“The Art of Nonviolence” is the third annual art competition for youth. Presented at the Encore Gallery in the Taos Community Auditorium the exhibit opens May 3 and runs through June 30th, 2013. A reception for the artists is Friday, May 3 at 4 PM.

Nonviolenceworks Inc. has been the engine behind this project that encourages young artists to involve their families and the community in recognizing their work.

This show is comprised of the best works of the children of Taos grades 6 through 12. All of the work is based on the theme of nonviolence. The mission is to explore the potential of art to express and process difficult personal and social issues in positive and nonviolent ways.

The Taos Center for the Arts is proud to be presenting these courageous images at the Encore Gallery. The artwork is not for sale and the artists agreed that the work may be photographed for use by Nonviolenceworks, Inc.

The overall mission of Nonviolenceworks Inc. is to inspire, train and empower all people to lead lives of nonviolence.
 

Artist Reception
Friday May 3, from 5-7

The Taos Center for the Arts and Caffe Renato have partnered to feature TCA member art in the dining rooms of the cafe’s restaurant. TCA Exhibits at Caffe Renato will feature a solo exhibition by Judy Van Heyst, titled “Mostly Collage”. The exhibition will include her plein air paintings, but mostly her collage works. Found elements, both natural and manmade, are recurring materials in her collages and as elements they must interest, excite or facinate in some way.
Judy utilizes scraps which she has found, collected, has specially created or transformed as the initial stimulus in the making of her artwork. Scraps of paper, some with partial text, some cut or torn from her notebooks, some of light tissue paper that she has transformed by layers of paint, encaustic and acrylic binders are overlapped and layered, partially revealing, partially concealing what lies beneath.

Surface texture can be created by the use of scraps of fabric, pieces of string and yarn, grasses, leaves, coffee grounds and sand. It is a process of making a unified whole from a grouping of fragmentary materials of different essences. These scraps, these objects taken from familiar surroundings and recombined toward an aesthetic purpose also bring their own associations along. Images are suggested and subtly implied but not defined. It is essentially a poetic activity.
Her work includes recent abstract works. The designs move between opposites of hard-edged geometrical shapes to soft flowing, atmospheric suggestions of a pictorial space.

Always influenced by where she lives, where her travels take her. Van Heyst creates notebooks filled with ink and watercolor sketches, notes, and clippings that lead her on various journeys of exploration. "In my recent Anasazi (Chaco) Series 1 saw designs on pottery dating back to 1000 A.D while camping in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. These were tight, precise designs using a sophisticated understanding of negative and positive spaces- -very hypnotizing and complex." She states that "I find that an expressive line drawing on site records places, people, details more useful to me than photos. I never forget a place, the feel, smell and sounds where I have done one of these drawings."