Gallery Hours:
 Thursday and Friday 10-6
 "First Friday" 10-8
 Saturday 10-5
 "Second Sunday" 12-4

Other Hours Available
by Appointment

Presenting

Both of the artists this month at Isadore Gallery create art that is inspired by forms from the past that have been lost, destroyed or abandoned.

After earning his Master of Arts degree in Painting and Ceramics from James Madison University, Dennis Maust and his wife lived overseas in Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. “Personal experiences besides my rich visual memory have shaped my perspective. I saw the desperate faces of Palestinian children in a West-Bank refugee camp. I worked with Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Tutsi and Hutu Refugees in North-Western Tanzania. I have not experienced war first hand, but these encounters have moved me to a place where I must do something with my work that has a positive impact.”

Upon returning to the states, Maust earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology?s School for American Crafts. Since 1990, he operates a ceramic workshop in Lititz, PA, where he combines producing one-of-a-kind pieces in clay with teaching ceramics. Dennis exhibits across the country and has had work published in Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated.

“These pottery forms are loosely based on historic Iraqi forms. I wish to call attention to work that represents to me the great loss I feel, first for the human victims of the current conflict in Iraq, and second, for lost or destroyed antiquities which represent humanity's "Cradle of Civilization"....I hope contemplation of this work encourages creative re-thinking of the path to security and peace.”

Watercolor artist Robert Jenkins grew up in Pennsylvania and received his BFA from Kutztown University. He is enrolled in the MFA painting program at Penn State University where he teaches Printmaking. For the last two years Jenkins won third place in the watercolor category at the National Juried Exhibition of the Lancaster County Art Association. He also won awards in the Chester County Art Show and a Juried Exhibition at the Wayne Art Center in Philadelphia. He is a member of the National Watercolor Society, the Philadelphia Watercolor Society and the Pittsburgh Watercolor Society.

Jenkins felt unparalleled inspiration one day when he entered a dilapidated building and found himself surrounded in rotted wood, broken glass and old machinery. “The skeleton of buildings and their deterioration is what I seek. Using watercolor permits me to recreate the granulation that occurs by over-exaggerating the colors found in the surfaces of the objects within the buildings. It also enables me to mimic the naturally occurring watermarked surfaces and decayed textures that are characteristic of the deterioration.”

Heavy Industrialization years ago has led to these abandoned buildings throughout many areas. Their forgotten existence is part of the appeal. “I have to capture what is left before it is forgotten or completely dies. My work is part of the celebration of the life of the building before it ceases to exist.” Jenkins believes that beauty can be found everywhere and that art and taste are subjective and changing.

Watercolor Paintings by Robert Jenkins and Ceramic Art by Dennis Maust will be exhibited at Isadore Gallery, 228 N. Prince Street, in Lancaster, PA from March 31 through April 30. The artists will be present at the First Friday reception on April 1, 5-9 PM.