How and why an artist makes the work they make is varied in the extreme.

Factors like the environment they live in, relationship and work life, as well as personal experiences can impact an artist and help to define their motivations and frameworks for making the work they chose to create.

A new juried exhibit at the Summit Artspace featuring 43 pieces by 38 local artists is described by the organization in this way: “Artists can isolate or expand their view of the world through their art. They can direct the viewer’s vision or simply allow the viewer to set her or his own boundaries. This exhibit invites artists to establish their own view from within and to direct or not direct the viewer’s perspective.”

Juried by Christopher Hoot, who teaches art and design at the Myers School of Art at the University of Akron, "A View from Within" is an exhibit that features work in a variety of styles.

Abstract works are set next to more realistic pieces to highlight and contrast the different ideas and formal considerations of the artistic work chosen for inclusion.

While an eclectic mix of art styles has been chosen for the show, the strongest work in the exhibit leans toward pieces that offer more abstract perspectives. This is especially reflected in the works chosen to win awards.

First place was awarded to Mark Keffer for his acrylic on paper titled "No Us #14." The work features shapes that look similar to circuitry or something mechanical. Tight and exactly cut edges make up each element of the composition that features colors that move from nearly black and green to salmon pink.

Second place was awarded to Tina Myers for her piece "Sunset Gathering," which is a mixed media work on paper. This gestural collage of colors and shapes is the artist's “view of a crowd of artists and travelers that gathered under a local bridge one night last summer, for song and celebration. Although it was dark, and I could not see details or faces, my imagination filled in an overwhelming sensory experience." This is a larger scale and impressive work that is full of movement and even a sense of sound.

Third place was awarded to "The Art of Aging" by Charles Felzen Johnson. The work is a wall mounted sculptural piece made of aluminum, acrylic, India ink, plexiglass, medicine bottles, a pacifier and circuit boards. Felzen, a pediatrician, was on faculty at The Ohio State University School of Medicine and recently relocated here from Columbus. The work depicts the process of aging from his viewpoint as a "multimedia non curvilinear cubist.” Metallic and brightly colored squares and triangles are intersected by a diagonal line that travels from the top corner of the work to the bottom. The visual structure of the piece as well as its physical structural presence combined with the added elements of circuitry and medicine bottles help to create and inform a greater story.

An honorable mention award winner of note is the weaving "Nightly Commute" by Emily Schmidt. The piece, which is the beginning of the artist's investigation of the connections between painting and weaving, features cotton warp and weft that the artist has painted as part of the creation of this textile. The result is an abstract work that moves from a burnt umber color to a deep purple. Because of the weave structure, the resulting imagery has an almost digital X and Y axis sense about it that helps to change the conversation around the work to something that moves beyond a traditional woven piece.

Exhibits like this one help to highlight the artistic research of artists working in our region. This exhibit is full of thoughtfully made artwork done in a broad range of techniques and styles that engage you and thus pull you through the different parts of the show.

Contact Anderson Turner at haturner3@gmail.com.