My Life & My Art, A Very Natural and Comfortable Clutter - March 4 - April 28, 2023

An exhibit of woodcarvings, drawings and paintings by Sally Stewart

Public Opening Reception:

Saturday, March 4 from 1:00 - 3:00 PM

Artist talk at 2:00 PM

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Beginning as a young child able to hold a crayon and make scribbles, Sally Stewart has been continuously involved with art. As she grew and the scribbles were more controlled, she developed a love of drawing which has lasted a lifetime. To learn more about art, she enrolled in art education at Indiana State Teachers College, now Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where she was introduced to a great variety of media, many of which she used throughout her career as an artist.

Her major enabled her to be both artist and art teacher for 30 years. It was a successful marriage. Through invitations and opportunities to connect her art to the community, she learned the value of sharing her art. Exhibiting continuously made her a member of a dedicated art group while growing more proficient as an artist. During this time, a choice to learn a new medium, wood carving, opened up new opportunities and wood became a favorite medium for the rest of her life. She still loved to draw and paint too.

As new opportunities broadened her art venues, she was challenged to more difficult levels using these new media in new ways and combining it with other media. One such challenge later resulted from an unexpected world event, the terrorist attacks in 2001 which quickly shocked the artist into a greater examination of her ability to speak with stronger and harsher images in the attempt to express deep reactions to such events when words could not. Her reaction as an artist to the terror attacks was a year-long experience creating a sculpture using several media, primarily wood pieces from world sources, and this experience and the emotional involvement led to a 20-year effort of creating multi-wood crosses. Over 200 crosses have thus far been made.

During the years in which she developed her wood skills, she received the invitation to become involved in the furnishings for a new nave in her church and carved panels for the altar and baptismal font. Out of this experience, she chose to create a body of faith-based carved art. This collection provided a new opportunity to share and teach about art and faith in new venues of churches and seminaries in a larger area.

She also competed for the chance to create art work which the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America gave as gifts as he traveled and met with world dignitaries. Her work from this experience can be found in over 30 countries. An invitation to collect and exhibit family creations along with the artist’s work resulted in a showing of over 200 creative activities from 50 family members from several generations.

The focus of the artist has constantly shifted from faith to family to community to simply a love of expression in many media. The artist has celebrated her life with art as a close companion as she “scribbled” in many media for over 80 years.

“My art has clung to me as close and natural as a comfortable sweater I wear constantly. I first put it on as a child happily scribbling and I have worn it ever since as images I create have evolved into ones which reflect world shaping themes.” - Sally Stewart

Gallery Hours:

Monday - Friday 10 AM to 5 PM

Saturdays 10 AM to 2 PM