Adam Collier Noel

Throughout his education Adam Collier Noel worked to combine diverse materials and techniques with various photographic processes.

Introduction

Throughout his education Adam Collier Noel worked to combine diverse materials and techniques with various photographic processes. The subject matter incorporated into the artwork is often appropriated from his extensive collection of one-of-a-kind antique daguerreotypes and mid-century snapshots. Each photograph in his acquisition is chosen because of its ability to simultaneously mirror intimate and universal facets of the human experience. “In a day and age when we are constantly being bombarded with immeasurable amounts of new imagery, I have chosen to create new art forms using vintage photographs that have been forgotten, lost or disregarded. This ambiguous, yet familiar collection of snapshots I have assembled traverses universal cultural themes such as nature, science, history and the physical form. My photography-based mixed media artwork relies heavily on the appropriation of these found images and their relationship to the contemporary world through the lens of popular culture.”

Employing a combination of technological and traditional processes in his paper-based creations gives Adam Collier Noel the opportunity to reinterpret the original history of the found image through an enhanced narrative. His inspiration is derived from the meaning inherent in the found images, as well as the materials with which he pairs them. Blue prints, letters of correspondence, receipts, book pages, etc. are often layered with the photographs to reﬂect the importance of paper as a transcript of human history and a place where ideas are written and discoveries are documented.

Building upon the rich history of the image creates a transcendence of time and a revitalization of the past, “Much of my work is about optics, ways of seeing and the grand tradition of photography. By appropriating and repurposing found images I give them a new life and a new narrative. I have often expressed that I may not necessarily be the photographer of these relics, but through my artistic interpretation I feel I am their curator.”

Recently, Adam Collier Noel traded representational imagery for bold abstraction in a new series of colorful paintings. Using his familiar grid composition, Noel explores formal compositional elements and color theory applications to achieve a rhythmic balance pleasing to the eye. He explains, “The grid has always been a consistent element throughout my artwork. It is a way of bringing order to chaos and organization to disarray. Each color within the framework is carefully chosen and layered to create slight tension with overall harmony.”

Introduction

Cheryl Johnson is an American abstract artist whose work has appeared in galleries throughout the US. Her works are held in numerous private collections in the US, Europe, and Canada. She maintains a studio in Kauai, HI and divides her time between there and Charlotte, NC. A highly collectible artist.

With a long and varied career as an instructional designer and graphic artist. Johnson worked for many years as an instructional designer and graphic designer and was ensconced in a life of technology and marketing. In 2010, she gave up a regular pay cheque at IBM to pursue her love of painting full-time.
Cheryl Johnson describes painting as “a way of sharing my internal dialog in an external way. My commitment is to create dynamic yet sensitive, lyrically beautiful, works of art. My work resonates with a passion for color, line and light created to share an expression of overlapping time, memory and reality. My intention is to create work that is truthful and real, that has depth and is compelling from a distance and up close. I have come to believe that gravitas in art relates most specifically to how well the artist can transform an emotional idea into its visual equivalent. ”