MELTING

Melting into the New Year
The twenty one artists of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, will begin 2023 with a group show entitled MELTING, a title that suggests many different things to the individual artists.
For the gallery’s newest member, Catharine Carter, it evoked images of flooded homes and rising water which are frequently in the news and weather forecasts these days. Says Catharine “I worry about the future of our planet and the kind of world we are leaving to future generations.”
For painter Jude Lobe “Melting” also evoked ideas of climate change. “As an environmentalist, I immediately envisioned a lone Polar Bear standing on a small broken piece of ice with the sun setting in the background. Of course, that image has been burned in our mind as climate change is a hot topic these days.”
Figurative sculptor, Lynn Wartski, was also thinking about arctic climates with her piece “So Many Questions” which features a male emperor penguin with his penguin chick. “I anthropomorphize the chick in this sculpture to be about the stage of a human 2 or 3 year old, when questions starting with ‘why?’ are frequently asked. I picture this young chick asking why it is taking mommy so long to walk back to the ice from the shore.”
Abstract painter Marcy Lansman wasn’t thinking about “melting” when she created her painting. “I was playing with paint, hoping to create a pleasing composition. Now when I look at what I created, I see melting arctic islands, and I can give the painting an environmental interpretation, something related to climate change.”
Painters Nancy Smith and Chris Graebner weren’t thinking about climate change either with their pieces for the show. Nancy’s painting “Melting into Spring” refers to that time of year when winter begins to give way to spring. I tried to capture the winter chill, bare trees, and the contrasting soft beginnings of new leaves sprouting. Botanical artist Chris Graebner’s painting “Winter Kale” shows snow melting on a head of bright pink ornamental kale.
Pringle Teetor, a glass blower, describes her piece this way “I made a lovely vase and purposely overheated the top. I allowed it to sag inward, using heat and gravity, as if the sun was beating down, so hot, that nothing could survive in our world. Not even glass.”
One word, Melting, can evoke so many different responses in creative people. Come see the show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts from January 10th through February 12th with a reception in the gallery on Friday, January 27th from 6-9pm.
About the Gallery
The Hillsborough Gallery of Arts is owned and operated by 21 local artists and represents these established artists exhibiting contemporary fine art and fine craft. The Gallery’s offerings include oil and acrylic paintings, sculpture, ceramics, photography, jewelry, glass, metals, encaustic, enamel, and wood. 121 N. Churton Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278. Phone: (919) 732-5001. The gallery’s winter hours are 10am-6pm Tuesday –Saturday, 12-4pm on Sunday. More information can be found on the HGA website: http://www.HillsboroughGallery.com