A free reception on Friday night, April 13, will open three new exhibits at the Creative Arts Guild, 520 W. Waugh St. in Dalton, Ga. The reception is from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Guild.
The three exhibits are "While It Lasts," artwork by Knoxville artist Sarah Moore; "The Printed Walk," a series of letter-press prints by Lindsey Schmittle, owner of Gingerly Press in Lansdale, Penn.; and selections from the coursework of Dalton High School senior art students and work by CAG visual arts students.
» "While It Lasts": Moore describes her exhibit as "a body of work mapping the landscapes that I physically yearn to inhabit, again and again, as if by compulsion. These are unsettled places, rough and wild with high topographic contrast. Each painting is a response to intense wanderlust. The paintings also evoke a sense of urgency.
"To paint a landscape is to inhabit it again, or for the first time, or to know it in a more intimate way. The human reaction to landscape is physical and often emotional. The landscapes to which we are instinctively drawn are also an extension of our interior emotional landscapes."
Lindsey Schmittle (Photo: Girl Photography)» "The Printed Walk": Schmittle's exhibit is a series of printed visual interpretations of her experience thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2017.
Letterpress printing is a relief-printing process in which antique metal or wood type is inked and pressed onto paper. Schmittle uses mostly metal type and ornament paired with large, carved blocks of linoleum and various plywood. On the hike, she collected fallen birch bark to use for certain designs and found pigments along the trail, such as charcoal from wildfires, mica and clay.
"In this way," she says, "the hike proved to be a practice of mindfulness - a long walking meditation focused on being present and simply observing the world around me. I learned that the trail was what I made of it. The difference between happiness, sadness, boredom, frustration or fear was personal choice. I find this not only a philosophy for the trail, but also for everyday life."
» Combined Student Exhibit: Dalton High student artists Noemy Menchaca, Yoselin Chavarria, Triston Concuan, Jailyn Machado, Viviana Martinez, Cristine Torres and Morgan Young will exhibit selections from their International Baccalaureate coursework accomplished over the past two years.
Dalton High School IB art students have been studying a wide variety of artists, art styles, media, cultures and artistic issues from which each student has built a self-directed body of work. From that collection, the artist is required to curate four to 11 of their best pieces into an exhibition.
For more information: 706-278-0168.