The Fine Art Gallery at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Jefferson Davis Campus will host “Adrift,” an art exhibition by Carolyn Busenlener, September 9-October 24. An opening reception will be held on Tuesday, September 10, at 12:30 p.m. in the gallery.
Busenlener, a contemporary expressionistic painter, says she does not begin with preconceived ideas in her painting. “I simply begin with a large gestural stroke using one color, usually black or Payne’s grey. At this moment, intuition, love, desire and experience take over. When in this dream-like space, I give way to the process. Eventually, shapes and movement are developed further. Color choices are made. Regardless of the results, the painting takes me to a new and unexpected destination.”
She said that her works in “Adrift” seem to float. “My emotional responses to life’s experiences and my love of nature have inspired this series. An unconscious tendency is to allude to a grid composition in many of these paintings. Sometimes I fight this tendency by covering up most of the grid in the next layer of paint. Multiple layers of paint are applied, but sometimes wash layers are still evident.”
Originally from New Orleans, Busenlener now lives in Pearlington, Miss., where she has her studio. Several galleries in Mississippi and Louisiana exhibit her work. She is presently a featured artist at the Side Porch Gallery in Biloxi. A recipient of a 2013 Visual Arts Fellowship and a 2014 mini-grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission, Busenlener used the awarded funds in part to create the paintings in this exhibit.
The Jefferson Davis Campus Fine Art Gallery is open Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., and Friday, 9 a.m.-noon. For more information about the “Adrift” art exhibition, contact Sandra Halat, gallery director, at 228-897-3909, or Matt Steadman, gallery co-director 228-897-3736.
Artist Carolyn Busenlener