Alison Schuchs, Jim Blaylock, Shelly Wierzba

McKelvey Gallery @ 204 S. Austin

This year’s Standing Out exhibition features Merit Artists Alison Marie Schuchs, Jim Blaylock, and Shelly Wierzba,  selected at the 2021 Currents show by juror Jeffrey Neel McDaniel, the 2022 Poster Artist. 

STANDING OUT 2022 MERIT ARTISTS

Alison Schuchs
I grew up in the village of Dunoon on the River Clyde at the edge of the Scottish Highlands. Capturing a slice of time for the future is just who Scott's are, whether it is the rock carvings of the Picts, Robert Burns poems or paintings by Ramsay and Raeburn. We need to fashion something survivable in the torrent of time. I love creating not only a family heirloom but a work of art that will live on through generations!
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I love to paint Portrait Commissions primarily but when I moved to Corpus Christi, Texas I started to work on a series of paintings exploring the beautiful Texas, Mexican customs, faith and landscape that surround me. I like to think I am Celebrating the Hispanic Culture in Fine Art!

Jim Blaylock
I am a retired photojournalist but woodworking has been a lifelong hobby. I started off taking wood carving lesson from a local artist for about a year. I then attended a weekend marquetry seminar in Austin, Texas. Gradually, I began to blend the different techniques into my own unique art form.

The woodworking art I create uses three distinct woodworking art forms.

First, marquetry is used to create the background, providing depth. Marquetry consists of assembling bits of wood veneer together and gluing down to a base.

Second, intarsia is used for objects in the foreground. Intarsia is the art of assembling solid wood into recognizable forms.

Third, wood burning is used to add fine detail where necessary.

Shelly Wierzba
I mostly paint from nature, never copying her, for that would only produce a counterfeit. I paint for my desire to grow closer to the Greatest Artist, God, and to my fellow human beings. Intense observation of nature bestows an intimacy with our place in creation. All life, it seems to me, is connected. There is such a wonder and depth of beauty in our world. With my art work I aspire to engage the heart, soul, and spirit of others, and to open windows where they can explore and find rest. In painting I find the silence, and in silence I feel peace. I don’t paint for myself, I paint for that greater overall connection.