A GROUP SHOW / guest curated by QUINN HENNESSEY
Current Mood: SUMMER
July is the peak of summer: hot, bright, and sunny. This group show displays artwork that we felt fit the energy of the season best, from watercolor to ink to acrylic to mosaics to fiber arts.
This show could not have come together as swiftly and easily as it did if not for the amazing community of artists we have in Central NC and beyond. Friends, family, and even distant past connections ended up being the most vital assets I had while putting Current Mood: SUMMER together. These four artists are so incredibly kind, passionate, and excited to share their work with the world, and I could not be more grateful to them.
Rachel Heinze hails from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a.k.a. the Mushroom Capital of the World. She is not only a mosaics and fiber artist, but also an avid salsa dancer, having traveled to Cuba many times to participate in workshops. Her house is filled with brightly colored, intricate mosaics, including her basement, which she rents as an Airbnb. She goes to local thrift stores and buys anything from plates to jewelry to funky trinkets, breaking them apart and turning them into something new. She uses her art to express a deep sense of inner weirdness of which she is both proud and ashamed, constantly struggling with the interplay between conformity and uniqueness.
Chris Johnston is a Botanical Artist & Illustrator. She completed the NC Botanical Gardens certification program in 2022. She a member of the North Carolina Botanic Artist Circle and the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators – Carolinas Chapter. Her media includes Watercolor, Color Pencil and Ink. Her works have been displayed at NC Botanic Gardens, NC Aquarium at Roanoke Island, Peel Gallery, and in local businesses and art shows. She is also a master gardener and lives in Pittsboro with her husband Bob. Their property is surrounded by gardens and woods.
Laura Wimbish-Vanderbeck grew up in Greensboro, NC but moved around to many different cities over the years to pursue passions in art, music, and psychology. She lived in Chicago for years with her husband, Tom, and practiced clinical psychology. The two now live in Pittsboro, NC, in a solar-powered home that Tom built from the ground up. Laura’s new workspace, Lightworks Studio, was also built by Tom, and is a great place to go see her artwork. Her mixed-media collages and alcohol ink pours are bursting with energy and bright colors, inspired by intuition, nature, and dreams.
Claudia Yaghoobi is the Roshan Distinguished Professor of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Director of the Center for the Middle East and Islamic Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, and the Director of the NC Consortium for Middle East Studies. She began making her vibrant acrylic paint pours back in 2019, but art has always been an important part of her life as a form of self-expression and creativity. Her complex experience as an immigrant, ethno-religious minority, and a woman of color in academia has a strong influence on her work.
