ABBY LINDSTROM, UNTITLED 6
CONFLUENCE OF ART ANNUAL EXHIBIT
JAMES HANSEN GALLERY
September 20 - November 10, 2024
Award Ceremony & Reception October 25, 5-7pm
Confluence of Art Annual Exhibition
JAMES W HANSEN GALLERY
September 20 - November 10, 2024
Confluence of Art Annual Juried Exhibit, Featuring Recent Works from Regional and National Artists.
The Confluence of Art Annual Exhibition resides each fall in the James W Hansen Gallery at Pablo Center at the Confluence. Regional and national artists submit their work for review for display in the exhibit with over 50 works crossing different media, techniques, and motifs selected for display in the exhibit each year. Year after year, the volume and quality of works submitted continue to grow and is a testament that the arts scene in the Chippewa Valley and beyond is thriving, alive, and well. We welcome guests and artists alike to participate in the exhibit and share in the artistic excellence of our region. We had over 90 registered artists.
A multi-media experience featuring artworks in a wide range of thoughts and topics. On exhibit will be artworks submitted by artists and selected by our esteemed juror, Amy Fichter. Criteria used to select artwork will be quality of technique, excellence in composition, fulfillment of meaning, and uniqueness. Witness recent and relevant artwork that will enlighten, inform, and entertain.
WELCOME
Pablo Center at the Confluence welcomes you to our fifth season’s visual arts exhibitions. Whether you are able to view these works in person at Pablo Center, or online through our website’s virtual exhibitions, we know that you will experience a heightened expression of humanity and gain a shared appreciation for the arts. Our annual exhibitions Reflected Light: The plein air art of GO Paint, Confluence of Art Annual, and Fabulous Florals & Fine Art explore the experiences of living and creating in the Chippewa Valley. We proudly display works that explore the complexities of the human experience in exhibits such as Indigenous Liberation Through Art, Human featuring the photography of Mark Aumann, and Entertain which delves into the complex experience of being an artist. We turn to the future and spotlight the works of young artists in High School Art Exhibit, and we
take inspiration from the lifetime of works of our region’s master creators, artist leaders, and teachers. Pablo Center is your place to discover vital, meaningful works.
GOOD TO KNOW
PLEASE KEEP A SAFE DISTANCE FROM ALL ARTWORK AND PEDESTALS
Be conscious of backpacks or strollers that may bump into walls, pedestals, or artwork. Do not touch artwork on display unless a label tells you specifically how to interact with the artwork.
SUPERVISE CHILDREN AT ALL TIMES
We strongly encourage children viewing the artwork on display. Please instruct children to not touch artwork on display, to not run in the gallery, and to be kind and respectful of other people viewing the artwork by viewing artworks quietly and keeping a safe distance from others. Children must be supervised by their guardian at all times.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Pablo Center at the Confluence encourages personal photography of our exhibits and permanent art collection. Please use care both for the artwork and the people viewing it. Please no flash.
SKETCHING
Yes, please. You may certainly sketch in our facility. We ask that you use a lapboard or clipboard. Please only use lead or colored pencils. Please do not use the walls or pedestals as supports for sketching.
ARTWORK FOR SALE
All artwork pricing is set by the artist and is non-negotiable and non-refundable. All artwork sales are by commission with Pablo Center at the Confluence. Your purchase supports our endeavors to present quality visual arts programming that is free and open to the public. To purchase a piece, please contact buyart@pablocenter.org. Thank you for considering.
ARTISTS STATEMENTS & BIOGRAPHIES
Statements and biographies are written by the individual artist and are published with their permission. The views expressed are their own. Thank You.
AMY FICHTER, THE JUROR
Menomonie, Wisconsin
Fichter grew up on a farm in southwest Iowa, earned a BA in Art at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, and an MA in Art from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. She was trained in classical anatomy drawing at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, where she earned her MFA. She has been a professor of Life Drawing at the University of Wisconsin–Stout since 2003.
