Puppets displayed at the show.
Being part of the First Friday Art Walk, the Reed Art Gallery hosted the well-known artist Carolyn Wadman. Wadman is a lifelong educator with a seemingly unlimited amount of exhibitions, shows and artistic endeavors all over the States. She has taught classes for the U.S. Army and she spent many years at the Limestone Community School, where she created the first art program.
At the opening reception on Friday April, 6, a variety of people were present to pay respects and admire Wadman’s work and all of her fascinating stories from her long experience.
Wadman’s work has a wide range of media and techniques. As the title very well states, she worked with a variety of genres from paintings, to prints, to even puppets and sculptures. What is interesting from her work is that she has no limits: she experiments with techniques that most artists would be very cautious to even consider. Her main goal is to reach in her students and even her audiences artistic abilities and inspire them to show their true potential and communicate their feelings through the medium of art and visual representation.
One of her most well-known piece is the “Potato Blossom.” At the reception, she shared with the audience fascinating stories of this painting. “This painting was given as a gift to one of our governor’s offices, and it was displayed at his desk, but I quite can’t remember his name” Wadman said of her piece.
Besides all of her other magnificent pieces that showed aspects of her own personal life and experience, she gave an eloquent introduction and explanation of some pieces that she had from a wider collection of puppets that she made. “The reason that I made these puppets was to celebrate diversity.” She created these puppets to help a school play performance against bullying.
Wadman doesn’t make art just for the fun of it, but her art, besides its personal touch and feeling, has social and humanistic aspects.
“It was my honor and a great experience to be part of this show. Her experience, art and stories were amazing” freshman Kris Cote, who was amazed by the show, said.
If you have some spare time, visit Wadman’s work. And make sure to check out her puppet collection!
