Lynette Haggard Art Blog

George Mason: Damariscotta Mills, Maine

2011-12-11T22:48:00.001-05:00

[Lynette Haggard's invited artist interview series]

Artist George Mason

Please share a little about yourself.

I live in Damariscotta Mills, Maine in a converted church with my wife Susan, who is an acupuncturist. Our kids Zoe (20) and Aaron (17) have recently gone off to school. Our home is just around the corner from the Damariscotta Lake swimming hole and we can see the Great Salt Bay over the trees. There are birds everywhere, including a nesting pairs of eagles, osprey, Great Blues, cormorants, and loons; especially when the alewives return in May. It’s a beautiful setting to live and work. Watching and being part of the rhythm of the seasons here deeply influences my studio practice.

Land of Nod
 2010 
21” x 20”
Plaster, carpet, casein paint, encaustic, gold leaf

Did you receive formal art training?

I received my B.F.A. in ceramics from Cranbrook Academy of Art and my M.F.A. from The College of Ceramics at Alfred University. I also went back to school to complete a master’s degree in acupuncture from the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture.

Detail; Pastoral
plaster, pigment, burlap, encaustic

At what point did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

My Mother encouraged me as a youngster and she loved to paint. In high school I felt, “I can do this”. As a young adult, art was a continent that was difficult for my Father to visit, a kind of refuge, while at the same time a vehicle to prove myself, (probably to my Father).

I found the artist vs. craftsman debate that went on for years to be so tiresome and not helpful. Neither label is useful for what happens when I am in my studio.

Diptych
2011
36” x 62”
Commission; collection of Joy Leventhal
plaster, burlap, casein paint, encaustic, gold leaf

What is your current work about?

I create conditions - experiments, that I then follow with great curiosity. It turns out that, for me, having an idea may be less important than being open to inquiry for its own sake.

This appears to involve listening, trusting that the present provides, and following the thread of what is observed. The materials I experiment with include plaster, burlap, pigment, casein paint, encaustic, indoor-outdoor carpet, kitchen floor vinyl, and shower stall underlayment.

The active questions that continue to invite exploration are qualities such as light and shadow, texture and relief, the primacy of gravity, and longing.

George Mason in Studio

Shelter 3

2011

6"10" x 13'

Plaster, pigment, burlap, casein paint, encaustic

Divide

2011

Plaster, pigment, burlap

current Coleman Burke Gallery installation

What is your workspace like?

Since we live in what was a church, I have more space than most. The ground floor is my wet work area, and the Sanctuary is the assembling/display/gallery area. Another room serves as my encaustic kitchen. Our Family lives upstairs above the Sanctuary.

George Mason's home and studio

George Mason in the encaustic kitchen

Are you involved with any arts group or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it?

I helped found Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Edgecomb, Maine. This coming summer will be the official 25th anniversary with all kinds of events and shows planned in July during the symposium session and the “Salad Days” Fundraiser. It is satisfying to see Watershed have a life of its own; one that is centered in relationship and exploration. Watershed provides clay, a place to live, and wonderful food, and then tries to stay out of the way. Peers interact, and no surprise, something happens.

Shelter 4
2011
6'6" x 13'
Plaster, pigment, burlap, casein paint

Detail; Shelter 2
Plaster, pigment, burlap

In 2010, after being incredibly moved by a Shostakovich piece at the Salt Bay Chamberfest here in Maine, I proposed making companion pieces for their 2011 season in the Darrow’s Barn Concert Hall. Through the winter I listened to the Brahms and Faure works that were to be presented, and they created a wonderful setting, almost like a cathedral, for my ongoing studio work to live in. The modern works by Esa Pekka Salonen, Pintscher, and Schoenberg were more challenging. Like many contemporary composers, they are working with raw materials, bending the ear, exploring the range of sound and texture. In a visual way, this is similar to what I am trying to do; exploring the range of the materials I’m working with.

From this collaboration with Salt Bay Chamberfest I observed that there is stillness around sound, which articulates the sound, and that stillness has a spatial component. Whether it surrounds sound or it surrounds visual elements, stillness is unconditioned space; It’s the Big Rest!

Pastoral
2011
39” x 40”
Plaster, pigment, burlap, encaustic

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?

When I was younger I tended to avoid the company of other artists. My feeling was, “why would I want to spend time complaining with others that feel as marginalized as I do?” I was also probably competitive, comparative, and judgmental. Of course, in hindsight, that was both foolish and arrogant. In a rural place its important to have a network of support that can help sustain a context that is meaningful.

100 Meetings
2011
9’10” x 9’
Plaster, pigment, burlap, casein paint, encaustic, gold leaf

Detail: 100 Meetings
2011
9’10” x 9’
Plaster, pigment, burlap, casein paint, encaustic, gold leaf

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

Getting stuck with my work is the beginning of the work. Images of a “Result” run headlong into the fact of what is actually happening. Any notion of what the experience ought to be has the opportunity to surrender to the conditions at hand. This is the actual work, and it is not repeatable. This, as far as I am concerned, is the terrifying jewel of a studio practice: not knowing, and meeting something for the first time. I feel that the emphasis on finding a remedy compounds the so called “problem”. Getting as close as possible to “stuck”; being interested in “stuck”; observing and understanding “stuck” is what’s important. Fixing it is trivial. “Stuck” is an active question; air it out. I put what’s “stuck” up, or lay it out on the floor and leave it; sometimes for 6 months. In time the in passing glance clarifies how to re-enter; or the piece remains active as an open question, and as such, very alive, and somehow inevitable, requiring that I make room for it as it is. Or what’s “stuck” just goes dead, and there’s nothing happening anymore. It basically has excused itself from the room; no decision needed.

The other “stuck” is the timidity that arises when I get attached to some anticipated result. Am willing to loose a piece by going too far? The studio is the place to find out. The pieces I ruin often become the seeds for something unanticipated and useful.

I have noticed that my curiosity is receptive, whereas my will is ambitious and characterized by struggle, and involves the ever present “should”. In the end I’m more productive engaging my curiosity than marshalling my will. I am not saying that conscious intent is not part of the equation, but the hands are intelligent, too. Just beginning beckons a response.

Receiving Tears

Do you have any particular habits that you think support your art practice?

*Accepting that my pre-disposition, my own backyard, and my quirky questions are worthy materials to give voice to, helps support my practice. This can feel like a kind of resignation sometimes, if I’m in a comparative frame of mind; wishing I were a rose rather than an iris. The problem isn’t being an iris; the problem is “the wanting” that kicks in when I compare and measure. There’s plenty to explore even with modest materials like plaster and burlap. There are worthy questions close at hand, even though they may feel too familiar, too simple. When tended with interest and sustained attention, they can reveal a depth and dignity that is riveting.

*In Five Element Acupuncture being able to identify a variety of specific odors is important for diagnosis, but it is hard to do. It requires an active receptivity, and no amount of determination “to get” the smell will help. Somehow this relates to what goes on in the studio. The activity is very circular and I may move from one table to the next, following the hint of a thread, or simply flowing around obstacles to eddy where there’s a place that is active and welcoming.

*I try not to allow notions of career to influence my inquiry.

