Regional Artists Exhibit at Meadowbrook Park

Images Gallery + Prairie Village Arts Council
by: Nancy Kalikow Maxwell

Most people looking at puffy clouds in the sky imagine seeing animals or birds or faces. Few would picture the puffs overhead as a human spine. But that’s evidently what artist Marilyn Lyons must have seen because she titled her photograph of a cloud formation, “Backbone of the Storm.” The Lyons piece imagining touching clouds as a body part is just one of 24 creative works included in the “Images Art Gallery Member Show” at the  Meadowbrook Park Clubhouse Gallery (9101 Nall Avenue, Prairie Village, KS 66207). ​

The “Images Art Gallery Show” was made possible through the collaborative efforts of the Prairie Village Arts Council and Johnson County Parks and Recreation District. All of the works included in this exhibition were produced by regional artists who belong to the Images Art Gallery. This member-owned, Overland Park based facility is one of the oldest cooperative art galleries in the Kansas City area. The organization, which has been promoting and educating about the fine arts since 1988, strives to foster the development of local artists in the community and provides a venue for the sale of outstanding work produced by emerging and mature regional artists.

The works selected for the Meadowbrook Park show include watercolors, photographs, glass and acrylic works. Some of the art is abstract, while others depict images ranging from Jim Kilmer’s Nova Scotia seaside to Steve Johnston’s Country Club Plaza to Dawn Thomas’ plants and poppies. Several artists, like Lyons, were inspired by looking up. Nancy Basinski calls her painting of trees “Gazing Upwards,” while Wanda K. Tyner produced glassworks entitled “Sunset” and “Rainbow Swirls.”  To see what inspired all of the artists, the exhibit can be seen from now until September 30 during Clubhouse hours (Monday-Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, Saturday and Sunday, 10:00am to 4:00pm). ​