Come and See

June 9–September 8, 2024

This display showcases three Shenandoah Valley artists working in distinct mediums to illustrate individual perspectives of a shared world. Drawing from the long standing traditions of collage, macrame, and abstract painting, the artists featured here build upon a common understanding of these methods to redefine expectations. The artwork invites the viewer to look closely at the given titles and the works themselves, often challenging them to reinterpret what they see through this context.

Laura Thompson

Laura Thompson is an award-winning mixed media and collage artist living and working in Harrisonburg, VA. The “Floral Worlds” on display here combine painted flower backgrounds with meticulously cut and placed vintage collage elements to create imaginative and surreal narratives. Each piece employs tension, humor, gaze, or a combination of those qualities to surprise and delight.

“The goal is to draw the viewer closer, provoke wonder, and invite them into the joke. I strive to create a more inclusive, alternate reality where logic is loosely interpreted and possibilities are endless.”

Ruby Kauffman Hostetler

Ruby Kauffman Hostetler is a fiber and macrame artist local to Harrisonburg, VA. who finds inspiration in the forest in which she lives and on travels throughout the United States. She weaves elements of the natural world’s movement, color, shape, and texture into her work to reflect this. Three of the pieces on display here were specifically designed to illustrate what cross-sections of earth might look like in distinct locations of the United States: the Midwest, Southwest, and the mountains of West Virginia.

“My intention with this body of work is to bring the beauty and wonder of nature inside or wherever it is hung and to remind the viewer of our responsibility of caring for our earth.”

Kerry Stavely

Kerry Stavely is an interdisciplinary artist and curator based in the Shenandoah Valley. This most recent work of non-figurative abstract paintings marks a return to creative play, something the artist states many lose with age and obligations. Here Stavely makes a return to working intuitively while exploring color, marks, and texture.

“I’m seeking out that meditative state, or as an athlete would put it, getting into “the zone” where everything is working together and everything else just melts away.”