Aston Mills Arts Group Show: Revitalized
A community of professional fine artists located in the Rockdale Arts District in Aston, PA.
More HERE
Join us Friday, November 4, from 5 to 7 PM for the Opening Reception. The show is on display through Sunday, November 27, 4 PM.
Ann Guidera-Matey
I am a better mother, wife, daughter, friend and co-worker if I carve out time to nurture myself. Being outside in nature is that time for me. In nature, outside I am totally in the moment and able to leave the rest of the world behind. When I return, I’m ready to be with people and to pick up that “TO DO LIST. Life is a balancing act. Energy needed to take care of business and others must be balanced with energy we need to take care of ourselves.
Christine Sirko
Pottery-making as a craft and art form has been attractive to me for a long time. There is in the clay a texture, smell, softness that inspires me. Hold a pot in your hands and see if you can feel the creative strength, beauty and intensity. BE BOLD!
Emie Hughes
Emie Hughes is a mixed-media artist working in the mediums of cyanotype, acrylic, and watercolor in sizes from 6X6 to 48X60. Trained as a modern dancer & choreographer, she sees her work as choreography regardless of medium. As a working dance artist, Emie moves between the mediums of visual art & movement when creating works in her studio.She is also a teaching artist at the Main Line Art Center, Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education, Community Arts Center, and Rockdale Art Center. At the center of her artwork is her love of blue, nature, and magic of the process. Learn more about Emie and her business Blue Jar at www.bluejarLLC.com.
Heidi Hammel - Reclaimed Creations
In 1995, after twenty-five years in Progressive and wilderness education, I began a focused exploration of fiber arts. Two overarching principles guide me. At The School in Rose Valley, which started during the Arts and Crafts Era, I learned that an artisan strives to make quality hand-made objects that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. My bio-physiologist father taught me to honor the intrinsic connections between all things. My art reflects those twin commitments: to create beauty for use in daily life and to judiciously use the world’s resources. I sew wearable art from reclaimed wool sweaters. By using familiar objects out of context, my work provokes the urge to touch, a bit of puzzlement followed by chuckles of recognition.
JoAnn Moy
My favorite childhood memory is when I first reached into a huge bin of finger paints. It was then that I began calling myself an Artist. There was a point in my life where I felt the need to explain art, and when I couldn’t explain it, I avoided it. This left me with a hole in my heart because without art I couldn’t understand, or explain, myself. I’ve learned that I don’t always need to understand, or to explain, and have begun trying to just enjoy art, my life, myself.
LEE MUSLIN
Guided by intuition, I create art that is about expression and movement. I am drawn to the freedom of abstraction and the inherent challenges in painting that is not based in reality. An introvert by nature, it’s in my paintings where I explode. As contradictory as it may seem, I am an avid swing dancer and that energy gets transferred to the canvas. Listening to music while I work, the rhythms and sounds mix with the paint. The process is an ebb and flow, painting spontaneously, then stepping back to evaluate the formal concerns of color, shape, balance and composition to influence my next move. Experimenting with different techniques and materials adds dimension to this visual dance, resulting in many layers of paint over line and texture leaving intriguing traces of what came before.
Megan Lee Wenger
Megan Lee Wenger is an artist mother who makes paintings with anything she can find. Oils and acrylics, found objects, thrifted textiles, pressed flowers, studio trash, and glitter are only some of the mediums she creates with. Many of her paintings stay stretched on a frame, but she also makes wearable art garments for a collaborative project with her partner JP Feenstra called SKINS. Primarily a painter, she also finds joy through embroidery and movement. Megan graduated from Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2016. She now lives in Swarthmore with her family.
Pat Scarano
My art is a reflection of the healing power of nature. Being alone in nature allows me to be truly present in the moment; a place to unplug, unwind and exhale.
So often in life we feel the need to be in control. Daily responsibilities and sometimes unforeseen circumstances can make us feel as if we are in a constant state of over drive. I know. I have been there. Solitary time in nature even for a brief time allows me to process my emotions and recalibrate. The sounds, smells and sheer beauty of nature have an immediate calming effect on me.
When I paint, I try to recreate these moments in a realistic and tangible way using both oil and watercolor as my mediums.
