EXHIBIT+CONNECT
The source for exhibition interviews, essays, critical analysis, inspiration, and more.
Carmen Drake | Kristen Valle Yann | Sarah Siltala | Spring Invitational
May 7 – 27
SPRING INVITATIONAL | BRINGING IN THE MAY
Artist Highlights: Katie G. Whipple, Christina Weaver, Russell Gordon & Noemi Zavoli
KATIE G. WHIPPLE
KGW I only got two petals painted because I scrapped out my morning work and changed the composition of the flower on the panel. I’m much happier with these two petals in a better position than a finished flower in a bad composition. This pink poppy was too beautiful to not put in the painting, though!! If you swipe to the next photo you can see how I begin painting poppies. I do a general drawing/block-in/ebauche with some loose brushwork, and then paint petal-by-petal until finishing the flower. With poppies I always leave the centers to paint last, as they don’t move!
The blue Mylar sheets tacked to the wall in the background are the beginnings of a cartoon. This small poppy painting is a study for a big piece. Painting poppies is such a happy place for me, few flowers are as graceful, beautiful, and varied. 
“The beautiful is as useful as the useful …perhaps more so.”
— Victor Hugo on flower gardens in Les Misérables.
I really, really, really love flowers. They make me extremely happy. This time of year is so full of excitement and anticipation for me as little green leaves poke up through the mud.
I have been working on this pansy painting the last couple weeks. I started it in 2018 and abandoned it, then I went to my local garden center and was re-inspired.
This painting is more an exercise in spontaneous delight of color than anything else. I’m having fun thinking about all the ways I can cover that burnt umber ground.
I’ve been working on not taking myself so seriously in the studio and allowing myself to play. No better time to work on that than spring, when Nature is having the most fun.
Life is hard. Play with colors. 
I hadn’t painted flowers from life in so long! This was a really good opportunity to let myself play without being too concerned about the outcome. I just kept adding random pansies, then it was a bit of a challenge at the end to attempt to pull it all together. My husband told me it reminded him of Redon, which if you know me is the highest compliment I could ever receive. 
so on that note, I considered it a huge win.
Follow Katie on Instagram @katiegwhipple
Noemi Zavoli
(Forlì 1960) Italy
Artist Statement:
After completing my art studies in Ravenna and Venice, where I delved into the painting techniques related to the Italian tradition, I dedicated myself completely to painting. I started to approach the idea of “interior & space” after my experience with Graham Rust.
In addition to the creation of oil paintings and watercolors on paper, I created frescoes for private and public spaces, and decorations of entire rooms and objects, pursuing the idea of mimesis and total immersion in the natural elements.
I also collaborated with Sellerio editions, a historic Italian novels publisher, making covers of books and with Italian fashion brands working on specific illustrations and projects.
This series of works is inspired by my passion for nature and by the idea of the “cabinet of curiosities” of the eighteenth century. These works, however, do not represent a collection of exotic oddities or novelties, nor are they substitutes for reality, quite the contrary, they are intended as botanical studies, as an exaltation of what surrounds me. My subjects are the plants and elements that belong to my daily life which I come across and observe while walking in my garden, which mark the passing of the seasons.
My visual language is strongly influenced by classical Italian painting with its thin, transparent layers of colour, soft shades, and the theatrical chiaroscuro which I use to highlight the characteristics and tonal values of my subjects immersing them in a silent and meditative atmosphere within a confined space – like in a diorama. I aim to evoke a story, a small tale studded with simple elements. The scene appears to be crystallized, suspended, and it is at that moment that I insert a small animal, a country mouse, or an insect, a pure flicker of life, pursuing the idea of a poetic realism of small things.
Russell Gordon
Christina Weaver
“Flowers and foliage provide rich opportunities for the study of color, shape, and form. Fleeting light, transient weather, and moving components confuse the process. These two paintings document experiences from the natural world, where I aim to both control and embrace the chaos of my living, ever-changing subjects.”
