Tickle Me Talk: 7th Annual Smallidge Lecture

Friday, October 4 - Saturday, November 2
Tickle Me | Donovan Entrekin, Michele Leclaire, Janice McCoy, Matthew Osmon & Brian Spolans
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Five artists come together for the first show of Buckham Gallery’s 41st Season in Tickle Me. What started out as a joke, combining the first letter of each last name in alphabetical order to spell E. L. M. O. S., turned around to become “Tickle Me” a very suggestive title referring to the works which spark intrigue. Donovan Entrekin, Michele Leclaire, Janice McCoy, Matthew Osmon, and Brian Spolans all ask more from their works than visual interpretation. They create images and narrative to explore the shadows which tend to avert our eyes, the unsettling whether physical or emotional, the collective unconscious, and frequently with a little humor. We invite, or respectfully request,  the viewers to be tickled through experiencing this collection of large and small, 2D and 3D artworks in the mediums of drawing, mixed media, painting, printmaking, and sculpture.

Donovan Entrekin paraphrased Woody Guthrie: Anything human is anti-fascist.  ‘Making aesthetic things is the most human thing I can do. It is an act of protest against a culture run by gangsters intent on robbing us of our humanity.’ Without devoting time and space to dreaming and poetry, I am nothing but an obedient beast. Just gimme some poetry and images and music. 

Michele Leclaire’s paintings explore memory, the effects of time, and family relationships. Although her work starts from a personal perspective, she hopes by closely examining thoughts of family, erosion of memory, the shape a person leaves behind, and even the imagination of childhood, she is creating something universal.

Janice McCoy seeks to create dialogues between people and the natural world, using flora, fauna and man-made objects as sources of symbolism and visual metaphor to drive dramatic storylines. These narratives are entwined with her experiences, memories, fears and sense of humor.

Matthew Osmon’s work primarily explores the relationship between self-awareness and the subconscious, focusing on the adventures, voyages, challenges, and confrontations within the self. By blending these elements with the enigmatic and uncomfortable, he strives to create surprising narratives that are both meticulously planned and spontaneously developed as the compositions evolve.

The pandemics’ push to shelter in place, cemented the home as a place of safety, solitude, seclusion, and necessity. Through play and personal antagonism, Brian Spolans deconstructs the home, by exploring the complex and often contradictory meanings homes embody now. 

Tickle Me opens on Friday, October 4, and will run through Saturday, November 4. Flint's Artwalk, sponsored by Community Foundation of Greater Flint, will be held on Friday, October 11 from 6 - 9 PM. 7th Annual Smallidge Lecture: Tickle Me Talk featuring Entrekin, Leclaire, McCoy, Osmon & Spolans to be held on Saturday, November 2 at 1 PM.

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Donovan Entrekin Bio
Donovan Entrekin is a maker of pictures living in Flint, MI. His studio is profoundly messy and potentially hazardous. He holds an MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and since 2015 has served as Director the Art School at the Flint Institute of Arts. He has won awards, been in lots of shows, been rejected from lots of shows, is represented in public and private collections, and calls his mom at least once a week.
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Donovan Entrekin Artist Statement
I make paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, and sculptures… not necessarily in that order. Sometimes I work from observation, but mostly I work from fear… memory, panic, and color wheels are pretty good tools.
 
My work is intended to be, above all, visually affective, physically present, and conceptually ineffable. If you want words, may I suggest reading a book or listening to one of those godawful podcasts the young people are so fond of.

Michele Leclaire Artist Statement
My paintings explore memory, the effects of time, and family relationships. Although my work starts from a personal perspective, I hope by closely examining thoughts of family, erosion of memory, the shape a person leaves behind, and even the imagination of childhood, that I am creating something universal.

Through the process of painting, I build up surfaces only to sand them down again. The images erode and shift as the process is repeated, building texture and history. Through the use of color and oil paint, I am able to achieve an experience with the image that the photograph was unable to capture. I create new memories to continue the conversation with the past.

