Creative Soup

M. CATHERINE VESCE  PAINTER & PRINTMAKER  KANSAS / MISSOURI

An artist-teacher in the Kansas City area for thirty years, Catherine Vesce has, for the past seven years, maintained a studio in the Hobbs Building in the West Bottoms of Kansas City, MO, and lives in Overland Park, KS.  Her activities in printmaking: with intaglio, lithography, screen-printing, etc., have informed her painting and vice versa.  She currently produces monotype prints and acrylic paintings and also paints with dyes on silk. A colorist, her work employs layered, transparent glazes or inks often on textured surfaces.  Much of her art is based on the world of nature and it’s fragility, ranging from naturalistic lithographs to evocative abstract paintings.

    The precarious state of the natural world is contrasted with the stability of the created universe of time and space. “I seek for my work to have a spiritual value, a clarity and moderation that celebrates the visual, in the manner of Kandinsky and Matisse., but also acknowledges the Prime Mover of all positive creative activity. I want to connect with the viewer on several levels: formal, emotional and spiritual.”   Through the twice-yearly Open Studios in the Hobbs Building, Catherine has found many private collectors for her work and values the personal connections forged.

    Her work is included in the public collections of the KU Medical Center; H&R Block World Headquarters, City of Overland Park, Matt Ross Community Center, Johnson County Parks & Recreation, Rockhurst University, Heartland Regional Medical Center, St. Joseph, MO, and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, MO.

To see more go to M. Catherine Vesce 

Art and creativity have the power to transform lives and communities. Can art help us change our lens to see beauty and love in our world? Where have you experienced love in your world? I will be sharing with you examples of art and love transforming people and communities. If you would like to share some of your work and experiences, please let me know. Hope to see you. Chuck

GARY MARX  WRITER, POET & STORY TELLER  OLATHE, KANSAS

When Gary Marx was a boy in his father’s garage, he hit his thumb with a hammer. His father sent him to the house to soothe his wounds and to find something less destructive to do.  That’s when Gary discovered that typewriters were safer to play with. And it wasn’t long before he learned they were far more powerful than hammers.

    Gary has been a journalist — reporter, columnist and editor — for newspapers, magazines and books for more than 35 years. His columns and feature stories have earned media awards, and his collaboration with photographer Daniel Overturf resulted in a book, A River Through Illinois (2008, Southern Illinois University Press). 

    He and Overturf are engaged in other documentary projects, most recently a portrait of Alexander County in southernmost Illinois. His work has appeared with Overturf’s photographs in galleries and exhibition spaces. One show from the river project includes about 40 pieces of writing and is mounted in the international terminal at O’Hare Airport in Chicago.   

     He writes columns, essays and journal entries, which he posts to his website, A Midwest Journal. Lately he has been dabbling in fiction, primarily short stories and poetry. One of his poems has been accepted into an art show at Morris Library at Southern Illinois University. The show, “18 Tigers,” opens February 1.

    “Stories bind us to community because they are about shared experience,” he says. “And they can be told in so many ways. With words and images, sounds and textures, and in all sorts of exciting combinations.”

    Gary gets his inspiration from multiple sources, from live images and the visual arts, from songs, dreams and the environment.  He tilts toward the left and the spiritual, and his work reflects those leanings. His interest in the Unknowable led him from Catholicism to some mystical realms before he landed comfortably in contemplative Quakerism.

    “The Quaker adherence to simplicity and peace has been a good guide, which is all we can ever really hope for in spiritual practice,” he says. “Amazing things can rise from the silence.” 

    To purchase A River Through Illinois click on title.

Art and creativity have the power to transform lives and communities. Can art help us change our lens to see beauty and love in our world? Where have you experienced love in your world? I will be sharing with you examples of art and love transforming people and communities. If you would like to share some of your work and experiences, please let me know. Hope to see you. Chuck