Vibrant Voices in Art on Display

RSA Tower, 201 Monroe St., Montgomery, AL (RSA photo)

My daughter, Elaine Farley Kinnaird is a recipient of a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. This coming Sunday, July 29, from 2:00 – 4:00 pm, she will be a part of the artists showcase exhibit. You will get to see the artists’ work and will hear each artist talk about their work. See details below. 

(Photos from the art installation can be seen here.)

2018 FELLOWSHIP SHOWCASE EXHIBIT

Montgomery, ALA – The Alabama State Council on the Arts is showcasing the work of six (6) Fellowship artists at the Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery in downtown Montgomery.  The gallery is located in the RSA Tower, 201 Monroe Street, first floor, suite 110. A reception is scheduled for Sunday, July 29, from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. with artist talks happening between 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

Artists featured in the exhibition:

·         Scott Fisk

·         Elaine Farley Kinnaird

·         Miriam Norris Omura

·         Charity Ponter

·         Jared Ragland

·         Kami Watson

Scott Fisk is a graphic designer, artist, and educator. He graduated with an M.F.A. from Memphis College of Art and received his B.F.A. in graphic design from Henderson State University. Fisk’s interests include web design, typography, photography, motion graphics and multimedia. In 1994 working as a designer with NetM Communications he created for clients in the U.S. and Britain. His motion graphic works have been featured on major television networks in the U.S., Australia and Japan. Fisk's work is part of permanent collections in numerous galleries and museums, including the U.S. National Archives. He served as an Army Reserve photojournalist in Iraq, often serving as a combat photograph with U.S. and Iraqi units during combat operations. Fisk is currently a Professor of Graphic Design at Samford University, where he also serves as chair of department of Art. http://designsetgo.com

Elaine Farley Kinnaird majored in Art History with her senior thesis on the topic of Mesoamerican sacred bundles. Her idea of the bundle as an object which elevates the mundane into something sacred has now become a central theme in her work. Her work seems to bundle space, time and memory. Her art is like jazz—a skilled improvisation, fueled by internal and external stimuli, that is created under her guiding hand. http://efkinnaird.wixsite.com/elainefarleykinnaird

Miriam N. Omura received a BFA in Fiber and Material Studies from the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio.  After graduation, Miriam worked as Technical Assistant for the department, Artist Assistant to Cleveland-based artist, Hildur Jonsson, and in positions in area museums (The Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland Museum of Art, Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens).

Omura later earned a MA in History and Art History from Cleveland State University in Mississippi. At that time she began shifting away from studio art and towards museum collections work. Omura acquired a position at The Heritage Center in Pine Ridge, South Dakota on the Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation, cataloging the historical and contemporary Native American art collection. Afterwards she moved to Alabama to be the Collections Manager of The Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art at the University of Alabama. She now works full time at her studio in Birmingham, Alabama. http://miriamomura.com

Charity Ponter explores the lines between art, documentary, and portrait photography in order to reveal honest connections with her subjects. Through her work, Ponter offers a visual landscape in which people and situations can freely share realities on a deep and often spiritual level. She often seeks community collaboration with other artists supporting her view that all individuals have inherent value and a unique voice in this world. She is uninterested in visual trends that isolate, self-promote or divide. Instead she creates work that brings healing and connects diverse groups of people while invoking a communal village mentality. https://charityponterphotography.com

Jared Ragland is a fine art and documentary photographer and former White House photo editor. He recently worked on a long-term documentary on methamphetamine use in rural northeast Alabama and currently teaches and coordinates exhibitions and community programs in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Ragland is a photo editor for National Geographic Books and has worked on assignment in the Balkans, the former Soviet Bloc, East Africa and Haiti. In 2015, Jared was named one of TIME Magazine’s “Instagram Photographers to Follow in All 50 States.” His work is exhibited internationally and is featured in numerous magazines and newspapers including Forbes, The Oxford American and The New York Times. https://jaredragland.com

Kami Watson has a nomadic past with a focus on environmental conservation and humanitarian services. Those life experiences exposed Kami to global influences in design and culture and led to a desire to create functional and visual art with an ecological sensitivity. As a second generation fiber artist, she freely explores the traditional art of wet felting, the fusing of raw fibers into a textile form with soap, water, and agitation, as well as the contemporary techniques of nuno (fabric) and laminate (multi fabric layer) felting. She combines renewable natural fiber resources, reclaimed silk sari and clothing fabrics, and her own hand dyed silk fabrics and fibers to organically create each of her works of art. She allows the materials she uses, and her past and present influences and life experiences to guide her instinctively in color and design. https://www.kamiwatsonstudio.com