Background: ‘When my friend James was diagnosed with terminal cancer we created the Death Club. It was a time we set aside during the week to watch movies about death in preparation for his absence. One work we visited was ‘The Seventh Seal’, a movie in which a noble knight plays chess with the Grim Reaper to postpone his death. In the movie director Ingmar Bergman wrestles with the absurd truth that we must all face. To celebrate the movie, James and I decided to play our own game of chess. This is a still from from one of those games.’
About the Artists
Robert Patierno
Robert Patierno is an internationally renowned printmaker, draftsman and painter whose strongly graphic and powerful works have been exhibited throughout the United States and across Europe.
Patierno’s prints, paintings and drawings reside in the permanent collections of the Frans Masereel Centrum Pour Grafiks, Kasterlee, in Belgium; the Erie Art Museum; the Lancaster Museum; the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art in Pennsylvania; the U.S. Department of State, Art Bank; and those of many universities. His exhibits and shows are numerous enough to make recounting impractical. . Corporations, museums, and individual collectors alike continue to acquire his work.
As a founder of the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Patierno spent more than two decades developing its Fine Arts Department, as well as chairing it before leaving in 2003 to devote himself to making art. His production capacity is evidenced by his many and frequent exhibitions — including outdoor murals in his home state of Pennsylvania. He continues to guide young artists in his role as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department at Gettysburg College.
“Art making is my attempt to make order of chaos, so in this sense my work is observational in nature. What I perceive must be simplified, readjusted, and then the personal image surfaces, disinterested to a large degree. I think any subject looked at with a careful mind’s eye, becomes significant. The Art object itself is not as important to me as the resulting conversations that occur with my audience.”
—Robert Patierno
David Decker
David Decker is a Richmond, Virginia-based visual artist and has been showing in the Central Virginia area since 1997. David works primarily in ink, oils, and acrylic, in a dramatic variety of styles ranging from bold, intricate abstracts to narrative fever-dream illustrations.
David’s breadth of art-historical awareness allows for his pieces to spring from worldwide creative traditions, such as 1960’s San Francisco Psychedelic poster art and 16th-century Indian Mughal paintings.
2001 winner of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Bradford Award and graduate of VCU’s esteemed Painting & Printmaking program, David’s love of bringing his inspirations to numerous pockets of influences results in wonderfully many kinds of imagery. Developed in a personal way and with certain aesthetic recognizability, David’s art is often suspected to be of his hand before one glances at his piece’s signature.
Visit David’s work at davedeckerart.wordpress.com or on Instagram at deckerdave.
Diane Willson
Having enjoyed art since childhood, Diane kept art alive as much as possible whenever and however she could through busy years as a Nurse Practitioner and mother (likely her most significant form of creativity). Much of her art interest has been channeled into volunteer art activities/ programs with children both over the years in Charlottesville and here in Richmond, especially at Anna Julia Cooper School and with the Opening Minds Through Art Program for elders with Dementia.
She has studied both drawing and painting intermittently with the guidance of kind and encouraging artists/ instructors at McGuffey Art Studio and Piedmont VA Community College in Charlottesville and at the Visual Arts Center and Colin Ferguson at John Tyler Community College. In recent years, she has been drawn to the rhythms of day and night and the seasons with all of the beauty of nature.
Mishari Alduwaisan
Mishari is a Kuwaiti artist mostly dedicated to sculpture, drawing, and film. He is currently studying art foundation at Virginia Commonwealth University with the intention to major in film along with sculpture. His works focus on emotion, revolving around his own experiences with people and places which later sprout inspirations.
Annie Ward Love
Annie Ward Love is a self-taught painter, native to Richmond, Va. Mostly abstract, large-scale oil paintings, her work reflects the intensity of her experience with bipolar disorder, and connection to The Divine. Her work is process-oriented and relies on spiritual practice, to transcend the limits of the conscious mind. The paintings in this exhibit trace the dramatic shifts in mood, energy, and states of consciousness from 2014-present.
Wyatt Ramsey
Wyatt Ramsey is a visual artist with an emphasis on painting. He completed his
Master of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin in 2019. His work uses the iconography developed from his life as a blue collar worker living in the south, while his painting borrows stylistically from an index of contemporary painting techniques. The result is the artistic confluence of two seemingly disparate worlds.
Marigene Willson
From a young age, Marigene enjoyed expressing so many aspects of her life through art and stories, a gift she and her sister, Kate, shared. She developed her artistic abilities with the guidance of exceptional art teachers along the way from elementary school, through the Governor’s Art School in Middle School and especially Jennifer Kett at Charlottesville High School. During High School, she participated in a summer Art Program for Maryland Institute College of Art. Although she decided to pursue a different career path and hoped to become a midwife, art continued to be woven through her daily life and creation was part of each day. Much of her creative effort was put into gifts and expressions of love which have been bestowed on others throughout her life.
Paul Willson 