Running into the Storm, pastel on paper, by Deirdre Pifer. Credit: Courtesy of Highline Coffee Art Space
Running isn’t for everyone, but one artist wants to give a glimpse into what it’s like.
A new art exhibit, “Chasing Trail,” showcases natural landscapes from across Ohio and will be available for viewing at Highline Coffee Company starting this Tuesday through Dec. 3. The exhibit includes paintings for sale by artist Deidre Pifer of landscapes inspired by the nature she experienced while she was out running, from metroparks to Cuyahoga National Parks.
Pifer said she was inspired by a challenge she found online after her typical running group, Marathoners in Training, wasn’t able to meet due to COVID-19. The challenge, the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee, encouraged runners to run 1,000 kilometers from May 1 to Aug. 1.
Pifer accepted the challenge but made it her own by taking it on in Ohio instead of Tennessee. In order to avoid the larger than normal numbers of people out on the trails because of COVID-19, Pifer said she wound up visiting some places she wouldn’t have otherwise and documented the places she visited.
“It was interesting to just capture some places that were inspiring to me and places that I find beautiful,” Pifer said.,” Pifer said. “Places that make me want to keep going back out and places that I found solace during COVID.”
Pifer took photographs of places she saw on her runs and then recreated the photos using pastels or acrylics, depicting a window into the life of a runner, she said.
“Any artist likes to express in their work their feelings, their emotions, their experience in the world, and I think this is a wonderful expression of that,” Don Scott, director and curator of Highline Coffee Art Space, said. “I think this is a wonderful project because she’s really expressing what she saw and felt during this virtual run she was doing.”
Scott, an artist himself who also loves to photograph nature, said he hopes this exhibit will inspire people to appreciate nature a little more.
Heading Home, acrylic over watercolor on canvas, by Deirdre Pifer. Credit: Courtesy of Highline Coffee Art Space
“I just hope people can learn that this beautiful world — nature, nature is art in itself, and I think artists just express it or interpret it in some way, so I hope people can look at this exhibit, realize that no matter what they’re doing, even if they’re participating in a run, that they can just appreciate the nature world that surrounds, understand the beauty that’s there,” Scott said.
The decision to feature the exhibit at Highline Coffee Co.’s window gallery instead of the usual indoor art wall was a result of the pandemic, Christie Bruffy, owner of Highline Coffee Co., said.
COVID-19 restrictions have kept customers from enjoying their coffee inside the shop, taking away the opportunity for customers to view the art hung inside, Bruffy said. Bruffy said she made the decision to move all of it to the window gallery so that people walking by could still enjoy it.
“People still wanna see that art, they still wanna support the artists, they wanna support the local businesses, and that was just our way of doing it,” Bruffy said.
