Sound + Color
Sound + Color is an art exhibition featuring work from a group of all-female painters that was on display at Stewart’s Caring Place’s Healing Arts Gallery from March through June, 2024. Art x Love planned, curated, and developed the exhibition which also featured an immersive audio experience pairing nature sounds and music with the artwork. Three custom playlists were developed for the occasion, with Art x Love providing disco headsets and free playlist downloads for visitors to enhance and augment their exhibition experience.
“Artwork is like a warm embrace, inviting us into a world of creativity and expression,” says Sarah Vojtek, President & CEO of Stewart’s Caring Place. “It transcends clinical boundaries, touching our hearts and souls. As a local nonprofit, we deeply value partnerships and collaborations, recognizing that art has the power to unite communities and ignite positive change.”
Sound + Color is a celebration of life in art featuring more than 80 original paintings by Julienne Hogarth, Eileen Dorsey, and Meaghan Milner Reed, all artists based in Northeast Ohio. We’d also like to give special thanks to Lisa Rainsong, whose local nature recordings further enhanced this inspiring celebration of art and life.
Click the buttons below to download and listen to the immersive audio mixes we created for the exhibition. Continue scrolling to learn more about each of the featured artists.
Julienne Hogarth - artist statement
A painter born and raised locally, my work is all about capturing the beauty and wonder of nature with a bold, painterly style. Birds, horses and the elements of nature are a constant source of inspiration for me, representing both the delicate and strong aspects of life. I strive to convey a sense of growth and movement in my pieces, using vibrant and colorful palettes to reflect the ever-changing world around us. My process is intuitive, allowing me to tap into my emotions and experiences to create pieces that speak to the heart. My journey is evolving as I explore and celebrate the natural world through my paintings.
Eileen Dorsey - artist statement
Capturing both local landscapes and fantasy scenes in vibrant hues, Eileen Dorsey paints meditative forests of light and color. Dorsey expresses the energy of the places she visits through impressionistic or expressionistic marks. Emphasizing our connection to nature as a healing and rejuvenating experience, Dorsey’s paintings transcend reality to achieve an emotional impact.
Meaghan Milner Reed - artist statement
As an artist I have long been inspired by the natural organic world growing around me. I am perpetually awed by the complexity of design found in a single bloom and struck with wonder and humility at the narrative of the seasons. These systems around us dance in perfect harmony and are dependent upon their rhythm. Within nature there is a hope and solidity found in consistency and order. There is beauty to be found within the intricacy of design that is contingent upon the delicate arrangement. Vibrant color declares goodness and subtle lines offer peace. The life and growth found within the natural world around us is not directed by a series of accidents or coincidences. There is assurance and stability to be found in its cadence. All of this assures me there is something greater to be claimed in this life.
While they are varied, elements of nature’s beauty surround us all. It is universal, global, vast, wide, complete. It is not restricted, limited or exclusive based on wealth, status, age, gender, or ethnicity. This extraordinary aesthetic embraces and blankets our world and all are invited to partake in its splendor. My hope as an artist is that in a world that suffers from pain, loss, fear, anxiety, depression, division, and inequality that this literal common ground would be a place to connect, build relationship and unity despite what can easily separate one human from another.
Abstracting elements of design from nature is where my process begins. Careful study and consideration is taken for each subject I select. The work is not intended to be an exact replication but a feeble impression of its brilliance and complexity. I’m inspired by form, line, color, and repetition. Layers of paint, plexi acrylic and wood are used to create a sense of space both physical and visual. Mimicking the natural secrete spaces found in the undergrowth of the forest floor and grassy fields. While wildflowers are full of color variations and delicate lines I am only able to capture a small portion of their adornment, but it is these tiny details that fuel my concepts and drive me to explore them more closely.
