May 6 – June 27

Avilla Flowing Well, Avilla, IN, 14 1/2" x 20" archival pigment print

Kay Westhues’s photographs are from her most recent project, titled “Well Stories”. In this work, she is photographing old wells and springs in the Midwest that have been used as public water sources. These photos explore the beauty, history and culture that has grown around these springs, many which have been flowing for decades. This work was partially funded through a 2010 Indiana Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission.

You can view the work in progress on Kay’s website, which includes video and photography, at www.wellstories.com.

Work from Kay’s previous project, “Fourteen Places to Eat: A Narrative”, will also be included in this exhibit. The “Fourteen Places” series will be shown at the Noyes Cultural Art Center, in Evanston IL, in July of this year, and was exhibited at the Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, and the Lodz Photofestiwal in Lodz, Poland in May 2009.

Chase St. Flowing Well, Gary, IN, 14 1/2" x 20" archival pigment print

Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Jake Webtser, "Words Matter: How To Catch A Hole"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Sleep"

Jake Webster, "The Last Sound V"

Jake Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Kay Westhues, "Well Stories"

Jake Webster, "The Last Sound: Who's There"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Observation"

Jake Webster, "The Last Sound: Couple"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Sleep"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Clouds"

Jake Webster, "My World", Kay Westhues, "Bob Edgell", rugs by Betty Westhues

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Track 29"

Kay Westhues, "Sunset, SR 6 and SR23, Walkerton IN"

May 6 – June 27

"How to Catch a Hole II", 28" tall, red oak

Jake Webster’s new body of work is called “The Train I Ride”. The sculptures in this series were inspired by the writings and drawings Jake made while traveling on various trains across the county. They reflect his thoughts on growing old, his relationship with death, and his love of self and others.

Jake is a sculptor, mixed media artist and spoken word performer. His sculpture uses the tradition of direct carving, and employs a variety of materials, including wood, stone, and aerated cement. His sculptures are currently on exhibit at the South Bend Regional Airport and the University of Indianapolis, and can also be found in many private and public collections. His studio is located in Elkhart, Indiana.

For more information on Jake, visit his website: http://www.jakewebster.org

The Last Sound V, Georgia white marble

March 4 – April 25

Untitled, granola bar wrappers, chicken satay bamboo skewers, aluminum pop tops, red celophane "zips"

Opening reception Friday March 5th, from 5-9 pm, with desserts provided by Indulgence Pastry Shop & Cafe

David Ebbinghouse will be exhibiting a number of small sculptures utilizing materials that are usually discarded — food wrappers from Granola bars, plastic bags that contain corn chips, shiny colorful wrappers from chocolate bars, and plastic inner bags from boxes of cereal. These have been combined with aluminum pop tops, bamboo skewers from shish kabobs, and the sticks left over from burning incense to make three-dimensional structures. The forms, squares, grids and cubes, derive from minimal art, but the materials are the trash and detritus of our consumer society.  Using the structural possibilities of the materials, Ebbinghouse has given them a second life that allows them to be seen in a new way.

Another series of works called “gris-gris” uses the circle as the organizing principle. These take the form of beads strung on a cord.  The cord is braided from strips of plastic bags and the “beads’ are found objects, keys, small plastic toys, aluminum pop tops, and other bits and pieces culled from dumpsters. They have the look of post-apocalyptic amulets.

David Ebbinghouse was born in 1949 and has lived in Bloomington, Indiana since he graduated from Indiana University in 1971.  He has been active in the Bloomington arts community for many years and for almost a decade headed the Bellevue Gallery, an artist co-op.  He is well known for his performance art pieces and installations that are often combined in an exhibition opening in order to lead the audience into the world of his artistic vision.  Ebbinghouse experiments in many media and pursues concepts and materials he encounters rather than using a media driven approach, (such as only welding steel or only making oil paintings).

