Mary Ann Kelly    

     There is a place in one’s consciousness where observation, memory and imagination act as a metaphorical explanation for understanding the beauty of the natural world. Our realization of our own significance is put into perspective as we place ourselves into the mixture of light and shadow, form and current, obstacle and pathway. There is an element of timelessness found in a moment of high perception and awareness as well as in the circular nature of time that I often try to delineate. Reflecting upon the elements of our sensual experiences in moments of awareness or reflecting on the memory of ones’ collective imagination presents an assemblage of significant signs that form a visual language. This language appears to me as a combination of gesture, movement, color and form that when read together recall the significance of experience, the importance of observation and the power of memory. When gesture and color meet the current of experience, the poetic language of the visual symbol emerges.

Biography:     

     Mary Ann Kelly earned a Bachelor of Science in Art Education at the State University College of New York at Buffalo and a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from Montana State University. She committed eighteen years to teaching, spanning from kindergarten to graduate students, but was dedicated to at- risk high school students in Bozeman. She has received two National Endowment for the Arts awards and a Montana Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship. Kelly has exhibited in Montana, as well as the US, England, Japan and Italy.

Harold Schlotzhauer

I am interested in the fluid boundaries between abstraction and representation. My art is a journey to a place created by the imagination and influenced by the extreme polarities of objective and non-objective configuration. It is a world of energy movement and change where the viewer can engage in complex relationships relative to nature without the pictorial dogma of absolute representation. Functional objects and parts of things can be identified and symbolic relationships can be determined, but complete access to a rational conclusion is denied. I want a curious ambiguousness to be present and long for the viewer to participate in the pleasure of imagining the possibilities.

Biography:

Education:

BFA, With Distinction 1965. MFA, With High Distinction 1966. California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California
Teaching:
42 years at nine different colleges and universities. Awarded tenure at two universities. Received four teaching Awards.
28 years teaching at Montana State University. Retired Professor Emeritus 2008. 

Exhibitions:
50 solo exhibits, 122 group exhibits, 6 two person exhibits
Collections:
Numerous public and private collections. Nine museum collections.