The Charles County Arts Alliance (CCAA) recently announced that the following visual artists will have their artwork on display in the specified locations throughout the month of September. The CCAA is the official arts council of Charles County.
Richard Clark Senior Center Gallery
(1210 Charles St., La Plata, MD)
Monday - Friday (9:00 am - 4:00 pm)
Mary Sokol lives on a farm of rolling hills and woodland near the headwaters of the Wicomico River where she can paint the sunsets and wildlife scenes encountered there. She believes art should demonstrate beauty. "In modern day life mankind sometimes needs a slowing of the pace and time for reflection. Art should allow you to feel beauty and peacefulness," she writes.
Mary's art has a wide range of inspirations from the non-objective glow of life's basic force to the objective work she does, inspired from nature and animals. The glow she paints often comes through in her paintings on metal, in which the metal is a light source, not covered by paint, creating highlights in many of her paintings. The metal surface also comes through the paint to create a shimmer in those paintings. She feels a need to have bright light in many of her paintings which relates to how light connects with immortality and the cycle of birth and death. She explains, "A burst of light is seen when a baby first opens its eyes to view the world and a brilliant light is seen in a tunnel as we die. Light travels throughout the universe and is what we see as color and as art itself."
Mary often uses the majesty of horses as symbols in her art. Horses in her paintings represent themes such as maternal love, the obtaining of equality for women, freedom, or the creation of the universe. She also likes creating paintings of horses as objects of beauty, and especially enjoys doing commissions involving horses and pets.
Scenes and people from other countries that she has visited also enter into Mary's art. These paintings show the diversity of human culture and the beauty of the world.
"When I paint," explains Mary, "time has no meaning and hours become minutes. Painting comes from your emotions and must show what you are thinking or dreaming. That is the unique thing about art - each artist puts something of herself in each of her works."
CCAA Gallery at the United Way
(10250 La Plata Rd., La Plata, MD)
Monday - Friday (9:00 am - 4:00 pm)
Joyce Suit Cooksey has always had an interest in art, but says that there was never time to pursue it until she retired from the USDA after 25 years of service and raising five children.
Joyce has had the privilege of taking lessons from the following teachers: Gene Wood, Gerry Wood, Connie Miller, Alice Tucker, and Betty Carney. Her love of photography has helped her immensely in composing her pictures.
Joyce has tried working in oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pen/ink. She has even created one sculpture of which she is very proud. Despite attempting all these varied mediums, Joyce has concentrated mostly on watercolor, mixing in a little pen/ink. Her favorite subjects are landscapes and seascapes.
Joyce has exhibited in the Charles County Fair and the Senior Art Competition for many years.
County Commissioners' Gallery
(200 Baltimore St., La Plata, MD)
Monday - Friday (9:00 am - 4:00 pm)
The Charles County Garden Club will host a special exhibit that displays the winners of the Charles County beautification project.
You can find out more about the Charles County Arts Alliance by visiting their website at http://www.charlescountyarts.org/ .