Main Gallery
TRUTH IN ANIMALS
MAY FIRST FRIDAY
Featuring
LINDA MITCHELL'S EXHIBIT TRUTH IN ANIMALS
FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 5:30 PM
Free and Open to the Public
After studying at Georgia State University and Berry College, Mitchell attended the University of Georgia, receiving a BFA in 1982. While there she developed a special interest in lithography, and she credits printmaking for spurring her feeling for layering images and textures. Mitchell went on to receive an MFA in painting from the University of Georgia in 1990, and an MFA in sculpture from Georgia State University in 1994. Mitchell's early work focused on animals in multi-panel paintings, featuring cut-out figures, and other dimensional elements. The paintings focused on fluidly painted four-legged creatures in dramatic situations, emphasizing their human qualities. Mitchell turned to sculptural work using exposed wire armatures to create animals forms. She created disturbing scenarios of stalking and predation with multiple figures, some of which were fleshed out with fabric and black sand.
A collage class that Mitchell took near the end of graduate school became a real impetus in her developing a personal visual language. Collage
allowed her to combine her impulse for image-making with her sculptural facility. In the dream-like juxtaposing of the real and the imagined she feels a kinship with four modern masters: Chagall, Miro, Tanguy, and Rousseau.In 2000 Mitchell began creating large acrylic paintings that combined actual objects with painted illusion. This work culminated in an 8'x18' installation of over-lapping paintings, Embrace the Messy, exhibited in 2004. The show's title embodies the artist's intuitive approach that allows poetic meaning to emerge from the highly textural layering of painted and digital images with a variety of materials. Mitchell's sculptural inclination was spurred after the birth of her son in 1995 and she began making animal figures using Play-Doh. In 2006 she started sewing fabric animals as well. The animal figures have been used as models for paintings and as photographic images collaged to the surface of pieces. The animals often express human emotions as they are combined with images of ephemeral beauty from nature. Other major installations are the 2006 Serio in Verse, which alternated paintings with sculptural fabric animals, and the 2007 Too Much Will Never Be Enough. The latter is ruled by a fabric sculpture of Louis XIV as a horned animal avatar, flanked by fantastic paintings inspired by Mitchell's European travels.
Linda Mitchell has exhibited her paintings extensively with her solo exhibitions including those at Peninsula Fine Arts Center, , Atlanta, GA, Radford University Museum, Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida, Panama City, FL, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, MO, The Goddard Center, Ardmore, OK, Tinney + Cannon Contemporary, Nashville, Mason Murer Fine Art and One Twelve non-profit Gallery, Atlanta, GA, Georgia State University, and the Metropolitan Arts Council, Birmingham, AL.
Organic Artwork Abounds at the Guild
A Splash of Color - The Lifeworks of Lolly Durant in the Main Gallery
The Guild will feature the works of seasoned artist Olive "Lolly" Durant of East Tennessee and self-taught woodcarver and whittler John Brooks McPherson of Dalton at it's January First Friday event. First Fridays offer patrons a chance to meet the artists and hear about their works.
Lolly Durant is a gourd folk artisan, marbler, potter and a Roster Teaching Artist with The Tennessee Arts Commission. Lolly also teaches pottery at the Mountain Arts Community Center in Signal Mountain, Tennessee and at the Creative Arts Guild in Dalton, Georgia. She is a self-emplyed artist and creates much of her work from her studio, Down & Under Studios on Signal Mountain. This retrospective represents what Lolly describes as "lifeworks" created from 1974 to 2013 and includes paintings, prints, gourd assemblages and textiles.
John Brooks McPherson describes himself as "a poor dumb yankee till his parents got smart and brought the family south when he was 5 years old". John served in the Navy for nine years on board the submarine USS SeaDevil and married in 1990. He has been whittling since childhood and started carving seriously about three years ago when he needed the use of a cane to for pain and there were none made for a 6'7", 300 pound man. John's pain therapist suggested he find something to do to take his mind off the pain and he began carving his canes. John is an avid history buff, a family man and has a sincere love of God - these all translate into and onto his canes and walking sticks. John adds, "And theres a touch of craziness".
Pictured above are: Ceramic Gourd Totem by Olive "Lolly" Durant and Sunflowers, a Walking Stick, by John Brooks McPherson.
First Fridays are free and open to the public. A Splash of Color and Woodcarved Canes and Walking Sticks are on display through February 22nd.
FIRST FRIDAY YEAR-END SPECIAL SALE AND EXHIBITS!
MAIN GALLERY: JULIA KNIGH
GALLERY 111: BILLIE SHELBURN
AND IN BOTH GALLERIES: ESTATE SALE POTTERY AND YEAR-END SPECIAL SALE OF ARTWORK!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 5:30 PM FREE
FIRST FRIDAY FEATURES JULIA KNIGHT-A RETROSPECTIVE IN THE MAIN GALLERY / GUILD ART STUDENTS IN GALLERY 111 / JODY HARRIS IN THE PERFORMANCE HALL
The Guild will feature 
a full house for October's First Friday sure to please all the senses. Multi-faceted artist Julia Knight will exhibit drawings, maquettes and sculptures (many life sized) in the main gallery; art students of the Guild will feature drawings, paintings and pottery in Gallery 111 and Jody Harris will feature large and small scale works in the Performance Hall.
Artist Julia Trawick Knight, a native of Cedartown, Georgia, began her studies in 1973 at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee with Richard Duncan and Ed Carlos. She transferred to the Ringling School of Art at Sarasota, Florida to continue study in sculpture and figure painting with Bob Larsen and Ethelia Patmagrian. While in Sarasota, she completed a four-year apprenticeship with the well-known sculptor Leslie Posey. She also completed additional training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
In 1979, she moved to Rome to establish an art studio focusing on sculptural portraits. One of the artist’s earliest portrait studies was of Frederick Knight of Cartersville whom she married in 1981. After several years of retirement to raise her three children and help restore a home on the Etowah River that had been in her husband’s family since the Civil War, Julia returned to active portrait sculpture work in 1996. Since that time she has completed commissions for clients in northwest Georgia, Houston Texas, and Atlanta. Her bronze sculpture subjects have included babies, young children, teenagers, businessmen, a physician, and a favored family pet, an English setter. Julia has participated in many exhibits in northwest Georgia, South Carolina, the National Sculpture Society in New York City, and the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club and has worked for churches, colleges, museums, and private collectors designing and sculpting commissions.
The Guild's art students are comprised of new and emerging artists as well as established artists exhibiting works in pottery, on paper and canvas,
Dalton native Jody Harris will feature recent works many of which are large scale in the performance hall.
First Friday is free and open to the public. Hours are 5:30 until 7:30.
The Sky is Not the Limit!
The North Georgia Skypainter’s Society featured at First Friday 
The sky is not the limit for these seven artists who have created an exhibit featuring more than 60 works of art with the common theme of “sky”. The seven artists include Betty Hamilton, Janice Kennedy, Sherry Hullender, Evelyn Marie Williams, B.J. Wright, Sandra Babb and Carol Hobbs. These women reside in North Georgia, have various levels and degrees in training in the arts and have a sincere passion for painting. Their motto is “The sky is blue….some of the time”. The skypainters, as they have named themselves, will be the featured event at the Creative Arts Guild’s May First Friday, May 4 beginning at 5:30 p.m. North Carolina artist Sandy Webster continues in the Guild’s Main Gallery and the Cross Plains students of Visual Art Director Bradley Wilson will be featured in Gallery 111. First Fridays are free and open to the public.
Image is of an acrylic painting titled “Crown of Splendor” by Evelyn Marie Williams.
