By: Kelly M. Gross, Director
The Art Association of Jacksonville is pleased announce the opening reception for Anna Repke, Wool Artist and Amy Koch, Mixed Media Artist, to The David Strawn Art Gallery on Saturday, November 6th from 6-8 p.m. “Gallery Talk” by both artists will be held at 6:30 p.m. The opening reception and gallery hours are free and open to the public.
Wool Artist Anna Winette Repke is from Chillicothe, Illinois where she lives with her husband. They have ten children and nineteen grandchildren. Before Repke began making the transition to wool art, she did all kinds of other artwork including oil & acrylic painting, watercolors and anything else she could get her hands on to keep the creative juices flowing. Besides raining children, they also raised and trained Border Collies to herd sheep. During this time, Repke found it frustrating to try to focus on her art work while raising children, running the farm, keeping house and train dogs so unfortunately, she lost the drive to create art.
Years later Repke sold a Border Collie to a fiber artist, who in turn, trained her to make a purse from wool. Repke wondered if she could add colored wool during the process in order to create a picture on it. To her surprise, it worked out beautifully! The transition to making art with wool was an easy one for her; she had finally found her creativity and passion for art once again.
Nature is Repke’s inspiration and natural organic fiber lends itself beautifully to the felted compositions, giving them more depth, textured colors, character and great squiggly details. Currently Repke is teaching wool art workshops throughout the Midwest and in Texas as well as traveling to art shows and galleries.
Amy Koch is currently from Eureka Missouri having grown up in St. Louis where she woke up to the sound of her mother’s sewing machine every morning. As a child Koch loved using any scraps she found from her mother’s crafting room to create items for her beloved vintage dollhouse. When Koch wasn’t inside creating, she was outside climbing trees, on a swing, or off sailing with her father.
In her whimsical creations, Koch captures the innocence of these favorite childhood memories in her shadow box creations. Her adventurous free spirit comes to life with uplifting words and whimsical delight. Koch uses an array of recycled and found items allowing for endless possibilities. She creates using recycled books, maps, sheet music, fabric and cereal boxes. Koch states that she is most fascinated with using paper as she finds its flexibility, texture and weight a joy to work with.
Koch travels all across the country participating in juried art shows year-round. Her love of travel is reflected in her art work. When she is not on the road, Koch cherishes being home with her family enjoying the view around their log cabin and collecting interesting items while hiking around their property.
Koch’s art work reflects her ability to captivate the viewer emotionally and she makes you feel as if you are a part of each scene. You will want to shrink yourself and be inside her work, feel the wonderment and be a kid again.
Gallery hours November 7-28: Sunday 1-3 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday 4-6 p.m.
