Exhibit dives into 'Mysterious Fathoms'

There's a whole other world awaiting visitors in the Dudley and Mary Marks Lea Gallery at the University of Findlay. The Enchanted Brush exhibition, located in the Virginia B. Gardner Fine Arts Pavilion, is an annual summer show that features works by gifted artists from around the world. In this eighth installment, participating artists took a deep dive into the unknown with the theme of "Mysterious Fathoms." "So you'll see a lot of mermaids, some wonderful sea creatures and then some creatures that I guarantee you've never seen before," said Dan Chudzinski, curator for the Mazza Museum, who conceived and organizes the exhibition. Pieces range from a mixed media sculpture of a Grindylow, which is a type of boogeyman that lurks in water, to a 3D-printed sculpture of a laughing mermaid. The exhibition continues until Aug. 5 and is free and open to the public. The 23 artists who crafted pieces for "Mysterious Fathoms" have also created works for Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, HBO's "Game of Thrones," National Geographic, Marvel and other iconic brands, according to Chudzinski. He said the exhibition started in 2015, before he was the official curator of the Mazza Museum. "Jerry Mallet was still around at the time. So he had called and asked if I could come up with a display to fill a gallery for at least a month or two months," he recalled. Chudzinski was at a conference at the time with some artist friends. "And I posed the question to them, 'If you create your own original character from a fairy tale without an art director telling you what that would look like, who would you chose?' And it turned into this two or three hour conversation at dinner," he said. "So I said, 'Tell you what, I'm going to put together this show. It's going to debut at a place called the Mazza Museum, and I'll make sure you get 100% commission for any art sold." That deal continues to this day, he added. A different theme is featured every year. "Mysterious Fathoms" deals with water and includes 24 pieces of art. "We have everything from oil paintings to scratchboard art to acrylic to watercolor to sculpture," Chudzinski said. Rich Kline, a Cleveland-area artist, created a mixed media sculpture of a Kappa, which comes from Japanese folklore and means "River Child," said Chudzinski. Ed Binkley made a digital drawing of a "Crayfish Fishing," which developed after he read John Crowley's book, "Little, Big." Mark Poole used acrylics to paint "Hook's Revenge." "Mark Poole is pretty iconic in the world of Magic: The Gathering, which is a very popular card game," Chudzinski said. "He was one of the original three artists so he travels all over with that, but then also creates his own work." A curator walk-through and brief talk by visiting artist Ruth Sanderson will be held at 4:30 p.m. July 12. For the exhibit, Sanderson created a scratchboard art piece of a Hippocampus, which is a mythological sea horse with the upper body of a horse and the serpentine tail of a fish. Sanderson will talk about working with scratchboard, and prints of the piece and her latest book will be available for purchase. Chudzinski will give a tour of the rest of the exhibit. The event is free and open to the public. A number of the pieces on display are available for purchase, with all proceeds going to the artist who brought the piece to life. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Artwork can also be viewed virtually on the Lea Gallery website. Wolf: 419-427-8419