Above: Lily Yeh of Barefoot Artists.
Eye-Opening Meal
The Lackawanna County Department of Arts & Cultures welcomes internationally renowned artist and activist Lily Yeh to Scranton on Friday as the keynote speaker at its fifth annual Wake Up with the Arts breakfast.
All are welcome to attend the creative networking event at the Scranton Cultural Center which, in addition to Yeh’s lecture, includes performances by the Breaking Ground Poets and comedienne Jeannine Luby. Held in Shopland Hall on the fourth floor the breakfast runs from 8:30 to 11 a.m. and is offered free of charge, although a $5 suggested donation will be accepted to help offset the costs of catering.
Yeh is the founder of Barefoot Artists, an organization which has worked in impoverished communities in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Ecuador, and China instigating participatory and multifaceted collaborations between individuals and agencies to “foster community empowerment, improve the physical environment, promote economic development, and preserve and support indigenous art and culture.” Her talk is expected to address the transformative power of art, specifically “how brokenness can be transformed into beauty and joy through a co-creative process of creativity and working together.”
Yeh is the author of Awakening Creativity: Dandelion School Blossoms, a book about her work in a challenged Beijing school to transform the campus with mural paintings, mosaics, and an environmental sculpture. Before founding Barefoot Artists she served as the co-founder, executive director, and lead artist of The Village of Arts and Humanities in Philadelphia.
The goal of Wake Up with the Arts to is “educate, motivate, and inspire the public to use the arts to enhance all of the communities that comprise Lackawanna County.” Email arts-culture@lackawannacounty.org to register or call 963-6590, extension 106 for more information.
Judith Lynn Keats. Archetypal Matrix.
Art Lab
Science, anthropology, history, spirituality, nature, and psychology all serve as key sources for artist and educator Judith Lynn Keats.
“Universal and personal archetypal symbols emerge throughout my imagery which serve as the basis of my visual spiritual vocabulary. I draw upon symbolism and abstraction to convey an intimate sense of spirituality and divinity in my mixed media paintings,” she offers via artist’s statement.
The Bear Creek resident’s work is featured this month in a new exhibition opening in conjunction with Third Friday Wilkes-Barre. Keats is an associate professor of fine arts at Keystone College in La Plume since 2000. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Wilkes University before attending Goddard College in Vermont where her graduate work focused on “the mystical connections between the acts of creating, self expression, divine synchronicity and the sacredness of life.”
She has also worked as an adjunct instructor at Luzerne County Community College, an artist-in-residence at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre and ran the custom framing shop and gallery The Art Hatchery in Wilkes-Barre for 14 years (1986-2000).
“I embrace the boldness in contemporary art that supports the artistic freedom to explore multi expressive forms of art,” she further wrote of her work. “I express central themes derived from natural earth elements and the hidden mystical domains. Paint, ink, graphite, canvas and paper give formative voice to my dreams and insights. I mix art materials with the zeal of an alchemist in search of transforming denser earth pigments and materials into images of transcendence and spiritual harmony.”
This month’s exhibition at Marquis Art & Frame also features works by ceramic artist Ellen Jamiolkowski
Held from 5 to 8 p.m. additional Third Friday venues include the ArtSeen Gallery, Barnes & Noble, Bottleneck’s, Downtown Arts, the F.M. Kirby Center, Froyo Mania, Widmann Gallery at King’s College, Musical Energi, the Osterhout Free Library, Outrageous, Shambala, Wyoming Valley Art League, and the YMCA. Visit www.thirdfridaywb.com for more information.
Niijima by James Harding
Glass Act
New Linder Gallery director James Lansing brings his knowledge of the Lehigh Valley art scene to Keystone College this semester with an exhibition of recent glass work and prints from glass by Bethlehem based James Harmon.
Titled Planned Random Occurrence, the show opens on Sept. 21 with a reception for the artist on Sunday, Sept. 22 from 4 to 6 p.m. In addition to recent works the exhibit also showcases a few older works that share Harmon’s “unique vision of nature’s continual impact on life and art.” He will speak about his process and the results in a public talk on Monday, Sept. 23 at 9:45 a.m. at The Theatre in Brooks.
A student of glass art master Dale Chihuly while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, Harmon worked as his assistant before setting out on his own. His works at this time incorporated his visual memories of growing up in the Adirondack Mountain region of New York state.
The artist’s work is held by Corning Museum of Glass, the Honolulu Academy of Art, the Rochester Museum of Art, the Tacoma Museum of Art, and the Toledo Museum of Fine Art and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. He has most recently expanded his reach to Japan and Sweden.
The Linder Gallery is located in the Miller Library on the Keystone College campus and accessible during normal library hours. Call 945-8335 for more information or visit www.keystone.edu.
