On Patience is a collaborative show from the Art House Dallas visual artist community, comprised of artists from across the DFW metroplex.
We believe that beauty shown through the arts, culture, and creation holds a powerful ability to form the way we see ourselves, the world, and our interaction with both. In light of this, we believe that observing beauty gives witness to something deep and life-giving—the Source and Sustainer of all creation.
Each artist considered the virtue of patience in their contribution for the show. Some approached with meditative and prayer-like postures, while others explored the tension and grief that comes with the development of patience. As a group, we hope to instill beauty in the midst of the development of steadfastness and patience. Take your time with this work, explore the virtue of patience within yourself as you view the art. Let it reveal a taste of the unhurried Divine in your soul. May God sustain us as we learn to slow down.
Emily Atkins
Emily is a Dallas-based artist who primarily works in oil paint, sculpting, ceramics, and mixed media. Emily’s work explores color to dialogue about faith, time, and stories of the world.
Emily was born in Dallas, Texas. She earned her BA in History from the University of Texas at Austin and completed seminary courses in a year-long discipleship program at Pine Cove. She took studio art classes at Dallas Baptist University, Richland, and Brookhaven. Through these experiences, she explores the intersection between art and faith. Currently, she works full-time as an elementary school art teacher and makes art during breaks and weekends!
“The “On Patience” series shows the life of Christ in a series of 6 paintings. Making these paintings was a process of patience. Initially I planned a different series in general, and as I began creating I felt pushed into this other direction, so I went with it. Step by step each painting came out, each reflecting Christ, and so it became a series on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
1. Creation, 18x36” oil on canvas - Hands extend out, as if taking in the surrounding nature. In the beginning, God created, and Jesus Christ was there with Him (John 1:1, 3; Colossians 1:15-17).
2. Birth, 16x20” oil on canvas - Christ was born in a stable, a few years before 0 CE, and he added humanity to his Deity (John 1:14; John 3:16).
3. Life, 16x20” oil on canvas - He grew up and started ministry as an adult, teaching others to love, forgive, value children and women, and that He was the way to God (John 14:6).
4. Death, 24x36” oil on canvas - He gave up his life to die for our sins that we might know God through Christ. After He rose from the dead, showed himself to many witnesses, and ascended back to Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:3; Philippians 2:5-8; Mark 16:9).
6. Glory, 18x24” framed oil on panel - Until then we rejoice in hope of the glory of God and look to Christ in faith (Romans 5:2).
Dawn Waters baker
Dawn was born and raised a Missionary Kid on the islands of the Philippines. She grew up under the shadow of an active volcano. In 1994 she moved to Dallas for college where she received her BA in Fine Arts from DBU, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1998. Soon after she married a mathematician, and they had three girls. In her free time, she likes to hike, travel to beautiful landscapes and teaches art in Dallas County Juvenile Detention Center once a week for incarcerated youth.
Her art is collected by many businesses as well as private owners. Her pieces, “Release” and “To the Lowest Place” are installed in Archegos Offices, NY Central Park office. She is a Signature member of Artists of Texas. Dawn is affiliated with Waterfall Mansion and Gallery in New York, NY, and Joseph Gierek Fine Art in Tulsa, OK. She was also selected as the 2015 Artist in Residence for Big Bend National Park, 2018 Artist in Residence for Gettysburg National Military Park and 2019-2020 Artist in Residence for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. She has had three solo exhibitions based on her works from the National Parks.
“I like to think of my work as trying to capture the emotional landscape. I am not as
interested in what is literally there as much as what is felt through water, earth,
atmosphere, and sky. These are my visual attempts at translating our shared human story
through the metaphor of nature.
”
“During the pandemic lock down and into 2022 I found myself, like many, in a painful season. My teenagers seemed to especially feel this as they walked through years of anger from all sides. This, along with trying to figure out who they were in a time of “screens” and no real community led to some very hard things for our family. My gallery of almost 10 years in Dallas decided to close and our church of 20 years was dying. Painting felt like a mountain to climb without any gear.
I decided to begin with mini-internal landscapes that were coming from my heart (no reference or having to go anywhere to see). I would cutout different size rectangles and squares from oleo paper and tape them to foamboard. Then paint one right after the other. I found this as a form of prayer. My hands were doing what my thoughts could not fully articulate. It seemed to me that my works were speaking to me about being honest with God, much like a Psalm. What I discovered were waterfalls that seemed to remind me of that steadfast, powerful love that only comes from the headwaters of all Love, Christ Himself. It was as if my own body was reminding me that I was loved even when I didn’t feel it. I also discovered these gold, silver and copper leaf landscapes that seemed apocalyptic and yet the gold made the image glow. It seemed to be saying something to me about how God’s Kingdom would not be shaken, even though so much was being shaken.
