January Jazz – Art for a New Year – Mixed Media Surprises!

An exhibition of mixed media art by the MMX (Mixed Media 10) group of exceptional women artists will be on display from January 5 to January 30 at Swarthmore Borough Hall, 121 Park Avenue, Swarthmore. The exhibit will include works from Sue Apter, Priscilla Bohlen, Ann Breinig, Virginia Conover, Barbara Dirnbach, Linnie Greenberg, Maxine Rosen, Candace Stoudt, and Sharon Ostrow.

MMX is a group of ten art makers with diverse backgrounds including a school administrator,
family therapist, social worker, accountant, teacher, translator and graphic designer. The members create art using an eclectic mix of media including, but not limited to encaustic, acrylic, pastel, collage, fabric, clay and alcohol inks.

The group promotes mixed media as a fine art form and educates the public about the joys of creating art in all forms. MMX has given art-related workshops for diverse populations including military veterans with PTSD at the Veteran’s Administration, recovering addicts, library patrons, children and those with dementia.

Individual members have won many awards and honors including Professional Artist status at
Main Line Art Center. Some are current or past board members of Tri-State Artists Equity,
Delaware Valley Art League, and Montgomery County Guild of Professional Artists. MMX is also
affiliated with ARTsisters and Philadelphia Collageworks.

MMX has exhibited at Art of the State in Harrisburg, Harcum College, Neumann University,
Ludington Library, St. Asaph’s Gallery, Galer Estate Winery, Malvern Library, Wesley Enhanced
Living, Granite Farms Estates, Merion Art & Repro, and Beth Or Gallery in Maple Glen.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. Exhibit hours are M-Th 9am – 8pm, Fri 10am – 7pm, Sat 10am – 3pm, Sun 1 – 5pm.

Artist Bio-Statements:

Sue Apter: Sue says “The creation of art has been a form of self-expression and joy for me since childhood and has begun to take a more focal point in my life since my retirement from a fulfilling career in social work.”

Priscilla Bohlen: Priscilla Bohlen is a visual artist who paints scenes from nature on canvas using acrylic paint.

Ann Breinig: Ann calls herself a “maker” of all manner of things since her childhood. She’s explored and mastered different art processes and currently specializes in encaustic paintings.

Virginia Conover: Virginia states, “I am a mixed media artist, inspired by city streets, the beauty of nature and poetry. I use paint, paper, and different mark-making tools to create my paintings.

Barbara Dirnbach: Barbara explores her inner world and expresses her ideas by choosing subjects and images that are personal and meaningful to her to tell a story through composition, design, and color. 

Linnie Greenberg: Linnie’s work is often called whimsical. She gives free local art workshops.  She says, “Viewing and creating art while exploring different processes brings me joy. 

Maxine Rosen: Maxine has tried many processes. Her favorite is creating beautiful vases, bowls, and wall décor from fired/glazed clay. She is also an accomplished collage artist. 

Candace Stoudt: Candace gets inspiration from “nature’s beautiful colors, architecture, and landscapes that surround us.” She captures images with her camera lens and calls them “life snaps.”

Sharon Ostrow: Sharon has worked in a variety of mediums including pastel, acrylic, batik, tie-dye, mosaics, and most recently mixed media and assemblage. She says, “I get inspiration by observing the relationships between colors, materials, photographs, architecture, and the natural world.”

Artist’s Bios:

d. c. page (david) has spent the majority of his working career as a cabinetmaker, custom furniture craftsman, and sculptor.  he has long maintained an interest in writing, has written for rodale press, is the author of several screenplays and two young adult novels.  he has a degree in english from the university of virginia, an mfa in furniture design and woodworking from the rhode island school of design, and eschews capital letters.  he is a forty-year resident of swarthmore.  

Paul F. Page has long nurtured an interest in and love for photography.  He began his photographic career in earnest after retiring from a successful career as an internal medicine physician in Franklin County, Virginia.  He has photographed countless subjects across the country and in many countries around the world. He holds a degree in Chemistry from Hampden Sydney College and an MD from Michigan State University School of Medicine. He lives in Salem, Virginia. 

Artist’s Statement:

A photograph is a particular view of one moment in time, a thin slice of something bigger, often much bigger.  Conveying hints of the larger story within that moment is the mark of a worthwhile image.  Paul, the photographer, has traveled widely capturing those singular instances of beauty and relevance.  But in the photographic freeze exactly what that bigness consists of usually remains unclear or, more accurately, remains open to individual interpretation and imagination.

In this exhibit we present images that suggest many possible stories, and for each image, we offer a particular perspective, presented by David, the author.  Many verses are straightforward, some wander as far afield as the images themselves.  In a very real sense, the photographic images are the titles of the verses.  

Our project has been a creative collaboration between two brothers, an exploration of light, image, and possibilities filtered through a photographic lens and a keyboard. Meaning often hides much deeper than mere observation, and the questions the images pose, the answers the verses provide, are but one facet of what we see as a more complex tale. 

Exhibitions:

• Evergreen Gallery, Kirkland, Washington, Solo Exhibition
• Jefferson Center Gallery, Juried Show, First-place Photography, Roanoke, Virginia
• Jekyll Island Arts Association at Goodyear Cottage Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Jekyll Island, Georgia
• League of Roanoke Artists, WVTF Gallery, Solo Exhibition, Roanoke, Virginia

Assemblage – Giving new meaning to ordinary objects

This will be a 3 artist show, including Linnie Greenberg, Sharon Ostrow, and Florence Weisz. Looking forward to seeing some wonderful mixed media and collage works from these local artists!

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Happy Thursday Swarthmore! The art show in Borough Hall will be up through July (still time to pop in when in town or visiting the library to check out our board members’ artworks). Looking for an original piece of art for your home, most of these wonderful pieces are available for sale. Let us know if you have any questions about the art, the artist, or how to go about purchasing. Thank you for supporting your local artists.