Online Artist

“OBSERVATIONS”

Discover the possibility of a creative image right before your eyes.

As far back as I can remember, I have been engaged in various creative endeavors such as drawing and painting. Two years of Civil Engineering at the University of Maryland did not provide me with the means to express my creativity and so, I changed my major to Fine Art. After more than 43 years in the graphic, printing and creative design field, I retired from my Creative Director and Department Head position to move to the Wilmington, NC area. The beauty and natural energy of the environment and artist community here has rekindled my creative energy.

While photography is my current creative medium, I have noticed that my art and graphic  background plays heavily with my images. I begin by observing my surroundings before even taking my first photo. I look for lines, shapes, layers, colors and textures. I consider taking photos from various angles and heights to best capture the image. I mainly use a Fujifilm X-T3 camera and occasionally, my iPhone Pro 12 in RAW mode, to be able to employ various lighting effects. I bracket my shots and take full image as well as tightly cropped images so I have plenty of information going into post production. I select the image that best captures my observation and the emotion I felt when I saw the image. I want to communicate the same visual excitement to the viewer through a printed piece.

I hope you enjoy my excitement and feel the emotion of my latest collection.

Artist Statement

The paintings are about the act of painting. Although individually the paintings possess different intensities, opposing levels of complexity and abstraction, and perhaps a vague adherence to a narrative, the core of the process of painting remains consistent. The paintings are a reflection of the process of painting them. Every process is unique.

The magic of painting can never be totally explained. I find joy in discovering the emerging world of a new painting. Although harmony of the mind and the heart is important, the metabolic process of converting color, form and line into the forces that drive the painting is absolutely necessary.

More of his works can be found on his website.

Stay tuned as we prepare for Brian’s guest photography exhibit “Dance Around the Light” slated for June 14- July 28, 2024. 

Brian H. Peterson has more than forty years’ experience as a curator, critic, visual artist, musician, and arts administrator. His photographs are in the collections of The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Amon Carter Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Denver Art Museum, among others.

As the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Chief Curator at the James A. Michener Art Museum (1990-2013), he managed the exhibition program, curated historic and contemporary exhibitions, and was the editor and principal author of the landmark publication, Pennsylvania Impressionism (2002).

As well as author of The Smile at the Heart of Things (2009) and I Give My Eyes (2018), Peterson has also contributed critical writing to the Los Angeles Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, American Arts Quarterly, and the Photo Review. In retirement he has taken up videography while continuing his work as writer and photographer.

His 1981 song cycle “Moon Songs,” based on the poetry of E. E. Cummings, was featured on the CD Modern American Art Song (2015) with mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry. Peterson’s most recent publication, in its second printing, is The Blossoming of the World (AR Press, 2023), a spiritual autobiography and story of healing and salvation.

“Peterson’s photographs transcend the realm of objects to speak about matters of the soul.”
—Ellen Rosenholtz, former director, Lancaster Museum of Art

Brian’s Website:  https://brianhpetersonwordimage.com/

Artist Statement

Whether I am working in black and white or color I’ve sought to suggest in my paintings – in addition to beauty -feelings of hope and peace.

Most of the black and white verticals started with music. They were born out of the genius of others such as Mozart and Bach. When I am listening to a piece of classical music and I close my eyes, what I see is the lines, the vibrations and explosions of the sounds, the notes, and the music. It always comes to me that way. And then black and white, never color, perhaps referencing the notes and sheet music I have seen throughout my life.

While the black and white pieces are inspired by music, the color pieces are about light and imagination. My color work is heavily influenced by nature and the magic of the ever-changing landscape.

I primarily work with watercolor on canvas, but my intention is never to follow the traditional path of watercolor. I am always experimenting, using the fluidity of the medium to my advantage. Sometimes I will use printing techniques to achieve patterns, sometimes spraying and rubbing and creating shadows by taking the paint off as quickly as I have applied it. It’s an exciting process because the outcome is always a surprise and that is what I look for, the happy accident when the very wet paint has a mind of its own and directs my next step.

