- September 11, 2024
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Expressions Art Gallery curators Mike Gleason, Jan Jackson, Maggie Corder, Judi Wormeck and Ron Lace will have their art on display through Sept. 28 in the Five Expressions show at the gallery inside Grand Living Realty in Palm Coast. Courtesy photo
Turtle Moon, mixed media, by Jan Jackson.
The Dance, acrylic, by Mike Gleason.
Taking Flight, mixed media, by Judi Wormeck.
Baby Found a Safe Place to Hide, acrylic, by Maggie Corder.
Fire on the Mountain, acrylic, by Maggie Corder.
Apalachicola John, acrylic, by Ron Lace.
Beach Party, acrylic, by Ron Lace.
For the past two years, five local artists have been working together to curate the Expressions Art Gallery inside Grand Living Realty, 2298 Colbert Lane in Palm Coast.
On Sunday, Aug. 18, they held a reception for their own show at the gallery, “Five Expressions,” which will run through Sept. 28.
This is their second curator show, and the first in two years. The challenge, said Jan Jackson, was giving each of the artists equitable space. Judi Wormeck and Ron Lace have much larger work than Jackson, Maggie Corder and Mike Gleason.
Just as the five artists all have areas of expertise as curators, they also have diverse styles. The result is an eclectic mix. Here’s a look at each of the artists and their work:
Mixed media artist Jan Jackson’s work has taken a dramatic turn in the past couple of years.
“It’s more authentic, going back to what I did as a child, ripping, cutting paper,” she said.
In “Turtle Moon,” she arranged fabric by color and groupings. She said she knew she wanted to create a turtle. From there the work flowed.
“I’d see pieces that I’d want to put in it and some might not have anything to do with the turtle,” she said. “So, the work was intuitive as opposed to having an idea and what may be a still life or some kind of structure.”
Judi Wormeck is the other mixed media artist in the show. A retired art teacher, Wormeck’s whole career has been involved in the arts.
Like Jackson, she uses paper, but her collages may also include glass, copper and clay. She combines paints and glazes, graphics, fibers and other textural elements in her work.
“Never content to use materials in a traditional way,” she says in her artist’s statement, “my work reflects a need to explore and experiment in an innovative manner. … My use of a limited color pallet gives energy, drama and a framework to mostly abstract and flowing forms. The process is like creating a puzzle. The end result is a labor of love.”
Maggie Corder became a painter after she retired at 55 and moved to the mountains of Georgia.
“It was a whole different experience,” she said.
Her acrylic paintings tell a story: a bear cub stretched out in the hollow of a tree in “Baby Found a Safe Place to Nap,” and families watching a fireworks show at dusk across pink-tinged water in “Fire on the Mountain.”
Corder said when she was younger she tried watercolors but didn’t have the patience.
“With acrylics you can paint on top of things,” she said. “You wouldn’t believe how many canvases I have in my room.”
Her record, she said, is painting over one canvas five times.
Mike Gleason was a math teacher before he retired and it shows in most of his work, he says.
Jackson said you can see the math influence in many of Gleason's pieces, but when he gets away from that, “he’s got a very delicate, beautiful touch.”
His acrylic piece, “The Dance,” has flowing geometric shapes. He also does colored pencil and ink drawings and more abstract paintings. He taught math for 38 years and didn’t begin painting until after he retired. He has been painting for 18 years now.
Although he has collected art his whole life, he said has had no art training and can’t explain why he never had the urge to paint or draw earlier in life.
Ron Lace majored in art at Arkansas State University, but upon graduation, he didn’t follow art as a career. He was a Baptist minister for 20 years then went to work in IT for Fed Ex.
When he retired in 2012 he started painting. His work is eclectic, he said. Whatever strikes him may become a subject, like the grizzly sailor, “Apalachicola John,” or birds wading in the water in “Beach Party.”
Lace’s acrylic paintings are as large as life. Beach Party is three feet wide by four feet long.
“I try to keep my backgrounds loose,” he said.
In his artist statement, Lace says his art is a means to document his impressions of the world around him.
“I enjoy painting a variety of subject matter,” he says. “Since moving to Florida, I have spent a large amount of time painting scenes that hopefully reflect the natural beauty of the state's landscape and wildlife.”
For more information on the show, call Jackson at 505-688-3190.
