Rarely do we get an opportunity to explore how the creative impulse unfolds between two generations. The Alliance Art Gallery showcases guest artist/photographer Art McConnell and his mother, member artist Mary Ann Brinkley at their opening reception on Second Saturday, August 13, from 5:00 – 8:00 PM.

One of the most prized aspects for a photographer is to experience and record intoxicating scenery, unusual moments, creative cross-sections of life. Photographer Art McConnell, as a concert rigger, travels the world supporting such groups as Lady Antebellum, Usher, Seal, Miley Cyrus, Widespread Panic, JLO, Alicia Keys, and Bruno Mars. Anything suspended in the air—lights, audio, video—hangs safely because of a concert rigger. With more than 50 countries on his passport, he offers an extraordinary and wide range of images allowing the viewer to be drawn into the wonder, mystery, and magic of our planetary home.

Being a concert rigger on location hardly leaves much time for sightseeing. One might call McConnell’s images “Through the Looking Glass” … scenes snapped from hotel or airplane windows. On one flight, half dazed with sleep, he glanced out his window, realized the wing silhouetted against the setting sun seemed amazing, picked up his camera—and “click”—began a journey of capturing the world on the run. In Turkey, where the hotel looks like the Kremlin. In Brazil, where a monumental statue of Jesus overlooks this year’s Olympics. As he expresses it, ”Always in my heart I have known that I must see, do, explore, and experience. We have one life here on Earth and this world is truly amazing: the cultures, the traditions, the people, the terrain, the beauty. All that we encounter along the way creates our unique and irreplaceable life experience.

Not surprising, his mother Mary Ann Brinkley, explores every artistic medium from photography to oil, acrylic, pastel, and watercolor. It began by watching her grandmother Coder paint Rocky Mountain vistas and intimate scenes of nature. One day, with a new camera in hand, she trained her eye to capture images which stood on their own merit, or evolved into oil or watercolor paintings.

Art uses the world and camera as his palette; Mary Ann explores medium and image. In Mary Ann’s art, you will see a whimsical duck jumping off a diving board—a cute ball of yellow fluff that always makes you laugh. Or Hobbit-small people living on a majestic tree. Then there are her beautiful vistas, charming animals, fall-leaved paths, school buses waiting for children. If there is a common thread within her diverse work, it is heart-warmth. Her works create a glow.
Perhaps what Art and his mother share is a profound belief that life should be explored through a wide variety of visual experiences.

Come to the Second Saturday opening reception, August 13, 5:00 – 8:00 PM. Explore for yourself the infusion of creativity between two generations, two lifestyles, two expressions of our world. This reception is free and artwork by Mary Ann will be given away at 6:00.