Undercover Overview, photograph by Gloria Kegeles   ​

Orangefields, acrylic painting on paper by Diane Steingart

In Tune with Our Imagination: Photography & Mixed Media aims to make the unseen accessible. Diane Steingart's mixed media pieces are tangible, outer manifestations of her memories and emotions, while Gloria Kegeles's photographs use the camera to capture images that are overlooked, unnoticed, or invisible to the naked eye. Although they work in different media, both artists offer viewers an opportunity to connect with the mystery of what is not always obvious. 

Over the past several months, Wendell artist Gloria Kegeles began observing the complex, multi-layered structures under the cover of her 100-year-old baby grand piano, inspired to see what she and her camera could find deep in the instrument’s innards. “Starting with the Undercover Overview, I explored the piano's interior landscape, discovering what I'd never imagined was waiting to be exposed,” she explains. Using her camera to mediate the light and record what otherwise remains unseen, she found that varied light on different days and at different times of day altered and enhanced the images in unexpected ways. “The results are yours, to compose your own visual aria,” she says.
​

Before changing careers in 2013, Pelham artist Diane Steingart was a social worker specializing in helping people suffering from trauma, and used both art and dance therapy in her practice. In her own art making, she delves into her memories, emotions, dreams, and imagination in what has become, for her, a meditative practice. Plying a variety of media including acrylic paints, collage materials, oil paints, graphite pens and pencils, oils sticks, and found objects, Steingart allows the unconscious to come forward.  As she explains, “My art makes visible to me what I am thinking and feeling in my journey of self-discovery.” Steingart's works are visual stories that address themes of our shared humanity, including the ties of family and relationships. This intimate content is matched by intimate scale: Many of her works are small scale—10 x 10 inches or 12 x 12 inches—but in a few pieces she branches out to larger dimensions. 

_____________________________________
GALLERY A3 / AMHERST ART ALLIANCE  
Open Thursday-Sunday 1-7 pm
   in the Amherst Cinema Complex   
​28 Amity Street 1D, Amherst, MA 01002  
​413 256 4250        gallerya3@gmail.com  ​