Go See Gallery Opens at a Glimpse

Painter and ceramicist featured in inaugural exhibition

Air Meets Earth, a visual art exhibition featuring San Diego artists Kate Ashton and B.F. Gillen, are featured in the inaugural Go See Gallery shows in the Glimpse shop at 3813 Ray St. The works by Ashton and Gillen will be on display at Glimpse through Oct. 12.
The premier exhibition blends the lightness of air with the depth of the earth. Kate Ashton’s stunning, textural, acrylic paintings are the perfect partner for B.F. Gillen’s strong, richly patterned, carved ceramic forms and inlayed slab work. Ashton’s body of work has movement and a love of color that rivets the eye’s attention. Her mastery of texture via the layering and glazing of paint adds abundant depth to her pieces. Light, effervescent, and atmospheric, her acrylic paintings remind the viewer of the ethereal nature of the sky and air. Complementing the free flowing nature of Ashton’s work, Gillen’s fine ceramic art demonstrates his love of patterns. The viewer will marvel at the way the mathematical “Golden Ratio” resonates within his hand-carved decorative vessels and orbs. These works, along with his inlayed slab collection, feature marvelous intricacy in their handiwork. His pieces beckon the eye to trace and follow the patterns created with the clay. A final glazing with rich oxide, celadon and copper red glaze signify earth and air, respectively.
Kate Ashton
Kate Ashton, a San Diego resident, is a painter and painting instructor for the San Diego Art Department. “This series began with an experiment, as most art does,” she said of the works that will be in the Go See Gallery. “I began to create a piece of art to hang where I meditate, and I wanted it to have simplicity and depth. I wanted to be able to get ‘lost’ in the piece while I meditated and not be distracted by an image.
“I needed to be able to drift visually in and out of the piece.  This piece grew into a series in which each piece has an atmospheric quality that some people equate with the sky or landscapes.  I work with each piece until the color begins to fall into harmony. Each piece is done when the colors have a visual/auditory hum … I can almost hear them as well as see them.”
B.F. Gillen
B. F. Gillen is a ceramicist who has been studying his complex techniques at the San Diego Ceramics Connection for the past 12 years. Regarding his debut series, Gillen reflects: “I find the inspiration for my ceramics in nature, the micro and macro. As is represented in my work, it is the fine definition of time and space: the connections, the Golden Ratio.
“Fellow artists have called my work mathematical. I call it connecting. My repeating patterns are interconnected, just as we humans are in life connected to nature. Seeing the final results of my creations being shared and enjoyed by others is forming my own Golden Ratio.”
More information on the Go See Gallery, call (619) 497-1081.