The first step in learning to create art is to play.
Babies first learn about size, shape, weight, and texture with their mouths, tongues, and fingers. They eventually recognize voices, their own fingers, arms, feet, and bodies. This leads to the discovery of relationships, causes, and effects. Babies are constantly open to learning. They communicate by crying, bobbing up and down, smiling, reaching, and kicking. So, babies' play is the most important part of growth, besides eating and sleeping.
I remember the day our daughter, Ingrid, about 1-1/2 years old, drew her first complete circle. That same day, she uttered her first complete sentence: "Daddy, I love you." Two new 'complete statements' on the same day, a sign of maturity and intelligence! An expression of a specific idea or feeling to another in both cases.
Why did people paint beautiful animals on cave walls in Austria some 30,000-50,000 years ago? Some think it was about magic. I think it was about awe and the beauty of the powerful animals that the artist would have to hunt with a spear.
Art is the result of a mature progression toward a visual statement, one that is impossible to express fully in words. We grow into the way we experience and express life. We observe. We develop form and visual cohesiveness into an organized statement, like my daughter's completeness of the circle...an idea, a declaration. Art suggests to us, tests us, and offers us different perspectives and experiences for which words are inadequate. Few experience art or even the world in precisely the same way. It's no different, in a way, from experiencing a piece of new farm equipment, a new plow, for the first time, seeing a beautiful furrow of earth turned, an almost magical transformation and revelation. Humanity fails when we lose our pure, childlike instincts, which we sometimes seek to suppress as so-called mature adults. Art can help us to face the unknown and unfamiliar, as the caveman did.
Meet the Owners
Amy DeLap works in both representational and non-objective directions in her painting. She taught painting and design at Vincennes University for 32 years. She earned her BFA degree in sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis, and also did undergraduate work at the Tyler School of Art and the University of Michigan School of Art. Her MFA in painting/mixed-media was earned at the University of Michigan’s Horace Rackham School of Graduate Studies.
Andrew Jendrzejewski does both sculpture and two-dimensional works in a variety of media. He earned his BFA in sculpture from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He spent his junior year at Tyler’s campus in Rome, Italy. After a tour in Vietnam, he earned his MFA in sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis. He taught summer classes at the University of Michigan and worked as a Museum Technician at the University of Michigan Museum of Art before moving to San Antonio, Texas where he taught sculpture and other studio classes at the San Antonio Art Institute. The next move was to Vincennes University, where he taught sculpture and other studio courses for 32 years during which time he chaired the Art Department for 28 years.
After retiring from teaching, the two artists bought the historic home at 521 Main Street in 2012. It had served as lawyers’ offices but was rehabbed by the couple into studio spaces and the Art Space Vincennes gallery, which opened in October 2013. Jendrzejewski’s prior experience at the University of Michigan was key to organizing the business. An average of 4 – 5 exhibitions have been offered annually, focusing on mid-career artists. The gallery has also served as a venue for book talks and musical and theatrical performances.
Jendrzejewski and DeLap managed the First City Public Sculpture Project between 2019 and 2022. Currently 12 pieces introduced by the project have become permanent installations in the City of Vincennes. The project continues under the guidance of new directors. In 2023 the DAR presented Andrew Jendrzejewski with the Community Service Award, recognizing voluntary civic contributions to the community.
We would love to hear what you think about the current exhibit. Stop by the gallery to see the show and then let us know what you think!
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