Pete Prown
Many of my oil paintings involve memory and contemplation. I spend a great deal of time seeking these ideals in my art and outdoor explorations. I grew up in Connecticut and Vermont, surrounded by farms, pastures, and wooded landscapes, and this is reflected in my paintings. Everything seems to refer back to that idea, along with my 20-years of work in the professional-gardening sphere of Philadelphia. My ongoing work is about digging deeper into my memories and recapturing my rural reveries.
Rita Reisser
I am an intuitive abstract artist, finding inspiration from organic and geometrical forms in nature.
During the pandemic lock down, I remembered my last trip in 2019 to Iceland.
My time there was in early spring and the fresh, delicate green was just stunning. I was intrigued by the unusual and unique landscape.
I was so in awe that I decided to paint a series with the title: Out of the blue
Robert S. Porter
I live in Chadds Ford, PA and do most of my photography in my studio at the Aston Mills Arts Studios in Aston, PA. My website is www.porterartphotos.com and I’m @robporterphotos on Instagram. I can be contacted at robtexcat@comcast.net
I began with traditional black and white film photography and darkroom work many years ago. Later I switched to digital imaging, and took courses in Photoshop and Lighting at the Institute for Contemporary Photography in New York City. Various online resources and courses have helped me keep up with current techniques. I do all my own printing on a large-format Canon IpF 8400 printer.
Robin Sesan
Discovering Your Strength Beneath the Layers
I create art, using wet clay as my paint. My art with layers of color, pattern, texture and depth tells a story of what is underneath.When you look at my work you might be drawn in by the surface colors, the images or the design. But when you look more closely, layers emerge revealing surprises and hidden gems. Let my art be a gentle reminder of your inner strength, resilience and beauty.
I love sharing my art with others because I am sharing myself and my story.
I am telling you what matters to me.
When I see you connecting emotionally to a piece of mine, it touches me to know that I have added something of meaning to your life and a reminder of how strong you really are at the core.
Sally Richards
"WHAT IS IT YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR ONE WILD & PRECIOUS LIFE?"
My life has been guided by this question posited by Mary Oliver. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, I dreamed of being an artist as a kid. As I grew into young adulthood, I decided to build a career in technology and management consulting, which spanned decades. I loved it. I channeled my creativity into my job—building businesses, inventing new products, creating growth strategies, building great teams.
After my retirement, I decided to refocus on my passion for art. I completed the Certificate Program at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2019. I loved going back to school with students decades younger—I learned so much from them.
Today, I enjoy a full-time studio practice in the suburbs of Philadelphia. My paintings are abstracted, imaginary landscapes that recreate the playful wonder and energy of simpler times for today’s world. I am inspired by the outdoors, childlike play, and exploration. Each painting holds the power to connect you with your own experience of freedom and uninhibited self-expression.
Sara Fry
I make art about life, from human to animal to microbial. I work with a variety of surfaces, anything from cardboard to linen, and I apply any media, from found matter, like mica and dried wood, to traditional materials. I experiment with material in unending combinations and applications. Mounding, grinding, scraping, scarring, assembling and soaking are only a few methods I use in the creation of the image. I take these processes outside within nature. I leave canvases and paper to the elements, putting them in direct paths of streams, burying in the snow and ice all winter, hanging from trees, and so forth. Animal encounters through wooded walks spark inspiration. I think of the experience of meeting and I depict the external representation of that animal as well as their internal essence. What gives a deer, for example, its deer-ish qualities? And what have we as a culture, both currently, historically, and pre-historically, applied to this symbol of a deer? These are the types of questions I ask myself when I make art.
Sharvon Hales
My exploration into acrylic pours is a departure from the restraints of my work as a photographer. The unpredictability of pour painting offers a sense of freedom from the focused composition that is common in my photography. My pours are an expression of my approach to life – plan, but be flexible; prepare, but be ready for the unexpected. The versatility of this artform has given me an outlet to create without being confined to a specific vision, allowing whatever may be, to be.
Veronica Batter
Working in any medium I see fit for my subject, I take inspiration from what’s around me, my life experiences, things discarded, and things that are old. I enjoy studying my surrounding environment, outside or indoors. Mythology, especially the legend of the phoenix, is a source of inspiration. I work with the theme of the phoenix burning then emerging even more spectacular. Things from the past, like old books, papers, colors, images, technologies, stories, bones, and remains all inspire me. Drawing, painting, printmaking, assemblage, wrought iron, collage, fibers, textiles, found objects, wood, cement, plaster, and more are my art media. I have to make art.