Artful Visions Exhibit

Join us for an exhibit in honor of the 2022 Artist Grant Recipients for ArtFul Visual Arts Initiative, Clarice Shirvell, Gail Buggy, Charles Gulbrandsen and Jack Brick. Opening Reception: June 15th from 6:00pm – 9:00pm

The exhibit will be on display from June 15th – July 9th. Please join us in celebrating this courageous collection!

Now showing:

This exhibition will showcase the artwork of four talented artists that received grants to create their collections from the Artful Visual Arts Initiative, as well as resident artists of the RPAC Art Center and Academy. “We are proud to display the artwork of these four special artists, who have been working hard at their respective collections, which provide a glimpse into both their talent and their inspiration from their life experiences,” said Dee Dee Colabella, owner of RPAC Art Center and Academy.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
JACK BRICK: I’m so glad you came to visit! I’m Jack Brick, the owner and proprietor of Mother Superior’s Garden. I make realistic, true to nature, paper flowers for you to enjoy. An artist, avid gardener, and freelance writer, I’ve been creating paper flowers since 2018. All my products are 100% handmade by me, and each creation is one-of-a-kind. I strive to bring the wonder of nature’s botanicals to life for lasting beauty and enjoyment in your home, business, or anywhere you want a little flowering sunshine! Mother Superior’s Garden offers individual stems, flowering branches, and bespoke bouquets, made to order each and every time. Replicated wedding bouquets are available upon consultation. I live, garden, and create from my home in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

CHARLES GULBRANDSEN: I n 1913 my grandfather, Charles G. Gulbrandsen, began work, painting the ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. Then in 1945; he was chosen to lead the repainting of the ceiling; and this celestial mural continues to inspire travelers to this day. Following in my grandfather’s artistic footsteps, I received a full scholarship to The Cooper Union in New York City. While at Cooper Union, I was awarded the Vena T Carrol Prize of achievement in painting and The Bath Academy of Art Scholarship and studied abroad in England. After graduating from The Cooper Union, I began my own career in art restoration and was fortunate enough to participate in the 1996 restoration of the Grand Central Terminal ceiling mural, excited to connect with and preserve the work of my grandfather. During this same period, I also established my own painting studio executing numerous commissions, including large-scale murals. Presently, I continue to accept commissions, while I primarily concentrate on my own abstract work.

GAIL BUGGY: Painting and Sculpture are my ways of collecting, organizing, processing and influencing the world while allowing me to transmute complex and disparate emotions and ideas into works on canvas. I am most fulfilled exploring a diverse range of subjects such as inclusivity, body positivity, women’s empowerment and others. Despite my diverse subject matter, my pieces are connected through a very distinctive style and use of color, line and “voice” that is inherently and inescapably my own. Last year I was awarded an Artful grant and I have been working on my series “Breaking Out of the Box”. The series is a group of paintings, sculpture and writings celebrating the beauty and worth of larger, more curvaceous bodies. It is the result of an ongoing personal journey of reclaiming self-love and self-worth that is stripped from many women in American diet culture should they fall outside the false and economically driven ideal that women should be a certain size to be considered attractive and worthy. The series intends to free people from these misogynistic and damaging unattainable ideals. It is my belief that the diet culture at best is an industry created for pure greed. At worst, I believe this industry keeps women trapped on a hamster wheel which robs them of their money, energy and self-love. No time more than now does the world need women in all their power, insight and energy.

CLARICE SHIRVELL: “I feel very fortunate to be able to express myself through the visual arts. I sketch whenever I have a moment; a pad and a micron pen wherever I go. Sketching is calming and meditative and helps me see the world around me to appreciate its beauty in something that may be overlooked in a busy life.” Clarice is a graduate of Marymount College with a degree in Studio Art and Business. She is a Latina American who grew up attending school in both Connecticut and Argentina. Her award-winning paintings and drawings have been purchased for both private and public collections and exhibited in over 50 solo, juried, and group shows in both museums and galleries throughout the tri-state area. “I have carved out a few days for painting and spend the rest of the week visualizing my next painting. When I finally have time to paint, I paint quickly with passion, finally bringing to canvas what I have been painting in my mind.”

ABOUT RPAC GALLERY AND RPAC ART CENTER
RPAC’s mission is to create, promote and exhibit working, emerging, and student artists while providing them with a supportive and creative environment. Owned and directed by Dee Dee Perrone Colabella, RPAC Gallery on Main Street provides a wonderful space with high visibility and foot traffic in the middle of downtown Ridgefield, CT for artists to showcase their work. Our everyday goal is to help our resident artists with whatever they may need to increase their exposure in the art world. We pride ourselves on the many different styles and media in which our artists create, as we believe in maintaining a rich and diverse collection of works for the community to enjoy.