POCKET MONSTERS, TRANSFORMATIONS
AND THE DOT SERIES
ON EXHIBIT JUNE 8TH - JULY 5TH
The Oxford Community Art Center’s (OCAC) June exhibits “Pocket Monsters” by Elise McWilliams, with additional work by Jim McWilliams; “Transformations” by Elizabeth Birch and “The Dot – Part 4” by Marta Wendt , open with an artist’s reception on June 8th at 6pm. The exhibit continues through July 5th.
Elise McWilliams’ “Pocket Monsters” focuses on various animals, monsters, and people involved in daily activities such as skateboarding, camping, and mowing the lawn. There is a theme of twins running throughout “Pocket Monsters.” McWilliams is heavily influenced by children’s book illustrations and is working toward the completion of a contemporary children’s book. She admires the simplicity, lightness, and seriousness of childhood drama and believes twins highlight the tension and sibling rivalry that occurs daily in familial relationships. She pairs down the elements into character, action and daily life to create relevance and universality. 
Elise McWilliams teaches art at Hollingsworth East Elementary in Eaton, OH. She earned her B.F.A. from Miami University in Jewelry/Metals and almost Painting. Her M.F.A is from Kent State University in Jewelry/Metals/Enameling. Her artwork is shown nationally and internationally, including Metalsmith magazine’s Exhibition in Print, a sculpture textbook, and her recent acceptance as an artist-in-residency at Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona.
Jim McWilliams, with his B.F.A. in sculpture and Master’s in Art Education from Miami University, was part of the team who started the Oxford Kinetics Festival and Sculpture Race. His work includes the large kinetic steel sculpture at the Oxford Community Park.
The Elizabeth Birch exhibit, “Transformation”, is a mixed media exhibit featuring watercolor, acrylics and fiber pieces. Birch, the art director for Middfest International, in Middletown Ohio for the last 28 years, believes “an artist is the mythmaker, a being who formulates from aesthetic experiences a translation through which a work of art becomes radiant, breath taking and perhaps embraces an epiphany.” Libby’s work is an attempt to translate these insights into meaning using photographs, children’s art, nature, history, and music. “In many ways, my work is the embodiment of the Eastern ideal of using one’s ability as a thinker to reach a place where thought cannot penetrate,” Birch states. 
Marta Wendt’s four part “The Dot” series concludes with this month’s exhibit. The dot became the central icon in Wendt’s search for how the heart starts to beat. In these, the last four paintings in the series, “ the dot became the symbol for our earth,” Wendt states. Working from her home studio, Wendt produces artwork in watercolor, oil, jewelry, and glass enamel on metal.
The June 8th SECOND FRIDAY will also include author, James Martino reading excerpts from his book “Don’t Wear Suede Boots To Chemistry” ; a musical performance from the Lentini Duo and Family; 3rd Floor Open Artist Studios; and ballroom dancing. The Art Shop Cooperative will also be open from 5:30-9pm.
