Editions Limited Artists

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Orie Shafer

Statement

Orie Shafer Statement I am a ‘hybrid’ painter who combines digital technology with the materials and methodology of traditional art. Though my work is abstract it has a sense of landscape. In creating this work I have merged my two main media, digital photography and oil paint, into one. The concept of combining digital imagery with the hand of the artist took root in my mind five years ago and has dominated my work ever since. During my 35-year career as a painting and photography instructor, I taught my painting students to produce monochromatic under-paintings of their compositions before putting on the final color and taught my photography students to hand color their photographs with oil paint. Over time the techniques I taught my students began to incorporate themselves into my own work and morphed into what I call ‘hybrid painting’. My students have contributed to my work in another fundamental way. The source of my imagery is a large tabletop that my students used in my painting studio for over thirty years. This table acquired a complex surface, eroded by time and created by my students from years of paint splotches, spills, razor knife cuts, and textures from various glues. I have created over two hundred abstract hybrid paintings based on digital photographs of very small sections of this unique tabletop surface. I have printed these images on 4 by 4 inch watercolor paper and used these prints as an ‘under painting’. Each of these under paintings has served as the first generation of an evolving work of art. Each image’s evolution has occurred through the freehand application of oils, colored pencils and oil pastels. When dried, these small hybrid paintings are scanned and reevaluated using Adobe Photoshop. Many of these hybrid images are then produced as greatly enlarged prints and reworked by hand using oils. These images, too large to scan, are then captured with a digital camera, with each image gaining energy as it grows. Many of these pieces have reached their third or forth generation of constantly evolving imagery, filling canvases of up to 40 by 60 inches. My work differs from other forms of mixed media painting in the way it combines digital technology and traditional art materials, which give each final work of art a unique sense of layering. Some sections of the digital ‘under painting’ are left untouched, while other areas are changed by oil paint applications that run from transparent to completely opaque. My technique creates a painting that is fresh and projects tremendous energy while revealing a layered history of its evolution.

Bio

BORN:Born in 1951, Los Angeles, CA

EDUCATION:Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 1985 (Post Masters Work)
MA, Art Education, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 1978
BA, with Distinction, Art Education, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 1973
Manchester College, North Manchester, IN, 1969-1971

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 1983- 2010:
2010 (January-February) – ‘Fields of Vision’, Lincoln Center, Ft. Collins, CO
2009 (September) - Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, Recent work for the Permanent Collection     Committee, Lafayette, IN
(April-June)- Space 237, Spring Show, Toledo, OH
(April-May) – X-Power Gallery, 2009 International Exhibit, Hollywood, CA
(Jan – Mar) – The Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, “Art for the New Century”, Lafayette, IN
2008
(Nov – Dec) - 12 X 12 Group Show, The Art Center, Highland Park, IL
(October) - The Showroom Gallery Group Show at HUB-BUB, Spartanburg, SC
(October) - Art of Democracy Show, “Farewell to the Wasteland", Ball State University, Muncie, IN
(July) – Infusion Gallery, Group Show, Los Angeles, CA
(February) - Ross Fine Arts, Group Show, Lafayette, IN
2006
(September) – Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, ‘Lectures to Myself Continued’, Lafayette, IN
(June) - Tippecanoe Arts Federation, ‘Barbarian Migrations’, Lafayette, IN
(May) – Truckee Meadows Community College, War Series, Reno, NV 2005
(February) – Kirkland Art Center, War Series, Clinton, New York
(November) - Northern Iowa University, Barbarian Migrations, Cedar Falls, Iowa
(October) – Purdue University, Alumni Exhibition, West Lafayette, IN
Lafayette Museum of Art, They Practice What They Teach, Lafayette, IN
Lafayette Museum of Art, Indiana Now, Lafayette, IN
2002 – Wells Cultural Center, One-person show, Lafayette, IN
1992 – Indiana State University Map Show, Terre Haute, IN
1991 – 1991 Designers’ Show House, Marion College
Dinner works, Louisville Visual Arts Association, Louisville, KY
1990 - The American Art Clay Company’s Indiana Vase Exhibition IIIPatrick King Contemporary Arts, One person Show, Stratum Paintings and Assemblages, Indianapolis, IN
1989 – Lectures to Myself
1979-1989, I One person Show, Indiana State Museum,Indianapolis, INGoldberg and Feldman Fine Arts, Carmel, IN
1988 – Wabash Valley Exhibition, Seldon Swope Museum of Art, Terra Haute, IN.
Grand Prize
1985 - Indiana Arts Association Gallery, Munster, IN
Clemson National Print and Drawing Show, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
70th Indiana Artist Show, Indianapolis, Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN. Grand Prize
1984 – Group Show, Patti Aande Gallery, San Diego, CA
Recent Acquisitions, The Equitable Gallery, New York, NY
Permanent Collection, Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
G.W. Einstein Co. Inc., New York, NY
1983 – Jeremy Stone Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Patti Aande Gallery, San Diego, CA
obrick Gallery, Solo Show, Chicago, IL
69th Indiana Artist Show, Indianapolis, Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, Grand Prize
Administrative experience:
Art Department Chair/ Teacher, (Aug 1976- Retired May 2008) West Lafayette School Corporation.   Painting and Photography.
Art Department Chair/Teacher (1973-1976) Tippecanoe School Corporation.
Awards: Lilly Fellow 1985, Golden Apple Teacher 1994.
UNITED STATES NAVY Commander (2001-Retired 01 Oct 2006)