January

Tom Griffen

Tom Griffen is a yoga teacher, animal lover and recovering ultrarunner who creates art on canvases and in the kitchen. Toms newest paintings, on display at Open Eye Café in January 2012, reflect two sides of his personality – a tendency towards frenetic energy and movement, as well as an appreciation for stillness and order – and are united by his use of bold colors. Contact Tom at www.tomgriffen.com.

January

Mixed Concrete Art Show at Open Eye Café

From January 21st to February 4th, the UNC Habitat for Humanity Honduras Global Village Trip team will host Mixed Concrete, a student work-based, fundraising art show, at Open Eye Café. Throughout the two-week exhibit, over fifteen students will display their own artwork bridging various mediums, sizes, and themes. The main fundraising event is a silent auction from 1-7pm on Saturday, January 28th. The Habitat team invites all members of the community to stop by and support the show. The Mixed Concrete exhibit will showcase the talent of the UNC student body and will provide a wonderful opportunity for students, faculty, friends, and members of the entire Chapel Hill and Carrboro community to come together in support of a great cause. Please, stop by the Open Eye Café in Carrboro between 1-7 pm on Saturday, January 28th and appreciate the fantastic artwork on display!

February

Erica Mackay

Large abstract works from Erica MacKays Bioluminescence: Underwater Gardens series will be at the Open Eye February 1-28. A mixture of oil and encaustic painting in both vibrant and muted hues are used by the artist to explore life under the sea. For more information, please contact the artist at: erica_mackay@hotmail.com.

March

Wendy Spitzer

Wendy Spitzer is a visual artist and musician, Czech-Canadian by birth and North Carolinian by upbringing.  She received an Emerging Artist grant from the Durham Arts Council in 2008-2009, and her projects have also been funded by the Orange County Arts Commission and the Strowd Roses Foundation.  She studied music and creative writing, graduating with highest honors and highest distinction from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2002.  While in school, she received a National Merit Scholarship, the Benjamin Swalin Scholarship, a Spirit Square Scholarship for the Arts, the Louis D. Rubin Prize.
“As a mixed media/collage artist, I strive to juxtapose contrasting elements, often involving vintage ephemera, to create works that exist both in time and out of time, rooted in the familiarities of this world, yet creating an altogether new and different one. Thematically, I’m interested in the subjectivity and unreliability of history and memory, and how these combine to create our (mis)understanding of our own pasts, both personal and cultural. In the belief that visually arresting art can be lighthearted and still express serious intent, I reconstitute familiar images in often humorous ways, including tongue-in-cheek visual puns and satire. My main sources of raw material are vintage ephemera, letters, photographs, high school and college yearbooks, maps, encyclopedias, and in this show specifically, boy scout manuals from 1964 and vintage postcards of North Carolina.”
She is the composer and bandleader of her own avant-pop ensemble Felix Obelix (http://felixobelix.com), which released its first album in February 2010 on the Pox World Empire record label.  She also regularly performs as oboist in Billy Sugarfix’s Carousel, in addition to recording and private teaching. To reach her, email felixobelix@gmail.com or call 919-672-2410.  

April

Eireann

Welcome to the Dream of Eireanns Esoterica-Ephemera: E^3

Other as Self: Self as Other :: To pair & play, and then to integrate :: A reflection on the reflexive properties of futile play *which is* the illusion of duality within the nature of conscious existence.

These two-dimensional pieces ~ hang like mirrors or windows as vistas into various rings of Innerlandscapes…begin the story of one and likely more…

showing that paradoxical phenomena may not be all what it seems : ). + As a highly personal yet allegorical visual account of *energy* of all kinds, this body of work employs a symbolic language to fuel the telling of an only-somewhat, personal narrative. This story is timeless, so that unlike books written or films displayed in the customary fashion of linear time, this epic is radially-symetrical and ever-expansive, intentionally presenting a timelessness, infinite quality, like that of dreams. Open to interpretation as received by others, it touches on the boundlessness in its reflection of a truth within the collective conscious. As the dreamers of our dreams, creators of our worlds, masters of fates, and captains of souls and soforth, this art is merely an arena of creative foray towards outer life. In defining value, I offer: Observational finds of love within life; Figurative landscapes of life in love. . . Though very little corporeal reference models were *directly* used in the creation of this collection, much of it would seem to stem from absolutely everywhere else.

June

Kelsey Melville

Kelsey Melville is a multi-media artist from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 2010, she graduated from Appalachian State University, receiving a BFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Ceramic Sculpture. Working with a variety of materials and processes, the central idea behind her work deals with human emotion, thought, experience and connection. In 2008, Melville took a year off of school to travel abroad, spending five months studying the arts in Florence, Italy. In 2009, she completed a two-week residency with Tasmanian artist Patrick Hall, and in 2010 fulfilled an internship with ceramic figurative artist Melisa Cadel. Melville has had several exhibitions in NC, including the Catherine Smith Gallery, the Gilley Recording Studio, the Looking Glass Gallery, and Nth Gallery, as well as abroad at the Santa Repararta Contemporary Art Gallery in Florence, Italy