This new exhibition presents paintings and works on paper by two professors of art at Humboldt State University.

Price and Stanley make abstract paintings, influenced by their personal experiences. Price paints lush abstractions based on his observations of plant and other natural forms into complex and colorful compositions.

He attributes his boyhood explorations of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York, as a formative experience. "I have drawn inspiration from looking at the mystery, impermanence, and unpredictability of the life force of nature through its manifestation of form, color and light. I paint abstractly to get at the essence of what I am sensing and to evoke a similar response in the painting," Price states.

Stanley's abstractions are filled with color, illusionistic space, and built-in voids.

"What interests me is the space between things; the fragile and accidental meeting of form in space, guided by my narrative sensibilities. This is my way of finding meaning in all of the unexpected yet inevitable twists and turns of daily existence," Stanley says.

Her most recent work belongs to a series that she refers to as her "Keyhole" paintings. She says the series was inspired by two significant life changing events-the birth of her son and the death of her father.

"As I thought about my work during this period, the image of a keyhole kept appearing to me. The keyholes or breaks, as I imagined them, were like dents or imperfections in a membrane through which either miracles or disasters could enter. I began carving slits and holes into the surface of my paintings and worked my images around these voids. I worked to make the painted image, bend and contort in order to accommodate all of the openings in the picture plane," she said.

A reception for the artists will be held on February 1st from 6-9pm during Eureka Main Street's Arts Alive program.

First Street Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. and is located at 422 First Street, Eureka, CA. Admission is free to all. School groups are encouraged to call ahead to arrange tours. For more information call 707-443-6363.