Saundra Smith Rubiera / UAC

Saundra Smith Rubiera

United Arts Council
December

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have spent my life studying, teaching, and making art. What inspires me to pick up a pencil, brush, or pen, and make marks on paper or canvas is the same now as it was when I first started out as an artist: color, pattern, and flattened space.

For me, color needs to be as intense and bright as I can make it. I want my colors to be exciting, like opening a new box of crayons on the first day of school.

My work is flat and decorative.  I am mad for pattern, texture, and interesting marks. I like the movement they create in a drawing or painting and the way they activate the surface by breaking large shapes into smaller colored spots.

Although I draw from life, I make a conscious effort to flatten the space in the picture plane by tilting it toward the viewer and altering the perspective. The objects looked stacked, one on top of the other, vertically, rather than one behind the other, horizontally.

There is also an element of "storytelling" in my work.  The objects I draw and paint are objects I touch or use every day--objects perhaps unimportant to others, but which have meaning for me beyond my finding them interesting or beautiful. These objects evoke stories from my own memories or sometimes stories I make up about them.

I find these stories funny or whimsical, sometimes sad, sometimes silly. We all struggle, I think, daily, with horrors in the news and difficulties in our own lives.  In my drawings, there is no cruelty or violence, no war or hunger or pain. I am aware that this is not the real world, but I want the viewer to forget all that if only for a moment. I want my work to be a feast for the eyes.

BIO

Saundra Smith Rubiera is a North Carolina artist who works in colored pencils, markers, acrylic paints, and linocuts. She has an MFA degree from East Carolina University with a major in painting and a minor in printmaking. She is a retired art teacher and has illustrated three published books. Saundra’s work has been exhibited in national, regional, and local shows. Her business, Dancing Lady Designs, creates custom art and furniture for children’s rooms.

Saundra was a 2017 recipient of an Individual Artist Grant. The grant funded the framing of this travelling show which has been shown in six locations throughout the state. The Regional Artist Project Support program is administered and funded by the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County with support from the NC Arts Council and the counties of Lee, Moore, Richmond, Robertson, and Scotland, the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, and private contributions.

Brian Imfeld / HagerSmith

Brian Imfeld

HagerSmith
November/December
 

Artist Statement

Can we understand anything absolutely and completely? Even if we study and measure every quality we see, there are important characteristics that are beyond our ability to measure. Measuring and organizing helps everyone to better understand how the world works.  But the full picture is still always slightly, we hope only slightly, beyond full comprehension.    

My work is compositionally inspired by the visual language of graphs, charts, and writing. When I plan and lay out my work, I incorporate grids, consider margins, and arrange symbols to create a space where the placement of something has meaning and is in part defined by our experiences with other visual forms of communications.  Grid lines could divide individuals or highlight their commonalities, and a line graph could represent changes between two points but could also be a horizon line.  As I collect data for each piece, I determine a layer by layer procedure to incorporate each piece of information into the same space.

I choose many of my materials for the textures they allow me to create. My aim is to elicit an impression about the environment of the artwork; similar to the way walking in the sand or stepping on broken glass might also conjure an impression. Incorporating found objects and unconventional art-making materials allows the nature of the materials to represent for me unclear characteristics that cannot be defined or quantified.  Spread over the entire surface, these non-quantifiables are present everywhere.

As a constant observer, I always feel that if I continue to look at a problem I may find a new perspective from which to see it. Through my art-making process, I might determine where I exist within the composition. And maybe you can see yourself somewhere in the grid also.   

Biography

Brian Imfeld was born in 1978 in Beaufort, South Carolina. As the son of military parents he studied and learned in many towns and cities in the eastern United States. In 2001, Brian earned his BFA in Printmaking and BS in Art from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. His work has been included in exhibitions in Ohio and North Carolina. He recently exhibited a piece in the 2017 North Carolina Artist Exhibit at the Duke Energy Center in Raleigh, NC.  Brian currently lives and works as an Art teacher in Raleigh, NC.

Jane Cheek / United Arts Council

Jane Cheek

United Arts Council
November

BIO

Jane Cheek is a mixed media artist who works in an abstract expressionist style. She enjoys working with bright colors, metallic accents, and texture to create art that plays with whimsy and elegance. Jane is interested in using the balance of artistic opposites to represent the balance of emotions she has as a survivor of child abuse with a happy life as an adult. She finds joy and inspiration in nature, her three exuberant children, her amazing husband, and the wonderfully supportive and loving people in her life. When you look at Jane's work you might notice the unmixed colors of Fauvists like van Gogh paired with the simplistic playful shapes of expressionists such as Miró and Kandinsky. In her works with craft and sculptural elements, you may see influences of Janet Echleman and Juame Plensa. Jane's work is a daily practice of seeking and creating joy.

