Abstracts & Mixed Media
by Ruth Kramedjian
January 3, 2010 - February 28, 2010

Ruth is a graduate of the University of Georgia with degrees in drawing and painting and art history. She has worked with fabric, designing and making original quilts; she has worked in metal, designing jewelry in silver and gold; her photographic work is represented in this show with a series of black and white infrared prints; and in recent years she has returned to abstract painting and the art of collage or mixed media.

In her artist's statement, Ruth says:

Rhythmic cycles chart the course of our days. Both mundane and magnificent, they present themselves in the powerful circle of community life, the changing of the seasons, the movement from dawn to dusk and back again to light. Ethereal, concrete, and universal, they frame our lives and they give direction to my spiritual quest to find meaning in my world through art making. The grid and its counterpart, the circle, often serve as a frame for these cycles, and my emotional response to the inherent rhythms finds expression in my mark making. The short view, the long view, the universal view - from these, I examine my world.

Ruth is an avid gardener and lives with her husband, Armand, on the Chattahoochee River in Vinings. Ruth can be contacted at 770-384-1122 or via e-mail at rrpk2@yahoo.com.

Pastels
by Sandy Jane Tabor
March 1, 2010 - April 30, 2010

Sandy is a Georgia native, born in Atlanta and residing in Marietta. She attended the Univ. of Ga and graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. She moved to Brittian with her family as a young teenager and began her love affair with art while in Europe. "Every weekend we would be at some famous art museum. I noticed how huge some paintings were and how tiny others were. When I viewed the paintings up close, I was amazed to see that those colorful, random strokes of paint, became a mostly dark and gray picture of someones face from far away. "

While backpacking solo through Europe and Greece as a college graduate, she continued her visits to the beautiful places of the world. Sandy has traveled as far north as the Artic Circle, as far south as Brazil, as far east as Iran and as far west as Hawaii. She raised three children who are now in college themselves , a son at Univ. of Alabama, another son at Florida State University and a daughter at Kennesaw State. They have all been subjects in her paintings. "My children have taken my more serene paintings to school with them. Those that they can retreat into during their hectic student days."

Sandy has studied under local artists David Mathews, Gary Baughman, Ann Cockerill and Chris Didomizzio. Her preference in mediums is pastel. "It is very similar to coloring with crayons and is very soothing to use. Art is like therapy to me. It helps to make sense of the world."
   

For May and June the art gallery will feature a solo exhibit of photographic art by H. Gay Allen, entitled "Painterly Refacimento and Four Studies".

The work begins with Ms. Allen's original photography and through various elaborate processes, is transformed into original art work and displayed, via pigmented print, on archival paper. The main body of work is 17 large photographs that have been altered in a painterly fashion. In addition, studies exploring four subjects are presented: Flamingo Moods; Peonies Perfect; Sunsations; and Pieces of Water.

The process was dubbed, by the New York Times, as refacimento (ree-FATCH-e-men-toe), the radical refashioning of a work of art, by use of a computer. Some works are recognizable as the original objects, some are mysteriously familiar, but not readily identifiable; and others have been taken beyond recognition.

Learn more about Ms. Allen from her website at at www.HGAYALLEN.com.

Olympic Pin Collection
By Gene Ledbetter
July 1, 2010 - August 30, 2010

Gene Ledbetter attended the University of Georgia and the University of Miami. He worked fpr 20 years as the Art Director and and partner for Harris & Weinstein Advertising Agency. In 1970 he began his own graphics company, the A La Carte Graphics, Inc. with his wife Alice.

The beautiful exhibit of pins that Gene designed covers a span of many years, from the late 1970s through 2000 when he retired. He designed Olympic pins as well as other types of pins for the Coco Cola Company as well as the American College in Atlanta and London.

Early in the Olympics history there were no pins or posters. Gene was involved in researching the history in Switzerland in order to create pin designs.