I give them to you, the viewer, as a visual prayer. I call them the Orison series because the word Orison means a plea or petition. My hope is that you find something in your own internal landscape that seems to be seen and felt, a way to utter the groans to the One who hears and holds us.”
Nathan Fan
Nathan Fan is an artist and a teacher at the Covenant School of Dallas. He has a ThM and studied the intersection of art and theology. In addition to teaching, he is a practicing artist who makes iconographically-inspired drawings. He relies on your prayers for patience in the studio and in the classroom.
Olive Trees: Starting last summer, I have been learning to paint landscapes with the amazing Dawn Waters Baker. At first, this was a hobby—every artist must be learning new things. But then features of the landscape began to invade my portraits: trees, water, rocks, sky began to show up more prominently. Another push in this direction occurred when Dawn challenged me to view the features of the landscape as figures.
I went to an exhibit of Van Gogh’s olive grove paintings and I recognized my kindred spirit. Van Gogh stated that he made these paintings of olive trees to prepare for a masterpiece of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. He never needed to make that masterpiece, because his olive grove paintings—they already said it all. I saw these paintings and I saw the direction I wanted to take with my own drawing, but even more than that, I saw the kind of loving relationship I want to have with this good earth: a love forged through art.
Jesus Sleeping During the Storm: “Master, do you not care that we are perishing?” As the storm rages around them, the disciples rush to wake the sleeping Jesus. When the storms of life hit, the disciple ought to rush to the master. We beg Christ with our prayers to intervene and make things right, to command the metaphorical storms in our life: “be still!” The disciples are doing a good thing by calling upon Christ to save them, for all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved!
But Jesus shows us the better thing.
I want to invite you to look at this piece and consider which of the figures best matches you: 1) the ceaseless striver who will make things right by his own efforts (far left); 2) the resigned stoic who surrenders to the storm (far right); 3) the one who offers pious but tepid prayers amid the crisis (see praying hands); 4) the one who shamelessly clings in desperation to the master; 5) or the one enshrined in heavenly light and commands stillness even as the visualized storm reaches the height of its freneticism. I believe each character marks a key stage in our spiritual lives, but the hope is that we will progress through each stage to attain the final one: the peace that surpasses all understanding.
The Annunciation: When my friend Erin Whitlow commissioned this art piece, she mentioned her love for the 15th century Italian painter Fra Angelico, and I knew which artwork to look to for inspiration.
Fra Angelico was avant-garde in his time for working with linear perspective, a technique used to convey depth and distance. He employed linear perspective in this work to highlight a particularly poetic theological insight found at the Annunciation. By placing Adam and Eve at a small scale in the far left corner, a distance is conveyed between them and the figures in the foreground. The layering of the background and staggering of the colonnades close in the distance between the first Adam and first Eve, and bring us into this new scene, where we can see the new Adam (in Mary’s womb) and the new Eve. The entirety of the curse brought about in Adam and Eve’s disobedience now find its remedy in the Incarnation of Christ and obedience of Mary.
The Archaic Torso of Apollo: By Rainer Maria Rilke
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
Glen gauthier
Originally from south Louisiana and currently living in Dallas, Glen is a mixed media artist working in collage combined with other media like paint, graphite, ink and colored pencil. He take these elements and constructs a new reality: one that’s been living in his mind for most of his life. A lot of the paper ephemera he uses in my work is decades old. That weathered, aged quality brings an element of time to his work. He’s constantly exploring non-linear time, a way of looking at the world from a different vantage point and coaxing those elements and ideas into interesting stories. His work has become more personal in the past few years, an exploration of his conscious and subconscious mind as it relates to his personal experiences.
Glen received my BFA from the University of Louisiana in 1988, with a degree in Advertising Design. He’s shown my work in art fairs and galleries here in Dallas, as well as New York, Los Angeles, Fort Worth and Louisiana. His work has also been published in national and international art magazines.
“My medium is collage, utilizing printed ephemera to serve as a kind of time machine. My work subconsciously points inwardly, causing me to realize and address my childhood through previously buried memories and emotion. I engage in an ongoing communication with different versions of myself and the viewer.”
obinna jon-ubabuco
Obinna creates works that are centrally focused on the human figure but explore emotional, psychological, and theological themes through symbolic imagery. While sometimes rendered in sculpture, charcoal, watercolor and oil pastel, he primarily works in graphite.
While not officially having gone to graduate school for art, Obinna has been mainly inspired by a range of influences and media starting from comic book legends and illustrators like Adam Kubert to classically trained painters like John Singer Sargent and formidable illustrators like Norman Rockwell and Arthur Rackham to name a very few.
