- September 20, 2024
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"Quiet Refuge" by Ron Lace. Courtesy photo.
"Peeled" by mixed media artist Judi Wormeck. Courtesy photo
"Place I wish to Find" by Maggie Corder. Courtesy photo.
Art by Jan Jackson. Courtesy photo.
Art by Mike Gleason. Courtesy photo.
"Morning Hunt" by Ron Lace. Courtesy photo.
"Letting Go" by Maggie Corder. Courtesy photo.
Art b y Jan Jackson. Courtesy photo.
"Jump the Sun" by Maggie Corder. Courtesy photo.
Art by Mike Gleason. Courtesy photo.
Art by Jan Jackson. Courtesy photo.
Art by Mike Gleason. Courtesy photo.
Art by Mike Gleason. Courtesy photo.
Art by Mike Gleason. Courtesy photo.
The Grand Gallery at Grand Living Realty has a new name and four new artist/curators to join Jan Jackson.
Jackson has been the gallery's curator for the past three years.
The venue is now known as Expressions Art Gallery with artists Judi Wormeck, Ron Lace, Maggie Corder and Mike Gleason joining Jackson as curators.
"I got really tired of doing it all," Jackson said. "All of us have experience curating, so we make a really strong unit."
The gallery is currently showing the five artists' works, and it is booked through the end of the year with other area artists featured.
"There are a lot of artists in this area," said Corder, who used to be the show director at the Flagler County Art League at City Market Place.
The FCAL went virtual during the COVID-19 shutdown, and was forced to close down shortly after.
"After COVID, people never came back. They were still afraid," Corder said. "We sublet our space to a church, so we were able to close without going into debt."
Jackson said the five artists' objective is for the gallery at 2298 Colbert Lane to become more of a presence in the area. Expressions won't be a business, she said.
"We're forming as a service," said Jackson. "When people want to buy an artist's piece, they pay the artist directly. We do charge a fee (to the artist), and when a new art league opens, we'll donate the money to them."
Lace said he hopes Expressions can help fill the void.
"We're forming as a service. When people want to buy an artist's piece, they pay the artist directly. We do charge a fee (to the artist), and when a new art league opens, we'll donate the money to them."
JAN JACKSON
"I decided it would be worthwhile to get involved and help promote the arts, particularly after the Flagler County Art League folded," he said.
Jackson said the back room at Grand Living Realty will be a permanent home for the artwork of the five curators.
They are now working to reserve artists for next year. Corder said they have a show tentatively scheduled for February that will be dedicated to high school artists from Matanzas, Flagler Palm Coast and other area students.
Wormeck was the 2016 Gargiulo Art Foundation Artist of the Year. Jackson was the foundation's 2020 Artist of the Year.
Corder and Lace primarily work with acrylics.
"I just love the expression of art and the painting process," Lace said. "I paint what interests me on a particular day or catches my eye whether it's the beach, cows in a pasture, birds or people."
Corder calls herself an emotional painter.
"I try to make people feel something, whether it's from a story somebody told me or places they have been," she said.
Gleason, who worked with Wormeck at the FCAL, is a self-taught artist who works mostly in acrylics and does mostly abstract work.
"I do a lot of pen and ink drawings," he said. "I also like lots of color."
