Scenes From Home

What is Home?

New Paintings by Jonelle Summerfield

Gallery Reception, April 10th, 6-8pm

  "Home" can be a doorway through which a viewer enters a painting and connects with it. It's a certain truthfulness of location, even if it isn't the viewer's own home. Jonelle Summerfield returns home in the subject matter of her exhibit at The Artists Hand in April. Thinking about her new collection of paintings, Jonelle says, "I’ve sort of adopted the Metallica “Wherever I may Roam” idea of home. I like the idea of being minimalist and being at home anywhere. If you visit a place and observe people going to and from work, their hobbies, the gym, restaurants, etc., and they call that place home, then you can easily place yourself in their shoes, which creates a sense of belonging and safety. I have felt at home literally everywhere I’ve gone because I try to imagine what it’s like to live there. But, I think the key is to have a home to return to, whether it’s your town or an actual house. Without that grounding force, I think it might be harder to feel at home anywhere else."

  Though Jonelle enjoys depicting scenes from her travels, she loves and appreciates her local setting, "This show is about my home home, which is western Pennsylvania, a pretty great place to live." She is an active person, doing a lot of things in her home towns of Clymer and Indiana. Also in Pittsburgh, and in local recreational areas, which is what this show focuses on.  "It is what an outsider visiting the area would see while imagining a life here." There will also be scenes from her actual living quarters, past and present (involving cats, of course). For those familiar with (at home with?) her oeuvre* of paintings this will be a departure. New lands, new expectations, and yet at once, familiar.-----------------*NOTE: Here I go getting all "professor" on ya again. An oeuvre is a substantial body of work constituting the lifework of a writer, artist or musical composer.

-Brian Jones, Gallery Owner