A new exhibition by Burnsville artists, George Pfeffer and Linda Goodwin opens on September 6 and will run through October 11 in the upstairs Owen Gallery at Toe River Arts Spruce Pine. There is a public reception on Sept. 26, 5-7 pm. to meet the artists. The exhibition is titled “Drift Away” and explores using found objects from nature in surprising and new ways.
Close observation, experimentation, and the playful use of materials are key to the art of Dryad Naiad Studio. George and Linda retired from careers in the sciences to create work that reflects the abundance of nature. Under Paul Granlund in Minnesota, Linda studied drawing and figurative bronze sculpture; she continues to pursue both. George has long produced whimsical illustrations and intricate, hand-cut pop-up paper creations. Both artists now collaborate to make art from the raw materials they find in the South Toe River Valley, near Burnsville. Through painstaking effort, they coax wild mushroom spores to produce striking images which are, in essence, air currents made visible. Gardens and native plants provide color to dye and etch designs into and through fresh hibiscus, rose, and other flower petals and leaves directly onto silk panels. Abandoned paper wasp nests are carefully preserved and bejeweled with semi-precious stones and fragments of glass to become jewelry and sculptures. The artists discovered an ‘accidental giant pinhole camera’ which has delighted them with strange, fleeting images that they capture and enlarge. They also play with ‘Drench Art’ using black walnut and other homemade plant inks. Linda and George purposely include ‘imperfections’ in their finished work – the footprints and other marks left by tiny insects, arthropods, seeds, stems, even the rain itself, and see all of these as partners in their art.
Toe River Arts is located at 269 Oak Ave., Spruce Pine and is open Tues. through Sat., 10:30am – 5 pm. For more information go to toeriverarts.org.
