“Architectural Appeal”
June 15- JUly 28, 2024
Closing Reception w/ Artist Meet n’ Greet: Sunday, July 28th, 5-6PM
Exhibiting Artists:
Alyssa Dennis, Crystal Moll, Jack Robbins, Don James, PJ Gilman, Michael King, David Hymes, Gillian Collins, Stewart White, Richard Friedman, Mark Luthringer, Joseph Craig English, & Ilene Gold
Exhibition Sponsored by:
Exhibiting Artists:
Alyssa Dennis
Soil Savers
Alyssa Dennis is an interdisciplinary artist, Earth activist, educator and clinical herbalist cultivating a small herbal sanctuary in Baltimore City. In addition to a BFA from the Maryland Institute Collage of Art and an MFA from Tulane University, she completed a three-year advanced training in medical herbalism at Arbor Vitae School of Traditional Herbalism, has studied indigenous Amazonian plant medicine, and obtained certificates in permaculture design and straw bale and adobe building.
Her work combines drawing, sculptural installation and the social/environmental practice of herbalism to investigate themes of ecosystem sustainability within the manufactured landscapes of the built environment. Her focus is to question modern architecture and the modern mind-set by depicting a hybridization of overlapping structures that consider intersecting and deviating lines between protection, dominion and symbiosis.
Crystal Moll
Late Summer Light
Crystal Moll is originally from Virginia Beach, earned her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design. Baltimore has been her home since the late 80’s. Since that time, she has been a full-time fine artist. Crystal paints mostly cityscapes and works directly from life. She may complete a small work in one sitting, but she also loves to take these small and large works back to the location for many sittings—sometimes over weeks, sometimes not until the following season. Crystal is drawn to color especially as it is bathed in light. Investigating the colors’ reaction as it is warmed in sunlight or cooled in shadows draws her to the subjects she paints.
In 2009 she opened her gallery in Federal Hill. 2023 the gallery moved to the Arts District in Highlandtown. Enjoying the new and different part of Baltimore, especially the 1st Friday Art Walks which draws art lovers from all over the region.
IG: @crystalmoll
Jack Robbins
American Portrait
Jack Robbins is a lifetime resident of Harford County, Maryland where he grew up on his family’s dairy farm. He received a BFA degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1977. He has exhibited his paintings in galleries, colleges, and juried exhibits in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, California, and Connecticut. His paintings are included in the collections of University of Maryland Physicians Complex, State of Maryland Permanent Collection of Maryland Artists, Bank of America, Morris Museum of Art, and numerous corporate and private collections. “My first show was at The Maryland Fine Arts Gallery in Monkton in 1980. Forty-four years later, it’s a pleasure to return to Monkton at Manor Mill Gallery.”
“For me, painting is storytelling--creating an image that sparks the imagination. Hopefully an image you want to spend time with, writing your own narrative. A painting can take you someplace new, or remind you of a favorite place from long ago.”
IG: @jrobbart
Don James
Cloudy Day
Don James is a creator of abstract photographic images. He finds inspiration in natural, industrial, and urban environments. His subjects are visible to everyone, but truly seen by few. They are pieces of man-made structures, details of common objects, or short-lived fragments of nature that are continuously sculpted by the elements. His goal as an artist is to not only improve his own ability to see, but to encourage viewers of his photographs to set aside their daily distractions and truly look at the world around them.
Don received his Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and a Masters degree from Loyola University in Baltimore. He lives in Milton, Delaware.
Website: www.donjamesfineart.com
PJ Gilman
Pink Wall
Phoebe J. Gilman received an MFA in painting from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and an MSAE from Queens College. She worked as an art teacher in White Plains City School District for over thirty years before retiring in 2018. After relocating to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she began her most recent project of painting in-between urban spaces.
She states, “The loneliness of the current American landscape motivates my work. I am drawn to off-center compositions in urban settings. When choosing locations to paint, I look for ways the sun and technology move through and across the buildings. The traffic lights and telephone wires strung over the empty buildings show a world being swallowed by the reality of modern life. I apply oil paint in multiple layers to build the surface up slowly. The addition of wires and signs adds yet another layer, signaling to the viewer that the scene doesn’t end at the edges of the picture plane. By not including words or numbers on signs, I hope these images can evoke memories of any number of locations.”
IG: @pgilmanartist
Michael King
Plum Island Memories
Michael earned Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design and a Master of Architecture from the University of Utah. He served a two-year ecclesiastical mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Philippine Islands. He was a registered professional architect in numerous states through the course of his career of over thirty-eight years. He established King Associates Architects managing twelve architects and draftsman.
