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Imaginative artistic use of steel on display at Bear’s Mill
Nationally recognized artist Mike Elsass will display his colorful
paintings on rusting sheets of metal at historic Bear’s Mill alongside
imaginative steel sculptures created by Loveland, Ohio resident Leslie
Lehr Daly at the next “Art at the Mill” exhibit which opens in the
Clark Gallery on Friday, June 28 and continues through Sunday, July 21.
An opening night reception offering finger food and drinks from 6 p.m.
to 8 p.m. will feature the artists briefly sharing information about
their work, methods and inspiration at 7 p.m. “Art at the Mill,”
curated by Jan Roestamadji and Julie Clark, is free and open to the
public.
According to Jan Roestamadji, both Leslie Lehr Daly’s fascinating
sculptures and Mike Elsass’s paintings evoke the beauty of nature in
distinctive and surprising forms. “These artist create modern yet
timeless work with a unique sensibility that will enhance any home
regardless of style or décor,” Ms. Roestamadji stated. Julie Clark
pointed out the appropriate sharing of space by artists who work with
steel to design vastly different artworks, saying “Both artists utilize
steel in expressing their creativity with incredibly spectacular,
widely diverse, yet strikingly compatible outcomes.”
After earning a BFA in Design at the University of Georgia, Leslie Lehr
Day worked for design and architectural firms in South Carolina,
designing everything from schools to private homes to Army Reserve
Barracks up and down the Eastern Seaboard. After marrying and starting
a family, Leslie continued to seek new ways to express her creative
spirit, eventually moving to sculpting steel. “My current work is an
amalgam of things we know and imagine; it is abstract and organic
rather than figurative, realistic, or classical,” the sculptor
explained. She says that many ideas come to her during walks where she
takes inspiration from something as simple as a leaf, an acorn, or a
seed pod, as well as more esoteric subjects. Texture and color are
integral to her pieces which are meant to pull people in, provoking
curiosity and conversation, while also inspiring the desire to touch
the evocative work.
Dayton artist Mike Elsass specializes in painting color-field-inspired
work on weathered steel; his unique pieces are included in over 2,000
private collections throughout the U.S. “My art is spiritual,
meditative, and based on the emotion of people and places,” says the en
plein air artist who paints abstract landscapes that reflect the
moment, creating emotional and visual connections with the places he
visits. Known for his approach that fills any space with color,
excitement, and energy, his dynamic contemporary patterns on
reused/recycled rusting steel have a sense of a former life, bringing a
mystical organic sensibility to his artwork which, while not a specific
representation of a place, evokes a sense of the universal energy of
the site.
Lovely fine art paper collages featuring rural countrysides and old
barns by Coldwater resident Jane Dippold will share space in the Mill’s
Clark Gallery with Andrea Kay’s whimsical mixed media bird sculptures
through May 26. Owned and operated by Friends of Bear’s Mill, the
historic mill is located at 6450 Arcanum-Bear's Mill Road about 5 miles
east of Greenville. “Art At the Mill” is funded in part by a grant from
Darke County Endowment for the Arts, and can be viewed during regular
Mill store hours. Current hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesdays through Saturdays, and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. For
more information, contact Bear's Mill at 937-548-5112 or
www.bearsmill.org.
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