| The ArtCentre of Plano to Host Inaugural Exhibition of Texas Sculptors June 4 – August 27 |
| Save the Dates Friday, June 3, 6 – 8 p.m. – VIP Reception for Featured Sculptors and their Guests, Sponsors and ArtCentre Members (JOIN now!) Saturday, June 4, 2-4 p.m. – Public Opening Reception Wednesday, July 20, 12 noon – Lunch & Learn Visit the ArtCentre Website |
| The ArtCentre of Plano will host several openings to highlight its next exhibition, the first of Its kind in North Texas, Texas Sculpts. The first opening on June 3, is for ArtCentre members, sponsors, and the artists’ guests. The second on Saturday, June 4, is open to the general public. This exhibit will bring together nine outstanding, well-known North Texas sculptors for a nearly three-month exhibition of their works. The ArtCentre’s Executive Director Suzy Jones, says, “This exhibition is the fore-runner of what we anticipate to expand in the future into an exciting outdoor sculpture exhibition that will take advantage of the beautiful Haggard Park in downtown Plano. Though Texas Sculpts will be housed in the interior of the ArtCentre located in the historic Saigling House this year, we expect it to grow over the years.” Amy Darrow, exhibition chair and former ArtCentre Board President, says, “We are so proud of the group of sculptors whom we have invited to participate in Texas Sculpts. They represent the highest quality talent in the field. A very selective committee chose them after extensive research, and we are confident that visitors will greatly enjoy the show, and will find outstanding pieces to add to their collection.” The ArtCentre of Plano, located at 902 E. 16th St., is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visitors are asked to call in advance to ensure that a private event is not occurring at the Centre. Learn more about the artists and view examples of their works below.  Du Chau was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1981. He has pursued a medical career in pathology and is currently a Pathology Technical Coordinator at Methodist Hospital of Dallas. After taking art classes at Dallas College Brookhaven Campus, he took a sabbatical from his medical career to pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree and a Master of Fine Arts Degree at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. As well as continuing his pathology work at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, Du Chau has also become an adjunct Professor of Ceramics at Dallas College. Du Chau lives and works in Dallas, Texas. He has exhibited his work throughout the United States, including the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, Amarillo Museum of Arts, and Wichita Falls. His works are in the collections of Curaumilla Art Center in Chile, CRETA Rome in Italy, Honos Contemporary Art Gallery in Italy, the Alfred Art Ceramic Museum in NY, the University of Port Harcourt Nigeria Museum Complex, the University of Texas, the Dallas County Community College District Service Center, Dallas College Mountain View, and Brookhaven Campus. Du Chau is a visiting Scholar at the University of Port Harcourt and Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria in 2019. He is the recipient of the 2017 NCECA International Residency Award allowed him to work at the Curaumilla Arts Center in Chile, and in 2016 he was awarded a residency from the CRETA Foundation in Rome, Italy.  Life is no Rainbow or Butterfly  Fern Leaf Jillian Cooper lives and works in Plano, Texas. She holds an MFA in Ceramics and Metalsmithing/Jewelry from Texas Tech University. She is currently the ceramics lab coordinator at Collin College and teaches Ceramics I and II. She has been in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions across the US. She is represented by Companion Gallery in Humboldt, TN. In describing her work, Jillian says, “Through the use of color, pattern, and texture, I aim to create a sense of humanness and connection in my work. The surface decoration(s) I choose represent a diverse range of associations across subjects of emotion, people, and history. The textures and patterns can be innocent, seductive, timeless and trendy, to name only a few things. The combination of these things, and the variety of their affiliations, creates surfaces that allow for a multitude of interpretations.    Jerry Dodd is a metal sculptor from Commerce who has taught at universities in New York and Texas. Born in Michigan, he received degrees in art and sculpture from Central Michigan University and the University of Oregon. He taught art and sculpture for nearly 40 years. After retiring from Texas A&M University in Commerce in 2006, his drive to create continues to propel him forward in his sculptures. His current focus is in welded steel sculpture and digital prints. He says he has been interested in art since childhood. Art was always a part of his life as his father was an accomplished amateur landscape painter. In undergraduate school, he had an influential professor who interested him in welded steel. Although sometimes he finds adequate studio space lacking he does plan to continue making sculptures as long as he physically can. According to Dodd, color is an important part of the finished sculpture. Color can be used to embellish and accentuate various elements. I have always thought that a sculpture is only half finished before being painted. Lately, I have been making outdoor sculpture which needs to be powder coated to withstand weather conditions, but powder coating is limited to monochromatic colors.  Tine Scythe Art Fairchild’s first metal sculpture, Journey, was a tribute to a dear friend that had died at the age of 92. The kinetic sculpture was a spiraling structure that had 92 ascending tubes, weighed 750 pounds, and was able to gracefully flex with light pressure or a stiff breeze. FairchiId says, “I learned then that the pen and paper of childhood were not my method of storytelling, but rather a piece of steel and a welder, and at 54 my journey as an artist had just begun. Today, I enjoy a full time schedule in my Dallas Studio. Working in both monumental and small scale, designs range from simple forms to intricately detailed compositions. Familiar themes seen in the work are repetition of elements and mathematical arrays. They are often kinetic, both apparent and virtual. I combine rigorous engineering adeptness with aesthetic intuition to shape my works.”  Lime Line Rick Maxwell is an internationally recognized artist based in Dallas, Texas. Born Richard Allen Maxwell on October 5th, 1947 in Chicago Illinois. He moved to Temple, Texas, in the summer of 1968 and graduated from the University of Dallas, in Irving Texas, with a Bachelor in Arts in 1971 and Southern Methodist University, in Dallas Texas, with a Masters in Fine Arts in 1975. He taught for the Dallas County Community Colleges from 1975 through 2008 on four of their seven campuses. He earned a Minnie Piper Stevens Award for excellence in teaching in 1981 and a Faculty of the Year Award in 1999. From 2008 to 2018 he served as Executive Dean of the School of Arts at Brookhaven Collage. Maxwell has maintained a studio in the Cedars neighborhood on the Southern rim of downtown Dallas since 2002. His sculptures and drawings which reflect a unique sensibility to natural forms are in major art museums and public and private collections including: the Dallas Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum, Prudential Corporation, Omni Corporation, City of Dallas, Dallas Collages, Exxon Corporation, Marriott Corporation, Jordon Vineyards and the Atlantic Richfield Company. |
