WCCC Art Gallery Hosts Visiting Artist Marie Pavlicek-Wehrli & “Bridges” Exhibition

                YOUNGWOOD, PA – Westmoreland County Community College will host the exhibition, “Bridges,” by artist-poet Marie Pavlicek Wehrli of Silver Spring, Maryland, starting March 8, in the Science Hall Art Gallery at the Youngwood campus.

                “Bridges” will feature a group of recent monotypes and mixed media works on paper. The monotype, a one-of-a-kind impression of an image that was inked (or painted) onto a flat surface such as plexiglass or aluminum and then run through a printing press, often resembles paintings more so than other types of fine art prints, according to Pavlicek-Wehrli, a North Braddock native and Seton Hill University graduate.

                “In ‘Bridges’ some of the images include words and/or fragments of language, but the ‘bridge’ between image and language occurs more often in the approach to the work, whether it takes place on the empty plate-canvas or on the computer screen’s empty ‘Word.doc’ window,” said Pavlicek-Wehrli, whose paintings and prints have been exhibited in local and regional venues.

“Images unfold in series, with the ghost image left after printing one impression suggesting the next,” said Pavlicek-Wehrli, a former Fellow at both the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Ragdale Foundation as well as a resident artist a Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C.

She will discuss her work during a free public lecture and reception, scheduled Thursday, March 18 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Art Gallery in Science Hall.

The artist-poet, who is a recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist’s Grant in poetry, will give a reading of her works Wednesday, March 17 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the Science Hall Art Gallery atrium.  Pavlicek-Wehrli’s poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies including Beloit Poetry Journal, Poet Lore, Ekphrasis and Hungry As We Are:  An Anthology of Washington Area Poets.

As WCCC’s 2010 visiting artist, Pavlicek-Wehrli will work with art students for a week and give a public monotype demonstration and workshop Friday, March 19 from 9 a.m. to noon in the printmaking studio, Room 750, Founders Hall.  Participants will explore the possibilities of what happens when language and writing are used as tools to jumpstart image-making.  Materials will be provided.

Reservations for the public workshop are suggested and may be made by sending an e-mail to Kathleen Mendus Dlugos, associate professor of art, at dlugosk@my.wccc.edu.

The “Bridges” exhibition continues through April 2. WCCC Art Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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