A new exhibit is coming to The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Bedford. It is an intriguing and delightful mix of hand-crafted art from three regional artists. This new exhibit is named “Hands-On.” It incorporates a variety of mixed media pieces that have both two- and three-dimensional aspects that takes fine craft to a new level. This exhibit features the fiber work of Nancy Hersberger, the papercutting or scherenschnitte of Kathy Trexel Reed, and the carving work of Allen Graybill.
This exhibit will open with an artists reception on March 22, 2019 from 5 to 7 p.m.
The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art at Bedford is located in the historic Anderson House at 137 E. Pitt St. The Museum is open daily 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Fridays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Museum is closed Tuesdays. Cost of admission is $10 per person or free admission for SAMA members, ages 21 & under and 65 & older. The Museum offers free admission for Bedford residents on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. Parking is available on the street or in the lot at the rear of the building.
Nancy Hershberger, the fiber artist, is from south-central PA, who does work with old sheets, wool blankets, and other materials. According to Nancy, her art has been “influenced by a series of life changing events. Each of my quilts has its own meaning, representing different people, places, and things. As an artist I have learned to look and listen a little more closely, keep my mouth shut and appreciate every opportunity. For me it’s all about passion; interpreting my experiences into art.”
Allen Graybill started working with stained glass and architectural design. Allen says, “I use my architectural background along with my connection to the natural world, tapping into its cycles and rhythms to guide my gourd work. The unlimited patterns, movements and visual wonders, large and small provide an unending source of inspiration. My work also reflects an appreciation of indigenous people’s culture in all of the Americas and throughout the world and their relationship with their environment as expressed in what they made, the manner that they performed their ceremonial activities and how they expressed their general beliefs and values.”
Kathy Trexel Reed is from Somerset county, where she is the coordinator of teh Guild of American Papercutters National Museum. She lived and taught in the Philippines and Germany for 25 years, bringing the art and skill of paper cutting back to the U.S. with her.
Kathy explains the theory behind her work as learning to permit herself “to proceed intuitively, letting the art tell me what step to take next. It’s a lot like experimentally cooking without a recipe, questioning, tasting, partly a sensual adventure. Unexpected combinations can be fun, or not. I’m sensitive to figure-ground relationships and love how the negative spaces can assert themselves, like the ‘pauses between the notes’ that jazz musicians value. Looking at visual art, I feel a piece’s energy and a sense of the artist, in almost a conversational way.”
