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BIO

Award-winning artist Lori Loveberry George is a professional artist, curator, teacher and arts advocate. She is a 2008 graduate of Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida, and a 1983 graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design, where she was a printmaking major. She is now an instructor at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota where she teaches drawing, painting, and workshops, as well as teaching in Sarasota County schools and libraries. In addition, Lori continues to create and teach private classes at her Sarasota studio. 

 

One of her recent work includes collaborations with portrait photographer and University of Buffalo professor, Bruce Jackson, and Sarasota artist Pamela Callender, curator of the multi-disciplinary exhibit titled In Your Face, the Power of Portraiture. This series of portraits were drawn from Jackson’s found photographs of prison ID photos from the Arkansas State Penitentiary system. Like much of George’s art practice, the In Your Face exhibit included not only visual art and photography, but also poetry and performance.  In this way, the In Your Face portrait series project was curated to promote an ongoing dialogue of social justice through multi-disciplinary expressions of portraiture.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I express myself best through drawing and the study of form. With a variety of mark making tools and materials, I paint on my drawings and draw on my paintings.  Layering is significant to my thought and working process. I construct, deconstruct, and rebuild, sometimes re-working each piece many times over. It parallels a personal process of beginnings, scarring and healing.  Each step brings me closer to playing out my story and leaving my ghosts ambiguously revealing themselves underneath.  I play with spontaneous and intuitive mark making and color, often working ambidextrously to capture a movement, a gesture, or a thought.

 

In all of my art-making, I am influenced primarily in the gesture, movement, and expression of the human form.  In particular, I am invested in notions of artistic anthropomorphism and personification of human experience. Both have ancient roots as storytelling and artistic devices, and most cultures have traditional fables with anthropomorphized animals as characters.  Ancient mythologies frequently represented the divine as deities with human forms and qualities; exhibiting behaviors that were used to explain natural phenomena and historical events. 

 

My hope is that objects can metaphorically represent elements of humanity; sinks become aging self-portraits, dolls become angels and talismans, and red poppies become blood and muti. Muti, a Zulu word meaning medicine, is a significantly powerful word-thought in my mark making processes and work titles.  

 

I work on multiple pieces at the same time. When I have to think of where to place the next mark, I lay it aside and work on another piece. Which allows me to see it new again and keeps the work fresh and energetic.

 

I experiment combining traditional and non-traditional artist materials, and historical artistic methods and materials. I research and like the tactility of making my own paints and binders— watercolors, oils, clays, and glues— mulling them on a marble slab.

 

I worked many years as a decorative and mural painter, which expanded my skill set with plasters, gilding clays, animal hide glues, metal leaf, trowels, and sanders. I like trying new mark making tools and collect bamboo, soil and clay, animal tails, and rusty metal. My substrate is typically heavy watercolor paper, nautical charts, wood, and canvas. They are versatile and allows aggressive manipulation.

 

Nautical charts serve a two- fold purpose: they stand on their own as a finished work of art, drawn and painted over, and can be easily manipulated into three-dimensional shapes. It’s art on art.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

 

2018               Celebrating African American Cultures, Fogartyville Arts Center, Sarasota, Florida

2017               Eckerd College Exhibition, St. Petersburg, Florida

2016               Beyond Criminal, Fogartyville Arts Center, Sarasota, Florida

2015               Only 50, Fogartyville Arts Center, Sarasota, Florida

                       Annual Faculty and Staff Exhibit, Ringling College of Art and Design,                                 Sarasota, Florida

2014               Portraiture, Solo Exhibit, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida

                       Portraiture, Solo Exhibit, Sarasota Arts and Cultural Alliance, Sarasota, Florida

2013               In Your Face Exhibit, The HuB, Sarasota, Florida

                       In Your Face Exhibit, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida

2012               Marriot Springhill Suites Exhibition, Sarasota, Florida

                       Morrison Interior Design Exhibition, Sarasota, Florida

2011               Avenida de Colores Launch Party Exhibition, Sarasota, Florida

2010               Play Matters, a collaborative exhibit, Women’s Resource Center, Sarasota, Florida

                       Outside Looking In Juried Exhibition, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

