PSAD Fall Season Opening Artists Receptions
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“Four Exhibitions Open the Fall Season at PSAD”
at the Bill Ford Gallery & PJC Gallery, Gallery Q/Hallway Gallery
Paducah School of Art and Design
Paducah, KY, August 14 – Four exhibitions running concurrently will open at the Bill Ford Gallery, PJC Gallery, Gallery Q and the Hallway Gallery at the Paducah School of Art and Design, 9th and Harrison Street in Paducah’s historic Downtown. Theses exhibits will be on display August 27-October 2, 2026, gallery hours Monday through Thursday, 10-4 with an opening reception on Thursday, August 27, from 5-6:30 pm. All events are free and open to the public.
In the Bill Ford Gallery, “What You Seek”, is a solo exhibition by St. Louis artist Natalie Baldeón. Baldeón’s says, “My work explores the relationships between bodies, ecologies, and systems of care. Drawing from mythology, permaculture, and lived experience, I create paintings in which human figures merge with botanical and mycological forms, seeking to illuminate the beauty and tension of often-overlooked aspects of societal roles, personal transformation, and the passage of time. I am interested in how identities are shaped through lineage, vulnerability, and our interconnectedness with the living world.”
Throughout the exhibition, bodies intertwine with plants, fungi, forests, and celestial forms, dissolving boundaries between the human and other. Botanical cycles of growth, decay, and renewal become metaphors for grief, transformation, and resilience, while gardens and forests emerge as spaces of memory, reflection, and reciprocity.
Ultimately, this work proposes that the answers or guidance we search for elsewhere may already exist within everyday acts of care, ecological connection, and marvel of the mundane. The exhibition invites viewers to embrace uncertainty, cultivate wonder, and imagine more reciprocal ways of belonging to the world around them.
Natalie Baldeón is a Visual Artist and Educator living in Saint Louis, MO. She received her BFA from The University of Central Florida, and her MFA from Washington University in Saint Louis. She has exhibited her work locally, regionally, and nationally. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Webster University.
In the PJC Gallery, local artist Donna Howson will be exhibiting her work in an exhibition titled, “Demons and Dolls”, a collection of large-scale paintings and 3D work.
Howson says, “I create large-scale drawings and paintings that explore the complicated relationship between childhood and adulthood. Using personal experience alongside Catholic imagery, folklore, nursery rhymes, toys, and children’s games, I investigate the stories we inherit before we are old enough to question them and the ways they continue to shape us throughout our lives. Working from a feminist perspective, I am drawn to the tension between innocence and experience by using familiar symbols of childhood as a way to examine memory, identity, vulnerability, and the cultural expectations placed on women and girls. These images shift between humor and tragedy, beauty and discomfort, inviting viewers to reconsider what once seemed innocent or harmless. My compositions are intentionally dense, allowing multiple narratives to exist within a single work. What may first appear chaotic gradually reveals unexpected connections, small moments of humor, and quieter, more unsettling details. I want the experience of looking to mirror the process of remembering with fragmented, layered, and constantly unfolding imagery.”
Born in New York in 1970, Donna Howson began drawing as a small child and never stopped. Her early fascination with images, storytelling, and the world of childhood became the foundation for a lifelong artistic practice. Howson received her MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design. Over the course of her career, she has developed a practice centered on drawing and painting, creating large-scale works that reflect her interest in personal history, visual storytelling, and commonly shared experiences.
She lives and works in Paducah, Kentucky, with her husband and son.
In Gallery Q, PSAD alumni (2024) Karlee Ramos is displaying her work in her solo exhibit, “Art From the Edge”. Karlee says, “In my artwork, I explore different ways to bring the images to life with experimentation in dynamic lines, vibrant colors and rich textures.” Ramos’s work takes viewers on a visual journey through her childlike imagination and joyful spirit to spark connection.
In the Hallway Gallery is artist Palmira Miro Gutierrez, a Tuscon photographer utilizing historic collodion photography also known as wet-plate photography. Gutierrez is a recent artist in residence hosted by the Paducah Arts Alliance (PAA). Gutierrez arrived in Paducah on June 21 this year for a month-long residency and transformed his temporary Paducah studio into a hub of creative activity–connecting with local artists and producing a series of wet-plate portraits.
Gutierrez specializes in grayscale images using collodion photography, also known as wet-plate process, a mid-19thcentury technique in which photographers coat glass or metal plates with a viscous chemical mixture, sensitize them in silver nitrate, and shoot and develop them while the plate is still wet. His interest in the medium began after sitting for his own wet-plate portrait. “I felt a deep sense of familiarity, like coming home to something I hadn’t realized was missing,” said Gutierrez. Since then, he has studied the process through the Western Photographic Historical Society and built an exhibition record that includes Galeria Mitotera, Snakebite Creation Space, and Communion on Convent in Tucson, and Museo de Arte de Nogales in Sonora, Mexico.
at the Bill Ford Gallery & PJC Gallery, Gallery Q/Hallway Gallery
Paducah School of Art and Design
Paducah, KY, August 14 – Four exhibitions running concurrently will open at the Bill Ford Gallery, PJC Gallery, Gallery Q and the Hallway Gallery at the Paducah School of Art and Design, 9th and Harrison Street in Paducah’s historic Downtown. Theses exhibits will be on display August 27-October 2, 2026, gallery hours Monday through Thursday, 10-4 with an opening reception on Thursday, August 27, from 5-6:30 pm. All events are free and open to the public.
