Opening Reception July 5th from 5:30-8
Kim Eichler-Messmer
Bio:
I grew up in Iowa as an only child to two very hard working, creative, nature loving parents. I learned how to sew in the 5th grade when my dad and I made a quilt out of our old shirts. In college, at Iowa State University, I studied engineering, Spanish, Portuguese, drawing, and printmaking before finally realizing my love of textiles in a yardage screen printing class. Now I live in Kansas City where I teach full time at the Kansas City Art Institute and make loads of quilts.
All of my quilts (except some new explorations) are hand dyed and I love teaching others how to dye fabric. I teach workshops regularly at my studio in the Kansas City Textile Studio and travel to teach around the US (I'm eager to travel abroad to teach - email me if you live somewhere cool and you want me to come there!). My book, Modern Color: An Illustrated Guide to Dyeing Fabric for Modern Quilts, was published in 2014. I also frequently show my work in galleries and I enjoy creating custom landscape quilts for clients in the US and abroad.
Melissa Wilkinson
Bio:
Melissa Wilkinson received her BFA in painting from Western Illinois University in 2002. She then went on to receive her MFA in painting from Southern Illinois University in 2006. Her work has been featured in wide reaching publications throughout the country including three editions of New American Paintings. She has shown in various galleries nationally and internationally including South Korea and India and has won numerous awards throughout her career. She has won numerous fellowships and grants including the Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship in Painting in 2012. Her work is amongst private collections throughout the country and abroad. She serves as Assistant Professor of Art-Painting at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. She lives in the Memphis TN area.
UnNatural Histories - Statement:
This series of paintings relates to my interest in dichotomies: obscuring and revealing, attraction and repulsion, good and evil, the past and the present. Through a highly crafted watercolor painting practice I seek to make something strange out of the ordinary. I am deeply interested in the interaction of parts and am attracted to tactile physicalities in an increasingly technological and dehumanized time. I appropriate imagery from 19th century naturalist illustrations, bodies and typically sensual subject matter to develop a pastiche that fractures both into the surreal and suggestive. I draw from sensual imagery sourced from internet searches, bodies, fabrics, shells, gems, flowers in order to open a curio chest that beholds the 21st century obsession with all things slick and hollow. The images break from their original sources into fragments, creating a complex visual experience that both irritates and seduces. I paint these images to investigate the slippery definition of both desire and corporeality. The romantic process of painting allows me to meditate on issues of gender, identity construction and beauty. Though the paintings are initially conceived of using digital processes, they are made employing a very purist approach to watercolor. In doing so, I endeavor to uphold these painting traditions while dismantling the elitism with which they are often associated.
