Through My Eyes: A Mixed Media Exhibition by Voza Quist

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio—18 October 2007—Notre Dame College’s Clara Fritzsche Library will host “Through My Eyes: A Mixed Media Exhibition” of works by former Notre Dame College student Voza Quist.  The exhibition represents much of the work that Quist has done within the last six years while living in Cleveland and pursuing her teaching license for the visual arts through the College’s TEEL Program.

Quist feels that the artist plays the role of a visionary or a voice through which creativity is expressed and she tries to infuse her pieces with her own energy and interests in music and the ancient mysteries.  She enjoys “mixing it up,” experimenting with crossing over media boundaries, like printmaking on canvas and 3-D paper on canvas (sculpture on canvas).  Quist often uses mixed media such as paint, pastel, pen and India ink in the same piece.

Quist’s journey as an artist was a convoluted one, a long, strange trip in which she crisscrossed the country to find her artistic vision.  After graduating from the University of Maryland in 1994 she moved out to Arizona and found a job working for a sculptor who created fiber “bowls” to hang on the wall.  Her job was to paint various designs on them with an airbrush, mixing the colors and drying them in the sun.  The experience made her decide that she wanted to be an artist.  While she had been writing poetry for years, she now wanted to put images with the words.  While in Arizona, Quist taught art, designed murals for luxury homes of members of the Scottsdale Country Club, worked in galleries and did fine art photography.  She also found time to chronicle her experience in a self-published book entitled You Are a Sun.

In 2001 she moved to Cleveland to get her teaching license for the visual arts, honing her technical skills as an artist.  Since then she has done fine art commissions, painted for the theater, taught, hosted shows for her fellow artists and participated in numerous group shows.  Quist has received a number of accolades for her work.  She won a photography contest for an Arizona public library, the “Rising Star Award” in a Cleveland art show and an Honorable Mention for Outstanding Achievement in Drawing at the Lakeland Community College Student Art Exhibition last April.

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