The Observer Newspapers | Three Local Artists on Display at GRACE

May 1, 2009

Three Local Artists on Display at GRACE

By Leslie Perales

Observer Staff Writer

The Greater Reston Arts Center is featuring three artists through June 6. The exhibit, which opened April 25, features the work of John M. Adams, Stephanie George and Jessie Lehson. Much of the work focuses on spirituality, dreams and collective memory.

Reston resident John M. Adams is exhibiting selections from his Sitting Still series. His paintings feature acrylic on birch panels. Gallery exhibitions director Joanne Bauer said Adam's work is light, airy and serene. She said his paintings sometime take years to create, combining meticulous craftsmanship with an artistic process that allows for spontaneity. He also uses horizontal and sometimes vertical lines that provide order to his abstract work.

Adams said he tries to create paintings that will slow people down and require them to take a longer look. "You can really enjoy it close up and from across the room," Bauer said. Adams said he enjoys creating work that stops people from across the gallery and causes them to consider it at length.

Stephanie George paints images from her dreams. She has kept a dream journal since she was in art school and continues to keep her journal, painting the scenes she dreamt. Sometimes the scenarios are odd, sometimes they are daily happenings and other times they can be frightening. George transforms the scenes from her dreams by making small studies and turning them into large 48 inch by 36 inch monoprints.

Bauer said while George's work can be comical it is also dark. She has painted friends who have died, a scene where adventure seekers fall out of a roller coaster or a friend who, in her dream, fell from an air balloon. George's paintings are created as faithful to her written dreams as possible, according to Bauer. The details of George's dream journal are descriptive but not embellished and her prints are not otherworldly but still seem dream-like.

Baltimore artist Jessie Lehson said in art school she became interested in making her own paints from dirt when she realized she enjoyed playing with dirt more than painting. Her exhibit at GRACE, Green/house, doubles as a science experiment and includes two components. Lehson has collected dirt from locations across the country and in Terroir she is attempting to raise tomatoes in the dirt, in Plexiglas boxes in the gallery. She hopes to see if the taste of the vegetables she grows are affected by the dirt they are grown in.

Lehson said she grew up in an area of Virginia where the dirt was really red and she suspects her mother may be bitter that she figured out a way to play with dirt as an adult. She said her love of cooking also sparked the interest in her current exhibit. In addition to her dirt and vegetables in Terroir, Lehson's work also includes Muscovy glass, semi-transparent mica panels, suspended in the gallery windows.

Adams received his degree in fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth University and a master's in fine arts from James Madison University. His work has been shown throughout the mid-Atlantic region and he is the chair of the art department at Chantilly High School. Adams has received numerous awards and fellowships including a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Graduate Fellowship. His work has been featured in two previous juried exhibitions at GRACE.

The focus exhibitions reception will be held Saturday from 6-8 p.m. with a gallery talk by the artists at 7 p.m. A children's workshop, "Everyday Art," will be held Monday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. GRACE, located at 12001 Market St., is open Tuesday through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.