Mix and Match

MEMORIES AND MEMENTOES MAKE "MIX AND MATCH" AN EXHIBIT TO TREASURE AT ARTISTS’ GALLERY

It was a bittersweet milestone for a family — and an unexpected inspiration for an artist. Gail Bracegirdle’s mother was selling the home where she had lived and raised her family for nearly 60 years.

"My brothers, sister and I discovered many treasures as we emptied the attic," says Bracegirdle, a watercolorist. "There were six, large old shipping trunks up there." The contents included her mother’s ballet costumes, Victorian dresses, decades of Hallowe’en costumes, a vintage baseball uniform and the baby shoes her father was shown wearing in a photograph from 1916.

"Ideas for paintings began to come to me as we sorted it all," Bracegirdle says.

Like Bracegirdle’s mother, artist Alan J. Klawans has long collected treasures — personal memories, mementoes and artifacts he honors and incorporates in his work.

"My art comes from what I’ve seen and what I’ve done: a trip to Japan, a fishing expedition in Canada, a visit to a flea market near home," says Klawans. His eclectic digital prints reference airplane flights, industrial sites, yacht races, movies, family history, outings to art museums and theaters, and auto travel throughout the United States and Europe.

"I’ve often contemplated doing a still life of a bowl of fruit, but it never happens," says Klawans. "The fruit just becomes my dessert."

So Memories and momentoes it is in "Mix and Match", a new exhibit of Klawan’s original digital prints and Bracegirdle’s watercolors and mixed media work at Artists’ Gallery.

"‘Mix and Match’ is an exhibit of work that both interprets subjects of the present and evokes memories of the past," says gallery spokesperson, Laurie Nicholson. "There’s a great deal of emotion captured and a great deal of beauty."

While Bracegirdle works in the traditional medium of watercolor, her technique and use of various papers and surfaces turns nostalgic subject matter into contemporary statements. Klawans uses a computer to create work melding his own photography with elements of graphic design to produce original, archival pigment, digital prints. Both have exhibited their work widely and are represented in public and private collections.

"Mix and Match" opens Friday, October 8 and runs through Sunday, October 31. An opening reception will be held Saturday, October 9, from 2 to 8 p.m. The artists will be present to discuss the creative processes they use.