In Indiana, the month of May is immediately associated with auto racing and the running of the Indianapolis 500.
Fishers Arts Council continues its 2022 Season of Art at City Hall featuring four artists with the exhibit, “The Art of Racing.” The exhibit will be open from May 9th through June 29th to celebrate the heritage of racing in Indiana. Exhibit hours are from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm daily and 10 am to noon on Saturdays during Fishers Summer Farmers’ Market. There will be a Second Friday Reception for the artists on Friday, May 13th from 6-8 pm at the Art Gallery at City Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Live music will be performed by Andy Schomburg of Noblesville and refreshments and snacks will be available. Our Squirrel Stampede project will also be available for guests to add their mark on community art.
The artists exhibiting are Greg Clack, David O’Dell, Brenda Jalaie, and Mark Rouse. Each shares their own perspective of the art of racing from people in the stands, to the cars and racing environment. Here is the Fishers Arts Council news release about the four artists:
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Greg Clack grew up in Indianapolis and took art classes throughout his school years. Following high school, he entered the United States Air Force where he was able to pursue some art projects.
“So, I’ve always had an interest in creating art. Years ago, I went to the Artomobilia Car and Art Show. This renewed my interest as I was able stroll into the open galleries and look at the artwork I liked. The added bonus being I was able to take workshops with the artists who painted the art I liked. This started me on a path of studying and observing and progressing to make better artwork.”
David O’Dell is a resident of Fishers; he is a printmaker specializing in serigraphy.
He began screen printing at Serigraphics of Indianapolis designing and printing
posters for rock and roll bands and other entertainers. David graduated from Ball State
University in Art with a specialization in Advertising. He has a Master’s Degree in
Printmaking from Wayne State University. He was Art Director at St. Charles County
Community College in Missouri and Senior Graphic Designer for Kmart Corporation.
David’s father, David O’Dell, was the official photographer at the Indianapolis 500
from 1951-1957. This instilled a family tradition; David has attended 57 Indy 500s to date. His love of Indy cars has led to a series of limited-edition serigraphs of vintage Indy cars which he creates in a style he calls “Crop Pop.”
David’s exploration of form has led to the creation of lenticular art in which the art changes depending on the viewers perspective. Some of his artistic influences are Yaacov Agam, Leroy Neiman, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Richard Estes.
David has won over 30 national and regional awards including 5 national first place Paragon awards for his designs.
Most of Brenda Jalaie’s work has always been photography oriented. “I have a passion for processing and printing ‘the old fashioned way’ using film and needing a dark room. I love working with large negatives and creating works that are contact printed, like Gum-Bichromates and Van Dykes. But in the real work of balancing a teaching career, mother and art, I find more and more I am just focused on capturing the scenes of a fleeting moment. Rarely cropped, rarely adjusted for color, just what I see through my camera when I see it.”
After years of studying, teaching and creating mostly acrylic paintings, Mark Rouse was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy and “pronounced legally blind!”
“One of the things that I feared the most was that I would never paint again.” However, with the help of a great doctor, his vision is back to normal.
Before his brush with blindness, Mark’s art focused on creating something new, something that no one had seen before. “Blindness caused a change of focus to painting the things that I might never see again. My work since that time has been images from nature, my memories and images that proclaim my faith.”