening reception Noel Night, 5 – 8 p.m.

Telluride Arts kicks off the winter season at Stronghouse Studios + Gallery with a multi-media exhibit, “Sticks & Stones,” featuring paintings, drawings and jewelry. Art imitates life in this collection that presents meditations on the natural world by three artists: Meredith Nemirov, from Ridgway; Susan Makara, from Virginia; and Susan L. Hutton, from Maine. The exhibit runs December 3 –January 31, with an opening reception on Noel Night (December 3) from 5-8 p.m., and a New Year’s Art Walk party on Friday, January 2, from 5-8p.m.

Painting, Meredith Nemirov

The exhibit  features small, abstract works by Meredith Nemirov, for whom the act of painting amounts to a daily meditation practice. In part, her reputation is based on observational on-site drawings that focus on the trees (mostly aspens) in the landscape, hence the series, “100 Views of the Aspen Tree.”

For Nemirov, the magic is in repetition, her creative process fueled by intense observation of her subject matter over time, which moves progressively closer to abstraction, so viewers get to see the essence of the tree, not just its physical reality.

The small works featured in this exhibit are mixed media: watercolor, gouache, pigment marker and graphite on paper. Referencing topographical maps that were made by the USGS surveyors in the 19th century, Nemirov appropriates the patterns and lines that were employed to graphically represent landforms.

These drawings are about interconnectedness and the movement and change always taking place in the physical world.

Meredith Nemirov grew up in New York City and since 1988, has made her home in Ridgway, Colorado.

Artist Susan Makara also looks for patterns in the natural world and brings her illuminated stone Cairn paintings to the exhibit.

Cairns, Susan Makara

While on a hike in Sedona, Arizona, in 2000, Makara stumbled upon an area covered by hundreds of manmade pillars of balanced rocks. The red rock glitter of the Cairns transfixed her and right then she determined to capture the sparkle of those precarious piles in her work.

Using a combination of metallic leaf and oil, Makara gives her rock works the illusion of an inner glow that changes with the light.  Just as Cairns mark significant routes and tombs, Makara’s rock works mark her personal journey through life and work. For Makara, making art is medicine, its calming, healing qualities have always helped her through difficulties, illness and grief.

A one-time resident of Colorado, Makara now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, where she maintains a studio in the renowned Torpedo Factory Art Center, home to the largest collection of publicly accessible working artist studios in the U.S. An accomplished painter and photographer Makara was honored as Torpedo Factory’s Artist of the Year” in 2012.

In counterpoint to Makara’s mountain cairns, “Sticks & Stones” also features the elegant beach stone jewelry of Susan L. Hutton.

Jewelry, Susan Hutton

Living in Maine, Hutton enjoys walking the rock-strewn beaches of Deer Isle and other local islands, collecting stones along the way for her jewelry. Back in her studio, the artist lovingly cuts, shapes and polishes each stone, thoughtfully setting what has been revealed into simple but elegant sterling silver pieces.

Hutton finds joy in the intense focus of working with natural materials and fully embraces the simplicity of nature. When Hutton selects a rock for cutting, she follows what seems to be the will of each stone, like Nemirov, finding the process meditative: the first slice determining the second and so on.

Susan L. Hutton grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania, has been making jewelry since the 1970s, and was a member of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen.

Stronghouse Studios + Gallery is open most days from 12-6 p.m. or by appointment, 970.728.3930