Corinth Artist Guild
Gallery
507 Cruise Street
Historic downtown
Corinth, MS. 38834

Gallery hours:
Tuesday-Saturday
10 am - 4 pm

Need directions?
Click here

Phone numbers:
662-665-0520
662-415-2688

This gallery is a 501c3
Corp non-profit.

February 2009 Featured Art

Local artist brings unique perspective to art
By Jebb Johnston
Daily Corinthian Staff Writer

When it comes to art, it's personal for Jaylene Whitehurst.
Don't expect to find landscapes, portraits and still life paintings in her new exhibit at the Corinth Artist Guild Gallery. Instead, the gallery is littered with pieces of her heart.
"My work is about the connection between human beings and the role that art can play in that," said Whitehurst. "What matters to me is what snippet of that resonates with you. For me, artwork is not complete until it's shared. The arts have that capacity in a way that nothing else does to open up the heart."
The gallery at 507 Cruise Street will host an opening reception with Whitehurst Sunday from 2 until 4 p.m. The exhibit runs through Feb. 28. Her mixed media paintings strongly emphasize the tactile and interactive by incorporating things such as feathers, playing cards, old buttons still in their packaging and pages from a copy of the novel "Ordinary People." She uses acrylic paint and plenty of gel medium.
"I'm not really interested in drawing a picture," said Whitehurst, whose therapy practice is The HeARTwork Center for Creative Living. "I used to do a lot of watercolors of people's houses. I'm not drawn to that at this point. This is what speaks to me now." And the inspiration comes from the heart -- it's no accident that her exhibit falls in the month of February.
"I make art to process the past, to more fully live in the present and to create what's next," she said. "I start with something that resonates with me."
Several pieces prominently feature doilies, and they are part of a series she thinks of as "Mississippi Mandalas." They speak to her changing roles as a woman in the South. The inspiration came from a project she did in graduate school focusing on different cultures.
"Everybody else was coming at isolating one culture," said Whitehurst. "I came from the angle of where do we connect, what do we have in common. I couldn't come across a culture that didn't have some kind of symbolism that was done in a circle. As human beings, we seem to be drawn to circles, the wholeness, oneness, whatever that unity is."
Her images are highly autobiographical and, with the various ingredients, the creative process becomes "a wonderful mess."
"They don't happen quickly," said Whitehurst. "I work as far as I know what to do, and I set them aside. Then, at some point, something clicks and I know what needs to happen next."
Creativity has been a lifelong interest for her. She recalled, as a child, "getting the shoebox and making the diorama with Captain Kangaroo."
In contrast to the mixed media works, the exhibit includes a number of collages that were inspired by childhood experiences.
"These came from a time when I went back and was thinking about what I enjoyed doing as a child," said Whitehurst, who holds a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Mississippi. "One of my grandmothers always got the Sears Roebuck catalog. I would take that catalog and I would cut out the beds and the curtains and the models and the lamps" and put them together.
"I didn't know then I was creating these new little surplus realities." Guild President Sonny Boatman said the exhibit shows quite an evolution from Whitehurst's earlier work with more traditional watercolors while retaining a distinct poetic expression.
The newer work "involves memory and self-discovery and more depth as she has increased in experience as a person and as an artist," he said. "I think the collection hangs together well."
Whitehurst especially enjoys helping others express themselves through art -- or, as she puts it, to help others "cut and paste and smear their own story."
She said her art is a continuing process of discovery.
"I continue to learn from what I've done," said Whitehurst. "I hope that when I draw my last breath I'm still learning from what I've done and from what people connect with."
Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; phone (662) 665-0520 for more information.
• Visit Jaylene's web site here.

Buy her art below ...

Buy art using PayPal Purchase artwork on this web site using PayPal. *Charges will show from Mississippi Art Sales, LLC. *Shipping costs are NOT included. *After purchase is paid, please contact the artist guild at 662-415-2688. Buy art by phone Call 662-665-0520 or 662-415-2688 for details. Mississippi Mandala 48"x36" collage canvas $2,000 To purchase, please contact 662-665-0520. Mississippi Mandala II 48"x24" collage canvas $2,000 To purchase, please contact 662-665-0520. Spiral Healing 46"x37" framed, 29"x39" camvas $2,000 To purchase, please contact 662-665-0520.

 

Gallery phone numbers: 662-665-0520 or 662-415-2688