Art in My Own Backyard • Sally Stryker & Judy Yescalis

January 6, 2007- February 15, 2007

Batik artist Judy Yescalis teamed up with found art assemblage and collage artist Sally Stryker to present Art in My Own Backyard, a collection of new works. Both artists are longtime co-op members whose works are well known and well regarded in Norther Arizona.

Judy Yescalis, a semi-retired language teacher, works from her own photos and sketches to create her one-of-a-kind batiks, many of which capture the local wildlife attracted to a pond near her home. She will sometimes create commissioned pieces from clients’ photographs as well.

Sally Stryker creates what might be called found art, Southwest folk art, or assemblage. She calls it "transformed art." The materials used in her works once served a particular utilitarian purpose and fulfilled specific human needs; now these discards are transformed by the artist into messages, symbols, themes, and humorous statements about the human condition.

Photos from the opening:

2006 Holiday Show

November 22, 2006 - January 3, 2007

Each Holiday Season the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery puts on a special show featuring diverse works from all member artists. Over the years this show has become a Holiday shopping tradition for Jerome and the Verde Valley. As one patron recently put it, "I love Christmas shopping here... Its the anti-mall!"

We couldn't agree more.

Photos from the opening:

Trick or Treat • Ellen J.D. Roberts & R.V. Lovelace

October 14, 2006 - November 21, 2006

“From a ‘dramatic mental laboratory’, images are converted with odd humor and illusionism”, said Jerome artist Rick Lovelace in an attempt to describe his “Retro-Vision” pop surrealist style of painting. Lovelace’s newest works of pop-surrealism debut in the “Trick Or Treat” featured artists show with fellow painter Ellen J.D.Roberts. The two last partnered up for the very well received and well attended “Little Monsters” show in 2003, and “Trick or Treat” promises to bring more of the same fun.

Lovelace and Roberts are former neighbors who still maintain a strong friendship, frequently meeting up to enjoy martinis, rancid grade B horror films from the 50s and 60s, and compare their collective collection of kitschy artifacts. With influences ranging wild and wide-- dreams, “bad sign painting”, petroglyphs and road trips-- the two are connected by common vocabulary and subject matter though their styles are vastly different. Lovelace's style is clean and controlled, airbrush and mixed media, while Roberts makes a mess of the canvas with oil paint and pastels, carving into the painting with layers of texture. For the show promotional poster the two daringly mixed together their very different styles into one painting, a perfect blend of minimalism and maximalism.

"Phantom storytelling is always the key to unlock interpretation," declares Lovelace, perhaps getting right to the heart of "Trick or Treat's" theme. Phantom stories and ghostly memories-just in time for Halloween!

Photos from the opening: