Two new exhibits on display at Thyen-Clark Cultural Center

Two new displays are featured at the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center beginning this month.

Jasper Community Arts, with support from Kimball Electronics, is pleased to present the work of
Louisville artist, Angie Reed Garner, will be present for the months of April and May 2024 at the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center. The solo exhibition titled; ‘Impermanence’ will feature a variety of large oil paintings.

Angie Reed Garner is a second-generation self-taught painter (mother Joyce Garner), with a BA from Reed College in Classics. She cofounded Garner Narrative with her mother Joyce in 2011, and now runs it and Garner LARGE with her artist and brother. Angie Reed is an activist, has lived on four continents, collaborated on anthropological research into veteran-civilian relations, taught drawing to sheikhas in the United Arab Emirates, and now teaches Zen.

Through it all, she has sustained a personal art practice which complicates and completes everything else.

“This series began before the pandemic. A couple of the pieces are not truly dry,” Garner states. “In 2019 I did this one painting that I really, really liked. I hoped it was a breakthrough into my mature style. I’ve been painting full time since 1995 so it didn’t come quickly. I found out it wasn’t luck. I knew how I did it, I knew I could do it again. I did, I went on to paint a second perfect painting. Weeee! Soon I was painting toward a show of perfect paintings. In my head, I sketched out how my whole art career would develop and flow, once I had this body of perfect paintings. And then the pandemic happened. You can watch the pandemic unfold in these canvases.

Angie affirms that she is not the person who she was in 2019 and not that painter, not physically or
mentally. “I hope Art will forgive me,” she says. Angie is still showing up to the studio, but she is in there in a different way.

She states, “I need my painting time to take care of me now. It’s “me” time, it does not feel like work. I have to fight for time to paint—well, that has never changed. It kinda reminds me of how art was way back before I became a professional artist. I only painted for me back then, because other people didn’t yet like or want my work. I was the only person to paint for. There are many parts of my life now that are about doing things with people and for people. Painting does not have to be about that. Painting can be just what I want, nothing added or subtracted. It’s become a wonderful way to paint, now that I think about it.”

“One thing I need lately is to celebrate resilience and coping. Nature finds a way to continue after catastrophe. I like to paint weeds, specifically musk thistle, dandelions, and oxeye daisies. They are invasive, they feed bees. So long as bees survive, I think these flowers will be around for a long time.”

The cultural center will also feature work from the Visual Arts Committee for April and June.

Jasper Community Arts with support from Matrix Integration is pleased to present the annual exhibit of artwork by its Visual Arts Committee members for the months of April, May and June at the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center.

The Visual Arts Committee is comprised of a broad spectrum of area volunteers. This includes
working artists, teachers, art advocates and interested patrons.

The Visual Arts Committee Exhibit will be on display from April 4th – June 23rd, 2024.

Members of the Visual Arts Committee, some of whom will be exhibiting this year, are: Myra Schuetter, Steve Poehlein, Trish Mehringer, Barb McCullough, Bill Whorrall, Diane Wininger, LaVonne
Tisdal, Curt Uebelhor, Kit Miracle, Jay Hamlin, Julie Parr, George Smith, Fred Robberts, Emily Colucci Peak, Jen Tolbert, Romy Kissel, Clare Bies, Ann Kissel, Elizabeth Wertman, Monte Young, Selena Vonderheide, Emily Klein, and Corie Eckerle.

The galleries at the Thyen-Clark Cultural Center, located at 100 3rd Avenue, Suite A, Jasper, IN 47546, are open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, and Sunday from noon to 3:00 pm. School groups, clubs and students are welcome. Admission is free. Donations appreciated.