It’s a Good Day: Abstractions of Sunrise on the Lake by Samira Gdisis

It’s a Good Day: Abstractions of Sunrise on the Lake by Samira Gdisis
in the Powder Room Gallery
at River Arts on Water | 590 Water St, Prairie du Sac, WI 53578
Exhibit dates: Tuesday, January 16th – April 20, 2024

Art Reception: Saturday, March 2, 5:30-7:30p, also celebrating this season’s Featured Artists

As an artist, I am interested in sharing something more than pretty imagery. There is nothing wrong with pretty, and I do that too, but there are so many exquisite and intriguing qualities that art can bring to life, more emotions, and more opportunities to ponder.

In my first collegiate drawing course, Trenton Baylor said, “I will not teach you to be a good drawer. I will teach you to see the world.” This exhibit is meant to inspire the viewer to look at the world like that.

“It’s a Good Day: Abstractions of Sunrise on the Lake” is inspired first by the words of my late Mom, who was lost to Brain Cancer in 2015. My mom struggled often throughout her 76 years, yet within those times of struggle and even when the cancer took her mind and memory, she greeted each morning by facing the sunrise and saying, “The sun came up; it’s a good day.” As her caregiver, that was exquisite and astonishing to me.

Somewhere along the way, her practice rubbed off on me. So, most early mornings, before the first ribbons of light, I head down to Lake Michigan, just a few blocks from my house and studio. There I am inspired as I greet the sun. Its light and the colors of early mornings, the open skies, the sound of ebbing waves, and the reflections on “the Lake” fuel long ambles and voyages of my imagination. I see the world, my world, as full off possibility.

The small encaustic wax and oil paintings in this exhibition are the snapshot interpretations of my mornings by “the Lake.” I hope the viewer catches a glimpse of my world, the wonder and emotion, the color, and the reflection of my mornings. I hope that the artwork brings a little “good day” into the world of its viewers.

Artist Bio:

Samira Gdisis is a printmaker, interdisciplinary artist, community builder, and curator from Racine, Wisconsin.

As she opens the door to her studio, she often wonders aloud, “Who gets to do this?” to live a life surrounded by creativity, doing creative work, and interacting with creative people.

She loves making art sometimes fun and sometimes serious, often as a means of documenting life around her, experiences, people, or nature. Color fills her abstract work. The interplay of media permits her to discover the powerful, potential interaction of techniques, texture, and color that may mimic or counter life in abstract land or seascapes. The images are inspired by her mornings at sunrise along Lake Michigan near her home and studio.

Samira holds bachelor’s degrees in cognitive psychology, interdisciplinary art, and printmaking, with a minor in arts management at the undergraduate level. She also has earned a Master of Art in museum studies from the Johns Hopkins University. She has shown her artwork locally and regionally.