In the Showroom
February & March 2024:
Colorful Serenity
We welcome three guest artists to our Showroom for the months of February and March: Ron Aye, Jeff Lende, LaVonne Marshall
Ron Aye
What can I say about my artwork that will give you insight? Can share my muse in just a few paragraphs? It's probably best to let the art speak for itself. Yes? Yet, you need context. This is probably the most useful tool in understanding creative motivation.
Foremost, my style has been tempered by life growing up in Detroit, MI USA. Not privileged in my youth, I didn't experience art in museums or fairs, but in the streets. Automobiles were style, crowds were fashion statements, and architecture was structure. The nature of common man was to work. So we work. We work though our spirit wants to create. We work to earn a spouse. We work to care for and protect our family. We work until no one wants us anymore, then we chose to want ourselves.
Quietly, over the years, my spirit took notes. It recalled the hidden beauty in life. I aspire to support that spirit. Some of my work will seem aimless, and some actually good. It is for you to decide if it awakens something in you.
LaVonne Marshall
LaVonne uses color, shape, and texture to create realistic and abstract paintings. With over three decades of artistic experience, she is comfortable creating in both genres and also works with clay to help her understand and master the use of form.
She draws inspiration from the natural world and her rural surroundings for her realistic work, believing that paying close attention to nature is healing for the viewer and the world at large. She draws inspiration for her abstract works from her family and the love they share. Working symbolically to initiate an abstract work, she uses line and color to describe the people and the particular interactions that these relationships evoke. She strives to create order and beauty as she manifests these pieces, with the intention of creating an elevated experience for the viewer.
LaVonne holds a BFA from Kendall College of Art and Design and is a Signature member of the International Society of Experimental Artists. She participates regularly with local artists to support her work.
Jeffrey Lende
THE SEDUCTION OF WOOD
From the first handmade piece created 52 years ago the focus of my work has been to emphasize the inherent beauty of the grain in wood. The journey has been interesting. While first making monolithic stereo speakers in the early 70’s, to creating harpsichords from scratch, to being commissioned for custom furniture, to making one of a kind clocks, and then turning bowls from domestic hardwoods, its been a fun trip. It has been an honor to have been chosen by wood to have such a great medium from which to work.