Tag: Kentucky Arts Council

“Ways of Seeing”, a statewide traveling exhibition

Artwork that depicts an alternate reality is the feature of the Kentucky Arts Council’s traveling exhibit titled “Ways of Seeing.”  The work is abstract, conceptual, fantasy-based and experimental.  Some pieces imagine an alternate reality by exploring the unknown or by re-envisioning the known world.  Each work is by an artist in the Kentucky Crafted program or a recipient of the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and will travel to 5 venues around the Commonwealth of Kentucky through December 2017.

Looking Backwards 2 (from Attempting Utopia series), Dye Sublimation on Aluminum, featured in “Ways of Seeing” exhibition.

As a 2014 Al Smith Fellowship recipient, it’s a real honor to be a featured artist in this exhibition and I’m also very grateful for the opportunity to have my work travel across Kentucky.  I must admit that the show is traveling to places in the state I have yet to visit.   And I love going to places I have never been before…even if it’s vicariously through my artwork!

Check out the exhibition in the following locations: (I will update this page with specific dates for shows in Williamsburg, Somerset and Madisonville when that information becomes available)

Appalachian Artisan Center, Hindman October 3rd – December 22 2016
Eastern Kentucky University Center for the Arts, Richmond January 9th – February 26th 2017
Whitley County Fine Arts, Williamsburg March – May 2017
Center for Rural Development, Somerset June – August 2017
Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, Madisonville September – December 2017

 

“‘Ways of Seeing’ transports the viewer to a different time and place and gives them a sense of otherworldliness,” said Lori Meadows, Kentucky Arts Council Executive Director.  I’m ready to transport myself to some of these smaller towns, check out areas of Kentucky currently unfamiliar to me and see these works in person!

Road trip anyone?

~jz

 

Kentucky Arts Council’s Featured Artist September/October 2015

The Kentucky Arts Council continues to be very good to me.   In 2014, I was awarded an Al Smith Fellowship and most recently I was selected to be their Featured Artist for September/October 2015!!  Receiving these recognitions validate the pursuits of my creative passions and further encourages me to work!

One of the perks of being featured, was having KAC’s Folk and Traditional Arts Director, Mark Brown pay a visit to my newly expanded studio; where he took pictures and recorded an audio interview which he later compiled into the video below currently featured on their website!

I love that the video is informal, offering a brief glimpse of my life as an artist, rather than attempting to tell my whole story.  Mark did a great job of piecing the audio together in that way that didn’t make me sound pretentious or flat out ridiculous.  I only cringed a few times upon seeing my un-photogenic self…and that’s a frickin’ miracle!!  What was easily a 2+ hour interview (feeling quite therapeutic I must add) is condensed into just under 11 minutes.  If you have a moment, take a listen and let me know what you think.

Click HERE to visit my official Featured Artist page, read more about my work and see other featured artists on the Kentucky Arts Council website.  Thank you Mark Brown and Kentucky Arts Council!!!