A Real Jewel
The
Summit’s premier juried
art show returns to Louisville
Award-winning
jewelry designer
Needham to appear
By
Helen E. McKinney
Contributing Writer
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (June 2011) – Mark Needham exhibits
at 11 to 18 juried art shows a year, and is always impressed by the
other artists he meets and the diversity of their work. But few can
measure up to his one-of-a-kind jewelry in all of its geometric shapes,
sizes and overall aesthetic quality.
“My forms are very geometric utilizing circles, squares and triangles
of many materials alone or in combinations. They are simple, yet bold,”
said Needham, who grew up in Knoxville, Tenn.
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Photo
provided Mark
Needham now |
“I approach each piece of jewelry as a work of art,”
he said. “What I’ve learned in the years I have spent designing
everything from houses as an architect, to wooden games as a woodworker,
is reflected in everything I make.”
Needham will be one of 150 local and regional artists participating
in the juried 4th Annual Louisville Festival of the Arts at the Summit
on June 11-12 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. This free outdoor art gallery
will feature live music and interactive art activities for children.
This event makes the arts accessible to a broad audience, with prices
for all budgets ranging from $25 hand-designed earrings to $20,000 metal
sculptures. The event is presented by Howard Alan Events, which has
produced some of the nation’s finest juried art shows for the past
25 years.
Needham, 61, moved to Louisville in 1972. He earned a Bachelor of Architecture
Degree with Honors from the School of Architecture, University of Tennessee
at Knoxville, and is an Estes Kefauver Scholarship recipient with a
concentration in Fine Arts.
When it comes to designing jewelry, Needham said “knowledge and
experience build upon and enhance each other no matter where garnered,
and are forever linked. The process of design is meant to solve a problem,
and the steps one follows must be grounded by both purpose and process.”
Needham selects gems not typically found at commercial jewelry stores
in terms of type, shape and cut. “I appreciate and utilize minerals
as well,” he said.
In addition to natural gemstones and minerals, he makes jewelry in a
style he has labeled “metalfiori”, named after millefiori
Italian glass. His work is distinguished by the inclusion of a variety
of metal tubes set in plain or color resin, or in combination with grains
of colored glass and/or other materials in an array of patterns and
colors.
“There’s always something for every taste and pocketbook at
Howard Alan and all the other shows I attend. Craft festivals give people
the opportunity to literally visit over a hundred galleries in one afternoon,”
said Needham.
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Photos
provided Artist
Lonnie Comb’s wood |
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Lonnie Combs also plans to participate in the show. He
is another diverse Louisville artist whose talent is in wood turning.
He crafts pepper mills, pens, art sculpture, vases, hollow forms and
bowls.
“No two are the same,” said Combs, 62, of his work. “Every
heirloom quality mill is an original signed and numbered piece of art.”
Combs is a self-taught wood turner. As a child he made Indian style
bows and arrows, sling shots, spears and knives out of wood, and at
age 15 began carving wood sculptural items. He received a Bachelor of
Science in Industrial Arts from Eastern Kentucky University.
Originally from Eastern Kentucky, Combs makes every item from local
Kentucky hardwoods. What inspires him when creating a piece of artwork
is “the fact that I influence power over natural material in that
I start with a less than perfect piece of wood and ultimately overpower
it with my influence of design by tooling and applying a gallery finish
to an item that will serve many future generations.”
Combs participates in about a dozen art shows a year. This will be the
first time he has exhibited in the Louisville Festival of the Arts at
the Summit.
“This show is certainly high on my list in that it attracts large
numbers of high-end buyers because it is already recognized by many
locals as Louisville’s most selective show in that only the finest
quality nationwide artists are invited.”
• For more information, call (954) 472-3755 or email info@artfestival.com or visit: www.ArtFestival.com.