Did you know that Women’s History Month was originally Women’s History Week? The purpose of Women’s History Month is to increase consciousness and knowledge of women’s history, to take one month of the year to remember the contributions of notable and ordinary women, in hopes that the day will soon come when it’s impossible to teach or learn history without remembering these contributions.
“To be strong does not mean to sprout muscles and flex. It means meeting one’s own luminosity without fleeing, actively living with the wild nature in one’s own way. It means to be able to learn, to be able to stand what we know. It means to stand and live.”
Paseo Art Space is celebrating Women’s History Month with an exhibition featuring six female Oklahoma artists. Luminosity features a wide variety of works that will leave the viewer intrigued and inspired. Visitors of the gallery during this Women’s History Month will find the walls filled with surreal photography by Sam Charboneau, watercolor and ink by Caroline Cohenour, collage and paintings by Madeleine Schmidt, abstract paintings by Kendall Schulz, prints mounted on wood by Virginia Sitzes and oil paintings on fabric by Twyleen Tepe.
Strange and surreal scenes from Charboneau and Tepe will draw you in to example the details of their elegant and haunting works. Sitzes and Cohenour’s bright and winding lines and shapes will exhilarate and inspire you. Compare the ways that Schulz uses basic shapes to create quilt like patters on canvas, and how Schmidt uses them to collage vignettes of often overlooked settings and situations.
Luminosity will open on First Friday at the Paseo Art Space and can be viewed throughout the month of March, Tues-Sat 12-5pm.
Follow the Paseo Arts District on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date on all the exciting things taking place in Oklahoma City’s unique arts district.
Sam Charboneau
Sam first picked up a camera as a release. A healthy way to discharge the ever-growing angst of being forced to grow up, get a job and work while she died. In doing so, she re-discovered a long-forgotten dream world, lost to the monotony of domestic survival. Sam pulls inspiration from surreal painters and stop motion animators, building puppets and sets to bring to life the delicate world she almost forgot about. As a self-taught artist, using the traditional methods of trial and error, she is always evolving the procedures with which these additions get built. In creative recycling efforts, Sam has challenged herself to mostly use what she has available or what she can find second hand.
Falling deep into the internet rabbit hole in early 2014, artist Sam Charboneau stumbled across surreal photography and knew she’d found her home. Being able to capture her many interests with a camera, then strategically arrange them into a single image through Photoshop, offered her the unlimited possibilities she didn’t realize she needed. Her work is composed of mostly self-portraits, hand-built creatures and natural elements to bring her serious, yet lighthearted dreams into reality. Sam creates art to say something truthful, to share a story, and connect with strangers. Her unique vision nudges at the imagination of her viewers, sparking curiosity and with any luck, digging up a long-forgotten dream of their own.
Kendall Schulz
Kendall began pursuing art as a hobby while working as an accountant in Chicago. As a person who loves order, routine and predictability, abstract painting constantly pushes her out of her comfort zone. Although the end product is unplanned, each line is very thoughtful and intentional.
She loves lines, layers, color and contrast. Inspired by the patterns and colors in quilts and Native American trade blankets, she builds up multiple layers to achieve a patchwork, ‘broken-in’ feel.
A love of sewing lead her to deconstruct paintings and use them as textiles in mixed media collages. She finds great joy in making new things from old, striving to use what she has, recycling materials from past projects and unlikely sources. These collages are her effort to reuse, repurpose and reinvent remnants that would otherwise be discarded.
Caroline Cohenour
Named after her artist grandmother and her art patron great-grandmother, art is in Caroline Cohenour's blood. After spending most of her adult life in California, she returned to her beloved native Oklahoma. Both states heavily influence her work.
She creates her colorful and evocative abstract originals intuitively, often listening to music. Layers of paint, marks, words, numbers and symbols give the viewer entrée to find something new in each look with unexpected titles offering additional dimension. A mixed media and wholly analog artist, Caroline paints and collages with watercolor, ink, pencil, charcoal, and acrylic atop paper, wood and canvas.
Her current explorations hatched during a four-year tenure as a resident artist at In Your Eye Gallery in the Paseo Arts District. Her work is part of collections coast to coast and beloved by designers; you may have spied pieces at a West Elm Pop Up. You can find her one of a kind, original art work at ME Home, at her OKC studio by appointment, by commission or on her Instagram.
Virginia Sitzes
Virginia Sitzes is an artist living and creating in Oklahoma City, OK. Originally from Denton, Texas, Virginia received her BFA from the University of Oklahoma where she studied printmaking and painting. She has exhibited, as well as taught workshops, across Texas and Oklahoma. She and her work have been featured in publications and podcasts. Virginia is also an active arts organizer. She co-founded the emerging artist collective, Art Group OKC, and has curated various pop-up shows in houses, alternative art galleries, and non-traditional venues.
There is freedom in letting go of control. My work, in a literal sense, is a visual manifestation of my inner thoughts. While playing with the merging of mediums, a brush, a screen, a needle, I let intuition guide my mark making. I play with process and abstraction while letting my brain subconsciously deal with moments, thoughts, and memories. I hope to give a glimpse of what it may be like to walk down a tiny stream, gather around a campfire at the end of the day, or stand in the midst of waves crashing during the setting of the sun. My work is meant to forge a connection with the viewer; the mark making extracts my personal emotions, thoughts, and memories in visual form. I want to express the desire to cry, to laugh, to dance, and to sleep all at the same time, through layers and colors. My work becomes more than just a visual experience; it evokes an emotional response.
Madeleine Schmidt
Madeleine Schmidt is a Tulsa artist, born and raised in Oklahoma. Always encouraged to explore, build, and create, she frequently visited local art museums. These experiences aided in her pursuance of an artistic career. Schmidt, an award-winning artist, received her BFA in Painting from the University of Tulsa. Post-graduation, she studied in Colorado with ceramic artist Linda Dewey and world-renowned painter Karen Vance. She then went on to work for ahha Tulsa, as well as teaching several art classes. She currently manages Adorn Designs, a Tulsa-based holiday, gift and home design store, and strives to use creativity in every aspect of her life.
My paintings and collages are a direct result of observing spaces that can often be overlooked, but are so critical to our daily functionality. Painting from life offers the opportunity to explore unique moments of light and color. The shapes that I incorporate are a direct result of the settings that I tend to include in my oil paintings. They are inspired by what I encounter in everyday life or just looking around a room. Sometimes, the shape of the paper stands out just as it is, while other times I cut the paper into something different and specific. Interior spaces and small vignettes reflect my interest in design and architecture, as well as the bits and pieces of personal spaces I inhabit on a daily basis. I focus on discovering the relationships between light, color and form encountered in these settings and situations. Whether it is in my paintings or collages, working perceptually ensures that I am constantly utilizing the visual experience of my surroundings.
Twyleen Tepe
Merging textural fabrics and classical oil painting, Twyleen creates elegant portraits and enigmatic landscapes with nostalgic charm. Twyleen’s paintings feature realism, impression- ism, impasto, brocade fabrics, upholstery, rhinestones, and found objects which, when mixed together, create an array of textures that keeps the viewer delighted as their eyes wander across the canvas. Born and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Twyleen grew up loving art. Her love for texture and color prompted her to study fashion design at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, but she could never forget her first love for creating with a paintbrush. She now indulges in both her loves as she creates her “fabric paintings” while living in Enid, OK.
BY CONNOR CUMMINGS
PAA Intern