Factory Arts District, formerly known as the Circle City Industrial Complex, was the original home of the Schwitzer Corporation, an automobile production pioneer in the 1920s. Nowadays, the 16-acre complex is home to 125 artists’ studios and multiple galleries, along with makerspaces, bars and businesses.
Every First Friday of the month, the artists open up their doors to show their stuff. This month’s event falls on Friday, Feb. 6.
For the February First Friday, Schwitzer Gallery will host “Susan’s World” by watercolor artist Susan Semenick.
Her landscapes don’t always correspond to a geographic setting.
“I like having the landscape come from my imagination,” she said. “I just make up stuff as I go. I got in trouble in class in high school for daydreaming.”
But she also has portraits, including one titled “His Carharts,” referring to the heavy duty workwear that an acquaintance of hers wore.
“He was a homeless man who has since passed,” she said.
Using a sitting mannequin to stand out
The Schwitzer Gallery, on the second floor of Factory Arts North, is easy enough to find. But painter Mirvia Sol Eckert’s studio is just a little off the beaten path. That’s why she wanted to do something extra to make her studio stand out.
So, she turned to a dummy.
The mannequin, seated with long red hair, is holding a sign with Eckert’s name just outside her studio (S21), on the second floor. It doesn’t yet have a name, so Eckert is holding a naming contest for it on her Instagram account.
Eckert is known for her stylized portraiture, including Latina icons such as Frida Kahlo and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In her Kahlo painting, “When I Leave I Can Stand,” you see the back brace the Mexican-born painter wore most of her life. She is holding mirrors depicting herself and her famous painter husband Diego Rivera. Around her, you see flowing ribbons rising to heaven.
The painting reflects Kahlo’s final days.
Many of Eckert’s works on canvas reflect her Puerto Rican roots. “One with the Land” focuses on the island’s Indigenous heritage. It shows, in grayscale, a scantily clad young woman with a bunch of flowers standing in water.
“Everything that I do, and everything that I’ve been doing is all about my culture,” Eckert said.
Aside from her own art, Eckert is one of the principal organizers of Indy Latina Artists. The group’s next exhibition, “Connected by Heritage,” will run March 1-April 5 at the Eiteljorg Museum. Admission is free, and the opening reception is 12:30 -3:30 p.m. March 1.
From Afropop to K-pop fashion
The work of fashion designer Tendai Phillips, who was born in Zimbabwe, celebrates her roots. She has lived in Indianapolis since 2006 and now occupies Studio 9 on the second floor.
“My sister and my mom and my grandma used to sew,” Phillips said, describing how she first fell in love with fashion. “My older sister loved coming up with different designs.”
But the influences for her REDEFINITION brand come from all over the world.
“It’s a street style influenced by Afropop, K-pop, and Japanese street style,” she said.
She had planned to specialize in bridal fashion, but opted for something more challenging: unisex designs. She also has a fashion brand called Genevere Antonei that focuses on women’s fashion.
“I wanted to do menswear, but I didn’t want to do just conventional menswear,” she said. “At that time, I discovered K-dramas … and I loved how unconventional they were. They did not restrict most of these men. Color wise, you pretty much go all up on the palette.”
Glowing at night with ultra-bright strontium
The “night-light” artworks of Michele Burns also go all up on the palette — and beyond.
You can find Burns in the Daily Epiphany Studios in B17 on the first floor of the South Studios. Her work incorporates light-absorbing minerals and ultra-bright strontium illuminate mixed with europium and dysprosium. (Who knew art could be so scientific?)
“I discovered glow paint decades ago,” she said. “I made a glowing toilet, the light switches, toilet paper holder and the ceiling and shoes. It’s just magical.”
Burns spends a lot of time coming up with her own (OSHA-rated toy safe) chemical combinations that she mixes herself.
“All the stuff you can buy in a store is made with zinc sulfide, which glows a little bit, but not very strong and not very long,” she said.
While Burns occasionally paints landscapes with moons and trees and starry nights, her preferences these days lean more abstract. Much of what you see in her studio are patterns and mandalas, which glow strongly enough to light up a dark studio.
“I can get a group of people in there, and then I’ll flip the lights off, and the response never gets old,” she said.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations. Sign up for our free newsletters.
Dan Grossman is a Mirror Indy freelance contributor. You can reach him at dan@indycorrespondent.org.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
