No. 31: Constance Grayson - Pictures at an Exhibition

As a young girl growing up in Kentucky, Constance Grayson was drawn to and influenced by traditional handcrafts. She learned traditional quilting techniques from her Appalachian aunts and was fascinated, even as a young child, with the interplay of color, form and texture. Although she no longer utilizes the traditional techniques she learned as a child, she is still fascinated with the process of creating something from bits and pieces of the almost nothings that she comes across. Most of her work utilizes techniques of collage to create a new whole from these bits and pieces. Her work results from the bringing together of handmade paper, commercial paper, and found objects with additions of paint and ink.

​Constance's interest has always been in color, form and texture and the ways in which those three elements interact with one another. She does not strive to have her finished work resemble any object or person in a realistic way. Instead, she wants to see whether she can successfully create energy and mood through the colors, forms and textures she uses in the piece.

Her work has been displayed in U.S. galleries, museums and exhibits in Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, including academic institutions in New York (St. John’s University), Arkansas (Crittenden County Community College) and Tennessee (Christian Brothers University). She has participated in international solo and invitational exhibits in Fabriano, Gubbio, Milan and Foligno, Italy as well as Spa, Belgium. One of her fabric collages was the cover image for, as well as the subject of an article in, the August/September 2014 edition of Quilting Arts magazine. Her art has also been featured in the May/June 2015 edition of Kentucky Home and Gardens magazine and the March 2010 issue of ArteCulture, an Italian monthly magazine. Currently, her art is in the permanent collections of Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee; the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky; Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, Kentucky; LeBonheur Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee and the Jessamine County Public Library, Nicholasville, Kentucky as well as in numerous private collections.

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION - New Editions Gallery until mid July 2024
This is an interpretive art exhibition based on Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition. Listening to each of the 10 movements and the recurring and varied Promenade theme, Constance created 15 energetic abstracts depicting her reaction to Mussorgsky's virtuoso masterpiece. 

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