Connections: Souby Boski and Karen Simmons

Connections: an exhibit of oil and mixed media by the artists Souby Boski and Karen Simmons.

Souby Boski has been an Art teacher in the Connecticut public schools and Adjunct Professor of Art at Naugatuck Valley Community College. Since 2004, she has been teaching painting and ceramics at area art education venues in CT, NY, MA and Florida. Souby holds a BA in Art Education from Stetson University and a MALS in Art from Wesleyan University. She has studied painting with nationally recognized artists and teachers, like Eric Aho, Ira Barkoff, Lois Dodd and Ruth Miller.

Karen Simmons grew up in France, London and Brussels. Her parents were friends with several contemporary artists, from whom she absorbed a love of all things beautiful into the most humble of daily details. She holds a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Williams College and a Master in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Karen has studied painting under Ira Barkoff and Eric Aho, sculpture under Mary Adams and John Reideman.

Karen states: "the "Connections" of this show continue and get personal, especially in my still-lives, which often include familial objects, many from my mother's collection. My still-lives build on each other by including the same objects, also prior still life paintings that become abstracted objects, paintings of my studio "object libraries" and finally, sometimes, abstractions of the still life itself."

Both artists have participated in many exhibitions as well as in group shows all over Litchfield County and beyond.

For over 18 years, Karen and Souby have been connected through painting, classes, teaching, volunteering and friendship. The exhibition is a result of the dialog between these women as they work to explore painting through color and abstraction.