By: Jane Dewey, Art Festival Committee Member
April 20, 2019
Stories intrigue me. Stories about someone’s journey through life, or a certain day, or what makes them tick or what they imagine. Often a person’s story is interwoven into their artwork. As their story changes so does their artwork and sometimes the artwork changes causing a change in the story. This leads me to one of the reasons that I’m such a fan of meeting an artist whose work I might purchase or at least getting to know their story just a bit! Art Festivals like the 2019 Danville Art Festival give you the opportunity to meet the artist, talk to them a bit, even look at their work and then come back after you’ve thought about how that piece of art might fit into your life story.
Our next two artists, though very different in genre, both have their stories interwoven into their artwork.
Paul Muth, a local ceramics artist has been called by Danville journalist Bobbie Curd, “A Master of Creativity… who never runs out of ideas”. Paul’s story includes his exploration of pottery during his time as a student at Centre College, in his studio called Sugar Grove Pottery, named for a road which runs through the family farm he grew up on in western Kentucky, and his interest and mastery of color and glazing techniques. Paul’s studio is full of of beautifully crafted functional pottery including mugs, bowls, vases and lazy-susan platters. His pottery story has recently taken a wonderfully fun and whimsical turn as he’s begun creating pottery animal sculptures! Check out Sugar Grove Pottery and Eclectica Facebook page to learn more
Ashley Trabue is a Nashville-based painter who was recognized as artistically gifted at a young age. While her life took a turn into early childhood education she found her way back into art-making and has embraced painting in the abstract describing the process as “intuitive, physical, wildly expressive and cathartic”! As I explored Ashley’s website, I learned that she is also a published poet. It seems that her life and artwork takes a variety of turns and forms!
I’m looking forward to learning more about both of these artists and more about the interesting twists and turns of their artistic processes when I visit their booths on June 8th and 9th at the Danville Art Festival! I hope to see you there!
