Passages

Saturday, November 13 from 5 – 7 pm.Creativity Seminar featuring Juanita Weaver, Friday, November 19, 2004, from 10 am – 3 pm.There are moments in the human experience that stand in stark relief to the routine of our lives — moments where we pass from one place or condition of life to another. These openings or entrances into, through or out of something often usher in a new chapter, or create an abrupt pause in our well-planned lives.

Passages — moments in time when we choose to make a conscious shift to another stage of life or a new understanding.

Claire McArdle is an internationally renowned sculptor and one of a handful of women in the world who carve marble in monumental scale. Drawing on the art and mythos of ancient cultures Claire creates archetypal forms imbued with a distinctly personal mythology. In this new work McArdle reintroduces a theme begun in the 1980’s with her Journey Home series. The concept of one’s personal journey is now expanded to the collective consciousness of the civilization of modern man. The figure, the horse and the bridge are the subjects she employs. The rider represents humanity or the human spirit, the horse evokes the natural world and becomes our companion on the journey. The bridge serves as a symbol for the passages encountered. These new sculptures not only express a physical passage but a psychological passage, journey and balance of experience.

While McArdle seeks her inspiration in the myths and stories of the past, Greg Mort looks to the future and the discoveries of science for his inspiration. Widely recognized as a renowned contemporary realist, Greg Mort’s art is included in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Delaware Art Museum, the Corcoran Museum of Art, the Portland Art Museum and many more. Mort’s paintings exemplify the fundamental nature of realism in two solid ways: intimate observation of his subject and unequaled technical precision. Clearly, what sets him above the fray is the tension of revelation and inquiry. Mort’s fascination with the mysteries of nature and astronomy are at once apparent in his strikingly contemporary still lives and nocturnal landscapes which surpass the romantic and venture into futurity It is the journey not the destination that matters most to Mort both in art as well as in life. “Along the way each traveler encounters a number of passages in this the arrow of time. If one possesses sensitivity and patience, it is just possible to feel the machinery of awe that inhabits the universe around us. Then you are alive.”

A special creativity workshop featuring Juanita Weaver. Weaver recently conducted a workshop