HUE Catalogue

All Rights Reserved, 2023.

Don Coomes Travis Childers Mira Hecht P D Klein Jean Sausele-Knodt Madeline A.Stratton Gaylia Wagner Curated by Rula Jones June 23 2023 August 25 2023

Introduction: Each of the artists included in Hue approach color in a myriad of ways. In many of the works, color is the point, the singular subject matter, while in others, color is carefully considered within its context to form, texture and concept.

For Don Coomes’ work, overall color is constructed through an overlay pattern of small distinct brushstrokes of other colors. The effect causes the colors to oscillate. Paint is applied assiduously and distinctly, causing the piece to appear, almost, computer generated.

Travis Childers’ work is composed of values or shades of a singular color. He appropriates his color from reproduced photographs found in newspapers and then collages the colors in a loose grid formation, which is then overlaid onto 3-D forms that evoke islands or irregularly-shaped planets. The resulting effect suggests the perspective of farmland from a bird’s eye point of view or from an airplane.

Mira Hecht’s work plays with transparency and luminosity of color. Translucent spheres overlap each other playfully creating an illusion of chromatic effervescence.

P D Klein’s work uses color in different ways. Her assemblage works explore cascading colors using an intriguing array of bright found objects. Her collages of interwoven materials explore bright patterns of color arranged in abstract formations.

Madeline A Stratton’s work is about time and place in memory.

Materials used are diverse and playful. Bright flat colors playfully contrast shiny, reflective textures while the deceptively seemingly simple constructions evoke child-like renderings of 3-D spaces.

Complex 3-D compositions inform color in Jean Sausele-Knodt’s assemblages. A whirlwind of forms, overlap and obscure each other. New compositional variations appear to emerge as the viewer changes perspective. The two works in the exhibition use similar or monochromatic hues imparting a sense of harmony.

Color, geometry and surface are carefully considered in Gaylia Wagner’s minimal works. The nuances between these three elements suggests a numerical or mathematical consideration, which in turn, evokes a musicality.

My work is non-objective and relies heavily on obtaining a final image through a process involving the use of color as well as texture that results from brush strokes or marks that are applied by hand to the painting surface. Texture is achieved largely through the brush marks, which distribute the paint applied unevenly. The colors used in the paintings are normally not predetermined; instead I base my color choices in response to the color(s) that already sit on the painting surface.

I employ an allover painting process in which I begin the application of a particular color at the upper left-hand portion of the surface. Using short brush marks that are loosely applied in a diamond-grid pattern, I apply paint going from left to right (and down) on the painting surface until the bottom-right portion of the surface is reached. This process is continued repeatedly until I determine that the painting is completed.

–Don Coomes

Birthday Fun in Myrtle Beach, Don Coomes, oil on board, 12” x 12”

Procrustean Card Table, Don Coomes, oil on board, 30” x 30"

My relationship with color, like most relationships, is complicated. I tend to shy away from using too much color in my work because I feel it dominates a piece and has the potential to distract from an idea. But color is everywhere and one way or the other you have to consider it. When I do use color, I prefer to use it in a way that it appears in the real world. I cut out images from newspaper, such as plants and skies, and rearrange them to create new ways of seeing and dialogue. The color you see is the color you would see, although through a second source from being printed on newsprint.

—Travis Childers

Vegetation #6 Travis Childers.

Images of plant life cut out of newspaper and collaged onto stretched and shaped canvas, archival adhesive 19” x 3” x 3”

Vegetation #2 Travis Childers Images of plant life cut out of newspaper and collaged onto stretched and shaped canvas, archival adhesive 13” x 3” x 3”

I think of color as a vital and exciting way to draw the viewer into the world I’ve created.

Each painting becomes an exploration of color relationships. Color brings a vibrant energy and aliveness to my work.

–Mira Hecht

Beginning, Mira Hecht, oil on canvas 17" x 15"

Mirage, Mira Hecht, oil on canvas 17" x 15"

Eye to Form is Love, Mira Hecht, Oil on canvas, 24” x 21”

Typically, I work in grayscale, black & white, and ‘non-hues’. However, I've recently been experimenting with vibrant color, and I find that color combinations and interactions add to the unexpected, aleatoric process of making, which underlies the work.

–P D Klein

Untitled (midsummer), P D Klein Mixed media wall-mount assemblage 20” tall x 2” wide x 2” deep 2023

Untitled (WTF?!), P D Klein Mixed media wall-mount assemblage 19” tall x 2” wide x 3.5” deep 2021

Untitled (betwixe), P D Klein Collage (repurposed printed cardboard) 9” x 9” framed 2023

Untitled (crisscross), P D Klein Collage (paper & watercolor) 9” x 9” framed 2023

My work is an investigation of the memory and importance of domestic objects and spaces. Utilizing traditional media such as paint, textiles, thread, and printmaking, I challenge myself to create representations stemming from my memory. By creating silhouettes of objects and simplified structures of empty spaces, I aim to convey both absence and belonging. I search for ways to memorialize and find comfort in the objects of daily rituals and the spaces in which they take place.

While drawing from places and times specific to me, I hope the viewer can enter into a reflective journey of their own space and memory.

–Madeline A. Stratton

Dominoes Falling on Linoleum Floors, Madeline A. Stratton, Acrylic and glitter on wood, 45’ x 60”, 2020.

She Knew What to Do, Madeline A. Stratton, fabric and Flashe on wood, 49 x 27 x 15.5 in., 2022.

Fake Walls for Real Flowers, Madeline A. Stratton, acrylic, fabric, and vinyl on wood, 36” x 38.25”, 2020.

Color certainly has been a primary focus in my studio, including trying to leave it out altogether.

However, I find it usually takes center stage, revealing exciting possibilities of sequence, transition and gesture. Color helps to animate the way the eye moves through my assemblages as it punctuates the space with hue, value, temperature and intensity. Yet it can also create a messy chaos as countless ideas unfold, clash, need to be wiped out and resolved. Indeed, if the color works, the piece works. Even though my work has become progressively sculptural, I do continue to mix and apply color from a limited palette of oil pigment - and still often refer to the work as painting.

—Jean Sausele-Knodt

New Community, Jean Sausele-Knodt, 19” x 31” x 11”, oil on black walnut and birch plywood, 2022.

Wishful Thinking, Jean Sausele-Knodt, oil on black walnut and birch plywood, 19” x 21” x 10”, 2022.

I use color in my artwork to draw the viewer’s eye to the subject. The flatter and more opaque the color, the more it contrasts with the reflection and depth of an unpainted metal surface. The colors I choose come from a limited palate of those tied to personal experiences, and the same ones are repeated throughout my work.

—Gaylia Wagner

Tile Dream 001, Gaylia Wagner, etched copper, patina, spray enamel, 5.25″ x 6″, 2016 – 2021

Approach and Recede Study 003, Gaylia Wagner, etched copper, patina, spray paint, 6” x 6”, 2020

Future #2, Gaylia Wagner, etched steel, patina, tinted gesso, India ink, 6” x 6” 2017

Present #2 Gaylia Wagner etched copper, patina, tinted gesso, India ink, 6” x 6” 2017

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