“I just needed to make something, a sheer need to create,” said Eshelman, curator of education at the Springfield Museum of Art. “I’m always excited to exhibit. Because of the work I do, I don’t always have time to create.”
The closest exhibition is the “31st Annual Dayton Works in Paper” show at Rosewood Arts Centre’s Rosewood Gallery in Kettering. For her contribution, Eshelman created an untitled 16-by-20-inch collage piece from torn-up prints consisting of bits of paper, paper napkins, fabric, beading and old paper dress patterns and India ink.
This juried show is open through Feb. 19 in person and can be viewed virtually at www.playkettering.org/rosewood-gallery-home/.
“The Women of Appalachia Project” exhibit at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio has a personal meaning for Eshelman as she considers herself an Appalachian native and she’d always wanted to participate in this annual show.
She entered a piece called “On the Edge of Her Seat,” a soft sculpture made of hand-dyed commercial fabric. It depicts a brightly colored little doll in a chair.
It is detailed with the figure sporting a skirt resembling a tutu, a nod to Eshelman’s ballet days as a child, sitting in a little wooden chair.
“It’s not a self-portrait, but what I did as a kid. When you think about Appalachia, you don’t think about ballet, but it in my region and in my experience, there were a lot of cultural things we could do,” she said.
Another childhood activity was learning to sew at age 8 from her seamstress grandmother and where Eshelman’s art interest comes from. This exhibition is open through March 31 and learn more at dairybarn.org.
Eshelman has participated in the “On Paper” exhibition at Annmarie Sculpture Garden in Solomons, Maryland several times. This time out, she created “On a Line,” featuring seven paper dresses of different colors and styles hanging on a silk clothes line.
That show runs through Sept. 26. More on that exhibition is available at www.annmariegarden.org/annmarie2/upcoming_gallery_shows.
Eshelman’s future plans include cataloging her work for another solo exhibition she’d like to do.
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