By Ruthann Brady
Special to the Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE
July 12, 2008 07:41 pm
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Five artists will have works on display in July in the Vigo County Public Library at Seventh and Poplar streets. Artists featured are Bill Hamrick, Cynthia Sartor, Jim McMullen, Jane Dusanic and Linda Sikorski.
Hamrick’s interest in art began at an early age. He exhibited a drawing he did when he was 6 at the 2005 “Art is my Life” exhibit at the Community Theater commemorating Hamrick’s 75 years of art work. Hamrick recalls “This show was one of the highlights of my career.”
Hamrick has participated in shows and county fairs including exhibits at the Swope Art Museum, The Bicentennial Art Center and Museum in Paris, Ill., and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He has donated his paintings to help worthwhile causes such as the Terre Haute Symphony, Allen Chapel and Union Hospital. Hamrick accomplished a series of ink etchings that are on display in Memorial United Methodist Church. On display at the library are paintings “Niagra Falls Light Show” and “Balanced Rock.”
Cynthia Sartor has always been interested in wood working. She enjoys molding the wood rather than the precision required when using machines. Sartor has been carving for about five years and enjoys most doing deep relief work. Sartor carves bowls from cherry, elm walnut or any other wood she can find along the road. She is working carving in the round and is creating small, 6-inch immigrant people. Sartor says, “carving wood is a wonderful activity and one I am now teaching to my twelve-year-old cousin.
Sartor is most proud of a carving that was inspired by a hanging in a German medieval cathedral and was two years in the making. The work now in a private collection is 30 inches by 30 inches by 2 inches thick and is carved from mahogany. The final finish is a very light coat of pecan stain to bring out the red of the mahogany.
Jim McMullen, a retired research scientist and Realtor, shoots a wide variety of subjects including landscapes, flowers, antique cars and trucks, historic structures and architecture, and many other subjects that present themselves as he travels the backroads, backstreets and alleys of this beautiful and interesting nation. He now uses a digital SLR camera and edits, prints and frames his own photographs.
He has entered numerous shows and competitions in the two-state area and has won awards in the Swope Wabash Valley Exhibition, the Wabash Valley Art Guild Spring Show, the Covered Bridge Art Association Associates Show and photography shows in Honeywell Center in Wabash, the Bicentennial Art Center in Paris, Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill., and Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Ill. In June, he won a first place in Logansport’s 97th Annual Fine Art Show.
McMullen has or has had photographs in Terre Haute City Hall, Congressman Brad Ellsworth’s office, Community Theater, Coffee Grounds, Arts Illiana, Raven Gallery, Halcyon Gallery, Titzer’s Art Studios, Krempp Gallery in Jasper, and The Egg and I in Paducah, Ky.
On display in the library is “Mountains of Southern California.” The snowcapped mountains in the background combined with the fragrance of the wildflowers blooming and temperatures in the 90s down in the desert valley combined for a memorable experience and beautiful photo. The second is an edited photograph of a “1931 Duesenberg” whose Classic Car Club owner was visiting Frank Kleptz’s antique automobile museum last July.
Jane Dusanic has been a member of the Wabash Valley Art Guild nearly 20 years. She has found the Guild a good source of information, with opportunities to learn from many of the talented members, and to exhibit her art. Dusanic has not had formal training in art but after being introduced to the basics of watercolor by local artist Laura Mason and being encouraged by many members of the Guild she continues to learn and enjoy this satisfying hobby. One of the two paintings on exhibit in July at the Vigo County Public Library's Main Branch represents experiences she has had on trips with her husband. This watercolor is titled “The Falls on Eagle River” and shows a site in Labrador where she and her husband have been fly-fishing. A second painting is a spoof, based on a reputation she has of painting cats with “attitude.” The painting shows a painting ruined by spilled water and an alarmed cat who fears dissolving.
Dusanic has won awards for her paintings at the Paris Bicentennial Art Museum, Covered Bridge Associate Member shows, and in the annual Spring Show presented by the Wabash Valley Art Guild. She won a Merit Award at the fall 2008 exhibit at Arts Illiana. The painting was of a fishing lodge and cabins under a sky with dancing Northern Lights. She has art on display at Arts Illiana, The Raven Gallery and at the Egg and I, in Paducah Ky. Her most recent solo exhibitions have been at the Community Theatre of Terre Haute, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology at their Ventures division and Coffee Break. She enjoys activities such as the Guild’s Annual Art in Deming Park, The Terre Haute Street Fair, and other local events where she sells her prints and her cards based on her original paintings along with the occasional original.
Linda Sikorski resides in southeast Illinois. She received a bachelor’s in fine arts at Southern Illinois University in oils. She says, “after a short eye-opening trip into the gallery circuit, I found myself ill-trained in marketing and moved into architectural and industrial drafting.”
Though Sikorski continued to paint for personal enjoyment she did not return to art until 2003. Watercolor is now her media. She has taken workshops from nationally known artists such as Rotindra Das, Arleta Pech and Cindy Akin as well as accomplished local artists David Dooley, Larry Miller, Dixie Petticrew, Paul Spangler and Marilyn Kinter.
Sikorski combines her training in oils, precision, intense color, and tonal contrast with the new things she learns through watercolor. “I believe I am beginning to find an exciting new vision and a new sense of joy in ‘beginning to see color’ again.” She hopes the viewer of her works will find memories of their own in her work.
Sikorski has won several local awards and looks forward to the first juried national show.
More information about these artists may be found at www.wabashvalleyartguild.org or at the Raven Gallery, 817 Ohio St.; (812) 234 9884.
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