Jennifer Yerdon
Born: Roseboom, New York
Resides: Morgantown, West Virginia
Education:
2006 K-12 Art Certification, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
2005 Master of Fine Arts, Painting, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
2003 Chautauqua Institution Summer Art Program, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York
2001 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Studio Art, Painting, Art History, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York (Magna cum laude)
Exhibitions: (*Solo)
2007 * ”Contours”, Humanities Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Minnesota Morris, Minnesota
Gallery Lecture, October 25, 2007, HFA Gallery, Morris Minnesota
“With in the Shadows”, MT Pockets Theater, Morgantown, West Virginia
2006 * ”Contours”, Daywood Gallery, Alderson Broaddus College, Phillipi, West Virginia
Visiting Artist Lecture, November 28, 2006, Daywood Gallery, Alderson Broaddus College, Phillipi, West Virginia
Monongalia Art Center Annual Art Walk, Morgantown, West Virginia
2005 Group Show, Taylor Books, Charleston, West Virginia
* “Schemas”, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Laura Messaros Gallery, College of Creative Arts, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
“Graduate Student Exhibition”, Laura Messaros Gallery, College of Creative Arts, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
National Small Oil Painting Exhibition, Wichita Center for the Arts, Wichita, Kansas
“Elephant Market”, Alternative Space, Morgantown, West Virginia
* Black Bear Restaurant, Morgantown, West Virginia
“Two Man Show” Blue Moose Café, Morgantown, West Virginia
2003 “Graduate Student Exhibition”, Mountainlair Gallery, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
Chautauqua School of Art Summer Program, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, New York
2001 The College of Saint Rose Undergraduate Art Exhibition, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York
The College of Saint Rose Advanced Painting and Drawing Art Exhibition, The College of Saint Rose, Albany, New York
Publications:
Hollinger, Marian. “Fine Arts Featured Faculty.” Tatler FSU. Vol 5 Issue 2, November 2007.
http://www.morris.umn.edu/ummnews/View.php?itemID=4175
Bailey, Alison. “Daywood Gallery Begins Year With ‘Small Paintings’ Exhibit.” The Battler Columns. Vol. VI November 2006.
http://www.ab.edu/home/abnews/daywood-gallery-artisan-experiements-with-shaping
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Artist's Statement:
My developing interest in installation based wall drawing allows me the opportunity to experiment with perpetuating my study and current understanding of ideas that include mapping, scale, shape, and site specificity through the use of various contours. I see installation as one way to incorporate my person and painting process into a gallery setting. Through projected images of machinery I include or omit information for transfer that visually organizes the objects and space of the room. In this way I can then logically read the space.
Consisting of many overlapping contours, my drawings not only define a body or mass, but also act as a mapping system or locating device. Such devices can stand in tandem with the physicality of a space and place. The contours I utilize can be as general as the way a road follows the natural form of a mountain or as specific as the way a projected line is folded by the corner of a room.
I believe that space is, at times, a void where the possibility for unlawful occurrences resides. In other instances, it is quiet, peaceful, and almost domestic. Analogous to this belief, my act of drawing is sometimes active and tumultuous, and at other times slow and meditatively repetitive.
