Women Artists' Round Table" March 2 in Fulton Hall

SALISBURY, MD---The Salisbury State University Art Department and the Fulton School of Liberal Arts Visiting Speakers Fund present the slide/lecture and panel discussion, "Women Artists' Round Table," on Thursday, March 2, at 3:30 p.m. in Fulton Hall Room 111 on campus.

The discussion showcases artists Amy Swartele, assistant professor, Baldwin Wallace (OH) College; Rhonda Smith, associate professor, Shepherd (WV) College; Laura Yang, internationally exhibited artist, Wilmington, DE; and Linda Marston-Reid, artist, Orange, VA.

Swartele's works deal with images of discarded objects signifying the alienated of society.

Smith said her work combines storytelling "with an old fascination in surface and texture to produce playful images which often have serious implications."

A native of China and naturalized U.S. citizen, Yang's paintings show the influence of famous abstract impressionists de Kooning and Pollock, but, as she explains, her work is "transformed by my own Chinese cultural heritage."

Marston-Reid's, work reflects types of rituals and ceremonies in the United States.

Moderated by SSU art professor, Ursula Ehrhardt, the panel discussion allows for each artist to speak approximately 15 minutes on their work with a brief question and answer period following. The discussion is free and open to the public.

In collaboration with the lecture, the Art Institute and Gallery will display works by Swartele, Smith and Yang in Gallery I; an artist reception is on Friday, March 3, from 5-7 p.m. Gallery II features representational art by women regional artists Lynn Lockhart, Laura Hickman, Helaine English, Kristan Visbal, Dana Simpson, Patty Baltrosky, Isabel Troutman, Martha Hudson and Martha Griffin. Lockhart and Visbal are both SSU Art Department alumnae.

The two exhibits are sponsored in part by the Yoga Friends of AI&G, the Maryland State Arts Council and the Wicomico Arts Council.

Members of the selection committee for the lecture and exhibition were SSU faculty John Cleary, Marie Cavallaro, Ehrhardt and Brook Rogers, and community members Jane Bailey, Sue Thomas and Frank McGargee.

For more information contact the SSU Art Department at 410-543-6270.