Finding Flow: Immersed in the Act of Creating
November 1 December 30, 2023
Opening Reception:
Friday November 3, 2023
5:00 – 8:00 pm
Green Door Art Gallery presents Finding Flow: Immersed in the Act of Creating featuring acrylic paintings by Angela Fromme, Gary Lang and Luciana Sabatino, mixed media paintings by Elena Rybak and silver and stone jewelry by Joe Bova Conti. The artwork and jewelry will be on display and available for sale November 1 – December 30, 2023
Joe Bova Conti - Silver and Stone Jewelry
Joe Bova Conti is a local artist, designer and craftsman. Joe attended Fontbonne College on an art scholarship beginning in 1975. He has apprenticed with master jewelers and worked with Native American Craftsman for over 2 decades. All the work here is completely handmade without modern casting tools. The pieces are cut out, forged, filed, hammered and assembled into wearable pieces of art. Each piece is individually made by Joe. The inspiration for his pieces can be found in nature. Many pieces are reminders of landscapes and the beauty of our world. Joe has traveled extensively through the United States and Europe. The stones used are all natural and from ethically sourced locations all over the globe, some being quite rare and all unique.
Joe works out of a private studio and shows his work through venues such as this one.
Angela Fromme - Acrylic Paintings
St. Louis MO based artist Angela Fromme is best known for her abstract acrylic paintings. She has been painting since 2006.
Angela is diverse in her expression and doesn’t limit herself to one particular category. Yet her style can be clearly seen in all her works. She is self-taught and has developed her own skills in the area of color theory, composition, and values.
Angela Says that curiosity is an artist’s best friend. She said “I tell people…I’m always trying new things, because the process is just as important if not more than the end result. I never want to stop learning.”
When asked about what inspires her to keep creating Angela stated, “There’s a phenomenon that happens when a painting can be a reflection to the viewer of the beauty within themself. So, for anyone who sees my work, I want to give them an experience, where their true essence is revealed through the art. Self-realization is freedom and that freedom is our birthright.”
When she is not creating art, she is most likely spending quality time with her husband and 3 little boys.
Gary Lang - Acrylic Paintings
How to you encapsulate a lifetime of making art, and teaching art? It must come from an intrinsic desire to express what cannot always be explained other than a passion to create. Through years of education, both as teacher and student, I have come to realize that in my life, painting is a prayer, an experiment, and an inquiry of what lies within my mind and soul.
Gary Lang has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Webster College, Masters of Fine Arts from Washington University, a Masters in Art Education from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and has been an Art Education professor at Webster University.
Elena Rybak - Mixed Media Paintings
I am originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, but for the last 30 years, St. Louis has been my home. From an early age I had a passion for painting and drawing. I graduated from St. Petersburg Steiglitz Academy of Art and Design. My work experience includes designing home accessories and lighting, designing and hand painting ceramics. Working at May company and Brown Shoe company as an artist/designer. During all this time I continued to create and sell my art as a hobby. As an artist, I worked with different mediums like watercolor, oils, acrylics, pastels, and ink. I recently experimented and fell in love with textured art. I started creating more abstract and dimensional art. To me, painting is about feelings and emotions, and that is why my inspirations are drawn from my surroundings and environment.
Luciana Sabatino
My paintings are a combination of acrylic paint and powder pigments with various mediums. I prefer to not use traditional pouring techniques other than swipes, as I like to use my hands to control movement, as well as a variety of paint brushes to enhance the painting. My paintings are all on gallery wrapped stretched canvas and I utilize either high-gloss varnish or liquid glass to add some shine to the final piece.
My paintings are to bring life to others and free them from worries and pains in their life. I personally suffer from Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain, and mental illness and find such a calming effect in this artwork and can put my emotions into each painting. The release this process provides for me is unreal. My paintings are not planned out ahead of time, just the colors based upon emotions. Also, all paintings are named after final completion, as then I can find the meaning in each one providing the proper title. They are one-of-a-kind pieces that cannot be replicated, which I hope brings meaning and purpose to the future owner. I firmly believe each painting already has a home; it is just waiting for that person to find it. My artwork is about relieving my pain and emotions, while being able to provide the consumer with some sort of emotion or relief to them, and calming effect with a personal meaning. When doing commissions, I always ask to meet with the future owner to get an idea of their current feelings and energy to make sure the painting is personalized as best as it can be for them.