Jane attended North Carolina State University where she received a BA in Visual Arts Applications. After graduating, Jane taught art for five years at a K-8 charter school in Durham while working in her home studio and began selling work at local art fairs. She took a few years off while her children were newborns and then resumed work in her home studio. Jane’s work is currently on display at Read With Me, Emily & Co, and Lavish. When she isn't working on art, she and her family can be found living the unschooling life at local parks, and museums, and traveling as often as possible.

ARTIST STATEMENT

In this collection I am exploring contradictory artistic elements. I am working with the relationships between opacity and translucency; two dimensions and three; structure and complete abstraction; whimsy and elegance. I have used these elements to explore the contradictions between my own past as an abused child and my present as a happy mother, wife, and artist. I used bright colors and metallic accents to create happy expressionist work because I have chosen to seek and create joy in my life.

Leslie Bailey / Aloft RDU

Leslie Bailey 

Aloft RDU
November - January

ARTIST STATEMENT

The act of making a mark on the art surface is the beginning of my creative process. The mark-making could be with graphite, a painted line, a piece of painted paper, or any number of mark-making tools. The act of creating with a particular chosen media leads to an intuitive, creative exploration of those materials. The artistic decision-making in the subsequent layers explores process and product, sometimes by design and sometimes by surprise. Discovering these creative explorations and surprises is why I feel it necessary to create my art.

My art is abstract with an emphasis on expressionism, sometimes focusing on lines and shapes, sometimes including an abstract human form, and sometimes a mixed-media collage with the theme: a political/social/feminist statement.

I want the viewer to experience the painting as a journey through the mark-making, splatters, drips, and/or color changes. I want them to experience the textural changes, the surface treatments, and the small moments within the painting. I want the viewer to question the political/social/feminist female body collages and to influence their thinking and perception.

As a former elementary art educator, I saw many children get lost in the act of creating, simply enjoying moving paint on their paper, and creating marks. This is my reason for creating, to attempt to capture the childlike joy in color, shape, line, pattern, and forms.

Black on Black V2 Project Seed Grant

Black on Black V2 Project Seed Grant 

Submission Deadline - 11:59 pm on November 17, 2017

As a part of Black on Black V2, VAE is giving away two $250 grants to artists of color who are looking for resources to begin new projects, further their current practice, and continue their creativity. Our goal is to make this application as simple as possible and put money in creative people's pockets as soon as possible!

ELIGIBILITY
The application is open to any artist of color. Entry to the Black on Black V2 Project Seed Grant is not contingent on being a current BOBV2 artist. 

APPLICANTS MUST SUPPLY
> documents of three recent works
> a short bio
> project statement that outlines what funds will be used for

ACCESSIBILITY
VAE wants to make this opportunity as accessible as possible. If you have any trouble with the online form, please email Kyle or call 919.828.7834.

PROJECT SEED GRANT AWARDEES

Monét Marshall

BIO

Monét Noelle Marshall is a Durham, North Carolina-based rtist, director, producer. She serves as the Founding Artistic Director of MOJOAA Performing Arts Company, producing new works by and new opportunities for Black playwrights. Marshall explores the ways that bodies, particularly those of Black women, are used, manipulated, curated and crafted to make political statements, both with and without their consent. She does this in public spaces through public art programs like Black Joy PopUp, which brings the Black community together to express joy on purpose and in more private spaces like dance parties and her kitchen.

PROJECT STATEMENT 

In January 2018, I [Monét Marshall] will produce my first performance art exhibition titled Buy My Soul and Call it Art. It will be an immersive exploration of the worth of Black art and Black people in the mainstream arts industrial complex. The exhibition will include a group of 25 artists. 

Renee Cloud

BIO

Renee Cloud is a Charlotte native and received her BFA in Studio Art from Appalachian State University in 2015. Using a combination of text art and mixed media, she creates work that focuses on the personal narrative, the black experience, and the power of the written word. The text she incorporates into her pieces provides only a fraction of the narrative, leaving the viewer to create the rest. Cloud resides in Charlotte, North Carolina and is currently serving as the Director and Curator of the Bb Gallery.

PROJECT STATEMENT

I [Renee Cloud]  would use the grant money to create a body of work titled blackonblack that studies the black perspective on social issues using predominantly black mediums. I’m interested in expressing my personal narrative and the narrative of other members of my community in a fashion that recognizes the similarities in experiences, both positive and negative. The idea behind this series is to ‘reclaim’ the narrative that has been perpetrated by the media and politicians that the black community is a violent and failing social structure. I completely reject that notion and have been so upset by the negative stereotypes, it has inspired me to make work in response.  

These project seed grants are made possible in part by donations from Blue Cross Blue Sheild of North Carolina

Anthony Garcia-Copian

Anthony Garcia-Copain

HagerSmith
September-October

When I paint, I paint abstract memories. Sometimes the memory is foggy and has been replaced by an imaginary sediment, a residue that has made one memory solid and the other fluid.

