Posts Tagged ‘acrylic’

Joe Bolyard was born in Raleigh County West Virginia, and would later move to Chicago, Illinois before coming back to West Virginia at the age of six.  Joe Bolyard creates metal repousse’, which are hand-tooled relief works in pressed metal.  He also enjoys painting in acrylics on canvases and mixed-media.  Bolyard is mostly self-taught, with a few classes from Marshall. 

Early Life
Bolyard discovered his love for art when his parents took him to the Art Institute and other art museums on Sundays.  After visiting the museums he began to see everything as art.  His parents encouraged him to be creative, but they sometimes did not understand ways his creativity manifested.  His father made hardwood cabinetry and furniture, and Bolyard was inspired by his father’s projects, but even as a child he preferred painting or sculpting.  Boyard skipped some of the lower-level art classes and went straight into Marshall’s upper level art classes, mostly in sculpting.

Inspirations/Admirations
Bolyard is inspired by a lot of things,  sometimes as mundane as conversations and food to the weather and people.  Bolyard has also found inspiration in his faith and spirituality through the Episcopal church.  He finds his relationship with God to be the most important thing in his life and he shows it through his art.  Some examples would be his “Cruciform” pieces, which are crucifix-like forms, roughly tooled in pewter and created to look like smaller pieces of a larger relic. Bolyard has also created one of the “Stations of the Cross” for this year’s exhibit at Christ Church United Methodist in Downtown Charleston.

Current/Future Work
Currently Bolyard is doing “Cruciforms,” “Relics”, and some new acrylic painting on canvas with strong emphasis on color, juxtaposed by simplified impressionism or just naked, simple forms.  Currently he is exhibiting his art work for sale at Visions on Capital Street, his website, and in his home.

Bolyard’s goal for the future is to be more proficient at producing art and to start promoting his art.  His long term goals are to live as a self sustaining artist, producing works of his choice.

Traci  Higginbotham was born in Kettering, Ohio but is known as a local artist in West Virginia for her bold, vivid paintings. Higginbotham usually paints on canvas with bold colors but is recently trying to switch to paper and black and white or little color. Traci Higginbotham is actually a very traditional and reserved person who shows her energy and emotions through her work. Her painting style tends to surprise people and does not usually reflect her personality.

Early Life
Higginbotham moved to West Virginia when she was eight years old. Her earliest artistic experience was her many drawings she created for bulletin board designs in elementary school. Since she was so unique and creative, her teacher ended up placing her in the gifted art program. Her family was always very encouraging of her artistic abilities and pushed her to achieve her goals. Higginbotham’s training began with a woman named Caryl Toth who was her instructor in the gifted art program in Putnam County High School. After high school, Higginbotham attended the University of Charleston to graduate and come out with a Bachelor’s degree in art.

Inspirations/Admirations
Traci Higginbotham is inspired by the colors of the sky during a sunset and any form of nature. Her only artistic goal for herself is to keep painting and never give up. She holds her ideas in until she gets to her studio in the basement of the Art Emporium which she says “is a very raw space, but that makes it great! I don’t have to worry about slinging the paint around.” Higginbotham tends to work on four to five paintings all at one time and has them around her so she can obtain more creativity. Her favorite piece of work of someone else’s is “The Embrace” by Gustav Klimt. Higginbotham’s favorite piece of her own work is called “Surround” which was a large canvas with beautiful brush strokes of yellows, oranges, and reds. She says “it represented the sun and how it surrounds me and inspires my paintings.”

Current/Future Work
Higginbotham currently exhibits at the Art Emporium and Taylor Books in Charleston, as well as at the Tamarack in Beckley. She is currently been trying to switch up her style by changing to paper as well as using more black and white and less color. She wants the excitement to come not only from the colors of her work but within the brushstrokes. Her favorite materials to work with are Liquitex soft body acrylics because she loves their bold creaminess as well as Royal Soft Grip brushes. Throughout all of her work, Higginbotham uses very vivid colors with intense brushstrokes to give her paintings a theme of bold energy. She usually starts off painting small and then moves up to multiple canvases until she finds one that she can stick with and make beautiful.