"Transformation and Metamorphoses: an Artist Response to Change" opens at the Looking Glass Artist Collective Gallery Jan. 13.

Art by Diannia Baty is part of the latest exhibit at Looking Glass.

Vibrant colors are a feature of much of Diannia Baty's art.

Marsha C. Murrow will be showing several pieces in the next exhibit at Looking Glass.

"Yellowstone" is one of the works by Richard Schmidt on exhibit as part of the Transformation and Metamorphoses exhibit at Looking Glass Artist Collective.

'Keet x 5' hand-colored monotype by Kate Lloyd, 2008.

Maine Barn by photographer Richard Schmidt.

By E.W. Harris

For The Salisbury Post

As we enter a new year, a year that will end the first decade of a new millennium, it seems an opportune moment to reflect on both transformation and metamorphoses. Both of these are changes, but are of a type of change that is distinct and irreversible, one that produces rather than modifies.

With this first show of a new year, Looking Glass Artist Collective presents artwork that uses transformation and metamorphoses as a conduit to expressing ideas about the world, our homes, humanity, and ourselves. This exhibition features exciting work from wide-ranging media, focus, style and even geography. The work of Diannia Baty, for example, evokes a kind of internal dialogue utilizing symbols and colors as invitations to discussions with one's own spirit self.

Artist Kate Lloyd employs both non-objective expressionism, and traditional intaglio techniques to explore the relationship of both the physical to the abstract, and then even further the relationship of the concrete, through symbol, to the divine.

Cathy Matthews and Alan Shuping's works highlight the transformative effects of art in and of itself, both as an act of creation, and a conduit for communication.

Some of the artists in this show have chosen nature as the domain for their pieces. The "Awakened Wood" of Rick Sorensen not only reveals the transformation from object to art, but raises an even more fascinating investigation, that of the relationship between object, artist, and nature.

Lou Murphy's untitled series and Ken Stokes's "antemeridian" both feature prominently the interaction of the water and the land. Water might be one of the oldest symbols in human existence for both life and change and in each of these pieces the beauty of that force is captured and highlighted.

In discussions of transformation let us not neglect the metamorphoses of the human condition. James Donaldson's "Sweet Spirit" is an excellent example of this as well as the work of Marsha Murrow and Richard Schmidt. As this, the world and our society, is perhaps the most exciting facet of transformation I won't ruin it for you with explanation. You'll just have to see it for yourself.

"Transformation and Metamorphoses: An artist response to change," will open with a reception Tuesday, Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Looking Glass Artist Collective, 405-407 N. Lee St. Admission is free. Donations accepted. Most of the art will be for sale.

The show runs through Jan. 31.

For more information, call 706-296-2782 or visit www.salisburyartists.org.

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