Thursday, Sept. 3 through Sunday, Sept. 27
Opening reception, with an artist’s lecture – Sept. 3, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. 

The show features artists John Fitzsimmons, Patrick Earl Hammie, Kathryn Myers, and Carrie Will.

“Once it Was”

John Fitzsimmons, of Fayetteville, N.Y., received a degree in painting from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, and studied fine arts at SUNY New Paltz. He was chosen as an alternate member of the Whitney Independent Study Program. He has been a factory worker, a surplus dealer, a product designer, a factory manager and a liquidator.

His work has been exhibited around the world, and has had paintings on long term loan to the United States Embassy. Commissions include “Post Modern Reliquary, ha ha ha” in Syracuse, “With Quiet Eyes” at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park and “Bottle Girl,” on display until September at Cazenovia College.  His paintings have appeared in several major motion pictures, including “Daddy’s Little Girls” and the soon to be released, “Please Give” with Amada Peet, Katharine Keener and Oliver Platt. Recent exhibitions have been in New York City, Virginia and Tennessee including “Stone Canoe”, the Tamarind Gallery in New York, the Edgewood Gallery, and the Delavan Gallery.

In his artist’s statement, Fitzsimmons writes, “My work is now figurative, which is the opposite of my earlier work in almost every way. That previous work examined nature with a painterly, non-narrative, lush color. The present figurative work has the occasional use of landscape only to imply space, the painting’s structure is tonal, and the figures have a brittleness, seeming to be paused in the middle of some conflicted action.
 
“I am often uncomfortable with the images when I am done with the paintings but avoid reducing the tensions and conflicts. Many of these paintings use multiple poses of the same figure; this gives an opportunity to use rhythm to imply movement, time and narrative. I often say that the works are not biographical, but they actually are. They have no specific verbal narratives only non-verbal ones and I want to leave the work open. The model in the painting is the viewer. The subconscious transference of this role is made possible by this ambiguity. “ More information is on the Internet at http://www.fitzsimmonsart.com/. 
 

“Self Portrait at Dawn”

Patrick Earl Hammie, of Champaign, Il., earned his bachelor of arts degree from Coker College, with a concentration in drawing and minor in psychology, in Hartsville, S.C., and his master of fine arts degree from the University of Connecticut at Storrs. He was awarded the 2008 Alice C. Cole c/o 1942 Fellowship in Studio Art from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. He currently serves as assistant professor of art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Hammie has lectured and exhibited at venues across the country and abroad. His paintings explore the tension between power and vulnerability as he draws from his life history as a son, a male and an African American struggling to synthesize past adversity and acclimatize to present realities.

Hammie says his work blends traditions of the Old Masters with contemporary modes of representation, and his portraits question and present visual alternatives to historical examples of masculinity. Adopting body language and narrative to reinvent and remix ideal beauty and heroic nudity, Hammie examines how male artists have historically represented themselves and the male nude as virile, strong, unemotional, intellectual, and aggressive. Coming of age in a generation that is post-Civil Rights and post-Second Wave Feminism, Hammie challenges examples of masculinity that valorize such traits. Hammie’s monumental portraits symbolize his shadow-selves and visualize the effort to reconcile inner duality, transcend typical masculine ideals and yield to new realities that require constant compromise and change. For more information visit www.patrickearlhammie.com.

“Obscure & Common Duties”

Kathryn Myers of Mansville, Ct., earned a bachelor of arts degree from St. Xavier College in Chicago, Ill, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is a professor of art at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.  Myers’ recent paintings are on small sheets of old Indian paper where the script appears as a barely visible texture, decorative element, or an intrusion of the border into the picture frame. As the figures appear to be so mute, the words serve as a visual metaphor for sounds beneath the surface seeping out from the edges.

In her artist’s statement she writes, “The language of the body and the metaphoric potential of gesture has been an
enduring theme in my work. While my early work dealt with ritual activity specific to the Catholic faith I was raised in, in recent years I have been primarily drawn to simple unconsidered moments that may evoke more or less than their deliberate or accidental intention. The scenes I portray are not intended to suggest a linear progression towards a defined end, but exist as a series of individual moments. I am drawn to images that not only shift back and forth from banal to beautiful but also from mundane to metaphysical, not necessarily in a place deemed sacred, but also within oneself, in a fleeting moment in the midst of activity or in the enduring rituals of daily life.

A quotation from Aldous Huxley's "Perennial Philosophy" inspired the title for this body of work: "There is no one in the world who cannot arrive without difficulty at the most eminent perfection by fulfilling with love obscure and common duties." For more information visit http://www.kathrynmyers.com/.

“Master Bath”

Carrie Will, of Nyack, N.Y., is an art photographer born and raised in New York State.  Her camera always seems to aim at people and the relationships in her life. More often than not, the lens points at the relationship she has with her twin sister, documenting and often exaggerating the space that lies between their similarities.  Will earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Purchase College, State University of New York, and a master of fine arts degree from Syracuse University. She currently teaches photography at SUNY New Paltz. 

In her artist’s statement, Will writes, “I am redundant, half of a whole, a freak, identical and lucky. The relationship I have with my twin sister is tightly woven, beautifully strange and difficult to explain. This has led me to explore a visual language that articulates the intimacy and the oddity of being a twin.  Having been subjected to stares and double takes my whole life, I use photography to exaggerate the gaze of others and to illustrate the interconnectedness of our identity.  It is difficult to see yourself as an individual when no one else does. My photographs aim at grasping the idea that I am one person as well as two and discovering what that looks like.”  Visit http://www.carriewill.com/ for more information.