Art and Christmas Decor Dazzles at Marion's Campbell Steele Gallery

Artists and art enthusiasts gathered to gaze at rock-studded rings and flaming-red tree paintings, among other pieces, on Sunday at the Campbell Steele Gallery’s 21^st annual Holiday Open House event.

This weekend marks the first year the gallery’s proprietors, Craig Campbell and Priscilla Steele, held the holiday event on a Sunday. Steele said she liked the change of pace. People seemed relaxed as they wandered among Christmas ornaments and art. Many paused to chat with artists showing their work.  

One of the artists, John Paul Schafer of Cedar Rapids, offered particularly intriguing details about his art. Schafer, once a newsroom artist for The Gazette newspaper in Cedar Rapids, splatters paint on his canvases to create abstract pieces. He said elements of the local landscape, like bare tree branches, inform his work.

“You’ll see a lot of shapes in how the branches intertwine with each other,” Schafer said.

Quantum physics and thoughts of space, time, and infinity also sparked his imagination while working on several of the pieces in his installation. 

Much of the art featured at the event will remain on the walls until Christmas, although the proprietors plan to add more work to the mix. For example, viewers can look forward to an expansion of Kimberlee Rocca’s light-catching foil imaging installation.