Following his retirement Michael started Michael King / Studio. A Traditional Realist, he is principally interested in oil and watercolor.
King states, “My goal is to create images in oil and watercolor in search of my own signature. I am blessed with a great passion for art. I hope to never reach my full potential as a person and an artist.”
David Hymes
Wall Shelves
David Hymes has 30 years experience in creating fine furniture and sculpture, design, construction, renovation and remodeling. He is known for bringing architectural training and meticulous craft skills to complex projects for businesses, estates, and private residences.
His design approach is intuitive and collaborative with the emphasis on balancing aesthetic form and functional quality. He specializes in unique custom woodworking - creating functional sculptures, furniture, cabinetry and one-of-a-kind pieces. Elegant solutions are crafted to meet client's needs, blending artistic intuition with a lyrical sensitivity for materials.
David works for renovation companies, a fine arts service company and a property and estate management company. His clients are intimately involved in designing their pieces, resulting in creations that reflect and enhance their personal space and aesthetics.
Website: www.david-hymes.com
Gillian Collins
What Are You looking At
Gillian Collins earned a BFA and MFA from Towson University, Towson MD. She has been an oil painter for over four decades and has added water color to her repertoire in the last several years. Gillian teaches water color classes through her local county senior centers and on selected cruise lines.
Gillian is affiliated with The Artist Gallery (TAG) located in historic Frederick, MD and has shown in numerous juried exhibitions in Italy and the Washington/Baltimore area. She has been a member of the Oil Painters of America and American Women Artists organizations.
By divorcing the form from the function of mechanical components, Collins conveys the importance of these vital but unnoticed engineering feats in her paintings, compelling the viewer to contemplate the foundation of our technological advancement. Using traditional oil paint medium and mixed media, Collins blends historic classic realism with contemporary abstraction to convey the importance of these vital, but unnoticed man-made components.
IG: @gilliancollins.art
Richard Friedman
Baltimore's Charles Village Painted Ladies
Richard Friedman has lived in Baltimore for more than 50 years. He is a graduate of The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), with a BFA degree in Graphic Design. He has also completed graduate courses at Towson State University and The University of Maryland. Richard worked at Northrop Grumman for 37 years as a Engineering Designer. Now retired, he paints full-time, and works on a commission basis for various clients. My Paintings are a Labor of love for Baltimore, and flaunt the city’s appeal, along with a deep admiration for it.
IG: @richshelfri1951
Mark Luthringer
Silicon Valley #5
Mark Luthringer states, “I began working with office parks as a photographer, and at first I was interested in how similar they were. My goal was to assemble a typology of selected repetitive examples, and the result made a potent visual statement about our built environment and the futility of much of its design.
Along the way, I kept finding other examples that were more idiosyncratic. At first I gathered these out of impulse with no destination in mind. They were given the ‘office parks I like’ keyword. As this group grew, I started to form a different kind of relationship with office parks. I started to appreciate their accidental beauty, unintended outcomes, and architectural non sequiturs. I began to obsess over them and fetishize them. In short, I became a connoisseur of office parks, eventually building a collection of photos from over 600 sites.
While the photographs work well as a collection, making paintings of my favorites is a better way of transmitting my feelings for them and commanding the attention I think they deserve.”
IG: @hypotheticalpasserby
Joseph Craig English
Lincoln Memorial
Joseph Craig English was introduced to silkscreen printing in his ninth grade art class and that became his passion along with painting in oil and acrylic for more than four decades. In 2019 he began experimenting with how his work could be created in Photoshop; using digital paintbrushes and a wide format printer. Embracing this new technique, he has been able to create new work in the identical style he has enjoyed for years but without the exposure to toxic inks and solvents.
His work is avidly collected and has been included in dozens of museum and corporate collections on paper, including The Virginia Museum in Richmond, The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, The Baltimore Museum and the Taubman Museum in Roanoke, Virginia.
IG: @jcraigenglishstudio
Ilene Gold
Venice
Ilene Gold creates collages using only National Geographic magazines. Cutting thousands of pieces of paper and assembling them into a new image. The collage idea started by recreating famous paintings made entirely from National Geographic magazines. As this medium evolved, a new collection started with the recreation of Ilene Gold’s award winning photographs, still using only National Geographic magazines. Look closely and you may find a hidden phrase or words within some of her pictures. She tries to capture a painterly quality with each collage. It seems she is almost painting with the paper.
IG: @ilenegold
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