Transformations features the work of three stellar artists offering abstract works as unique as each artist. Opening this weekend at Diversions Fine Arts Gallery, Amy Thornberry, Connie Saddlemire, and Sharon Weiner each present stunningly original visions of vibrant art that speak to the promise of change, delight, and insightful gaze.
Thornberry manipulates her mixed media and painted materials into portals that cause pause, wonder, and reflection.
Drawn to the Buddhist practice of tonglen, which means both sending and taking, through her art she moves viewers from the dark into the light with often ethereal, layered, and vividly colorful works that dance with meaning and a magical sense of motion. Working with elements of collage, acrylic paint, and layers, each piece resonates a sense of both inner peace and mysterious renewal.
To experience Saddlemire’s complex, geometrically abstract work is like entering a mesmerizing and intricate puzzle or taking a step into a brilliantly ordered wonderland.
Experimentation and innovation lead her into a world that’s filled with compelling change and woven patterns that each explore a special story. Her photography is exceptional and precise, creating a painterly sense of pattern and perfection.
Sharon Weiner’s abstracts are alive with light and color, lush and shifting, embodying both sensation and thought. As an artist, she gives form to her own lived experiences and to a profound sense of awareness itself.
Describing her work as visualizing self-revelation, viewers will find her work calls to and reveals meaningful emotions within themselves. These are astonishing works, some large in scale, some small, each unfolding like the petals of a flower or the colors of the universe as seen from space.
Both individually and combined, these artists’ works embody every transformation that April promises, unfolding a sense of awe, waiting to embrace each viewer with joy, and as T.S. Eliot wrote “…mixing/Memory and desire, stirring.”
It’s a time to celebrate new growth, and a time to remember the past. A time for Transformations. In today’s fraught environment, isn’t it time to transform? Bringing the color, light, texture, and emotion of these splendid works close is a tonic for these times.
The exhibition is on view starting Saturday April 11th, with a reception from 4-7 p.m.; the artist’s talk and closing will be May 3rd from 1-3 p.m., with regular gallery hours 12-4 Thursday-Sunday or by appointment. Diversions Fine Arts is located at 1069 N. Aviation Blvd. in Manhattan Beach.
- Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis and as provided by the artists