Rachel Larlee
Rachel’s work is prayerful, mindful and purposeful. Born in England, married to a Canadian and now living in Dallas, Rachel is drawn to mixed media as it echos the blended life she lives. She combines stitching and painting, hand-dyed fabric, wool and thread to produce art that connects and integrate the heart, mind and soul.
Rachel believes art can heal; she is passionate about emotional wholeness and spiritual growth and believes art can be part of that process. Rachel’s hope is that as you place a piece of her art on a shelf or on a wall, that it would have the potential to encourage, inspire, comfort, motivate and to tenderly speak to your inmost being.
My Daily Prayer
Today, may there be fluidity in which I can move smoothly from the various roles of mother, wife, teacher, daughter and friend.
May there be moments of calm, space for my soul to know, I am more than what I can achieve and accomplish.
May there be peace, a day where no one is resisting the journey but where we balance out each other’s differences and support each other’s dreams.
May there be harmony-, where the notes of our lives, different but yet together, create beauty so that everyone shines.
And may today, I see glimpses of the heavenly, glimpses of gold in the faces of everyone I meet.
Amen
This small collection contains 7 pieces, each called a different day of the week. They are more than my daily prayer, they are my daily yearning- for balance, calm, harmony and intentional rest. Often my heart needs to see fully what it desires, it needs to get a vision of where I am longing to go. Often my hands need to express what my soul is crying out for, my biggest cry is a cry for patience- patience with others, but mainly patience with my own humanity.
Although each day is different, there are the same elements that repeat in each piece. Mixed media embodying the mixed ways of my life, the mixed roles, the mixed people I interact with, and the mixed places our lives take us. The fluidity of watercolor, the gentle brush strokes, almost showing a dance of many different steps. Hand-dyed wools and silks from flowers given to me during seasons of deep pain- pain coming through and popping up daily. Hard course antique hessian, handed down string and vintage embroidery threads showing different stitches, like different moments in time- those moments that hold all the various appointments and places I need to be. And lastly gold thread, which for me is a mark of the heavenly and the the angelic.
My bold hope is that these pieces will continue to pray these longings, and inspire, refresh and hold moment of calm and balance for whoever walks past them.
Hoops of Patience
From Rachel:
As Angela and I discussed how we could show ‘Patience’ over time, we were drawn to the image of the rings of a tree. This became our starting point. As I stitched each round circle, I was reminded of various years of my life. The stitches evolved and changed as I reflected.
There were years when everything was so neat and so perfect.There were years when so many days were missing, memories of a stitch here and a stitch there. There were years when I was holding on by just a thread. There were years where I just could not hide the mess in my life from the outside world- showing the loose threads and the knots.
Every few months Angela and I would swap hoops and then carry on what the other started.
The joy of a collaboration is that it was almost like Christmas to see what wonders Angela had added - sometimes tea, sometimes paint but always a surprise. Angela and I would swop our hoops every few months and then continue on from each other’s story. One specific time as I pondered deeply, I felt I just had to cut the fabric leaving gaping holes. Angela then lovingly bound up the wound and fill with gauze. Angela’s freedom to stitch over and under my lines created beautiful mountain-like shapes. I then filled in these ‘moments’ with solid color - my self-reminder to be present and live in each moment. If you look closely you will see gold showing up in stitches and paint. This has always been a sign of redemption and of a heavenly perspective, something supernatural.
These hoops have traveled- long road trips to Florida, Trips to England and Canada. The travel itself has become part of the art. The hoops have been medicinal in times of waiting and times of pausing and having to be still.
From Angela:
The struggle with this work was not having a plan in place for the ending. We started, we continued, kept exchanging and continued further, ultimately running out of time as most of us do in this quick precious life. There were times where the stitching brought healing and peace. There were times where I set it aside, letting it wait for inspiration.
There were moments of contemplative metaphors, and times where I ripped through the canvas to express whatever cathartic emotion I needed. These hoops are a reflection of life, the daily steps, the slow pace and the beautiful path that many different colors, seasons and textures collide. My how messy and beautiful life is, and how honest this work is in the notion of beginning without knowing the end.
The unknown is the loudness in this work, and the tiny stitches of faith are the beauty. Wisdom has a pace, it is slow. Let us not forget the depth of beauty that comes from small increments of faith, action and prayer.
