Reception for Put A Bird On It: Artworks by Debo Groover, Anne Hempel and Perdita Ross

Given their aesthetic diversity and expressive qualities, birds have always been a popular artistic muse. These winged creatures offer inspiration and challenge artists to find new and innovative ways to capture their unique coloring, intricate patterns, and enchanting spirit. Birds take flight in the human imagination and the artists featured in this exhibition successfully depict their exuberance and spontaneity in their work.

Using polymer clay as a collage material, Debo Groover has perfected a new technique to create colorful “paintings” filled with movement and energy. She founded Debortina Studio with her wife Tina Torrance and they work collaboratively, merging their creative and business talents. Groover creates the visible layers of each painting and Torrance builds the frames and paints the layers of color underneath.  They bounce ideas around and come up with new patterns to evoke the fun, funky sensibility they both share.

Anne Hempel uses multiple layers of thickened acrylic paint creating an impasto style that reflects light and adds expressiveness to her paintings. She applies glazes and washes in between layers to build rich color and highlight the texture. Using a palette knife and various tools, she carves into the wet paint creating a three-dimensional sculptural rendering. Recently moss, ferns and feathers have found their way into her paintings, taking this exhibition’s theme literally.

Local artist Perdita Ross has been hosting blacklight art events on First Fridays outside of her studio, Artisans, in Railroad Square Art Park since 2005. She encourages visitors to create some of the background elements in her collages then, using her artistic vision, she adds the main components and arranges it all into cohesive compositions. These collaborative works are a reflection of the community and her own inclusive philosophy of the art making process.

Though they say “birds of a feather flock together,” these artists’ styles and creative processes could not be more different but their artwork compliments each other in a way that’s whimsical and unexpected. Celebrating all things avian, this exhibit provides fresh interpretations of our fine feathered friends.

If you can’t make it to the reception, be sure to see the exhibition. It will be on view through July 16, 2018 and is one of many rotating exhibitions curated by the Council on Culture & Arts on behalf of the City of Tallahassee as part of the Art in Public Places program. The Artport Gallery itself is located in the Tallahassee International Airport, 3300 Capital Circle SW, and is open daily from 8:00 am until 11:30 pm.

For more information about COCA, this program, or to sign up to receive COCA’s email blasts visit www.www.tallahasseearts.org.