Midcoast Fine Arts and Davenport’s Bucktown Feature Doty, Williams, McFarland Artworks
Midcoast Fine Arts and Bucktown in downtown Davenport have got two great new exhibits adorning the walls over the next month.
The art of Jane Doty and Amber Williams runs through March 28 at Bucktown. Amber Williams has worked in collage since childhood and refocused on the medium in 2010. “I deconstruct materials by color, pattern, shape, etc. to create new images.” Her new collages expand the kinds of materials and processes she incorporates, including underlying collages, chips of paint, feathers and polyacrylic phototransfers. She also has moved from landscapes above ground to playful interpretations of sea creatures. The common ground connection between the types of images is experimentation.
Jane Doty retired from teaching in 2013, set up a studio at home and embarked on learning painting. She became a professional artist in 2015 when she came on board at Bucktown Center for the Arts and sold her works out of the MidCoast Artists’ Market. Her career climbed to a new level when she was commissioned to create works for the new Merrill Hotel through her representation in the Sunrise Gallery in Muscatine. Like Williams, she pursues experimentation: “In my paintings, manipulating the colors, light, depth and texture of what I see is my challenge.” Her subjects range from representation to abstraction. She says ”Holding onto a moment of beauty, a memory, a story, is why I paint.”
On the Bucktown second floor, the art of Sam McFarland runs through March 28. Sam McFarland is an independent tattoo artist by day and whenever possible she works in kiln-fired vitreous glass paints and stained glass after tending to her twins and family. She notes that her first spark of inspiration originated during watercolor classes with Ralph Iaccarino, which led to AP art classes at United Township High School and an art degree from Illinois State University. Her stained glass focuses on the relationship of humanity and animals.
She explains: “Fascinated and inspired by religious artwork of all denominations but deeply agnostic, my love of animals led me to explore the world of religious expression with them as martyrs and figureheads instead of humans. I create saints from the downtrodden animals haplessly caught in a world of humans and human desires. They become revered symbols for their fellow creatures and a new faith of fur and fishes is born.”
