Set the clock back to Saturday, Jan. 3 at Millworks Art Studios. A call from its creative director, Tara Chickey, was put out to the new group of artists who had joined the established order during the past year.
A shiny trio of very engaged artists excitedly answered, forming “The New Guard.” These hearty musketeers were eager to share their passion for art across radically different mediums.
There was a genuine camaraderie between them…that has always been the glue that holds the Millworks’ artists together.
Annika Koser
Annika Koser’s racecar wall
Annika Koser, acrylic painter, showed up early—that translates to committed, which is a sure sign that she will be successful at what she does. Annika is that and more: “Gentlemen start your engines!” One can almost smell the burning rubber at the Talladega raceway. When viewing her all-too-realistic paintings of fast cars, pit crews, and legendary drivers, she holds the inside track with her amazing lifelike art. Her paintings are featured and sold out of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum in Knoxville, Iowa.
Racecar enthusiasts and fans worldwide hold a deep appreciation for the photorealistic elements of her work. including her rapt attention to detail. It speaks to her personal love for motor sports, having worked at her local track for over a decade. April marked Annika’s one-year anniversary at Millworks in Studio 213. “She has a fast car.”
Jeff Scorza
Found objects artisan, Jeff Scorza, can be found at his namesake studio, Scorza, in #215 on the Millworks’ second floor. Plying his trade as a sculptor working with glass, wood, and metal keeps him on the cutting edge of art.
Having labored professionally as a much-in-demand architect for 30 years, he kept his nose to the grindstone. A true Renaissance man, Jeff gladly traded in his T-squares and scale rulers for a chance to literally dive into the sandbox face first to create a mold for his glass portraits.
His aesthetic captures a unique take on “what yonder light breaks” as it passes through glass. An alchemist of pure imagination, he is enchanted in giving discarded materials repurposed, beautiful objet’s d’ art, choosing “feeling over function”…with the finished work emoting instead of engineering.
The artist revealed, “I pretend I don’t know what glass is…but I know what everything else is and I find ways to connect these things—to hold glass up to the light and let the light enliven it.”
Kelly Anoka
Kelly Anoka (aka Kell’s Woods) can be found in Millworks studio #211, doing far more than “turning wood.”
Her process begins with a tree and what about it draws her to the romantic notion of showcasing its natural beauty. In other words, she finds a way to articulate its very best attributes. “Always in touch with the symmetry of the wood, a ritualistic dance between artist and object unfolds, leaving no doubt when the finished piece takes its bow,” shared Kelly.
Sublime, surreal and even sensuous are but a few superlatives that come to mind. Kelly confided that, “Wood, albeit trees, speak in a language all their own. Movement and meaning are forever linked; the limbs, branches, and trunk all bring something different to the dance.
I have been a self-taught wood worker since 2018…creating functional pieces that showcase natural beauty and flaws through the design of the piece. Sourcing upcycled local wood, I am able to extend the life and the gift that trees bring for generations to come.” From the requisite tables and chairs to smaller objects, like a hand-turned wood pumpkin or even a pocketbook appointed with accents of wood, help to create delightful surprises.
Marina Radanovic
Narrative artist Marina Radanovic is the latest addition to the Millworks art studios, arriving in number 318, sharing that space with the legendary Huckle Buckle Boys, artists from their own solar system.
By all indications, Marina’s story art will complement their ersatz energy. Zach and Garrick (HBB) invented their own genre with their “characters,” demanding the viewer has a pretty good idea of what is going on in the frame. Marina, by her own account, revealed “I feel blessed to now be working alongside two awesome artists in a beautiful inclusive venue.
I look forward to having a more permanent stage for my work where I don’t have to set up a campsite to show it.” Holding a BFA degree from California University of Pennsylvania, she is a self-taught creative who has found her own lane, often driving down the middle, able to navigate the “complexities of human existence through fanciful visual aesthetics or crossing over to methodical, earnest oil paintings using techniques from the Old Masters.”
Her acrylic pieces are often painted on the spot live and in person at concerts and festivals. Her works have been featured throughout PA and Washington, D.C. A timely welcome to Millworks, “Radanovic, artist”—and a happy 30th birthday this week, Marina!
