The city of Enumclaw’s Gallery 2011 kicks off the new year with Digital Realities by Auburn artist Heather Losey McGeachy. The show, which exhibits at Enumclaw’s City Hall, opens today, Wednesday, and continues through Feb. 1.
City of Enumclaw Cultural Programs Manager Gary LaTurner said McGeachy creates colorful multi-media digital works of art using film and plexi. Her artwork is free-flowing, colorful and unique, he noted.
“I get lost sometimes,” McGeachy said about her motivation and ideas for her work in a press release issued by the city of Enumclaw. “I lose my sense of place as the edge of physicality begins to melt into the digitality. My work represents the blurring of physical and virtual realms, particularly within digital meta-verses such as video games and online social networks.”
She said she was first inspired to create in this manner while playing Call of Duty, a World War II-based video game.
“While I was playing the game, a friend was serving in Iraq,” she said. “The connection between the visual imagery of the game and correspondence with my friend compelled me to seek out experiences of “real” in the digital. I visually document my virtual experiences as a way to understand the physical world.”
McGeachy creates her paintings on layers of clear film. The layers are sandwiched between layers of clear plexi and mounted on white plexi. “Transparent, layered imagery mimics the layers of data that form our experiences,” she said. “I see the world through translucent veils of human knowledge, experience, light and color. If just one of those veils is removed, or shifted, the scene becomes very different.”
The city of Enumclaw has selected 12 artists for 2011 exhibits. Exhibit space in the display case is still available.
Artists scheduled for 2011 are: February, Jean Bradbury; March, Kevin Merchant; April, Nancy Cary; May, Steve and Judi LePenske; June, David Jayne; July, John Woodard; August, Sallie Zydek; September, Bob Schillereff; October, Contemporary Quilt Art Association; November, Dennis Harrison; and December, Mike Dilbeck.
Gallery 2011 continues to show the jewelry of longtime Enumclaw resident Sylvia Hillberg
Hillberg works with all forms of glass, crystal and natural stone. She is a featured artist at the Arts Alive! Gallery and is a juried artist at the annual Art in the Garden show. She has taught jewelry making classes at the Enumclaw Community Center and volunteers at More Pennies from Heaven thrift store where she repairs donated jewelry.
She is also a photographer and has had exhibits at Green River Community College and the Enumclaw Senior Activity Center.
Her work will remain on display through Feb. 2.
Gallery 2011 is located in the Council Chambers at Enumclaw City Hall, 1339 Griffin Ave. Hours for the exhibition space are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Enumclaw City Hall is closed on national holidays. The gallery is closed to the public Tuesdays of each week for municipal court proceedings. For information, call Enumclaw Cultural Programs office at 360-802-0239.
