FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mollie Kellogg
858.449.0548
artist@molliekellogg.com
Spiritual Realist Painter, Mollie Kellogg, to be featured artist at Bard Hall Gallery, First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, December 1, 2005 through January 31, 2006.
San Diego, California. November 24, 2005. Girl, it ain't easy celebrating the matriarchal virtues of mystical spirituality, joyful interpersonal relations, and the umbilical connection between sentient life and the great Earth Mother! But painter Mollie Kellogg persists in creating affirmative artwork in the midst of a patriarchal culture that divides artists (and the rest of us) into winners and losers; celebrates art for art's sake (It's my vision and you can't share it!); and turns alienated and angry artists into cultural icons.
The merit of the San Diego-based artist's mystical vision was recently confirmed by receipt of the 2005 Charles Arthur Fries 3rd Place Award at the Juried 26th Annual San Diego County Awards Show, LA Jolla, CA. In 2004, her work was selected "Juror's Choice," at the San Diego Art Institute December Regional Juried Exhibition, San Diego, CA.
The power of Kellogg's vision will be on display in Bard Hall Gallery of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, from December 1, 2005 through January 31, 2006. The gallery is located at 4190 Front Street; Hillcrest, San Diego, CA 92103.
Gallery hours are Mon.-Fri., 8am-4pm; Sun., 9:30 am-12:30 pm. Receptions for the artist are scheduled for Tuesday, December 20, 2005, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. and Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. The public is invited.
"Many of my latest paintings are representational, reflecting my interest in mysticism, spirituality and a deeper connection with Nature, "says Kellogg. "I often find myself inspired by the images in poetry and literature, as well as the work of visual artists like Victorian painter, Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Chicano Artist, George Yepes."
"At present," Kellogg says, "my painting technique involves sketching the image into gesso, then applying a metallic ground. Over this I pour different combinations of blues, blacks, reds, golds and browns, allowing the paint to dry into the textured surface. The image is then laid over this complex background in several layers, then sealed with a series of glazes."
Kellogg's images celebrate connections, such as those between young and old, man and woman, mother and child, the seer and the seeker. The lush surfaces of her large, heavily textured and thickly painted canvases read like flesh. The scars and creases in the paintings' surfaces suggest a familiarity with pain and tragedy that only heightens their irrepressible animation.
Kellogg's influences include the poetry of the 13th century Sufi master, Hafiz, (who also inspired the distinguished American transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson). Among more contemporary thinkers, she cites the poetry and thought of T. Collins Logan, author of The Vital Mystic, A Guide to Emotional Strength and Spiritual Enrichment, as a significant source.
For more information about Mollie Kellogg visit her website at www.molliekellogg.com. She can be reached directly at artist@molliekellogg.com or 858-449-0548.
