EARLVILLE – The Earlville Opera House Arts Center opens three new exhibits for spring! Come and see the new works and meet the artists on Saturday, April 9 from noon to 3 p.m. Teen musicians will perform for the opening reception; artist talks will be featured.
In the East Gallery, Ashley Norwood Cooper of Cooperstown, will be displaying her paintings that literally show a ‘slice of life.’ In “Homebodies,” the subjects are the cut-away sides of houses and take a look at what is going on inside as juxtaposed against what is going on outside. “I represent life in a small town as thoroughly and honestly as I can. We live with our families, protected from the elements in houses built on the bones of the past. The family dog gets skunked. Crows eat the garbage. The children play strange and sometimes dangerous games. All the while, I just keep painting, and as I paint I start to believe that these mundane details are fraught with mystery and meaning … Is it a bad omen if a bird smashes itself into a closed window? Why do my children think that they can fly? Why is my daughter the only one in the neighborhood who wants to be Darth Vader for Halloween? I know that when it is all put together it means something, and if I can just paint all of it maybe someday I’ll understand it.” Ashley Norwood Cooper was born in Atlanta, Georgia and crew up in Greenville, SC. She is a member of the First Street Gallery, an artist run cooperative in NYC. She has an MFA in Painting from Indiana University.
Earlville artist Jonathan Vaughn’s paintings are featured in “Light and Landscape” in the Arts Café Gallery, a venue devoted to celebrating regional artists of central New York. “... I find the landscape format to be very compelling, but struggle to fight the traditional confines that this format creates. My artwork is alive with bold color and dynamic gesture lines that create a landscape that feels more alive and raw than the physical world. Through my painting I am able to explore my own connection to nature and the places that I have called home.” Jonathan Vaughn teaches art at Sherburne-Earlville Central School.
