“Unconscious Dimensionality: A Study of Perception” Opens May 11, 2012 at OCAC

The Oxford Community Art Center’s (OCAC) May 2012 exhibit “Unconscious Dimensionality: A Study of Perception” features the artwork of Middletown Pendleton Art Center artist Stephanie Zing in its upcoming show which opens 5 to 9 p.m., Friday, May 11^th, and runs through May 30th.  In conjunction with the art show, Zing will read her original poetry in the North Parlor at 7 p.m. on May 11^th and her artwork will be on display in the main gallery.  Her approach for the show explores the use of internal and other focused labeling in self-perception through a playful combination of found object sculptures and paintings and the written word.

“Why do I find myself attracted to or repelled from a person or object? What value or effect do labels have in life or on self-perception or self-esteem? What do ‘beautiful, fat, smart, kind, nice, talented, ugly’ or any of a thousand other labels really mean and who decides?  They’re just words, after all,” said Zing about the starting point for her artworks.

Zing is primarily a self-taught artist.  She has been writing and publishing her poetry for more than 30 years.  “I’m interested in further exploring the use of labels and will be looking for grant funding to publish a chapbook of the poetry from this show, along with photographs of the accompanying artwork with the hopes of using the book as a mechanism to teach young women and those who have suffered abuses to rewrite their own story.”  While she normally works in the mediums of fused and stained glass, her body of work also includes collage and assembled works and primitive style paintings.

Zing states, “In the proverbial peeling of the onion, there is the opportunity for laughing at oneself and seeing a lighter side.  My approach is to uncover the monsters and dolls within each label and give these pieces a life in somewhat of a ‘three-ring circus’ feel by combining the visual with the written poems.”

 

There is an interactive portion of the art show where viewers are encouraged to explore their own use of self-labeling.

Zing is an emerging public artist and was one of three artists on the team for the “Play Me, I’m Yours” piano project for OCAC in 2010.  She is one of 26 artists nationally whose studios are featured in the Spring 2012 issue of Studios Magazine and her “how-to” articles for making fused glass artworks are regularly featured in Fired Arts & Crafts Magazine.  She teaches workshops and classes and works full time as an artist from her studio which is currently being relocated to Florida.

AWARDWINNING PLAYWRIGHT, Y YORK’S RIVER RAT AND CAT PLAYS AT OXFORD COMMUNITY ARTS CENTER

The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park’s Off the Hill production of RIVER RAT AND CAT, by playwright Y York, will perform at the Oxford Community Arts Center. The show is open to the public and will take place on Friday, April 27^th at 7PM.

           

York, who will be available to autograph the play’s script after the performance says, “I’m thrilled that the Cincinnati Playhouse is producing River Rat and Cat for their littlest supporters because, as it’s happening in my town, I’ll get to see it over and over as it works its power on my favorite audience.”  (Scripts will be available for a $7.00 donation to OCAC.)

An award winning playwright, Y York has written pieces that have been variously described as monologues, monodramas, stories, performance pieces, or poems.  “Y York writes with passion and delivers a powerful appeal for personal freedom and idiosyncratic behavior,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  The New York Times credits her with “making her points by not taking herself too seriously, even as she offers astute observations about environmental, racial, and family matters.”

In 2002, Y was awarded the AATE Charlotte Chorpenning Award, recognizing her body of work, and in 2004, she received the Hawai`i Award for Literature.  She has been writing plays for children since 1993. 

According to Playhouse Director of Education Mark Lutwak, “River Rat and Cat is a thoroughly delightful romp that manages to touch on the meaning of friendship. This play will be enjoyed most by children between the ages of 4 and 94.”   Appearing are Margaret Ivey (River Rat), Aram Monisoff (Cat) and Katherine Leigh (Dale Beaver) from the Playhouse’s Bruce E. Coyle Intern Company.

Members of the River Rat and Cat production team include Mark Lutwak (Director) Tamara L. Honesty (Set Designer), Lisa Molyneux (Costume Designer), Anna Goller (Props Designer), Carlos Saldaña (Stage Hand/ Musician) and Sydney Kuhlman (Stage Manager). 

Off the Hill is made possible by The Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation.  This performance at OCAC is made possible by a grant through ArtsWave Presents, a program bringing musicians, dancers, actors and artists from Cincinnati’s arts organizations into neighborhoods for public performances.

The Oxford Community Arts Center is located at 10 S. College Avenue, in Oxford, Ohio. For additional information about Second Friday, or about the Arts Center itself contact 513-524-8506, email info@oxarts.org, or visit their website at www.oxarts.org.