INSPIRED BY NATURE
Central Bank - John G Irvin Gallery on 2nd and 3rd Floors, 300 West Vine Street, Lexington, KY
September 15 - November 14, 2023 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
September 15 - November 14, 2023 Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
Deborah Slone is a watercolor and graphite artist living in Lexington, Kentucky. Deborah grew up in the Appalachian mountains where she spent many hours playing in the woods and cultivating a life-long appreciation for the beauty and the delicate balance of the natural world.
Deborah received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Studio Art, with an emphasis in painting and drawing, from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. For the past decade she has been a passionate facilitator of community art classes and private lessons for both children and adults. She currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her family, two cats, and a dachshund named Hershey.
bio: The themes in Deborah’s work are a nod to her family’s generational storytelling traditions and a handed-down appreciation for the beauty of nature as a symbol, or a tool, used to create meaning from daily life. This practice of seeking symbols in nature is a means of connection to these traditions which have served as a source of both survival and enrichment.
Deborah’s botanical watercolor compositions are created from her own photographs of people and plants, insects, and natural objects. Each painting is created using many layers of a watercolor glazing technique to slowly build up the form and character of each object. They offer an opportunity to reflect intimately on the natural world and to consider the shared stewardship of both our traditions and the environment.
Deborah received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Studio Art, with an emphasis in painting and drawing, from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. For the past decade she has been a passionate facilitator of community art classes and private lessons for both children and adults. She currently lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her family, two cats, and a dachshund named Hershey.
bio: The themes in Deborah’s work are a nod to her family’s generational storytelling traditions and a handed-down appreciation for the beauty of nature as a symbol, or a tool, used to create meaning from daily life. This practice of seeking symbols in nature is a means of connection to these traditions which have served as a source of both survival and enrichment.
Deborah’s botanical watercolor compositions are created from her own photographs of people and plants, insects, and natural objects. Each painting is created using many layers of a watercolor glazing technique to slowly build up the form and character of each object. They offer an opportunity to reflect intimately on the natural world and to consider the shared stewardship of both our traditions and the environment.
Having always been captivated by the radiant qualities of nature, Michelle Hayden is compelled to create work rooted in soil that empowers transformation. Her sculptures unfold from a foundation of looking beyond what is first seen, embodying evolution, growth, and healing. She created a technique that enables her to reconstruct the small bits found in nature through her lens into forms that can be seen, touched, and held. Through her unique process that transmits Michelle's photographic imagery to textile, she layers with beeswax medium, cuts to shape, hand-carves, sculpts, colors, and often sews together in order to release three-dimensional forms that call out from their original surface, bringing them more fully alive. They experience a metamorphosis into new beings that beckon deeper inquiry into their intricate detail, form, and relationship to the whole. By integrating her love of ceramics, photography, drawing, and sculpting, Michelle creates work that invites gentle inner reflection through the bridge of shared kinship and understanding offered through her sculpture, continuing her mission to use art as a healing force.
bio: Nestled between the hills and the sky, Michelle lives connected to the natural world as she creates art while raising her sons. She feels awe for the unfolding of growth that comes from looking deeper and works from this foundation in transforming her photography into encaustic sculpture. Her career as a social worker gifted her with witnessing the power of the human spirit as she continued her own process of healing through artistic expression, an integral thread that remains in her bodies of work. She believes that creativity reconnects us to our true selves and enables a bridge for kinship and shared understanding with others, a privilege available to us all.
Her work has been exhibited across the United States in local, national, and international exhibits. She was honored to receive the 2016 International Emerging Artist Grant from the International Encaustic Artists and was a featured artist in the Encaustic Arts Magazine (Spring 2016 issue) and the International Encaustic Artists’ “encaustiZINE” (Winter Issue 2017-2018), both of which featured her sculpture on the magazine covers. Michelle’s encaustic work resides in the permanent collection at the Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe, NM, and is displayed in private collections across the United States and abroad. She is a juried member of the KY Crafted Program (awarded Best in Show in 2022) and the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen, and is a member of the international online artist community, ArtNXTLevel.
Encaustic sculpture origins
Encaustic methods have been utilized for 4000 years, beginning with the Egyptians painting sarcophagi and the Vikings, the hulls of their ships. Using molten wax and pigment, it was "burned" into the surfaces with heat at every layer. Many have inquired where I learned the process of making my encaustic sculpture and are surprised to hear that my technique evolved out of a particularly long night of insomnia, followed by years of necessary laborious and diligent exploration, digging deep into this idea as it was refined. Having worked to bring my macro photography into 3-dimensional form through other materials for years, I was elated to discover that I could bring them to life through encaustic layering and sculpting, abstracting them into their own unique beings that take on life beyond their original form yet remain integrally rooted to their foundation.
When we are able to free our minds from the daily clatter and things that pull us away from center, we are able to contact our innermost selves, where abundant creativity lies for us all. Working from this center and continuing to evolve my methods of encaustic sculpting and assemblage brings me tremendous joy, as well as delight that I have brought new dimensional innovations into the excitingly diverse field of encaustic art. Thank you for joining me here. I am honored to share my art with you.
bio: Nestled between the hills and the sky, Michelle lives connected to the natural world as she creates art while raising her sons. She feels awe for the unfolding of growth that comes from looking deeper and works from this foundation in transforming her photography into encaustic sculpture. Her career as a social worker gifted her with witnessing the power of the human spirit as she continued her own process of healing through artistic expression, an integral thread that remains in her bodies of work. She believes that creativity reconnects us to our true selves and enables a bridge for kinship and shared understanding with others, a privilege available to us all.
Her work has been exhibited across the United States in local, national, and international exhibits. She was honored to receive the 2016 International Emerging Artist Grant from the International Encaustic Artists and was a featured artist in the Encaustic Arts Magazine (Spring 2016 issue) and the International Encaustic Artists’ “encaustiZINE” (Winter Issue 2017-2018), both of which featured her sculpture on the magazine covers. Michelle’s encaustic work resides in the permanent collection at the Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe, NM, and is displayed in private collections across the United States and abroad. She is a juried member of the KY Crafted Program (awarded Best in Show in 2022) and the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen, and is a member of the international online artist community, ArtNXTLevel.
Encaustic sculpture origins
Encaustic methods have been utilized for 4000 years, beginning with the Egyptians painting sarcophagi and the Vikings, the hulls of their ships. Using molten wax and pigment, it was "burned" into the surfaces with heat at every layer. Many have inquired where I learned the process of making my encaustic sculpture and are surprised to hear that my technique evolved out of a particularly long night of insomnia, followed by years of necessary laborious and diligent exploration, digging deep into this idea as it was refined. Having worked to bring my macro photography into 3-dimensional form through other materials for years, I was elated to discover that I could bring them to life through encaustic layering and sculpting, abstracting them into their own unique beings that take on life beyond their original form yet remain integrally rooted to their foundation.
When we are able to free our minds from the daily clatter and things that pull us away from center, we are able to contact our innermost selves, where abundant creativity lies for us all. Working from this center and continuing to evolve my methods of encaustic sculpting and assemblage brings me tremendous joy, as well as delight that I have brought new dimensional innovations into the excitingly diverse field of encaustic art. Thank you for joining me here. I am honored to share my art with you.
