William Barnes was born in Chicago and raised in Iowa, where he received his B.F.A. from Drake University. He earned his M.F.A. from the University of Arizona in Tucson. His paintings and monotypes have been exhibited in over 150 national, juried and invitational exhibitions throughout the country. Recent exhibitions include a duo shows at Beverly Street Studio School in Staunton; and group shows at First Steet Gallery, Broome Street Gallery ,and Prince Street Gallery in New York City, and Lancaster Museum in Pennsylvania. Works have been acquired by public collections in New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama. Barnes is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including an N.E.A. and two residencies at La Cite’ Internationale des Paris. In New York he was affiliated with the Bowery Gallery, where he had three one-person exhibitions, and since 1997 he has been a member of Zeuxis, an association of still life painters based in New York. He has taught at the College of William and Mary since 1975.
Jayson Lowery was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He earned a B.F.A. from Northern Arizona University, and a M.F.A. from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He lives in Williamsburg, VA and works at the College of William and Mary, where he teaches 3-D Foundations. He lived and worked in Detroit, Michigan for 7 years, and taught sculpture at Wayne State University. He often works on a life size and larger scale and has exhibited in galleries and in outdoor exhibitions nationally and internationally. Commissions include work installed at the Auburn Hills, Michigan and the Telford, England offices of EDS, Inc, and a centerpiece for the Thomas Bonner Memorial Court on the Wayne State University main campus, Detroit, Michigan. In 2003 he participated in the Art on the Move Summer Mentorship and Artist Residency programs.
Jurors Statement:
Williamsburg is fortunate to have had TCAG for these many years. Among its many attributes, it performs a vital and reliable role for the artists of the Williamsburg area by providing an intimate exhibition space where they can come together to exhibit their work and exchange ideas. For artists to be able see and share their work with peers on public gallery walls under good lighting can be an inspiring and encouraging experience. It also provides a venue where local and out-of-town visitors can see the art produced in this region. We would like to give a special thank you to Karen Schwartz, the Coordinator for TCAG Annual Member’s Show, who invited us to judge and coordinate the process so it ran smoothly and made our job of jurying this exhibition a pleasant experience. We would also like to thank Gene Chis and Charlene Zolad for being generous with their time by hosting at the gallery throughout the jurying process.
Regarding the jurying process:
In our selection, we wanted to be as inclusive to the many visions and media as possible while at the same time pursuing quality. We looked for work that used the visual language in a personal, vital way. We evaluated works with formal, constructional, and expressive criteria. Our interest was in the way the language of composition, form, color, texture, and surface came together in the service of expression and added up to a coherent whole. As we looked carefully in each gallery and at each entry, we didn’t have any fixed idea but reacted to the work in a highly subjective fashion.  Another pair of jurors might choose differently although we would hope there would be some overlaps.  Ultimately as a juror or viewer one comes equipped with the sum of his or her artistic knowledge and experience, including an understanding of visual order, construction, design; an appreciation of a wide range of styles and media; an empathetic eye for images that manage to hold their own and speak to the juror at some visceral,  subjective, level. We want to congratulate the artists whose work we selected for recognition in the show. We would also like to congratulate the rest of you who submitted work and encourage you to continue to believe in your pursuit. The jury process is limited. It’s hardly an exact science, but it is an accepted method for artists to be recognized and measure their work.  As jurors we were appreciative of the overall quality of the works submitted. Being given the task of choosing 12 works from this diverse pool of 99 works was challenging and exhilarating. After moving through the galleries several times and concurring back and forth reviewing the submissions, we concluded with the following results:
Jean K. Walker Awards of Excellence:
First Place: Sue Danehy’s oil “Sandra” is an elegant, sympathetic portrait. The soft, subtle modeling of the face contrasts with the strong geometry and lively color of the scarf and makes for an expressive character that is very compelling. The simple background supports the subject, while simultaneously lending a sense of depth and atmosphere through the artist’s use of subtly varied tones. The simplicity and strength of rhythmic shapes and color temperatures are enjoyed for themselves as much as for their depictive quality. It has an appealing blend of the traditional and the modern.
Second Place: Jean Fripp’s photograph “Green Gutter” is bold in the way its distilled, cropped, vertical format uses juiced-up primaries. Â The strong abstract reading with its clear interlocking planes of color constructing form and light are striking. Additionally the small details of tile and dental molding are well balanced, offering a wonderful contrast and relief to the large shapes.
Third Place: Jacqueline Bruce’s watermedia painting  “Hydrangeas” incorporates mixed media with a  subdued, suggestive palette. The painting has a wonderful display of large, round, pom-pom like flowerheads that can be read both as abstraction and representation. The work plays with other themes of opposites from the free application of washes to the more controlled colored linear contours. It all adds up to a very compelling, sensitive work of quiet poetics.
Merit Awards:
Carlton Abbott’s construction “Heatolator” presents a powerful impact with his use of basic geometric shapes and symmetrical frontal composition, and in the use of rich, saturated color. The non-objective piece is evocative of Southwestern light, Pueblo sand painting design, and some of the rigorous aesthetic of Russian Constructivism.
Gene Chis must have had fun moving around her rich vocabulary of visual elements in the collage “Summer Symphony”. Using a wide range of colors, shapes, and photos to allude to the seaside, she sets up a sophisticated and imaginative arrangement with multiple readings and pathways to move you in and around this small but dynamic piece.
Bettie Curry’s painting, “The Harvest” draws on the energy and expressionist lineage vision of the maverick artist Chaime Soutine. Her tactile combination of mark and pace in her oil still life is one of those subjective orchestrations of color, rhythm, and gesture where everything fits together by the sheer, subjective will of the artist, which is difficult to achieve.
“Open Window “ by Holland Etherridge employs a sensitive handling of watercolor and creates a wonderfully rich play of surface and space and lost and found edges. It depicts a compelling architectural wall featuring a mysterious shuttered open widow. Both in detail and suggestion the paint handling works well to suggest the patina, age and archeological layers of the wall. Its simultaneous intensity of observation and sense of quiet mystery are interests it shares with the streetscapes of Panamanian-American artist Mel Rosas.
Dorthy Grebos provides a dynamic, angular composition in “New Music” that is engaging in her virtuosity of skill and expression. She uses structured painterly strokes that construct light, planes and shapes moving both in space and around the surface and that play against the linear rhythms in a robust manner.
“Old Mississippi Factory” by Heather Christian Iglesias has an eerie, moody feel using low-keyed values that hint at painterly nuanced temperature shifts. The work possesses a simplicity and directness of material handling and honesty in its depiction of a surviving rural grain elevator and silo complex. The work suggests the merging of early modernist and American Regionalists traditions of the 30’s.
Joanne Limric’s appealing mixed watermedia painting, “Eleanor’s Hats” is full of personality and character. The flamboyant hats and boxes are painted with an interesting restraint. The unusual long frieze format is well suited to the subject and—along with the forms, and patterns—facilitates the rhythmic back and forth lateral flow.
Ray and Martha Roundtree’s “Meditation” shows an impressive mastery of lathe-turned wood. The front of the vessel features a low relief scene with a surprising sense of depth. Beyond the foliage and heron in the foreground, the pierced walls of the vessel are cut to suggest a deep space of tangled branches and vines. The subdued use of color in the finish also allows us to fully appreciate the character of the wood.
Karen Schwartz’s “Cambridge Scotties” depicts a playful composition in watermedia. The off-tilt street scene sweeps into space with dynamic abstract shapes of the dogs and bold yellow shirt contrasting the surrounding street activity. The play of the characterful details against the suggested space is beautifully balanced.
