“Outside the Box”

 

“Outside the Box” with Nora Graf, Josh Hunt, and Marjorie Claus

Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery presents a three-member show featuring new work by artists who “step outside” in various ways. Highlighting and complementing diversity in style and media, this show features contemporary work for contemporary tastes.

Josh Hunt, most noted for his raw, bold abstract drawings and paintings pairs up with Marjorie Claus’ new colorful abstract batiks and Nora Graf’s gourds “growing larger!” The combination of these works create a bold statement for contemporary styling. "Outside the Box" colors, textures, designs and concepts go beyond the ordinary.

Marjorie’s large colorful batiks are a throwback to the psychedelic ‘70’s when she studied batik in Singapore and Indonesia for 7 years. Nora steps aside working on her normally smaller gourds in favor of carving, painting and staining the largest gourds she could find. Josh’s work describes his own individuality by their sheer rawness of design and color. Combined, these artists present a collection of work that is bold, colorful and “Outside the Box!”

About her work, Nora Graf states, “This show is an opportunity to try new things that I don’t ordinarily do. I’m working with very large gourds or multiples of smaller gourds. New designs always take a long time to create, and with a large gourd you have a lot more space to cover. It’s a daunting task when you are used to smaller pieces.”

Marjorie Claus recalls, “Image-making and color-mixing are the elements of art that initially attracted me to art as a career. I graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking. Thus began my love of process. Color was my next favorite aspect of art, and when I learned about batik as a colorful process of applying wax as a resist to dyes on fabric, I was hooked! I’ve since added collage to my arsenal of processes, as I enjoy the flexibility and unconventional approach involved in mixing and matching art elements and colors from various sources, both digitally and traditionally.”

Josh Hunt is a self-taught painter, illustrator, and designer. His work ranges from realistic line drawings to abstract painting, often combining the two. His work incorporates themes of loss, anxiety, redemption, philosophy, the esoteric, and pop culture.  Josh states, “Painting is a symbolic relationship. I don’t create things as much as I uncover them. The images I produce are parts of me, hidden, in waiting, and when I find them I also find a part of myself, and so the image, and I, become more alive. I share these images because it’s the most comfortable way for me to share myself.”

Join the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery on two “First Saturday Art walks” in Jerome: August 6 and September 3 from 5-8 pm for a “Meet and Greet the Artists." Snacks and refreshments are provided. The show runs from July 27 to September 27. The Co-op is Open Daily 10 am – 6 pm except on Tuesdays when it is closed. Ground level, 502 Main Street, Jerome.  928-639-4276    www.jeromecoop.com   info@jeromecoop.com Like us on Facebook and Instagram!