~Tribal and Ethnic Jewelry~

Geri Verble, a Placitas jewelry design artist, specializes in tribal and ethnic jewelry. Verble developed a passion for collecting ethnic beads and pendants while travelling with the Peace Corps.  Bead collecting not only became a passion for her, but a journey into learning about the history of beads.  Having majored in Theatre Arts in college, Verble’s focus was in Stagecraft Design. This sense of design has influenced her work in creating one of a kind, exceptional designs. One of Verble’s pieces, “An African Christmas” was featured in BeadStyle Magazine, November 2008.

Verble says: “I begin my design by choosing a bead or pendant that I have collected from around the world. Many of these treasures come from 3^rd world countries as well as co-ops that work with some of the world’s poorest people. There is much intrigue found in international artisan work. Each ancient bead and ethnic ornament tells a story and has a spiritual energy that flows through each piece. That energy guides me as I design.  From the intricate work of the African lost wax brass beads, to the silver repousse pendants from Nepal, or the masterful metalwork of the Tuareg desert men from Niger, these stories take us to a different time and place and remind us that somehow we are all connected.  I believe designing in harmony with the Earth can create jewelry that satisfies the human spirit.”

Sonya Coppo

Sonya Coppo is a versatile artist who has created many types of art since childhood.  As part of her interior design practice she designed and painted custom furniture, wall murals, canvas floorcloths and table runners for her clients.  After moving to Placitas, New Mexico she began creating interpretations of the Plains Indians Parfleche  envelopes as well as handbags in addition to her other canvas art.  She designs and paints with acrylics and inks on heavy weight canvas reflecting the colors, culture and spirit of the Southwest.

Anna Goodridge

Anna Goodridge can usually be found in her Placitas studio painting with oil paint on canvas. Recently her journey has taken her to painting with acrylic paint on gently used denims.

Anna spent her career as an elementary art teacher. The designs, colors, and shapes she uses are the result of Anna’s working with children and remembering what appealed to them.  Anna’s many yearsof passion, study, and experience in oil painting on canvas adds to the success of her wearable art creations.  She likes the idea of finding gently used denim that have lost their usefulness to one person then creating wearable art for another person to enjoy.

Anna creates wearable art for adults as well as children and welcomes custom work.  Anna Goodridge’s paintings can be seen at her website: placitasartists.com.

Grab your glasses and get ready to focus on small art with a huge visual impact.

Show hangs thru July 30th.

While the artwork may be pint sized, ‘Small Works’ is not insignificant. Miniature art is most often extremely detailed work, exquisite in color with strength of composition that can more than compete with larger paintings.

Challenging the belief that bigger is better, miniature paintings invite the viewer to slow down, narrow their attention and to engage in more intimate exchange. As in other forms of art, masterfully painted miniatures leave a lasting impression and contain richness and refined qualities that carry across a room in spite of their small size.

Travis Bruce Black will show recent paintings at his Bright Rain Gallery exhibition New Kungfu May 4, 2012. The opening reception with the Artist will be from 5:30-830.

New Kungfu will include Black’s newest figurative and nature musings. The new figurative works are tightly composed and watery with the color saturation turned way up. These figures play on spacial relationships and forced geometry more like the chirp series than his previous figures. The environment of these pieces are clouds of color with a hard edge architectural structure.
The Chirp series- Black’s intricate Bird compositions with occasional prop of nests, plants, and a multitude of references to virtual and dream worlds- will continue with Travis’ new show. In Particular chirp 200, his milestone piece and largest watercolor to date at 37×51 inches will be showing it’s domestic scene of two 100x magnified birds perching on an over sized geranium branch.

Growing up in Arizona gave Jo a deep love and appreciation for the subtle and often mysterious beauty of the land and the ancient places of the southwest. Her paintings, watercolors, sepias, and oil paintings of these ancient ruins and sacred places capture the divine and mystical connections between Spirit, Nature, and Humans. Her paintings reflect these connections in a transcendent impressionistic technique; evoking a sense of the precious and eternal oneness of the universe in which we live.

