Studio B Art Gallery, 39A East Philadelphia Avenue in Boyertown, PA, is pleased to announce the opening of an exhibit entitled “Diverse Elements” featuring the paintings of Sandra and Bob Wood and the 3D sculptures of Daniel Schlenker and Bob Hakun on Friday, October 19, 2018, from 5:00 – 8:00 p.m. The exhibit runs until December 2, 2018.
The exhibit showcases the unique ways each artist interprets the world using assemblage, ceramics, watercolor, and paint.
Sandra Lee Wood has spent most of her life as a well-known and award-winning art educator. She is a world traveler with several of her trips settling in one place to paint “en plein air“. Her delicate watercolors capture the joy of pattern, color, and texture found in the natural world she sees.
Since retiring she has been able to study watercolor and pastels with nationally known painters who have helped her to continue her journey. Sandra’s new work features new techniques and approaches inspired by recent travels and workshops.
Artist Bob Wood is a long time researcher, writer, and speaker on Pennsylvania Dutch (German) folk culture. His longtime experience, along with his literary background, infuse themselves into art that presents a very contemporary take on established themes.
Wood grew up on a New Hanover township farm and draws much of his inspiration from memories of working the land.
Self-taught with no formal art training, Bob likes to quote a friend who describes his paintings as “Basquait and Dubuffet crash into a Pennsylvania Dutch village.”
“We have a hard time putting words to him to describe his art, to put a label on him,” said Jane Stahl, co-founder of Studio B in Boyertown. “But what we love about him is that he is so eager to try new things, to experiment with different materials and go in different directions.”
Bob Hakun brings his experiences working in the toy industry designing Halloween costumes and masks and graphics for silk-screen printing along with his work as a computer prepress specialist and digital graphic designer to his recent medium—assemblages built from discarded items that juxtapose normally unassociated items.
Purposely creating an unrefined image in collecting old, discarded items—some natural like bones or wood, some man-made like wheels or rusty wire—Hakun looks for old things that show the beauty and harshness of aging. Objects that are burnt, broken, rusty, crushed, bent, and stained imply a history or narrative that he stitches or bolts together to assemble a piece of artwork that tells a story or conveys a message greater than the individual items project on their own. He seeks an emotional response in his audience and leaves the interpretation of any message to each viewer.
Dan Schlenker is an emerging artist whose sculptures have been shown and received warmly in several recent exhibits at Studio B. He received a first place award for 3D art in the studio’s “Farm/Earth” exhibit in January 2018 for his mixed media/ceramic sculpture entitled “Pod.”
Schlenker’s recent visit to Arizona and return to Berks County provided the inspiration for his work. “The place has a different type of energy and feel—possibly because of where it is located on the tilt of the world,” he explained.
“It’s beauty is made up of jagged, sharp edges, textures, and muted tones with occasional splashes of color that caught my eye and contrasted dramatically with my upbringing on a Pennsylvania farm surrounded by the color green and lots of water—water being the most important and valuable commodity of change.”
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