The last ever state-wide Kansas Sampler Festival is fast approaching and Winfield is ready for the event at Island Park, Saturday and Sunday, May 6 and 7.
For those who get an early start, Winfield Main Street is again hosting a Friday evening Music Crawl. Gallery 1001 is pleased to welcome jazz artists Scott Williams and Lane Turgeon, piano and bass.
For more information about Williams and Turgeon see:
https://www.facebook.com/events/301831720256967/
Just in time for the crowds, the gallery’s latest installment of the rotating mural has been installed during a rare afternoon of sunshine. Doodle artist Della Becker’s creation will brighten any cloudy day and is a colorful invitation to the Music inside Friday evening.
Past musicians at the gallery have included pianist Scott Williams several times, and some of his musician friends. This year’s jazz is sure to be lively and set the mood for a festive weekend. Stop by to say hi. Enjoy the new art by our member artists and guest artist, and groove to the music. Hope to see you there!
The art of Arkansas City artist Joeni Rogers will be featured in a special exhibit at Gallery 1001, 10th and Main in Winfield, through April and May. Gallery members will host a reception for her Friday, April 14th from 5 pm to 7 pm.
Born in Alberta, Canada, Rogers moved as an infant to Winfield where she spent her childhood. She recalls her first art project just before she turned three when she sketched a waterfall on a freshly painted wall in her house. “I was very fortunate to have a mother with such a gentle soul. She saw accomplishment where others might see inconvenience.”
Rogers recalls hours spent drawing in solitude during her school years. She started practicing by recreating the work of other artists, but eventually began to create her own images. She credits her studies at Cowley College, under the instruction of Mike Fell and Mark Flickinger, with opening her awareness of self-expression and helping her complete satisfying works of art. “To this day,” Rogers said, “everything they taught and helped me understand comes to mind as I sit down to create a piece.”
Rogers has always been fascinated with the human face and facial animation, “the life force of a person,” she explained. Finding the life force of a subject is how she puts soul into her work. She particularly recalls an assignment given by her instructor Fell. “He asked us to make an external or internal self-portrait. It was impossible for me to choose so I melded the two into one.” In this exercise, her artistic style took a leap forward. Her unique portraits are her portrayal of complex human emotions.
Rogers’ recent series of drawings and paintings featuring mechanical birds is included in her exhibit at Gallery 1001. She calls the series “Time Flies.” Her images are available in the original artwork, as well as prints and coloring books, giving art enthusiasts a full range of choice in her available “Enlightened Portraits.”
“The addition of bird features provide a sense of character and purpose to a face. Inspiration for these works emanates from the need to understand and empathize, to perceive people from the inside out.”
In addition to her creative set of Enlightened Portraits, Rogers accepts commissions to create portraits for clients.
Joeni Rogers lives in Arkansas City with her husband and two young children. Her work will be on display at Gallery 1001 through April and May. Stop by to meet this talented young artist April 14, enter the raffle to win a custom portrait by her and see what else she has to offer.
We can look forward to many more years of her unique portraits. “As long as people are beautifully different I will continue to be inspired,” she said.
Gallery 1001, 10th and Main in Winfield, is pleased to welcome photographer Michael Ciskowski as a new member artist. His photographic visions will be featured in the spotlight at Gallery 1001 through March and April.
Michael Ciskowski with Gus
“My interest in photography began in 1969 while taking a photography course in college,” he said. “My instructor was an old-school master photographer who also had a studio in my hometown of Blackwell, Oklahoma. Upon his passing, I helped his widow with the business until she was ready to retire. She taught me how to retouch negatives, photograph weddings, hand-color portraits and many other skills that aren’t taught in college classes and photography schools.”
In his spare time over the next forty-five years, Ciskowski honed his detailing skills while working days with the U.S. Postal Service in various locations across Kansas and Oklahoma. Always available to local residents, he photographed weddings, anniversaries, reunions, portraits and all of the other events that a small-town photographer typically does.
With characteristic attention to fine detail, his skills in photography reflect each of his life pursuits. In addition to photography, he is a clock fancier, with fine mechanical clocks vying for show space among the photographs on his walls. He has also studied historical organs and keyboards and can tap out familiar melodies on his home organ and piano.
Ciskowski retired from the U.S. Postal Service in October of 2014, handing the reigns of postmaster in Udall to his successor. He still had the love of photography but decided to try something a little different. “I wanted to re-invent myself as a photographer but still benefit from the experience and knowledge that I had gained over the years.”
His photographic re-invention has revealed a remarkable talent for artistic photographs. Ciskowski enjoys the freedom of retirement to take every possible opportunity to travel with his wife Norma. The images he has captured and printed in his home studio have proven to be popular at various art shows in the area. Ciskowski’s eye for unique perspective and his thirst for detail allow him to capture artistic views of places, scenes, wildlife, and buildings that reveal his inner artist.
Both Mike and Norma enjoy the road trips, especially those that send them toward their grandchildren in the Dallas area. When they are not traveling or showing photos at art shows, they make their home in Udall with a pet bunny named Gus.
Gallery 1001 welcomes Michael Ciskowski in a public reception Friday, March 31 from 5:00 until 7:00 pm. Stop by to visit with Mike and Norma, and see the beautiful scenes he has captured with his camera.
The reception to welcome decorative painter Jane McFarlen was postponed due to bad weather. It will be held this Friday, February 3, from 5 until 7 pm. Stop by to meet Jane and admire her awesome artwork.
These paintings and many more are on display at Gallery 1001 through February.
Jane McFarlen of Wichita will be the first featured guest artist at Gallery 1001 in 2017. An active member of Decorative Artist and the Kansas Wheatheart chapter, McFarlen started painting with landscapes in the style of Dorothy Dent, in 1981. Her baby daughter had a bad accident that year and needed therapy. McFarlen found Sherry Clark to work with the child, who also encouraged Jane to pick up a paintbrush while she was waiting through the therapy sessions. McFarlen was hooked.
After several instructional seminars, she fell in love with birds and wildlife and has even taught decorative painting in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as Kansas.
Gallery 1001 members will host a welcome reception for Jane McFarlen Friday evening, January 13 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. Stop by to meet this talented artist and see her work.
Art is Life and Life is Art for Winfield potter Ann Edwards. Currently a full-time student at Wichita State University studying ceramics and anthropology, Edwards brings her unique creations to Gallery 1001 as a new member artist. Edwards has known she was an artist since her teen years. However, for several years she suppressed her passion for art and worked in offices while she started her family. Recently, she returned to school to study art and perfect her skills in ceramics, photography, and graphic design.
Part of her university training involved apprenticing in a retail art location, and she has served Gallery 1001 as an apprentice for several years. Now closer to completion of her college work, she is welcomed as a full member artist at the gallery.
For Ann Edwards, art is the life-blood that holds people together. Edwards blends a passion for nature and the environment with her artwork. She has long been disturbed at the increasing tendency for disposable utensils in daily life, and offers durable, functional art for use around the house, particularly in the kitchen.
“I make high-fired functional pottery and choose the type of clay body to match the functionality of the piece. I focus on form and color in my work and use soda or wood-fired salt atmospheric techniques to bring in another aspect of nature and beauty to my work. I feel a great satisfaction in being able to provide a beautiful healthier alternative of functionality to the user.”
Edwards notes her love of nature and the environment have had heavy influences on her work. To that end, she has surrounded herself with her unique creations. “I have replaced all plastics in my kitchen with pottery or glass, including storage containers.” She is delighted to offer healthy and environmentally sound alternatives for use in other Winfield homes.
