Corinth Artist Guild
Gallery
507 Cruise Street
Historic downtown
Corinth, MS. 38834

Gallery hours:
Tuesday-Saturday
10 am - 4 pm

Need directions?
Click here

Phone numbers:
662-665-0520
662-415-2688

This gallery is a 501c3
Corp non-profit.

January 2009 Featured Art

Ray and Helene Fielder

New exhibit features works from artistic couple
By Jebb Johnston
Daily Corinthian Staff Writer



The husband and wife artist team of Ray and Helene Fielder are enjoying the quiet life in their corner of Prentiss County, sharing studio space as he paints and she sculpts.
"One half is mine," Helene Fielder said of their Marietta studio.
"One-twentieth of it is mine," Ray Fielder playfully counters.
Their art has come to Corinth for the month of January at the Corinth Artist Guild Gallery at 507 Cruise Street. An opening reception with the Fielders, both full-time artists, is today from 5 until 8 p.m., and the exhibit runs through Jan. 30.
Mrs. Fielders' pottery includes a mix of artistic sculptures and functional items. Many of them are finished with numerous layers of glaze, and some include beadwork or gemstones. She said she likes contrasts and strives for an organic quality in her work.
"I like pieces to be warm, that people want to touch it," she said.
Mrs. Fielder bristles at the suggestion that the artistic pieces are abstract. "I don't think it's abstract, but most people probably do," she said. "I mean, what's abstract? The roots of a tree, are they abstract? It's just how you look at things."
Before coming to Mississippi 10 years ago, she had been warned that her artistic pieces would be a tough sell in the state.
"I've found that I do sell my sculpture," she said, "and I think the stereotype I was given before I moved here is not how it really is." She also likes to capture movement and color contrasts in the pieces she has been sculpting for 27 years.
"Even my functional work, I want it to have an artistic feel," said Mrs. Fielder. "I want it to be different, unexpected. I love details."
As an example, she indicates the feet on a serving tray. Another functional piece is an urn that she was moved to create in response to the mass-produced feel often associated with an urn.
Visitors to the couple's home will find some of her husband's work hanging, but she does not display her own work in the house.
"I like things I can't make," said Mrs. Fielder, a past best-of-show winner in Oxford's Double Decker Festival.
She still recalls the inspiration that set her on a path to artistic endeavors.
"There was a girl in sixth-grade that was drawing horses, and I thought it was amazing that she could do it," she said. "It probably wasn't that good, but to me it was fantastic. She hooked me."
Both Fielders come from a background of military service. Her past work includes illustrating for the Army and Air Force, and he was a photographer for the Air Force. Mr. Fielder also did graphic engineering for NASA. Many of his exhibited pieces capture landscapes under lively cloud formations.
"Each painting will wind up kind of expressing what I was feeling at the point in time I was painting it," said the Prentiss County native. "You'll notice the painting techniques will change from painting to painting because it all depends upon what I feel about the subject."
Mrs. Fielder said she admires his paintings that capture "more temperamental, stormy, dark skies."
Mr. Fielder, who found his love of painting at age 12, is a graduate of the Memphis Academy of Art. He encourages artists to get "outside the box" and occasionally explore the unfamiliar. Mrs. Fielder encourages young artists to invest the time and plan the finances carefully.
"A lot of people want to be potters," she said. "They need to take a color class, a design class. But don't get into debt. Once you're in deep debt as an artist, then your work is influenced by money so much. I've seen a lot of artists quit because they'd rent studio space for $500 when they could have done it in their garage."
She also encourages them to stay away from fads.
"That one jeweler that's unique, he may not make as many sales (at an event), but he'll make the right sales," she said. Determination is also a plus. She recalls being told at a young age that art wasn't a worthy endeavor.
"Then I became strong-willed and did it anyway," she said

Buy their art below ...

Buy art using PayPal Purchase artwork on this web site using PayPal. *Charges will show from Mississippi Art Sales, LLC. *Shipping costs are NOT included. *After purchase is paid, please contact the artist guild at 662-415-2688. Buy art by phone Call 662-665-0520 or 662-415-2688 for details. "Raku Trip Tich" by Helene Fielder Clay Sculpture $1,600 "Golden Landscape " by Ray Fielder Palet Knife $1,200

 

Gallery phone numbers: 662-665-0520 or 662-415-2688