In addition to making figure drawings, Fichter has also worked in photography. Her photographs were featured in the 2016 Wisconsin Triennial at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and her drawings are held in the collections of the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC, the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, AL, and the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, SC. Fichter has had artwork displayed in over 130 exhibitions regionally, nationally, and internationally. Artist Statement
“The body dies, but the soul goes to heaven.” Ever since Amy Fichter was told this as a young child, she has wondered, “But what about the body here and now?” She has always felt a fascination with the body as something that can simultaneously or distinctly experience pleasure and provoke disgust. Fichter finds inspiration in the body’s ability to persist amid pain, illness, turmoil, and injustice. The body is the conduit through which our thoughts and emotions are conveyed. The body connects us to the physical world and reflects our experiences. These ideas are at the heart of Fichter’s drawings.
Fichter is interested not only in the body in general but in the specific bodies of those she loves. Her drawings are portraits of people with whom she has meaningful relationships, whose minds and bodies have shaped her, and vice versa. In the act of drawing those dear to her, Fichter honors these individuals and further deepens her connection to them.
Fichter’s drawings are created one mark at a time, considering how each mark relates to the whole. Through the mark-making process Fichter addresses space, form, and structure, deliberating how much disruption of those elements is needed to express a live body in space and time. Fichter uses color to create a sense of life and abundance, to describe at once a body and that which is more than a body. She is interested in the fact that while we appear static and solid, we are but atoms in perpetual motion. She keeps pondering the question: what is the body, here and now?
ARTISTS & PIECES
Jamie Bowers
On the Upside looking Down
Acrylic and mesh on wood panel
$665
Jamie Bowers
Santa Fe
Acrylic, mesh and oil crayon on wood panel
$765
Becky Bowers
Worlds Colliding
Vintage print with added images and oil crayon
$235
Sharon Dawson
Eclipse Season, Light of the Moon
Oil, Mixed Media on Paper
$2,900
Sharon Dawson
Lunar Cradle I, Svadhistana Oil, Mixed Media on Canvas
$5,500
Sharon Dawson
Falling, Falling Back Oil, Mixed Media, Roots on Paper
$2,900
I work with a fully embodied use of my medium. Layer upon layer of paint is applied then rubbed, scraped and carved through, paralleling the act of introspection. Through this working and reworking of surface, a relationship develops with time. The past, present and future coexist as the creative process is recorded and unfolds. Here is a place where time, as well as the internal and external worlds meet. While my work can be perceived as abstract, many will find a rich landscape of symbolic imagery that offers a visual metaphor of our human condition and our relationship to the natural world. Paintings in this exhibit where thematically chosen to correspond with the second of what astrologer’s call “eclipse season“ this year, SeptemberOctober 2024. The Eclipse is a cosmic event rich in mysticism throughout history as our Earth places herself between the Moon and the Sun. My creative process is meditative, opening a space for internal and external worlds to meet, feeling into the space between material and transcendent that is non-linear, timeless. I hope to share a bit of that energetic connection with the viewer as they move into their personal imaginative space, finding an individual interpretation of my work.
Paula Gorski
Lawn Ornament
Wrapped rope over sphere
$1,500
Patricia Hawkenson
Allure
Colored Pencil
$800
Growing up in the late 60’s, my grandmother would wear a fox around her neck as she went out around town. I was both intrigued and frightened by it. Surely, if someone had to wear a dead animal around their neck, wouldn’t a
lovely scarf like fish be a better choice? Allure shows a woman holding her dance card full of prospects as her gaze tempts a man into her trap.
