MAY 2008 - Rapid River Magazine

R A P I D R I V E R A R T S
A Birthday Celebration for Asheville
The First Birthday Celebration for
Jonas Gerard Fine Art will kick
off with a gathering of Asheville’s
notables on May 19 at 4:30 p.m.
As a token of appreciation for
a wonderful first year in Asheville’s River
Arts District, Jonas Gerard will present
two paintings to the City. Mayor Terry
Bellamy will accept a Gerard original for
the Mayor’s Office and Asheville Chamber
of Commerce President and CEO,
Rick Lutovsky, will attend to accept the
large abstract painting that now hangs in
the lobby of Asheville’s new Chamber
Office.
The Gallery continues its birthday
celebration through the River Arts
District Studio Stroll on June 13, 14 and
ART Talk
15. Anyone visiting the Gallery from May
19 through June 15 can enter to win a
painting to be gifted to a lucky entrant on
Sunday, June 15 at 4 p.m.
As a birthday gift to the community,
Jonas will be painting live in his studio on
Saturday, June 14 and Sunday, June 15 at
2 p.m. All events are free and open to the
public with plenty of birthday cake, drinks
and music.
If you go
Jonas Gerard Fine Art Gallery, 240 Clingman
Ave., in Asheville.
Call (828) 350-7711, email jonas@jonasgerard.com,
or get full details at www.
jonasgerard.com.
Singer/Songwriter Vanessa Boyd
Hosts Art Show
W
hile her first love will always be
music singer/songwriter and performer
Vanessa Boyd has never
been one to limit her creative
outbursts to any one art form.
Boyd will be showing her latest
works, a series of line drawings and mixed
media efforts collectively entitled Scream.
The series focuses on “an exploration of
sexuality, sensuality and growth, meant to
take the onlooker through several levels of
examination of the way in which individuals
internalize the messages from outside
influences, and the ways in which everyone
lives with the weight of those digested
ideas.”
The self trained artist’s visual efforts
have been described as “primitive yet
sophisticated.” Boyd remains intensely interested
in the issues of reactionary art and
art appropriation, exploring gender politics
through artistic expression.
“In a milieu where women and the
feminine are secondary to a dominant
male culture much of what I am expressing
is in reaction to that domination, representing
my struggle against it.” Boyd’s
approach is one of what she called “deeliting”
of art, finding a space where in all
people can be creators and do what we do
naturally.” For further glimpses of Boyd’s
efforts visit her on line gallery at www.
vanessaboyd.com/Art_Portfolios.html
If you go
by James Cassara
Scream: Recent works by Vanessa Boyd.
May 2 opening from 5-8 pm, Courtyard
Gallery, 9 Walnut Street, in Asheville.
(828) 273-3332, ashevillecourtyard.com
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‘A Great Life’
Works by Stuart Bryan
in the Front Window Gallery
at Woolworth Walk
Woolworth Walk has chosen the
painter Stuart Bryan to be the featured
artist for the month of May. Stuart, who
is a self taught artist will be displaying
paintings depicting surrealism, embellished
landscapes, and even some cartoonish figures. Stuart Bryan seems to have
been born with a paintbrush in his hand, and through the years he has become his
very own ‘worst critic’. This has pushed him to continue to perfect his techniques,
at times painting the same image over and over again to see it in a different way.
Woolworth Walk will be holding an opening reception on May 11 from 2-4 p.m.
The show will be on display from May 9 to June 10. Woolworth Walk, 25 Haywood
St., (828) 254-9234, www.woolworthwalk.com
May 2008 — Rapid River ArtS & CULTURE Magazine — Vol. 11, No. 9