duet' from the italian, duetto, a little duet. an action or activity performed by a pair of closely connected individuals. To understand someone else, you need to both capture your own thoughts as well as gauge the intention of the other person. Whether you are cooking a meal together, playing a duet or knowing when to take turns in conversation. Interaction changes our brains. Researchers have studied songs of female birds and how they join their mates to sing precisely coordinated duets. Many of these new works have been done together. Tom begins and passes the piece to Jacqueline. At that point often collage is used to create form and structure. The piece is shared until they decide together when to stop working on an image. The viewer can decide which is a Tom mark and which is a Jacqueline. Some of the changes create a rich layering of surface and space.

A duo exhibition by Jared Gillett and Jane Troup. In Jared's paintings, he wanted to "notice the simple pleasures in life." From yummy treats to childhood toys, he invites the viewer to reflect on life's simple pleasures. Jane Troup: “ My new work comes from an in between place. In the last years loved ones left and new ones came. The ground shook. Life goes on and I create to stay at peace and in gratitude for the beauty around us.”

This body of work is born out of my intense love and reverence for nature. It is a love letter to earth, a melancholy response to the growing threats to our natural environment. I hope to reveal a particular beauty and fragility imbued with an encroaching possibility of loss. Photography has played an important role in informing my paintings. I use photography to capture that moment in nature that stops me in my tracks. I try to distill that feeling while referring back to that moment while painting. I feel as though it all comes full circle as the photos then become an extension of my paintings.

An ephemeris is a table or data file giving the calculated positions of a celestial object at regular intervals throughout a period. I love astronomy and find painting inspiration in the spectacular images of celestial objects and systems that NASA provides. But for this body of work, I have been creating an internal ephemeris that tracks my moods, emotions, and mental state during the pandemic. The patterning and brush strokes are based on celestial phenomena, but the sucking darkness that eats away at the canvases, the fraught palette clashes, the sweeping swathes of calm tempered by deep sadness, the lively bursts of frenetic joy—all of these feelings personified in color are my internal ephemeris.

While creating these new pieces of work, my mind and soul have been consumed with beholding the splendid emergence of youth as I watch my six year old daughter transform from my baby to a young independent girl. Seemingly, I feel passively frozen in time as she speeds into her future with delightful curiosity. Simultaneously, I am struggling with the human experience of aging and feeling helpless against the relative physicality of time, as I watch my ninety-three year old Grandmother gracefully approach the next spiritual level of becoming. These artworks reflect my reactions to these most human experiences. Neutral whites, whispers of gold, silver, gray, and greens seem to be crucial colors of expression. Three-dimensional forms frozen in beeswax and resin echo my memories. Escaping Neverland is an endless journey in which we all symbiotically travel. Occasionally, we are able to catch wonderful glimpses of this enchanting existence.

Abstraction has become one of the most formidable challenges on my art journey. Using a reference, it’s easy to see the destination; with abstract, you must create your own world. Why this shaped over that one? Why here and not there? Why this color and not that one? I’m fascinated by the decision-making process of it all. As a future-minded, self-diagnosed planaholic, the intrigue lies in letting my intuition guide me, trying not to overthink, and allowing chance to take its turn. As a result, there have been many reroutes and pit stops along this nearly four-year exploration, but I might just finally be starting to get somewhere.

Flowers for Winter (to get us through) is a deeply personal series of abstract works inspired by the garden my husband and I nurture each year. In a time of profound stress, grief, and anxiety, related to familial illness and death; and the genocide, destruction, and environmental catastrophe in the greater world, this ongoing garden became a symbol of resilience and transformation. What if the flowers didn’t wilt? What if they continued to grow, mutate, and evolve, becoming more abstract, vivid, and strange with each season? This concept drives the imagery in my work, where the natural palette of magentas, violets, periwinkle blues, and greens mutates into neon pinks, lime greens, and hazy, atmospheric whites. The colors warp and blend in a pastel sfumato, creating a tension between nature’s familiar beauty and something more unsettling—a grotesque joy that emerges from the distortions of grief. This mutation is not just visual; it is emotional. The warmth in the paintings feels almost radioactive, at times comforting and at times overwhelming. The flowers become surreal forms, both growing and decaying in the same breath, a reflection of the paradoxes of love and loss. I want the viewer to feel this intensity—the simultaneous sense of decay and persistent beauty woven into an emotional entropy. Accompanying the paintings is a playlist of music that I curated while working on this series, which will play in the gallery during the exhibition. This music, rooted in the moodiness of Shoegaze (reflective of both comfort sought and impotence felt in the face of tragedies personal and global), explores themes of love, heartbreak, nature, and the cosmos. Through QR codes available around the gallery, visitors can experience the playlist for themselves, deepening the connection between sound, color, and emotion. In this way, the exhibition becomes a multi-sensory experience, inviting the viewer to engage with the warmth, distortion, and sometimes uncomfortable beauty that can emerge, even in the face of winter.

