North Loop: Sue Fluger
Sue Fluger is a self-taught artist. Her creative expressions span back to her early years before kindergarten when she learned how to color in the lines and draw her favorite animals. As her skill level has matured, her outlets have expanded to different mediums and styles. Whether depicting a subject with clean lines and clear interpretation or letting the colors and shapes flow together in moods, her journey of self-expression feels inexhaustible and unfolding. Her current series, titled {elementals} is an homage to her relationship with nature and the residing spirits. Whether she is collecting acorns and stones that grab her attention or noticing a tree with a big personality, she enjoys tapping into what nature wants to convey. {elementals} draws the eye to texture in the absence of color, offering a quiet meditative interaction. Sue hopes to pull the onlooker deeper into noticing who might be looking back at them and open up the imagination towards the guardians of nature, such as dryads, faeries, gnomes and the like. The pieces in this series are available for purchase. You are welcome to contact Sue via her website: www.suefluger.com or on Instagram: @sueflugerart
Village: Lauren Drew
Lauren Drew Barros is a mixed media artist based in Austin, TX. She received her Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her work calls upon her architectural background not only with its materiality but with its craft and attention to detail.
Her mixed media pieces explore the relationship between visibility, legibility, and meaning. Every piece begins with writing on a theme, applying the words directly to the canvas. She builds layers atop of this writing, obscuring it with sheer coats of paint and drafting tape, rendering the content purposefully illegible but still perceptible. She asks questions through her work. Does obscuring a message under layers of material weaken its meaning? Are words still meaningful if written but never read? Does art earn its meaning through its ability to be perceived or is it innate? Is the meaning of art in the process of creation or in the viewing of the final form?
Lauren Drew Barros makes thoughtful decisions on what is concealed and what is revealed in her artwork, both building up and carving away layers to create a finished product that holds deep personal meaning.
Contact:
laurendrewbarros@gmail.com
Max Gallegos
I began this journey by creating found art sculptures in 1992. Such terrible titles like, Depression and Hit Me. The process of creating those sculptures got me through my divorce and also landed me my first official show at the Spotted Dog Gallery in Albuquerque. The sculptures were composed mostly of wood, wire, and copper plate. Several years later I began making hand-made paper. This evolved into hand printing on hand-made papers. Frustrated with creating paper capable of withstanding the printing process, I began printing on commercial art papers utilizing an etching press in 1996. In the fall of 1996, I began to experiment with photography. I love the marriage of photography, printmaking, and painting. I now focus primarily on large acrylic abstract paintings and collage art boxes.
My given name is Randy Nesbitt. I sign all my artwork Max Gallegos to honor my mother. Gallegos was her maiden name. I also use Max Gallegos as my pen name for my books. My books can be found on my Publications page on my website:
www.fearlesscoachingwithmax.com
Contact:
randolphnesbitt@gmail.com
Far West: Erin Mainwaring
My affinity with rendering detailed pen and ink drawings originated from illustrating surgical techniques for a multitude of academic publications. I fell in love with this scientific approach of translating dimension and texture into precise marks. It is a meditative process attempting to capture both the stillness and materiality of the subject. The illustrations float ungrounded on the page, yet derive weight from each mark of the pen. This meditative process captures both the stillness, materiality, and tactile aesthetic of the subject.
Contact: