The Sanchez Art Center presents the
annual Arts on Fire Awards Exhibition featuring the work of
Shelley Gardner & Drew Goings. Their work was selected by Jack
Rasmussen, juror of the 2004 Arts on Fire exhibition, from over 65
artists for this two-person exhibition in the Main Gallery. Gardner
will exhibit her recent abstract sculptures using natural materials
and forms. Goings will exhibit his meticulously rendered paintings
of Americana neon signs.
Shelley Gardner’s source of artistic
inspiration is the natural world. Recently, with a yard of her own
to care for, she has become increasingly aware of the cyclical
rhythms in the natural world. She is fascinated by the unique and
often strange ways plants manage to insure their reproduction in a
hostile environment. Using materials such as seeds, pods, rocks,
eggs, wax, and fibers, she attempts to mirror the slow cumulative
processes of nature. Her multi-layered surfaces are the result of
observation of the way in which seemingly small and insubstantial
matter can slowly coalesce into a solid and enduring form. The
development of seed pods, the formation of crystals, the sediment of
a river bottom, are all examples of the processes used in her work.
Shelley received her M.F.A. in
Sculpture from the California College of Arts and Crafts. She also
attended Humboldt State University and the San Francisco Art
Institute. Shelley has exhibited her work widely throughout
California including the Napa Valley College Gallery, California
State University Stanislaus, Dean Lesher
Regional Center for the Arts, Olive Hyde Art Gallery, San Luis
Obispo Art Center, Angel's Gate Cultural Center, Crocker Art Museum
and the Sonoma Museum of Visual Art.
Drew Goings paints the business signs
we encounter every day. These signs – mostly neon – are older,
neglected, and often only occasionally used. Most people pass these
business signs daily without notice. Yet they are an art form in
themselves. Often intended for viewing at night, the glow of the
neon beckons passers-by to a place to sleep, to eat, or buy their
liquor. Viewed in sunlight, these signs can look rough, even
awkward. Flaws, peeling paint, and dirt are all revealed. These
unique signs lie hidden beside the mass-produced chain store signs
seen in every town across the country, waiting patiently for night
to fall and their chance to shine.
Drew was born in California and grew
up in upstate New York. He studied art at the
State University
of New York, New Paltz
and Arizona State University. Goings comes from a family of artists;
his father is the photorealist painter Ralph Goings. After doing
photography for a number of years in California and Arizona, Drew
recently returned to painting after a 20-year break. He has worked
for contemporary art galleries in Scottsdale, Arizona, and assisted
companies with their handling and acquisitions of their corporate
art collections. He has worked as a commercial photographer and
graphic artist in Phoenix, San Francisco, and the Virgin Islands.