George Lynch
George finds his greatest joy in stories of life change. A long tenure in the corporate world gave way to a season of shepherding a leading non-profit serving child sex trafficking survivors. He has known great triumphs and deep sorrows. Personally and professionally. And throughout those experiences, he paints. In each phase of life, he finds God and His word as the enduring source of peace and the best persuader of change. Change in thinking. Change in behavior. Change in life trajectory. Today, he helps people renew their awe for God’s faithfulness by creating art that commemorates His impact on their story. It’s a visual reminder to focus on what’s most important. And grow in dependence on Him.
His art has been in gallery exhibitions in US and Asia and enjoys a following among US and international collectors.
Psalm 107:30
48’ x 48”
‘What a blessing is that stillness as He brings them safely into harbor.’ Psalm 107:30
One of Houston’s most significant economic drivers is the Houston Ship Channel. But it is God’s creation of Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula that creates stillness to craft a safe harbor.
Proverbs 16:9
48” x 48”
‘In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.’ Proverbs 16:9.
Before modern harbors, ship captains had to watch the tides before they could navigate into port. Providence is God seeing and seizing every opportunity to guide His divine purposes into port.”
Treg Miller
COLOR. FORM. TEXTURE.
In search of career fulfillment, Treg moved his family from California to Montana in 2005. After twelve years as a successful PGA Teaching Professional, he found himself at a crossroads, seeking to bring more to the world around him. It was in Montana where he found inspirational change from the swing of a golf club to the stroke of a paintbrush. He was energized by having the opportunity to go after the unknown by adding color, depth, and texture to everyday objects.
He is empowered by visualizing lines, shapes, angles, and organic composition to a raw blank canvas. After entering and winning a local art competition in Bigfork, Montana, his heart raced with the possibility of becoming a full-time artist. After this event in 2006, he devoted his time to developing my skill and technique to become a thriving artist. Over the years, he has created original artwork and murals for homes, galleries, and businesses. Each day, his heart pumps with excitement as he enters his studio in McKinney, Texas to create art that captures your heart.
“My art is known for its bright colors, hardedge lines and geometrical shapes that create subjects ranging from textured flowers, architectural structures and everyday objects. Each painting is created with the idea of empowering the viewer’s heart and mind.
”
Treg enjoys working and experimenting with various elements in his art that appear unassuming and simply structured. The emphasis of shape, line, color and form come together in a complex organization in relation to the space around it. In this series the arrangement of 33 squares on wood boards demand their freedom and separateness.
Angela Pitts
McKinney based artist, Angela C Pitts uses photography and paint to transform ideas and spaces. Angela’s art and process is shaped by her studies of fine art at Baylor University and UNT where she earned her BFA and MFA in photography. She has shown her work at the Ft Worth Community Art Center, Dallas Baptist University and the University of North Texas. She has served as an adjunct professor at Dallas Baptist University for 7 years, where she works with upper level photography students in the Art Department. Angela loves people and hearing their stories. You can find her serving families in McKinney with her photography and taking care of her husband and three children at home. Angela uses creativity as a tool to work through her own experiences in life. She will forever be a creator and learner as she makes artwork by combining unexpected mediums and techniques such as hand stitching, cyanotype and watercolor painting. Investigations of emotions, trials, and growth is thematic throughout her bodies of work. Angela works with fabric, image transfers and alternative processes with photography to tell stories through her pieces. She finds value in the printed images, antique quilts, and simple needle and thread. She believes there is power in starting meaningful conversations about our need to live authentic lives in community with one another, and to share our suffering and struggles from day to day.
“In Pieces is a quilted metaphor for the home of my childhood that only exists in my mind. It speaks to the idea that only piece by piece is a life built, and we can’t take it all in at once. Time keeps moving and we are left with the memory to help us build our own legacy.”
Hoops of Patience
From Angela:
The struggle with this work was not having a plan in place for the ending. We started, we continued, kept exchanging and continued further, ultimately running out of time as most of us do in this quick precious life. There were times where the stitching brought healing and peace. There were times where I set it aside, letting it wait for inspiration.
There were moments of contemplative metaphors, and times where I ripped through the canvas to express whatever cathartic emotion I needed. These hoops are a reflection of life, the daily steps, the slow pace and the beautiful path that many different colors, seasons and textures collide. My how messy and beautiful life is, and how honest this work is in the notion of beginning without knowing the end.
The unknown is the loudness in this work, and the tiny stitches of faith are the beauty. Wisdom has a pace, it is slow. Let us not forget the depth of beauty that comes from small increments of faith, action and prayer.
From Rachel:
As Angela and I discussed how we could show ‘Patience’ over time, we were drawn to the image of the rings of a tree. This became our starting point. As I stitched each round circle, I was reminded of various years of my life. The stitches evolved and changed as I reflected.
There were years when everything was so neat and so perfect.There were years when so many days were missing, memories of a stitch here and a stitch there. There were years when I was holding on by just a thread. There were years where I just could not hide the mess in my life from the outside world- showing the loose threads and the knots.
