The Dearborn Schools Art Educators exhibit is on display in the rotunda of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn.
By SUE SUCHYTA
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN – Work from artists throughout the city was on display April 23 in the “East Meets West” exhibit in the west corridor of Henry Ford Centennial Library during April Arts month.
It featured work from Dearborn-based artists Sasha Corder, Matthew Dietz, Sunshine Durant, Carl George, Janet Kondziela, Tom Livo, Martine McDonald, Janice Martin and Kathleen O’Connell.
Kondziela, MacDonald and O’Connell work in the Fine Arts Studio above Manno’s Clothing, 23810 Michigan Ave., while the other artists have studio space at Fishnet Art Studios, 4357 Schaefer Road.
In the adjacent library Rotunda Gallery, the work of Dearborn school art educators was on display.
Artist and Padzieski Gallery curator Sasha Corder with “Schaefer Yard,” her acrylic painting on panel, during the April 23 “East Meets West” art exhibit in the west corridor of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn.
Corder said the group exhibition intentionally includes the work of artists from Fishnet Art Studios in east Dearborn and Fine Arts Studio in the west.
“It really just brings together the opposite ends of Dearborn,” she said.
Other art exhibits on April 23 were the ongoing student exhibit at the Padzieski Gallery, the Dearborn school faculty show in the library Rotunda Gallery, and at the Arab American National Museum, Blick Art Materials, the Teadone Studio at Artspace and the window project at Image Works Fine Art Printing.
Corder said that culturally, Dearborn has been a huge inspiration for her own art work.
“It’s a huge eye-opener – we are such a melting pot,” she said. “To talk to people from other countries and other states that have these very diverse backgrounds, and they are bringing in their techniques that they have learned from other places, and their inspirations, and seeing and immersing yourself in it definitely just spurs inspiration just by proxy.”
Corder said the purpose was to showcase the many different types of art that is being created in Dearborn.
“We have collage work, we have abstract, we have traditional oil paintings and portraits,” she said. “We’ve got some newer contemporary work, so it’s really a good mix of what Dearborn produces, and the different types of clientele or audiences it could really draw in. It was really fun to showcase them.”
Corder said Dearborn has artistic elements in its architecture, as well, including building tile work and mosaics.
“The murals that have been put into a lot of these buildings show the vibrance of the community, that we care enough to give our talent back to our community for everyone to enjoy,” she said.
Corder said she knows all of the artists whose work is on display, and she knows how much work and love they have put into their work.
“This event today, everybody gets to see everyone’s working spaces, their works in progress and their recently completely pieces, up to the completed pieces on the wall,” she said. “It just shows the process of making art, and it’s not just a quick thing. Some of these pieces take months, even years to produce, so seeing them in action, as they are producing, really gives you forethought into the finished piece and how much work went into it.”
The “East Meets West” art exhibit April 23 in the west corridor of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn features Matthew Dietz’s untitled oil painting (left); Kathleen O’Connell’s “Pose for Manet,” an oil painting on panel; and Janet Kondziela’s “Flowers and Birds,” an oil painting on canvas.