| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
September Issue 2005
Summit One Gallery in Highlands, NC, Features Works by Jamie Davis and Ellen Kochansky
Summit One Gallery in Highlands, NC, will present the exhibit, Cosmic Debris: Clay & Fiber, featuring works by ceramic artist, Jamie Davis and fiber artist, Ellen Kochansky, from Sept. 3 through Oct. 5, 2005.
Kochansky best explains 'Cosmic Debris' as:
"Archaeologists have discovered that the fragments hidden
centuries ago by packrats provide a clear and accurate glimpse
of ancient cultures. Through these works I hope we can recover
awareness of our natural frugality, and celebrate the richness
of our simplest resources. While we are looking the other way,
they have become a kind of compost, and they will fertilize the
future if we let them."
Kochansky's current works represent three themes - Personal and
universal journaling, the simplicity and transparency of a single
textile, and the conviction that as individuals and as a culture
we scorn and discard what will prove to have mattered most. They
are unorthodox quilts in structure, using the definition that
a quilt is a layered textile "sandwich" with some form
of thread holding it together, but they are about the content
rather than the surface.
Kochansky says, "We have what we need.
It has comforted me as an artist to forego the nearly limitless
material resources that tempt us at every turn, and the gluttony
for variety that fueled much of my earlier work. Thirty years
into my exploration, I choose to limit my palette to silk organza,
and fill it with the humble, somewhat random debris of a life
in the arts. I delight in the study of those trimmings and findings
that have taken on a life of their own, inhabiting my studio and
conversing with each other and with me."
Kochansky's works are included in the permanent collections of
the American Craft Museum, NYC; Bank of America, Charlotte, NC;
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC; Emory University, Atlanta,
GA; White House Collection, Washington, DC; Mint Museum of Craft
+ Design, Charlotte, NC; General Electric, NYC; Clemson University,
Clemson, SC; and many other private and public collections.
Kochansky is currently working on two projects; one in Belfast,
Northern Ireland with students at Oakgrove Integrated College,
Derry; in connection with the US Commerce Department AMBIT exchange
grant. And the other with the Puerto Rico Cultural Memory project
with residents of public housing projects in connection with HUD.
Jamie Davis's education started at Davidson
College then onto Vanderbilt, Exeter University in England and
then back to the south to Clemson University. His works are included
in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution's
Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC; US Embassy Collection, Ottawa
Canada; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Columbia Museum of Art,
Columbia, SC; and many others.
Davis has exhibited extensively here and abroad. "I live
in a rural mountainous area, take frequent walks, and use my eyes
and ears to notice and celebrate what's going on around me. Scientists
are not alone in observing the continual evolution of nature's
participants and processes." says Davis.
Davis has returned to ceramics after a 15 year absence, and plans to pursue pots with all he has learned from 13 years of mixed media wall sculpture. He has included some new pieces with metal and clay, completing the cross-fertilization that is art making. He continues "When I look back over the years, my work has evolved dramatically, as ideas and materials cross-fertilize. With its figurative elements and natural patinas, this current work brings into focus many things I've attempted in the last 25 years."
September's "Evening of Fine Art, Fine Wine, Fine Dining" at Wolfgang's Restaurant and Wine Bistro feature artists: Sept. 5, 2005, Jamie Davis and Ellen Kochansky and featuring a Release Dinner of Alexander Valley and Twomey wines from Silver Oak Cellars; Sept. 12, 2005, artist Edward Rice and wines by Ravenswood Winery; Sept. 19, 2005, artist Libby Mathews and "A Night in Tuscany" with Italian wines by Wine Wave; and Sept. 26, 2005, photographer Hunter Coleman and wines from Oregon and Washington by Northwest Wines.
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 828/526-2673 or at (www.summitonegallery.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing
Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2005 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2005 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.