Todd B. Stokes, noted regional artist in photography and in 2-D and 3-D etched glass, is bringing a dramatic glass art exhibit to Athens Arts in downtown Crawfordsville (216 E. Main). The show is entitled “Lite & Light” and promises a new way to see art using materials that are around us every day. This exhibit opens to the public on Thursday, March 21 with an opening reception for the artist on Friday, March 29.
“It’s a great thing for our community when one of the artists chosen for one of our highly selective national “Untitled” Shows wishes to come back and mount an entire exhibition in our gallery,” notes Athens Arts Director, Diana McCormick. “Todd Stokes’ unusual medium of framed 2-D and 3-D glass art pieces will be a treat for visitors to this show.”
Stokes’ art has developed across the last four decades, gaining in grandeur and clarity one might say, as it has grown from various segments of his own life. Not only does Todd Stokes’ art itself bridge photography and glass etching, his work life also bridges two states (Indiana and Illinois). And, Todd Stokes’ development into an apex glass artist arose because of a bridge between generations.
In the mid-1990s, Todd’s father, Gene Stokes, retired from working as a salesman and
established his own business. In 1991 he opened The Golden Frame in Terre Haute. During that same time period, his son Todd who had graduated from Indiana State University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Fine Arts Photography with a minor emphasis in Plexiglass Sculpture, was getting his career started by working with artist Tyler Guthrie in Memphis,TN. Guthrie owned Tyler’s Gallery which included a custom picture-framing business, a business that Todd Stokes was learning as he studied with Guthrie.
Once The Golden Frame opened, Todd Stokes decided to come home to join forces with his dad in the new enterprise. Hence The Golden Frame from its outset offered both custom framing and glass etching. Todd’s dad focused on the business itself and the glass etching he
did had a commercial approach: as Todd describes it, “For instance, he customized toasting glasses for weddings and created one of a kind awards and gifts.”
While Todd and his father Gene worked together for 15 years, Todd was introduced to, and then learned, glass etching. Soon he was applying his artistic talents and he took those glass drills in another direction: “I adapted what I learned from my dad to a more artistic expression. My etched glass work combined with my picture framing skill helps me create a unique and intriguing glass art” based on that extending and bridging.
Todd Stokes’ glass work is deeply inspired by underlying patterns in the natural world
accompanied by his desire to convey “the gift we exist in,” our natural world. As we hurry to our computers and commute through space to get somewhere, and as more and more of the
natural world is paved over and so hidden from view, we too often rarely stop to engage with and ponder “this gift we exist in.” Todd Stokes’ art gives us a moment to pause and see.
Thanks to this work in the shimmering medium of glass and Stokes’ meticulous art, we
viewers not only see elements of our natural world rendered beautifully and freshly, but thanks to the artist’s eye we are led to understand and know them deeper down. This happens because, as Stokes puts it, “As I examine and analyze something that I see, I find myself breaking everything down into basic geometric shapes (circles, squares, and triangles).” This deepens both the beauty and the mystery of natural things even as it simplifies. It becomes nearly mystical. He reports, “I’m given energy from this and directed to crystalize the essence of what I’m taking in. These basic shapes are in everything we see and make.”
Athens Arts (216 E. Main) is open Thursdays and Fridays from 10-6 and on Saturdays from
10-2. Admission is always free. The visiting artist’s and resident artists’ work is for sale at the Gallery.
A Visiting Artist Reception for Todd B. Stokes will take place on Friday, March 29 from 6-8 p.m. Music will be provided by Kenn Clark and light refreshments will be served. Come and
meet the artist as you enjoy seeing “Banjo,” “Writhing River,” “Quarantine,” and other luminous glass works in person.
