JANUARY EXHIBITION
Encaustic Paintings by Rachael Sitzman
Reception: Friday, Jan. 13th, 5:30 - 7:00pm 

A Piece of Work, Inc. is pleased to announce encaustic artist Rachael Sitzman, of Sioux Rapids, IA, as January’s Exhibition Cove Artist!  A reception will be held for Rachael on Friday, January 13th, from 5:30 – 7:00pm.  She will give an artist’s talk at around 6:10pm that night.
 
As an only child Rachael was left playing by herself quite a bit.  “I didn’t have any imaginary friends that I can recall,” she said.  “But I was pretty creative, since I had to play alone.  Most of the weekends I spent on Grandpa and Grandma Siekman’s farm I was an adventurer, fighting evil-doers, that sort of thing.”  When she wasn’t busy saving the world, she could be found reading fantasy and mystery novels.  As she grew from a child into an adult she refocused her imaginary world into her art.
 
In 2008, Rachael settled on a career choice.  It wasn’t as a veterinarian like she thought she would be when she was a child, but a role more suited to her imagination and creativity: an art teacher.  She finished her Associate of Arts degree at Iowa Central Community College and transferred to Buena Vista University in Storm Lake.
 
While attending college at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, IA, she took a number of classes that helped to shape her work today, including encaustic (painting with wax) and a creative writing class. “They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but a thousand words isn’t enough to describe what I see in the old photos I’ve found while traveling to antique shops around the Midwest. The people in their fancy clothes (and living in times I cannot fathom living in) call to me, almost like they are begging for me to create a story for them to live on in.”
           
Rachael was at an antique shop in Spencer when the idea to use old photographs in her art first struck her.  “It was the idea that someone had thrown away someone that they didn’t know, the idea that someday a photo of me will be thrown away when I’m no longer remembered.” It was a concept that was disturbing to her and the thought would nag at her until she began expressing it through her artwork.
 
Shortly after her first show held at the Buena Vista University Gallery, Rachael’s feelings about the photos she had bought at varies antique shops around the Midwest changed. “My attitude has changed from that of mourning their passing into the forgotten, to celebrating their rebirth into the world!”
 
Rachael’s reception will be held at a Piece of Work, Inc. (located at 1619 Hill Avenue, in the historic Walker Motor Company Building in Olde Town Spirit Lake) on Friday, January 13th, from 5:30 – 7:00pm.  There will be food and drink, friends and fellow art lovers, and at about 6:10pm Rachael will be giving a talk about her work.

EXHIBITION SERIES
In an effort to provide an opportunity for Member Artists and Non-Member Artists to display their work and gain additional exposure, we are offering a special exhibition series to present their works to the general public at the Emporium of Original Art. A special area within the gallery has been dedicated as the “Exhibition Cove”. The artist exhibitions will be for one calendar month.
We are currently accepting applications for months in 2012. If you are interested please visit the For Artists page for more information, or email apieceofworkinc@gmail.com.

EXHIBITION COVE SCHEDULE
January: Rachael Sitzman - Encaustic/Mixed Media  
April: Photography Exhibit in conjunction with Nation Crime Victim Rights Week
May: Karess Knudtson - Mixed Media/Photography
June: Avis Davis & Dan Ruf - Paintings and Nature Photography
July: Nick VonOhlen - Wildlife Photography
August: Denice Peters - Pastels
September: Joel Lueck - 3-D Rendering and Pen & Ink
October: Jennifer Samuels-Tewes - Nature Photography 
November: Glenda Drennen - Watercolor
December: Rhonda Saunders - Pencil Drawings