JANE COOPER

A “monotype” is often referred to as a “painterly print”. In the simplest form- it is painting, a single impression. My monotypes are executed on plexi, copper, and silk acquaint plates- using etching inks, brayers, brushes, glazes, mediums, solvent and often hand-applied leaf. The painted plate is placed, image up, on an etching press, with damp or dry paper on top. It is then run through the press- resulting in a hand pulled monotype. Most often the plate is re-inked and layered on the existing monotype, slowly building the image to create a sense of distance and atmosphere. The process of a “monoprint” differs in that it entails the use of a plate with a repeatable matrix; in which one part of the image remains the same.

Jane Cooper refers to her work as abstracted representation. Her imagery delineates form and alter focus, both amplifying and obscuring recognizable shapes and shadows. She explores colors, mediums and composition to create an atmospheric sense of place and time. Both a painter and a printmaker, Jane works from her Katonah, NY studio and the studios at The Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT.

SUSAN GOLDMAN

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artistic challenge has been to transform a still life form of a flower into dynamic, modern imagery. I am seeking to create balance between decorative Victorian art, as characterized by ornate shapes and patterns, and modernism, with its bold forms and bright colors. The flower gets stripped away, covered up and over-printed, yet it always finds a way back in, like a melodious refrain or a cherry blossom in springtime.
Shifting 19th century two-point perspective into a single-point, aerial perspec­tive by flattening the image and seeing it from above, is the genesis for the “Squaring the Flower” which has become an in-depth exploration of color on a large scale. The "Tondo" woodcut series, on handmade paper, has blossomed from  the stripping away of textures and patterns to explore abstraction of pure color compositions of geometry. An underlying passion for color, pattern and beauty, informs playful layering and improvisation.

ROBERT RUSTERMIER

Rustermier was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1957.  He took his undergraduate degree in Art at New College of the University of South Florida, USF’s honors college in Sarasota, and his Masters degree in Ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence. After graduating with his MFA he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for post-graduate studio study at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and exhibited throughout the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.  Having personally contacted and compiled an extension collection of slides, artist statements and resumes from a select list of prominent American ceramics artists, and under the sponsorship of the US Cultural Section of the US Embassy in Prague — a collection eventually donated to the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague for their image file — he then lectured widely throughout Europe on American ceramics.  In conjunction with that effort, and having collected hundreds of slides, artist statements and resumes from Czech ceramic artists, he then lectured widely on contemporary Czech Ceramics throughout the Northeastern United States on his return.  He and his lovely wife Courtney have made their home in Providence, Rhode Island.  Recently retired from a 30+year career in university-level teaching in the arts, his focus now is on full-time art-making.  He continues to exhibit widely.  His studio is located in Bristol, Rhode Island.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My intent as an artist is simply to satisfy my curiosity about things that interest me in the world in visual terms -- some specific affinity between colors, shapes and planes, a certain effect of light on form, a sound, a phenomena, a concept or idea … and to then submit this fascination to a process of investigation and exploration intended to discover relationships that may have importance to me in context. It is this simple, direct, intuitive approach to substance, and an open, broad approach to form, process, material and method, and moreover a dedication to a process of examination toward subsequent realizations and possible choices and potential meanings that I find most liberating, most satisfying, and most useful.

OAKLEY SMITH

ARTIST STATEMENT

My creative journey has been an exploration of the relationship between matter and energy; these two fundamentals we humans currently use to explain our reality. Within this liminal space I find myself becoming a channel, allowing the flow of creative energy outward into reality.  Immigrating to Canada at a very young age I was encouraged by my mother to work with my hands and this has since continued to fuel my creative endeavours in painting and sculpture. My father occupied himself with spiritual matters, and the common good of the community.  I am currently one of Canada‘s best known rhinoplasty surgeons. Growing up and living in Toronto, my career has evolved into combining the aesthetics of beauty and the technical skill of surgery. In the operating room, I’m sculpting, aesthetically balanced masterpieces that bring joy, and are often life-changing to my patients.  The confluence of Covid and achievement of my career goals created a change in my personal situation and directed my energy towards sharing and communicating through my art the joy I experience with the world.

My artistic journey has taken unexpected turns, weaving a narrative that is both at times, common and unique. My work is an investigation into the interface of the order we impose on our chaotic interactions with reality. I explore my visions, as if through a mirror, darkly, translating the contemplation of the mystics, and the understanding which transcends our ability to comprehend the glory surrounding us.