23 AAG Members in Belton Juried Show

Twenty-three Anderson Artists Guild members had artwork selected for inclusion in the 2022 juried show at the Belton Center for the Arts. Juror Isabel Forbes selected about half of the 144 entries by over 75 artists. The show opened with a reception on Sept. 24 and continues through Nov. 4.

Ten AAG members won awards. Kathy Moore won the $250 third place award for Building Communities (found objects/acrylic). Purchase awards of $500 and $350, respectively, went to Sherron Fergason for Carolina Marsh (oil with palette knife) and to Matthew Brophy for The Heart of Ukraine (raku fixed ceramic). Merit awards were given to JoAnne Anderson, Kathy Moore, Rosemary Moore, Donna O’Hara, Ray Richards, Leslie Wentzell, and George Crown.

Other AAG members in the show include Teresa Anderson, Evelyn Beck, Jane Friedman, Carolyn Gibson, Ravinder Malik, Brenda McLean, Al Morris, Wesa Neely, Karen Powell, Diann Simms, Lori Solymosi, Sue West, and Akasha Wood.

Here are comments by members receiving the top awards:

Kathy Moore’s Building Communities

“As an assemblage artist, I revel in using found objects that most people consider mundane and useless. The assemblage process is a quest for me to bring these pieces together to tell a story. My assemblage Building Communities is a narrative about communities discovering what they care about and working together for a common goal.”

Sherron Fergason’s Carolina Marsh

“My husband I are recent transplants to the Carolinas; we just love the beautiful landscapes as well as the people. On one of our expeditions out to the coastline, we ran across this marsh that was a peaceful reprieve from the many miles we had traveled. It was one of those moments that you just had to take a multitude of pictures. Carolina Marsh was composed out of these pictures as well as two other paintings. The medium of choice for this painting is oil using both brushwork and a palette knife. I would say my style is more impressionist with a modern flair. In my home studio, I used a limited palette of paints and multiple layers to build up the luminosity of the waters and sky. “

Matthew Brophy’s The Heart of Ukraine

“I threw this piece several months before I glazed it. It had an unusual shape and I couldn’t think of how to glaze it, so it sat and sat. One day as I looked at it sitting on the shelf, I thought it looked similar to a heart. After this thought I watched the news for a bit which had many segments on Ukraine. Then I felt the heartbreak I was experiencing after watching. I knew then I had to make a design featuring a heart breaking but not broken. The blue and yellow band around it represents the countries that are united in helping Ukraine. The heart itself is open and exposed but is patched by the people uniting around their government and countrymen and how they work together to keep the heart intact. I fired it raku so it would show the smoke and flames that represent war and the cracks all around it that are visible but still holding together.”

For more information about the juried show, you can view the program at https://www.beltoncenterforthearts.org/jas-program.