About the Artist

Constance Pappalardo was born in Lima, Peru. She moved to New York City at the age of eight. The art and culture of the city inspired her to pursue her art studies. After high school, Ms. Pappalardo studied painting at The School of Visual Arts, in Manhattan.

Pappalardo now lives in Cary, North Carolina. Her contemporary abstract watercolors have been featured in numerous galleries in Cary, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and other cities in North Carolina.

She is a member of the Fine Arts League on Cary, The Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, Artspace and of The Durham Art Guild in Durham.

Ms. Pappalardo is the recipient of various art awards. Her works are included in local corporate collections as well as private collections in the states as well as England, Norway, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Mongolia, Moldova, and her native Peru.

She was chosen to be the signature artist for Cary’s 2007 Spring Daze Arts and Crafts Festival and is one of the original founders of The Cary Art Loop, Final Friday Art Walk.

Ms. Pappalardo is very involved in many charity art auctions, donating art throughout the years to such charitable events as VAE’s For the Love Art auction and gala, the Works of the HeArt/ action against AIDS auction and gala, North Carolina Museum of Art’s Art of the Auction, the Red Cross, the Boys and Girls Club of Wake County and Habitat for Humanity among others.

From the time Meg McGrew first picked up a camera, she’s always been fascinated by shadows.  Meg loves the way our shadows elongate in late afternoon sun. She’s hypnotized by the crisp morning shadows that appear on her bathroom walls, outlining a piece of pottery or a cascading strand of leaves from a flowerpot on a shelf.

Lately Meg has been focused on how objects and shadows can be transformed into different and unique images. She’s taken the original photos and altered them digitally, playing with exposure, color, contrast and applications that add texture to the image. Time melts when she’s involved in this process.

Over the years, Meg has expressed herself creatively through photography, pottery, painting and drawing. But taking photos has been the most integral part of her creative life. Catching the play of light on an object or person, combined with a cast shadow, is Meg’s ongoing point of focus. Meg’s intention with her current series of photos is to illustrate how things change in time and in our imaginations, moment to moment.

“Out of the Shadows” Artist Statement

It was a bright sunny morning in early August 2016. I was on highway I-40 headed to Maryland. My Mom was getting hospice care at home, and I had planned to take over the caregiving from my brother Kevin for a while.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a car came careening across and over the median, and spinning toward me as I was going 70mph.The crash was loud and hard. I had many broken and shattered bones, some of which could not be fixed. After months of numbness, the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder set in.

I was grateful to be alive though, and still cannot fully express my gratitude to the many people who supported me after the crash. You know who you are.

It took a long while for me to make any kind of artwork again. But one day I was sitting in my wheelchair and had my camera nearby. I picked it up and started to photograph my shadows on the wall across from me. Now I see it as my first attempt to creatively deal with the trauma. I took pictures of the shadow of the heavy boot on my right leg and my hand reaching out in a helpless sort of gesture.

Years have gone by now, and the title of this show Out of the Shadows, reflects my coming through the darker, shadowy world of trauma to the more colorful creative life I have today. It also relates to a lifelong fascination I have had with shadows.

The images in this show started with photos either totally made up of shadows or where a shadow is a primary focus in the piece. I have then used an online photo editing program to digitally alter them in some way. I was so excited when I first got into this process. I was amazed at what I could create by changing the color, texture or shape of the original images.

In the beginning, some of the wonderful results came about by chance, as I explored the digital possibilities. Then I became more purposeful in how I transformed them,  while still being open to what I might stumble upon.

Light and dark. Day and night. One complements the other. I now have a deeper appreciation of the way shadows can accentuate the light in the image and in my life.

“Even in darkness it is possible to create light…” -Elie Weisel

“Life is an endless journey of self-discovery, a dance between the shadows and the light…” -Rumi

Riverwalk Glass

Marcy McAninch of Riverwalk Glass was born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania and has always had a fascination with colored glass. Drawn towards the many antique stained windows glass seen in salvage and vintage stores, she decided to try her hand at making stained glass by taking a class in 2017.  She was immediately hooked and moved to Wilmington in 2018, where she took more classes to further her knowledge. She loves making glass art and recently focused on making 3-D stained glass pieces. She’s inspired by the colors and beauty of our coastal town and by the many artists that call Wilmington home.

