Matt Peters
map006@marietta.edu
Marietta’s Gallery 310 is currently filled with avian artistry. The Herman Fine Arts Center’s latest exhibition, “Audubon and the Avian Experience: Traditional Bird Prints and a Contemporary Approach,” features artwork by Leigh Cox, Sarah Walko, and Julie Zickefoose – along with pieces from the school’s permanent collection.
The gallery, now in its second year, is free and open to the public.
“Our goal is to showcase our permanent collection every two or three years… and then, also to bring in artists that are maybe not necessarily from the region, but national artists or international artists,” Professor Jolene Powell, the curator of the exhibition said. “This exhibition, Audubon, came about using some of our prints from the library’s special collections.”
The exhibition features both traditional and contemporary artwork, and is guest co-curated by Chuck Atkins, an alumnus of Marietta College’s Museum Studies and Practices liberal arts course.
An artists’ reception will be held at the gallery on Oct. 9 from 5-7 p.m. The event is free and students will have the opportunity to chat with the artists about their work.
Leigh Cox is a designer and illustrator working primarily with watercolor and pen & ink. After receiving her BFA in Visual Communications from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she spent nine years in Chicago and two years in Costa Rica before moving back to her home state of Ohio. While she normally lives and works from a small cabin just outside of Marietta, she is currently on a six-month stay in South America.
Sarah Walko is an artist, director, curator, and writer based in New York City and Dorset, Vermont. Her fiction and nonfiction essays have been published by White Whale Review Literary Journal, Drain Magazine, Eyes Towards the Dove and Hyperallergic Art Blog. Her artwork has been published by: The Dirty Goat, Redivider, Blood Lotus, Apple Valley Review, 2 River, A Capella Zoo, Awosting Alchemy, Fogged Clarity, 5×5 Literary Magazine, Boathouse, Conception Books, Cincinnati Review and Host Publications. She has participated in many artists residency programs and served as visiting artist/visiting lecturer at Savannah College of Art and Design, Florida State University, Endicott College and Roger Williams College. Recent exhibitions include “A Cage Went in Search of a Bird” at Radiator Gallery in New York, and “Crest and Trough” on the Manhattan Bridge anchorage in New York. She is currently working on sculptures and a film project for several upcoming exhibitions.
Julie Zickefoose is a nature artist and writer living in Whipple, Ohio. She studied Biological Anthropology at Harvard University and spent several years as a field biologist with the Nature Consevancy’s Connecticut Chapter before returning to drawing. Zickefoose has been a writer and illustrator of the Marietta-based Bird Watcher’s Digest for almost 30 years. Additionally, she was a commenter for NPR’s afternoon news show, “All Things Considered” for five years. She recently published “The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds,” which was Oprah’s Book of the Week in April 2012. She also keeps a popular natural history blog on Blogspot.
