Our halls and gallery spaces were full last Friday night as we celebrated the opening reception for the latest round of exhibitions. We don’t know about you all, but we’re pretty blown away by the incredible local talent lining the walls in the center right now.

Roanoke artist Sam Krisch shows off breathtaking landscape photography in the Ruth C. Horton Gallery, and the insanely creative students from Community High School fill the Sherwood Payne Quillen ’71 Reception Gallery and the Miles C. Horton Jr. Gallery with larger-than-life masterpieces, while fellow Roanoke artist Betsy Bannan’s snaking aerial image-inspired works on birch panels bring life and color to the Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor.

Bannan gave some fascinating insights into her work during an artist talk Friday night–the first of two she’ll give during her exhibition’s span at the Moss Arts Center (you can catch her second on Friday, Jan. 30, 2015, at 6:15 p.m.).

Inspired by the views from her cross-country flights, as well as the hours she’s spent looking at aerial views in Google Earth, she’s created stunning works, piecing together segmented birch panels into expansive oil paintings. Her segmented approach keeps the work from seeming too big, she says. “I tell my students, ‘you have to find a way into the work,’ “Bannan said. Each birch panel, although just one part of the larger work, acts as a much less intimidating starting point, giving Bannan somewhere to dive in.

Here are some pictures from Bannan’s talk on Friday, December 5.

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Flyover and The Big Country are on display in the Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor now through Sunday, February 1, 2015.