Patricia Bellan-Gillen says that somewhere in my brain, personal narrative mixes with fairytales. Historical events intertwine with the imagined and a veil of nostalgia blurs the border between fact and fiction. Sacred imagery moves about in the temporal lobe with iconic characters from children's stories and recent news flashes picked from the internet join the sagas of black and white television. My mixed media drawings and collages use these bits and pieces of visual history...the stones and bones of memory... to suggest a narrative and to engage the viewer's associative responses.
The drawings combine imagery generated through reading and study with imagery that is personal and intuitive. Iconic figures from book illustrations and cultural, religious and dream symbols share the platform with the characters that appear and press on my mind with no explanation.
Patricia Bellan-Gillen was born in Beaver Falls, PA and lives and works in rural Washington County, Pennsylvania adjacent to the West Virginia border. She is retired from Carnegie Mellon University after 29 years as a professor in the School of Art where she held the Dorothy L. Stubnitz Endowed Chair. The university honored her with the Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching in 2000.
Patricia has been active in the Pittsburgh art scene since 1977 as an exhibitor, educator and mentor. In 1995, she was the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts “Pittsburgh Artist of the Year.”
Lingering: Contemplations in Clay is a collection of ceramic sculptures of predominantly female figures and faces with abstracted forms and dreamlike components. The works in this exhibition were created in contemplation of the lasting impact of profound life experiences – among them my mother’s dementia and the isolation of a global pandemic. These pieces are psychological self-portraits, but despite ties to personal experience they are rooted in themes familiar to almost everyone: grief, anxiety, self-doubt.
I am interested in how our memories are stored; the neural pathways and chemical interactions that write the invisible maps of our emotional lives. The symbols and markings on my figures form a kind of legend, alluding to milestones or meaningful events that would otherwise remain concealed. Overall, these pieces invite the viewer to linger, to feel something familiar, and to consider the shapes of the stories that persist in our minds
Jessica Bloch-Schulman is a figurative ceramic sculptor living in Greensboro, NC. After completing a BFA in Design at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she worked in digital media for more than 20 years before discovering clay in 2021. Her work explores the landscape of the mind, memory and the connections that bind us.
Join Piedmont Arts for an opening reception in honor of the museum's new exhibit, Art of the Quilt. Fre
e and open to the public. Complimentary wine and light refreshments. Live music.
RSVP attendance here by November 7, 2024
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