Neither Amy Forsyth nor her husband, Charley Farrell, can seem to make up their minds about what to be when they grow up. They both started their professional careers as architects, but they each work in many other creative disciplines, sometimes together, sometimes separately. Amy draws obsessively, although she can only persuade Charley to sketch with her while traveling in foreign countries. Charley paints, has remodeled and redesigned all their homes, plays the guitar, and writes songs. Amy often sings and plays the fiddle with him, when she’s not in her woodshop, building furniture and various peculiar objects. Making a Scene is a reflection of their many interests and obsessions, curated into one exhibit for the Romano Gallery on display October 30 to November 24.

Amy studied architecture at Penn State and Princeton universities, worked for Michael Graves, and taught architecture at Penn State and UNC Charlotte. She then studied furniture design and construction, which she now teaches at Lehigh University, along with drawing, 3D design and experimental musical instrument making. She was a board member of The Furniture Society, where she edited the newsletter for several years and wrote for Woodwork Magazine and American Craft. In 2016 and 2019, she received a fellowship at the Windgate ITE Arts Residency in Wood, a two-month program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, sponsored by the Center for Art in Wood. 

“My work begins in my sketchbooks and then spills over into other media, depending on the ideas I’m exploring,” Amy explained. “With a background in architecture, I currently work primarily in drawing, three-dimensional mixed media and furniture—and in almost every instance, there is a story suggested by the piece. Rather than creating a specific narrative, I attempt to suggest circumstances that allow the viewer to imagine their own personal experience.”

In 1996, Charley suspended his architectural career of thirty years, sold his architectural firm and returned to school to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting. After graduation, he worked for two years as a resident affiliate artist at the Tryon Fine Arts Center and was represented by the Hodges Taylor Gallery, both located in Charlotte, North Carolina. His work received an award in a juried exhibition in the Art of the State of Pennsylvania, and several paintings were accepted by the North Carolina Museum of Art in a juried show of North Carolinian artists. Fifteen years ago, he began writing music and now performs with Amy as a singer/songwriter at local venues in Berks County, Pennsylvania, where they settled in 2001.

He has exhibited his paintings at the Freyberger Gallery at Penn State Berks, The GoggleWorks Center for the Arts in Reading, Pennsylvania, and Studio B in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He has won numerous awards, including first prize for the Art of Jazz, Berks Arts Council Juried Exhibition, the Grand Prize for the GoggleWorks 11th Annual Juried Exhibition. In addition to his 2018 solo exhibition at the GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, Charley has exhibited his work in New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. 

“I use the conventions of figurative art to explore the psychological complexities of human nature,” Charley said. “My paintings are about all of us, inclusive of our strengths and shortcomings, caught in the act of being human.”

Making a Scene is open for all to experience in the Romano Gallery October 30 to November 24. The duo will join the Blair community for an artist talk on Thursday, November 21, at 7 p.m. and all are welcome to attend.