In Our Gallery: September Exhibit
Posted 8/25/2011 / Labels: Visual Arts
The September exhibit in the Ashtabula Arts Center’s gallery will be
“Perception of Life”
by Shirley McElhaney
The work will be on display September 2 - October 2.
An opening reception will be held Friday, September 9, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
McElhaney retired from the Legal Department of the Trumbull County Children’s Services Board after 30 years. She is a self-taught, multi-media artist who is a lifetime resident of Kinsman and pursues her art in her lakeside studio on Kinsman Lake and in her summer home on the bluffs above Lake Erie in Conneaut. Shirley has exhibited her work in numerous places including having had 13 pieces in “The 12th Annual Exhibition and Exchange” in New Plymouth, New Zealand and in “Pearls of the Sea,” a part of the International Collage Collection in Brittany, France.
McElhaney is a self taught artist who has studied Creativity and Surface Design under nationally recognized artist, Sandy Shelenberger of Conneaut, Tom Balbo, artist and Board Member of The Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation in Cleveland and Fran Thompson of Vienna, Oh. She was the owner and artist at her Lakeside Studio retail business for approximately five years. She has also studied Encaustic Design with Lorraine Glessner, Instructor in Fiber & Encaustic Art and Professor at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
McElhaney’s techniques include oils, acrylics, watercolor, collage, figer, surface design, silk fusion, encaustic, collage and mobile installations.
“Art is my expression of passion,” says McElhaney. “My work explores the forms of color, movement, sadness, grief, hope, joy and eroticism. Art is movement within my soul. For me, it is a means of living extremely and abstractly. At times, I incorporate my poetry into my artwork. My art is an interpretation of the world around me and it is my hope that it ignites the viewer’s imagination. I would like the viewer not to have to work at capturing my art, but rather let the art dance for them. Just as two people watch a sunset, both feel it in different ways. Art is my perception of life.”
The Ashtabula Arts Center gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Fri. 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., and Sat. 9 a.m. – Noon.
McElhaney retired from the Legal Department of the Trumbull County Children’s Services Board after 30 years. She is a self-taught, multi-media artist who is a lifetime resident of Kinsman and pursues her art in her lakeside studio on Kinsman Lake and in her summer home on the bluffs above Lake Erie in Conneaut. Shirley has exhibited her work in numerous places including having had 13 pieces in “The 12th Annual Exhibition and Exchange” in New Plymouth, New Zealand and in “Pearls of the Sea,” a part of the International Collage Collection in Brittany, France.
McElhaney is a self taught artist who has studied Creativity and Surface Design under nationally recognized artist, Sandy Shelenberger of Conneaut, Tom Balbo, artist and Board Member of The Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation in Cleveland and Fran Thompson of Vienna, Oh. She was the owner and artist at her Lakeside Studio retail business for approximately five years. She has also studied Encaustic Design with Lorraine Glessner, Instructor in Fiber & Encaustic Art and Professor at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
McElhaney’s techniques include oils, acrylics, watercolor, collage, figer, surface design, silk fusion, encaustic, collage and mobile installations.
“Art is my expression of passion,” says McElhaney. “My work explores the forms of color, movement, sadness, grief, hope, joy and eroticism. Art is movement within my soul. For me, it is a means of living extremely and abstractly. At times, I incorporate my poetry into my artwork. My art is an interpretation of the world around me and it is my hope that it ignites the viewer’s imagination. I would like the viewer not to have to work at capturing my art, but rather let the art dance for them. Just as two people watch a sunset, both feel it in different ways. Art is my perception of life.”
The Ashtabula Arts Center gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. - 8 p.m., Fri. 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., and Sat. 9 a.m. – Noon.
Admission to the gallery and the opening reception are free.
The Ashtabula Arts Center is funded in part by the Ohio Arts Council.
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The Ashtabula Arts Center is funded in part by the Ohio Arts Council.
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