Bing Arts Center presents TRANS•figuration exhibitDate: 7/9/2014 SPRINGFIELD – The Bing Arts Center is pleased to present TRANS•figuration, oil paintings by Michael St. George and Catherine Gibbs.
St. George has been creating images of trees near water and faces as long as he can remember. He’s considered himself an artist since the age of 6 when he drew a picture for his grandmother of his journey by jet to visit her. He attended Berklee College of Music in the late 70’s and then moved to New York City where he pursued a music career. While in Manhattan, he sold landscapes, still lifes, and figure oil paintings to help pay the rent.
St. George moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where he played with the Cash family and sold paintings through The Arts Company in downtown. Following Nashville, he played and painted in Charlotte, North Carolina, until his return to the greater Springfield area 15 years ago. He exhibited his work in a show at the Southwick Community Episcopal Church last fall.
St. George has been focusing on his style, but still feels a powerful primal connection and has much to express with his hand and color. He considers painting to be the pinnacle of the creative vibration, the mystical connection of the Eye and the Earth! This show features his unique “line” paintings. They are based on musical lines inspired by jazz and blues, with faces emerging and then disappearing.
St. George resides in Westfield with his wife Yuri and their beloved dogs.
Gibbs’ current work has changed focus from an impressionistic response toward nature to a bolder, colorful focus on industrial scenes. She has been greatly influenced by the mundane obsession of the Ash Can School and the colors used by the artist Wolf Kahn. As a landscape painter, Gibbs finds herself greatly affected by her surroundings. Her work took a turn from nature to urban scenes after she began working in a factory studio building in Easthampton four years ago.
Her parents live in Springfield next door to a house that recently burned down. This was the inspiration for her most recent interpretation of the urban theme. The burning and shell/remnants of the house represent a lifetime of memories lost in the flames. Gibbs currently works in her studio at One Cottage Street in Easthampton. She has shown at several galleries and venues in the area.
Currently her work is featured in a national exhibit at the D.C. Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she has recently contracted with The District Gallery in Knoxville, Tennessee.
There will be an artist’s reception and party on July 11, from 7 to 9 p.m. featuring music by Michael St. George and friends.
The Bing Arts Center’s gallery is open on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and evenings with scheduled events.
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