September Artists: Lenora J. Lopez Schindler & Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton

EXHIBITION DATES: September 6th – 28th

OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 6th, 2024, 5:00- 8:00 PM

GALLERY HOURS: Fridays 12:00 – 8:00 PM, except day of exhibit opening: Saturdays 12:00 – 8:00 PM

LENORA J. LOPEZ SCHINDLER, “SLITHER, SING, POUNCE, POP, PAUSE”

SHORT BIO: Lenora J. Lopez Schindler works as an artist in Spokane, Washington, where she was born and raised. She has sustained a studio by teaching art academically for over 25 years.  As a Spokane native, she is inspired by the delicate landscapes of the Columbia Plateau and the rich variety of mountain ranges and their watersheds.  She is a member of the Saranac Art Projects gallery co-operative.  In 2023 she was selected for a five month, artist-in-residence at The Hive, Spokane Public Library, which ended on September 30th 2023;  in October she was given an Artist Trust Grant for Artists’ Progress. In June of 2023, one of her paintings was selected for the Spokane Public Library Portable Works collection, and may be seen at the South Hill Library. Much of the work in this exhibition was made during the residency through August of this year.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT: This exhibition spans small works I made in the preceding twelve months.  Each piece is loosely structured around an environment I have seen on many walks and hikes in a 50 mile radius from my backdoor.  When I walk I tend to linger where I can smell the Ponderosa Pine, where the ground becomes a galaxy of tiny plants growing out of granite or basalt.  Some of the bright saturated colors in the paintings are based on spots of vibrancy such as leaves and blossoms which optically boom out of quiet greens and browns.  I include what I did not see but heard close and far – lazuli buntings hiding in the sage at Steptoe, little American Coot chicks with orange feathers and red heads. The small paintings allow for experimentation.  I love the challenge of making a small surface have a large visual presence.

REBEKAH WILKINS-PEPITON, “STATIC MY SENSES MAKE”

SHORT BIO – Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton is a multimedia artist and art educator living in Spokane, Washington. Her work is produced using foraged pigments including those from metal, plants, seeds, and stones. 

STATMENT - This new mixed media collection from Rebekah Wilkins-Pepiton contrasts imagery of mycorrhizal networks with urban constructivist scenes in response to the fractured relationship between humans and the natural world. Rainer Maria Rilke speaks to this beautifully in The Book of Hours I, 7:

If only for once it were still.

If the not quite right and the why is

could be mute, and the neighbor’s laughter,

and the static my senses make-

if all of it didn’t keep me from coming awake-

Then in one vast thousandfold thought

I could think you up to where thinking ends.

I could possess you,

even for the brevity of a smile,

to offer you

to all that lives,

in gladness.