Sept. 15, 2010

LANCASTER –  Marilyn Fox of Kutztown cannot remember a time when she wasn’t drawing or painting. Her handmade art “from all sorts of stuff” is the next art show Oct. 4-Nov. 4 in the Art Space in the East Building on the Lancaster Campus of HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College.

An artist’s reception is scheduled for 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 6, in the Art Space.

The exhibit, “Marilyn and Minnie Jem,” with its collection of three-dimensional creatures, engages Fox’s “alter ego,” Minnie Jem, as a way to identify the dichotomy of her work.

The Kutztown University graduate’s background is in painting still lifes and landscapes in oil in an expressionist tradition. Sometimes, though, Fox is materials driven – going to flea markets, yard sales and Dumpsters, scrounging for things that she can re-invent into one of the creatures. This is where Minnie Jem emerges.

 “It’s Minnie Jem who keeps bringing the found objects back to the studio,” said Fox. “I had trouble explaining the difference between my painting and my crazy creatures, so I had to invent Minnie Jem.”

Minnie Jem allows Fox to step outside her expressionist style and follow an eclectic path, creating unique creatures with the random items she has collected.

“It goes back forever, this need to make things, color things, create things,” said Fox. “Sometimes it seems a little manic, and I’ll work in my studio after working all day, until I just about nod off.”

Fox’s work can be found at ConnectiveEnergy in Bethlehem, Bank of Pennsylvania in Reading, AT&T in Philadelphia, the Allentown School District, the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Holiday Hair Corporate Office in Allentown and in private collections.

Fox is the director of the Freyberger Gallery at Penn State Berks in Reading. She has worked as a freelance art reviewer for The Reading Times and several magazines.

The exhibit is free and open to the public. Art Space hours are 9 a.m.-7 p.m Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday.

For more information contact Judith Johnson, art show coordinator and humanities instructor, at 358-2201 or e-mail.