The Yadkin Arts Council welcomes the “Beecassos” to present their show “Pushing Boundaries” in the Welborn Gallery from November 4 thru January 8, 2022. The show will feature an opening reception on November 5th at 5pm that is free and open to the public. 

The Beecassos are an award-winning triad-based art quilt collective that takes their name from Picasso, a master of stylist exploration to present their show. The Beecassos experiment with non-traditional ways of working with fabric, thread, and related materials. This group is focused on non-traditional quilting and styles such as art quilts, various types of fabric, digitized images and three-dimensional techniques. This particular show will include the works of Beecasso artists Pat Arndt, Vickie Clontz, Ellen Hart, Kathy Johnson, Nancy Lassister, Gail McNeill, Valerie Paterson, Joan Rutledge, Penny Sharp, Jenny Williams, and Mary Jo Wimberly.

The Beecassos have periodic group challenges, which are tons of fun and push their creativity to new levels. Challenges for this exhibit included:

Oxymoron: The artists were to select an oxymoron to create a piece of art in their preferred style and technique. No size, material, or wall/table mount (as in 2D or 3D) had to be taken into account in creating their oxymoron. 

Beetle Foot: A microscopic view of the Diving Beetle foot was provided as the basis of this challenge.  Artists were tasked with considering how they wished to portray this incredible specimen. No size or orientation, no technique nor specific fiber were provided as criteria, other than having some connection to the actual beetle foot. The connection could be as realistic as recreating the original photo or as obtuse as using only the photographs’ vibrant colors.  

Calendar (Twelve Months : Twelve Artists): Each artist chose or was provided a specific month in which they were to express the theme of the challenge: Trees. The criteria: each month was to be mounted on a 12” square canvas with the artwork wrapping around to the back of the canvas. The artists were permitted to represent their month’s tree in whatever manner they chose, provided the finished piece was somehow related to their tree. 

Flowers: A Beecasso artist cut out and mailed a random selection of printed fabric flowers in a vase to each member interested in participating. There were no criteria regarding size, technique or materials.  

The Gallery is open for in person, socially distanced viewing Monday-Friday 9:30am-4:30pm.