'Teepees and Moonring'
Oil - 40" x 40"
By Jill Shwaiko

'The Red Cactus Bloom'
Acrylic & Sand - 20" x 30"
By Jane Cassidy

NEW WORKS BY JILL SHWAIKO & JANE CASSIDY

On June 14th, a favorite local, national and international destination point for art lovers and collectors, Indigo Gallery will open its doors to an unprecedented show featuring “New Works by Jill Shwaiko & Jane Cassidy”. Ms. Shwaiko's work reflects the primitive influences discovered in her studies of ancient art. She has traveled and explored the indigenous rock art of southwest United States as well as the images of ancient Greece, Crete, Italy, Mexico and the Yucatan. From these experiences, Ms. Shwaiko has developed a distinctive vision that captures the aboriginal spirit with humor, beguiling drama, and a dreamlike sense of the spiritual. Her oils and pastels are striking compositions of fanciful sheep, birds, moons and tee-pees all in evocative desert settings. Sheep are captured at night with multiple moons surrounded by disquieting shadows or called to a reassuring light that seems to glow from within the canvas itself. And, as the ancestral artist did, Ms. Shwaiko represents the contemporary human condition as seen in startled sheep, laughing sheep, inspired sheep or sheep simply at play, running among the shadows of the desert floor or leaping across extraordinary, colorful mesa tops.

Jane Cassidy's vision of the desert is strikingly different and just as unique as Shwaiko's. Ms. Cassidy's desert paintings are created with her own distinctive process of mixing local Madrid sand with her acrylic paint. The textured surface mimics the desert while her choice of color and the play with light reveals a brilliant and tactile moment of the desert cactus, fruit and flower. Ms. Cassidy, herself, said: “For me, cactus are symbolic of many personal characteristics. Even in this beautiful barren desert, they survive, and then they produce the most delicate blossoms. I think this duality prevails in all of us as strength and sensitivity, juxtaposed.” In 2007, Ms. Cassidy was featured in a national cable series, “The Art of Living” on the Veria Cable Network. The segment, “The Painted Desert”, delves into the importance of art as an individual healing practice, a community experience, and a benefit for our society at large. The series continues to air this year.

Shwaiko's and Cassidy's new work can be seen at the Indigo Gallery on the Madrid Boardwalk, 2860, Highway 14 in Madrid. The Opening Reception begins at 4:00 PM on Saturday, June 14th. The exhibit runs through June 30th. For more information, directions or for a private and confidential viewing, call the Indigo Gallery at 505-438-6202.