Getting There by Julie Crews

TAKE OFF ON A SUMMER ROAD TRIP WITH JULIE CREWS’ SOLO EXHIBITION GETTING THERE

There’s nothing laid back about summer in the city at artspace.  Julie Crews is kicking off possibly the most unique and personally revealing exhibition she has mounted to date, and six of Northwest Louisiana’s busiest artists are setting up shop to show you just how the canvas is covered, the photo is captured or the fabric is finished.  Even before summer formally kicks off, and while the barbecues are still cooling down from the Memorial Day Weekend, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council invites you to hit the road with Julie Crews’ solo exhibition, “GETTING THERE,” hear local musical trio Twang Darkly, and watch how the magic happens with Artists John Daniel, Kirsi-Marja Hardy, Madeline Marak, Paige, Powell, Sherry Tamburo and Mike Torma in six summer artspace ARTISTS STUDIOS Thursday, May 31 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

“Getting There” for Julie Crews takes the viewer deeper into relationship with the people and the places in her paintings.  It’s a very different solo show for Crews, whose previous exhibitions have often included the “things” of her everyday life as a mother of five—children’s toys, Dum Dum suckers, or a rack of clothes from a shopping trip.  This exhibition offers glimpses into her personal life.  It is an exhibition dominated by portraits and the roads that lead to them.

“I hope that this exhibition of tiny portraits of people who intersect my life will help people think about the head space and the heart space that we devote to one another,” said Crews.  “The space between the people in our lives and ourselves is, at any given moment, either what keeps us apart or is the path we have to take to get closer. The portraits in "Getting There" that coincide with the landscapes of my life are both literal and symbolic. They represent relationships; some are infused with fear, dread, or indifference and others are based on physical, emotional, and/or intellectual attraction,” added Crews.

Pieces to take note of in Crews’ “Getting There” exhibition include a painting of her husband and children with the Louisiana tech Lambright Center’s pool “all to themselves” on a summer afternoon, small portraits of people in her everyday life, and one that moves the viewer over hill after hill along Barnett Springs Road with a bold, double yellow line hypnotically beckoning you onward.