Evelyn Burrow Museum hosting Sculptors Invitational Exhibition

Exhibit runs July 14 through September 30, 2015

HANCEVILLE, Ala. — The work of 16 artists is on display during the 2015 Burrow Sculptors Invitational Exhibition at The Evelyn Burrow Museum. The exhibit will run through September 30 at the museum located in the Burrow Center for the Fine and Performing Arts at Wallace State Community College.
“This will be the second year for the invitational exhibit, with the artists who exhibited the previous year helping to choose the artists on exhibit this year,” said museum director Donny Wilson. “We thought that would be a great way for them to pay it forward and introduce us to other talented artists.”
The artists included in the 2015 Burrow Sculptors Invitational include: Kenneth Baskin, Aaron Tennessee Benson, Walter Black, Randy Gachet, Georgia Jones Godwin, Nelson Grice, Darius Hill, Mircea Lacatus, April Livingston, Jim Neel, Matthew Patterson, Phillip Scarpone, William Squires, Linda Walden, Leslie Wood, and Collin Williams.
Kenneth Baskin is an associate professor of art/ceramics at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, La. Scott Meyers chose him for the exhibit. Baskin has received numerous awards and accolades, including his receipt of an Emerging Artist Award from the National Council on Education in the Ceramic Arts in 2007. He was also invited be visiting artist, workshop instructor and lecturer at the Tainan National University of the Arts in Tainan, Taiwan and the National Taiwan University of the Arts in Taipei. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
Aaron Tennessee Benson teaches ceramics, sculpture and 3D design at the University of North Alabama. Chosen by Lee Somer, Benson’s current work is made of white stoneware clay, 23-carat gold and terra sigillata, and it deals with the complexities of his Christian faith. Originally from Knoxville, Tenn., Benson received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee and Master in Fine Arts in Ceramics from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He interned at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Colorado and was a Long-Term Resident and MJD Fellow at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana.
Walter Black, selected by Emily Williams, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Troy University. His work covers an array of mediums and techniques including clay, watercolor, drawing, digital design and sculptures. His work has been displayed at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, the Wiregrass Museum and the University of Alabama and he’s won numerous awards at juried art festivals, including best in show and purchase awards.
Randy Gachet is an instructor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts in Birmingham. Robin Snyder selected him for this exhibition. He earned his Bachelor in Fine Arts, concentrating in sculpture, from Birmingham-Southern College and has been on staff at the Alabama School of Fine Arts since 2002.
His work has been included in the HomeGrown Southeast Exhibit 2007 at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, N.C., and can be found in collections at the Huntsville Museum or Art, Wiregreass Museum or Art, UAC Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Southern Environmental Center at Birmingham-Southern. He’s received numerous awards, including the 2008-2009 Individual Art Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
Georgia Jones Godwin is a Texas native who found her way to Mobile, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Ceramics from the University of South Alabama and a Master in Fine Arts from LSU. Rachel Wright chose Godwin to show her work in the exhibit.
Godwin’s ceramic works has been recently published in “500 Figures in Clay, Volume 2” and “Ceramic Sculptures: Making Faces: A Guide to Modeling the Head and Face with Clay.”
“The common thread in all my work is time,” she says. “Its passage, effects and remembrances. My clay figures are mediations on the effects of aging, profession, and life decisions on our bodies, especially faces.”
Nelson Grice is known for his whimsical and entertaining animal sculptures and paintings. His work is inspired by the child’s play of building with toys such as Legos or Lincoln Logs. Through a process of creating his own “custom logs” or components, he then assembles the parts, and in this way, explores his uninhibited childlike imagination.
Dale Lewis chose Grice for the invitational exhibit. Grice earned his Bachelor in Fine Arts and his Master in Education from the University of Montevallo. He is a sculpture instructor at Hoover High School.
Darius Hill is chair of the Visual Arts Department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Ted Whisenhunt invited Hill to display his work in the Burrow Museum exhibit.
Hill earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking from the Atlanta College of Arts and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Alabama. His work has been exhibited in shows throughout the southeast and is in numerous private collections. He has earned several honors and wards, including Operation New Birmingham Best in Show Award at the Magic City Art Connection and he was awarded the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Art.
Mircea Lacatus is a guest artist on the faculty of the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Oakwood University. Born in Romania (Transylvania) and living the last 22 years in Vienna, Austria, Lacatus was invited to the exhibition by Everett Cox.
Lacatus has been regularly invited to participate in prestigious international symposiums in Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Israel, India and Japan. His sources of inspiration are the legends and the great myths of mankind and his sculptures display a wide variety of techniques.
April Livingston, the artist selected by Casey Downing Jr., is a sculptrix, painter and photographer. An Alabama native, Livingston has travelled across the nation and abroad, expanding her knowledge of cast metal, blacksmithing and fabrication. She is currently the resident artist at Fairhope Foundry.
“It is important that viewers experience my work with more than just their eyes,” she said. “I attempt to engage all of the senses with my compositions; the act of looking serves as a conduit for fuller engagement.”
A native of west Texas, Matthew Patterson was influenced by its rural landscapes. “As a child I often found solace and inspiration spending long hours in the country exploring and allowing my imagination to wander,” he states. “Rocks and sticks became playthings, game trails through the hills and waterways led to secret hide-outs and lairs.”
The pieces in Patterson’s collection are inspired by his childhood adventures and the west Texas landscape and lore. Patterson’s invitation to exhibit was put forth by Jude Johnston.
Phillip Scarpone is an instructor at the Lamar Dodd School of Art in Athens, Ga., from which he received his MFA with distinction, and where he was a recipient of a University Dean’s Award and the Mary Rosenblatt Scholarship in 2013 and an Excellence in Teaching Award in 2015. He earned his BFA from the University of Delaware, where he was a recipient of the Lynn Sharp Award in 2010 and a Research Fellowship in 2009.
Invited by Larry Millard, Scarpone has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally, including exhibits in Washington, D.C, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Tawain.
William Squires describes his sculptures as a “mishmash of influences and even some tomfoolery.” The sculptor and author is a member of the American Blacksmith’s Association of North America and the American Welding Society. In his works, he said, you may see “a blacksmith in some of it, a machinist, a weldor, a teacher, a preacher and perhaps another dozen or so part- or full-time occupations.”
Invited by Brad Morton, Squires operates a general metalworking shop out of his Birmingham garage, in addition to his work as a sculptor.
Linda Walden worked for almost 20 years in a reference microbiology lab identifying fungus and TB organisms before she became a sculptor. “In that work there was a visual element as well as a physical element dealing with the natural world, but the work was analytical,” she said. “The way that I make sculpture combines analytical tasks with the intuitive.”
Invited by Glenn Dasher, Walden uses a variety of materials for her pieces: limestone, charred wood, cedar, oak, nails, steel, string, found objects and natural elements, as well as bronze and marble.
Leslie Wood is the Director’s Pick for the exhibit. The museum recently closed out an exhibit featuring Wood’s paintings and journals. In this exhibit, her sculptures will be on display. As in her work in other media, Wood’s sculptures are influenced by her work as an engineer combining with her artistic side to create her whimsical pieces.
Collin Williams, invited by Ted Metz, will show a number of pieces inspired by the 2011 tornado outbreak across the southeast and the 2011 wildfires in his home state of Texas.
Williams in an associate professor of art and is director of New Media concentration at the University of Montevallo. He received is MFA and BFA from the University of Houston, University Park. In between earning his degrees, he attended Yale University on an Ellen Battel Fellowship of Art & Music. He has shown his work in solo and group selections all over the United States.
The Evelyn Burrow Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 256.352.8457 or visit www.burrowmuseum.org.