February Exhibition

The February show at ARC Gallery features the work of Amanda Aton, Jonee Cocchia, and Sue Katz. 

Exhibition Dates

February 6, 2013 through March 2, 2013

Opening Reception
February 9, 2013
4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Special Event - Friday Evening Reception
February 22, 2013
6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
ARC Gallery will now be open for a special evening reception each month in conjunction with the opening of Firecat Projects' Featured Exhibitions.

The Artists

Amanda Aton
Coming home late or not at all 

 
Digital C Print from the series Coming home late or not at all, 30 x 38

Amanda Aton writes about her own work...

I give the viewer the ability to surprise, and give an invitation to stay awhile. This piece requires and requests a commitment of time and contemplation as well as a need for dismissal and openness to emotional involvement. Care about it.

While I am offering my frustration, guided by my own associations and hinting again and again at the beautiful as understood as communicative language, I am relying on the viewer to finish the story. Make up the ending.

I see the piece as unavoidable, as an outgrowth of but not over stimulating, perhaps somewhat tiresome. It invokes a silence, a heavy investigate, a solitude, a restriction. Hinting at the truth of something bigger than the frame.

Through an existing, yet complex, series of symbols and signs we understand, with some level of clarity, the emotional strain and subjugation of the human condition. The language of the everyday, the linguistics of the emotional structure of shared experience, a open language of the eye.

See more of Amanda Aton’s work on her website at http://amandaaton.com/about.html

Jonee Cocchia

street 
 

From the series street, 11 x 14, 2012

Jonee Cocchia writes about his own work...

i am a street photographer who likes to show the difference in the streets as most of us see it the street is were we all grow up and work and to some live i like to show the working people and the structures that they follow suit to

See more of Jonee Cocchia’s work in the City of Chicago at http://joneecocchia.wordpress.com

Sue Katz 

Collages by Sue Katz

 
Us 3 (My brothers and I), Mixed media monoprint, 16 ½ x 13, 2011

Sue Katz describes her work process and her collages...

My first thought when I start a new piece is not about capturing the image as it is, but more so about creating a mood and figuring out the aspects of how I am going to achieve a desired effect.  The color and brightness that I choose bring dimension to the surface, drawing the viewer into that particular piece.   I am not afraid to use color.  When I am working, I look for patterns and colors that might not necessarily “jibe” in the eyes of most people, but creative juxtaposition is what inspires me.  Color is the essence of my work. 

How do I begin a collage?   When I first start a project, I stand back and look at the basic sketch and decide where I want to take the piece.  In my mind, I usually have some idea of the colors and patterns I will be using, but very often that is subject to change as I start working.  By layering many hues and textures, I move through the process until I reach the final expression on paper.   I use a large variety of found images such as papers, labels, magazine images and generally, whatever I find in my studio that seems interesting for the piece at hand.  I feel that collages are images within images.  When you stand back from one of my pieces, you engage the work as a whole; but when you are up close, those bits and pieces become worlds of their own.  The elements I use are not randomly chosen.  Each piece, however small, has its own reason for being in the space that it owns.

While recently in Florence, Italy, I studied printmaking.  I began to experiment and learn about chine colle, monoprinting and solar plates and how each of these media can be used on their own or layered together to create an involving image.  Because I was using a plate, covered in ink and paper and then running that plate through the press, the images that surfaced were new and unexpected.  I was then able to use these techniques in conjunction with collage, the end result being a more “mixed media” piece.  When you learn a new medium, the possibilities for hybrid work are endless.

My first thought when I start a new piece is not about capturing the image as it is, but more so about creating a mood and figuring out the aspects of how I am going to achieve a desired effect.  The color and brightness that I choose bring dimension to the surface, drawing the viewer into that particular piece.   I am not afraid to use color.  When I am working, I look for patterns and colors that might not necessarily “jibe” in the eyes of most people, but creative juxtaposition is what inspires me.  Color is the essence of my work.

See more of Sue Katz's work on her website at http://www.susankatzstudios.com/