'About Face' Exhibit to Debut at Little Art Gallery

The North Canton Public Library's Little Art Gallery will welcome works by local artists Laurie Fife Harbert and Sharon Dulabaum when it opens its next exhibit, "About Face."

Dulabaum works with oil, watercolor and colored pencil, while Harbert will have on display found object assemblages.

Dulabaum, a special education teacher for 20 years, said she is mostly motivated by capturing a moment in time.

"I see a pose, a look, the way the light plays on a subject and it inspires me to recreate that moment," she said. "I love realism but also enjoy playing with color."

Now an employee at the Arts Academy at Summit, she loves "working with the richness of oils, the transparency and lightness of watercolors and the line and details you get from color pencil help me recreate that moment."

"Often I find inspiration in the faces of people and animals I encounter in everyday life," she said.

Harbert operates Fleur de Lis Arts Consulting, doing curatorial, public relations, marketing and editorial work for area arts organizations and publications.

"I like sharing my work with people, but tend to get attached, especially if a piece was inspired by persons or places near and dear to me," she said. "Many of my pieces, through representational to the viewer, symbolize inside jokes or implied stories."

Her paintings and found object works have been in the Stark County Artists’ Show at the Massillon Museum, the Canton Artists’ League Show at the Canton Museum of Art and Anderson Creative’s national juried exhibit Uncensored, among others.

"The inspiration for a piece, often known to me and only a few others, is often subtly alluded to in the titles of my work, like a spy speaking in a code known only to a select few, secretly offered up in plain sight," Harbert said.

The exhibit opens Nov. 3, with an opening reception from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and runs through Dec. 2. The Little Art Gallery is open during regular North Canton Public Library hours (Monday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday). The opening reception is free and open to the public.