20 May NOW PRESENTING: “Serendipity” with Art by Kevin Hughey, Sydney McQuade Otto, Thomas Dreesen, and Patricia McGriffin
For the month of June 2020, four artists will be showcasing their varied, colorful works in Noblesville Creates’ “Serendipity” showcase. Read more about each of them below, and stay tuned for showcase updates given COVID-19 circumstances!
Kevin Hughey – Artist Bio:
Kevin is an award-winning decorative artist who hopes to have his work become a part of your home or business decor. He has always made things and believes it is important to do so. He says that “it’s one of the ways I enter into and participate in the world. Relationships are forged, moments are experienced, art is made.”
Photography, the dark room in particular, was his first date with his sweetheart. Their second was at a gig as he is also a drummer and percussionist and has built drums with fellow musicians in the backyard. Kevin goes on to describe his varied artist experiences saying, “I’ve done woodworking with my Dad, thrown pottery in the greenhouse, built sculptures with classmates, made masks with students, learned to bake bread from a weaver. Make things.”
Kevin has had the good fortune to have seen some great art around the world, especially paintings. Inspired by art history and encouraged by his friends and family, he went back to painting a few years ago. He shares, “I’ve been a decorative painter, flower blooms in particular. So many varieties, shapes, and colors. I wanted to study flowers and hone my chops, then, create a ‘Series.’ I think in a Series, the blooms provide a special impact in a room, whether a personal space like one’s living room or a public lobby or office space. It was also fun to create a series of flower blooms in wood. Then I moved on to groups of flowers, a more complex task. I am pivoting towards abstracts!”
Kevin was honored to have received the SALI XII National Abstract GPAC Choice Award and the SALI XIV National Abstract Merit Award. He earned a B. S. in Art Education at Ball State University and employed his teaching skills when living in Hawaii at Nanaikapono Elementary, where he taught art in the only classroom on the beach. Kevin continues to study art at Herron School of Art, The Art Center, Nickel Plate Arts, and with fellow artists where he can share tips, techniques, and critiques. By trade, Kevin is the proprietor of Affordable Custom Picture Framing, an independent studio offering affordable prices, quick turnaround and quality work since 1981.
Thomas Dreesen – Artist Bio:
Thomas has been an art director, graphic designer, and artist in Indianapolis for more than forty years. He graduated from Herron School of Art of Indiana University. He has worked at various design studios and advertising agencies and is now retired. Tom has been concentrating on fine art painting and other art projects as well as freelance design projects for the last few years.
His paintings have spanned various styles including representational, impressionistic, and abstract. His preferred media is acrylic on canvas or artists board.
Tom has displayed work at Green Men Art Gallery, CCA Gallery, and has placed in “The Great Outdoor Painting Contest” at the T. C. Steele site in Nashville, Indiana. You can see more of his work at http://tdreesenartgallery.yolasite.com
Patricia McGriffin – Artist Bio:
mcgriffinart@gmail.com
Pat McGriffin has been painting for over fifty years with a focus on animals, landscapes, and flowers. She has taken classes at The Herron School of Art and studied privately with Nicholas Logsdon, Paul Sweeney, Lynn Thomsen, and RoZelma Brown. From May through September 2019, her orchid paintings were the focus of a solo exhibit in The Office of the President of Butler University. Pat’s painting, White Orchid, was chosen from The Hoosier Women Artists 2020 juried exhibit to hang in The Indiana Governor’s Mansion for one year.
Sydney McQuade Otto – Artist Bio:
Sydney’s relationship with the arts began with a gift of oil paints at the age of seven. Largely self-taught, Sydney has developed a style as unique as she is. Although her paintings follow no particular conventions, her work can be recognized by her soft melding of color. Texture, the use of light, and emanating emotion are all elements threaded throughout her body of work. Sydney was first introduced to abstract art through her uncle, Justin Snow, a noted abstract painter. His paintings hung on the walls of her childhood home, and he continues to be an important influence in Sydney’s painterly world. Workshops with Dublin painter Timothy Hawksworth encouraged exploration and opened doors to abstract expressionism.
In 1992, Sydney met and studied with renowned stone sculptor, Jane B. Armstrong. Countless sketchbooks were filled with renderings waiting to find life as bronze portraits rich with emotion. This work in sculpture is reflected not only in her bronzes but also in the sculptural surfaces that are applied to her paintings. Sydney exhibited in New York and New England prior to returning home to Indiana where she has continued the passionate pursuit of her abstract expressionist work. Sydney currently works in her home studio in Indianapolis with her furry friends, Larry and Moe, by her side.