Sara Shawger, MFA
Born: Georgetown, PA, USA
Resides: Fairmont, WV, USA
Education:
West Virginia Wesleyan College, BA in English and Art – 1996-2000
James Madison University, MFA in Painting and Drawing – 2001-2004
Exhibitions: (Group/Solo)
2008 -Two-person exhibition John David Brooks Gallery, FSU, Fairmont, West Virginia
2007 -FSU Faculty Exhibition, Appalachian Gallery, Morgantown, West Virginia
-WVWC Faculty Exhibition, Sleeth Gallery, Buckhannon, West Virginia
-SECAC annual group exhibition, City Hall, Charleston, West Virginia
-Solo show - Aesop’s Café, Buckhannon, West Virginia
2006 -Group show - Girls, Girls, Girls, Artful Dodger, Harrisonburg, Virginia
-One of three artists chosen to participate in the West Virginia Wesleyan College Alumni Exhibition in Sleeth Gallery
2005 -Group show of collected works, Callen McJunkin Gallery, Charleston, West Virginia
-Solo show - Barnes & Noble, Harrisonburg, Virginia
2004 -Solo show - Pilgrim Gallery, Harrisonburg, Virginia
-Solo Graduate Exhibition – Sawhill Gallery, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
-Fall Nature Art and Photography Show, Rockingham Springs Arboretum, Massanutten Village, Virginia
-Emerging Artist’s Exhibition, Callen McJunkin Gallery, Charleston, West Virginia
-Art Opening v2-Artful Dodger, Harrisonburg, Virginia
2003 -Juried show - Exhibition 280 – Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia
2001, 02, 03 -Graduate Show – Zirkle House Galleries, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Virginia
2002 -Group show – Mitten Gallery, Harrisonburg, Virginia
2000 -Senior Exhibition – Sleeth Gallery, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, West Virginia
-Juried Student Show – Sleeth Gallery, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, West Virginia (First Prize)
-Two-person show - Higher Ground, Student Gallery, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, West Virginia
1999 -Group Show - Advanced Salamagundi, Sleeth Gallery, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, West Virginia
-Solo show - Bridge Series, United Methodist Church, Buckhannon, West Virginia
Publications:
Vandalia, West Virginia Wesleyan College English/Arts Journal
Fine Arts Tatler, Fairmont State University
Artist's Statement:
Symbolism and the subconscious language permeate my work through abstract drawings, paintings and digital photography. No matter what the subject, my mark-making is a natural movement of my hand, producing boxes, crosses and geometric forms. My early paintings and drawings focused on landscape with broad open skies and overlapping hills which mimicked my Pennsylvania and West Virginia background. I also looked into negative space formed by tree branches that enveloped me in the forest around my home, tangling the view of the atmosphere and deep space. My influences came from the playfulness and spontaneity of Cy Twombly and the subtle power and simplicity of Agnes Martin.
My current work is a study of innate line work and patterning that has become a sort of common language or compulsion for me. Lines and forms are overlapped and edited to form new spaces and shallow depth. Boxes, rectangles, line rows, and circles are repeated loosely and in varying sizes. The energy of the patterns and chaos seem nonsensical, but are completely controlled by my hand and the carefully measured white border around the piece. Using graphite pencil and Nupastel on paper, I have created small intimate portraits into the tangles and discourses of an inner world.
My work has also has ties to a language system, full of characters and symbols that seem to stand for something in an attempt to communicate from a subconscious level. I developed my love for the written word while completing my BA in English writing in college as well as teaching the histories of Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic calligraphy art. The visual composition created by words on crisp white paper can be altered in many ways to form an individual expression of meaning and emotion. I use these types of interactions similarly in my mark-making and line work to create an overall effect of balance and energy within my drawings.
A new series that I have been working on goes back to a recognizable landscape form based on digital photographs taken out west. I’ve always been attracted to low horizons and big skies not usually found in the area that I’ve grown up and lived all my life. Although these pieces are drawings, I use a loose contour line to break them down to simple forms and give them a frame within a frame of white paper. This effect makes the image look like a monoprint or screenprint.
I have also been exploring digital photography and using Photoshop to manipulate my images. In my traditional photos, I use Photoshop for clarifying or distorting certain areas for visual effect. In my manipulated photos, I break up the image into sections, abstracting to the point of a bar code appearance. This breaking down of the image incorporates the white space of the paper into the overall composition. In this sense the viewer is forced to look closer and make the connections between the different sections. Has something been erased or removed? Or has it been cut into slithers and pieced back together? What is the actual image in the first place? For all of my work, the white or black space (or background) is an important factor as a controlling or invading force, making them part of the image and its meaning.
