(Image: Like a Fish Out of Water, Julie Friedman)
Nature Revealed: The Paper Cuts of Julie Friedman
Opening reception with the artist on Sunday, September 27, 2015, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
The exhibition will be held in the gallery at Firelands Association for the Visual Arts, an arts advocacy and education organization located at 39 South Main Street, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. Gallery hours: Tu-Sa 11-5, Su 1-5. Phone: (440) 774-7158.
Exhibition runs from September 27 – November 8, 2015
Gardening and living close to nature, since moving to Medina County 24 years ago, has slowly influenced Friedman’s artwork. She is drawn to the relationship between the natural world and the man made environment. The themes she investigates relate to the beauty and the power or dominance of nature. Additional touches of magic realism or uncertainty and a mixed up evolutionary process (fish flying, out of scale insects, birds, pets) create a sense of surreality or dreamy make-believe.
The artist finds the physical cutting out of the negative shapes a magical and satisfying act. The abstract shapes fall to the ground to be swept away and reveal the silhouetted image. The shadows created by light illuminating the cutout produce another stratum to the art on walls and floor surrounding and drawing in the viewer.
About the artist:
Julie Friedman studied with book artist Walter Hamady while working on an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She has a B.A. in Interior Design and B.F.A. in Printmaking from Kent State University. She works in multiple media (cut paper, drawing, printmaking, artist books). She is an adjunct professor at Kent State, John Carroll University and Cuyahoga Community College and is also director of Gallery West at Cuyahoga Community College. Friedman exhibits her artwork regionally and across the country. She has received an Individual Artist Fellowship Grant and a 3-month summer residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA through the generosity of the Ohio Arts Council.
Rustbelt Arts 