The Gallery @ Barr Photographics announces the spring-summer installment of the Corner Gallery’s 2021 exhibition series...

NEWS RELEASE

The Gallery @ Barr Photographics announces the spring-summer installment of the Corner Gallery’s 2021 exhibition series with a collection of mixed media paintings entitled “There Will Come A Time” by award-winning, Unicoi, Tennessee artist, Michelle O’Patick-Ollis.

            In her biographical sketch, Michelle states, “I am an intermediate school art teacher and practicing artist who resides in Unicoi, TN. Trained as a printmaker, I received my BFA (1995) from East Tennessee State University and MFA (1999) from Arizona State University.  After college, I worked as a vitreography printer for Harvey Littleton Studios.  Later, I accepted the position of Exhibits Manager at Hands On Regional Museum where I worked as a muralist who designed and enhanced the permanent/traveling exhibits.  I continued with grad school and received a Master of Art in Teaching. East Tennessee State University (2005) and have been teaching Art for the past 15 years.  My artwork can be found in collections across the country such as The New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut, Scottsdale Contemporary Museum of Art in Arizona, University of Washington Book Arts and Rare Book Collection in Seattle, Washington, North West Art Center in North Dakota, and Tucson Museum of Art in Arizona, among others.

Mrs. O’Patick-Ollis reveals in her artist’s statement, “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” This is the famous quote that described Cezanne’s philosophy of art.  When I first read this quote, I immediately printed it and put it on my studio wall.  I had found a kindred spirit.  For me personally, if I cannot express emotion with artwork, or elicit emotion from the viewer, I am not interested in creating it. I aim to visually describe what I feel, and in doing so, artmaking becomes a cathartic experience for me.  At the same time, I invite the audience to share in my personal experiences hoping to engage them.  When viewers cry while looking at my artwork/reading stories about my family, I know it isn’t caused by sympathy or empathy for the characters in my visual novel.  They cry because my work causes them to recall their own personal experiences.  It brings buried feelings to the surface where they can be felt again and ultimately released.  The viewing experience becomes the very definition of catharsis.  It provides psychological relief through the open expression of emotions”.

Michelle also states, “My body of work is a collection of realistic portraits.  Through a variety of media including coffee painting/mixed media drawings, writing, and story quilts, my work depicts the challenges of the aging process.  Largely influenced by my role as a caregiver for my parents, my drawings tell the story of a mother with Parkinson’s disease and a quadriplegic father with dementia, enduring the winter of their lives.  The stories I tell through my drawings are personal in nature, yet they speak to anyone who has watched loved ones grow old and become imprisoned within their withering bodies”.

Michelle further reveals, “As I watched my parents’ health and happiness decline, I longed to help them.  I wanted to make them happy again.  Ultimately, I was unable to change the reality that each would have to reckon with; however, I was able to create a different reality for them within my artwork.  A frail, slender figure smiles and dances.  An immobile, frozen body is presented in motion.  I was able to depict my parents in a way where they seem to be at peace or joyful, yet upon closer inspection, the viewer is able to see a visual hint to the truth of the situation.  Transparent, fading figures emerge.  Wheelchairs are present.  A body that appears to be dancing is actually jerking with tremors.  There were days filled with anxiety, sorrow, or pain for both my parents and myself.  My drawings became a way of cataloging good memories and a way of working through some of the more difficult times.  It has been a grieving process for me, a way of dealing with what is already lost and a way of hanging onto what will inevitably disappear.   

            “There Will Come A Time” will be celebrated with a mask required, reception and gallery talk by Michelle O’Patick-Ollis, to which the public is cordially invited, on Friday, 14 May from 7 - 9:00 PM in The Gallery @ Barr Photographics, 152 E. Main Street, Abingdon, Virginia.  “There Will Come A Time” will hang, through 31, July. During the exhibition time, there will be opportunity to pre-order giclee prints from selected images, contact the gallery for ordering information!   The Gallery @ Barr Photographics is housed in the Greenway Trigg Building, located in the heart of Abingdon’s main street historic district.  Please call 276- 628-1486 or visit http://barrphotographics.com for further information.