Bright Rain Gallery will host a reception for Jo’s opening show during First Friday ARTScrawl on April 6th from 530p-830p. A separate reception will take place during the Old Town ARTScrawl from 530p-830p on April 20, 2012

Rachel’s paintings function as textural snapshots; individual entities that capture specific moments or ideas and yet still relate to each other by the nature of the markmaking, color, and spatial relationships between the forms. The paintings speak about a transition that hasn’t been very consistent in its progression or strength. It has been, at alternate times; gradual, painful, lovely and overwhelming. Nothing has been expected, and yet everything has been welcomed.

The visual strands that Rachel creates weave together to form the fabric of her particular process, or progress, through this transitional space. And though they’re generally non-representational, Rachel intends that people identify with them out of the memories or moments that the colors and marks recollect. That personal identification is part of what Rachel is so drawn to about painting. Painting gives Rachel an opportunity to connect with people, some of whom she has never met, but all with whom she has shared some common experience.  Rachel’s most recent paintings have started incorporating recognizable organic shapes.

Rachel see her work as a sort of visual topography; a recording of internal and external experiences within a carefully constructed space.

It is in these carefully constructed spaces – between the active and the still, between constraint and freedom, and between logic and instinct – that she takes the viewer to new landscapes by way of a personal adventure.

This show features a series of acrylic paintings derived from landscape as well as his distinctive and unique jewelry.

The thin lines in his non representational acrylic works breaking up the subtle flat fields of color are places to stop for a moment; noticing each direction.  Robert’s paintings evolved from a commitment he made between April and November 2011 to paint a series of 500 small paintings on paper. The process developed over many weeks of painting outdoors and seeing the negative space in the landscape.  Increasing the size, painting on canvas and incorporating a muted palette, allowed for a more organic, loose approach to the work, yet still emphasizing a level of intricate detail.

Robert has been a jeweler for 30 years.  A few years ago he decided he would purchase a minimum of new material used to make jewelry; as there is plenty of material available that more often ends up in landfills.  He has used a wide variety of materials including, vintage bowling balls, concrete, reclaimed and salvaged tile, broken and discarded sushi and restaurant plates, chopsticks, automotive paint nodes, rulers, discarded records, broken glass, reclaimed metal.

Join us at Kyle’s reception on December 2^nd from 4:30-9:30PM at the Bright Rain Gallery and enjoy his unique colorful and dynamic style.  Kyle is known for his mosaic and stained glass work. This show will feature his latest work on canvas with unusual textures, color and style.  His depth and textures highlight his wide range of style from contemporary designs to traditional styles. 

This new group of observational works by Trevor focuses on precision and play….looking like a storm blew through it, separating colors and brushstrokes from cartoony to oddly realistic passages. Join Trevor at the opening reception on Friday, November 4th from 6:00 – 8:30pm.

Also showing are works by Jane Putnam. Jane is a figurative painter trained by a master Russian Orthodox icon artist. Her own work spans from traditional to playful new takes on contemporary culture.

Everything Sing is a continuation of the over 180 bird paintings Travis has created: The Chirp Series. His innovative and technical approach is ever-changing, with the newest work combining a propensity toward watercolor with acrylics and silk screen techniques. This show is an exploration of the natural world combined with the often quirky internal world of Travis.

While living in New Mexico, Monique’s art has focused on the rich natural and cultural histories of the Southwestern landscape. She uses multi-layered collage techniques to create highly textured images, evoking the continual movements of people, animals and the land itself. Shifting Lines will be a new body of work that continues her exploration of the New Mexican landscape.

More about Monique Janssen-Belitz:
Monique Janssen-Belitz, MFA (UNM) was born in the Netherlands and grew up in Germany. She received her Bachelor’s degree in art education from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in 1981. Moving with her family to the U.S., she first settled in Maryland and later in Oregon. In the summer of 2007 Monique moved to Albuquerque and recently received her Master of Fine Arts degree at UNM.  For over twenty-five years she has been active as a painter and print-maker, showing work in both the U.S. and Germany.