Artist Spotlight Rickie Higgins is a Southern mixed-media painter based in Decatur, Alabama, where he works from his downtown studio at The Art Loft, just across from the historic Princess Theatre. Known for his expressive faces, solitary chairs, and recent turn toward bold figurative work, Rickie’s paintings explore themes of absence, belonging, and human connection. His painting, “Confined,” speaks to the quiet prisons built by time, place, family, and inherited struggle. It reflects the tension between being shaped by circumstance and the steady resolve to press forward and break through when we can. See more of Rickie’s artwork in the current exhibition, “Connections,” at the Carnegie through Oct 18th during Gallery hours, Tuesday-Friday, 10-5 and Saturday, 10-2. “Confined” 17x17- mixed media on wood $500 (fb)

Artist Spotlight Laura Grace Clark “I find a deep connection to our lives through the cycle of the seasons. The winter landscape here consists of gray days, brown fields, and skies full of starlings. While the vantage is bleak and barren, it has its own kind of quiet beauty, speaking of a season of abundance behind and a future of growth ahead.” See more of Laura Grace’s artwork in the current exhibition, “Connections,” at the Carnegie through Oct 18th during Gallery hours, Tuesday -Friday, 10-5 and Saturday , 10-2. Artwork pictured, “Harvest Remembered” 8”x8”-Mixed Media On Board $250 (fb)