Sublime Design gallery exhibits Vision of Trees in various mediums

An ink drawing that hung in the exhibit room at Sublime Design Gallery and Gifts was what local artist Calista Yates called an “experiment.”

“I covered the rice paper in ink, then wet it down and let it do its own thing,” Yates said.

After seeing the paper’s reaction, Yates used masking film to incorporate shapes of leaves and other images into the colored ink before covering it again in black ink.

“I wanted to see what the first layer would do behind it,” she said. “And it did exactly what I wanted it to do.”

Yates and her husband stopped by to see her piece and others during the gallery’s “Vision of Trees,” which opened Aug. 5.

Part of the August Downtown Bloomington Gallery Walk, the exhibit displays a tree theme in a multitude of different mediums and will remain open until the end of the month.

Sublime Design Owner Carol Hedin had mentioned the show to Yates before she created the ink piece, but she did not make the piece solely for the exhibit.

“My whole home is like leaves,” Yates said. “When it turned out to work, I remembered the show is coming up.”

A little more than an hour after the show’s opening, Hedin’s mother, Linda Scites, said she had already seen a number of people coming through, and most of them left with a good response.

“I think they sometimes live in a modern world, and they want to get back to nature, and trees symbolize that,” Scites said.

Yates agreed that viewers enjoyed the emphasis on nature.

“It’s a little bit of nature inside,” Yates said. “If you can have a little bit of nature inside, it’s always a good thing.”

One of Scites’ favorite pieces in the exhibit was a table made of granite and metal by local artist James Connor.

The top of the table was made from a granite slab that Connor chipped in the shape of a tree design, which he filled with marble.

“It looks painted on because he did such a good job,” Scites said. “That is not an easy thing to do. I would not attempt that.”

In the back left corner near the granite table, a tree sculpture by Bryn Hatton stood shimmering amongst stained glass pieces.

Hedin said she hoped the life-size, symbolic sculpture would draw visitors to the show.

“To me, it’s very whimsical,” Kim Nathan, a visitor to the exhibit, said. “They say when decorating, buy something whimsical.”

By buying one piece out of the ordinary, Nathan said people are reminded to not take everything seriously.

“It’s something to break up the routine,” Joey Like, a local artist with a few pieces in the gallery, said.

Like said he believes the tree theme will go over well in Bloomington, based on the community’s appreciation for sustainability.

“It features trees and their uses,” Like said, “not practically, but imaginatively.”