Double Treat: Kathy Meliopoulos and Margee Bright Ragland

Don Dougan and Kathy Meloipoulos standing
next to Melipoulos's sculpture "Pinhead."

Double Treat: Two WCAGA member solo shows at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College at the Clarkston Campus

By Flora Rosefsky

Kathy Melipoulos’s artist talk was held at GPC- Clarkson Campus art gallery on February 15^th. I enjoyed hearing about this talented member’s body of work now on exhibit through March 11^th. The show’s title, “Under My Skin”, had new meaning after hearing what Kathy had to say. Many of Kathy’s mixed media works use chamois, which she says, “smells good, is soft, pliable, can be stretched, molded when wet then dried, stitched, drawn on, stapled, stained, painted. Very versatile.” 

In her talk, Kathy mentioned she “had never seen any work done on chamois leather. I had seen Native American art done on skin and have since found some contemporary artists who use it.”  To Kathy, skin became a “vehicle for autobiographical subject matter and other things that “get under my skin.”

To someone who appreciates personal story telling in one’s art, Kathy’s work revealed her own journeys, some which were health challenges she has overcome, and her positive philosophy to live life fully each and every day. Articulating her thoughts about subject matter, Kathy said, “Family stories, narrative, impart information . . . Although I do believe all artists are a filter and all art is a reflection of how each one processes life, we all use different language and materials to communicate.”

Besides the chamois skin, Kathy uses aprons, which “are iconic symbols of women’s work, traditionally worn to protect the clothes from dirt. I have saved my aunts’ aprons because they are loaded with nostalgia, memories of family meals and gathering.  They also cover the part of the body that I have had trouble with – heart, lungs, sternum and neck. What’s underneath the “apron armor” can be fragile.”  

Text and/or figures are manifest through embroidery stitching – drawing with threads instead of more familiar pens, pencils or paint.  Some powerfully arresting pieces incorporate steel pins. Kathy says, “…the sculpture ‘PinHead’ feels like an extension of drawing. I could have drawn a glass head full of pin cushions but I had a lot of fun searching for the components, painting the pin cushions white, using antique hat pins as skewers, struggling with the many pin pricks. 

Kathy’s show is on view at the Jim Cherry Learning Center, Fourth Floor, through March 11, 2017.

Margee Bright Ragland—“Magical Narratives: A Retrospective. – Forty-Four Works from 1983-2016”.  

Night Bed by Bright Ragland

As I was leaving Kathy’s exhibit, GPC Gallery Director Don Dougan suggested I visit the solo show of another WCAGA member, Margee Bright Ragland. Margee is a full time professor of art at GSU Perimeter College and plans to retire next year. This marvelous retrospective was in the Perimeter Main Fine Arts Gallery of the Fine Arts Building on the Clarkston campus.

I gravitated toward Margee’s collage works, small in size compared to her paintings. Her shadow boxes were exquisitely crafted with strong use of composition, color, and texture using carefully selected found objects. I could see where each work, even without specific statements from Margee, is meant to begin a dialogue or conversation.  This is the kind of exhibition where you may “surf” the show quickly, and then return later to spend time appreciating the intimate details. 

Personal favorites included “Night Bed,” a collage that takes you to another century or world features mystical elements of floating female head and white owl staring at the viewer. Many of Margee’s works incorporate birds, which have their own symbolic meanings relating to both past and present. The collage “Night Vigil,” perhaps a companion work to “Night Bed,” uses different found materials with botanical motifs and patterns. “Suspension,” an assemblage of found and painted objects, symmetrically balances two red ladders and two gold leafed trees flanking what resembles a miniature theatrical stage set. “The Annunciation” is another work where I stood by it for a long time, thinking of the power of a story that probably went with the art – with images of angels, and a large staring eye. As Paul Gauguin said, fifty percent of the interpretation of a work of art belongs to the artist. The rest of the interpretations belonged to anyone who was looking at the work, even if they came up with a totally different idea. I find that is true today; I appreciate that our own life experiences offer up our own personal interpretations, even if different from what the artist intended. 

The Closing Reception was held on February 22^nd, 2017.  Margee’s new book, “Bright Illuminations – The Art of Margee Bright Ragland and the Words of Others”, is now available on Amazon. The book pairs Margee’s collages with quotes from various authors.  If you missed her exhibition, this is a good way to enjoy Margee’s work.

https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Illuminations-Margee-Ragland-Others/dp/098951241X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487613144&sr=1-3&keywords=bright+illuminations

A sincere thank you to member Don Dougan for the outstanding exhibition opportunities he coordinates as the curator and gallery director of the GSU Georgia Perimeter College and Clarkson Campus Art Galleries, and again, thanks to Don Dougan for his support of WCAGA member artists, for various group member exhibitions, and for solo invitational shows.

