Charcuterie tray. Tori Motyl, artist
Woolworth Walk will highlight artists Laura Sheridan and Tori Motyl in a joint show, Color Delectables, in the FW Gallery for the month of May. Motyl, a ceramicist, and Sheridan, a fine artist, both create their work with bold, playful colors. “Tori’s work is used as vessels for food and my work is paintings of fruits and vegetables,” says Sheridan. “We came up with the name because our work is colorfully delicious together.”
Sheridan’s watercolor paintings in Color Delectables were inspired by the simplicity of daily life and how it can be transformed with deeper examination. “I was drawn to fresh fruit and vegetables because of their luscious colors and fascinating details,” she says. “I selected interesting produce with fun leaves and elegant shapes. It was important to me to drop into my play mode while I painted in the hopes of depicting that in the finished piece.”
Motyl also created a fresh body of work for the show, exploring new ways of applying color to her ceramic forms. “I have been particularly inspired by the traditional form of maiolica over the last year,” she says. “Maiolica is a technique that involves painting various colors onto a glazed but unfired pot. Once in the kiln, the glaze liquefies and pulls the colorant into itself, trapping the painted images within the glass wall. Experimenting with this technique has allowed me to explore different painted patterns that mirror and accentuate the clay forms.”
Woolworth Walk is at 25 Haywood Street in downtown Asheville. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call 828.254.9234 or visit WoolworthWalk.com.
