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May Issue 2008
Artists' Guild of Spartanburg in Spartanburg,
SC, Features Works by Sam Mitchell and Nancy O'Dell-Keim
The Artists' Guild of Spartanburg in Spartanburg, SC, will present the exhibit The Unstill Life featuring works by Sam Mitchell and Nancy O'Dell-Keim. The exhibition will take place in the Artists' Guild Gallery at the Chapman Cultural Center May 3 - 28, 2008.
The exhibit consists of painted images representing fleeting moments and snapshots in time. Both artists work with the concept of movement and a broad concept of time through the use of representational objects and through abstracted imagery.
Sam Mitchell, a native of Oregon, attended Loyola University of New Orleans and earned art education certification at Converse College. In 2001-02, she apprenticed in Painting Restoration at the New Orleans Conservation Guild. Mitchell taught art in Spartanburg School District Seven for six years before joining the Spartanburg Day School faculty this year as the lower school art instructor. Because she began her work with a major in advertising and graphic design and a minor in ceramics, Mitchell says that she is difficult to classify as an artist.
"I have explored many forms of 2-d and 3-d design and have always incorporated drawing and painting throughout," says Mitchell who is currently adding digital photography to her repertoire. "As a fine art educator I get the best of both worlds. By sharing my love of art with students I selfishly get to create art all day long."
Mitchell's works in the exhibit reflect the thousands of action-filled digital landscapes of Spartanburg County she has amassed during the past two years. "These 'drive by shootings' are the inspiration for my recent body of work," the artist says, describing her acrylic paintings that "transform the literal landscape into an almost abstract, yet recognizable form that is lush with painterly strokes and texture."
Nancy O'Dell-Keim, a professional artist who earned a BFA from Converse College and an MFA from Clemson University, recently completed a one-year faculty position at the South Carolina Residential Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities. She has also taught painting for both the Governor's School Academy and Honors summer programs as well as working as an adjunct professor and visiting artist at Converse College where she taught painting and drawing classes.
O'Dell-Keim's expressive paintings in the upcoming exhibit depict the themes of time and movement through the use of still life objects that are metaphors for the self. "The objects are set in environments that provoke different moods created by the manipulation of color, light, texture and subtle tensions," the artist says of her mixed media works that combine materials such as paper, paint, wood and actual objects.
For further information check our SC Institutional
Gallery listings or call Laura Baker Pinkley at 864/764-9568.
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