Carnegie Center Is Currently Open | Hours

August 3 – September 22, 2018

MIX & MINGLE
Saturday, September 22, 2018 | 1:00 – 3:00 PM
Live poetry readings by Sarah McCartt-Jackson, Ben Traughber, and Mary Karty
Meet the artists on the last day of the exhibition

“For women, then, poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.

As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas. They become a safe-house for that difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action. Right now, I could name at least ten ideas I would have found intolerable or incomprehensible and frightening, except as they came after dreams and poems. This is not idle fantasy, but a disciplined attention to the true meaning of ‘it feels right to me.’” –Feminist Audre Lorde, “Poetry is Not a Luxury,” Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 1984

Inspired by the Audre Lorde quote above, artists Aberlyn, Rebeka Sweetland, and Katy Traughber share work that embodies the sanctuary they create for one another as women makers. The artists feel the Lorde quote also reflects their individual works both in a cerebral and physical sense.

“The conversations we were able to have based on this idea were really powerful.   There is something very nurturing and yet fleshly… and the tension between the two also reflects the energy of our pieces.” –Katy Traughber

About the Artists

Aberlyn is best known for her larger-than-life portraits made up of a bold mishmash of exposed monochromatic underpainting and colorful, opaque applications of paint. Her reworking of traditional modes of oil painting and portraiture is grounded in the belief that the vernacular of beauty, in all of its democratic appeal, is a potent instrument for change. Her most recent work features more overtly political themes and influences that ever before, reflecting the intemperate political climate in which she works through a potently personal lens. She received her BFA from Indiana University Southeast in 2012 and lives and works in New Albany, IN.

“In this series, I fix my gaze on a millennial subgroup of The Resistance experiencing a resounding wake-up call for the very first time. The clashing intersection of the gravity of this broad-based movement with the otherwise beautifully self-centric and relatively comfortable existences of some of its participants strikes me as a meaningful juxtaposition that is both thought provoking and laced with irony. The resulting paintings are intended to be simultaneously sincere and comedic, conveying a light-handed critique of a specific strain of The Resistance as well as a deep love for it and the movement at large.”

 

Rebeka Anastasia Sweetland graduated in May 2013 with a BFA in painting and a BA in Ceramics. Her primary mentors are Lee Greer, Debra Clem, Brian Harper, and Natalie Shelly. She is a mixed media oil painter and sculptural ceramicist. She is inspired by interpersonal relationships and has an air of spiritualism in her work.

“I want to create works that challenge perspective and inspire others to interact with and relate with my work. I am all about connections and the interweaving of the physical human experience with our inner psyche. I strive to create work that invites one to both see and feel beyond the surface.”

Sweetland currently resides in Indianapolis, IN where she is mother to a beautiful 8 month old baby boy, a part-time nanny to 22 month old twins, and a full-time professional artist.

 

Katy Traughber is a mixed media artist based in Southern Indiana. She is greatly influenced by the area’s physical and psychological environments.  Working on wood, Traughber’s images are created with a fixed, acrylic base for a foundation, with delicate, floating layers of chalk on top. Her pieces are fixed but never completely sealed. The materials she uses and visual narratives she creates are both delicate and unyielding, reflecting her personal and family experiences.

“My goal [is] sharing the female voice/story in a real way – a multi-dimensional way – layered, shadowed, triumphant, failing. The type of conversation that would take years of exploring someone to uncover; the things we don’t just set out before the world right off the bat, the stories you have to dig and dig for over time.”

Traughber earned a BFA in drawing from Indiana University in 2015 and currently lives in New Albany, IN.

ARTICLES ABOUT THE EXHIBITION/ARTISTS:

Katy Traughber, Zazu Defeats the Sunflower Witch Mixed, media on wood 48 x 36 inches

Katy Traughber,   Synchronicity, Mixed media on wood 96 x 48 inches

Katy Traughber,  Ancestor, Mixed media on wood 48 x 96 inches

Katy Traughber,  Begotten, Mixed media on wood 48 x 48 inches

Katy Traughber,  Penetralia, Mixed media on wood 48 x 48 inches

Katy Traughber, Abraxas, Mixed media on wood
61 ¾ x 41 inches

Katy Traughber, Solar Plexus,  Mixed media on wood 48 x 60 inches

Rebeka Sweetland, Uncultivated,  Mixed Media Oil on Wood 36 x 35 ¾ inches

Rebeka Sweetland, Savage, Mixed Media Oil on Wood 45 x 45 inches

Rebeka Sweetland, Santa Fe,  Mixed Media Oil on Wood 54 x 43 ½ inches

Rebeka Sweetland, Milk Reign, Carved Mixed Media Oil on Wood 48 x 42 inches

Rebeka Sweetland, Mama & Nurslings,  Carved Mixed Media Oil on Wood 48 x 42 inches

Rebeka Sweetland, Eleanor, Mixed Media Oil on Wood 3 Panels each 48 x 32 inches

Rebeka Sweetland, I AM HERE II,  Carved Mixed Media on Wood 32 x 32 inches

Rebeka Sweetland, I AM HERE I,  Carved Mixed Media on Wood 32 x 32 inches

Rebeka Sweetland, Bound,  Carved Mixed Media on Wood 48 x 32 inches

Aberlyn, Untitled (Phoning Representatives, Toilet Training Toddlers Beneath The Bird of Paradise), Oil on canvas 62 x 48 inches

Aberlyn, Untitled (Of False Promises), Oil on canvas 44 x 30 inches

Aberlyn, Untitled (FB Preacher), Oil on canvas 62 x 48 inches

Aberlyn, Supply Chain, Oil on canvas 54 x 36 inches

 

The Carnegie Center for Art and History is supported by the Indiana Arts Commission

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