The Gallery At MCCC Presents DOUBLE VISION Art Exhibit

The Gallery at Mercer County Community College presents its latest art exhibition titled "Double Vision," featuring the works of Jamie Greenfield and Madelaine Shellaby.

The show runs through December 9 with an opening reception and "Conversation With The Artists" Q&A session on Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. at the West Windsor Campus Gallery located at 1200 Old Trenton Road. Gallery Director, Alice K. Thompson, is curator for the exhibition. The public is invited.

"Double Vision" is a collaborative project between artists, Jamie Greenfield of Lawrenceville and Madelaine Shellaby of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania.

The two artists discovered they had both been working in a stream of consciousness way. As Greenfield described, "We are looking inward to memory, and outward to the immediate environment for subject matter. The resulting drawings and digital montages reflect a common vision of fields of energy and awareness: what may be seen, felt, and known."

Thompson found it interesting that each of the artists had no preconceived notion of what the work was actually going to be prior to its completion. "Despite differing styles, their respective practices are similar in the manner in which they construct a composition," she said.

"Additionally," Thompson said, "integrating the works rather than showing them separately, albeit under a common title, allows the viewer to examine similarities in process and draw conclusions of their own about 'Double Vision.'"

Madelaine Shellaby explained the process behind her collaboration with Jamie Greenfield and how their compositions grow and develop.

Shellaby said, "My 'Double Vision' exhibition partner Jamie Greenfield and I discovered we have recently been working in much the same way -- we build our complex drawings one object at a time."

Shellaby detailed the process that culminates in the pair's finished works.

"Our images can be said to be self-generating," she said. "Most artists will say that they develop a dialogue with their work, put one mark on the page, and then a second mark has to be invented to be in concert with the first one. And thus the composition grows."

Shellaby explained how she composes her digital montages in the same way.

"I begin with an object, most often with a still life in mind; I choose from an array of objects I own and scan them into Photoshop, or I scan a portion of one of my paintings or drawings or photographs or ceramic pieces," she said. "I have scanned plants and flowers grown in my garden. I play with and adjust and edit and build with these elements on the computer screen until the composition becomes complete. As far as content is concerned, I choose an object for its symbolic or metaphorical meaning. I enjoy placing disparate objects next to each other towards unexpected narratives," Shellaby said.

Shellaby began her daily drawing practice during the pandemic with with no specific result in mind.

"I drew an object and then another one and another one, but each object had to feel right with what had been drawn before," she said. "This was the constant and familiar process of being in conversation with the work as it progressed and Jamie evidently was doing the same; hence this show."

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