This issue:
• CELEBRATE Party- June 4
• In Living Color Exhibit- thru July 31
• New Podcast- Viola Spells, jewelry
• Q+Art spotlights Karen Stastny, painter
CELEBRATE with our guest artists, podcast interviewees, presenters, and our expanding community of loyal friends. Artsville Collective and Podcast founders Louise Glickman, Daryl Slaton and Scott Power of Crewest/LA invite you to their annual summer party celebrating our creative community in 2022. Enjoy meeting our artists now on exhibit: Karen Stastny, Betsy Meyer, Michelle D. Wise and the artists and creative leaders who have made our podcasts and discussion groups successful in 2022. Rhona Polonsky, Jill Lawrence, Micah Mackensie, Robert Nicholas, Viola Spells, Andrea Kulish, Kate Averett Anderson, Michael Manes, Sarah Wells Rolland, Stephanie Moore, Jordan Ahlers, Mia Hall, Robin Dreyer, Tom Anders, Sherry Masters and Steven Frowine. Saturday, June 4 from 2-5 pm at Artsville Collective at Marquee. 36 Foundy Street in the River Arts District.
On Exhibit: Friday, April 29- July 24: “In Living Color: At Home with Paint, Paper and Thread.”
Summer’s finally here! Time to add a little color to your life, and walls. Choose your favorite ways to express yourself with abstract paintings from Karen Stastny, woven thread with found treasures from Betsy Meyer and transformative collage from Michelle D. Wise. Retro Pop Art with augmented reality animation from Daryl Slaton and mixed media and fiber art from Louise Glickman remain on display.
Listen In:
New Podcast: We welcome jewelry artist Viola Spells, as the newest art personality to enliven our Artsville NC podcasts discussing how to embrace your artistic dreams as a second career. An Asheville native, Viola was first a librarian but searched her inner soul to to translate her root creativity as a third generation crocheter to contemporary line using wire. She weaves the stories of women, home and community into her podcast and jewelry.
Up Next: Marquee impresario Robert Nicholas talks about this new bold art space in the RAD.
Listen to all Artsville podcasts to learn how Asheville became Artsville. In partnership with Crewest/LA, we celebrate contemporary arts and crafts from Asheville and Beyond.
Available at sandhillartists.com and https://artsville.captivate.fm and most major podcast channels.
https://sandhillartists.com/4226-2/
https://artsville.captivate.fm
palette and canvas.
Q+Art spotlights abstract painter Karen Stastny
Karen Stastny is an Asheville and New Orleans-based abstract painter that that wants you to feel something when you look at her artwork. Karen’s paintings are chock-full of sweeping plains of color and energetic lines. Created as a conversation between color, composition, mark-making and shape, her work is both personal and investigative.
Karen spends the spring and summer months finding inspiration in mountainous Asheville, and then, for the rest of the year, soaks in bustling, coastal New Orleans. Perhaps you can see the energy of the Crescent City in Karen’s lively mark-making and Asheville’s diverse natural environment in the color palette and composition.
“I love the process of painting. It is a dialogue,” Karen says of her creation process. In the beginning, I am never sure where the painting will end up. I might have my ideas, but at some point, the painting starts to assert itself. Then the conversation really gets interesting.” Karen is an excellent listener, as she allows the painting to dictate where it wants to go. Sometimes a lack of planning can lead to an amazing outcome, at least when it comes to painting.
In Q+Art, our new story feature, we interview Karen as she shares her advice for emerging artists and how her artwork has changed through the years. Karen’s work is on view until July 31, 2022 at Artsville Collective in Marquee in the RAD as part of the exhibition“In Living Color: At Home with Paint, Paper, and Thread.”
[SHAC] Tell us about your inspiration for the work in “In Living Color: At Home with Paint, Paper, and Thread.”
[Karen Stastny]: Recently, in my paintings, I have tried to focus on my two loves, color and line. I respond to the emotive quality of color and to the spontaneous, lyrical quality of line, mark making. I love to draw and I never feel like my paintings are alive until line can come dance through the work…and color! I can just lose myself in color.
So trying to marry my exploration of line and color to evoke an emotional response was really my inspiration for this exhibit.
[SHAC] How do you feel when you sell a piece of artwork?
[KS]: I feel great! It validates that someone liked it, and I have managed to make a connection with that client. It also means I have money to buy more paint!
I should say that I have also had paintings that have never found a home, and that’s ok too. It’s part of the process of creating, and putting work out there, and as an artist I have to recognize and understand that.
[SHAC] How has your artwork changed through the years?
[KS]: I started off doing realistic watercolor. My work has always had a gestural element to it, even when realistic. I preferred doing paintings of people, rather than landscapes. I also ran a figure studio for about 12 years. I love drawing the figure. At some point I began to be bored with just visually representing a subject and started paying attention to what really inspired me. I started trying to work abstractly by using my figure drawings as a basis and coloring outside the lines! It was fun, and I was interested! That was the beginning of a very long journey.
[SHAC] Is creating a joyful process for you? Do you find it challenging?
[KS]: You have to trust the process. You have to be willing to take risks. You have to be willing to experiment and play. You have to be willing to fail. You have to be willing to pick yourself up and go at it again. You have to be attentive to what the painting is telling you. Is it joyful? Sometimes. Is it challenging? Yes, and I am so grateful and blessed to be doing this.
[SHAC] What is a piece of advice that you would give other emerging artists?
[KS]: Be generous with and support your fellow artists. Take classes, take workshops, absorb as much as you can. Go to galleries, museums, read books, keep learning. Be present, pay attention to what moves you, inspires you. Trust the process. Trust yourself.
[SHAC] What is your favorite part of being in the “In Living Color” show?
[KS]: I am very happy to have an exhibit up in Asheville. I also really wanted to support the work being done by this new organization, Sand Hill Artists Collective and Artsville. I am very impressed by and appreciative of all the outreach and hard work.
[SHAC] How does Asheville influence your work?
[KS]: We usually spend Spring and Summer here [in Asheville] then back to New Orleans for the rest of the year. The Asheville landscape has an impact on me. It is different in texture, scale and color, and I love it. [Two new works are included here.] They are both acrylic/ mixed media on 16’x15″ panel. I could not get the beauty of the Asheville rhododendrons out of my head. They are spectacular! So their general shape , texture and glorious color became the subject of these two pieces. I think it’s just the beginning of some interesting explorations.
Sand Hill Artists Collective 