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        • No. 3: Janet Holloway - Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do
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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
READ REVIEW by Kevin Nance >>
VIEW THE WORK ONLINE >>
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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.


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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.

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​CONTACT US

PO Box 1691
Lexington, KY  40588-1691

859-321-1341

[email protected]
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Dedicated to creating more arts awareness and vitality in the community through programs, resources and meaningful engagement, and by supporting all forms of artistic expression and creative endeavors.
​
  • HOME
  • ARTS SHOP
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    • INCOGNITO ART BALL >
      • Incognito Auction and Party Info
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  • CENTRAL BANK EXHIBITIONS
    • Central Bank Exhibition Inquiry Form
    • Info and Exhibition Submission Form - SPRING HAS SPRUNG
    • Exhibitions 2025 >
      • SPRING HAS SPRUNG - Review
      • Joyce Genari - 21st Century Sires >
        • 21st CENTURY SIRES - Review
    • Exhibitions 2024 >
      • Suzonne Hall Bunch and Sarah Spradlin - Down Home and Dog Gone >
        • DOWN HOME AND DOG GONE - Review
      • LESA AKER - The Natural Eye Jul-Sep >
        • THE NATURAL EYE - Review
      • LuigART ART May-Jul Review
      • SCRAPS - Shawn Marshall Mar-May >
        • SCRAPS - Review
      • DRAWN BY COLOR Jan-Feb Review
    • Exhibitions 2023 >
      • DESTINATIONS Nov-Jan 2024 >
        • Destinations - Review
      • INSPIRED BY NATURE Sept-Nov >
        • Inspired by Nature - Review
      • LOOKING AT YOU - Jul-Sep Review
      • Kris Grenier May - July >
        • 7500+ MILES - Review
      • OH! KENTUCKY Mar-May Review
      • Dru Pilmer Jan-Mar >
        • ENERGY, MOVEMENT AND COLOR - Review
    • Exhibitions 2022 >
      • John Andrew Dixon: Jan-Mar >
        • CHANGE OF SEEN - Review
      • Chip Dumstorf Mar-May
      • Darrell Kincer May-July >
        • RECENT AND UNVAULTED - Review
      • Debra Kay Guess and Jana Kappeler July-September >
        • ABSTRACT WEAVE - Review
      • Willena Belden and Linda Carey Sep-Nov >
        • PASSION AND RESURGENCE - Review
      • Charles Ellis Nov-Jan >
        • GOING WITH THE FLOW - Review
  • PROGRAMS
    • MOBILE GALLERY >
      • SUBSCRIBERS >
        • Subscriber Testimonies
      • Participating Artists
      • BECOME A GALLERY WALL
      • SUBMIT ART
    • ART THROB PODCAST >
      • About Your Host
      • Art Throb Episodes 2025 >
        • No. 54: Liz Swanson and Lina Tharsing - AXIS MUNDI part 2
        • No. 53: Tosha Fowler, Bo List and Gregory Partain - GHOST MUSIC
        • No. 52: Georgia Henkel - AXIS MUNDI
        • No. 51: Constance Grayson - Kids Place Lex
        • No. 50: Jacob Herrera Wachal - LIQUIFIED
        • No. 49: Green Room Exchange - Lee Carroll and Connie Milligan
        • No. 48: Ron Wilbur and Vanessa Becker Weig - Voices Amplified
        • No. 47: Sylvia Lovely - Family Tree, Food and Stories
        • Ep 46: Katharine Erickson - 21c Museum Hotel
      • Art Throb Episodes 2024 >
        • Ep. 45: ATB - Souled
        • No. 44: Ave Lawyer - On the Verge
        • No. 43: Don Ament - Fayette County: Nature's Radiance
        • No. 42: Jill Schinberg - Fish Tank: Emerging Entrepreneurs in the Arts