Ebbinghouse has traveled widely, especially in India and has collected ancient beads and conducted research on them.  He has published bead research and given lectures to various bead societies around the country. All this he considers to be a subset of his artistic practice, rather than a separate activity, as he seeks to integrate all of his experiences into his work.  This intention to create an art that is instrumental in living a life in modern times is the same impulse behind all of the world’s mythology throughout all time and history.  In this way Ebbinghouse seeks to create an art that transcends the boundaries of how we normally think about art.

Untitled, incense sticks, candy wrappers, corks

Detail, Untitled

David’s also created work as the graffiti artist “Tom Cat Spray” – below he is interviewed at his last exhibit at the Wandering Turtle Art Gallery, which featured his stencil pieces. If you spent any time in Bloomington in the 80’s and 90’s you may recognize some of his work…

March 4 – April 25

War Tool: Abduction

Opening reception Friday March 5th, from 5-9 pm, with desserts provided by Indulgence Pastry Shop & Cafe

Javaughn Renee’s installation, “The Chest: Tools of War and Peace,” originated from visions she had about the Iraq war. Ideas for much of the installation were inspired by a visit to a thrift store, where she observed an isle of florescent spaceships and water guns which looked like current military weapons.

Both war and peace tools are found in “The Chest,” and the subtle, often monochromatic works are informed by Quaker traditional aesthetics. She uses the idea of “simple speech,” as she builds silhouettes for concepts, beliefs and ideas that at times bring us to commit violence toward each other and sometimes bring us together.

Javaughn Renee lives in South Bend Indiana, but grew up in the culturally, economically, and geographically diverse area of Southern California. With limited funds and an ambivalence about the art world, she paints, draws and collects simple materials to create works that reveal the complexities of our humanity.

Javaughn’s first group shows were at The Unurban Café in Santa Monica, and El Mercado La Paloma in Los Angeles, and featured her colorful watercolors and oil pastels. After moving to South Bend, however, she continued an idea she began in a show at the Pasadena American Friends Service Committee in 2002. Her work, titled (), was her first piece in an installation about war. Although that work has since been destroyed, it inspired “The Chest: Tools of War and Peace.”

War Tool : Propaganda

Peace Tool : Community

Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Jake Webtser, "Words Matter: How To Catch A Hole"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Sleep"

Jake Webster, "The Last Sound V"

Jake Webster and Kay Westhues exhibits

Kay Westhues, "Well Stories"

Jake Webster, "The Last Sound: Who's There"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Observation"

Jake Webster, "The Last Sound: Couple"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Sleep"

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Clouds"

Jake Webster, "My World", Kay Westhues, "Bob Edgell", rugs by Betty Westhues

Jake Webster, "The Train I Ride: Track 29"

Kay Westhues, "Sunset, SR 6 and SR23, Walkerton IN"

Plastic and pinhole camera work by seven regional photographers

Bill Vaccaro, Gateway, Study 20, platinum Ziatype, 3" x 3"

January 7th – February 28th

Low Fidelity showcases the work of seven regional photographers who make art with plastic, pinhole and Polaroid cameras. These photographers use simple, inexpensive toy and hand-made cameras, which can produce blurred images, over-saturated colors, light leaks, and other ‘happy accidents’, to create a dreamlike ‘low-fidelity’ aesthetic in their work. Each artist uses a different approach and printing process to create their photographs.

Photographers exhibiting include Gina Costa (Lomography), Jacqueline Dickey (Polaroid transfers), Ruth Droppo (pinhole prints), Bill Healy (Holga silver prints), James Kellar (archival pigment prints), Craig Sheaks (Holga C-prints) and Bill Vaccaro (platinum Ziatypes).

Bill Vaccaro (Chicago, IL)

Bill shoots almost exclusively with toy cameras, medium format view cameras, and obscure (and not so obscure) film cameras modified with homemade shift-tilt lenses culled from cheap loupes, crappy magnifying glasses, and battered enlarging lenses, bellows torn from old Polaroid cameras, used extension tubes, and gobs of black gaffers tape. His Gateway series is printed using an alternative process called a Ziatype.

