An exhibition of the work of Carol Phillips and David Schmitt

The Deo Gallery in located at the Marquette Arts & Culture Center on the lower level of the Peter White Public Library; 217 North Front St., Marquette.

The gallery is free and open to the public.

CAROL PHILLIPS
I began my work as an artist in the area of ceramics with wheel thrown and hand-built forms, both functional and nonfunctional. These organic forms with their continuous line have found their way into my paintings and despite an occasional effort to expel them, are stubbornly dominant.
Concerning color, the saturated hues found in my work are influenced by a love of folk art, outsider art and the use of color in early 21st century functional ceramics such as Fiesta Ware and the ceramic work of Russel Wright. I recall from a young age being very disappointed when my paint-by-number sets had only one brilliant color to be applied to a tiny area amidst masses of brown and gray. In this way, vivid color has always been my preference.
As for content the images that show up in my work expand from strong feelings of place and instance I have experienced in my lifetime, in this way they are self-portraits that say I know here.” Most often unconsciously, it seems that I am creating a kind of open-ended narrative that references identity through memory and place, sometimes burden of place, in the physical world.
In my most recent series of work I’m experimenting with the effects of how two paintings relate to each other as a diptych. In these paintings an interest in inner human workings combined with beloved animals has an exterior presence.

DAVID SCHMITT
The spaces between times of focus often go completely unnoticed. The moments that bookend a departure or arrival, letting your eyes adjust after waking in the early morning, gazing through a screen while mindlessly performing a practiced routine. Our mind omits these memories to make space for the moments of focus. However, focus can limit our observational range. Over the past 18 months, I have found it easier to unfocus, taking in the broadest range of information I can. My recent work is an exploration of that wider range of observation. From new material and process considerations to describing details of seemingly mundane daily occurrences, I have been spreading my focus as thin as possible. The land I live on provides ample opportunities to absorb a broad range of information. The balance of human and non- human constructs provides windows into understanding more about light, space, and time. And, how to paint light, space, and time. It is as if the land was made for me to see how the light affects it. Working in layers of high potency pigments thinned out with various mediums: allow the light in the paintings to come from underneath. I often sand back into the surface to reveal some of the history of the process and bring light forward. The edges of the paintings are often left untreated as a window into the process. The final result is a collection of works that are exploration. quiet and contemplative, with surfaces ripe for visual exploration.