January 2026

Dramatic Flair: Villagers Share their Digital Art

By Karen Bagnard
Posted: 03/03/2025

The Village is currently exhibiting its first exclusively digital art show, curated and organized by Gina Frierman-Hunt.  Five artists are represented in this diverse exhibit, four Villagers, Virgi Merriam, Tom Reid, Gary Smith and Gina Frierman-Hunt, and the Village staff member Communications & Admin Coordinator, Hannah Rough-Schock.

The opening reception was held Friday, February 21, drawing a wonderful land curious audience. Two of our artists, Gina and Gary, spoke about their art and explained how they accomplished their work and which programs they used. Gina, who recently had a solo exhibit at the Village, uses Procreate to “paint” her landscapes. Gary, on the other hand, uses Blender software to create more esoteric images. Each artist exuded excitement about how they work with these programs. The attendees were very engaged asking lots of questions. 

In the audience was a new Villager, Rita Silverman, who clearly knew a great deal about digital art.  Her questions drew out even more information from the artists for all of us.

Since Tom was not there Gary, a close friend and collaborative worker, talked about the colorful piece of work Tom submitted.  Gina was able to point out the work of Virgi as very much replicating her love of watercolors and ink drawings.  Hannah, who also had a solo exhibit in the past, displayed more of her imaginative animation work.

For someone like me, for whom this is a completely foreign art form, the Q&A served as a most interesting discussion.  The variety of art that is represented in this exhibit is impressive.

As Villager Denise Aronow said,  “I am impressed with the versatility of the medium as well as the different programs available. The pieces were terrific! I loved that Village outside of our Village Artists group were there to support artists.”

"I was inspired by the dramatic flair and beauty of the work of my fellow Village members," said Gary Smith. 

Gary also noted, “Examining the work of the five artists who contributed to the show, Gina Frierman-Hunt noted the wide variety of computerized styles and effects, ranging from sharp edged abstraction to soft landscapes.  Her experience using the Procreate software was invaluable.  During the question and answer session, I explained how the open-source Blender software facilitates the use of lighting, camera perspective, texture, and 3D files which can be ‘posed’ to produce hyper-realistic figurative pieces.”

The Digital Art Exhibit will be on display throughout the first quarter.  In April, a new show, “Art from the Ashes,” will open.