Artful Notions

Melissa Hindle-Sherman says time stands still with every watchwork piece that Artful Notions creates. She creatively fabricates time and space into wearable art. Her elegant ‘steampunk – themed’ jewelry is inventively fashioned using vintage timepieces – sometimes accented with imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope.  Using bits and pieces of clocks, watches and other found objects, everything eventually finds its way into something new: stars shine out from brass and metal is etched and aged to create unique patinas. Her inspiration comes from mixtures of textures and media, combining the new with the old, fabricated with the found… each piece coming together to create something truly unique. Most recently Melissa is “fired up” about enamels! Learning while doing – she is teaching herself torch firing with enamels to bring unique textures and color into her work. Painting, stenciling and impressing stamps into metal, the fun is in the making. Each piece is a small work of art on its own.

Melissa earned a BFA in printing making and watercolor from Edinboro University in 1994.  Melissa delved into jewelry during her final semester where she realized her proclivity for functional yet fun, pieces of jewelry. While in school she was able to hone her skills in metal fabrication and finishing while working for a jeweler part-time.  Utilizing these skills and constantly experimenting, while driving her husband crazy, she has continued to build her own lexicon to create her unique style. Melissa lives with her larger-than-life husband, who happens to be a writer, in downtown Wilmington, N.C.

Fritzi Huber (born 1950) has been making handmade paper for more than 45 Years. Her work has been exhibited and collected nationally as well as internationally.

Huber has taught hand papermaking workshops across the United States. Some of the workshop locations are Pyramid Atlantic in Maryland, Southwest School Of Art In Texas, Arrowmont School Of Arts And Crafts in Tennessee, Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Mingei Museum in California, San Diego State University, and Tennessee Tech. in Tennessee. In addition, she has received numerous grants including from the Kenan Trust, the National Endowment of the Arts, and a California Arts Council Grant for Artist in Residence. Her workshops In North Carolina have been held at the old St. John’s Museum of Art, The Cameron Art Museum, East Carolina University, UNC Wilmington, and currently at Acme Art Studios in Wilmington, NC, where she also maintains a studio practice.

Her works is in international collections including Switzerland’s Musee Du Pays Et Val De Charney, Brazil’s Biennial International De Artes and The Ray Johnson Space at Artpool In Budapest, Hungary. More recently the Cameron Art Museum organized the exhibition Fritzi Huber: A Circus Life, which focused on the influences of Huber’s past circus experiences, and the resultant work relating to that background. Ms. Huber’s work is in numerous corporations, organizations, and institutions, Among them are Duke Medical Center, SAS Industries, AOL Corporation, Lord Corporation, IBM, Volvo, as well as many private collections. The Cameron Art Museum holds her work in their permanent collection.

Currently, Dumay Gorham, III is working on commissioned art. If you wish to request commissioned art from Dumay, contact him at [email protected] or 910-612-1723.  As soon as we have more art by Dumay, the art will be posted to our Art in Bloom Gallery website.

Specializing in custom metal designs and fabrication, Gorham also uses copper, brass, steel, and stainless steel to bring his distinct creations to life. Locals see his work in many notable locations every day – including the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the New Hanover County Arboretum, and in private homes in the region – as they continue to help shape the artistic landscape of the area. Currently, Gorham keeps a busy schedule between his sculptures and crafting metal furniture for nearby hotels and businesses, like The Blockade Runner Hotel and Resort, Live Oak Bank, UNCW and Embassy Suites. Open to new projects and challenges, Gorham uses his work to capture the ins and outs of life in coastal North Carolina.

A native of Wilmington, NC, Dumay Gorham, III, is an independent artist and specializes in custom metal designs and fabrication and works in copper, brass, steel, and stainless steel as well as fiberglass and urethanes.