"Hearts & Flowers" Exhibition

"Hearts & Flowers:
An Exploration of Love"
February 9 -April 30, 2008

Gallery Fifty is currently featuring an all-media exhibition and sale featuring the work of our favorite artists and craftspeople. The show ended up being 2-3 times larger than expected with 80 pieces submitted by thirty artists. Cash prizes were awarded for first, second and third place and nine honorable mentions were awarded:

First Place - David Petrakovitz, "Love Totem"
Second Place - Melonie Steffes, "The Lovers of Verdona"
Third Place - Rod Bearup, "Passion Flower Blossom"

Honorable Mentions:
Debbie Sparks, "Hide and Seek"
Anna Hildebrand, "Lady in Lace"
Julie Pearson, "Live What You Believe... Make Your Whole World Your Art"
Nancy Crisp, "Sudokad"
Rufus Snoddy, "From the Garden of Wisdom"
Carol C. Spaulding, "Splash"
Flora Ricca Hoffman, "RAH"
Timothy G. Lewis, "Valentine Cat & Bird"
Joe DeLuca, "Bleeding Hearts After Dark"

We've already sold twelve pieces, but you can view the available work on-line at www.galleryfifty.com.

Kiss my glass

Tennessee glass artist James Lang creates these kisses to last forever. They come fumed with sterling silver and are about 1" tall. An excellent stocking stuffer or Valentine's Day gift, they can also be used as pendants. Just $5.00 each!

Good, clean fun

Massachusetts designer Rebecca Townsend has packaged these wonderful soaps and potpourris. We find that they make popular "hostess" gifts. (Think: "I spent a week at your beautiful lakeside cottage and all you got was this lousy bottle of wine." You can be a lot more creative than that!)

The potpourri contains oodles of shells, sea glass, scented rock salt and tiny fragrance pearls. Gallery Fifty carries Cottage, Beach, Beach Grass, Sea Warm Sand and Skinny Dip fragrances. Each are 8 oz. and cost $15.00.

We love the frosty, colorful shards of moisurizing glycerine soaps that really look like beach glass! These unique soaps have a wonderful clean, breezy scent. There are approximately 20-25 pieces per package and the cost is $7.50.

Common Ground: Works by Jerry Gates

Common Ground: Works by Jerry Gates
November 3 - December 31, 2007

"Third Thursday" Artist Reception on November 15 from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

At Gallery Fifty, we are really excited and proud to present a comprehensive showing of Jerry Gates' work. The show consists of both framed representational and abstract mixed media paintings. Over seventy-five pieces will by on display and available for viewing on-line at www.galleryfifty.com.

Jerry has been an experimental artist for many years because of his fascination with light and color, surface and texture, subject matter and form. His deep belief in the Jungian premise of a "collective consciousness" has inspired him to create content that will be inwardly understood. His aim has been to take the viewer past the obvious to discover that which lies beyond the surface, with an intangible, but deep understanding of his or her own personal aesthetics.

Jerry holds a Master of Fine Arts degree. He has been an Assistant Professor of Art at Central Michigan University and is currently Adjunct Professor of Art, Northwestern Michigan College.

Artist Statement:
My work, I suspect, is a product of Jungian psychology and familiarity with things past and present. Not unlike the Romantics of the 18th Century, I have attempted to capture both the beautiful and the sublime, something fleeting but still in stasis, something inwardly understood in a universal sense. It is this collective consciousness that I try to tap, a soul tweeking, if you will; this "I think I have been there before" or experienced "this" before.

Someone once said "Art is a lie that enables us to see the truth." When one unearths what is beneath their own aesthetic, they become enlightened to the infinite possibilities of the creative endeavor.

It has been my goal to represent this philosophy by testing my curiosity in different media and subject matter. This has helped me to codify my own existence as silent observer, participant and explorer.

Fiber as inspiration for glass

Alaska artist Tamara Johannes is a multi-media artist who has worked clay, metal, fiber and most recently warm glass. She creates these great handcrafted, kiln-fired, dichroic glass barrettes. They make wonderful gifts of "wearable" art.

Tamera was originally a hot glass beadmaker, but then she began experimenting with the art of fusing glass as a way of combining torch work components into more complex glass jewelry. Using dichroic glass has become one of her trademarks.

Early work in fiber and clay were instrumental in forming a basis for work with glass. Many of her designs have elements of her original quilt work and patterns.

3" barrettes are $24; 4" are $28. We also carry Tamera's earrings and brooches. Come into Gallery Fifty to see our current color/ pattern selection: 800 Cottageview Drive, Suite 50, Traverse City, Michigan 49684.

Leaving our shell behind

The world we live in, even where we have made a mess of it, is full of incredible sights. Tennessee artist Jennifer Adair believes that art should make us pause in our rush to wherever we are supposed to be. "Art should make us remember to be alive right here, right now," she says. "Art should help us see the world we live in."

Jennifer is fascinated by how hard people work in order to make things that look like they were made by something other than a human. "It takes a mollusk to make a nautilus shell. Humans use computers to create fractal images; wind does it with some sand. An agate, a sunset, a butterfly wing: our imperfect copies, whether of manmade stone or canvas and paint, require great effort on our part."

So her glass is about color and light, texture and pattern. And if she really gets it right, an explorer from some other world would wonder, when he looks at her work, what creature had left his shell behind.

Gallery Fifty carries her fused dichroic glass frames and triangle plates. Frames run $42 - $48; Plates are $75 - $95. Call for our current selection: 231-932-0775.

Art & Artifact: Fruits of fire

Married Michigan artists Nathan Grubich and Amanda St.Hilaire-Grubich create soda-fired ceramics that bridge the gap between sculpture and function. Having background studies in biology, oceanography and anthropology their work references found objects and artifacts found amidst nature. The intrigue and interest in nature and the contemporary world creates a correlation between art and artifact. The symbiotic relationship between the two in the studio provides the balance between form and surface texture. Both artists interchangeably use forms and textures created by one another to create a unified body of work.

Gallery Fifty is offering two "Fruits of Fire" sets. The "fruits" are actually rattles with different sounds and tones. They are cradled in a vessel that it approximately 5" tall by 8" in diameter. Sets sell for $270 (shown) and $280 respectively. Email christie@galleryfifty.com for close-up photos and more information.