The Galleries at the Jester Park Nature Center

The Galleries at Jester Park Nature Center offers the opportunity for local art to be displayed and made available for sale to park visitors.

CURRENT GALLERY

Moments in Time

This art exhibition highlights the work of portrait artist, Laura Travnicek and wood artist, Mary Otis. 

Laura comes to us from Urbandale. After working as an art teacher in the public school system, Travnicek left her job to pursue an arts practice. Her desire to paint portraits stems from a deep appreciation of traditional oil paintings and techniques. She is very interested in color, form, and process. Recently, her figurative work has become intertwined with landscape. Her paintings primarily focus on the theme of psychological negotiation. Just as landscapes evolve and change over time, so do the sociological landscapes of our lives. Her creative process seems interminable and slow as she applies the oil paint in thin glazes, changing one color at a time. Her approach is straight-forward and her strategy is diligent as she builds up the color on her surface and conceptualizes her figures imitating life's complexities in the same way.

Mary grew up in northeast Iowa and has always loved the outdoors. Since retiring, Mary enjoys working with her hands on art projects. Working with wood has been a more recent medium endeavor. She also enjoys painting with acrylic and watercolor.

Moments in time will be on display from September 5 to December 25 during Jester Park Nature Center hours. Hours can be found at jesterparknaturecenter.com. For additional information, please contact Missy Smith at 323-5317.

FREE to the public