March 2015: Lisa Bledsoe & Shelly Caldwell

Lisa Bledsoe is a mixed media artist who marries painting, collage and assemblage together to create complex paintings. Lisa uses simple materials and a process of construction and deconstruction to create her pieces. The surfaces of her paintings are built up with layers of plaster and acrylic paint that are sanded, scratched and marked, adding depth and making the surface look as if it has been worn by time. Occasional bits of collage imbedded beneath the surface add more depth and a palimpsest effect. Lisa then adds more collage and assemblage elements of vintage architectural salvage and hardware pieces to complete her paintings. A cold wax finish is rubbed on as a final step to deepen colors and bring the pieces to life. Lisa creates each painting by intuitively experimenting with combinations of color and placement of collage and assemblage elements until it feels right.

Shelly Caldwell creates mixed media sculpture for this show. She has given it the title of “Redemption, Passage & Escape”. As she describes her process, “ I am attempting to coerce very disparate objects into playing nicely together. Assemblage, painting, modeling and brute force are involved.” In this show she explores creating sets of objects that speak to each other but are separate – they belong and yet they to do not. Some light the way (with actual light), some have gone where there is no light. Each piece ends up telling its own story - stories of redemption, passage or escape.