                       Selby Public Library Eleventh Annual Invitational Art Exhibit, Sarasota, Florida

2009               Art and Frame Juried Exhibition, Art and Frame of Sarasota Gallery, Sarasota,

                       Florida

                       Green: The Primary Color, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

                       Masquerade, Mystery, and Mischief Juried Exhibition, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota,

                       Florida

                       Icons and Idols Juried Exhibition, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

2009               Sites Exhibition at City Hall, Arts Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida 2009

                       Alternative Visions of Peace, The Studio @ 620, St. Petersburg, Florida

                       Neighbors Not Strangers Juried Exhibition, Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

 2008              “8/8/’08-Two” Juried Exhibition, Art Du Monde Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida.

                       Eckerd College 50th Anniversary Alumni Art Exhibit, Sarasota, Florida

                       Eckerd College Faculty and Student Annual Show, St. Petersburg, Florida

                       Members Exhibition, The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, Florida.

                       Sites Exhibition at City Hall, Arts Center Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida

                       Eckerd College Senior Thesis Exhibit, The Arts Center, St. Petersburg, Florida.

2007               War Paint, Elliott Gallery, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida

                       Eckerd College Faculty and Student Annual Show, Seminole, Florida.

                       Alumni Exhibition, Ringling College of Art, Sarasota, Florida

1983               Celebration of Women Juried Exhibition, Ft. Myers, Florida.

 

SELECTED AWARDS

           

2009              Art and Frame Juried Exhibition, Honorable Mention.  Juror: Jaimie Cordero, Art and                         Frame Sarasota Gallery, Sarasota, Florida  

2008              “8/8/’08-Two” Juried Exhibition, First Prize.  Juror: Jordon Meinster, Art Du Monde

                      Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida

2008              Excellence in Visual Arts Award, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida

1983              Staffile and Haywood Merit Award, Celebration of Women Juried Exhibit, Ft. Myers,                          Florida.

 

EDUCATION

 

2008              BA Visual Arts, with Distinction, Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida

1983              Certification, with Honors, Ringling School of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida

 

TEACHING AND WORKSHOPS

2016-2018     Private studio, Sarasota, Florida. Teach drawing, painting, and workshops.

2014-2018     Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, Florida. Instructor for painting,

                      drawing, and workshops.

2012-2018     Sarasota County Libraries, Sarasota, Florida. Teach art classes for art programs in                           partnership with Sarasota Arts and Cultural Alliance.

2009              Shorecrest Preparatory School, St. Petersburg, Florida.  Three-day painting

                      workshop.

                      

PERMANANT COLLECTIONS

 

Mr. and Mrs. Roger Bury, Capetown, South Africa

Ms. Priscilla Kempson, Johanesburg, South Africa

Ms. Kuniko Yamamoto, Sarasota, Florida

Ms. Barbara Richards, Sarasota, Florida

Mr. and Mrs. Jack Levine, Sarasota, Florida

Ms. Priscillia Adams, Sarasota, Florida

Mr. and Mrs. Mark O’bryant, Billing, Montana

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Marra, Cooperstown, New York

Mr. Robert Stuffings, Longboat Key, Florida

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Goldberg, Longboat Key, Florida

Ms. Allison McCall, Tampa, Florida

Ms. Julia McGinty, St. Petersburg, Florida

Mr. and Mrs. John Carroll, Sarasota, Florida

Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Watson, Dubuque, Iowa

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Franzel, Sydney, Australia

Mr and Mrs. Aviv Soussan, New Rochelle, New York

Mr. and Mrs. D.R. Zaccone, Sarasota, Florida

Mr. and Mrs. Tony Pompliano, Longboat Key, Florida

Mrs. Marty White, Longboat Key, Florida

LINKS

https://www.tampabaynewswire.com/2014/09/11/patricia-thompson-gallery-27575

http://www.sarasotapeacenter.org/beyond-criminal.html

http://www.inyourfaceart.org/events.html

http://cdn3.creativecirclemedia.com/tampabay/files/5663b49a56.pdf

https://artiststelltheirstories.blogspot.com/2015/10/lori-loveberry-george-mixed-media.html

http://ticket.heraldtribune.com/2014/01/17/public-pianos-make-their-debut/

ABOUT

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