BY PAULA

MONTGOMERY

Special to The Pilot

The Arts Council of Moore County welcomes Pennsylvania artist Ophelia Chambliss as the featured artist for February.

Chambliss is an artist who embraces change and the influence that change has on her work. Life experiences and challenges flow freely to canvas as a means of expression and survival.

Originally from Chicago, Ill., Chambliss currently lives in York, Pa., where she is an adjunct college professor at York College and the Art Institute of York. She has also worked as a professional designer, graphic artist and art director in the educational publishing industry.

Chambliss has been successfully exhibiting as a fine artist for several years at galleries throughout the country. In addition to a number of solo and group exhibitions, Chambliss has participated in a number of distinguished juried shows. She participated in a two-woman show with noted author and art historian Dr. Samella Lewis at Chicago's South Shore Cultural Arts Center. The show was part of the PBS documentary "I'll Make Me a World," which aired in 1999.

Chambliss works in a style that she calls "realistic cubism." She paints a variety of subject matters, and while she has worked in pastel and pen and ink, she now works in oil and acrylic, using a bright, colorful and energetic color palette. Although her style is primarily abstract realism, she is also comfortable depicting representational images.

Several of Chambliss' pieces are dualistic in nature, meaning there is more than one way to display and view the painting to get a different image or point of view. Her process begins with multiple conceptual sketches where the arrangements of elements change as the idea progresses. She then prepares a comprehensive color plan before transferring the image to canvas.

"Today, I see my work as being on a more purposeful mission," says Chambliss. "I paint concepts and ideas rather than things. At this point in my creative expression, if I were asked the question 'what's on your mind?' I would have to respond that what is on my mind is too complex for words and that the thoughts could only be captured in conceptualized images."

Chambliss' show at the Campbell House will feature a collection of societal-influenced work in oil and acrylic.

"Mosaic: A Collection and Range of Societal Influenced Styles, Visions and Perceptions" opens Friday, Feb. 4, with a reception to meet the artist from 6 to 8 p.m. Judy and Jim Allen, Cos Barnes, Joan and Arthur Fish, Katherine and Duncan MacRae, Gwen Murray, Sue and Gary Southard and Joyce White host the reception, which is free and open to the public.

The exhibit is on display through Feb. 25, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekdays. The galleries will be closed on Feb. 21 in observance of Presidents Day. The Campbell House Galleries are located at 482 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines.

For more information about the February exhibit, contact the Arts Council of Moore County at (910) 692-4356 or visit the website at www.mooreart.org.