In January we introduced you to four of the artists who will be exhibiting at Touchstone Gallery in March. In their exhibit FIGURE 8 PLUS 1, the artists continue the historical tradition of exploring the human form in a variety of media and styles including photography, oil, acrylic, watercolor and sculpture. Opening Reception: Friday, March 4, 6 – 8:30 pm Artists Talk: Saturday, March 19, 2 – 4 pm.

In this post we introduce you to four more of the artists participatingin FIGURE 8 PLUS 1:

Dana Brotman – A Focus on the Gaze Janathel Shaw – Expressionist Sculpture Gail Vogels – Magic Realism Narrative Timothy Johnson – A Contemporary Slant on Traditional

Woman on Blue Pillow

Dana Brotman has spent her artistic career conveying the power the face evokes. The face for her is a landscape of feeling, memory, and desire. She presents the face in archetypal poses and positions, recalling the agelessness of religious icons and idols and the still beauty of daguerreotype portraiture. Her subjects come to her from a magazine photo, a person seen across the room, and, inevitably, from memory and the ineffable sensations that filter through the seams of daily life.

Trained and working full time as a clinical psychologist, Brotman’s world is filled with faces in thought and transfigured by the reverberating echoes of the past. Her art, while not in any way about her patients, is saturated with the poignancy of the stories that they tell and with the impact of the faces upon which she gazes and which gaze back at her.

Janathel Shaw explores the figure, expression, and narrative in her ceramic sculptures. Her figures primarily focus on social and political themes. “My sculptures portray people of color, Shaw remarks, "which I view as part of the American genre. Clay is a natural medium to navigate the expression of love for the human form, abstract figure or juxtapose the two. “

Shaw continues, “There is something intimate, vulnerable and seductive about the human form. What will the surface, texture and coloring reveal? Clay is the ideal medium allowing me to convey strength, joy, empathy or pathos and aesthetic appreciation in three-dimensional space. Clay is fluid, adaptable, rigid and beautiful. This is how I view life."

With each new figure, Shaw pushes her personal envelope in style, quality, form and personal voice. Her recent pieces include sgrafitto images that appear as carved tattoos, adding deeper meaning to a political or social message.

Gail Vogels most recent body of work Oh Life! She explores micro and macro themes happening simultaneously–those natural forces and choices that make us human beings. “Using mixed media elements -instead of painting – I tried to figure out how to make various themes intersect on a picture plane. Plus, using scissors and glue is fun. The process is old school and the experience evokes childhood.”

Gail uses an assemblage of her life drawing fragments, hand altered papers and found objects. The forms found in nature and architecture are juxtaposed with the figure revealing the everyday world in new and unfamiliar ways. The magic realism narrative is intentional. Vogels’ work tells a story of the beautiful and the temporary and seeks to remind people that there are still many mysteries in this life. More information about Gail Vogels and her work can be found at www.gailvogels.com.

Traditional portraiture with a decidedly contemporary slant, a mouth full, but is the closest wording I have found to describe the style with which Timothy Johnson paints.

In this current series Johnson has taken a small sidestep out of his standard use of friends, family and work colleagues as stand-ins for mythological or historical figures. Here the likeness of an individual and their portrayed personage is left out of the equation entirely. The figure and the figure alone, unidentified/anonymous, is what takes center stage. Tim's self-coined phrase, single figure narrative, to describe portrait as storytelling still applies to this new work, but the impression you are left with is less about facts and information, but more about a sense of emotional inquiry.

The other artists in the exhibit are: April M. Rimpo – Exploring Culture through Color Paula Lantz – The Human Condition through Abstracted Figures Shelley Lowenstein – A Painter of Stories Michael A. Lang – Street Photographer on the Museum Experience Steven M. Alderton – Impressionistic Paintings of Human Essence—Form and Spirit

Join the artists at the Opening Reception on March 4, 2016. If you would like additional one-on-one time with the artists, consider attending our Artists Talk event on March 19th beginning at 2 pm. Format includes a short talk by each artist, followed by time to interact individually with the artists. To learn more about the artists in FIGURE 8 PLUS 1 visit the Touchstone Gallery website: http://www.touchstonegallery.com/index/

Scroll below the next blog post to see blog about Figure 8 plus 1 (part 1) Then head on down to Touchstone Gallery for a first hand look.

OR click here to see Figure 8 plus 1 (part 1) https://touchstonegallery.wordpress.com/2016/01/17/figure-8-plus-1-part-1/