Every few months Angela and I would swap hoops and then carry on what the other started.
The joy of a collaboration is that it was almost like Christmas to see what wonders Angela had added - sometimes tea, sometimes paint but always a surprise. Angela and I would swop our hoops every few months and then continue on from each other’s story. One specific time as I pondered deeply, I felt I just had to cut the fabric leaving gaping holes. Angela then lovingly bound up the wound and fill with gauze. Angela’s freedom to stitch over and under my lines created beautiful mountain-like shapes. I then filled in these ‘moments’ with solid color - my self-reminder to be present and live in each moment. If you look closely you will see gold showing up in stitches and paint. This has always been a sign of redemption and of a heavenly perspective, something supernatural.
These hoops have traveled- long road trips to Florida, Trips to England and Canada. The travel itself has become part of the art. The hoops have been medicinal in times of waiting and times of pausing and having to be still.
Rebecca Prince
Irving, Texas based painter, Rebecca Prince, has been wielding her brush since 2016. Painting mostly portraits, Rebecca explores various mediums and techniques.
Motivated by learning and problem solving, you will often find Rebecca in the studio playing with “all of the things” trying to create her next masterpiece. Rebecca continues to experiment with the balance between realism and abstraction, a dance between tiny details and simplifying to only what is essential.
Each painting takes inspiration from a session in the On Patience reader. They speak to the seasons we all go through physically, emotionally, and spiritually, as well as, the hope each season carries. May you carry that hope with you into whatever season you’re in and the upcoming new year.
Winter – Prayer & Prayerfulness
Winter often brings a quiet reflection. The brisk air can be startling but refreshing. The stillness and the comfort of a cozy wrap brings a bit of peace to the hectic pace of life. Our focus on the wonder of the season and the prayerful attitude it reminds us to participate in.
"O Lord... bestow upon me understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and faithfulness that finally may embrace you." ~ Thomas Aquinas
Spring – Good Growth
Let me not be inappropriately angry. Let patience rise within me. Spring has arrived, the fragrance overtakes me, and it is time to bloom.
Summer – Embracing Time
"Water does not resist. Water flows..." ~ Margaret Atwood
Summer can be relaxing... often it is less scheduled and hurried; however, it turns my world upside-down in so many ways. My goal is sink into the peacefulness and calm and try not to drown. Embracing the rest it brings and cherishing time and investing in relationships.
Fall – Beauty in Process
This piece is full of movement... as Summer gives way to Fall. The change in color all around brings recognition of the beauty of God's creation. God isn't in a rush and we shouldn't be either. The process matters. The journey is the path to creation not the final destination.
Robert Prince
Robert Prince is a pastor, potter, podcaster and writer from Irving, Texas. Pottery often reminds him of playing in the mud as a child, making hot wheels villages for all of his cars. Although most of his art has been highly functional, his recent work explores connecting the natural with the hand-made, uniting driftwood and clay in more sculptural forms.
I am a sucker for functional art. For me, the function of an item can assign just as much value as its artistic contribution. I’ve been told that may be a skewed idea of art, but I disagree. Just because I prefer functional art doesn’t mean I don’t also value art in its purest form. However, the art I create almost always comes out as functional.
From first putting my hands in wet clay to polishing it for a display shelf, each piece goes through about ten steps taking from 120 to 140 hours total time. These steps include creating, finishing, drying, bisque firing, decorating, glazing, final firing, polishing, photography and finally pricing. However, as in my current work, fabrication adds a step that can increase the time spent on a piece considerably, because each piece is formed and fitted together individually, and sometimes has to be adjusted in the middle of the process due to shrinkage or miscalculation.
My recent work leans more sculptural, unlike previous work, but is still grounded in the utility of the piece. I’m currently using stoneware and found wood, mostly driftwood, to create lamps. What draws me to this work is the meeting of old and new, found and created, finished and au naturel, coming together to create something different, beautiful and true to my nature - functional. It’s the best of both worlds, people get a piece of art that is beautiful, adding to the aesthetics of their home or office, while also getting a piece that meets a need.
“One reason I’m drawn to pottery is because it’s an exercise in patience. And I’m not a naturally patient person. Patience takes work for me. It takes intentionality. Just like my work in clay. Clay helps teach me patience, which tends to carry over into other areas of life.”
Bree Smith
Bree Smith is a Dallas-based multidisciplinary visual fine artist. Bree has a BFA in studio art and creates mixed media paintings, sculpture, and murals. She uses pastel and neon color palettes to communicate her childlike hope for humanity’s future and to imagine new worlds yet to be discovered.
