BirdSong all-female exhibit lands at McCrory Timmerman
BirdSong calls the creative to downtown Taylor for its eighth annual invitational art exhibition, Collective Gaze.
Drawing on the collective talent of Eastern Williamson County and the surrounding communities, the all-female show will feature works in oil, encaustics — pigments mixed with hot wax — and pen and ink along with ceramics.
BirdSong: Collective Gaze at The McCrory Timmerman Galleries, 112 W. Second St., will open 6-8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, with an awards ceremony at 7:45. The show will run until March 22.
From left, “Reflecting,” “Connecting” and “Emerging,” creative works by Hutto ceramic artist Elizabeth Bonura, exemplify the creative efforts of the 16 women artists taking part in BirdSong: Collective Gaze. Courtesy photos
About Birdsong
Each year invited artists work through a collective challenge in their chosen medium. Collective Gaze will feature the works of 16 contemporary female artists in their various mediums and styles.
The exhibit is spearheaded by local artist and business owner Judy Blundell.
“Bird is slang for a girl in Australia, and the song is our message,” Blundell said. “The artist looks around the world, and we look for clues. We look for an interpretation. There is so much happening all at once right now on a global level. It feels as though the world is spinning too fast and that everyone is seeing or experiencing this in very different ways.”
Blundell works in oils.
Her creativity is represented in Full Fathom Five Fine Art Gallery, Eastport, Maine and Agora Gallery, New York, New York. She divides her time between Taylor and Pembroke, Maine.
To follow her work, visit www.judyblundell. art/.
Melanie Shaw
Local artist and studio owner Melanie Shaw returns to BirdSong with the striking busts she creates. After studying in New York City, Shaw moved to Bastrop in 2014 and purchased Taylor’s own Art Off Center in 2017.
Now entering its 10th anniversary, Art Off Center is located in the basement of the McCrory Timmerman Building via Potters Alley.
“I feel very blessed that the studio has been able to provide art classes to the community in addition to supporting our favorite nonprofit, Shepherd’s Heart (Food Pantry & Thrift Shop), with our yearly Empty Bowl Fundraiser,” Shaw said.
As a ceramics instructor and artist, Shaw uses an organized approach to create.
“When I’m starting pieces for a perspective exhibition, I work and plan out the larger sections of the pieces, then dive into the details and thematic elements as I get farther into the sculptural details,” she said. “I typically used a digital pin board to brainstorm the ideas at the beginning, then start to morph all those ideas together as I’m working in clay.”
Shaw is known for her intricate glaze work. To achieve her layered finishes, she uses glazes and underglazes and adds oxides to those to obtain a metallic property for her finished work.
“Usually, as I’m working with the clay in the greenware stage, I’ll simultaneously start to run small test tiles through my little testtile kiln with some color ideas with oxides, underglazes or glazes, so I’ll have a basic idea on the finishes for the glaze-kiln firing process,” Shaw said.
To follow Shaw, visit her website melanieshawceramics. com or www. instagram.com/melanieshawceramics/.
For classes, Art Off Center is located at 116 W. Second St., Suite 108.
Rachel Martin
Rachel Martin, the retired assistant dean for student affairs of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas, is based out of Taylor. She spent many years in Comancheria, in the Texas Panhandle and northern New Mexico.
For Collective Gaze, Martin will show a series of 18-inch by 24-inch drawings on Stonehenge paper with India ink, watercolor and Prismacolor pencils.
“My work is always figurative, and my subject matter is class and poverty, the lives of women and girls, and startling childhood memories,” Martin said.
Martin creates out of her studio in Taylor, usually assisted by one dog and two cats as she works on the floor.
“I was trained as a dancer, it is much more natural and comfortable for me to work on the floor than standing at an easel,” Martin said.
For the upcoming show, Martin’s work will explore contemporary American society.
“I prefer to work with ‘poor’ materials such as salvaged wood, paper bags, cardboard, house paint and papier-mâché because I am deeply concerned about the effects of waste and landfills on our planet and the utility of artmaking itself in the 21st century,” Martin said.
Drawing on her past, she uses strong contour outlines, mimicking her first artistic outlet of girlhood: coloring books.
“Surrounded by desert, oil fields, uranium mines, carbon-black plants and a nuclearweapons assembly center, I was aware of deadly chemicals, air pollution and water-scarcity issues from my earliest childhood,” Martin said.
Her website is galleryrachelmartin. com and she captures daily life on her Instagram @ eye_love_taylor_tx.
She is a founding member of the feminist performance-art collective Hard Women, a board member of Taylor Studio Tour and has performed, danced and exhibited at many venues in Taylor, Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Martin regularly travels as an Argentine tango dancer.
Elizabeth Bonura
Elizabeth Bonura is the owner of Bonura Studios in Hutto. She is a professional sculptor specializing in figurative and public art that explores themes of family, connection and transformation.
“My figurative sculptures explore the beauty and complexity of reflection and transformation within the human experience. While the figures may be captured in a moment of stillness, I strive to express their internal reflection and convey a sense of movement within that stillness,” Bonura said.
Bonura’s work has been featured in publicart installations across Central Texas, including the Bee Cave Sculpture Garden, Cedar Park Sculpture Garden, Georgetown and Hutto.
Outside of her studio, Bonura fosters the arts in her community and is the vice president of the Texas Society of Sculptors and president of Hutto Arts Today.
“I continue to inspire and connect with others through the transformative power of art,” Bonura said.
She teaches a weekly figure sculpting class at Bonura Studios, 3333 CR 119, No. 17, Hutto.
Her work is on Instagram at https:// www.instagram.com/ bonurastudios.
For more about upcoming classes, visit her website at https:// bonurastudios.com.