Janice McCoy Bio & Artist Statement

Janice's work centers on fostering dialogues between people and the natural world, using flora, fauna and man-made objects as symbols and visual metaphors to drive dramatic storylines. These narratives are rooted in her personal experiences, memories, fears and sense of humor. She is drawn to strange and nuanced contradictions of ideas, as well as universally understood emotions like isolation, despair, hope, joy, anger and fatigue. Being alive can be strange, confusing, and hard, but also beautiful. Through her work, she aims to create objects that reflect these complexities.

In her current body of work, Janice creates mixed media works combining painting and printmaking techniques that are closely related to the tradition of still life. She is fascinated by the symbolism and cultural significance found in the arrangement of objects, particularly in memento mori and memento vivere paintings. Her everyday walks inspire her, as she often encounters discarded items on the ground. These found objects spark her curiosity—who left them behind, why, and are they even missed? She also reflects on the environmental impact of such waste and the overwhelming number of possessions people accumulate, pondering what these objects say about us and our society.
Her compositions feature carefully arranged objects based on her personal experiences and stories, set against natural backdrops, as if they were items she herself had abandoned. She also views these works as a nod to Flint's abundant green spaces and her own interest in the natural environment. To Janice, these pieces are a form of self-portraiture, with their meanings intentionally left open and ambiguous, inviting viewers to interpret them. She also enjoys the irony of taking ordinary, often overlooked objects and elevating them, challenging viewers to consider their significance and pose questions, much like she does when encountering things left behind in real life.
Janice McCoy is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Flint, MI. Her artistic practice focuses mainly on printmaking, but she enjoys exploring the intersections between print, painting, drawing, and other mediums. Janice works at the Flint Institute of Arts as the 2-D Programs Manager, where she teaches, coordinates programs and manages spaces connected to the two-dimensional disciplines and children and teen learning. Janice is the University of Michigan UMS Flint Artist in Residence for the academic year 2024-2025.

Matthew Osmon Artist Statement
My work primarily explores the relationship between self-awareness and the subconscious, focusing on the adventures, voyages, challenges, and confrontations within the self. I aim to present enigmatic, engaging, weird, uncomfortable, and challenging micro-narratives within a world rich with personal imagery from my childhood, domestic scenes from my life, spontaneous images from my subconscious, and elusive visions from my dreams. By blending these elements, I strive to create surprising narratives that are both meticulously planned and spontaneously developed as the compositions evolve.
 
At its core, my work examines the relationship between figures and their environments. Most recently, I have concentrated on subconscious, constructed interiors and empty brown fields of former industrial spaces. In crafting these scenes, I emphasize mystery and the in-between, filling these unexplored places with parasites, ghosts, ghouls, animals, and atmospheres mixed with people experiencing cognitive dissonance from an invented time, space, and reality. My work begins with numerous reference images, idea connections, myth and cultural exploration, poetry, memory, thumbnail drawings, digital experimentation, and a significant amount of anxiety. Through the art-making process, many accidents and unexpected connections occur that must be reckoned with. After several rounds of intuitive choice-making, a new, unplanned narrative begins to emerge.

Brian Spolans Bio & Artist Statement

Brian Spolans is an artist and instructor based in Southeast Michigan. His work has been exhibited at 500X Gallery in Dallas, Paradigm Gallery in Philadelphia, Muskegon Museum of Art, International Print Center of New York, and Published in New American Paintings, Fresh Paint and Create Magazine. He has also co-curated exhibitions at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor, and at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches printmaking.

The pandemics’ push to shelter in place, cemented the home as a place of safety, solitude, seclusion, and necessity. Through play and personal antagonism, Brian Spolans deconstructs the home, by exploring the complex and often contradictory meanings homes embody now.