*I warm up by cleaning.

Nourishing the Old
2011
35" x 39"
Plaster, pigment, burlap, casein paint, encaustic

Do you have other jobs other than making art?

I am an acupuncturist but I am no longer seeing clients. I have kept my license active because there are opportunities to help veterans and others with an effective PTSD protocol.

I missed the studio, so I am back at it fulltime again.

For me, making art is not a job; it’s a calling. That may sound presumptuous. It may be presumptuous, but it is how I feel about it.

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?

A studio practice is the real deal. Is it possible to bring a quality of attention that observes with interest the gap between what’s presenting and images of what should be happening? Can there be no struggle? Can there be the absence of fear? I’m curious to find out. How long will that take?

Kin

2011

40" x 8'

Plaster, pigment, burlap, casein paint, encaustic

current Coleman Burke Gallery installation

Do you have any upcoming shows?

A new show has just opened at the spacious Coleman Burke Gallery in Brunswick, Maine in which I bring larger work away from the wall, having it suspended in space and double sided. Titled Multiples, this exhibit also features the sculpture of Mildred Johnson and Isabelle Pelisser. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday 10a.m. to 7p.m., through March 3rd. (In the Fort Andros Mill Building next to Frontier Café, 14 Maine St., Brunswick, Maine.)

Upcoming in July, as part of the 25th Anniversary celebration for the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, there will be a show featuring the work of Chris Gustin, Lynn Duryea, and George Mason, who along with Peg Griggs helped start Watershed.

You can view more of George's work here:

www.georgemasonart.com

Thank you George!

Tatiana Ginsberg: South Hadley, Mass.

2011-11-24T22:20:00.001-05:00

Preparing kozo fiber at Women's Studio Workshop.

Photo by Janet Ikeda.

Please share a little about yourself.
What were any early influences on your work? Where do you live now?
I grew up in New York City and went to public schools in Greenwich Village and Chelsea. My parents often took me to museums and their friends were artists, actors, painters, dancers, architects, etc., so the arts always felt like a normal part of everyday life. Though my tastes have changed and widened the art I loved as a child has stayed with me as well. The first painting I remember really being struck by was Ingres’ Princesse de Broglie at the Metropolitan Museum—the colors, composition, and softness of the forms still speak to me even though I have perhaps outgrown my fascination with Princesses. And I am sure the origami Christmas tree at the Museum of Natural History influenced my long-standing interest with paper folding and Japanese paper.

Now I live in Massachusetts, close to Mount Holyoke College where I am teaching in the art department. There are beautiful walks around here, and I visit family in New York regularly so I still get to the museums that I loved as a kid.

La Pérouse’s Last Letters. Handmade kozo paper with
cotton pulp painting, indigo dyed hemp, thread. 2011.

Did you receive any formal art training? If yes where and what did you major in?
I studied printmaking with Kris Philipps at Sarah Lawrence College, and it opened up a whole approach to art making for me. I also took my first papermaking class with her. I think everything I make relates to printmaking and paper. Whether working spatially on an installation or in a small drawing I am constantly thinking in layers. When I started college I thought I wanted to work in stage design, but printmaking gave me a way to have a collaborative approach to working alone, just through the interaction with materials. I think that is at the heart of my work.

 Later I studied papermaking and book arts at the University of Iowa Center for the Book, and then went to Japan on a Fulbright to research traditional methods of dyeing paper with natural dyes. Eventually I did an MFA at the University of California Santa Barbara, and worked with Harry and Sandra Reese who make artists books. So I have had many different forms of training and, although it was a long process, all of it was invaluable.

La Pérouse’s Last Letters. Installation
view at Open Square, Holyoke Mass.
Handmade kozo paper with cotton pulp painting,
indigo dyed hemp, thread. 2011.

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?
I have always been interested in making art, but it took a long time for me to think of myself as primarily an artist, especially because I have such an appreciation of craft. I don’t remember a particular tipping point, but Japan had a big influence. There isn’t such a strong distinction between craft and art there, and that allowed me to feel that I could fuse the two in my own way.

What is your media?
Hand papermaking, particularly Japanese-style, printmaking (in a wide sense, from intaglio to digital), artists’ books, and installations that incorporate all of these.

Worm eaten shadow12 x 12 inches, 2010
Handmade kozo paper, indigo pigment, and colored pencil.

What is your current work about?
My current work is about macro and microcosms and the relationship between natural patterns on a large and small scale. The search to expand the known world and natural history inspire me, and I am interested in both historical and contemporary voyages of exploration. So I get ideas from new satellite imagery, as well as the journals of eighteenth century sea captains. Earlier this year I installed a piece called La Pérouse’s Last Letters, about the French explorer whose two ships disappeared mysteriously in 1788, leaving behind only the letters sent homeward.

Drawing at the Åland Archipelago
Guest Artist Residence in Kökar, Finland 2011.
Photo by Ted Gachot

What is your workspace like?
Right now I am working at home and have relatively little studio space compared to other moments. In some ways that is hard, but it forces me to be creative in looking for places where I can make things. Site specific projects, such as one I am working on now for the greenhouse on the Mount Holyoke campus, are great because I make components at home and then put them together in an environment that already has its own life and a history. That feels healthier to me than making things in one white walled space and hanging them up in another. I have also been doing more drawing (which can be done almost anywhere), and going to residencies, such as one in Kökar, Finland last summer, to give myself different spaces and new environments.

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?
Since most of the people I feel close to creatively are spread out all over the world, I try to keep in contact through sharing what I am making, and finding occasions to meet them. Sometimes that means sharing a room at a conference, or giving a lecture in their area, but working collaboratively has been the most fulfilling. Collaborations with friends who are far flung—working separately but coming together to install and show—has been a wonderful way to deepen our connections despite distance.

Untitled. Sumi ink on drafting film.

24 x 11 inches, 2011.

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?
Like everyone else I hate feeling stuck, but I try to remind myself that sometimes frustration is good because that can be the moment when you recognize that you need to grow in a new direction. Long walks and wandering through the stacks in the library are what help me most. My two main sources of inspiration are the natural world and books. Maybe that is why I am particularly interested in stories of great explorers, going out to discover and deepen knowledge of the natural world.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?
Walking everywhere. If you walk rather than drive you see things slowly and notice subtle changes in your environment. Walking clears my head and sharpens my senses so that I both think better, and go beyond thinking to absorbing, feeling, and just being. I tend to over analyze, so I need that.

Do you have other jobs other than making art?
I teach full time in the art dept at Mount Holyoke College. While this takes up a lot of my time, teaching also keeps the process of discovery alive. The students keep me in touch with the initial enthusiasm of the process while I deepen my own ideas.

La Pérouse’s Last Letters.Handmade kozo paper with cotton pulp painting,
indigo dyed hemp, thread. 2011.

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?
Lately I tend to chew on projects for a long time, working through them in different formats and iterations. I think this is good for me, because different mediums feel appropriate for different parts of what I want to convey. So now I am working on an installation and an artist’s book, an ongoing series of drawings, flat prints that relate to dimensional objects, etc. I hope to develop this further, and take on bigger, more sustained projects.