Kristine Hinrichs
Iceberg
Pigment photographic prints on silk
$600
This silk panel piece involves photographs printed on Habotai and Silk Organza, hung in a series of three to provide a three-dimensional effect. I find that this soft and luxurious silk provides a counterpoint to the hardness of the urban landscape/architecture and adds something unexpected. It also provides a counterpoint to the digital photographic process – one very technology focused – to the living breathing natural silk fabric. I print the panels myself. “Iceberg” is a series of three photographs of reflections in the spine of the Milwaukee Art Museums Brise Soleil.
Lynn Hobart
Smiling Figure with Large Head Covering
Pen, Pencil and colored pencil
$600
This drawing was influenced by Polish textiles, patterns and vegetation found around my home. She is purposely proportioned to be strong and to withstand the rigors of an aging life.
Marlin Hostvet
Lavender Coral
Kiln formed glass
$125
Marlin Hostvet
Earth and Sky
Kiln forned glass
$150
Marlin Hostvet Celebration
Kiln forned glass
$150
I love making kiln-formed fused glass art pieces because they have a beautiful quality in that the glass reflects and refracts light in pleasantly
surprising and sometimes playful ways. Many of my art pieces consist of combinations of transparent, translucent and opaque colored glass. I enjoy creating varying textures and open spaces by strategically layering and interlacing strips and small shapes of glass. I truly hope my completed composition will evoke a pleasing response from you the viewer.
Kay Brathol-Hostvet
Tempest
Soft pastel
$2300
Janice Hovey
Bird Crash with Red Beaks Collage
$550
Janice Hovey
Birdcrash with Raptors Collage
$550
Janice Hovey
What a Marvelous Bird the Pelican Collage
$450
Source Material: Hand cut and manipulated litho prints based on original paintings by John J. Sudubon. Published in “Birds of America:, McMillan Co. NY c. 1941
Steve Immerman
Longevity
Kilnformed glass
$2,195
This kilnformed glass bowl is composed of over 200 individual pieces of glass, and prominently displays chemical reactions between various colors of glass. The glass is menlted in a kiln and then requires signifcant grinding and sandblasting to achieve its final shape and texture. This pieves symbolism regarding life changes is relfected in its title.
Alexandria Mooney Jones
Epipelagic
Fireworks on Canvas
$1700
Alexandria Mooney Jones
Covering Chaos
Fireworks on Canvas
$1700
These piefces were created using only fireworks as the medium, then manipoulating them as the smoke burns. Zero paint, no other trafitional pigments were used.
Trevor Knapp
Grotta Melencolia
Charcoal & Pastel on Paper
$2,800
Grotta Melencolia was created as a means to cope with and express a depression that I wished to escape. Even while I was in the darkest depths of “The Pit”, I still had this flickers of lights that I could see just around the corner. If I could just keep going, just keep persisiting, I woukd see that brightness of life. This work is dedicated to my dear friend Tristan Norine, an artist who also competed and showed his art at the Pablo Center, whom we lost recently. I imagine he found his light.
Beau Lasiewicz
Cesario
Wood, epoxy and steel (big gear)
$2,100
Beau Lasiewicz
Alv
Wood, epoxy and steel (boiler part)
$2,500
Abby Lindstrom
Untitled Green
Untitled Green was my attempt to workwuth only one color. Green has such a wide variety as it has the largest hue range on the color wheel. The outcome of this exploration is a very unified, active painting.
Abby Lindstrom
Untitled 10
Untitled 10 is my attempt at creating a lightsource at the top of my painting. I magine a spot light or streetlamp about the canvas and this is what I tried to emulate by means of paint.
Abby Lindstrom
Untitled 6
Untitled 6 was an exploration between two colors, their balues and their relationships with each other. I used primarily secondary colors, all within a similar small range of values. This piece was also an exploration of subtelty.
