Metal & Mud: Works by Judi Gaston & Robert Gaston
June 1-29, 2018
Metal & Mud: Works by Judi Gaston & Robert Gaston
Opening reception: Friday, June 1, 5:00-9:00 PM
Exhibition hours are Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Please note, the Emporium will be closed on Monday, May 28, for the holiday.
Judi Gaston will display two series as part of the exhibition with her son, Robert Gaston, who will display metal art furniture pieces, small pottery/metal works, and photography.
Each year in the spring, Ijams Nature Center invites volunteers to help clean-up the Tennessee River. Judi Gaston enjoys being part of the environmentally-important event and is intrigued by the beauty of objects she finds during the clean-up. The objects form the basis for pieces in a series entitled “Recycle: The Tennessee River Rescue”, which are handwoven with recycled materials, used plastic bags, retired bed linens, packing materials, and more. Her second series, “Recycle: The Study”, results from her husband’s participation in a medical study. Each piece contains some of the used paraphernalia from the study, including cut-up hospital gowns handwoven into a lookalike hospital gown. With other works, plastic newspaper sleeves become the handwoven bodies. Judi Gaston is a fiber artist, designing and weaving wearables that reflect her passion for travel and witnessing various cultures. Her wearables often incorporate vintage or found pieces, linking past with present. She is a member of the Tennessee Crafts Association, The Southern Highlands Guild, and the Piedmont Crafts Guild. Gaston has received many awards, and her work appears in numerous collections. In 2011, she was inducted into the Tennessee State Museum Fashion and Textile Institute in Nashville.
Robert Gaston’s influences and interests include nature and insects, machines, Meso-American and ancient world ceramics, Japanese Sifi models, northern European renaissance painting, and African ceramics and architecture, to name a few. His work is simply a reflection of his interests. Robert Gaston grew up in Knoxville and graduated from the University of Tennessee (BFA) in 1989. Since graduation, he has spent most of his time living in Colorado where he runs a business restoring fossil skeletons (dinosaurs, extinct mammals, etc.).