September Issue 2001
Folk Art Center's Focus Gallery Features Contemporary Quilts And Woodturning in Asheville, NC
Sharing the Folk Art Center's Focus Gallery in Asheville, NC, through Oct. 9 are two members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild that explore contemporary expressions in their chosen craft. Simon Levy (Nashville, TN) is a talented woodturner who embellishes his vessels with abstract engravings and Murray Johnston (Birmingham, AL) is a contemporary quilter who uses traditional and non-traditional quilting techniques in quilted wall-hangings of her own design.
In the very first hour of his first course in woodturning, Simon Levy knew this art form held vast possibilities for his artistic expression. "Just the smell of the fresh wood," remembers Levy of his experience at the Appalachian Center for Crafts, "enlivened my senses and awareness." After twenty years as graphic art director for major record labels, Levy sensed his considerable talents needed to be roused through another media. In short order, woodturning motivated him to find expression in the turned vessel, a form that continues to fascinate him. Turning a perfect vessel on a lathe brings great satisfaction to Levy, but this is just the beginning of his artwork. The easily worked, smooth surface of wood calls to be a canvas for expression, says Levy, and surface treatments may take up to five times longer than the turning process.
The numerous surface treatments on his exquisite pieces include engraving, carving, wood burning and sometimes even painting. His turned vessels are carried from the sawdust-laden workshop into a relaxed art studio where Levy spends countless hours "allowing the wood to tell more of a story" by introducing patterns released from his subconscious. With simple tools like a hand-held engraver and an electric woodburner, Levy finds he can make an extensive variety of textures, patterns and abstract images. His unique work has attracted the attention of many galleries, fine craft shows, and collectors. In just a few years his work has received prestigious awards and been accepted in prominent shows and organizations, including the Guild in 1998. More than professional recognition, Levy loves experiencing the public's reaction to his work at shows. He recalls a nine-year old boy attracted to his work and eager to learn how it was made, and a blind woman who deemed his work beautiful only by touch and smell. In this show, eight pieces will be shown.
Murray Johnston's quilts begin with a conversation. It may be a conversation with the view outside her window, with a memory of a past experience or emotion, or with the quilt itself as she pieces it together. Throughout the piecing, stitching and finishing work, she refers to these conversations, allowing them to intuitively guide her, often in the absence of sketches on paper or pre-planned color choices. The result is bars and wedges of fabric colliding like shards of colored glass to form abstract images of richly layered scenes of nature. In her quilts, one perceives rocks glistening by a stream, limbs holding mottled leaves against a prismatic sky, and trees hosting lichen on their north-facing bark. The renderings are not attempts at realism; Johnston wants us to see the forest as the indistinct remains we hold in our memories.
In this show, we see the continuation of her tree series that she has been working on for over five years. In its evolution, this series has gotten progressively freer and looser, using techniques that allow her to "paint with fabric." Indeed, she calls her quilts a "fabric collage," fusing layers of fabric and machine stitching them to the quilt top. Art consultant Dorothy Moye claims that Johnston's latest in her tree series has captured the "tree-ness" like never before. In addition to claiming numerous awards, honors and appearing in public and private collections, Johnston's quilts have been the subject of articles in "Fiberarts, American Craft, and McCall's Quilting" magazines.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the center at 828/298-7928.
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