Satisfaction. Satisfaction is the word that sticks with me in my art making. My overall drive to paint is to enjoy the process. I want to let paint move, bleed, dance, and do what it wants while also manipulating it just enough to achieve what I strive to achieve. Whether that’s transparency, opacity, loose gestures, or rigid lines, I use paint in reaction to itself. What I try to achieve is dependent on each individual piece. My process is often regimented, but recently has become more about having no planning or strict guidelines given by myself. When something is compelling or inspirational, I lead with that. My (often) geometric style is based on my need for satisfaction. I incorporate organic elements to oppose as well as compliment that stiffness. Part of the satisfaction for me is doing that.
Ellen Mahaffy
My Mothers Youth Diptych
Archival Pigment Print
$750
Ellen Mahaffy
Memorial Day Sermons
Archival Pigment Print
$350
Ellen Mahaffy
Worn by my Great Grandmother: Wedding Dress
Archival Pigment Print
$1,200
Michael Mathews
Tangerine Technica
Mixed Media on Canvas
$200
Michael Mathews
Static Potentials
Mixed Media on Panel
$200
Jeff Nelson
Big Surr
Carved urethane and deckled paper
$895
Jeff Nelson is an artist active in western Wisconsin. Jeff’s art is expressed in two and three dimensions. Currently working with an art collective known as Empty Walls Art he has delved deeper into 3D wall relief. Big Sur is an example of these wall relief pieces. Each relief invites the viewer to move closer and engage with the art.
Kal Norton
Little Star
Acrylic monoprint and mixed media collage
NFS
Denise Presnell
Unconventional Materials Challenge Oil and Cold Wax on Panel
$2500
Janice Roberts
The Local Store Deliveries
Ink and Watercolor
$250
Drawing with ink allows me to render intricate details that would be difficult to achieve with other media. In this piece, soft watercolor washes complement the ink work with additional depth and texture. The iron scrollwork is a classic motif used in many historic architectural landmarks The “World Headquarters” basement entry of The Local Store provides a historic lens through which I can imagine the business a century ago. Contemporary claims to fame include a visit from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz during their Democratic campaign tour.
Amber Michelle Russel
Afterglow
Watercolor and colored pencil on cold press mounted to wood panel
$360
Anders Shafer
Bellows
Gouache, watercolor & ink
$500
Part of a “lost cities” series and history of art.
ANDERS SHAFER, BELLOWS
Barbara Shafer
On Stage
Acrylic
$500
I captured a visiting dance troupe and did a composite painting of dancers, choregraph. Plus, a memory of Big Falls State Park
Barbara Shafer
Duet
Acrylic
$700
Nick Seeger was playing at Banbury Market—I took a few photos of him.
BARBARA SHAFER, DUET
Maureen Skroski
Wissota Wake
Pastel on UArt sanded paper
NFS
For Wissota Wake, I focused on the Nature of water as reflective, transparent, and dynamic. It was challenging to capture the movement and color palette of Lake Wissota. Pastels offer rich pigments and unique texture to experiment with.
Maureen Skroski
Angle of the Sun
Pastel on UArt sanded paper
$1,450
I have painted the Yahara Tribuary (near Stoughton, WI) at various times, seasons, and from different angles. This particular Fall morning, the sun cast a golden glow at a compelling angle. My pastel palette was rich saturated colors contrasted with the softer and yet dynamic sky and water. Fun scene to paint.
Don Urness
Tangled up in Blue
Handmade recycled paper, airbrush
$1,500
Part of the ‘Zentangles Series’ this pieces, like all my pieces, focuses on the changes of color as you move from side to side.
Rachel Urban
Ant Bait
Film Photograph printed on Canvas
$200
Rachel Urban
Loveland Reflection
Film Photograph printed on Canvas
$200
Rachel Urban
When Paths Cross
$200
Film Photograph printed on Canvas
Studied at the University of Wisconsin River Falls (UWRF) with a major focus in photography and minor emphasis in ceramics. Shortly after graduating from UWRF in 2017, she became a transplant to the city of Eau Claire. Her work is inspired by the natural world, the interaction of humans within it and the world of outdoor recreation. In her free time, you can find her practicing yoga, hanging out with her dog, taking care of her houseplants or planning her next adventure. From kayaking down the Chippewa River, snowboarding in the Keweenaw Peninsula with friends, or hiking along the Superior Hiking Trail, you can find Rachel outside and most likely with a camera.
