News & Exhibits
Irene's first solo exhibit, "Africa Dreamed," opens at the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center, May 2-July 3, 2009
4/12/09
Irene's first solo exhibit, "Africa Dreamed," presents a group of 16 images from her "Africa Dreamed" and "Spirit of Humanity" collections. "Africa Dreamed" runs from May 2-July 3, 2009 in Delaplaine's Hall Gallery, with an opening reception on Saturday, May 2, 2009 from 3:00-5:00 pm.
Also opening on May 2, 2009 are solo and two-person exhibits by painters Jerry Prettyman and Margaret Kennedy, photographers Graham Cullen and Palma Allen, and artist Frank DuVal in Delaplaine's F&M, Kline, Gardiner, and New Galleries.
Since 1986, the Delaplaine Visual Arts Education Center in historic downtown Frederick has served the Maryland community with a vibrant selection of exhibits, lectures, art trips, and films. Located in the 100-year-old Mountain City Mill, the award-winning facility on the banks of Carroll Creek offers classroom and studio spaces for drawing, painting, crafts, photography, printmaking, wood, and ceramics as well as a reference library. Each year, over 50 exhibits are rotated through each of its eight galleries.
The Delaplaine Arts Education Center is located at:
40 South Carroll Street
Frederick, Maryland 21701
Tel: 301.698.0656
Website: http://www.delaplaine.org
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9 AM-5 PM; Sun 1 PM-4PM
STATEMENT OF WORK, "AFRICA DREAMED" EXHIBIT
I am an explorer. An explorer of vibrant colors that stir my heart, an explorer of the multitude of hues, both natural and man-made. An explorer of shadowy contrasts that make me wonder, an explorer of the supple paths of light. I travel down dusty highways and onto dirt roads, and through lush landscapes and into desert sands. And with my camera, I seek beauty in my subjects. Sometimes, I find it on the surface, easily displayed for the world to see. But always, I seek the more subtle beauty within. I seek the meanings of my subjects’ emotions—I seek to understand, to appreciate. I seek the spirit of humanity. I seek the essence of our world.
In my “Africa Dreamed” and “Spirit of Humanity” series, I explore emotions—the joyful release of energy from a Dinka women’s jumping dance in war-torn South Sudan—the honest gaze of a Dinka cattle keeper, face painted white with cow dung ash—the testosterone-filled air emanating from a mass of young, male Dinka warriors—the earnest prayer of a young Muslim woman in Burkina Faso—the innocence of a small boy in northern Nigeria waking up in the morning, emerging from under the mosquito net that protects him from malaria—the shy, downward gaze of a 9-year old girl in rural Niger dressed in her brightest, finest clothing, made-up, and ready to walk the five or so miles to the weekly market to sell the fruit she’s worked so hard to gather.
I pressed the shutter button on my digital SLR camera to capture these fleeting moments at various times, but it was only in the last few months of 2008 that I began to explore a new process of “developing” these digital photographs. The resulting images form my “Africa Dreamed” series, made by combining two copies of each single photograph, each copy changed from the original in a certain way. The juxtaposition of these two “revised” copies results in the final effect. This is the Africa of my dreams—the Africa that calls me, that won’t let me go, that makes me fall in love over and over again.
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