In August-September 2016, GPC-Clarkson had a memorable solo show, “Graffitti,” of large scale drawings by member Barb Rehg in the Fine Arts Building’s art gallery. “What is Seen,” a still life photography show for WCAGA artists Vicki Bethel, Lucy Hale, and Loretta Paraguassu was held at the JCLC 4^th floor art gallery during Atlanta Celebrates Photography in October 2016.  

As WCAGA vice-president Maggie Davis said at the annual meeting, it is important for our members to support each other during the year by attending each others’ shows.  I look forward to getting to see more of our members’ work. 

GPC- Clarkson Campus:  Jim Cherry Learning Center (JCLC)–Art Gallery on 4^th floor

555 No. Indian Creek Drive, Clarkson, GA 30021

(678) 891-3647

Hours (when library is open):  Mon.—Thurs. 7:45am—10pm, Fridays to 5:15pm, Saturdays 10am—4pm. Closed on Sundays. 

From Conception: Art in Process. An Article By Flora Rosefsky.

FROM CONCEPTION: Art in Process

Exhibition with pARTicular group of women 

Atlanta Central Public Library – April 3-29,2011

by Flora Rosefsky  

WCA-GA members Vicki Bethel, Marilynn Brandenburger, Gillian Gussack, Flora Rosefsky and Mona Waterhouse along with a retrospective of former member Patricia  Hetzler, revealed how artists develop their ideas in a unique exhibition at the Atlanta Central Public Library’s gallery in downtown Atlanta April 3-April 29, 2011. Tracking the creation of a new work of art from conception to completion, viewers embraced the process by reading excerpts from journals, looking at working drawings and sketches to seeing the finished work.  Other pARTicular women artists who participated in the Conception show included Nancy Albertson, Serey Andree,  Cary Cleaver, Debra Lynn Gold, and Alicia Griswold.

 Artist statements, a  writing process  that in itself can be challenging to those who create visual art, when asked to put into words the meaning behind one’s actual work, help point the viewer to the exhibition’s  conception theme.  Before reading a title, wall text or listening to an explanation about the work it is probably a good idea to look first at the finished work. However, it seems that many viewers also appreciate hearing the artist’s voice along with their own personal interpretations. 

In the voices of the artists, following are some artist statement excerpts relating to this exhibition’s  theme of “conception and process”. 

Vicki Bethel , who in her life  moved from one town to another more than 40 times, loves maps, “papers with a past, papers imbued with their own history.”  It was maps that helped Bethel “ understand some realities. Where are we? Where are we going? How do we get there? They also jump-started imagination, hopes, dreams, yearnings, and memories.” 

Marilynn Brandenburger creates paintings of interiors and landscapes in transparent and opaque watercolor and acrylic gouache. The focus of her work is light and space: "My goal is to create 'structured spaces' in which forms are illuminated in such a way that they convey a sense of calm and order to the viewer." Brandenburg’s  recent  Midwest artist residencies in Illinois doing the “Fields Project” seems to refresh and reinforce the beauty and peaceful power of her work.  

Gillian “Gus” Gussack who has worked with fiber, drawing and clay now works in metalsmithing, a process she says is “more spontaneous than other mediums.” Where instead of waiting for a “vision to come into focus” before starting a work, Gussack feels “happiest just cutting a shape from metal, annealing it to make it more malleable and then raising a form using hammers and stakes.”  She loves to see how her pieces, like her necklaces, change with each blow of plastic against metal, where the “exploratory method” that she particularly enjoys becomes an integral component of her new work.

An artist whose personal memories often become inspiration for her work, Flora Rosefsky  cut up specific newspaper headlines to convey a message about the chaotic outside world. Displayed as part of her artist’s wall were original sketches of figures that later became permanent pen drawings on a grid-like pattern of a vintage tablecloth. “That kind of experimentation or taking a chance is important to any artist – to take the risk of failure is part of the creative process.” 

“Journals where I sketch, write down ideas and thoughts and a camera that records my observations” are Mona Waterhouse’s most important research tools. Along with her own research and experimentation, Waterhouse gives credit to the numerous museum visits, reading “all kinds of literature about art and fiction” to help her “grow as an artist and human being.” Noted for her hand-made paper and fiber work related to themes of nature, this exhibition featured a new “off loom” process where she looks at the Intricate workings of the human brain…where the work, although sculptural, are “drawings in space.” 

Former WCA-GA member Patricia Hetzler, who died in 2010, had several of her collage and painted furniture pieces  as a retrospective component of this exhibition with work borrowed from several collectors that included family and friends. In her own words where she finds that the “journey is more important than the completed work,” Hetzler wanted her work to be beautiful and to “speak to the spirit.”  She often said that “I don’t fully know what my work means until some significant amount of time has passed. Then, upon revisiting it, I am often amazed at what it says about my spiritual journey in this life.” 

To learn more about PWA artists and their work, www.particularwomen.org

Written By Flora Rosefsky