Bree has been exhibiting locally and nationally since 2015, and her work has been collected throughout the U.S. and Canada. She has been interviewed and featured by several publications, including The Create! Magazine blog and podcast, PIKCHUR Magazine, Dallas Style & Design Magazine, and ArtFolio Annual 2020.
Bree’s first curatorial exhibition, “Realms of Reality” opened this summer at Deep Ellum Art Company and features all female artists. Bree also started a sustainable goods company called Planet Joy, which offers apparel and accessories for artists and art lovers.
“My series of work on the theme “On Patience” was developed by revisiting past unfinished works that were shelved due to a lack of patience in the creation process. These pieces were developed through a process of incorporating both intuitive and intentional elements, which requires a controlled and patient approach to resolving the compositions. With this series of imaginary, dreamlike spacescapes I seek to inspire viewers to dream of a hopeful future beyond our imaginations. ”
Allison Streett
Based in Fort Worth, Texas, Allison Streett is a sculptor who works in clay to be cast in bronze. Through the language of the human form Allison tells stories of human suffering and hope, alienation and connection, doubt and faith -- the broken beauty of the human experience. Her work is often focused on the feminine and maternal perspective of war, displacement, discrimination, and prejudice.
Allison has received local and national recognition for her figurative sculpture and drawings in many group exhibitions and competitions. In 2022 she was awarded the Harriet W. Frishmuth Memorial Award for Bronze Sculpture at the 125th Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club Open Exhibition in New York City. Her sculptures were featured in the 88th Annual National Sculpture Society Awards Exhibition in 2021, Emerging Stars in American Sculpture hosted by the National Sculpture Society at Brookgreen Gardens, and the Portrait Society of America’s Tri-State Competition in 2019. Among her awards and honors she was awarded First Place in the Resolution: Peace and Unity show in Dallas, Best in Show at the 2019 Texas Sculpture Association Members Show, and the Award for Excellence at Conception Dallas in 2019. As a recent college graduate she was one of ten sculptors selected to participate in the 24th Annual National Sculpture Society Figure Modeling Competition, and placed first in sculpture in the 2002 Michigan Small College Art Competition.
Job: Questioning
Bronze
19” x 7” x 8.5”
After losing everything, in the midst of his suffering Job questioned God. He said, “I will not keep silent; I will speak out the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 7:11). This sculpture came out of a difficult time in my life. It became for me a meditation on doubt, not as the opposite of faith, but as an important part of faith.
Trafficking
resin (available in bronze)
16” x 9.5” x 7”
Sexual slavery is a global problem, victimizing millions of people and generating billions of dollars each year.
Mounted on a turntable, this sculpture tells a story. The woman begins in an open, strong but vulnerable pose. Her hands are open and her eyes are peacefully closed. As the piece is turned her pose becomes closed and protective, evocative of the violation she has endured.
If the rotation is continued she returns to health and openness.
Weary
Work in Progress
17 x 15” x 1”
Small Works Artists
Purchase of a VIP ticket to our Artist Reception on December 3rd guarantees you will be the proud owner of a piece from the Small Works Show.
Names of VIP ticket holders will be drawn at random throughout the night, and they will choose the piece they like best from the remaining selection to take home.
Row One
Lolita Jackson Blanc de Noir
Mixed Media, Abstract
Artist Statement: "Is it black and white or white and black? Also, do you know what time it is?"
Texture and overlap is a key theme in this body of work. I like the contrast of different directions and tones that aren't easily recognized from a distance. Adding a striking visual, I want to make a viewer wonder why any of the mediums have been placed together.
Bree Smith Cosmic Horizon
Acrylic on Canvas
Artist Statement: My series of work on the theme “On Patience” was developed by revisiting past unfinished works that were shelved due to a lack of patience in the creation process. These pieces were developed through a process of incorporating both intuitive and intentional elements, which requires a controlled and patient approach to resolving the compositions. With this series of imaginary, dreamlike space-scapes I seek to inspire viewers to dream of a hopeful future beyond our imaginations.
Jackie Davis Renew
Mixed Media
Artist Statement: My work explores the complexities of beauty, the impact of social issues, and the experiences of my own trauma and adversities. My approach to the canvas is primarily to unveil an emotional truth and bring awareness to a subject or experience. My audience is invited to interact with my piece not only visually but philosophically; to find fresh meaning and provocative thoughts to gain awareness on an array of topics. I use paint, mixed media, or digital platforms to explore these stories or themes. In the combination with abstract words, vivid colors, and overarching symbols, my pieces encompass clues and messages that tell a story of pain and resilience.
