Glory Day Loflin and Bella Wattles

January 17: First Friday and Artist Reception 6:00 - 8:00pm

Glory Day Loflin was raised in a rural setting in South Carolina. She graduated with concentrations in Painting and Sculpture from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2014 and earned an MFA in Painting and Sculpture from Clemson University in 2023. Bella Wattles is an emerging, self-taught artist based in Philadelphia, recognized for her maximalist, whimsical still life compositions. Drawing on themes of nostalgia and femininity, her work blends narrative elements, creating intimate vignettes where the cast of characters come to life.  

Loflin and Wattles are interested in the visual language of the domestic as a reference to the hand that places, organizes, and orientates within the home. While both artists similarly utilize vibrant color, pattern, and dynamic composition, their individual approach to material is importantly different. Wattles’ detailed approach to oil paint application with brush on canvas lends itself to whimsical story-telling where objects are theatrically animated as subjects within the work. Loflin's craft-adjacent painting practice references her grandmother’s textile art through the visual language of design. She creates quilt-like surfaces through many hand-stenciled layers of non-traditional paint on wood.