Upcoming Exhibitions

Open: December 9, 2022
Close: February 3, 2023

Art Shop Co-op

Artist Statement

The Art Shop at the Oxford Community Art Center is a cooperative of six local artists. Since its founding in 2009, the Art Shop has become the go-to place to find unique and beautiful art and crafts by local artists. The Art Shop was conceived by a small group of Oxford artists in collaboration with the Oxford Community Art Center. From this small beginning, the Art Shop has grown to become a vibrant and valued part of the Oxford community.

People come to the Art Shop looking for cards, functional and decorative pieces for their homes, gifts, and treasures. The unique collaboration between the Art Shop and the Oxford Community Art Center continues, and the Center receives 20% from every sale in the shop.

The Art Shop is open: Thurs. and Sat. 11:00-2:00
Fri. 10:00-6:00 We also open for special events and can open by appointment.

The artists exhibiting:
Marjorie Bowers
Regina Simas
Stephanie Southard
Sondra Karipedes
Wendy Richardson
Alan deCourcy

Drena Bowerman

Artist Bio

When Drena was young and bored or "at loose ends", her Mother would say, “Go draw”, and she would soon be creating her own world. Her mother was a good artist herself, someone to emulate in many ways. Drena was encouraged to work with her imagination and with that she excels.

Many times, Drena begins a project by moving the pen and seeing what emerges. She loves to channel images, particularly characters, faces, and let them tell her who they are. Drena loves beautiful things, and wants to recreate them. That, to Drena, is probably the most common reason people become artists. They want those images to look at, and can’t always afford to buy them. So they try it themselves and if they get a good result, they keep trying.

Drena had no formal art education, just a few classes here and there as an adult. In school, art classes seemed to have more to do with setting up and cleaning up than with getting much art done. She did learn a few things, though, most memorably in jr. high at Old McGuffey. She had a student teacher who had the students take paper and pencils outside, and find a subject that was interesting or had a lot of moving parts. He sat them down within eyesight of full of bicycles racks, and told the students to draw what they saw without ever looking at their papers or lifting the pens. Very hard to do but an excellant exercise for freeing up the movement and life in artwork! Drena considers this one of her best lessons ever.

Drena a life long resident of Oxford. She is married to Emeritus Professor and author, Bruce Bowerman. (Miami Univ. DCS, Business School, 1974-2009) She has two very artistic and exceptional children, a wonderful stepson, and ten lovely cats, who may very well be artistic as well.

Artist Statement

Art in the Margins

I’ve heard to be an artist, one has to be ruthless to make time to do it. That’s one thing I’m not. I am a pushover. Life always manages to make a good case for why I should be doing something else, anything else other than making art. So with occasional exceptions, the only time I produced a lot of work was when I took a class. So, this exhibit represents the happy work I did over the years in taking painting classes from Steve Perucca and Alex McKibbon, and printmaking classes from Ellen Price. Printmaking is my first love. So it is heavily represented in this exhibit.

The pastel pieces were done early; I love pastel, maybe as much as printmaking. It’s so freeing and responsive to every movement you make. I did those because I had the materials, and I really wanted pretty pictures on my walls. They were done from calendar photos, not from life. The pen and inks and illustrative work were done for commission, church cookbooks, or as a gift.

This is a chronological representation of a life trying to find time to produce something worth keeping. There’s not a whole lot of it. I wish there were some new pieces. (I’ll get to it in due time), but I am honored and thrilled to show what I’ve got so far. I’m not done yet, not by a long shot. Grandma Moses did her best work late in life, and I’m hoping to follow suit.

Plein Air Artists

Artist Statement

Some artists prefer to work outside, and thus was born the “en plein air” movement of the 1800s as paint in tubes made the medium portable. That gave rise to Impressionism and the ability to work on site, quickly, fresh.

Today en plein air art comes in many forms with some groups requiring 100% to be finished outside while others require a lesser percentage outside with finishing in studio.

This area’s Plein Air groups (PleinAirUnionCountyArtists PAUCA and PleinAirPaintersOxford PAPAO) simply enjoy the exhilaration of being in outdoor air and light, and the stimulation of others who love to do art outside; exactly when and how the art piece is finished is of lesser importance.

We hope you enjoy our offering of “en Plein Air” art.

Participating Artists:

Debra Bowles

Joe Anna Hann

Howard Krauss

Dana S Risch

Rhonda Wilkins