Local artist to host first hometown art show June 15

Local artist Marty Scharpf will be hosting his first hometown art show called Partially Hydrogenated: A Retrospective on Thursday, June 15 beginning at 6 p.m., at SOFA Art Gallery in historic downtown McAlester.

Scharpf received his bachelor of arts degree in studio arts with a concentration in clay and painting from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and has been living and working in Texas since graduation until recently deciding to move back to his hometown and share his work.

“I have always just done art for myself but now I am at a point where I am ready to share it with an audience and my hometown,” Scharpf said.

Scharpf said the upcoming show will be based on exploring the different styles from Scharpf’s past and present work.

“I painted a lot when I was kid because my grandfather, Ted Welch, was a painter and I would always go into his studio to spend time with him,” Scharpf said. “I always tried to paint realistic things, like he did, until one day I decided I didn’t really like painting that way and so I started basically putting marks on paper instead.”

Scharpf said there is some humor in his work, but also a lot of seriousness.

Scharpf said his influences are Arshile Gorky, an Armenian-American painter, who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism and Wassily Kandinsky, who was a Russian painter and art theorist and was credited with painting one of the first recognized purely abstract works.

“They opened me up to what I am doing now,” Scharpf said. “The feeling or confusion you get from art is what art is about to me.”

Scharpf said he draws his inspiration for his art in everything around him.

“Most of my work comes from everything,” Scharpf said. “Sometimes it comes from an emotion or even inspiration from something silly.”

Scharpf said he might go to McDonald’s and see the play pit and admire its shapes and lines and take inspiration from that and put that into small pieces of his work.

“I think the key is to keep your mind and your eyes open all the time to experience as much as you can because it is getting stored somewhere and comes out when you are working,” Scharpf said.

Scharpf said he wants to give his audience a chance to escape.

“Most of my work is about taking yourself outside of your body,” Scharpf said. “Just stopping and being in that one moment.”

The art show is free to the public and will offer refreshments and live musical entertainment, Scharpf said.

Aside from the upcoming show, Scharpf will be expanding his art presence in McAlester by partnering with Sheryl Potter, owner of The Art Spot, to teach ceramics in early July.

“I feel that giving back to the community is a great thing,” Scharpf said. “I feel like it is very important since art classes are being dropped out of a lot of schools in Oklahoma, to provide this service for a smaller area like McAlester.”

Scharpf said he feels that art is a creative outlet that is used to help express yourself and that it is important for youth to have that outlet, and classes like this offer them that opportunity.

For more information on the June 15 Partially Hydrogenated: A Retrospective art show contact SOFA Art Gallery at 918-820-2424 and for more information on the upcoming ceramics class contact The Art Spot at 918-938-1683 or visit www.theartspotok.com.

Contact Lacey Sudderth at lsudderth@mcalesternews.com

Resource : http://www.mcalesternews.com/news/local-artist-to-host-first-hometown-art-show-june/article_ff483da4-4a57-11e7-b5ab-33a790890e92.html