Help us celebrate by joining us for our August Exhibition, 2 Year Anniversary Artist Invitational, which will feature several artist friends of Painted Desert Gallery.  

Mediums include Painting, Collage, Photography, Drawing, Sculpture and Installation Art.

ARTIST RECEPTION FRIDAY AUGUST 5TH, 5 to 9PM

ARTISTS EXHIBITING: Heather Heilman Loercher, Claire Giblin, Dorothy Frey, Will Mowery,  Magdalen Mowery, Tom Toczek, Kedren Crosby, Dennis Martin, Monika Martin, Eric Tonzola, Katrina Funk, Jennifer Blaisdell, Eric Spohn, Amanda Ellinger, Anthony Granados, Matt Chapman, Ryan Toews, Christopher Moss, Toby Richards and Evan Stallone, Dave Nutter as well as Painted Desert Gallery’s  Carol Emerson, AJ Nutter and Rose Principe.

This collage, Bluebeard’s Basement (Unplugged), evolved as a result of looking at Rose’s painted pieces for her first solo show.

AJ photographed three of Rose’s pieces in this show, printed each photo on archival paper and gave them to me for use in the collage.

As I sat with Rose’s show, there was a sense of swirling undefined newness. I imagined a three dimensional piece that would evoke loose associations that were layered yet connected. I wanted to cut the photos apart and stack the colors in a way that suggested a centralized theme between the shapes yet individual configurations. I wanted to capture a sense of depth as well as movement in space thus the idea of the basement evolved. Here were colors and shapes that spoke to development, harmony and the wild.

As this fun piece evolved I was drawn from my right brain into my left brain where images of myth and archetypal stories point to the psychic development of the feminine. In the story of Bluebeard, there is an attempt of the predator to intervene when a woman is in her naïve, soulful and intuitive self. Thus in this piece I see the colors swirling, the multiple layers and the separate constructs as indicative of the woman’s active intuitive and alive self. It was down in the basement that Bluebeard planned to capture the woman’s curiosity; then punish her for it. Bluebeard would like to sever the wild connection and take away from the woman her intuitive knowing, stop her in her tracks, doubt herself and be fearful. In this piece, Bluebeard is unplugged for the feminine has made itself into beauty in the form of swirling colors, layers of meaning, strength and depth of knowing. Plus the key is visible and not bloody which communicates access and freedom for the feminine psyche.

I see Rose’s first show as symbolic of her own wrestling with the predator who would have loved to have her not do the show. But instead she faced the challenge and can now swirl amongst the knowing that she has unplugged Bluebeard.

Mixed Media Collage accompanied by music and poetry depicting the various stages of significant loss

When David Nutter flew out west in 2004, he planned to take photographs of Death Valley. It was on this trip that he became ill and upon his return to the East, he found out he had cancer.

During the next 9 mounths of his life, he underwent chemotherapy, printed his photographs, wrote his journal.

Read the journal entry as you look into the photograph. Be drawn into David’s passion for art and living.