Local studio opens gallery featuring works from 13 area artists
Aug. 8—HUNTSVILLE — Lucky Bat Studio is helping artists share their passions with the community through the group show, "Anything Goes," featuring the current works of 13 artists from around the region, roughly a third of which call Huntsville home.
"It's good for artists to see their work up outside of the comfort of their studio at home. You learn a lot about your work when it goes public," gallery owner Nancy McGalliard said.
The group show is an invigorating relief for one of the artists, as he nearly lost the drive to pursue shows and exhibitions throughout the hiatus of the pandemic.
Todd Stevens is an award-winning artist who also serves as the art department chair at Huntsville High School. An oil painter by trade, Stevens' work has been exhibited all over the world, with current exhibits in Dallas, in addition to three pieces currently being shown in "Anything Goes."
"My work is a little bit of everything, I mainly try to incorporate things that I see in my daily life and things that I want to add to the picture to tell the story," Stevens said, noting that he finds inspiration in street signs and graffiti.
"I look at a lot of that stuff like I'm trying to preserve it because it's not going to be around forever and I try to get a sense of culture from the things I see around in the city of Huntsville," Stevens said.
His largest piece, "Cell Numbers", immediately draws attention to all that enters the gallery, positioned at the center of one of the elongated walls. Inspired by a graffiti mural hidden in the downtown square, a portrait of an inmate serves as the focus point, with a series of large numbers hovering over a radiant purple streak that Stevens saw on a garbage can near the original mural.
"The whole thing was very haunting to me with the garbage can in the background with the numbers and I wanted it to kind of represent the number of that inmate which was kind of already done on the mural," Stevens said.
The portrait is one of the graffiti mural artist himself, and Stevens hopes that someone at the gallery will recognize him and be able to tell him more about his muse.
One of two smaller paintings, "2 Breakfast Tacos", explores the juxtaposition of city scooters against unique city signs and wall art. Across the gallery, "Blue State" shows a child overlooking the beautiful landscape of the grand canyon in Arizona while standing dangerously close to a ledge. The latter is neighbored by fellow Huntsville-based artist Juda Myers' spiritual works of "Faith, Hope and Love".
Myers has led a professional career creating murals and decorative paintings in the Houston area for 20 years, followed by 10 years running her own non-profit helping females who have become pregnant after rape. Now, answering the call of her creativity, she's returning to the art scene and stepping into the gallery world with her first show at Lucky Bat Studio.
"I decided to do more things with meaning, so the three pieces that I have here, I had just completed and it's "faith," "hope" and "love" written in Hebrew and done with gold leaf," Myers said, adding that she draws inspiration from her spirituality and God's creations, finding fulfillment in her roles as both creation and creator.
"Art is not just something you throw in a canvas, I think a lot of it goes very deep in each artist's soul to put what's inside of them out there," Myers said.
The three paintings, hung vertically in a descending row, feature gold leaf Hebrew lettering that pays homage to the bible's original language at the center of colorful backdrops. Behind the focal point, gold scripture verses are written across in ordinary lettering.
"All of the lettering isn't perfect, but my concept is that a perfect being created us imperfect and he perfects us, so the imperfect lettering was done on purpose," Myers explained.
At the top of the series, Faith shows a shadowed silhouette of Christ walking on torrential water, created from tissue paper to add texture. Below, Hope depicts the symbolic dove and olive branch through the use of decoupage, a technique of gluing paper cutouts to a piece with special paint effects, while Love focuses solely on the wording.
McGalliard's own work is featured as well, her large four-panel series depicting stalactites and stalagmites as body tissue in rich hues of crimson and royal blue.
The group show reception is scheduled to be held in conjunction with the Huntsville Downtown Business Alliance Sip N' Shop event on Aug. 14 and will allow the community the chance to enjoy the art, while getting to meet the artists behind their favorite pieces.
"Anything Goes" is a family-friendly show and will be available for viewing through Aug. 28 at Lucky Bat Studio, open Tuesday through Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m. at 1215 Sam Houston Avenue in downtown Huntsville.