        • No. 41: Lesa Aker - Pastel Artist
        • No. 40: Lexi Bass - Meander
        • No. 39: Larry Pemble and Jeanine Triplett - James Baker Hall Foundation Book Award
        • No. 38: Dobree Adams and Jonathon Greene - Visions in Tandem
        • No. 37: William M Duffy - Black Avant-Garde
        • NO: 36: Cacey Nardolillo - Chamber Music Festival of Lexington
        • No. 35: Phoebe Whiite - Cowgirl's Delight
        • No. 34: Becky Alley and Samantha Simpson - Muse Collective
        • No. 33: Larry Kezele and Yvonne Giles - The Freedom Train
        • No. 32: Jordan Campbell - Gateway Regional Arts Center
        • No. 31: Constance Greyson - Artists
        • No. 30: Shawn Okpebholo - Composer in Residence
        • No. 29: Rob Southard - Photodocumentarian
        • No. 28: Wylie Caudill - Official Derby Artist
        • No. 27: Kevin Nance - Geneva's Garden
        • No. 26: Arturo Alonzo Sandoval - Radiance
        • No. 25: Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, Kentucky Writers' Hall of Fame
        • No. 24: Daniel Graham, Professor, Woodworker, Hand-made Instruments,
        • No. 23: Jayne Moore Waldro - She Remembered It All: The Art of Memory Painter Helen LaFrancep
        • No. 22: Kevin Lane Dearinger - Cold as a Silver Spoon
        • No. 21: Roda Ferraro - Director Keeneland Library
      • Art Throb Episodes 2023 >
        • No. 1: Jon Kolkin - Shades of Compassion,
        • No. 3: Janet Holloway - Ain't Nobody's Business if I Do
        • No. 2: Jennie Leavell and Ana Melendez - Sammy's Story
        • No. 4: Alex Narramore - Sugar Flower Artist/Mischief Maker
        • No. 5: Kris Grenier - 7500+ Miles/Needle Felter
        • No. 6: Marty Wayman, Suraya Shalash, Kris Ratliff - Act Out Theatre Group
        • No. 7: Kevin Lane Dearinger - Eleanor Robson Belmont
        • No. 8: Julien Robson - Great Meadows Foundation
        • No. 9: Pamela Perlman - After the Race
        • No. 10: Steve Hester - Malchus and Me
        • No. 11: Stephen Wiggins
        • No. 12: Dr fari nzinga
        • No. 13: John Paul Miller - False Riches
        • No.14: Guy Mendes - Lexington Camera Club
        • No. 15: Chris McGinley - Once these Hills
        • No. 16: John Hockensmith
        • No. 17: Buffy Lawson
        • No. 18: Jessica Winters - PRHBTN
        • No. 19: Katharine Erickson - 21c Museum Hotel
        • No. 20: Colton Ryan and Lyndy Smith - Concert with the Stars
      • Archived Shows >
        • Radio Guests 2020 and podcast links
        • Radio Guests and Links 2021 >
          • Radio Guests 2021 Jan-March podcast links
          • Radio Guests 2021 Apr-June podcast links
          • Radio Guests 2021 Jul-Sep podcast links
    • ART WALKS >
      • Gift  Cards
    • WORKSHOPS >
      • WORKSHOPS 2024-2025 >
        • Workshop - Julie Quick
        • Workshop - Sonja Brooks
        • Workshop Registration
      • WORKSHOPS 2023 >
        • Workshop - Seth Tuska
        • Workshop - Michelle Armstrong
        • Workshop - Kris Grenier
        • Previous Workshops
    • OPPORTUNITIES >
      • OPPORTUNITIES each month
      • Opportunity Submission Form
      • Arts Shop Submission Form
  • NEWSLETTERS
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    • December 2024
  • TRIPS AND TOURS
    • SANTA FE 2023 >
      • Santa Fe 2023 Opera Season
      • Trip Overview
      • Itinerary
      • Santa Fe 2023 Photo Gallery
      • Santa Fe Registration
  • DONATE
  • CONTACT
  • CULTURAL EQUITY STATEMENT
  • VOLUNTEER
  • Directory Of Lexington's Arts Groups
    • Directory Information SubmissionsForm