Everything in art is a memory.

I have empathic traits, therefore I paint the images of the emotions that I am able to absorb from strangers and from those who surround me.

The only expectation that I have from my art is pleasure.

AGC

Cathy Foreman / Aloft Raleigh

Cathy Foreman

Aloft Raleigh
October - December

ARTIST BIO

Cathy is not, nor does she proclaim to be, a music connoisseur but what she will say is she appreciates a good groove and if it offers up a funky bass-line, then all the better. It is that very groove that guides her along in the process by which she creates her Art. 

At the base of each piece of Art is her photography. The majority of Cathy’s work stems from photographs she has captured at live music events. And on occasion she has been so moved and inspired that she captures a screenshot from her television and proceeds to turn that into a piece of Art.

In 2011, Reflections by Cathy Foreman was created and she hasn’t looked back. Currently a resident of Raleigh, NC, by way of Tillery, NC, Cathy has carved out her own space in which she comfortably sits – but it didn’t happen overnight. In what she says seems like a long and arduous road, she started simply by shooting small get-togethers with her girlfriends and high school classmates. After that, she started going on “shoot-abouts” and capturing the people and things in her surroundings. In 2012, a connection to a local non-profit focused her talents as she slowly integrated texture into her work. She was cautious as she was unsure how it would be accepted, but in 2014, she realized she has always beat to a different drum, and firmly planted her feet in what she now calls “Photography to Art”.

Through music, Cathy has found that the animation of Artists, affords her a unique opportunity to interpret their performance and energy, it has helped to mold her creative style. Once she narrowed the area of which she wanted to concentrate, she delved further into the manipulation of the photograph thus creating these photographic works of art.

Today, Cathy primarily photographs live music events, but she continues to hone her craft by staying true to her grassroots and doing shoot-abouts in whichever city or town she happens to be. Her heart lies with creating Art and it is those artistic pieces you will often see.

Sleight of Hand

SLEIGHT of HAND
a collaboration

Addison Brown | Brooke Caudle | Heidi Kirkpatrick | Tobia Makover | Lori Vrba

Exhibition: October 6-26, 2017
Opening Reception: October 6, 6-10pm

Project Statement

An exhibition of photo-based object works where each piece requires a physical action from the viewer to be fully experienced.  This art is made to be touched.  The exhibition features the one-of-a-kind assemblage and installation pieces by Addison Brown, Brooke Caudle, Heidi Kirkpatrick, Tobia Makover, and Lori Vrba. 

BOBV2

Black on Black V2 

October 6 - November 25, 2017 

We’re seeing imagery that reminds us of Los Angeles in 1992, Tulsa in 1921 and Wilmington in 1898, and these incidents seem to show disregard for the lives of people of color. But we bounce back because there is a tremendous strength within our community.

BLACK ON BLACK V2 brings together artwork, performances, and programs that provide comfort, support, and inspiration as we navigate through our day-to-day.

Contribute to the conversation:
#BOBV2
#BlackOnBlackV2

Featured Artists

agape. 
Onicas Gaddis
Stephen Hayes
Precious Lovell
Mballa Mendouga
Anthony Patterson
William Paul Thomas
Sloane Siobhan
 

BLACK ON BLACK V2 Programming

Tuesday, October 10, 7pm
Screening of Ricky Kelly's "Black Beach/White BeCH" at NC State's African American Cultural Center

Friday, October 20, 6-9pm at Empower Dance Studio
Third Friday Dance Series and Exhibition

Saturday, October 21
Bus tour to the International Civil Rights Center + Museum in Greensboro, NC

Wednesday, October 25, 5-7pm at VAE
Intelligently Ratchet live podcast recording

Thursday, October 26, 7pm at VAE
Tri-Film Society Social Event and discussion of films focused on the lives of people of color. 

Saturday, November 4, Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm at VAE
BOBV2 Comedy Night

Monday, November 6, 7pm at Anchorlight
Rhythms of Spoken Word with Nate Key

Wednesday Nov 8 from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm at VAE
Black Entrepreneurs Panel Discussion

Thursday, November 9, 7pm at NC State's African American Cultural Center
Screening of "Whose Streets" 

Saturday, November 11, 2pm
Chavis Park Public Art presentation and Workshop with David Wilson

Saturday, November 18, 12-3pm
Hands-on art activity with artist Michelle Petelinz

Anthony Garcia-Copian / HagerSmith

Anthony Garcia-Copian

September/October

When I paint, I paint abstract memories. Sometimes the memory is foggy and has been replaced by an imaginary sediment, a residue that has made one memory solid and the other fluid.

Everything in art is a memory.

I have empathic traits, therefore I paint the images of the emotions that I am able to absorb from strangers and from those who surround me.

The only expectation that I have from my art is pleasure.

- AGC