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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 4, 1997)
-- - ■ I m Artist weaves new images with paintings i By John Fulwider Senior Editor Betty Jo Axthelm makes watercolor paintings on paper. Nothing unusual there. Many artists would then frame their work and display it. Not Axthelm. She cuts hers up. She cuts two new paintings up, then weaves them together to create one entirely new composition from verti cal and horizontal strips of the begin ning two. . The result is an unusually textured floral portrait that looks like it’s made of hundreds of squares — a different approach to the time-honored still life. An art show including Axthelm’s works opens Friday at Noyes Art Gal lery. | Axthelm’s woven watercolors emerged from experimentation, like so many of her other works in watercolor, oil and acrylic paints. She likes to make pictures of anything she can get her hands on and then arrange in an attrac tive composition. “I see beauty in my environment Noyes Art Gallery 119 S. Ninth St. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday John Fulwider/DN BETTY JO AXTHELM’S woven watercolors will be on display starting Friday at the Noyes Gallery. wherever I look,” said Axthelm, who prefers to be called B.J. Please see AXTHELM on 8 Haydon Gallery to show collection of digital art From Staff Reports “The Digital Show: Artists Us ing Computers,” opening Friday at Haydon Gallery, exemplifies the staggering proliferation of tech nology and its use in contemporary art. The show is a follow-up to 1996 Haydon exhibitions that focused on the use of computers in weaving and printmaking. “The Digital Show” takes a look at electronic photogra phy and image manipulation. Anne Pagel, Haydon director, said the creative capabilities of the artists create an aesthetic statement that overcomes the challenges of us ing the latest technology. Their works, she said, prove that artistic expressions can reach far beyond the media from which they were pro duced. Jim Butkus, a graphic arts in structor at Omaha’s Metropolitan Community College, organized the show and is one of its featured art ists. Other artists are Jill Birschbach, Judith Ernst Cherry, Gary Day, Mary Day, John Derry, Gary Downing, Shelly Fuller, David Helm, Becky Hermann, Tricia Smith Hollins, Lorran Meares, Kat Moser, Peggy Reinecke and Lynn Reynolds. - • i.. ?%;•«.?*£$-; Jtl* J :.«ij•. v-fl Haydon Gallery 335 N. Eighth St. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday _»_ fNFuufiDja/DN th a computer Digital Show: Friday. The show was organized by Jim Butkus, a graphic arts instructor at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. Burkholder Project p: duces shows, new space From Staff Reports Opening Friday at The Burkholder Project are three shows and a new ex hibition space. The exhibition space is called The Sampler Gallery and occupies base ment space formerly used by the Lin coln Artist’s Guild,'which is leaving because of financial difficulties. The Sampler Gallery’s purpose is to give artists who aren’t members of die Burkholder cooperative a chance to have a work or two on display. In the space now is a piece from a Leba nese artist, Roula Ayoub, as well as works by artists from South Korea, Seattle, Minneapolis and all over Ne braska. The space features much-improved lighting and wall coverings. Upstairs in the Main Gallery Fri day will be “Mysteries,” a collection of abstract works by Lincoln artist Richard Tyrrell, plus some of his re cent landscapes and figurative sketches. Burkholder Project 719 P St. Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday In the Back Gallery will be a group show of abstract works by Burkholder artists. And die Skylight Gallery will have recent mxe^^&a^ag j^pgr works by Omaha artist opens exhibit against Wltid i. By John Fulwtoer I Senior Editor - ‘cr ’ There was a time when Omaha art ist Bonnie O’Connell wanted to’throw the moneylenders out of the temple— or die Warhol-lovers out of the Art In stitute. When she lived in Chicago, O’Connell considered the Ait Institute of Chicago a refuge — a place to see art untainted by die influence of com mercialism. £ > That ended in 1989when a new pop culture exhibit turned the Institute into what O’Connell called “a Warhol mall.” "The museum had simply been con sumed by this whole notion of market ing Warholia,” she said. “I was re pulsed.” . Andy Warhol worked in “pop art,” making paintings of popular figures and items like Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mouse and Campbell’s Soup Please see WARHOL on 8 Gallery ;9 124 S. Ninth St. Hours: 10 a.m-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday Gallery openings bring full bellies, free culture Free food. Art lovers go to gallery openings because the experience of view ing fine art enriches their lives. But if life enrichment doesn’t top your list of weekend priorities, go for the free food. We’re not talking carrot sticks and ranch dip here. At a recent Haydon Gallery opening, we’re talking confections that put The Gar den Cafe to shame. Fresh fruit. Sublime gazpacho dip. Summer sausage. Cheese from around the world and a few other planets besides. Gallery openings are an experience unto themselves. People dress up and dress down. Some wear the stereotypical all-black. All com ers have fun if they want. That’s right, fun. Art shows are a source of cheap entertainment. Actually, not cheap — free. All you have to do is go. For those who aren’t convinced, free up 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Fri day and follow this route through Lincoln’s four downtown galleries: 1. Start at Gallery 9, 124 S. Ninth St, not because it’s the best gallery (they all have their own charm), but because it’s just outside the Haymaiket and parking is easier to find. Walk right under the iron arch to file courtyard entrance. Fill up a plate with food from die table l^^jgs^^Lg^around for 30 minutes—don’t miss the handmade ^ 2. WaJkjim»ss Ninth Street to Noyes Art Gallery, 119 S. Ninth St. Thefiefc food should be in the room to the left of the entrance. Get sbm&,*tkdh%alk clockwise around the gallery’s three exhibit rooms ' for 30 minutes. You’ll end up at the entrance again. Exit. 3. Any other month but February, you would walk or (hive to the Burkholder Project, 719 P St It’s across die street from Jabrisco and next door to Ted and Wally’s. The free food is usually in one of the artists’studios on the left > But not Friday. Burkholder isn’t having a night opening this month, so go either earlier in the day or another day. Admire the gallery’s architecture and foliage as much as the artwork. Allow some extra time, because Burkholder is huge. 4. Run over to Haydon Gallery. Take Eighth Street past The Oven and The Mill. Haydon is about half a block past La Paloma on the same side of the street. There is one exhibit room, so the free food won’t be hard to find. Too bad these things happen only once a month. Fulwider is a junior news-editorial nutfor and the Daily Ne braskan wire editor.