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?
The Verne Gallery is showing some of my prints and 3D paper objects at the New York IFPDA print fair at the Armory from November 3rd to 6th, 2011. And the installation in the greenhouse at Mount Holyoke College will be on display from February to June 2012

Do you have any web links/site/blog etc. you'd like to share that show your work?
www.tatianaginsberg.org

Diane McGregor: Santa Fe

2011-11-22T19:52:00.001-05:00

[LYNETTE HAGGARD'S INVITED ARTIST INTERVIEW SERIES]

Artist Diane McGregor

Please share a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and were there any early influences on your work?
I grew up on the east coast, in rural areas of NJ and Connecticut. Those early years surrounded by lakes and forests instilled in me a reverence for nature. After graduating high school I moved to Tucson, Arizona, where I fell in love with the desert landscape. Then I moved to Hawaii where I lived for 11 years, which was a wonderful, healing experience. However, Hawaii was not the ideal place to have a career as an abstract painter, so I moved back to the mainland in 2001, to pursue my art career in Santa Fe, NM. I love being back in the desert.

Did you receive any formal art training?  If yes, where and what did you major in?
I majored in Studio Art at the University of Arizona, with honors work in Art History. I graduated with a BFA in 1985. I majored in Art History in Graduate School at the U of A, but decided not to complete my degree.

Terrain II
2011
oil on canvas
32 x 32 inches

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

Since I was very young (maybe 6 or 7) I've loved oil painting. I started out with the paint by numbers kits — in those days they were oil painting kits, and I immediately fell in love with the smell of turpentine and oils. I constantly made art all through elementary school and was included in a children's art exhibit in China. In high school, I had the most wonderful, devoted art teacher — he took me under his wing and nurtured my talent. Art saved me in those difficult high school years. When I went to college, I was really torn between making my own art and studying art history. During graduate school, I received an internship with the University of Arizona Museum of Art, and loved working there. However, in 1988 I finally made the decision that whatever the hardships, I was going to be a painter.

Shimmering Air

2011

oil on canvas
18x18 inches

What is your media?
I use Schmincke Mussini oil paints on canvas. Just paint and mineral spirits, no special mediums or varnishes. A wonderful Navajo man, Albert Natonabah, makes my canvases for me — he is an impeccable craftsman. I believe his art enhances my art.

What is your current work about?

I think of my current work as minimalist meditations. I am working with the grid. This has been a natural development for me from my previous work, where I used the grid as a starting point, but gradually obscured it. That body of work involved the essence of the grid and the notion of infinity, and I tried to arrive there with the idea of formlessness. Although I love that body of work, I finally realized using the grid itself could encompass all of that and more. Now I am using the grid as the primary compositional device in the work. I love the purity and simplicity of the grid, yet through its repetition it seems to satisfy all my creative desires. My technique involves building up an underpainting onto which I paint tiny rectangles of white, allowing the underpainting to show through. Between the linear elements of the grid, and the more fugitive, organic elements of the areas inside each rectangle, there is an interesting dialogue between the geometric and the lyrical. This way of working seems well-suited for me — I have never felt comfortable with the "grand gesture" and this delicate, methodical technique allows me to access a contemplative and quiet place within me that I find necessary in order to connect with my work on a spiritual level.

Terrain III
2011
oil on canvas

32 x 32"

What is your workspace like?

I converted the master bedroom in our home into my studio. I don't have a huge space, but the natural light is outstanding. It works perfectly for me. I love working at home, being with my animals, and observing the constantly changing light and weather of my surroundings.

McGregor's studio

McGregor working in her studio

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?
I am definitely a hermit, so I don't get out much to socialize, except if there's a friend having an exhibition reception or something like that. Facebook and the internet has been critical for me — I have found so many like minds all over the world, and I have learned about and met so many other contemporary artists. Recently, a small group of Santa Fe women have started the Lady Minimalist Tea Society — we get together once a month and we're planning to have a show of our work. That's been really gratifying to get to know these women and the work that they are doing. (The name sort of started out as a joke, but we've all grown rather fond of it!)

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

Getting stuck is one of the worst places to be. It often signals that it is time to move forward and evolve.
I try to keep working during those times, trusting the answer or the insight will appear when I'm ready to receive it. This, of course is not easy – the waiting can seem like the muse has totally abandoned you. I spend a great deal of time reading and studying art history, looking at contemporary painters on the web, and reading art magazines and blogs. Eventually something clicks and I'm back on track. Other days, enormous doubts plague me, and I've found there's nothing to really do about those except take a short break – maybe go into Santa Fe and look at some inspiring work – usually the doubt goes away within a day or two.

Terrain
2011
oil on canvas

32 x 32"

Detail of Terrain

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?

Journaling, meditation, spiritual studies (mostly of a Buddhist nature), reading poetry, being out in nature, contemplating the sky and the weather — all these activities go into my work and nourish my connection with my paintings.

Twilight
2011
oil on canvas
18x18 inches

Do you have other jobs other than making art?

I am also a wildlife rehabber, so in the spring NM Game and Fish gives me orphaned skunks and raccoons to raise. They are eventually released to the wild. It is always a challenge to be completely there for them when then need a mama, love, and nurturing, and then later having to have to let them go is always difficult for the heart. Each and every baby is a unique and precious critter, and it is a great honor to give them a chance to live free in the wild.

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?

I would like to eventually have representation in 6 galleries across the country, as well as being in more museum shows. I'd also like to be involved in more curated, thematic exhibitions. I especially hope to be focusing on larger work — the grids really seem to "breathe" when they are larger and there is more detail involved — it's harder to achieve that on small canvases.

Essence
2011

oil on canvas
32 x 32 inches

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?

I will be included in "Bare Essentials: Minimalism in the 21st Century," curated by Ingrid Fassbender and showing at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago in November. I will also be showing a series of small paintings I call "Winter Poems" in December at Costello-Childs Contemporary in Scottsdale.

You can see more of Dianes' work on her website, http://www.dianemcgregor.com and her blog is http://dianemcgregor.blogspot.com

Thank you Diane!

Catherine Nash: Tucson, Arizona

2011-11-06T09:32:00.000-05:00

[LYNETTE HAGGARD'S INVITED ARTIST INTERVIEW SERIES]

Catherine Nash, Artist

Please share a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and what were any early influences on your work?

I still claim my New England roots even though I have lived in Tucson since 1983 with several years in Europe...is it “once a New Englander always a...”? I am one of those fortunate artists who not only decided early on to be an artist but found mentors through my early years into college.

Eclipsis Lunar
Mixed media assemblage, encaustic painting in an antique box,
wax pencil and chalk drawing of a ca. 1552 lunar eclipse diagram
on an old school slate;antique copper compact,
mica, branches, handmade paper with walnut ink and encaustic.
17.5”h X 25”w (open) X 10”d

Did you receive any formal art training?

I have a BFA in Drawing and Printmaking from the University of New Hampshire, and an MFA in Mixed Media from the U of Arizona. I’ve created lots of international opportunities for myself as well, especially in Europe and Japan.

