Santa Cruz County Bank Arts Collaborative Presents Color & Light
Color & Light brings together four area artists: John Babcock, Kathleen Crocetti, Heidi Hybl and Stacy Frank, whose works explore the mercurial nature of light and color to convey emotion and delight the viewer. An ambitious exhibition of 98 works of art, spanning throughout the Bank’s five countywide banking offices, Color & Light features two and three-dimensional works, including large paper and resin sculptures, glowing neon mixed media works, meditative oil paintings and smaller, intimate collages.
A pioneer of the paper art movement and 2014 Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year, John Babcock, incorporates specific papermaking fibers which reflect light differently to create unique characteristics in his works. The resulting imagery changes focus; some images recede or appear as the viewer moves from side to side in front of the work or as the light of day changes. Some of his large format paper works have been constructed into 3 dimensional sculptures, which appear both delicate and concrete at the same time.
Also inspired by shifting color and light, Kathleen Crocetti incorporates glass, encaustic, resin and the use of neon lighting in her two dimensional wood “light boxes” which can be displayed “lit” or “unlit”. Kathleen’s light boxes and constructions of towering resin, encaustic and neon sculptures in each of the Bank’s five locations take on a split identity; each having a completely separate and vibrant personality and new aesthetic that comes alive when illuminated, revealing mysterious shapes and patterns cast by a neon that are otherwise unseen.
Reductive abstractionist, Heidi Hybl, works in response to the mercurial lighting conditions she experiences living in the Coastal hills, pushing layers of color to the point where the resulting image appears as an ephemeral moment in time and is reduced to the two components of color and light. Her meditative work is testimony of a close involvement with her environment.
Printmaker Stacy Frank’s vibrant and playful Stripes and Linear monoprints explode with color. Created using collograph, drypoint, carborundum and ghost printing, the Stripes series are mounted on cradled panels and feature jewel tones with mesmerizing color combinations. In her Linear series, Stacy deconstructs and rearranges her stripes to invent one of a kind collages. Each piece is unique, yet they amount to a cohesive collection of imagery.
Curated by Mary Anne Carson, Director of the Santa Cruz County Bank Arts Collaborative, Color & Light is on display at all Santa Cruz County Bank branches through January 17, 2017.
Artist Statements
Exhibiting artist Heidi Hybl states, “These paintings are abstracted landscapes….Colors are delicate or striking depending on the season, climate, or on the time of day. I reduce these visual, auditory and tactile experiences to light, motion, and simplified form.”
John Babcock shares, “I speak about my work as a documentation of feeling, emotional responses to an idea… I take in and reflect on earth’s patterns, the beat of the music in the studio, or the ripples in the sand at the ocean’s edge. When working on the concept for a piece, I explore that feeling and work to illuminate the essence of the idea.”
Exhibition Calendar and Reception Date:
June 27, 2016 – January 17, 2017 Santa Cruz County Bank exhibit dates, all five branches
First Fridays of the Month Santa Cruz County Bank participates in all First Fridays, 720 Front Street, Santa Cruz, 12-6pm.
October 5, 2016 Santa Cruz County Bank Artists’ Reception, 720 Front Street, Santa Cruz
5:30-7:00pm
Exhibition Locations & Hours:
Santa Cruz County Bank
Mary Anne Carson, mcarson@sccountybank.com, 831.457.5003, ext. 2118Exhibition & Media Contact:
The Santa Cruz County Bank Arts Collaborative is an outreach effort to promote professional artists and art education by providing exhibiting artists with promotional assistance and by mounting public exhibitions in its banking offices throughout the county. Santa Cruz County Bank received the 2007 ArtWORKS Emerging Business Award granted by the Santa Cruz Arts Commission for its support of the arts.
More information and imagery:
https://www.sccountybank.com/art_current.cfm
http://firstfridaysantacruz.com/santa-cruz-county-bank-color-light/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Santa-Cruz-County-Bank-Arts-Collaborative/109246806394
