Art House 310 First Friday – Mary Lee-McDonald & Jennifer Weigel
March 3, 2023 - March 26, 2023
Art House 310 First Friday – Mary Lee-McDonald & Jennifer Weigel
Opening Reception | First Friday March 3rd, 2023 | 6-10pm
This event is free to attend and open to the public. Show hangs through March 26th, 2023.
Art House 310 is located at 310 S. Laura. Two blocks SE of Douglas & Washington in downtown Wichita.
MARY LEE-MCDONOALD
Creating has always been the balance I have needed to navigate the beautiful chaos of life. Often times creating to music and driving my family a little crazy on my journey. Playing a song on repeat as the work evolves and until it’s journey is complete. The music drives me to remember the full scale of emotions that life brings.
My goal in creating is a little selfish my goal in sharing is not. To have one look at my work and try to understand its meaning has never been my objective, I just to try and share a little joy.
I love texture, layers in my paintings, and the experimentation it offers in breaking the rules. I in my daily life am a rule follower, wearing many hats as a daughter, wife, mother, friend, and gallery director.
Art allows me to step out of the daily roles I love and enter a space to reflect and grow. My big passion is the art of mosaic. I love taking little pieces, breaking them up to fit in and create something completely new and whole.
See more of Mary’s work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mary_lee_mcdonald/
JENNIFER WEIGEL – Art Saves Lives – My Artist Statement
Over the past several of years, with all of the political polarization and in response to the pandemic, world events and general discontent, I am finding myself more drawn to the simple expression of joy as a means of escape, to just let go of things for a bit. Art has always been an outlet to express grievances, to find my voice, and to celebrate what I consider beautiful. Both making and looking at art is healing.
These pieces are personal explorations of joy. Some are based in real things; others are fantastical. They hearken to childhood doodles of animals & nature, fairy tale princes & princesses, dragons & unicorns, flowers & rainbows. They are a return to my past obsessions with animation art, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Don Bluth’s Secret of NIMH, Jim Henson & The Muppets, Lisa Frank, Mary Engelbreit, Keith Haring, Cyndi Lauper music videos, and all of that 80s pop culture vibe.
These pieces aren’t intended to be high art; they are meant to make people smile. In fact, some of them are outright silly or snarky or both. They are imperfect and revel in their weirdness. I find that we all need a little more of that nowadays, to just celebrate our quirkiness and be who we are. Share in my joy and take one home to color yourself, or buy a suite of them to hang someplace where they will delight. You are invited to send digital images of finished coloring pages to post to the blog devoted to these pieces if you like. https://toxicpositivitydrawings.blogspot.com/
Bio
Jennifer Weigel is a multi-disciplinary mixed media conceptual artist. Weigel utilizes a wide range of media to convey her ideas, including assemblage, drawing, fibers, installation, jewelry, painting, performance, photography, sculpture, video and writing. Much of her work touches on themes of beauty, identity (especially gender identity), memory & forgetting, and institutional critique. Weigel’s art has been exhibited nationally in all 50 states and has won numerous awards.
See more of Jennifer’s work online:
Fine Art Painting, Photography & Jewelry: https://www.jenniferweigelart.com/
Conceptual Art Projects: https://www.jenniferweigelprojects.com/
Writing: https://jenniferweigelwords.wordpress.com/
Complete Art Resume: http://jenniferweigelartresume.blogspot.com/