Jenni Allen Good Things Come
Acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
Artist Statement: Jenni Allen is an emerging grid artist/designer from Grapevine, Tx. Using multiple techniques and blending acrylics and other media on canvas to create energy and movement, she also explores complimentary colors, shapes, and texture to create aesthetic rhythm, like dances on canvas.
Emily Holder Blooming
Acrylic on canvas
Artist Statement: This 12 x 12 acrylic painting depicts beautiful flowers in a vase. It represents perseverance and resilience. The flowers bloom even in darkness and create the feeling of determination and strength.
Allie Ramirez Homecoming 1961
Acrylic on canvas
Artist Statement: Flipping through my mother’s yearbook from 60 years ago I am most drawn to these candid shots. This painting is inspired by a photo is a 1961 yearbook from Sunset High School, just blocks from where I currently live. This moment of celebration and coming together as a team is both nostalgic and relatable today.
Nicki Licking
Bree Smith Fractals No. 1
Acrylic on canvas
Artist Statement: My series of work on the theme “On Patience” was developed by revisiting past unfinished works that were shelved due to a lack of patience in the creation process. These pieces were developed through a process of incorporating both intuitive and intentional elements, which requires a controlled and patient approach to resolving the compositions. With this series of imaginary, dreamlike spacescapes I seek to inspire viewers to dream of a hopeful future beyond our imaginations.
Jen Ayyad Static Electricity
Canvas, Acrylic, and Plexiglass
Artist Statement: The ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Thales of Miletus was the first to describe “static electricity”, in the sixth century B.C. These fun circles are my play on static electricity! They are fun, colorful, and provide two dimensional depth!
Glen Gauthier
Mixed media collage
Artist Statement: My medium is collage, utilizing printed ephemera to serve as a kind of time machine. My work subconsciously points inwardly, causing me to realize and address my childhood through previously buried memories and emotion. I engage in an ongoing communication with different versions of myself and the viewer.
Row Two
Rachel Larlee Simplicity
Watercolor
Artist Statement: Rachel’s work is prayerful, mindful and purposeful. Born in England, married to a Canadian and now living in Dallas, Rachel is drawn to mixed media as it echos the blended life she lives. She combines stitching and painting, hand-dyed fabric, wool and thread to produce art that connects and integrate the heart, mind and soul.
Jenny Grumbles Scrappy (small study)
Acrylic oil, pastels on canvas
Artist Statement: Scrappy: Having a strong, determined character, and willing to argue or fight for what you want. -Oxford’s English Dictionary.
Thank you to the fighters. This one is for you.
Obinna Jon-Ubabuco Issac Meditating
Colored Pencil, oil pastel, oil on wood
Artist Statement: Obinna creates works that are centrally focused on the human figure but explore emotional, psychological, and theological themes through symbolic imagery. While sometimes rendered in sculpture, charcoal, watercolor and oil pastel, he primarily works in graphite.
Greg Kaeuper The Stories We Write On Our Faces
India ink on paper
Artist Statement: Greg is a Dallas based artist with an architecturally-influenced style. Carrying a sketchbook with him wherever he goes, art is a way of more deeply experiencing the everyday life around him. Continuous-line portraits drawn on the fly, multi-layerd reflection photography, and urbn sketching are some of Greg’s go-to forms of expression. He especially finds meaning and purpose in his work when it admires the unappreciated, notices the passed-by, and reveres the lowly.
Rebecca Prince Rebirth
Oil on wood
Artist Statement: Motivated by learning and problem solving, you will often find Rebecca in the studio playing with “all of the things” trying to create her next masterpiece. Rebecca continues to experiment with the balance between realism and abstraction, a dance between tiny details and simplifying to only what is essential.
Tina Ngo Focus
Tape on Canvas
Artist Statement: Detailed, yet abstract, constantly balancing between the fluidity of creativity and the structure of staying within the lines. I’m Tina Ngo, born and raised in Dallas, Texas, a tape artist that wants to create the lines instead of just staying within them. “Focus” with each tape represents every little piece of moments, snapshots in time and memories that we all want to capture and replay. The feeling that I, and we, need to slow down and experience the happenings around us. Time to soak it all in and joy the collections of moments that life brings.
Ashley Trail One Step at a Time
Photography
Artist Statement: I cannot be an artist if I am not first a listener. As a photographer and visual artist, a listening posture guides each piece of artwork. Listening stirs imagination, empathy, and connectedness with those around me. When I listen, a conversation unfolds with my heart, camera, and the blank canvas in front of me. My artwork represents my continual transformation from a human doing to a human being.
