The Holbrook Depot Art Series will continue on Friday, Aug. 12, featuring the art of
local artists Barbara DeSpain, Michael O’Dell and Charles Newberry, as well as Petrified Forest National Park artist-in-residence Jessica Creane. The free event is slated from 5 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 12 at the historic Holbrook Depot on the corner of Navajo Blvd. and Bucket of Blood Street.
Barbara DeSpain came to Holbrook in 1947 and was married to the late “Teen” DeSpain. Her paintings include subjects such as landscapes, Native Americans and animals. Included in the exhibition will be three large paintings done in 1976 that hung in the waiting area of the Arizona Children’s Hospital for many years. For the past four years she has worked with the Holbrook Old West Cemetery group to restore the old portion of Holbrook’s cemetery, creating more than 350 name plaques.
Michael O’Dell is a lifelong resident of Holbrook and graduated from Holbrook High School in 1974. O’Dell began studying landscape and nature photography in 1980. The concept of his Digital Stone Photo Art began in 2005. According to O’Dell, “Art can be found anywhere you look, be it manmade or the wonderful world of nature.” Charles Newberry is from New York and moved to Arizona in 2007. He began formal art studies at the age of 10 and majored in fine arts throughout his college career. Newberry took up photography in 1970 and began experimenting with digital photography in 1990, with several gallery showings throughout the years. Newberry retired from Holbrook School District as a computer and ISI monitor in 2014, and resumed his love of photography and the arts.
The Petrified Forest Artist in Residence included in the exhibition is performance artist Jessica Creane. She is a devised, physical theater artist based in Philadelphia, and has trained at Pig Iron’s School of Advanced Performance Training in everything from mime and mask making to acrobatics. Creane serves as the co-artistic director of Philadelphia’s Mondegreen Collective and resident director of the New York City-based company State of Play. She recently devised and directed sold out productions in the New York City and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals, and created sneaky, anonymous performance pieces everywhere from subways to school hallways. She has directed more than a dozen world premier productions, working as an assistant director and producer in numerous productions on Broadway, off-Broadway and in television.
Creane’s artistic mission is to discover the cracks in our highly controlled reality and fill them with boundless, ever changing lunacy.
