Art Market Gallery featuring a potter and a painter in January

Pottery by Lisa Kurtz. Image by artist.

KNOXVILLE – Recent works by Garry Taylor of Knoxville, a painter in both watercolor and oils, and Lisa Kurtz of Knoxville, a clay artist, will be featured in January at the Art Market Gallery in downtown Knoxville.

Lisa has been a functional potter for 36 years. After getting her Master's Degree in clay (MA) at The University of Louisville, she set up her first studio in the eclectic, artsy, Highlands neighborhood in Louisville, Ky. and named her business Highland Pottery. She has been an exhibiting member of many professional juried guilds, boards, galleries and artist associations. Her clay work has been exhibited and collected across the U.S. and is also in private collections internationally.

Lisa throws and hand builds her pieces and often combines the two methods to produce her colorful functional pottery. Her work is often very textured to emphasize the malleable qualities of clay. Most of her pieces are altered while still wet to highlight the intrinsic beauty of the clay itself. Lisa mixes up her own glazes, which adds a unique depth and quality to the work. As an artist and a maker of "handmade" objects, she strives for that human connection with the user/collector of her pottery. Says Lisa, "I love the fact that people use my work in their everyday lives. This is especially important to me as a potter and as an artist. My favorite forms to make are those that invite that human connection!" For more information about Lisa's work visit her website at www.LisaKurtzHighlandPottery.com.

Artistic expression, whatever form it takes, is a necessity in Garry’s life for it feeds his spirit and nourishes his soul. He relishes the process of imagination assuming physical form. He studied art and dance at LSU, graduating with a BS in 1980. Upon graduation he moved to New Orleans and began an apprenticeship in a stained glass studio. That became his primary media until he moved to Knoxville in 1987. At that time he put his art aside for a while, concentrating on being a counselor in the Alcohol and Drug Recovery program at UTMCK. He did this for almost ten years, and then started experiencing a real need to return to his art. He did so, again concentrating in stained glass but beginning to explore pastels (a media not taught at LSU while he was there) which he had experimented with after graduation.

He is drawn to landscape painting, both plein aire and using photographs he has taken as references. And as an extension of that, flowers are a favorite subject matter. The two painters that have most influenced the way he approachs a painting are Georgia O’Keefe and Claude Monet. He has been absent from the Art Market gallery for the past 7 years to focus on being a stay at home parent for his now 8 year old twins, Julie and Billy. His art also took a hiatus during this period. Recently he began painting again, working with oil and watercolor, both of which he hadn’t worked with since he was in college. His new work is made up of expressions in these media. He continues to be drawn to landscapes, especially scenes that have paths, roads, or water reflections in them.

A First Friday opening reception for the exhibit is planned for 5:30 to 9 p.m., Friday, January 3, with complimentary refreshments and live music by cellist Leigh Sooter.

Member owned and operated by more than 60 professional regional artists, the Art Market Gallery is located at 422 South Gay St., next to the Downtown Grill & Brewery, and a few doors away from Mast General Store. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m., Sunday. The gallery is handicapped accessible. For more information, call 865-525-5265, or visit artmarketgallery.net or facebook.com/Art.Market.Gallery.

Published December 26, 2013