Angela Pitts Tree House
Mixed media
Artist Statement: Angela works with fabric, image transfers and alternative processes with photography to tell stories through her pieces. She finds value in the printed images, antique quilts, and simple needle and thread. She believes there is power in starting meaningful conversations about our need to live authentic lives in community with one another, and to share our suffering and struggles from day to day.
Emily Atkins
Acrylic on canvas
Artist Statement: Emily is a Dallas-based artist who primarily works in oil paint, sculpting, ceramics, and mixed media. Emily’s work explores color to dialogue about faith, time, and stories of the world. She earned her BA in History from the University of Texas at Austin and completed seminary courses in a year-long discipleship program at Pine Cove. Through these experiences, she explores the intersection between art and faith. Currently, she works full-time as an elementary school art teacher and makes art during breaks and weekends!
John Robertson Jesus Falls for the Third Time
Mixed Media
Artist Statement: Falling on His journey to the cross, Jesus, “through whom all things were made,” submitted as much to gravity and the other physical laws as to the condemnation of the Roman and Jewish authorities.
Row Three
Tim Hudson Almost Blue
Acrylic on canvas
Artist Statement: Hi, I’m Tim and I’m based in Deep Ellum. I’m constantly inspired by the world that surrounds me and by the faith which guides me. I have made a career in graphic design, but am currently exploring personal and universal themes through abstract expressionism and impressionism.
Mary Morgan Clouds I
Acrylic on canvas
Artist Statement: My artwork is about my life’s journey and the joy of living through the abstract form and color. The creative process which produces a product is the voice that reflects my soul, expressing many different faces of life’s experiences. The color and form of my abstract art are enmeshed with internal and external world influences and a blending of subconscious and conscious thoughts. The artwork is an expression of various cloud formations and the vast sky, imaginary and real.
Gwen Meharg All My Secrets
Pen and ink on papers
Artist Statement: We all have secrets. Some secrets are hidden better than others.
Our hope is in Truth freeing us to be more than our secrets.
Treg Miller Sky Sculptures, Left Curve
Acrylic, foam on wood
Artist Statement: My art is known for its bright colors, hardedge lines and geometrical shapes that create subjects ranging from textured flowers, architectural structures and everyday objects. Each painting is created with the idea of empowering the viewer's heart and mind.
Anna Cutchen Gradients and Textures
Embroidery floss and fabric on canvas
Artist Statement: Anna is an Oak Cliff based multi-disciplinary artist. Primarily a writer and musician, she realized that embroidery was a peaceful and life-giving way to relax from her other artistic pursuits. Inspired by abstract painters and modern weavers, she has created a unique visual style that is also meant to be touched and experienced bodily, whether on canvas, in an embroidery hoop, or on clothing.
Dawn Waters Baker Patience
Metal leaf, patina, oil on canvas
Artist Statement: I like to think of my work as trying to capture the emotional landscape. I am not as interested in what is literally there as much as what is felt through water, earth, atmosphere, and sky. These are my visual attempts at translating our shared human story through the metaphor of nature.
Jennifer Stone Dream About -1
Mixed media
Artist Statement: Jennifer B. Stone is known for her colorful, playful painting of the world around her. Shifting between realism and abstraction, her work is inspired by the wonder she finds in nature, the sky, animals, and everyday life. To her, creating real and imagined scenes of the natural world helps her explore the human condition while finding joy in God’s creation. Jennifer earned her BFA in 2017 at UT Arlington but has been creating art as long as she can remember. She is a DFW native who is based out of Arlington, Tx.
Allison Streett Kintsugi Self-Portrait
Plaster on wood
Artist Statement: Based in Fort Worth, Texas, Allison Streett is a sculptor who works in clay to be cast in bronze. Through the language of the human form Allison tells stories of human suffering and hope, alienation and connection, doubt and faith -- the broken beauty of the human experience. Her work is often focused on the feminine and maternal perspective of war, displacement, discrimination, and prejudice.
Christopher Loh The Absurdity of Order
Watercolor and pencil on cold press paper
Artist Statement: Christopher Loh’s work is rooted in the relationship between things: places and people; order and chaos; presence and absence; the spiritual and the physical. In exploring these tensions, Loh examines the assumptions of our lived reality–investigating both its essentialness and its shortcomings–with the goal of humility and wonderment. The abstract act of painting a landscape using straight lines and pure geometries, for example, questions the notion that rationalism makes us superior beings; and instead submits that order is a gift, for the comprehension of complexity and the creation of beauty.
Leigh Harrison Orbs of Influence I
Encaustic and photos on board
Artist Statement: An artist and art educator, Leigh Harrison’s work consists of found papers and paintings, monotypes and color encased in translucent encaustic layers. These elements help her create spiritual atmospheres that speak to her love of unique communities.