Geometry Lesson
Encaustic painting in an antique drawer;
wax pencil and chalk on old school slate; page from
a vintage Japanese math book; cross-section
of a nautilus shell; antique calipers;
photo of Galaxy 51, oil stick. 17.5”h X 32” w

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

There is a family story that at 5, I declared emphatically that I was going to be an artist when I grow up. Ironically, my kindergarten report card says, “Cathy does very well in every subject, but in art, when her paint drips, she has a complete tantrum.”

Sky Nest
Cast gampi and abaca paper fibers into a
lashed armature of creosote branches, encased in encaustic, oil stick,
white line transfer. 26"h X 40"w X 10"d

detail of Sky Nest

What is your media?

Totally mixed media, but I gravitate first to paper and encaustic, sometimes incorporating wood and clay. I have given myself freedom to create in varied ways: making books, paintings, sculpture and installations. I feel that if my content is consistently expressed, then the media/formatting can shift. Basically idea dictates my choices.

Spiral
encaustic painting, oil stick 21”h x 34”w

What is your current work about?

Earth and landscape is foremost in my soul... Mesmerized by the expansiveness of space, I am always pondering on my place in the universe and the enigma of consciousness and existence.

In my recent artworks, images of skies are seen juxtaposed with geometrical diagrams or sacred geometry. How varied cultures through history have striven to explain this mystery through mathematics and the sciences is just fascinating to me. The ancients observed the spiral unfolding of nature: geometry within the sprouting of a seed, a radiating flower center, the proportions of the human form, the relationship of the Earth to the solar system, the turn of a galaxy. The spiral, for instance, is a profound image of the movement of time and space. Miranda Lundy writes, "Sacred geometry charts the unfolding of number in space."

I don’t always know where the image is heading when I am working, although I do plan to some degree, perhaps due to my beginning as a printmaker. But I’ve learned to not question the internal juxtaposition of imagery, to listen and let the work lead me: a conversation with paper, wax, branches, brush, pen, saw and twine.

Front door to the studio I share with artist and husband Robert Renfrow
(with welded sculpture by Kitty Wales to bottom left)

As you walk in, my area on the left, behind me in this photo is the
teaching area of our studio and my inspiration desk:
(Rob's studio is around the corner...no photos of it.)

What is your workspace like? If you have photos of where you work that would be of interest.

My husband, artist Robert Renfrow, and I built a new large studio on the lot next door two years ago...having such a space had been a life long dream. I’ve designed my space on centers, one for inspiration, another for assemblage and books, a large area devoted to encaustic work with a separate table to do encaustic monoprinting and molten painting on paper. I have a separate soundproofed room for my Hollander beater (studio sized paper mill, effectively) that houses boxes and boxes of plant fibers and half stuff pulps. All my papermaking equipment is stored in there on wheels, and when in production, gets rolled out and the studio gets transformed.

A huge space with six folding tables is kept open to work and where we offer workshops of varied media: our studio seconds as a teaching space for both Rob and I. We are supposed to have it divided up equally and tidily, but I admit, I’ve gone over the invisible line more than once. OK, a lot more than once.

My inspiration area with special items I've gathered on my travels,
sculptural forms I've made, all my sketchbooks,
special branches and elements from nature.

Are you involved with any arts groups or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it?

I am an active member of the International Association of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists (IAPMA), The Friends of Dard Hunter, an international organization of artists who work in paper/books and paper historians, and a member of the International Encaustic Artists. One might not recognize the Yahoo Papermaking group as an official organization, but it is a superb “place” to connect, with unlimited sharing and generosity amongst members.

Having been an active artist in a relatively isolated community (Tucson is an island in the desert) and long before the gifts that the internet has brought us, I have always cherished my colleagues and appreciated the generous sharing.

I have written and published my “findings” consistently in varied journals and newsletters for about 25 years. I get extremely curious about a subject, whether it be an aspect of media relative to science, or technique or more lately forays into aesthetics...my projects have seemed to grow in scope. In 2009, after 2+ years of research, I published Beater Finesse for the Artist, an in-depth report into how international artists were manipulating their Hollander beaters to create varied pulps for varied papers. So esoteric, as my husband referred to it, but information that truly hadn’t been recorded or compiled since papermaking as an art form experienced its renaissance in the 70s and early 80s.

My current project, Contemporary Paper and Encaustic is about building a bridge between dynamic communities: those of encaustic, paper and artist books. My project will culminate in an e-publication that presents inspiring international artists who integrate the two media in innovative and compelling ways, focusing on how media corroborates with the expression of their ideas and content. I am seeking funding to help me travel across the United States to conduct studio visits and create one-on-one taped interviews with twenty seven artists, which will be embedded into their portfolio pages within the second half of my e-book.
Learn more about this project and how you can help Catherine make this happen.

I am impassioned about the opportunity to meet these international artists and I’ll be sharing what I learn and experience of their poetic thoughts, expressive ideas, and particular vision and how it emanates through their art within my e-book. Please take a look at a showcase of their artwork I’ve compiled on the USA Artists site which can be viewed here. I’d be so grateful for your contribution towards bringing this project to fruition.

New Growth
Kozo paper cast into a lashed armature
of willow branches and encased in white
and amber beeswax, dead tree with
root ball and dried mulch found in
the Rillito River, “grafted” found branch
with waxed green gampi paper leaves.
80”h X 33” diam.

detail of New Growth

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

I write. I make lists. I scan my decades of journal sketchbooks for glimmers of new inspiration or the new configuring of an idea. From there, I start to sketch without pre- thought and let images emerge.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?

I hate to say it but I work well with deadlines. Being self employed as an educator, I tend to follow a fiscal year pattern-of-living. The summers for me are as of old. For example, when school is out, it is daily creative focus and in-depth studio concentration. But I chose to be an artist-in-resident rather than an art teacher in the schools to maintain freedom of scheduling. I can take months off at a time to create with a show or commission in mind or to travel abroad in the name of art...and I do!

Night to Day to Night
Coptic bound artist book: handmade sheets of abaca,
torch ginger grass and black cotton rag paper,
gradated in the vat by slowly changing fibers.
In slip case covered with handmade
paper with white ink marks.
3.5”h X 2.25”w X 7.5”d slipcase size. 7” radius open book.

Do you have jobs other than making art?

I’ve run a second, very successful business, since 1983, dealing antique and vintage clothing and jewelry. Without a store front or a web site so the public can’t find me, I deal strictly to the film and TV industry and a few select stores. I search for specific period wardrobe for costume designers as they prep for period film. Incredibly fun, I’ve grown through\has enabled an art career. I just shipped 1960s glamour evening-wear to a major production yesterday. My business of selling period wardrobe has helped enable an art career.

on left: 1860s wrapper paisley calico with red trim

on right: 1960s 3 pc brown leather outfit w/ helmet hat,
waistcoat and skirt

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your artmaking?

I used to think I would want to be a full time studio artist...that is what everyone works towards, isn’t it? Painting every day. Yes, of course I want more time to dream, to ponder and to be creative. Right now I do the internal while I commute to work or whenever. I never stop thinking about my work. But I have grown to recognize that perhaps my life as it is designed right this very moment has a perfection to it that I am appreciating so much.
In 5 years, I will be creating meaningful imagery that delves deeper into my psyche and experience and inner poetry.

