Sometimes, an article of clothing can be paired with something that doesn’t necessarily match, but somehow the outfit still flows seamlessly. At Frameworks Gallery, this works the same way for art pieces.
Artists Doni Clarke, Mary Monk and Carolyn Busenlener brought their different, new works to Frameworks Gallery for its most recent exhibition, which began Friday and runs through Oct. 10.
Clarke is a ceramic artist while Monk works primarily with pastels, and Busenlener is a contemporary abstract painter.
However, gallery owner Rozlan Fransen said she saw that each artist’s style shared a common focus on nature.
“I think that the three pair really well together, and they work with each other’s pieces,” Fransen said.
This is Clarke’s, a university ceramics alumnae, first official exhibition since graduating in May.
Her series is titled “Rock Pools” and features sculptural bowls that hang on the wall, mimicking ones found on the beach.
Clarke said her inspiration for the works stemmed partly from her childhood, as well as her chosen style of creating organic, sea-life type works.
“I grew up in New Zealand, so we’d go to the beach and play in them and look for crabs,” Clarke said. “I was thinking of something, and this just kind of came out of that over both semesters of senior year.”
Through this exhibition, Clarke said she hopes to gain learning experience and more exposure.
“I’ve already learned a lot from Roz,” Clarke said. “She’s so helpful, and she’s taught me so much just with pricing things and displaying.”
Clarke’s is available for purchase at Sotre, a home decor and interior design store located on Magazine Street in New Orleans. She said she also is in the process of setting up a studio in New Orleans.
To contrast with Clarke’s works were painters Monk and Busenlener.
Monk is a self-taught pastelist whose works are done en plein air, which means she paints on location as she tries to capture the truest depiction of her surrounding environments.
Her works in this series featured paintings of the marsh, focusing closely on the sky and water.
“My concentration for this exhibition was more about observing nature and really trying to capture the experience in the painting,” Monk said.
She said growing up in New Orleans tremendously influenced her work, as her family would visit the French Quarter on the weekends when she was a child.
As long as she was on her best behavior, she said her mother would reward her by bringing her to watch the pastel artists paint portraits. Her work has graced magazines like Pastel Magazine, Louisiana Life Magazine, St. Charles Magazine and Inside Northside Magazine, as well as exhibitions throughout the state and nationally.
Carrying a similar theme, Busenlener’s works are each influenced by natural and urban environments and personal imagery.
“I take all of my inspiration from nature, and I try to communicate my feelings of nature and the experiences of my life,” Busenlener said. “In a previous show, I used the word ‘adrift’ because a lot of the images seem to be floating around, but I don’t really have a title for it.”
She has received many awards in her home state of Mississippi and shown work in exhibitions in Louisiana, Georgia, Washington D.C. and Indiana, among other states.
Frameworks Gallery owner Fransen hosts monthly exhibitions featuring local student and professional artists throughout the year.
Though the gallery will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in the spring, Fransen has operated it for the past four and a half years and said she has put more focus into finding artists to showcase.
“The last couple years, I’ve had a good bank of artists and enough interest in the gallery to be able to schedule [exhibitions] a year in advance,” Fransen said.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Ronni Bourgeois

A Frameworks Gallery exhibition, hosting an LSU alumnus, Doni Clarke, along with other artists Carolyn Busenlener and Mary Monk, opened on September 11, 2015, and will remain on display until October 10, 2015.