Inventory

Brian Spolans
Pile it on
Variable screen print
$45 - Framed SOLD

Donovan Entrekin
Didnt End Well
Charcoal on paper

Donovan Entrekin
Stay
Stoneware and mixed media

Michele Leclaire
Spring Awakening
Oil and mylar on panel

Donovan Entrekin
Masks
Oil on panel

Donovan Entrekin
Mask (Red)
Acrylic on canvas, mounted on panel

Janice McCoy
Flip it & Reverse It (KO)
Acrylic on wood

Donovan Entrekin
Earthy Skull Study
Acrylic
SOLD

Michele Leclaire
Potential Energy
Oil and mylar on panel

Matthew Osmon
For Our Protection Against Distraction
(trust exercises with sex games and cigarettes)
Mixed media

Michele Leclaire
To The End II
Oil and mylar on panel
SOLD

Michele Leclaire
Strawberry Kiss
Oil on mylar

Donovan Entrekin
Pink Skull Study
Acrylic
SOLD

Michele Leclaire
Sistr Wiskr II
Oil on panel

Brian Spolans
Out Front
Mixed media

Janice McCoy
Same Shit, Different Shit
Acrylic on wood, laser engraving

Donovan Entrekin
Gone Missing
Stoneware and mixed media

Matthew Osmon
“This Shit Is a Girl Blunt”
(shit’s not a swear)
Mixed media
SOLD

Donovan Entrekin
To The Pain
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Michele Leclaire
A little bit lost, a little bit found
Oil on panel

Brian Spolans
Stoop So Low
Mixed media

Janice McCoy
How are you?
Marker on wood, chain, yarn

Michele Leclaire
Another Rotation
Oil on panel

Matthew Osmon
My Own Myling with Myself and Some Manna
(“Even my conditioning has been conditioned”)
Mixed media

Michele Leclaire
A New Chapter for the Late Nite Belles
Oil on mylar

Donovan Entrekin
Isolated Incident
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Brian Spolans
Good Bones
Mixed Media

Donovan Entrekin
Victory
Terra cotta and mixed media
SOLD

Donovan Entrekin
Green Skull Study
Acrylic
SOLD

Michele Leclaire
Being Dead is No Excuse
Oil panel

Brian Spolans
Routine Maintenance
Ink, acrylic and watercolor

Brian Spolans
Full House
Variable Screen Print

Brian Spolans
Housing Development
Ink, acrylic and watercolor

Michele Leclaire
Sea of Memory
Oil and mylar on panel

Michele Leclaire
Floating on Possibility
Oil and mylar on panel
SOLD

Michele Leclaire
Changing Focus
Oil on panel

Matthew Osmon
Cinema Clinch
(and floating nipples)
Mixed media

Matthew Osmon
Compulsive Cleavage Catcher From Clio
(and floating nipples)
Mixed media

Donovan Entrekin
Aliens in our Midst
Charcoal on paper

Donovan Entrekin
Left for Dead
Charcoal on paper

Janice McCoy
The Tower
Acrylic on wood

Janice McCoy
The Heart of it All
Woodcut

Michele Leclaire
( L - R )
Birthday Crew
Oil and mylar on panel

Birthday Crew, Benjamin
Oil and mylar on panel

Rainbow Birthday Girl, Tess
Oil and mylar on panel

Michele Leclaire
Susurration
Oil and graphite on panel

Donovan Entrekin
ICON
Oil on panel

Donovan Entrekin
Mask (Purple)
Oil on panel

Michele Leclaire
Grandmothers III
Oil on mylar
SOLD

Brian Spolans
Deck Dreams
Ink, acrylic and watercolor

Brian Spolans
Some place
Variable screen print

Donovan Entrekin
Skull with Holes
Oil
SOLD

Michele Leclaire
Kinship
Oil and mylar on panel

Matthew Osmon
Orphan of the Storm
(and positive floating parasites)
SOLD

Brian Spolans
Big Scoop
Variable screen print
SOLD

Donovan Entrekin
I Don’t Want to Die in the Hospital
Charcoal on paper

Brian Spolans
Power House
Variable screen print

Michele Leclaire
Crush
Oil on panel

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