Van Sickle exhibit at SCC explores artistic process and meaning | Arts & Culture

COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WECT) - An exhibit at Southeastern Community College featuring the work of Wilmington-based Artist Kirah Van Sickle will open with a public lecture and reception on October 16 starting at 4 p.m. in the College’s Auditorium.

The exhibit, Process and Meaning: Inspirations from Italy, includes work sketches, photographs, plein air studies, and Encaustic and acrylic paintings that Van Sickle created this summer in Europe. Her travels included an independent painting residency for two weeks at the Scoula Internazionale di Grafica in Venice.

The residencies allow artists from across the globe an opportunity to exchange inspirations, ideas, experiences, and techniques, and explore and expand their individual creative work. Van Sickle’s residency was part of her thesis work for a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Painting from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, which she is slated to complete in December.

The artist’s current conceptual landscapes are an exploration in acrylic and mixed media, incorporating found objects and papers within the paint glazes. These are deeply personal expressions of her memories and dreams, reminiscent of Poetic Realism. The combination of ephemera and nautical imagery on vast color fields alludes to metaphorical journey across uncharted seas.

“I am inspired by themes of liminality, the being in between. After having a series of dreams of my surviving an allegorical shipwreck, I began to explore the symbol of the boat in our cultural history and psyche,” she said.

Van Sickle, who earned a master’s degree in medical illustration, directed her creative consulting business, Animania, LLC, for 18 years. She recently returned to the North Carolina coast where she has been teaching the fundamentals of painting and design for six years. She is an instructor at the Museum School at Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, offering workshops in plein air, mixed media and watercolor. Her website is www.kirahfineart.com.

The exhibit can be viewed Oct. 15-Nov. 21, Monday through Thursday, from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. The Upstairs Gallery is funded by the SCC Foundation.

For more information about the exhibit and the SCC Art Program, call September Krueger at (910) 642-7141, ext. 379 or email september.krueger@sccnc.edu.