Ardis Macaulay, A Retrospective Exhibition

Ardis Macaulay was a prolific visual artist and poet, as well as a dedicated art therapist and art educator. In the year and a half since her departure from this world, we’ve been inventorying thousands of her artworks. Ardis worked in many media, and we’ve prepared a retrospective exhibition covering her sixty years of creativity as a working artist. Included in this exhibition are examples of her bookworks, paintings, drawings, photographs, and photo prints. Ardis rarely parted with her creations, choosing instead to live enveloped by her incredible body of work. While her Memorial Gathering and Art Giveaway, in the summer of 2024, saw between 1,000 and 1,500 of her drawings lovingly gifted to attendees, and many of her paintings going to new homes during the village street fair this past spring, a vast collection of her spirit remains. For this intimate viewing, we’re opening Ardis’ archive and feel privileged to unveil hundreds of works that have never before been seen in public, including:  Over 300 of Ardis’ amazing 2-D works, newly framed.  Approximately 50 of her truly unique bookworks.  Over 1,000 frame-ready 2-D works; an inspiration trove.  A limited number of her 3-D works As with the Art Giveaway at the Memorial Gathering, the artworks will be grouped by subject matter. There’ll be both framed and unframed works in each of the following categories: Mandalas; People, Places and Things; Landscapes, Nature and Organic Forms; Birds and Animals; Mythological and Spiritual; and Seeds/Trees/Stars. Everything in the exhibition will be available for purchase. Ardis had boundless creative energy for her artmaking, as well as for her poetry and other professional pursuits. Our retrospective exhibition samples the legacy of her visual art explorations and is intended as a reverent look at her ways of seeing the world. We invite you to join us on the special occasion of the exhibition opening at her final residence, 3 Aspen Court, within Friends Care Community, in Yellow Springs. The opening reception for the Retrospective Exhibition of Ardis Macaulay will be on Saturday, December 6th, from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The exhibition will continue during the same hours on the following two Saturdays, December 13th and 20th. Please leave vehicles only in designated parking spaces. This is a rare opportunity to experience Ardis' enduring creative energy, and a way to allow some of her life’s work to perhaps begin its journey into the world with you. We look forward to sharing Ardis’ vision of life, as we honor her magnificent visual art and her memory as a creative soul.