Elaine Unzicker
I create seductive, wearable objects combining jewelry techniques with chain mail to caress the female body. As a child, I was taught to be quiet and not express myself even though I noticed creativity flowing through my grandmothers fingers in the form of quilt-making. I find my voice when I create art through the meditative state of linking one ring at a time. When knitted with thin metal wire and small rings this masculine, war-like material becomes extremely soft and flowing. The ritual of laying the transparent veil of chain mail on a woman invokes a sense of security and a feeling of empowerment. My creations are a merging of art and history in the intimate setting of a woman’s body.
David Blackburn
A military brat, Blackburn’s family did the serviceman’s shuffle, moving frequently and living on military bases around the world. From New Orleans to Alaska to Japan, Blackburn spent afternoons and weekends scouting out bits of wood to forge into his latest project, from simple forts to intricate playhouses. Wood, any kind of wood, he tells me, earned a second look: gnarled logs from swamps, forked sticks from the forest, and an occasional piece of lumber scavenged from a public works shed. “Even in Alaska, on a desolate island with no trees, I was a scrounger. I made a two-story fort in third grade,” he chuckles. “Every six months or so the navy would come tear it all down.” To Blackburn, this was another opportunity. A new project to explore.
Mary Kolada Scott
As an artist and a writer, I blend images and words in my work. I create intuitively, primarily with acrylics and mixed media. I prefer abstracts to express a poetic language for emotions.
I’ve never been afraid of color, which I use boldly to convey feelings. I love the texture of painted surfaces and impressions of brushstrokes and tools. Making marks is an important process in my work, usually with pencil and acrylic markers. Painting is a tactile experience as well as an emotional response.
Often, I collage images, words, phrases, or lines from my poems onto the pieces. I apply several layers of collage and paint, then “excavate” areas to reveal underlying collaged paper, images, and marks. I want viewers to see something new and exciting every time they look at one of my paintings.
I know that a painting is successful when I feel that, too.