Bill’s work has been exhibited nationally and is currently represented by wallspace gallery in Seattle in their Studio collection. Twelve images from his “Jesus Is On The Mainline” series were recently chosen by juror Rixon Reed to be exhibited and published in the Center for Fine Art Photography’s publication, Artists’ Showcase Portfolio, 2nd edition. His images have been featured in publications such as F-Stop, SHOTS, Light Leaks, Love, Chicago, and Other. His photos have also appeared online in Flak Photo, File Magazine, and mooncruise.com.  He holds bachelor and masters degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Craig Sheaks (South Bend IN)

Craig M. Sheaks has exhibited his photography throughout the U.S. and has been published in Camera Arts and Black & White magazine. Currently he is Professor of Photography at Ivy Tech Community College in South Bend, IN.

Junk Yard IV, Holga C-print, 9" x 9"

James Kellar (Bloomington IN)

James Kellar is a freelance photographer in Bloomington Indiana. He has studied at Indiana University, Ivy Tech Community College, The Graphic Arts Technical Foundations in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and the The Santa Fe Workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he studied under Paul Aresu, and Andrew Rodney. His work has been shown throughout South Central Indiana.

He was the founder and former director of the Pinhole Photography Internet Discussion List.  He has been a member of the Bloomington Photography Club for over twenty years, where he has served as President, and now sits on its board and manages the club’s website and email list.

James has always had an interest in using “low-tech” cameras, such as the Holga. In this series of portraits he took photographs with a DSLR camera and used computer software to manipulate the file to mimic the look and feel of the Holga.

Shannon with Hair, archival pigment print, 14" x 14"

Bill Healy (South Bend IN)

Bill Healy is a member of Northern Indiana Artists and presently serves as Board President of Fire Arts Inc. Photography is just one of the many mediums he uses to create — he also manages the life drawing group at Indiana University South Bend. In 2008 his work was part of a two-person exhibit at the Studio Arts Center, South Bend, and he was awarded Best Work in 2D at the Juried Regional at Carnegie Center for Arts, Three Rivers, MI.

His Time, Holga silver print, 9" x 9"

Ruth Droppo (Bloomington IN)

Ruth Droppo has an MFA degree in Printmaking from Indiana University, Hope School of Fine Arts and has exhibited her pinhole work internationally.  In 2006 she received a Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant to work on a pinhole project titled “Cities of Refuge”, which involved Sudanese refugees.

The work she is exhibiting is from her “birthright” series, a collaboration with composer Michael Mattner. This multimedia work that addresses how women pass on information by means of gesture, tone of voice, and story-telling, using cookbooks as a metaphor for making. The five-part piece includes original music, voice recordings, pinhole photography, and silver photography for output to VHS/DVD and archival pigment prints.

Christina, pinhole archival pigment print, 12" x 6"

Jacqueline Dickey (South Bend IN)

Jacqueline Dickey has exhibited widely in the Michiana area and been winning awards for her art for 17 years.  Most recently, her Polaroid transfer series was featured at the South Bend Regional Museum of Art and the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Michigan. Her piece “Left in the Rain” was chosen for the cover of poet Nancy Botkin’s book, Parts That Were Once Whole by Mayapple Press.  She is also a published and award winning poet and world percussionist.

Lilly and Sarah, Polaroid transfer, 4" x 3"

Gina Costa (South Bend IN)

Raised in Northern Italy, Gina Costa began her study of art as a young girl while traveling the art capitals of the world with her parents.  From an early age, she began to take pictures, using her mother’s Kodak Brownie. Trained as an architect, Gina has always favoured images focusing on architectural details or urban spaces. In 2006 Gina began her foray into Lomography.  She received a vintage LCA as a gift, and was instructed to “don’t think, just shoot”  (The lomographer’s mantra). Gina is currently a curator of Mexican Graphics at the Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame.