The title “From East to West” is a poetic way to express the continuous line that circumvents this planet. Rudyard Kipling expresses this continuous horizon in this way: Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently…” The horizon line is an illusion that occurs at the merging of heaven and earth. The place were one reality is blended into the next results in a definitive line that appears to be so very straight, steady and ongoing. This exhibit captures only a small sliver of the collision of water, earth and sky. These paintings and wall sculptures visualize the horizontal plane. They also captured the collision that occurs when the artist attempts to make an “unseen” reality visible in the “seen” world. This horizontal and luminal space stretches from east to west.

"There is a strange current that runs through my body, and a constant whisper in my ear telling me to simply “go”. My feet twitch to carry me away while my heart aches to connect with places I’ve never been. I listen, and I go. In this collection of work, I was inspired by places I’ve been. I turned to memories created on journeys where my soul felt most free. Each piece represents a time, place, and emotion. The unity of journeys recalled and journeys across canvas struck me in surprising way. Each artwork was an exploration itself, full of fortunes, mishaps, and surprises. When I realized this, I let myself get completely lost. The result is a raw and honest pilgrimage across canvas that gives each artwork a distinct character. I am still not sure that I’ve figured out where I’m going, but I know that I’m on my way there. Thank you for joining me. " - Colby Kern “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” - Henry Miller

My works are greatly influenced by the four classical elements—earth, air, fire, and water. The power, colors, magnitude, and motions of these elements are brought to life with concrete texturing, fluid acrylics, and resins. Intense colors and textures form a liquid look that make you want to connect with and touch the pieces. Being able to create something that captivates the viewer and pulls them into the world as I see it...full of color, texture, power, wonder, happiness, joy, reality, fantasy...making that connection is all you can ask for.

A variety of local photographers were asked to submit a sampling of their black-and-white work for an exhibition in November of 2019. While all of the imagery relates in their monochromatic approach, each artist uses their own technique, materials, and voice to compose this unique exhibition celebrating talent in the Ozarks.

Painting for me is the result of an internal dialogue I have with myself. I don’t see it as a verb, a hobby, or me trying to be an artist. I see it more as a place I like to go. A place where my heart and eyes can have a conversation without saying a word. Gathering from the intermittent observations that I tend to find in the shadows of the bigger picture, the pressures we put on ourselves, others, and as mothers, while holding onto what is dear as we feel the way through the dark are several elements that make up the backbone of this body of work.

This collection features original works of art created by Shelly Forbes from 2015 - 2018. In honor of Shelly, Obelisk Home is proud to donate 100% of the proceeds to the American Cancer Society. Shelly Forbes was drawn to art and creating art from a young age. Greatly influenced by the four classical elements – earth, air, fire and water – she began each piece by working with concrete, fluid acrylics and resin which allowed her to create intense colors and textures that form a liquid look that makes you want to connect with and to touch. With the ability to create a piece of art that expressed how Shelly saw the world and then share it with others was very satisfying and inspiring to her. Shelly was selected to compete in The National Weather Center Biennale in 2015 which is an international juried exhibition presenting art’s window on the impact of weather on the human experience.

Horizons appear when two different elements appear to meet in the distance. We see the horizon when we visit the ocean. The sky and sea meet together, and we observe a horizontal plane. Horizons capture a sense of space, distance, and mystery. The song writer Rich Mullins said it best, “ Sometimes the night was beautiful. Sometimes the sky was so far away. Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close, you could touch it but your heart would break “ The artwork in this exhibit is a tribute to the horizons we long for. Color and texture collide with symbol and metaphor to create a space where beauty and wonder abound. I hope it stoops so close you can touch it.

“Searching for the unexpected. Categorizing feels stagnant. I’m still moving.” - Stephanie Cramer

The painting process is constantly changing for me. There are a lot of intermissions that happen when you work from home. It is almost impossible to come back to the same person I was before the break. But then again, maybe I need a break from that person I was before. Maybe these interruptions/intermissions are what is fueling the work? Maybe the intermission has something more to offer than the show itself.

We invited a curated list of artists to submit works for this “Invitational” exhibition. These artists previously participated in group shows at Obelisk Gallery and have shown exceptional talent. 22 artists are featured in this exhibition. Opening Reception: June 7th, 2024, 6-10pm Exhibition Showing: June 7th – July 27th, 2024

Center stage in my art is the figure—an object in motion, as if the figure is caught, just for an instant; a glimpse, a snapshot before the gesture is complete. I’m not in search of exact representation. I’m intent rather on provoking a sense of tension or intensity. These plus color, bring the emotion to the painting. Whether spatial or expressionistic, the implied relationship between figures is intended to arouse curiosity. Painting is like a freeze frame. It helps both the viewer and the painter to pause—if just for a second as we enter into that two dimensional space. Most of the time the stage is imaginary or based on dreams and memories. Like Alice, the viewer is invited to step into the drama or the wonderland inside the looking glass.