 Tangled Up In You |  Guiterra |
 Michelle O’Michael’s artistic aesthetic springs from the West Texas Chihuahuan Desert, punctuated with cacti, and steel rigs. Her on-going rapport is with open-spaces where objects breathe. She explores interaction of mass, space, shadow and volume through quality of line. O’Michael confronts the paradox of making the complex simple. In 2021 O’Michael completed Flamme d’Illuminacion, four, four-story, computerized, light towers defining Arlington’s Cultural Arts District’s festival area between City Hall and Founder’s Park. The woven steel obelisks are topped with light rings and Arlington logo finials. The colored lights are programed for public events and holidays. With her Trust sculpture at Preston Plaza in Dallas, she made five monumental in addition to eight large-scale, public art sculptures in the Dallas Metroplex. Represented by Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas, O’Michael’s work is in public, museum, private, international and corporate collections. She exhibits and is collected across the U.S. from New York City to Beverly Hills, internationally in Mexico, United Arab Emirates, Germany and United Kingdom. O’Michael’s Bachelor of Arts degree is from University of Texas at Austin; her Masters in Fine Art is from Houston Baptist University under Michael Roque Collins, Jim Edwards and Han Molzberger .  Trust |
 Luke Sides began his BFA at Odessa College, Odessa TX. He finished his BFA and received his MFA in Sculpture at the University of North Texas, Denton TX. Luke’s sculptures are created using a variety of materials and processes: steel fabrication, cast bronze and plastics, and woodcarving. Recently Luke’s work has focused almost exclusively on Cast Iron. Luke has participated in a number of juried and group exhibitions throughout United States, and is currently represented by Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden in Dallas TX, Graphite Gallery in New Orleans LA. Luke Sides is a Professor of Art/Sculpture at Collin College, and has been teaching there full-time since 2002. He is currently teaching Sculpture, Design II, and Art Appreciation. Examples of his works below. |
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 George Tobolowsky makes abstract metal sculptures from steel and stainless steel “found objects”. These found objects however, are not of the everyday sort, but rather bulky industrial metal castoffs are found by scouring scrap yards and fabrication plants. He rarely alters these metal pieces but rather works to fit the individual scraps together – much like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle – into a balanced compositions. His sculptures are one part assemblage and one part recycling, which follows closely with the philosophy of another early artistic influence and mentor, Louise Nevelson. Tobolowsky’s works represent a logical extension of the welded steel sculpture tradition that can be traced from Julio Gonzalez to David Smith. His sculptures are in collections in over 62 National and International Museums, University Collections and Public Art Collections and in numerous Private Collections. he has had Exhibitions in Vail, CO., Portland OR, Chicago IL, New York City, Chautauqua NY, New Orleans LA, Palo Alto CA. and throughout Texas, India, Venice and Jerusalem. In January 2015, he co-curated and participated in an International Exhibition of 12 Texas Artists at the National Academy of Art in New Delhi, India .  Looking for Art Dead Ends Marla Ziegler’s professional art career was jumpstarted in 1995 when her sculptures were juried into the 2nd Annual New Texas Talent Show at Craighead Green Gallery. Soon after she was invited to join the gallery with a one-person exhibition launching a more than 25-year partnership with Craighead-Green Gallery. Her writings highlighting Texas clay and her artwork have been published nationally in Ceramics Monthly and internationally in Ceramics Art and Perception. Her sculpture is in numerous corporate and private collections. Selected collections include Trinity Ceramics (Dallas, TX), Hall Collection: Texas Sculpture Garden (Frisco, TX), The Nigerian National Museum (Lagos), and the United States Embassy, Brazil (2006-2007, Art in Embassies Program). She started her over 40-year tenure of teaching Art History and Drawing in the Dallas County Community College District at both Mountain View and Brookhaven Colleges. Combining multiple pieces in collage fashion remains her favorite way of working. After recovering or creating numerous and varied volumetric forms, a playful exploratory process of sorting, adding, shifting, and deleting elements takes place. A single piece may consist of a dozen parts and change shape many times before a successful visual relationship takes place.  ScenarioThe ArtCentre of Plano A vibrant community gem founded in 1981, the nonprofit ArtCentre of Plano promotes and supports cultural arts and arts education throughout the community. The ArtCentre is widely recognized as an outstanding resource in the greater Plano area as demonstrated by the thousands of people who have experienced its high-quality, interesting and bold programming. The ArtCentre provides family days, art camps and enriching events for children in the community, as well as lectures, receptions, demonstrations and a variety of activities for interested adults. Located at the Saigling House in Haggard Park, the ArtCentre also is the perfect venue for weddings, corporate retreats, parties, and many other events. For more information about how you can support or become involved with the ArtCentre, contact Executive Director Suzy Jones at 972-423-7809 or go to www.artcentreofplano.org. The ArtCentre of Plano is located at 902 E. 16th St., Plano, TX 75074. It is housed in the historic Saigling House and is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Visitors are asked to check in advance in case of private events. The ArtCentre encourages social distancing and asks that all visitors wear masks. |
