MYRTLE BEACH, SC.-Just as a hint of spring is appearing, the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum presents two exhibits merging art and nature. Titled Kaleidoscope of Nature: Fabric Sculptures by Priscilla Sage and Paintings by Brian Taylor, the joint exhibit opens Feb. 21 and runs through March 30.

A reception from 2 � 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 24, will offer patrons a chance to meet fiber artist Priscilla Sage, who will present a gallery talk on her work. (Brian Taylor will not be attending.) The reception is free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are from 10 a.m. � 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 � 4 p.m. Sundays.

Priscilla Sage, Iowa State University (Ames) Associate Professor Emerita; and Brian Taylor, Associate Professor/Department Chair, Department of Art, Shorter College (Rome, GA), both have a passion for nature. Though they express this passion in very different media, each effectively conveys awe with the natural world and its inherent beauty.

Sage creates brilliant, organic shaped fabric sculptures that evoke a palm forest, undersea scene, earthly garden or some other natural environment, depending on the viewer�s personal experience. Beginning with shapes created in silver Mylar fabric, Sage then glazes them with layers of acrylic paints on which she draws or stencils. The fabric is then cut and stitched to a layer of polyurethane padding, folded and pleated; when completed, the work is suspended from a single point, with no internal supports.

Lightweight and free hanging, her three-dimensional forms are created to allow movement so that light plays on different surfaces � or as Sage describes in her artist�s statement, �so the colors make that sensuous slide from convex to concave or turn from a cool exterior to a rich vibrant interior.�

Taylor�s more conventional medium, acrylic paintings, convey in an abstract way nature�s power and mystery in an incredible array of colors. Taylor notes in his artist�s statement that his work is �an attempt to portray the illusive qualities of the
light, color and movement within a particular natural environment . . . (and) to reveal a poetic undercurrent � a kind of romanticism � that I feel exists in the organized chaos of the natural world.�

The exhibit includes 23 of Sage�s fabric sculptures and 15 of Taylor�s paintings.
Admission to the Museum is free but donations are welcome.