Portrait of Mr. Thomas Dillon by Beck Lane and Peg Green. Provided photo.

This week at the Art Ovation Hotel, two local artists, Peg Green and Beck Lane, have joined forces to create a wholly original and distinct series of works. Green and Lane have spent the week in the lobby of Art Ovation as co-artists in residence—Green works as a fabric artist, specializing in fabric tapestries or “Art Quilts”, while Lane is an artist and painter, most currently focusing on portraiture of marginalized subjects.

Although both Green and Lane are working on their own individual projects, they are also working on what they call “collaborative portraits”. The collaborative portraits, in which Lane’s paintings on canvas are bordered by Green’s fabric art, evolved from a series Lane has worked on based upon the photographs of William Bullard, a 19th century photographer who took portraits of African-Americans and Native Americans in the Beaver Brook community of Worcester, Massachusetts. In the collaborative portrait of Mr. Thomas Dillon, for example, quick brush strokes of oil atop acrylic and spray paint bring out tones of blue, green and yellow, all of which are echoed in the surrounding fabric. “When I first asked her if she would be interested in collaborating, I only had two requests: please don’t use a sewing machine and please don’t finish the edges,” says Lane. “I wanted to keep the work as raw as possible and she’s done so perfectly. She’s enhanced my work and pulled out colors I never even knew were there.”

“It’s become a collaborative piece,” adds Green. “It’s no longer my work or their work, it’s a piece in and of itself.”

Portraiture is at the heart of both Green and Lane’s individual work as well, although they approach the medium in different ways. Lane—who wears a multitude of hats and also works as Urbanite Theatre’s full-time artist—creates massive portraits, often split into multiple canvases, of marginalized figures. It’s critical to Lane as well to know who the subjects are, where they come from and their personal histories.

Green, on the other hand, often creates impressionistic portraits in which the subjects are more like characters that speak to her over the course of their creation. Critical to both artists, however, is the thread of social justice that runs through their individual and collaborative works. “I’ve been involved in social justice for most of my life,” says Green. “I was watching and participating in all of the emerging development in Newtown and felt the need to express that in my quilting.”

Closing Reception August 22, 5-7pm, Art Ovation Hotel, 1255 N Palm Ave., Sarasota, 34236

Portrait of Mr. Thomas Dillon by Beck Lane and Peg Green. Provided photo.

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