Millworks’ April Events
Millworks’ Roster of Artists, April 13 to May 10, featured on the lobby walls: Linda McCloskey, Rexmake, Rebecca Adey, Kirstin Livelsberger, Caleb Smith, Kathy Mina, and Yachiyo Beck.
Odd Ones annual Spring Bizarre, Saturday, April 25, featuring an array of 38 artists and makers, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bring the family for a day of fun and food.
The AAH, Vivid Experiences: The Art of Steve Barber and Earle Rock
Bob’s Art Blog welcomes Alanna Barton, the new director of exhibitions at the now century-old Art Association of Harrisburg, mounting her first show in the role.
The art of Steve Barber is bombastic in his abstract expressionist paintings. Joined by sculptor/painter, Earle Rock—the name says it all—solid as a you know what. Steve Barber can usually be found hanging out at Millworks studio 213.
He recently shared, “With a goal of painting with my design sense, imagination and spiritual mindset letting my skill not dictate with the actual creation is.”
Based in Hummelstown, Earle Rock “specializes in portrait busts, commemorative reliefs and oil paintings.” Often Earle holds workshops at the AAH. The Artemis II crew have nothing on this dynamic duo from another galaxy, another place in time, from the inner recesses of your mind to the outer limits of imagination; do not touch that dial!
You will see before you bursts of color explode. You are weightless, boundless and mindless as you view their world of “Vivid Experiences.” You have now arrived at 21 N. Front St., earthlings, just in time for the April 17 artist reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Trip the light fantastic with music provided by the Elaine Rhodes Jazz duo. PS, I know, I love that “mindless” part the best too!
West Shore: Carlisle Central
The Gallery at JNStudios to Carlisle Arts Learning Center (CALC), from 175 E. Louther St. to 38 W. Pomfret St., Carlisle, is abuzz with art for spring bursting forth everywhere, including the students’ show soon to be featured at the Trout Gallery found on the Dickinson campus.
Now in her second year, Gallerist Jennifer Neslund has claimed her stake at her East Louther Art Emporium. Opening with a stunner of a spring show: “The Poetic Gossip of Trees” by local artist Kathleen Stoken. Employing personification gives the trees human characteristics as if they could actually gossip among themselves. Reminiscent of the Civil War song, “Eavesdrop,” the elements of nature allow to let the stars watch, let them stare, let the wind eavesdrop, I don’t care.”
“The Poetic Gossip of Trees” by Kathleen Stoken
There is something otherworldly in a grove of trees lining a path to somewhere or nowhere, whispering as the wind rustles the branches.
The result may be a hushed confession acknowledging that, no matter the already known outcome, there is a momentary closeness in the exchange of emotions and physical touch. Kathleen exacts an imaginary dialogue when trees take on a life of their own. Exhibit runs April 18 to May 23 with an artist reception from 6 to 8 p.m. on April 18. Gallery hours are Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The Carlisle Arts Leaning Center (CALC)
CALC echoes the energy of “E,” going from “Vivid Experiences” on the East Shore to “Expressions in Fiber and Form” at the GB Stuart Gallery main floor. The new broom at CALC has swept the place clean for spring under the new leadership of executive director Emily Ashton and the steady hand of director of exhibitions, Abria Donato.
A trio of fiber fabricators find form in flowers, seedlings and landscape tapestries. These artists are Miki Howell, who executes landscape tapestries provides a bountiful crop, Joh Ricci, a fiber sculptor who creates intricate knot work that defies typical conventions, and Beth Reese, who combines collage and traditional quilting, resulting in one-of-a-kind wall hangings.
In the upper gallery, three sisters explore family and memory in the exhibit, “Lineage.” Andrea Hoelscher, Erica Hoelscher and Kristin Hoelscher-Schacker sound like a crack team of legal experts, when in fact, they excel at their crafts using photography, found objects and textile installations created after the loss of their parents.
Art has a transcendent nature of being able to soothe and sort the emotional travails of grief and loss. Join CALC and the artists for the opening night reception on Friday, April 24, 5:30 to 8 p.m. Both exhibits run through May 30.
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