Artist Statement - Jillian Dickson
"Stories in Us" is a series of drawings aimed at studying and observing primary human relationships. The work attempts to make visible the intimate connection between people and their independence from them. Creating images has always been hinged on the current season of my life experience. "Stories In Us" is built using the lens of mother and wife.
Laced within the portraits are objects and symbols used to build personalized iconography and complex stories.
Varying methods of drawing and painting are applied to create a diverse skin or surface of the piece to amplify the reality of human relationships. Some materials include: pastel, ink, acrylic, graphite, marker, charcoal, watercolor, color pencil, resin, glitter, and sequins.
Artist Bio - Jillian Dickson
Jillian is an assistant professor in art and design at Alma College, Alma, MI. Jillian received her BFA from Bradley University in 2005 and her MFA from Clemson University in 2007. She is an internationally exhibited artist. In the summer of 2015, Jillian participated in the ArtVenice project which is a digital presentation of her work alongside other international artists taking place the first week of the 56th Venice Biennale in the centre of Castello. In 2012, Jillian represented La Galerie Particulier in the Drawing Now Exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including: Swarm Gallery in Oakland California, Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City, California, Antler Gallery in Portland, Oregon, and the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jillian's art has been included in publications such as, "The international Drawing Annual", "Hi-Fructos" and "Juxtapoz."
Artist Statement - Michael Reedy
The delicate strands of silver hair that have started to populate my wife’s head most easily explain what motivates my work. At one moment, I find them incredibly beautiful, and celebrate the fact that I have had the opportunity to share my life with her, and in another moment, I am struck with my fear of growing older and eventually losing her. Everything eventually seems to revolve around this point-of-tension between beauty and despair, between living and dying. My hope has been, that by employing a range of pictorial conventions (medical illustration, op art, classical nudes, etc.) I could blur the contentious boundaries between life and death, personhood and object, and the beautiful and the ugly; laying one on top of the others like a series of scripts that can be read simultaneously. I enjoy the complex range of emotions that results, where beauty, love, pain, loss, and despair seem entwined and inseparable. However, it is our ability to persevere in light of this duality that motivates much of my work – and it should be stressed that I prefer to find the beauty in that silver hair. The characters that populate my work are only flirting with death – even the skeletons and skull portraits are very much living in my mind.
Artist Bio - Michael Reedy
Michael Reedy currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and teaches drawing at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Art & Design. His work has been included in over 200 national and international exhibitions and can be viewed in numerous private and institutional collections, including Clatsop Community College, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Minot State University, Shippensburg University, and the Hoffman Trust National Collection in association with the San Diego Art Institute. His work has also been featured in over 30 books and journals including Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoze, Spectrum, and Fresh Paint. Notable recent creative activities include a two-person exhibition at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco and solo exhibitions at Helikon Gallery in Denver, The Scarab Club in Detroit, Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia, and BeinArt Gallery in Brunswick, Australia. His work was also recently featured in Create Magazine, Creative Quarterly, The Moleskine Project Vol. 2 (Spoke Art), and Manifest Gallery’s 14th International Drawing Annual.
Artist Statement - Brian Spolans
My work illustrates relationships between communities, individuals, technologies and environments. Within these relationships I explore the complications formed as multiple facets of an ecosystem interact with each other. These complications act as metaphors for contemporary American society and life in the Internet age. Biology, cinema, literature, video games, history, and social media inspire these relationships.
Artist Bio - Brian Spolans
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 co-curated the exhibition “Post Apocalypse” at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor, and “Non-Text,” at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches printmaking.
"Stories in Us" is a series of drawings aimed at studying and observing primary human relationships. The work attempts to make visible the intimate connection between people and their independence from them. Creating images has always been hinged on the current season of my life experience. "Stories In Us" is built using the lens of mother and wife.
Laced within the portraits are objects and symbols used to build personalized iconography and complex stories.
Varying methods of drawing and painting are applied to create a diverse skin or surface of the piece to amplify the reality of human relationships. Some materials include: pastel, ink, acrylic, graphite, marker, charcoal, watercolor, color pencil, resin, glitter, and sequins.
Artist Bio - Jillian Dickson
Jillian is an assistant professor in art and design at Alma College, Alma, MI. Jillian received her BFA from Bradley University in 2005 and her MFA from Clemson University in 2007. She is an internationally exhibited artist. In the summer of 2015, Jillian participated in the ArtVenice project which is a digital presentation of her work alongside other international artists taking place the first week of the 56th Venice Biennale in the centre of Castello. In 2012, Jillian represented La Galerie Particulier in the Drawing Now Exhibition held at the Louvre in Paris. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, including: Swarm Gallery in Oakland California, Thinkspace Gallery in Culver City, California, Antler Gallery in Portland, Oregon, and the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Jillian's art has been included in publications such as, "The international Drawing Annual", "Hi-Fructos" and "Juxtapoz."
Artist Statement - Michael Reedy
The delicate strands of silver hair that have started to populate my wife’s head most easily explain what motivates my work. At one moment, I find them incredibly beautiful, and celebrate the fact that I have had the opportunity to share my life with her, and in another moment, I am struck with my fear of growing older and eventually losing her. Everything eventually seems to revolve around this point-of-tension between beauty and despair, between living and dying. My hope has been, that by employing a range of pictorial conventions (medical illustration, op art, classical nudes, etc.) I could blur the contentious boundaries between life and death, personhood and object, and the beautiful and the ugly; laying one on top of the others like a series of scripts that can be read simultaneously. I enjoy the complex range of emotions that results, where beauty, love, pain, loss, and despair seem entwined and inseparable. However, it is our ability to persevere in light of this duality that motivates much of my work – and it should be stressed that I prefer to find the beauty in that silver hair. The characters that populate my work are only flirting with death – even the skeletons and skull portraits are very much living in my mind.
Artist Bio - Michael Reedy
Michael Reedy currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and teaches drawing at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Art & Design. His work has been included in over 200 national and international exhibitions and can be viewed in numerous private and institutional collections, including Clatsop Community College, Pennsylvania College of Technology, Minot State University, Shippensburg University, and the Hoffman Trust National Collection in association with the San Diego Art Institute. His work has also been featured in over 30 books and journals including Hi-Fructose, Juxtapoze, Spectrum, and Fresh Paint. Notable recent creative activities include a two-person exhibition at 111 Minna Gallery in San Francisco and solo exhibitions at Helikon Gallery in Denver, The Scarab Club in Detroit, Arch Enemy Arts in Philadelphia, and BeinArt Gallery in Brunswick, Australia. His work was also recently featured in Create Magazine, Creative Quarterly, The Moleskine Project Vol. 2 (Spoke Art), and Manifest Gallery’s 14th International Drawing Annual.
Artist Statement - Brian Spolans
My work illustrates relationships between communities, individuals, technologies and environments. Within these relationships I explore the complications formed as multiple facets of an ecosystem interact with each other. These complications act as metaphors for contemporary American society and life in the Internet age. Biology, cinema, literature, video games, history, and social media inspire these relationships.
Artist Bio - Brian Spolans
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 co-curated the exhibition “Post Apocalypse” at Gallery Project in Ann Arbor, and “Non-Text,” at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches printmaking.
