Pat Viles - Exhibits, Education, Workshops

EDUCATION

University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Lenoir-Rhyne College, Languages, Hickory, North Carolina
Institut de Francais, French, Villefranche-sur-mer, France
Institut for American Universities, French and art, Avignon, France
Numerous painting workshops with master teachers in Europe and the USA

EXHIBITIONS

2006    Beijing, China
2006    Geneva, Switzerland
2006    Korea (3 more group exhibits during next year)
2005    Tokyo Japan
2003    Open Studio, Caywood Studio, Hickory, NC
2003    Aiken Center for the Arts, Aiken SC
2003    Baden Baden, Germany
2003    Galerie Le Mas Des Arnaud, St. Martin de Crau, France (Provence)
2002    Brussels, Belgium
2000    Open Studio, Viles Studio, Newton, NC
1999    Paris, France
1998    Gallery, Lenoir Rhyne college, Hickory, NC
1997    Old Rock School Art Center, Valdese, NC
1995    Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, NC
1992    Gallery, Lenoir Rhyne College Arts Center
1990    Paris, France
1990    Lees MC Ree College, Banner Elk, NC

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITS

2005 Hickory Museum of Art
2005 Sunflower Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2003 Rice Museum of Art, Georgetown, SC (with Vae Hamilton)
2003 Collagebound Caldwell Center for the Arts, Caldwell Arts Council, Lenoir, NC
2002 Southwest Odyssy Newton-Conover Performing Arts Gallery, Newton, NC

INVITATIONAL EXHIBITS

2006 Geneva, Switzerland
2006 Seoul, Korea
2006 Beijing, China

TEACHING

Workshops, Mixed Media, Hickory, NC (annually)
Carlton Gallery, Mixed Media, Banner Elk, NC
Private instruction, Hickory Studio, NC
2003 Rice Museum of Art, Mixed Media, Georgetown, SC
2002-03 Art Consultant, Signature Studio XI
(Program of the Riddle Institute for artists with development disability), Morganton, NC

SYMPOSIUM

2006 Art in the 21st Century, Seoul, Korea, panel member

ARTIST STATEMENT

Most of my exhibits consist of mixed media paintings or in some cases, multi-media. The object is to emphasize creativity using several different mediums to achieve my objective which is to give my viewers something different to look at and think about.

Creativity is the power to create, to cause to come into being. A created thing is unique, brought into being by imagination and using unusual techniques and ideas. In my work I try to avoid the commomplace, routine or ordinary. My way of doing this is to use materials not usually used by other artists or by using materials in an unusual way. Such as thin silk fabric, hand painted, inked or dyed myself, different papers I paint myself and anything I can use to embellish the surface of the support I choose, like gels, gesso, organic objects or anything that will make a mark or design and at the same time be archival. I dearly love tactile surfaces!

Creativity is a vital and happy part of my life! I have found that in creating my expressionistic or abstract paintings I am forced to let my imagination have full rein. I must make what if an important part of my creative process yet not let the process itself take over. Sometimes all it takes to start the creative process going is a word, the sound of music, a sight I see, or something someone says and I am off into a world of my own. Sometimes the most obscure thought can send me on an imaginative exploration which results in losing myself in my work. It is when I am lost in my work that I begin to make marks that mean nothing but come from deep within my soul. The joy that comes from such an endeavor is the most sustaining influence in my life and is what I consider making art to be!

Pat Viles