An opening reception will be held 7 p.m. Friday for “My Arte,” a solo exhibit by artist Norma Velasquez-Frink at Rail Walk Studios and Gallery.
Velasquez-Frink is an artist, teacher, and dancer, born in Venezuela and now living in Salisbury. She did her undergraduate work in painting and sculpture in Caracas, Venezuela.
She has taken art courses at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the New York Academy of Arts.
Her work has been exhibited in Venezuela and North Carolina, winning prizes in shows at St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg and at Rowan Cabarrus Community College.
Velasquez-Frink’s art has also been displayed at Stork Gallery, UNCC Charlotte, Green Door Gallery in Kannapolis, Escape the Daily Grind and the Rail Walk Studios.
Her work has been sold in Toulouse, France,New York, Caracas and Salisbury.
She says, “My fascination with the human form takes me to see it in every thing in nature. As I watch some trees I see the human form in anguish or in ecstasy.I find trees defiantly and unabashedly sexy, openly and serenely natural in their love.
“Some of their branches appear to me like bodies in an eternal embrace.I see in trees the oneness of humans with everything in the universe. The allusions to the entire rainbow of human’s feelings are central to what drives my artistic vision.”
The current exhibit will include a unique installation, with images of dancers projected onto diaphanous fabric panels.
The dancers were filmed as images of dancers were projected onto their bodies ó and those dancers had images projected onto them as well, giving the work a remarkable continuum.
Velasquez-Frink wrote this poem to accompany the video work:
From Her Center
From a speck of light in her center
swirling with Joy and Hope
She comes forth
wrapped in red veils.
Creating images and letting them distort and transform,
and in that creative process of surrendering…
becoming part of birthing a dream.”Poetry is an inseparable part of my art work, says Velasquez-Frink.”I read poetry to get inspired. I paint and sculpt and get inspired to write.”
The show will run at Rail Walk Studios and Gallery, 409 N. Lee St., through Aug. 30.
For more information, call 704-431-8964.