FEATURED ARTIST EXHIBIT
EXHIBIT DATES: October 2 – 26, 2025
Opening Reception: Sunday, October 5 I 3 – 5 pm
Works by Rhea Giroux & Lea Watson
Our exhibit was planned for a simple reason: ART NEEDS TO BE SHOWN. Too much art lies in bins and in back yards. We believe that the very special creative drive of the human race calls upon all of us to be portals for manifesting forms that uplift, calm, inspire and balance us, the humans.
The human collective unconscious continually moves on. It is our task to be in touch with it via dreams, daydreams, Nature, meditations, active imagination, and the doing of art itself. We use collage, abstract doodling, and dreamwork among other things to be in touch with the current images of our time and of mythological time. We hope you enjoy this show.
RHEA GIROUX:
Although I did take studio art and history of art at UW-Madison, traveled extensively and saw much of Western art, it was the fabulous art of the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas that made me want to learn ceramic sculpting. I began at the studio of Laurent Merchant of Sonoma in the 80’s, but I wanted to learn to work larger; I saw at her Open Studio in 1994 that Coeleen Kiebert could teach me.
In 2004 I established a complete home studio. In 2008 I produced a month-long one-woman show off-site of more than 35 works, and have shown in dozens of exhibitions locally.
I was trained in ballet and classical music, but at age 12, I discovered sculpture–at the Milwaukee Art Museum–Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Degas, Brancusi, Moore, Giacametti, Hepsorth. The years passed and I was intrigued by the Abstract Expressionists, who trusted the unconscious, and broke into it for inspiration: Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock, Carl Jung, Henri Laurens, and many others.
We have both been influenced by the philosophy and work of Coeleen Kiebert of Rio del Mar. The collective unconscious moves on, according to the myths and situations of mankind. Our job is to stay in touch with it via dreams, collages, and doing spontaneous art.
LEA WATSON:
I have the great good fortune of being a long-time student of Coeleen Kiebert. About 35 years ago I took her Art and Spirit class at UCSC and have studied with her ever since.
Art offers me truth about my life and my culture that I know no other way of accessing. It offers me a way of embracing and expressing that truth. Art asks that I engage it with all of myself – heart, mind, body, and spirit. I know of nothing else that asks as much of me.
Viktor Frankl said, “…the world is in a bad state, but everything will become still worse unless each of us does his/her best.” He suggests that doing our best is to respond fully and responsibly to the life we have been given. This cannot be done without the wisdom of the Unconscious. This wisdom comes to me in dreams, in visions, in the words of songs I find myself singing, in unexpected things that happen, by creating and progressing personal collages, and in the dialogue I have with my art as I am creating it.
Click on the first image to take a virtual tour through the exhibit. By clicking on an image, you will find its title and price listed below the image.