Osirion
Encaustic painting on wood,
gossamer thin Japanese kozo paper
monoprinted with cerulean blue encaustic,
oil stick filled sgraffito marks. 15”h X 30”w

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?

Yes, here they are:

"International Book Exhibit", October 19 - November 6, 2011
69 Smith St. Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

"WOW: Women and Wax", October 28 - December 31, 2011
Art Center Sarasota, Sarasota, FL

"9th International Book Art Festival" November 2011
(traveling for 3 years through Poland)
Muzeum Książki Artystycznej, Lodz, Poland

Solo Exhibition, September 2012
Bowersock Gallery, Provincetown, MA.
I am truly honored about my solo show: I won 1st place in the Bowersock Gallery’s June 2011 show “Wax in Motion” held in Provincetown, MA. Not only will they give me a solo exhibition, but they have just signed me for representation.

You can see more of Catherine's work on her website.

Read more about Catherine and see more about her studio on her blog.

Thank-you Catherine!

Virginia Fitzgerald: Natick, Mass.

2011-10-23T10:25:00.000-04:00

Virginia Fitzgerald and Lush

2009
57 x 24 x 24"

sculpture: fabric remnants, discarded clothing,
scrap wood, chicken wire, copper spool,
buttons, beads, embroidery floss;
100% found and discarded material used in the piece

Please share a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and what were the early influences on your work?

I was born in 1964 and grew up in Chicago, IL. When I was 11, we moved to a suburb of Chicago. I was fortunate because my grandmother loved to take me to the Art Institute of Chicago so I was exposed to magnificent art at a young age. I remember studying the Impressionists, having their bright colors and mark making pointed out to me. I have vivid memories of standing mystified in front of Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, and wanting to dive into Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sky Above Clouds IV; this 8ft x 24ft painting of endless clouds. Lastly I remember searching out the plaster sculptures of George Segal. As I got older I became a huge fan of Henri Matisse and the Fauves. And in the past years I have become a contemporary art junkie, making many pilgrimages to NYC to see cutting edge shows in Chelsea galleries. I have also lived in numerous cities with wonderful museums, L.A.; New York and now Boston. I presently live in Natick, Massachusetts, with my two daughters.

Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte
George Seurat 1884 – 1886
Image AIC website

Sky Above Clouds IV, 1965
Oil on canvas Georgia O'Keeffe

Did you receive any formal art training? If yes, where and what did you major in?

I showed interest and skill in art at an early age. My high school art teacher encouraged me to take figure-drawing classes at the Art Institute during high school. I then went to Kenyon College in Gambier, OH where I got a B.A. in Studio Art, with a concentration in Printmaking and Fibers. During my senior year I went to the Studio Art Center International, in Florence, Italy for a semester; where Kathy Knippel introduced me to batiking and soft sculpture. After graduating, I continued to study art in the different places that I lived. It was in a painting class at the Danforth Museum School of Art, taught by Martha Oldham, that I really discovered that I was an artist; that I saw the world differently than other people and I interpreted it in my own unique way.

Clementine Dress

6”x4”x3”

clementine peels, thread and buttons
2007

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

As I alluded to above I really began to “own” being an artist around 2005. Before then I did many creative endeavors, ran businesses based on my art, but I never really thought of myself as an artist, more an artisan. I had always LOVED art ~ looking at art, making art, reading about art. And as far back as I can remember I was making things. It was after I had my two girls and I didn’t have as much free time that I realized that I missed being creative. In fact I soon learned that making art, being creative, was a basic need of mine. If I didn’t have an art project running through my head I got panicky and anxious. It was during my show, Dreaming in Color, at the Round Room Gallery at the Danforth Museum that I got a taste of showing and selling my paintings, and I wanted more. I had always wanted to be primarily an artist but after that show it felt more feasible. It was a few years after that show that I started the ‘Dress Project’, and with this body of work I feel like an artist, I feel like a conduit to a larger vision and I am just a messenger.

Wedding Dress (Brenda’s dress) Wells Beach, ME

20x 26

Photograph of ephemeral dress, 2006

Red Alert Cocktail Dress

54”x30”x 30”

mixed media sculpture,

2006

What is your media?

I believe the answer to this question is: what isn’t my media?!? I work in many media: sculpture, fiber arts, performance work, painting and mixed-media collage. I use many different materials, some traditional as well as non-traditional materials, such as VCR tape, plastic bottles and eggshells, seashells, rope and fibers and feathers and leaves. I also love working with found objects or discarded trash. I ran a wholesale business for 7 years making bottle cap jewelry and accessories ~ I used bottle caps as frames for my artwork which I then turned into jewelry and accessories. I also incorporate recycled materials in my fiber piece, ‘insatiable’, I believe the uses of 'discarded' materials highlights one of the underlining themes in much of my work, which is to look beyond first impressions. I like my work to make the viewer stop and rethink an idea or material, like eggshells, that they might normally not look at or think about twice. Hopefully, my work has invited them to see deeper than their initial ideas about issues, emotions as well as materials.

This Comes from Within
(full view) Size: 21 x 15 x 13 feet

room installation with wall mural, 8 foot high egg shell dress sculpture,
roofing tiles, black tulle, mirror mosaic, sheet metal,
crocheted yarn with beads, red velour, incense, egg shell lampshades

public installation at Medicine Wheel Productions, Boston, MA, Sept. - Oct., 2009

What is your current work about?

As I mentioned above I have a few ‘projects’ that I am currently working on. One is a body of work that I call creatures. These are fiber pieces that I create using what I call ‘organic crocheting. I start with a certain color of yarn and then add different yarns and beads as the piece demands. The piece is completed when it feels like it has reached a critical mass. One of the pieces which is part of my creatures is ‘insatiable’, an ever growing, crocheted piece made with yarn, twine, plastic trash bags, old campaigns signs, dog hair, anything that I can crochet that is in the green/brown family. This piece is on-going, when ‘insatiable’ is exhibited I go to the gallery at certain times and add to the piece. During these times people bring in different materials to add to the piece and some will even crochet on the piece themselves. This piece recently received a Juror’s award at the national juried show, Green, at the Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA.

Insatiable

Another current project is part of my body of work, which I call the ‘Dress Project’. This is a commissioned piece where I will use cards and letters that my client received when he lost his fiancé in the tragic events of 9/11. This commission is a perfect fit with what I feel is the main theme behind the dress project ~ using the dress as a vessel that contains emotion and celebrates the spirit of man/womankind. We are hoping to be able to help finance this project through the website Kickstarter.

9/11 Dress

a page from the dress journal

Along with these pieces I am working on a project that I call the Daily dress journal. This is a mixed media piece that I try to create on a daily basis, which is based upon materials that I come across during that day, with which I create a ‘collage’ that includes an origami dress. I create these collages in a 5x8 moleskin sketchbook and at this moment I have 3 different books in the works. I am also trying to document this project with a blog ~ http://dailydressproject.blogspot.com/.

photo of studio, cleaned up for open studios (it is normally not so neat!)
2010

What is your workspace like?

