Exhibit runs November 15th – December 20th
Erica Nordean is an internationally known painter recognized for her stunning, abstract depictions of horses and horse racing, as well as haunting landscapes and vibrant still life. She began exercising racehorses at Long Acres Racetrack, in Renton, Washington, while attending school. Throughout her college years, Nordean says, “I was taking all the classes, but art was all I liked. I finally decided in my late twenties that I really wanted to be an artist.” Primarily self-taught, Nordean’s art career took off in 1998 when she began showing at the Gambados Gallery in Kirkland, WA, where her paintings were enthusiastically received. With a powerful presence in the national horse racing world, Nordean’s paintings have shown at the prestigious Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, where she was the 2010 featured program artist, and her art hangs in galleries from Seattle, Washington to Saratoga Springs, New York. In California, her work has been shown at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, Del Mar, and Bay Meadows racetracks. And now it will be featured on the walls of the Lopez Library. Recently she has expanded her work to include multi-media, figurative, abstract landscapes and commission pieces. She says of her art: “my current work is about capturing an overall presence of a single figure. My paintings are intense, ambiguous and many have a slightly lonely feel.”
The Library’s display case will feature the art of Robert Wood. His series of whimsical and technicolor found-object collaged sculptures, titled “Left Luggage of Gnome Island” will be on display. Wood identifies as “being a creator of ‘art’ in many forms throughout my life… As a classically trained ballet dancer in my youth, a culinary artist in commercial kitchens and event venues, and as a mad collagist, textile painter and abstract expressionist at every stage of life starting with flour paste glue and a ball of twine the size of my head at the age of six,” Wood says in his artist statement. His multi-disciplinary experiences inform his creative process. From the wet mold techniques learned from handling forcemeats and delicate doughs, to the frenzied but disciplined aesthetic of ballet port de bras, the muscle memories transfer into the hand manipulations of canvas, paper, and other creative media. Wood says, “it excites me to work between mediums, creating impressions from paint, foliage, wasps’ nests, disintegrating book pages and driftwood.”