‘Alaska’ To Open With Evening Reception On July 13

An evening reception for Gina Prewitt, the next artist to be featured with an exhibition at C.H. Booth Library, will be hosted by the library on Thursday, July 10, between 6 and 8 pm.

Ms Prewett’s show, “Alaska, there and back,” will remain on view until July 31.

Ms Prewett has worked in ink, graphite, charcoal, colored pencils, oil paints, scratch board, and clay. She prefers to work in colored pencils for portraits, and oils for landscapes.

To begin a work, Ms Prewett will go out and take pictures of whatever strikes her fancy – people, landscapes, animals, or just objects. She also looks through magazines and cut out images she likes.

“When I have an idea of something I wish to create I will go through my references and sketch out the things that I feel will best fit together, for what I have in mind,” she says.

Ms Prewett was born on August 26, 1981, in Connecticut. Just six weeks later, Gina and her family moved to Irian Jaya (New Guinea). Then at the age of two, her family moved to St Mary’s, a Yup’ik Eskimo village in western Alaska, where she spent the next 16 years and where she did the majority of her schooling, from preschool through high school.

Studies included the Yup’ik language and traditional Eskimo crafts.

Ms Prewett returned to Connecticut after graduating from high school to continue her education at Eastern Connecticut State University. She graduated with honors, and a degree in Drawing and Painting, despite a learning disability.

Her art is a unique interpretation of native American “transformations,” expressing her strong ties to Native American culture.

“I create art to express myself, to try and show people how beautiful something can be,” says the artist. “Things that might be taken for granted can finely be seen clearly.

“I also create my art to relieve tension, anger, and sadness,” she continued. “I have found that when I am upset I am able to create work faster and with more emotion behind it. To be able to put substance to my thoughts and ideas is also another reason. To show myself I can create something beautiful.”

Much of Ms Prewett’s art, she says, is influenced by the fact that she grew up in an Eskimo village in Alaska.

“I greatly admire the people I lived with,” she said. “The way they had to fight for survival and the respect of their surroundings. The laidback attitude and love of nature has also influenced my work. Far too often we take for granted the trees, sky and other simple things in life. We are to busy to stop and really look at the world around us.”