Meet the Artists at the opening reception on Friday, June 8, 5:30-8 p.m. Light refreshments will be served; no charge to attend.

Submitted
“Color: Outside the Lines,” the new summer exhibition at Waterworks Visual Arts Center opens Saturday, June 2. Four contributing artists will fill the galleries with the bold color of paintings and textiles, which shatter the boundaries of traditional subject matter and artistic expression.
E. Angelina Woehr’s larger-than-life abstract installations will engulf viewers in waves of shape and color. Alessandra Sulpy reintroduces vitality into neglected small-town American business districts through use of collage, fluorescence, and glowing signage. William Paul Thomas explores the human condition by employing scrawled text over intimate portraits of people in his social circle. And Andrea Vail critiques the prevalent mass consumption by our culture through a series of tapestries and knotless netted sculpture, which is informed by the resourceful history of rag rug making.
Admission is always free at Waterworks, 123 East Liberty St. Galleries are open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Stanback Gallery Hall: E. Angelina Woehr, A Study in Contrasts – paintings
“I feel alive when I am creating; it is the “breathing deeply” that informs the rest of my life, just as much as my life informs what I create,” muses painter E. Angelina Woehr. “My creative process parallels my life journey. It is a journey coupled with opposites: discipline and free-flow, control and letting go, the knowing and the unknown. I love feeling enveloped by my large expressions on canvas. My ultimate goal is that the presence of my finished work changes the space and gives the viewer something to get lost in.”
A published and award-winning fine artist, E. Angelina Woehr creates original bodies of work in a variety of mediums including oil, acrylic and watercolor paints; and pen, colored pencil, mixed media and mono prints. Commissioned for paintings and murals since 2001, Angelina’s work is in great demand, both for exhibitions and for sale to art collectors.

Norvell Gallery: Alessandra Sulpy, Non-Memories of the Deuce and Bland Intruders
On exhibit are two series called Non-Memories of the Deuce and Bland Intruders. Of her work, Sulpy explains, “Both series express my interest in an anachronistic half-reality, and explore my perception of a zeitgeist or a point in time that I can never be a part of. In both series, the work is based on banal and unremarkable settings or moments (a corner of a store in Bland Intruders, trash on the sidewalk in Non-Memories, etc), which are imagined moments in their respective worlds. This has led me to investigate not just what experiences I have missed, but to concoct a new reality from the clues I’ve gathered about the past.”
Alessandra Sulpy was recently awarded the 2018 SEMAC Advancing Artist Grant. She has been an Artist Lecturer since 2012, contributed her paintings to solo, group, and juried exhibitions since 2010, and continues today as an art instructor, teaching such classes as basic and advanced Painting, fundamental and advanced Drawing, Figure and Portrait drawing, and Anatomy drawing.

Osborne and Woodson Galleries: William Paul Thomas , No Collars – portraits
Without outer trappings to provide clues, how do we understand a person? Providing insight into his creative mission, William Paul Thomas deduces that “Many of us have immediate psychological connections to representations of the human face. We look for similarities between ourselves and those represented; note key differences between “us” and “them.” “He looks like so-and-so.” “She reminds me of whatshername.” Assumptions or questions about the subject’s state of mind usually follow. If the expression that the subject wears is ambiguous enough, we might begin to project our own emotions onto them to interpret the painting’s message. I choose specific models as a way of recognizing their significance in my life’s path. I relish being able to honor everyday people through making images.”
William Paul Thomas earned his Master of Fine Art from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2013. His portraits can be found in the public collection of The Brodhead Center, Duke University and the permanent collections of the Office of Career & Leadership Development, the James R. Connor University Center, and the Chancellor’s Office, all at UW-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI. William is a frequent lecturer and was the keynote speaker for the College of Arts & Communication Convocation Ceremony, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, WI.

Y P G Gallery: Andrea Vail, Artificial Habitats – textiles
Andrea Vail has a conflicted relationship with junk. On the one hand, she recognizes its shallow allure and its capacity to proliferate, swamping our best intentions and our lives. On the other hand, she admits, “I’m at odds with how I can’t get enough of it and the overwhelming accumulative space it fills. Things seduce and repel.” Her artmaking thrives on this tension. Drawn to mass-produced home goods from the last century, now stylistically obsolete by contemporary standards, she incorporates them into sculptures and installations to tell their stories in new ways.
Vail is an M.F.A. graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University and was awarded a Goodyear Arts residency in 2016. She has exhibited at form & concept (New Mexico), Sediment Gallery (VA), and LIGHT Art & Design (NC), among others. She teaches at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Also on view: Victoria Lizett Amaro Zavala, 2018 Dare to Imagine Winner
The Dare to Imagine Award is presented annually and is made possible through a grant from Susan and Edward Norvell. This special award, bearing a cash scholarship, honors one Rowan County graduating senior whose artwork most exemplifies the creative potential of the human spirit, heart, and hand.

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