Arapahoe Libraries is proud to host art exhibits each month at Eloise May, Koelbel and Smoky Hill libraries. Library galleries offer the community a place to view a variety of art at no cost while also providing visibility to local artists. A volunteer art selection committee selects exhibits based on artistic quality, variety of exhibits and the suitability of format for each exhibit space.
Have a question about the galleries or interested in showcasing your art? Visit the Art Galleries page for more information.
Neil Scanlan
Smoky Hill Library
October 1-November 30, 2024
When a canvas company sent me 1,200 wooden wedges, I decided to combine my love of portraits and the wedges to see what would happen. II was quite pleased with the results. I hope you enjoy the show.
What is your favorite piece in the show?
I like all my children but perhaps the most interesting is Picasso’s painting of Dora Maar. The original painting is very disjointed and the use of the wedges adds a little more chaos to the original effect.
What motivates you to create?
Having a quiet place to work and materials calling out my name.
Who are your biggest artist influences?
Artists Jack Unruh, Alex Katz and Helen Scanlan, my mom.
What message do you want to convey to your viewers?
To see traditional portraits in a new light.
Amber Sliter
Koelbel Library
October 1-31, 2024
Amber Sliter is from rural New York State who relocated to Denver, CO in 2020. She is currently a Digital Media Coordinator at the Community College of Denver. Amber received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting and a Minor in Art History at the University at Buffalo.
Amber is a mixed media artist who creates with various mediums including oil painting, watercolor painting, acrylic painting, sculpture, installation, film and digital photography, and printmaking. She has built a career in photography, marketing, art direction, and communication.
Her work often plays with the balance between the natural and synthetic world. Previously, her sculptural oil paintings focused on cellular forms in our bodies and how cells can alter due to environmental substances. Currently, Amber’s work is flipped, focusing on quieting my mind through a meditative intuitive abstract painting process, knowing that stress can cause significant issues to our bodies in various scales. You will see the cellular and microscopic forms still inform her abstract hand.
Mind Mosaics Artist Statement:
My “Mind Mosaics” are created with a harmonious and intuitive beginning, allowing each form to inform the next shape while finishing the painting with a meticulous weaving of pebble-like shapes. My abstract paintings often are inspired by nature, memory, emotion, artifacts, pondering, and various scales and colors found both in the organic and synthetic world. The Mind Mosaic series started with watercolors which required a meditative state of mind to flow and stain the paper. You will find this next body of work translated into oil and acrylic paintings on canvas. My goal is to create a composition that soothes the brain as it flows with your eye across the surface. Each painting sparks a feeling of peace, movement, or playful energy. I invite you to breathe in my color palette, allow your eye to roam with curiosity, and breathe out what you are ready to release.
Website: amberfayeart.com, opens a new window
Instagram: instagram.com/amberfaye_art, opens a new window
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/AmberFayeArt, opens a new window
Catie Michel
Eloise May Library
October 1-November 30, 2024
Catie Michel is a muralist, scientific illustrator, and photographer guided by collaborative storytelling and our connection to the natural world. Her academic and professional background in field research and science communication grounds her work in attention, observation, and inquiry. Catie explores what, in nature, is capturing our attention and what, in us, is looking back.
What is your favorite piece in the show and why?
My favorite piece is the Nautilus; these animals are so strange and beautiful. This piece is part of a series in which I paint marine animals I have observed in real life. Nautiluses/nautili are deep sea creatures, so unless I was fortunate enough to explore their habitat in a submarine, my chances of seeing one were very slim! But a few years ago, the Monterey Bay Aquarium opened their Deep Sea exhibit, and I was very very lucky to finally see a living nautilus. It was such a privilege to observe this ancient animal.
What motivates you to create?
My connection to and interest in nature motivates me to create. I studied Animal Science and Wildlife Biology in college, and am now primarily a scientific illustrator. Telling visual stories about the natural world is endlessly meaningful and fueling.
Who are your biggest artists influences?
My biggest artist influences are Maya Lin and Mona Caron.
What message do you want your art to convey to viewers?
I hope my work inspires a sense of curiosity in viewers and guides them to a sense of wonder and inquiry about the subject matter.
