A painting by Joanne Motz Heritier, which is now hanging at the Southside Art League’s Off Broadway Gallery in an exhibition with her brother, Robert Motz. The show runs through Aug. 31.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
As brother and sister, Bob Motz and Joanne Motz Heritier are connected by innumerable bonds.
They love to travel, and have gone to locales around the world together. When they can, they catch a movie together or do some other activities. Even when they couldn’t visit one another for months at a time, they’d keep in close contact, never missing a beat.
They also both love art, even if their end results are distinct from each other.
“We keep finding these similarities, but we’ve taken different routes to get there,” Heritier said.
Despite unique approaches to their art, both Motz and Heritier share a creative spirit that guides them both. Through mediums ranging from oil paintings to terra cotta to multimedia, they relish the process of expressing themselves through art — whatever form that takes.
Brother and sister will be showcasing that work throughout the month of August as the featured artists at the Southside Art League.
“It’s been a lot of fun doing this together,” Motz said.
The two siblings took varying routes into artistry over their lives. They had grown up in a creative family; a number of family members were skilled at sketching, Motz said.
“We could look at something and reproduce it. Which doesn’t make you an artist, but gives you a foundation,” he said.
Heritier’s was a little more straightforward. She went to school at Hanover College to study English and political science, but after taking an art class, she decided to change her focus. She studied art with the hopes of being an interior designer, but shifted once again, earning her teaching certificate and becoming an art teacher.
For 32 years, she was a teacher, mostly focusing on elementary school art in the Fort Wayne area.
“I was fortunate enough to get into a school system that really supported the arts. We had so many opportunities to do grandiose things at the elementary level,” she said. “It was so fun and rewarding.”
Motz’s first foray into art was on the performing side. He became involved in music and theater in school, then joined a program called Sing Out, part of the Up With People organization. He traveled with the program for two and a half years, performing all over the United States and around the world.
For a short time, he and his cohorts would sing in Pan Am Airlines lounges, flying back and forth on 747 jets. Motz left the program after being drafted into the U.S. Army, serving as a military policeman in Vietnam.
When he was discharged, he returned home and enrolled in Vincennes University, where he met his wife Renee. He studied theater and art, started a dinner theater before becoming involved in museum studies, which led him to work at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.
“Renee and I had decided we would take a vacation to French Lick. When we were there, I saw one of my friends who was in theater. She was performing there, in the American Cabaret Theater,” he said. “So we watched the show, and it was good. They said they had someone who had left, and I tried out, and they liked me.”
Motz stayed with the cabaret theater, which was the resident company at the Atheneaum in downtown Indianapolis, until 2005. Though he was primarily an actor, he also did stage design, which allowed him to dabble in visual arts.
In retirement, Motz and Heritier signed up for a class at the Southside Art League with Ron Mack, a talented local artist and painting instructor. Their shared creativity flourished.
“Ron is a great artist, and a really good teacher. He lets you fail a little bit, but helps you along. When you’re doing poorly, he gets you back in track,” Motz said.
Heritier has gravitated towards bookmaking art. Using a wide range of materials, she constucts codex books that unfold and unveil varying photographs and her own artwork. The pieces almost function as little puzzles, where the viewer finds unexpected surprises within.
“You go from one page to the next, with maybe a very simple storyline. Then, at the last page, when you remove the spine, the back cover becomes the front cover and you have the rest of the story,” she said. “I’ve just, on my own, continued to do that.”
But Heritier has explored all kinds of items, including origami, soft sculpture, photography and oil paintings, among many other projects.
“I’m fascinated with textures of fabrics,” she said.
Motz has tried and tested a wide variety of styles, from landscape oil paintings of Hilton Head to terra cotta tiles of Don Quixote. Some of his current tiles borrow from Vincent Van Gogh’s works, with his own touches added on.
“I thought I’d try doing Van Gogh’s because maybe I’d understand it more. If you paint someone else, you certainly understand them more and what they were trying to do,” he said. ”I’d take my own liberties then, so there was a lot of Van Gogh and a little bit of Bob in there too.”
The show at the Southside Art League will include a variety of these and other works — showcasing the breadth of their talents and getting other people excited about art.
“We’ve shared so many things along the way and always kept connected,” Heritier said. “Now we have time to do this art, and we’ve certainly taken advantage of it.”
IF YOU GO
Robert Motz and Joanne Motz Heritier exhibition
What: An art show featuring a variety of works by Motz and Heritier, who are brother and sister
Where: Southside Art League Off Broadway Gallery, 299 E. Broadway, Greenwood
When: Through Aug. 31
Gallery hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; closed Sunday through Tuesday
Reception: Motz and Heritier will host a reception for the public from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at the gallery. Light refreshments will be served.
Information: southsideartleague.org
