Two artists featured in Children’s Museum exhibit

Artists Marta Goebel-Pietrasz and Pat Clapsaddle will exhibit their art works in a show titled “Five Corners” Sept. 5 through Oct. 1 at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. The opening reception will be from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, in Imagination Gallery at the museum, 461 W. Outer Dr., Oak Ridge.

The “Five Corners” refer to five groups of works the artists will be exhibiting. In four corners of the gallery, Goebel-Pietrasz will exhibit mixed media works on paper as one group and three groups of photographs of cats, flora and mountains.

Clapsaddle’s painted clay creations will include platters, bowls, vases, cups, mugs and servers, all telling a story in visual form with themes related to people, places, animals and fish. They will represent the fifth corner, in five showcases in the gallery’s center. Many of her designs are from her own photographs, and she uses reference materials to paint animals and birds on her clay pieces.

Goebel-Pietrasz considers herself a painter and print maker and initially did not intend to show her photographs.

“Photography is not my primary or preferred medium, but at some point in my life, I felt like I needed to start documenting what I saw around me,” she said. She also recently returned to the University of Tennessee in a master’s program for mental health counseling, leaving her less time for drawing.

Her mixed media works show that she likes to play with reality, “twisting and changing it a little,” she said. One group of photos is focused on her observations of her four cats. Photographs of flowers and mountains come from her annual trips to Colorado, where she enjoys hiking and observing how trails change in different lighting or when flowers are blooming.

Clapsaddle, who has worked in some form of clay since high school, is exhibiting recent work from a graduate class in majolica painting techniques at the University of Indiana. Majolica refers to clay pieces covered with an opaque glaze, then decorated on the glaze before firing.

“I hand craft my own works, using wheel throwing and hand-building techniques, paint them with the majolica glazes, then draw back into the surface using a sgraffito technique,” Clapsaddle explained.

Clapsaddle produces one-of-a-kind art works in black majolica at her studio in Sharps Chapel. A retired art teacher who received the Outstanding Art Educator Award from the Ohio Art Education Association, she received her BFA degree from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s in education from Kent State University. She has done post graduate work in painting and clay.  She is a member of the Potters Council, Foothills Craft Guild, Appalachian Arts and Crafts Center, and Terra Madre Potters.  Her works have been displayed across the country and are in private collections.

Goebel-Pietrasz started her art training at the Art School in Gdynia and Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland. She holds a BFA in Studio Art (concentration in printmaking) from UT and is currently pursuing a master’s degree there. She is a member of the Oak Ridge Art Center, Arts and Culture Alliance in Knoxville, has taken part in about 40 art exhibitions and taught art classes in her home studio. She has been living in the United States since 1995.

For more information, call the museum at (865) 482-1074 or see the Children’s Museum web site at www.childrensmuseumofoakridge.org.