Impressions of Spring (Spring Show 2024)
This May we are partnering with Akron’s fine arts print studio, Rubber City Prints, to bring you our spring show “Impressions of Spring.” You’ll find local artists’ work in print making, glass, jewelry, ceramics & more.
Stop by the gallery to shop all of the featured artists below.
Mary Nemeth (Screen printing)
Meryl Engler (Woodcut & Relief Printing)
Other Artists
Drat that Cat Glass, Long Way Home Studios, Parsley Pottery, Sibilia, & more!
Read more about the artists below!
Mary Nemeth | Akron, OH
Mary Nemeth is an artist from Akron, Ohio who is residing in the Greater Cleveland Area. She received her BFA in Fine Arts and her Masters in Technical Art History. Her practice has recently focused on glass (leaded and stained), but for this series she is returning to her roots of printmaking on paper.
This series, Memories of Tea Pots, is influenced by the ceremonial aspect of making a pot of tea, how it is often communal, domestic, a time to reflect and often occurring at key life events but also at the quieter more pensive ones. Inspiration for this series comes from whimsical memories that have been captured in photo or video as well as the variation in form of different teapots found in the wild.
Each print starts with a mugshot of a teapot which is then manipulated as a memory and is incorporated in. A vivid and starkly flat color palette is then chosen which contrasts with the distant, nuanced and sepia-tinged memories contained in each teapot emphasizing the strong presence that these memories still have.
Each color layer is then hand cut out of black construction paper and attached to a transparency. The final print is made with a screen printing process where photo emulsion is used to expose each layer of paper cutouts onto their own screen.
Meryl Engler | Akron, Ohio
I am an artist using woodcut to create layered prints and installations that evoke intimate, magical moments within the hidden landscapes of our environment. Since moving to Ohio in 2019, I have been so inspired at how the bushes, trees and flowers seem to pop up from nothing each spring. Everywhere you look, there is new growth that was almost forgotten about during the winter. In some places it looks like there is just a wall of leaves. This creates beautiful, ever changing and endlessly inspiring scenes as this growth takes over the landscape.
Woodcut is an incredibly physical and energetic medium, but it also requires a level of intimacy and care in carving each mark. In woodcut, every carved mark tries to make sense of a memory. Controlling the gouge as it cuts through the wood requires focus, the full presence of both mind and body. Making that connection becomes a collaboration with the woodblock. The resulting work is subtle and bold, careful and rash, reflecting my own state of being as the artist.
Mary Nemeth | Akron, OH
Nine years ago I fell in love with marbling paper. I was working on my senior show at the Cleveland Institute of Art and dipping whole sheets of luscious cotton paper into trays of oil paint. After graduation I taught myself how to marble paper the “real” (traditional) way using acrylic paints floating on water thickened with carrageenan. I felt resistant to collage with my papers or to add imagery on top of them. I wanted the designs to be appreciated on their own.
I took a detour during 2020 quarantine and became obsessed with quilting. I kept marbling here and there, but mostly withdrew to reflect. I focused on making books, jewelry, and magnets using my paper, and I began to accumulate smaller scraps, which of course I kept!
My Dr. Frankenstein compulsion to cut and piece together scraps is coming out again in this work. I had feelings of comfort and calm looking through a book of American quilts. It unearthed memories of Mom’s confetti quilts and the granny square baby blanket Aunt Patti crocheted for me. My heart lights up when I see endless variations of color and pattern within a uniform grid.
I created this work sitting on my studio floor with my great bin of paper, a paper cutter, scissors and glue sticks. Repetitive processes are satisfying and so soothing to me. Snipping paper into endless squares and rectangles, arranging and pasting them, carving and printing linocut stamps. I enjoy the adventure of composing a piece as I go rather than having a fixed plan. In a symbolic way, art-making gives me an outlet to sort through memories and tender parts from my past and to discover new ways of perceiving their beauty. I feel happy now seeing small fragments of my marbled patterns interacting with one another to create an even more beautiful whole.