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It could be said that Karen Shechtman Cole and Carol Taylor-Kearney are leaving their imprints on Salus University.
The latest exhibit, featuring the work of the two artists, is titled “Natural Imprint,” and is now on display at the D’Arrigo Family Gallery in the Hafter Student Community Center on the University’s Elkins Park, Pennsylvania campus through June 3, 2022.
"I am so pleased with the way this show turned out —balanced and color compatible. But what is more important is the successful juxtaposition of two very distinctive styles,” said Elynne Rosenfeld, curator of the gallery.
“Carol’s is figurative and Karen’s abstract. For both, however, making a statement about the environment as we experience it (whether to appreciate or depreciate it) is central to their creative intention.”
Cole is a graduate of Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and started as a painter and art instructor. For 50 years, she has explored and exhibited a wide variety of media, from painting to ceramics, glass and mixed media. She has exhibited at the Snyderman Works Gallery, Woodmere Art Museum, Wayne Art Center, the University of the Arts and many others.
“Though I intend my creations to look like they have lived or grown somewhere, I make little attempt to portray actual plants or animals,” said Cole, who uses watercolor inks, Japanese Sumi ink, salt and Caran d’Ache pencils to capture movement and life. “Living with beautiful objects that pay tribute to the natural world reminds us to slow down and reconnect with the world around us. Everything is created in a spontaneous and organic dance with the movement of the brush as it meets the paper.”
Taylor-Kearney is an artist, arts educator and curator. She collects materials for her reverse glass paintings on windows, doors, and frames; for her work on canvas, blankets, and flags; and for her installations.
A graduate of Rowan University (BA in Art Education) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (MFA), she has worked as the coordinator of Graduate Studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, taught studio art at Burlington County College and Rowan University, and has served as a Cultural and Heritage Commissioner for Gloucester County, New Jersey. She has also worked as an independent curator for exhibitions at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Gloucester County College, Cerulean Arts Gallery, and StrataSphere, an exhibition space in Philadelphia. Presently, she is the co-owner of Powell Lane Arts in Collingswood, New Jersey.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and is part of both public and private collections including Wells Fargo Bank, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, and Queensborough College, CUNY.
“Part of my intention is ecological. I want to show nature's imprint on mankind rather than just mankind's impact on the environment,” said Taylor-Kearney. “But in creating this work from familiar pictures, relived experiences, and use of discarded windows, I have also come to realize that I am reporting on something more personal and Arcadian, "Et in Arcadia ego,” the notion that existence in the present, however idyllic, is an existence with death and regeneration. For me these paintings are the creation of something new out of the impetus of my past; for the paintings' audience they can be reconstructed as they meet new sets of experiences and circumstance.”
A reception to meet the artists will be held at the Hafter Center from 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 1. Vaccination proof is required, or a negative test within 72 hours of the event.