Beau Lasiewicz
Tuatha de Danaan
Wood, epoxy and piano harp
$6,300
Lindamerry Udell
Sanctuary
Watercolor
$500
Sanctuary was painted en plein air and finished in studio from a family vacation to Sheldon Church Ruins in South Carolina. The church was built between 1745-1753 and burned down by the British in 1779 during the Revolutionary War. In 1826, it was rebuilt only to be burned again by General Sherman in 1865. Majestic oaks dripping Spanish moss surround this beauitful site and I can still hear the birds serenading each other in the trees, and smell the damp morning air.
Amy Wahl
The Storm before the Calm
Acrylic on Canvas
$1,400
The Storm Before the Calm, is a reflection on the balance between chaos and serenity. Painted in deep blues and metallics, the piece captures the emotional intensity of a storm and the peaceful stillness that follows, inviting viewers to connect with their own experiences of turbulence and resolution.
Bruce Warren
Eventide
Silver Gelatin Print
$190
This photograph was taken almost at sunset on Cape Cod, MA. Even as the light was starting to fade, the low angle of the sun made for some long dark shadows and brilliant highlights on the sand. Such a high contrast, although challenging, can produce dynamic images, especially with my medium of choice, black and white. For me, growing up in New England, the image has a certain nostalgic or ‘old timey’ feeling to it. Consequently, I chose the now antiquated word eventide, for the title.
AMY WAHL, THE STORM BEFORE THE CALM
JAMES WILLIAM HANSEN
A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Mr. Hansen holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and a Graduate degree from the University of St. Thomas. As an officer of a Fortune 500 company, CEO of a publicly traded technology business, and as an adjunct professor, Mr. Hansen is a supporter of young entrepreneurs and both civic and arts organizations. Mr. Hansen was Chairman of the Board of Jamf Software and its first outside investor. He encouraged the company during his decade as Chair to support the community through employee service programs, started a foundation, and championed art in the office space as a vehicle for employee satisfaction and innovation. This gallery is funded in his name and his belief that service and engagement with the creative class is critical to building a sustainable community that benefits the common good.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We acknowledge that Pablo Center at the Confluence occupies the sacred and ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples. We honor the land of the Ojibwe and Dakota Nations.
INCLUSIVITY STATEMENT
Pablo Center at the Confluence will not remain silent when what the community needs is for its local organizations to represent them. Pablo Center at the Confluence, while listening to and learning from the community, pledges to address structural and historical inequities in the arts, identify and address implicit biases and practices through the organizational structure of Pablo Center, and respond to the events of our time that test relationships within the community through dialogue, educational and artistic programming, and care.
Our first act towards this pledge is the creation of the Committee for Inclusive and Just Engagement and Practices, which is dedicated to the resolution of issues and the creation of opportunities related to social justice.
EXPLORE OUR EXHIBITS
MUSIC MOVES ME: MUSIC INSPIRED
BY CVSO
September 20 - October 20
BRADY & JEANNE FOUST GALLERY
Surprising and charming, this art by area children who have been inspired by the music of the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra will inspire you in return.
INDIGENOUS CONTEMPORARY ART
October 25 - December 1
BRADY FOUST GALLERY
Reception November 8, 5-7pm
Exploring the Native American Experience in the Midwest, Featuring Gordon Coons
TERWILLIGER AND TERWILLIGER: THE ART OF ERIKA AND STEVE
November 18 - January 12
JAMES W HANSON GALLERY
Reception December 13 5-7pm
128 Graham Avenue
Eau Claire, WI 54701
FREE and Open to the public
Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. +1 hour before events
To purchase a work of art, contact: buyart@pablocenter.org