I have a wonderful studio space in Natick in the Winchell Building. I am happy to be in this space as there are other artists with whom I can converse ~ Mary Spencer and David Lang. It is also a large space, which can hold all the materials that I collect for my different projects!

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?

I am constantly in quest of community, people who share the same hunger for art that I have. I go to many openings and art events to talk with artists. I am always interested in meeting different artists and hearing their experiences!!

Also this year I joined the Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery in Framingham, MA, which I have found to be a very rewarding experience! Through this gallery I have made many profound artistic connections, one being Lisa Barthelson, with whom I had a two person show at the gallery. We are kindred spirits. I also participate in the Natick Artist’s Open Studios, which has a very strong and supportive community.

I try to support my art colleagues by being available for emotional support during those times of extreme self-doubt. I relish discussions of meaning, process and purpose. I am also always willing to participate in communal art activities as well as try to be physically available for any colleague who may be preparing for, delivering and or breaking down an exhibit. I am a big believer in karma and hope to be able to help any artist trying to put their vision out into the world.

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

When I read ‘stuck’ I think artist block, which I fortuitously don’t usually struggle with, although I can get stuck on a particular piece. Usually with any larger project I hit the place where it is not coming together and I want to ‘flee’. I am becoming more aware of this pattern and realize that it is usually based on fear. So when I am in this ‘scary’ place I usually look to my fellow artists to talk me through this phase. I also will turn my attention to one of my other projects but with a heightened awareness that I am avoiding the real issue. I try to acknowledge that whatever is baffling me is most likely a main issue of the piece and that I need to focus and figure out what is the next step.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?

One practice that I find INVALUABLE is that I keep a sketchbook with me at ALL times. Since starting the dress project it is both sketchbook and journal – a place to work out ideas, to note artists and work that catches my attention, where I note poems or proses or quotes that touch me and other inspirational elements. I also am constantly looking at art – either in galleries or museums, online or in books. I have a ferocious hunger for all things art. Also having many different interests and project I believe in the long run supports my art practice, however at times I feel like it can overwhelm me.

Do you have other jobs other than making art?

One of my main other ‘jobs’ than making art is being a mother to my two girls, ages 10 and 13. Also this past Spring I was a long-term substitute art teacher at the Dana Hall School in Wellesley, MA. This was an amazing experience with wonderful students. Both these ‘jobs’ feed my art although they also are exhausting.

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?

I am hoping to be a better businessperson in relationship to my art. Certain recent events have made it necessary for me to be more conscientious of generating income from my art. So in 5 years I hope to be supporting myself and my girls with my art. I also hope to be doing more funded, large scale installation work, similar to my installation that I created at Michael Dowling’s Medicine Wheel in the summer of 2009, called ‘this comes from within’. That was a lifetime experience, which I would love to do again.

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?

Yes, my work will be exhibited in a few places in the upcoming months.
First, I will be exhibiting the work in-progress 9/11 dress when it is finished, the location TBA.

Secondly, my Red Alert Cocktail dress will be shown along with the exhibit, In the Bag, at the Boston’s Children’s Museum.

In the Bag : September 15 - November 27, 2011
A project that traces the beginnings of the movement to ban plastic bags and presents the growth of creative alternatives to plastic. Featuring a selection of colorful, reusable bags made from billboards, juice boxes, rice bags, and discarded plastic. The exhibition aims to introduce grass roots recycling movements sprouting up in small resourceful communities such as the Philippines, Cambodia, India and Central America. The exhibition also highlights the work of contemporary artists employing reusable processes and exploring the iconic and physical characteristics of plastic as a medium.

‘Insatiable’ is part of the exhibit, Form and Fantasy: A Contemporary Twist on Fiber Art at the Mystic Arts Center, Mystic, CT, where it received an award. The show will runs September 30 - November 12. I will be teaching a workshop, in conjunction with the exhibit, about organic crocheting and creating your own creatures.

 
Lastly, for the month of October, I will be featured in the Community Gallery at the Attleboro Arts Museum, as well as participating in the Natick Artists Open Studios which are October 15 + 16, 2011;  noon - 5 pm @ my studio at 25 Washington Ave.

You can see more of Virginia's work on her website.

She also maintains two blogs: www.virginiafitzgerald.blogspot.com

and http://dailydressproject.blogspot.com/

on the daily dress project blog, Virginia dates her posts by the day the collage represents, so even though it seems like the posts are old, they are most likely posted more recently.

And you can visit her on Facebook.

Thank you, Virginia!

Sneak Peak: Beyond the Surface: Biological Explorations in Wax

2011-10-19T16:54:00.000-04:00

A slice of the show... come and see it up close!

Tracy Spadafora has curated a really vibrant show that is now on view at the Fountain Street Fine Art Gallery. My studio happens to be in the same building, so I was able to take a few shots and preview the show.

It's a definite DO NOT MISS! The reception is this Saturday, in Framingham. To download directions, click here the FSFA blog has a downloadable pdf from the directions link. NOTE: there is construction in the area so bag the GPS and use this PDF!

Come see this powerful grouping of work that both explores the underpinnings, fantasies and possibilities of biological forms and constructions. Of course, I should also mention that Tracy was my first teacher in the medium of encaustic paint. And lemme tell you, she knows what she's doing as both a curator and a teacher!

Here are a few gallery shots. Apologies in advance for not including all artists names and titles... hope that you come see it up close! I will update with more info soon...

Tracy Spadafora: Untitled Root

It's a really fun and funky gallery in an old mill building.

More of Spadafora and others' work

Hope to see you there Saturday, the reception is 5-7 pm.

***********************

Ellen Welch Granter: Boston, Mass.

2011-10-11T14:31:00.000-04:00

Ellen Welch Granter

Please share a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and what (if any) were early influences on your work? Where do you live now?

I live in Brookline, MA, but I grew up outside of Rochester, New York, with my 3 siblings. I went to Catholic school then public High School. My greatest influences were my parents, they both supported my constant whirlwind of coloring, drawing, sewing, painting, pasting, pottery, knitting, whatever. My Mom used to get us discarded end rolls of newsprint from the Democrat & Chronicle, so we had miles of paper to work on. They often took us to the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester. Those were the days of Pop Art—lots of wild colorful constructions made of lucite and neon—which I loved. Another important influence was Girl Scouts. I loved working on the merit badges which involved varied projects, sculptures, weaving, or heaps of spray-painted pine cones...very crafty. I think Scouts gave me a lot of confidence and a can-do attitude about trying new things. Also, we travelled as a family a lot, in a red VW van. I think I've been to every museum, civil war battlefield, Indian shell midden, and historic marker on the east coast, twice if it involved any kind of maritime history.

Three Blue
Oil on canvas
12" x 12"

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

I didn't get fully on an art track until I was in my 30's. I have a BA in Political Science and a Masters in (Chinese) History from University of Vermont. I spent six years studying Mandarin Chinese, including two years living in Hong Kong and Beijing. But my primary nature is not academic, and I finally realized that. My mother was right, I probably should have gone to art school. Looking back, my high school art teacher Binnie Birstein was a great inspiration to me. It was hard to be a 6-foot-tall 13 year-old, and she was wonderfully kind. (Happily we just re-connected on Facebook, and am inspired by her artwork all over again.)

