OPENS Oct 29th - Nov 17th
DANCING WITH UPHEAVAL
Renewing wonder and hope in challenging times.
Sculptor Andrew Hellmund and painter Devon Ronner found common ground in their longing to transform frustration and grief at the violence we do to the earth and each other into something that celebrates the beauty of this planet and the daily kindness tendered among people. For them, creating art is a buttress against these fracturing forces. It is both a solace and an uplifting call to joy.
Please join us for our artist party, Saturday Nov 8th, 6-8pm
Devon Ronner
The paintings in this collection evolved from a series begun in 2021 as I groped toward expressing how fractured and convulsive the world felt to me, on both a personal and planetary level—loved ones facing health crises, the profound isolation and suffering of the pandemic, the catastrophic violence of war and global warming, upheaval, hardship, terror, the inhumanity of rage and hatred. And yet, and yet.... glimmering through all this is the beauty of this dear endangered planet, the moments of kindness and understanding between people, the hope that keeps rising through the cracks. In the face of grief, loss, injustice and the violence humans inflict on each other and the planet, these paintings hold a light to the beauty of the natural world and the tenderness and uplift, in the most ordinary, everyday acts of human kindness. I hope to convey a sense of wonder and joy in the face of the darkness; that these works may evoke feelings of solace and gladness, as well as a bit of sober reflection in the viewer. For me, creating art is a buttress against the despair one could so easily fall prey to now. It’s quite a balancing act. These are themes I continue to explore in these challenging times.
Artist Statement
I am a mixed media, abstract artist, working in acrylics, charcoal, graphite and collage. My paintings explore colour and shape, texture and light, seeking what lies beneath––the subtle, excavated layers hinting of hidden mysteries, the elusiveness of memory and longing, the past bleeding into the present.
I paint from the inside out. I begin a painting with a loose intention—a palette to be explored, a feeling to capture––without a destination in mind, rather like an open-ended conversation between the materials and me. Abstract forms evoke a moment that has moved me, capture feelings that defy verbal description––the raw beauty of joy and grief, a shock to the heart, a fleeting tenderness. A variety of media drive my creative process––the viscosity or fluidity of paint, thick application with a brush or palette knife, or wide veils of color, give shape to dense textures, glazes to transparent fields of light.
Collage—paper, petals, leaves, fabric, rusted metal––all hint at stories barely revealed, convey grit and grace, a sense of freedom and the binding hold of the past. My love of the natural world informs everything I create. I’m drawn to everything faded and crumbling, yet hinting of a former grandeur, co- existing with the bright impudence of colour and new life. An abandoned clapboard shed, its broken roof latticed with the lush green and purple of morning glory vines. The surfaces that are abraded, scratched and scraped, torn and stained by history. Eroded, moss covered stone walls, tagged with lichen. Weathered wood fences streaked with flaking paint. You get the picture. Now please, come have a look.....
Andrew Hellmund
Artist Statement
Friends in Motion; Small Works
There is so much uncertainty in our world, so much injustice and unkindness. We have the opportunity to bring integrity to everything we do and make. While this series is about capturing sketches of movement. It is frustration in humanity that often drives my work. Movement is a way forward, something that we are taking tiny steps forward and too many backwards.
This show is the culmination of several years of finding my path as an artist and citizen of the world. I have worn many hats along the way, student, tradesman, university professor, husband, traveler, and neighbor to name a few. But what is essential are community member, friend, listener, and artist.
Friends in Motion, expresses the little actions that your friends take that mean the world to you. It is these small actions that help make the world a better place. We are all in our own space, yet how we move together is striking and tells so much about who we are. I hope that you can find some of the same wonder that pushes me to continue to create through challenging times.
The work that is produced is driven by the constant desire to create sculptures that express movement, thoughtfully consider the history of their respective found objects that are incorporated within while also obliterating some of the objects history and creating a new narrative of movement and flow while juxtaposing the recognizable with the unknown. I have always enjoyed watching dance, and recently embraced dancing in a social setting with Swing and jazz. To me it is the motion, gesture and energy that dancing exudes that really fascinates me. It is about the forms that are created in space that is what captivates me and informs on my formal decisions in art. My practice of art making is both about my own demand for creativity, ideation, and development as an artist and about developing a sense of community from a diverse collection of community members, who normally wouldn’t cross paths (blue collar, farmers, art appreciators, collectors, and the everyday viewer.)
I started making small 3D sketches (small sculptures) in earnest this year that get the ideas out there quickly. Usually pieces under under 16 inches. I wanted to capture a moment in space that I could share with others.