double vision
two person with Melody Evans, 2022 at the meramec contemporary art gallery
Meramec community college, St. louis MO
March 3 – April 1, 2022
Download: Kimber – about my art
Download: Melody – about my art
_____________________________________________________________
layers
two person with Melody Evans, 2018 at the William and Florence Schmidt Art Center
Southwestern Illinois College, Belleville, IL
Artist Statement
Serpentine
A Garden
Melody's piece, "Serpentine" and Kimber's piece, "A Garden" were purchased by the Schmidt Art Center for the permanent collection
They were both installed in the new Liberal Arts Building.
_____________________________________________________________
layers
two person with Melody Evans, 2017 at the Mildred M. Cox Gallery
William Woods University, Fulton MO
_____________________________________________________________
RUNNING BEHIND THE MOSQUITO TRUCK
2015 at McKendree University Gallery of Art, Lebonan IL
Artist Statement
What were your parents thinking? What were they thinking when they allowed us to run and ride our bicycles ecstatically through the billowing poisonous fog of the mosquito truck? It was the middle-class in the Midwest in the 60's. They thought their government and corporations had the best interests of themselves and their children at heart. Was it innocence or wishful thinking that made our parents so trusting? And while we are seemingly better informed, do we still turn away from information that complicates our lingering post Second World War American dream?
Not everyone fell for it. In the mid-twentieth century, the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard predicted that America's consumer society would result in its citizens replacing reality with what he termed "hyper-reality"; our world would become a place where symbols and stimuli would become the meaning of life for a new generation. My work as an artist, graphic designer, educator, mother, citizen and consumer has led me to believe in the validity of Baudrillard's prediction.
These collagraph and digital prints reflect a search for reality within this new context. It is through this search that I find my truth in scraps. Scraps are animals killed by their clash with human activity and left dead on our roads. They are the cast-off packaging of items that we consume. Scraps are things so cheap and plentiful that when we drop them, we don't bother to pick them up. Scraps are depths of emotions we haven't the time or courage to explore. They are bits of information that have been filtered by political and financial concerns before they reach us as 'news'. Scraps are the multitude of manipulated images that accost us daily in an attempt to continually redefine our definitions of happiness and necessity.
Wendell Berry, American writer and philosopher, says of the disconnect between our American dream and our reality, "We haven't accepted – we can't really believe – that the most characteristic product of our age of scientific miracles is junk, but that it so." It is from this 'junk' that I try to create beautiful images and reveal the significance of information we prefer to ignore in our attempt to find fulfillment in a manipulated reality.
_____________________________________________________________
EXHIBITIONS
2022 DOUBLE VISION two person with Melody Evans, Meramec Contemporary Art Gallery, St. Louis Community College at Meramec, St. Louis, MO
2018 LAYERS two person with Melody Evans, William and Florence Schmidt Art Center, Southwestern Illinois College, Belleville, IL
2017 LAYERS two person with Melody Evans, Mildred M. Cox Gallery, William Woods University, Fulton MO
2016 PRESS PLAY – A PLAYFUL EXPRESSION OF PRINTMAKING juried The Lincoln Center, Fort Collins CO
2016 SERENDIPITY juried Art Saint Louis, St. Louis MO
2015 RUNNING BEHIND THE MOSQUITO TRUCK solo McKendree University Gallery of Art, Lebonan IL
2014 THE ART OF OUR CONSUMPTION juried Foundry Arts Center, Saint Charles MO
2014 ANN METZGER MEMORIAL NATIONAL ALL MEDIA EXHIBITION juried Saint Louis Artists' Guild, St. Louis
2014 FACULTY EXHIBITION Lindenwood University, St. Charles
2013 VIRTUAL REALITY juried Foundry Arts Center, St. Charles
2013 PRINTMAKING AND SCULPTURE INVITATIONAL invitational St. Charles Community College, St. Charles
2012 THE 2012 HARNETT BIENNIAL OF AMERICAN PRINTS juried University of Richmond Museums, Richmond VA
2012 DIRTY FINGERS SAY A LOT: A CELEBRATION OF PRINTMAKING juried Foundry Arts Center, St. Charles
2012 MFA THESIS EXHIBITION Lindenwood University, St. Charles
2012 FACULTY EXHIBITION Lindenwood University, St. Charles
2009 SOLO EXHIBITION Messing Gallery, St. Louis
2006 FACULTY EXHIBITION St. Louis Community College at Meramec, St. Louis
2005 ART & LIGHT invitational St. Louis Community College at Meramec, St. Louis
______________________________________________________________________
ABOUT
MFA Lindenwood University in Saint Charles MO
BFA Washington University in Saint Louis
employ 2017-present Graphic Design Specialist at the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in Saint Louis
2010 - 2017 Instructor of graphic design and computer art at Lindenwood University in St. Charles
2014 - 2016 Instructor of graphic design and computer art at Webster University in St. Louis
1998 - 2011 Instructor of graphic design and computer art at St. Louis Community College at Meramec