A mother-daughter exhibit

Sulfur Studios presents “The Play of Light,” a collaborative mother and daughter exhibition by Kathy and Maggie Hayes, which takes into consideration the way that light is experienced in the natural world and how that can reflect an inner experience of light and dark as well, both ripe with feeling, color and texture.

Using their primary mediums of creative expression, respectively clay and paint, the pieces are in a dialogue of form and color.

Maggie’s works of figurative paintings explore the body in nature’s light, and Kathy’s ceramics and installations explore the colors and reflections of light through water and earth. The pieces all relate to each other within “The Play of Light” to capture a glimpse of these fleeting images.

The artists both share a fascination with art, nature, and the human condition. Kathy has a background in psychology and worked as a therapist before spending time at home as a mother and then eventually returning to school and continuing on to teach elementary school art for many years. Her daughter Maggie also shares an interest in the psychological and spiritual aspects of life and has been teaching yoga for over a decade.

“The idea for the show came from being fascinated with the way light functions,” Kathy said. “So many magical things that you see are based on the science of light, but also our interpretation of what we see. Being at the beach and seeing all these different water ripples and the light’s effect on the movements of water was very inspiring...We had also gone to the mountains where we have a little cabin in North Carolina and it was the same there, seeing these mesmerizing images of light interacting with the natural world.

“It was this amalgamation of the ideas of how we are influenced as humans by light and how we interpret our moods and emotions. We may have darker periods or times when things look and feel bright,” she continued.

Some of Kathy’s pieces are stoneware pottery and the glazes that she uses are very luminescent along with other work that relies more on the quality of the clay itself in installations made with translucent porcelain which allows light to shine through.

Breaking ground by entering the gallery world at 63, this happens to be Kathy’s first formal exhibition of her own work, but she has also been an essential part of the creative paths for hundreds of students she has taught, as well as for her daughter Maggie’s artistic career. From first encouraging art making in her children’s earliest years as toddlers to as recently as this past April, assisting Maggie with the gallery installation and art direction of her solo show in Atlanta, the shared mother and daughter passion for creative expression has been lifelong.

“I felt really honored to be able to support this idea... I have been able to do a lot of exhibitions and my mom has always been a really essential and helpful part of that happening for me,” Maggie said. “When she [Kathy] approached me about doing a show together it was the perfect opportunity for me to invite her into the side of the process that I’ve been on more often, as far as being the exhibiting artist.”

Each artist’s work complements each other’s mediums filling the space with 3D ceramics and textural paintings hanging on the walls.

Maggie continued, “This was also the perfect opportunity for a collaborative exhibition in an even broader sense because I have a great relationship with all of the people at Sulfur Studios as well as Jared Jackson of Eden Supper Club who is the head chef for the dinner event in the gallery on July 1st. We’ve all been longtime friends and supporters of one another and Sulfur was our first choice for where to show this work. It’s really great that we were able to make this happen and that it’s all finally coming together.”

Visit and shop the collection at sulfurstudios.org/playoflight.