Exhibition: February 1–23, 2020
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 1, 6 p.m.–8 p.m., No cost
This exhibition features mini-exhibitions from select member-artists of The 52 Project 2019. These artists spent 2019 participating in workshops and ongoing discussions with their fellow project members to find inspiration and motivation to capture and actively be more creative on a regular basis.
Be sure to also join them on Thursday, February 6, 6 p.m.–9 p.m., for a special 52 Project program during February’s Artswalk.
To learn more about how you can join The 52 Project as it gears up for another 52-week program, join us at the free orientation meeting on Saturday, February 15, 10 a.m.–10:45 a.m. If you like what you hear, you can sign up at the end of the meeting.
About the Featured Artists:
Erin Beardemphl
Erin creates shapes and patterns by hand dyeing items that were once valued parts of a family’s table decoration. These stained heirlooms are transformed into something new with color, embroidery, and weaving, ready to be admired once more. Erin was encouraged by one of her best friends to join the project and learned that her art has value.
Larry Burns
Larry’s creative efforts are inspired by the heady mixture of sights, sounds, people, and places of the Inland Empire, his home. “As a lifelong resident, sometimes my lungs seize from the diesel fumes and my eyes tell me there are no mountains to the north. But beneath the dirt lies treasures. Mining that shiny stuff requires fun collaborators . . . and deadlines, so that’s why I’ve been a part of the 52 Project since 2015.” His latest work is Trashy Novel, based on the premise that current cultural expressions are a result of our human desires and interactions.
Raymond Fernandez
Born into a family of musicians and creative types, Raymond was surrounded by music and art. Being a drummer and a painter has inspired him to create the objects that creates what he hears, to paint the moments of color and gesture that rhythm produces. The 52 Project helped Raymond mine feedback about his work and find direction.
Mary Grinyer
Very few artists are dedicated to one medium, but for Mary, her life revolves around ceramics. Driven by creating strong original pieces that express emotions, she is currently creating hearts in response to her father’s quintuple bypass surgery and her mother’s triple bypass surgery. “The heart, life, love, is vital to us all, broken, mended, depressed, destroyed, or full of joy, life, and passion.” The 52 Project helped her realize that she wanted to create art that was in the direction of where her heart was.
Jessica Lea
After a 22-year drought, Jessica pursued The 52 Project to help get words flowing again and to actively pursue writing. Writing poetry and short stories has been a part of her heart since childhood. The poems of Diamonds and Yoga Pantsis an assortment of musings, rantings, and stories that capture the hilarity and hysteria of attempting to balance motherhood, marriage, career, and sanity in modern suburbia. The cover of her work is painted by fellow 52 Project member Mary Melcher. Jessica will perform a reading of her poetry during Arts Walk on Thursday, February 6.
Shelley Swanland
Every day Shelley takes a two-mile walk through Downtown Riverside. During these walks, she’s constantly inspired by the texture, patterns, and geometry found in plants. She rescues leaves from the ground and uses them in her work using a lengthy process of boiling leaves in water to print them on paper. The final prints highlight nature’s unique beauty. Shelley has been a member of The 52 Project since its inception and continues to find inspiration from the community of artists it fosters.
Kaye Sweaney
Watercolor is the medium of choice for Kaye. “Painting is very personal to me; it’s my meditation, my yoga, my private time. Colors feed me.” Her paintings reflect the places she’s been or would like to be. The works on view are from her 230-river-miles trip along the bottom of the Grand Canyon. She sketched what caught her eye and later created the watercolors to remember what she saw. As a member of The 52 Project, it has forced her to stay focused on being creative and building on her skill as a painter.
Jennifer Sweeney
Experiences continually form people into who they present themselves as; each experience creates layers which Jennifer uses her artwork to understand. Fiber is her medium of choice to examine these layers, specifically how our wounds heal. Her choice of fibers, burlap, and felt represent the texture and color you see in wounds and reflect the physical changes that occur. Being a part of the 52 Project has inspired Jennifer to seek out more opportunities to make.
Ingrid Tegner
Ingrid draws upon memory, history, and narrative to visibly render how we are connected to events, choices, and to one another. These pieces represent small moments of when connections are formed, literally layer upon layer with painting and the overlay of handmade paper. Being a part of the 52 Project encouraged Ingrid to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Art at Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, Texas.
This exhibition is generously brought to you by:
The Ransom-McKenzie Team: Artists in Disguise as Realtors, a Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage