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Mary Ann Casey, former Trojan and oft exhibiting artist at the Johnson Center for the Arts, will join Scott Vaughn Owen as the featured artists at the Southern Expressionists Exhibit at the Ebsco Fine Art Gallery in Columbiana.

The public is invited to the gallery opening reception from 6 until 8 p.m. Thursday. The Southern Expressionists Exhibit will close on October 1. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.

“In the South, we have often only considered art that reflects our culture and way of life in a realistic manor,” Owen said. “We have typically looked upon art as a reflection that we find easy to understand. Expressionist art conveys emotion and learning rather than reality. This show will consist of art and artists that are willing to bring a new approach to how we view our ‘southerness.’” 

Casey said, early in her life as a painter, she felt she was to do realism.

“The professor of my college clay class said to me, ‘a camera does realism and showed me work by Warhol,” Casey said. He challenged me to think differently about how I looked at reality. I didn’t get it then. The same professor told me I couldn’t be an artist and have two children…I didn’t tell him I was pregnant with my third. So, I studied English, but art continue to churn in my spirit.

“I listen now to how I feel about a subject and most of what I paint is soul birthed. Expressionism is emotion and meaning rather than reality. Art is stepping over fear and society’s expectations and letting the work birth itself.  I work primarily with acrylics on canvas but love experimenting with found objects, nature and other mediums.”

Casey said Owen is multi-talented and does amazing work.

“Scott Owen is multi-talented and does amazing artwork,” Casey said. “He is an expressionist and some of his work is precise cubism. He works in most mediums.  He is a well-known sign painter and will be doing murals. What people say about Scott is ‘if you don’t like Scott Vaughn Owen then you don’t like anyone.’ He’s a man of peace and equality.”

Casey and Owen invite everyone to come to the Southern Expressionists Exhibit and see what energy mixed with talent and a need for self-expression look and feel like