NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
July 21, 2009
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Dee Lee
Public Information Director
Oklahoma Arts Council
(405) 521-2931
anndee@arts.ok.gov
NATURE’S SKETCHBOOK EXHIBITED AT THE STATE CAPITOL
Norman Artist B.J. Wood featured in Governor’s Gallery
Oklahoma City, OK – As a practicing studio artist for more than 30 years, Norman artist B.J. Wood expresses her appreciation and concern for the natural environment through her artwork. Her exhibit, Nature’s Sketchbook, will be on display through September 20th in the Governor’s Gallery, located on the 2nd floor of the State Capitol and open Monday through Friday from 8:30-5:00. Admission is free and exhibits are curated by the Oklahoma Arts Council.
Wood is a mixed media artist which means she incorporates more than one artistic medium to create a single work of art. She attributes her affection for countryside landscape as well as close-up views of nature’s inhabitants to growing up on a farm in central Indiana. “As an artist, my interest in natural history, the environment and its preservation provides motivation for using nature’s discarded items as collectibles in my design process.”
She explained that her intent “is to focus the viewer's attention to this fleeing glimpse of nature as one travels thru the landscape. An unimaginable variety of colors, textures and combinations are provided as creative sources for the artist and observer. As a landscape artist, my visual soul is continually fed by observation of commonplace scenes — a lake, distant trees silhouetted against the sky, farmed land and woods. Both the serenity and force of these scenes are apparent in my work.”
Wood earned a Bachelor of Art with honors from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Fine Art in printmaking and design from the University of Oklahoma. Her work has been exhibited in more than 450 juried and invitational shows throughout the United Stated and abroad and her work is in numerous collections. She has been the recipient of grants, scholarships and numerous jurors' awards. Wood has been involved with the arts as a festival coordinator, curator, museum's assistant preparator and artist-in-residence. She previously taught at the University of Oklahoma and will be teaching at Oklahoma City University in the fall of 2009.
For more information, contact Ann Dee Lee, Public Information Director, Oklahoma Arts Council, (405) 521-2931 or anndee@arts.ok.gov.
ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA ARTS COUNCIL
The Oklahoma Arts Council is a state agency whose mission is to improve lives through the arts by promoting and sustaining the development of a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.
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