First Thursday … Indoors!

Patrons explore Fayetteville Underground during First Thursday in August. First Thursday continues on Feb. 3, though for the time being the event is strictly indoors.

Cold weather can’t stop hot art in Fayetteville

Can cool temperatures stop the appreciation of art in Fayetteville? Not a chance.
Though known largely as an outdoor event, drawing hundreds to the Fayetteville Square to stroll through works by area artists, the monthly celebration called First Thursday is beating the … er, lack of heat by staging it indoors.
Here are the four artists who will be highlighted at the Fayetteville Underground inside the East Square Plaza where First Thursday takes place while there’s still a chill in the air. Each description is in the artist’s own words.

Courtesy Image: Lisa Jo Outlaw

Lisa Jo Outlaw

(Image shown: “Wood You Be Mine?”)

As an artist, I am interested in making connections. I enjoy playing with objects and words. By displacing the context of everyday items my work seeks to surprise and charm and amuse. And by bringing together distinct pieces into a sort of harmony, I assume the role of alchemist, seer, matchmaker.
This series explores relationships, but unlike traditional Valentines, the messages expand beyond romantic love — to that of family, friends, community, and love of self. Erstwhile greetings of the season, absurd puns like, “I pine fir yew,” “You’re unbeleafable” and “Nice ash!” helped inspire the wood theme.
I combine discrete components to create a single piece, using whatever resources are at hand. Imagination is vital. Possibility is endless. Feels a little like fate, like reuniting ones lost or like finding your match — no matter the form. This is love.

Courtesy Image: Drew Gentle

Drew Gentle

(“Persona 2009-2011”)

All my imagery, be it in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, clay or wax springs from a desire to connect to the humanity in all of us; to reach through the feelings of isolation and aloneness and make contact with that which makes us human.
They are fleeting, always illusive images of the inner psychic makeup … of people turned inside out, with their internal mix on display, and not so much of what we physically look like on the outside.
For me, the challenge of finding the visual vocabulary to express this is my goal. To display the multiple emotions — good, bad or otherwise, with the full array of fears, foibles, joys, and vanities as well as self-deceits, passions, and strengths in an individual persona. Then, to be able to reproduce it in a nonjudgmental but truly empathetic way, is what I’m striving to do.

Courtesy Image: Jon Pevin

Jon Pevin

(“Lewd”)

This exhibition is my expedition into the subconscious void, attempting to create humorous understanding by pulling at unpicked strings in the lucid undermind. The familiar images are used to trigger personal symbols and memories one might have witnessed in the past through media by prodding at the absurd nature of the image and ideas themselves.
These uncollected and scattered collage pieces of widely varied creation are an attempt to clearly articulate the racing world as my fantasy-warped mind sees and personally customizes it. The pieces were made in order to capture my most recently adapted cognitions and discoveries, thus leading to many sets of thought patterns and ideas expressed in small series installments, each with a different theme and style significant to the collective consciousness of the showing as a whole as well as my perception of reality.

Courtesy Image: Henry Turner

Henry Turner

(“Ancestral Remnants”)

My present body of work includes a variety of subject matter and photographic genres ranging from pure landscapes to simple still life and staged images. The final images are composites of two or more images digitally combined. I also make use of old film cameras in producing a filtering effect in some of the images.
Despite the range of subjects and genres, within the images I strive to invoke a sense of darkness and mystery, often seeking to convey a sense of sadness and longing, or a feeling for the passage of time.

Check out First Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m. Feb. 3 inside East Square Plaza on the Fayetteville square.