In the Bill Ford Gallery, “What You Seek”, is a solo exhibition by St. Louis artist Natalie Baldeón. Baldeón’s says, “My work explores the relationships between bodies, ecologies, and systems of care. Drawing from mythology, permaculture, and lived experience, I create paintings in which human figures merge with botanical and mycological forms, seeking to illuminate the beauty and tension of often-overlooked aspects of societal roles, personal transformation, and the passage of time. I am interested in how identities are shaped through lineage, vulnerability, and our interconnectedness with the living world.”
Throughout the exhibition, bodies intertwine with plants, fungi, forests, and celestial forms, dissolving boundaries between the human and other. Botanical cycles of growth, decay, and renewal become metaphors for grief, transformation, and resilience, while gardens and forests emerge as spaces of memory, reflection, and reciprocity.
Ultimately, this work proposes that the answers or guidance we search for elsewhere may already exist within everyday acts of care, ecological connection, and marvel of the mundane. The exhibition invites viewers to embrace uncertainty, cultivate wonder, and imagine more reciprocal ways of belonging to the world around them.
Natalie Baldeón is a Visual Artist and Educator living in Saint Louis, MO. She received her BFA from The University of Central Florida, and her MFA from Washington University in Saint Louis. She has exhibited her work locally, regionally, and nationally. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Webster University.
In the PJC Gallery, local artist Donna Howson will be exhibiting her work in an exhibition titled, “Demons and Dolls”, a collection of large-scale paintings and 3D work.
Howson says, “I create large-scale drawings and paintings that explore the complicated relationship between childhood and adulthood. Using personal experience alongside Catholic imagery, folklore, nursery rhymes, toys, and children’s games, I investigate the stories we inherit before we are old enough to question them and the ways they continue to shape us throughout our lives. Working from a feminist perspective, I am drawn to the tension between innocence and experience by using familiar symbols of childhood as a way to examine memory, identity, vulnerability, and the cultural expectations placed on women and girls. These images shift between humor and tragedy, beauty and discomfort, inviting viewers to reconsider what once seemed innocent or harmless. My compositions are intentionally dense, allowing multiple narratives to exist within a single work. What may first appear chaotic gradually reveals unexpected connections, small moments of humor, and quieter, more unsettling details. I want the experience of looking to mirror the process of remembering with fragmented, layered, and constantly unfolding imagery.”
Born in New York in 1970, Donna Howson began drawing as a small child and never stopped. Her early fascination with images, storytelling, and the world of childhood became the foundation for a lifelong artistic practice. Howson received her MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and her BFA from Moore College of Art & Design. Over the course of her career, she has developed a practice centered on drawing and painting, creating large-scale works that reflect her interest in personal history, visual storytelling, and commonly shared experiences.
She lives and works in Paducah, Kentucky, with her husband and son.
In Gallery Q, PSAD alumni (2024) Karlee Ramos is displaying her work in her solo exhibit, “Art From the Edge”. Karlee says, “In my artwork, I explore different ways to bring the images to life with experimentation in dynamic lines, vibrant colors and rich textures.” Ramos’s work takes viewers on a visual journey through her childlike imagination and joyful spirit to spark connection.
In the Hallway Gallery is artist Palmira Miro Gutierrez, a Tuscon photographer utilizing historic collodion photography also known as wet-plate photography. Gutierrez is a recent artist in residence hosted by the Paducah Arts Alliance (PAA). Gutierrez arrived in Paducah on June 21 this year for a month-long residency and transformed his temporary Paducah studio into a hub of creative activity–connecting with local artists and producing a series of wet-plate portraits.
Gutierrez specializes in grayscale images using collodion photography, also known as wet-plate process, a mid-19thcentury technique in which photographers coat glass or metal plates with a viscous chemical mixture, sensitize them in silver nitrate, and shoot and develop them while the plate is still wet. His interest in the medium began after sitting for his own wet-plate portrait. “I felt a deep sense of familiarity, like coming home to something I hadn’t realized was missing,” said Gutierrez. Since then, he has studied the process through the Western Photographic Historical Society and built an exhibition record that includes Galeria Mitotera, Snakebite Creation Space, and Communion on Convent in Tucson, and Museo de Arte de Nogales in Sonora, Mexico.
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Where is it happening?
905 Harrison St, Paducah, KY, United States, Kentucky 42001
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherPaducah School of Art & Design
