By Marie Maber
RED BANK – When artists tap into their personal visions, turning away from trends that capture the attention of their peers, their imagery can emerge with refreshing originality.
“Natural Narrators: Stories of the Mind and Earth” is the first instance for each of the artists, Eileen Kennedy, 59, of Middletown, and Katie Anne Stone, 30, of Red Bank, in which these particular bodies of work are being displayed. Their paintings and drawings will are on view through Tuesday, Aug. 5, at Red Bank’s Art Alliance, 33 Monmouth St.
Both artists create images deliberately, using fine lines to build their colors and forms over time. They utilize their exacting craft to deliver their particular, personal messages. Stone’s images appear as universal, dependent on genus and species, while Kennedy’s are grounded in place and time.
The painting, “Wetlands,” conjures the ecosystem surrounding Poricy Pond where Kennedy and her classmates spent hours after school.
“This carpet of jacks-in-the-pulpit, skunk cabbage, and oak leaves teemed with wildlife and provided a fitting backdrop for much intrigue, real and imagined. It was a magical time,” she said.
Kennedy said that her works take months to complete. Her strokes in egg tempera and marks in silverpoint are technically difficult to reverse.
“I choose my subjects carefully and prepare well,” she said. “Even though I make many preliminary drawings and studies, my use of color remains intuitive – fabricated in flight. I never really know where the paint will take me and I’m always surprised at the end.”
Kennedy, an operations manager who works part-time for Red Bank’s RiverCenter, will engage the public, offering to answer questions while working “live” on a new painting for the duration of this show during regular gallery hours.
Stone’s drawings are richly colored and precise. They combine unpredictable elements suspended in an open-ended, illustrative realm. Her works are lyrical and although, at first glance might appear as though seen before, are original and compelling.
Stone works at the Creative Arts Center in Thompson Park as a studio technician and teaches pottery, sculpture, drawing, and painting classes. She identifies sources of her imagery as from botanical and scientific illustration, animation, cartooning, and children’s books.
She likes to engage individuals who are in the process of viewing her artwork, enjoying their various interpretations. “I like to have people see it fresh and interpret these drawings on their own. I like having that personal conversation with people who’ve viewed my work,” she said.
Additional information about the artists is available by visiting www.katieannestone.com and www.eileen-kennedy.com.
Art Alliance of Monmouth County, 33 Monmouth St., Red Bank, is open noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays; noon to 8 p.m. Aug. 4-5. Admission is free.