Chicago River, May 2007, lomo print, 8" x 10"

Exhibition Dates: November 5 – December 20, 2009

Joe Casey, My Family, watercolor on paper, 17" x 19"

Joe Casey, Country Bridge, watercolor on paper, 14" x 22"

Unknown as an artist to the South Bend community for most of his life, Joe Casey’s (1900-1987) lovely oil and watercolor paintings of childhood memories and scenic landscapes now reside in many private collections in South Bend and Chicago. Entirely self-taught, Joe loved to paint idyllic, rural Missouri farm scenes and wooded fishing spots, as well as portraits of his family.

His work was first exhibited at the Colfax Cultural Center in 1991, and since then his work has been included in Outsider art exhibits at the South Bend Museum of Art, and the Judith Racht Gallery in Harbert, Michigan. For more info on Joe’s work, see www.joecasey.org.

Joe Casey: Somewhere in America, oil on canvex, 22" x 28"

Exhibition Dates: November 5 – December 20, 2009

This special exhibit for the holiday season features handmade crafts and functional art from Artpost owner Kay Westhues’ family, many whom are craftspersons and artists living in the Bloomington Indiana area. Artists who will be exhibiting include:

• Betty Westhues (Country Loom): handmade dolls and rugs
• Walt Schmidt (Hickory Tree Studio): pottery and hand-crafted wood furniture
• Sue Westhues: gourd art
• Sarah Westhues-Owen: handmade dolls, toys and baby bibs
• Tansy Troup: retro-style aprons
• Ruby Troup: studio furniture

Betty Westhues lives near Bloomington IN, and has been weaving since 1975, first making colorful rag rugs and moving to tapestry rugs in 1985. Recently she acquired a turn-of-the-century ‘Legare’ sock-knitting machine, which she uses to create handmade socks, knitted dolls and sock monkeys.
	Sock monkeys and baby-safe dolls
Walt Schmidt is best known as a potter who creates functional stoneware ceramics, but also makes handcrafted wood furniture and forged ironwork at his studio located in the hills near Bloomington. Each piece of pottery is handcrafted of indigenous Indiana stoneware clay, and all wood is local.
	Square vase, chair (walnut, hickory and beaver wood), and beverage service
Sue Westhues, also from the Bloomington area, creates art and utilitarian pieces from gourds. Her work has been featured on the Carol Duval Show on the Home Gardening Channel, and has been included in two books on gourd art: Making Gourd Musical Instruments and Making Gourd Dolls & Spirit Figures, by Jim Widess and Ginger Summit (Sterling Publishing). Sue also teaches gourd drum making through the Indiana Gourd Society.
	Gourd birds and drum
Sarah Westhues-Owen is a musician, mom, and crafter who lives near Marshall, North Carolina. Her beautiful handmade dolls and toys are one-of-a-kind and completely safe for babies and small children.
	Flannel dog, 6 ” doll, and Waldorf-style baby doll
Tansy Troup is a seamstress and quilter who owns A Stitch In Time, an alterations shop in Bloomington. She will be showing her newest creations: vintage-look aprons.
. Ruby Troup recently graduated from Herron School of Design with a major in Furniture Design. Her unique furniture pieces are hand-carved or molded organic forms that can stand alone as a piece of art, or used functionally.
Table (bent laminated plywood, poplar, milk paint, Danish oil) and wall form (poplar, milk paint, Danish oil)

View photos of the opening reception on Flickr.

October 1- November 1

Untitled, 48" x98", mixed media

Our inaugural exhibit is this wonderful show of works on paper by Jake Webster. The “Words Matter” series was inspired by his students at the Elkhart County Juvenile Detention Center located in Goshen. Come check out our new space, browse our gallery bookstore, and support our local artists! Jake is a sculptor, mixed media artist and spoken word performer and his studio is located in Elkhart IN. To see more of Jake’s work visit www.jakewebster.org.