Red and Gray
Oil on panel
12" x 12"

We moved to Boston and I became a graphic designer. Probably as a response to the constraints of working as a designer, I spent more and more time painting.

Then I found Gema Phillips at the Brookline Art Center. For many years her Monday night painting class was a vitally important learning environment for me. Lynette, I met you there too! After I started painting more conscientiously, my years studying Chinese and Chinese art emerged more apparently a part of my creative "bone-structure". I didn't consider myself primarily an artist until 2004 or so, when I got my first solo show and started selling. Now painting is such an integral part of my every day, I even have painting dreams.

What is your media?

At this point, I am almost completely devoted to oil paint. Most of my work is small to mid-sized, on canvases and panels. Occasionally I use some gold leaf, but it is fussy to work with, so I am trying to minimize that, although I am addicted to the effect it has. Compositionally, I am a minimalist, it's all about color.

River
Oil on canvas
3 (24" x 48")

What is your current work about?

My work has been a 7-year long series of bird paintings. I thought at first that they were actually about birds, because I love the small shapes and all their little parts, but I am increasingly aware that they are really just an excuse for the juxtaposition of colors. My adoration of an intense red shape with burnt orange highlights on a huge gray-blue field could just as easily be a cherry on a table top as a bird on a wire, I chose bird on a wire because it has an internal life action that still-life or landscape lacks. Maybe that means that I am just a misguided cake decorator. I would actually love that job...but seriously, my work does show my love for the pretty, the graphically strong, the decorative, the minimal. I also paint plein air during the summer, usually landscapes around the beaches and marshes of my favorite places in the area.

Indigo Evening
Oil and gold leaf on canvas
12" x 12"

What is your workspace like?

I crave a huge studio with skylights, ventilation, bookshelves, storage, large tables, sewing machine table, comfortable couch, sink, studio assistant to prepare canvases and bring me lattés. But no. A small bedroom in my 3rd floor walk-up condo. It has a a small table, an easel, some bookshelves, that's it. It makes me focus on what I'm doing I suppose. It has a radio, and I know I need a break when I start talking back to the other callers on NPR.

Arc
Oil on canvas
18" x 18"

Are you involved with any arts groups or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it?

I am an active member of the Copley Society of Art. Being a member there has been a career-changing experience. Their support for me led to my being accepted at the galleries that now allow me to make my living as an artist. I have met so many great Boston working artists there. I sound like I have a CoSo tattoo, but I feel very strongly that their organization has been vital for me as well as so many Boston art students, professional artists, and the arts community as a whole.

My artist friends have taught me that there are as many ways of constructing a successful career in the arts as there are artists. You'd be surprised by how many flourishing artists are there are that are not following the blockbuster New York gallery show model. They are selling affordable work, being prolific, being good business people and finding a wide variety of commercial avenues for their work. Some make a great living via their open studios, teaching classes, websites, offering prints, blogs, auctions, and other alternative models.

Heron Pond
Oil and silver leaf on canvas
3 (24" x 48")

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

I go through phases of feeling very confined by my own tendency toward repetition. I have a secret desire to paint like Joan Mitchell, stay up late, drink too much whiskey, smoke like a fiend, and slather paint on 12-foot wide canvases with a 5-inch brush. But I am more the "get up early, go for a long run, eat organic, and paint pretty birds" kind of person. One remedy always seems to be found by going back to my sketchbook. I spend more time sketching, and then by looking at the sketches, I connect more immediately with those moments when I felt the passionate desire to create an image, and it helps me get some mojo back into my painting. Thor Hansen said in his book Feathers, "If I'm not intrigued and excited every time I step outside, it just means I'm not paying attention." So when things get stuck, I try to remind myself to pay attention.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?

I certainly have a ton of bad habits, such as not putting enough paint out, or using the same crappy brush too long, or sitting down when I should be standing up. It's harder to pinpoint the habits that help. I have a lot of different pieces going on at the same time, and I like to think that shuttling between them is useful. I'm also really stubborn about trying to fix paintings that aren't working, rather than throwing them out. It may occasionally be a futile effort, but the feeling of reward that comes from rescuing an idea is great.

As far as good business habits, I think that it has been helpful to keep good records and have good Photoshop skills. Both help when gallery people call with crazy last-minute requests. Being prepared with jpgs means being able to take advantage of a lot of opportunities.

Do you have other jobs other than making art? If so, please give us some details.

I am a part-time book designer for Pearson, designing High School science curriculum materials. It creates a nice balance between being alone in the studio with no pressures and being social and structured in a huge multi-national corporation.

You can see more of Ellen's work on her website.

My next big show will be in July 2012 at the Maine Art Gallery, in Kennebunkport Maine.

Thank you Ellen!

Steve Jobs: RIP and some photos

2011-10-05T22:53:00.003-04:00

I worked at Inc. Magazine for 14 years. In 1981 he appeared on the cover. He changed business forever then, and now. This post is comprised of photos and websites that feature him.

In 1989 he was featured him on the magazine cover, as Entrepreneur of the Decade. He was brilliant and resilient. Hats off to you Mr. Jobs. http://www.inc.com/magazine/19890401/5602.html

Subsequent photos are a eulogy to a genius. Photos taken from the internet.

http://davidgalbraith.org/uncategorized/the-big-apple/2619/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/micro-markets/steve-jobs-on-entrepreneurial-education-circa-1995/1008

http://www.spd.org/2009/11/the-10-greatest-steve-jobs-mag.php

http://yesbuthowever.com/america-after-steve-jobs-5000560/

Posted on my Mac iBook; I've had many Macs. Thank you, Steve!

Ode to Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T22:24:00.000-04:00

Winston Lee Mascarenhas: Dallas

2011-09-16T20:21:00.000-04:00

Mascarenhas

at his SVA summer residency, 2011

Please share a little about yourself.
Where did you grow up and what were the early influences on your work?

My name is Winston Lee Mascarenhas. I'm 58 years old. I mainly grew up in Austin, Texas, then went away to private school for high school and then returned to Austin Texas to attend the University of Texas for my BA in Biology/Chemistry. I then went to Medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. After that I did a surgical internship at Ochsner Medical Foundation in New Orleans, LA. After my internship I practiced Emergency Medicine for 6 months in the Dallas, Texas area prior to starting my specialty residency training in Anesthesiology at Parkland Hospital/Southwestern Medical Foundation in Dallas, Texas.

Ascension 20.2
Encaustic/mixed media on canvas on panel
24 in x 48 in, 2010

While in my senior year of high school one of the favorite teachers was the art teacher so I signed up in my senior year for her class as one of my electives. A month into the school year my advisor encouraged me to quit to take calculus since I was planning on taking pre-med in college. At the end of the year the teacher had an art show of all the work done and one of my construction pieces that I did in that first month was given the first prize for that category. I always remembered that.

Also one of my Uncles that influenced me the most was an avid art collector. He and my aunt lived in Rio de Janeiro and as I was growing up I always admired their collection of mainly Latin American art. The walls of their apartment were filled with paintings and a collection of rare sterling silver items. Even though he had many "Investment" works he always advised me to buy art that I loved and that spoke to me. These were my early major influences on how I viewed and appreciated art.

