On March 5, exhibitors Audrey Dowling and Margaret “Megan” Urban will be featured in the first of four Salons presented in conjunction with the Women Create juried exhibit of women’s art. The Salons will be 7-9 p.m. every Wednesday in March at the 3rd on 3rd Gallery in downtown Jamestown. Pictured here is Dowling’s stoneware “Blue Jay Energy.”

JAMESTOWN – If you’ve ever wondered what the artist was pondering when she created her work, Women Create is offering an opportunity for you to find out.

Every Wednesday evening in March, Salons will feature artists whose works are on display at Women Create, the biennial juried exhibit of women’s art in Jamestown, New York. The presenters will give brief talks about their work, interspersed with questions, answers, and conversation.

The Salons will be 7-9 p.m. at the 3rd on 3rd Gallery, 116 East Third Street, next to Reg Lenna Center for the Arts in downtown Jamestown.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5

On Wednesday, March 5, the first Salon of the series will spotlight Audrey Dowling and Margaret “Megan” Urban.

Dowling, who is exhibiting her stoneware “Blue Jay Energy,” has been a professional artist for 30 years. Her work is widely collected and is represented in collections throughout the world.

“Sometimes I feel like the water of Bemus Creek stills flows through me,” says Dowling. “My father and I would talk about the trees, the plants, the woods flowers, the birds, the animals and the people who came before. It gave me a deep understanding of the importance of stewardship and passion for preserving the earth’s natural beauty. I try to convey these feelings through my art.”

Margaret “Megan” Urban has a pair of works on display at Women Create. Entitled “Teak” and “Orange,” both use pigment, wax and gold leaf on lead, steel and wood.

Urban explains, “The Teak and Orange Shots were 3.8 megaton nuclear weapons exploded over the Marshall Islands as part of the 1958 Hardtack 1 test series. According to declassified reports from Los Alamos National Labs, [these explosions] were conducted even though there was a very real question that they might burn a hole in the ozone layer. The diagrams inscribed into the surfaces of the paintings had profound effect on scientific discovery, and this knowledge became the foundation for our understanding of the universe and for the splitting of the atom in the atomic bomb.”

ABOUT WOMEN CREATE

Gallery hours for Women Create will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Friday. Private viewings may be scheduled by calling (716) 664-2465, ext. 227. The exhibit, featuring the work of 34 artists, as well as the Salons and opening reception, is open to the public free of charge.

Women Create will close on SWAN Day, Saturday, March 29. SWAN Day, which stands for Support Women Artists Now, is an annual event held on the last Saturday in March, Women’s History Month. First celebrated in 2008, it is an international holiday designed to showcase the power and diversity of women’s creativity.

Artist and instructor Debra Eck and photographer Jennifer Schlick are creative directors for Women Create, a community-minded, volunteer-run initiative to support and celebrate women artists by mounting a juried exhibit every other year.

Women Create is presented in cooperation with the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts and sponsored by the Cattaraugus County Arts Council, Infinity Visual and Performing Arts, and Quick Solutions.

For more information, visit www.womencreate.org.