Around the Coyote Arts Festival - Visual Art

Tragic Result
Curated by Tracey Drobot, Around the Coyote Curatorial Intern

In correlation with The Hypocrites production of Desire Under the Elms this exhibition explores the human condition and the visual and emotional reaction to tragedy. In Desire Under the Elms, themes of greed, lust, love, and loss unfold as a family struggles with the human condition. Artists Bill Stone and Pamela Johnson each provoke raw emotions, as a sole figure is the focus of their paintings. Fear, isolation, loneliness, chaos, and aggression are all represented in these powerful pieces.

Pamela Johnson's latest body of work explores many of the emotions that are inherent in humanity. Isolated, bare, and stripped of all visual distractions, the emotional state of the model is the central component to the painting. Through these images the complexities of the human condition and all of its struggles are examined. Images are carefully composed on the canvas to intensify the feelings presented.

Bill Stone's new collection of work, Living in Fear, is created in response to the violence that surrounds us. Domestic abuse. School shootings. Random violence. We know the victims. The setting is familiar.  At the time of confrontation, the innocent flinch.

Examination of Self and Body
Curated by Tracey Drobot, Around the Coyote Curatorial Intern

This exhibition explores the transition of the body as seen through and examined by artists Jaime Andersen, Agata Czeremuszkin, and Aneka Vanderhill. These women have a very different interpretation of the same subject, the human form.

Jaime Andersen's images are constructed from experiences both internal and external. Sources include fashion catalogs, dance performances, children's books, cognitive therapy, and childhood memories and fantasies. Her work is defined by the conflict between self-conscious presentation and raw expression.

Agata Czeremuszkin's style can be described as a mixture of a new figurative representation and geometric movements of the 20th century, when color was most important. But for years Agata's main theme has remained the same - the human body. The way she paints the body is becoming clearer and clearer and she is more conscious of it with each work. The new series of her oil paintings are inspired by the human figure in pure biological sense.

Aneka Vanderhill has always loved to study the faces of people as she talks with them. Her work begins by taking photographs, collecting images, and recalling memories of people. She then extracts the features that touch her and excite her to create a new face. She then layers colors that transform into emotions that these people are feeling. They are pensive, introspective, and scarred with pigment. These women she paints confront us with their gaze, through layers of superficial adornment. Their skin says something about their life experiences, but their eyes tell us about their spirit. Making these portraits helps her to find her own sense of being and confidence in individuality, and yet she also feels there is unity in the female experience.