Fishers Arts Council (FAC) continues its 2022 Season of Art at City Hall featuring four artists with the exhibit, The Art of Racing.
The exhibit is open through June 29 to celebrate the heritage of racing in Indiana. Exhibit hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily and 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays during Fishers Summer Farmers’ Market.
There will be a Second Friday Reception for the artists from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 13 at the Art Gallery at City Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Live music will be performed by Andy Schomburg of Noblesville and refreshments and snacks will be available. The Squirrel Stampede project will also be available for guests to add their mark on community art.
The artists exhibiting include Greg Clack, David O’Dell, Brenda Jalaie, and Mark Rouse. Each shares their own perspective of the art of racing from people in the stands, to the cars and racing environment.
Greg Clack grew up in Indianapolis and took art classes throughout his school years. Following high school, he entered the United States Air Force where he was able to pursue some art projects.
“So, I’ve always had an interest in creating art,” Clack said. “Years ago, I went to the Artomobilia Car and Art Show. This renewed my interest as I was able stroll into the open galleries and look at the artwork I liked. The added bonus being I was able to take workshops with the artists who painted the art I liked. This started me on a path of studying and observing and progressing to make better artwork.”
David O’Dell is a resident of Fishers; he is a printmaker specializing in serigraphy. He began screen printing at Serigraphics of Indianapolis designing and printing posters for rock and roll bands and other entertainers. He graduated from Ball State University in Art with a specialization in Advertising. He has a master’s degree in Printmaking from Wayne State University. He was Art Director at St. Charles County Community College in Missouri and Senior Graphic Designer for Kmart Corporation.
His father, David O’Dell, was the official photographer at the Indianapolis 500 from 1951 to 1957. This instilled a family tradition; the younger David has attended 57 Indy 500s to date. His love of Indy cars has led to a series of limited-edition serigraphs of vintage Indy cars which he creates in a style he calls “Crop Pop.”
His exploration of form has led to the creation of lenticular art in which the art changes depending on the viewer’s perspective. Some of his artistic influences are Yaacov Agam, Leroy Neiman, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Richard Estes.
He has won over 30 national and regional awards, including five national first-place Paragon awards for his designs.
Most of Brenda Jalaie’s work has always been photography oriented.
“I have a passion for processing and printing ‘the old-fashioned way’ using film and needing a dark room,” Jalaie said. “I love working with large negatives and creating works that are contact printed, like Gum-Bichromates and Van Dykes. But in the real work of balancing a teaching career, mother and art, I find more and more I am just focused on capturing the scenes of a fleeting moment. Rarely cropped, rarely adjusted for color, just what I see through my camera when I see it.”
After years of studying, teaching and creating mostly acrylic paintings, Mark Rouse was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and “pronounced legally blind!”
“One of the things that I feared the most was that I would never paint again,” Rouse said. However, with the help of a great doctor, his vision is back to normal.
Before his brush with blindness, Mark’s art focused on creating something new, something that no one had seen before.
“Blindness caused a change of focus to painting the things that I might never see again,” Rouse said. “My work since that time has been images from nature, my memories and images that proclaim my faith.”
About Fishers Arts Council
Fishers Arts Council is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation with an all-volunteer board and a mission to promote arts and culture in Fishers. FAC has been fortunate to provide the city with an art gallery at city hall in cooperation with the City of Fishers. However, with the new Arts Center and Municipal Center being built, FAC will move its galleries (The Art Gallery at City Hall and the Alcove at City Hall) to the Hamilton County Community Foundation HUB, 11810 Technology Drive, Fishers. Announcements will be forthcoming. Learn more at FishersArtsCouncil.org.