Flux 43
Encaustic/collage on panel
10 in x 10 in, 2011

Did you receive any formal art training? If yes where and what did you major in?
I did not pursue a BFA. My education was as described above. However, during my adult career as a physician, I started collecting art and was always interested in art openings and going to museums. I went to museums whereever I traveled.

Flux 44
Encaustic/collage/india ink on panel
10 in x 10 in, 2011

I did have a rather extensive musical education growing up. I studied piano from the age of 6 till 18 years of age and quit formal education when I started the University. It is an art form that I've enjoyed to this day. I listen to music always when working in my studio.

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?
I became interested in making art in 1993 at the age of 40 during the middle of my medical career. I started going to the Dallas Art Academy every Monday night for instruction. I continued there for a couple of years. I then studied privately with an accomplished artist newly immigrated from Russia, Sophia Khunteyev. After several years with her, I then started taking one to two week long work shops every year on some of my vacation time for my continued education. All along sharing studio spaces with other artists until I had my own studio space in my home in the year of 2000. From 2000 on my continuing education was every summer at Anderson Art Ranch. Around 7 years ago (around 2004) I started thinking of myself as also an artist in addition to being a doctor. Around that time I started thinking of a time when I would retire from medicine and become a full time artist. It was a slow and gradual process that just recently came to fruition in April of this year. I thoroughly enjoyed my medical practice and am proud of my contribution for 32 years. But I'm equally as proud and excited about now being able to give my full attention to my other passion of art and the practice of my art.

A bit more of my art education. In 2008 I moved to a studio in a building reconverted as studios designed for artists. I then came under the influence of many accomplished artists. Around November of 2009 I had a studio visit by one of the top contemporary galleries in Dallas, Craighead Green gallery. Within a month they took me on as a regular artist on their roster. My first group show was in April of 2010. My first solo show was in January of 2011, and my second group show was in April of 2011. I have been accepted and participated in 3 art residencies: January of 2010 at Anderson Art Ranch, February 2011 at Vermont Studio Center, and July 2011 at School of Visual Arts in NY. I've been selected in several juried shows, recently this year in the 2011 Texas National Juried Exhibition.

Ascension 18
Encaustic/collage on panel, 10 in x 10 in, 2010

What is your media?
Primarily, encaustic over the last 4 years. I first was introduced to encaustic at a workshop by R&F in Santa Fe, NM around 2005, but did not pursue it and develop a studio practice until after my workshop and introduction to Paula Roland in 2007. I was so influenced by her and her assistant Ruth Gooch that I have primarily worked and developed my artistic voice in encaustic ever since. It is just recently since my residency at SVA, and my full-time commitment, that I plan on pursuing works in encaustic and also in other media. I should never say never, but it would be hard to ever leave encaustic. I truly love working in this medium.

What is your current work about?

In my work I portray two dramatically different visual landscapes. They are depicted as separate universes though often times clearly linked. One visual landscape will comprise ambiguous abstract organic plumes of color, shape, and space. While the other visual landscape expresses my fascination for systematically repeating geometric forms. They seem different and stand separate but many times they will collide wildly. My intention always is to create a sense of movement and vibrant energy changes.

What is your workspace like?
I have a wonderful studio about 22 ft x 22 ft square. I have an installed exhaust system, indirect and direct lighting, and good storage and working areas. I also have a separate area within the studio for computer and desk work.

A studio view

Another studio view

Mascarenhas in his studio

Are you involved with any arts groups or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it?
I've recently become acquainted with the Dallas Encaustic Center in Richardson and hopefully will be able to interact with that organization. I'm also a member of Texas Wax. I belong to all the museums in Dallas and Fort Worth and attend events regularly.

Flux 49
Encaustic/india ink on panel
20 in x 20 in, 2011

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?
My close bonds are with the artists in the Art Coop that I have my studio in. We all are supportive of each other's endeavors and attend each other's openings and events. I'm just now starting to expand my network of art friends.

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?
Yes. Many times when a work is not coming along to my visual expectation I set it aside. But somewhere where I can always see it.
Eventually an answer comes and I go back to work on that piece. When I feel a bit stagnant I still go to the studio. Whether I actually get paint to canvas or not I'm in the studio visualizing and conceptualizing. I'm a firm believer in putting in the hours. Answers will come.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?
Discipline. Going to the studio almost every day I'm in town. Frequent visits to museums and galleries for inspiration and stimulation.

Do you have other jobs other than making art?
Not at present. But as previously stated I just recently retired from a long and satisfying career as a physician specializing in Anesthesiology.

Flux 50
Encaustic/collage on panel
10 in x 10 in, 2011

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?
I, of course, would like to continue growing and expanding my practice and gaining recognition. I would like possible representation in other galleries out of Texas. I will continue to pursue group shows, juried exhibits, and continuing education. The end results in 3, 4, 5 years will play out as it is supposed to. The part that means the most to me is the journey. I love being an artist and having the wonderful blessing of being able to creatively express myself.

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?
I have my next solo show at CraigheadGreen Gallery in Dallas in October 2012. I will also be in their group show in April of 2012.You can see more of Winston Lee's work on his website.

Thank you!

David Kidd: Flowery Branch, Georgia

2011-09-06T21:59:00.001-04:00

Artist David Kidd

Please share a little about yourself.

DK: I was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Growing up, my father worked for Texaco and he was transferred often. We moved around, mainly in the southeast, from the time that I was seven. We moved back to the Atlanta area when I was nineteen. It was quite the gypsy lifestyle. Sometimes boxes were never even unpacked. We just left them in a state of readiness for the next move. That was quite a few years ago. I am now married to a wonderful woman that understands and encourages my artistic endeavors. We live just outside of Atlanta. My wife and I still have family here, and consider this area home.

Botanical Image #10
Acrylic on Panel
24 x 48
2011

Did you receive any formal art training? If yes, where and what did you major in?

I attended Memphis College of Art in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a great experience. I was exposed to new ideas and work that I would not totally appreciate until years later. However, before completing the program, my dad was transferred yet again. Over the years, I continued to take college courses, but never earned a degree. Most of what I have learned has been by self exploration, along with trial and error. For me, I think that this path has been a good thing.

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

As a child, I was always drawing and making things. Looking back, I can recognize two events that were pivotal in my development as a serious painter. The first was our move to Charlotte, NC. The move was midway through my junior year of high school and it was more difficult than the other relocations. At that point, I became more introverted and spent considerably more time creating. Painting was becoming my identity. The second
event that had a major impact on my development as an artist was my dad’s passing in a car accident in 1989. Although, I was grown and living on my own, his untimely death was a memento mori. It forced me to take a hard look at where I was in life. Even though I had always considered myself an artist or painter, I was doing very little to pursue that ambition. My fathers death changed my perspective. I no longer felt as if I had unlimited time to achieve my goals. I was turning 30 around the same time, so there was a lot of self examination going on. I didn’t want to live my life full of regrets and missed opportunities. Shortly thereafter, I started the process of extricating myself from my full time job of 12 years and began my journey as a full time painter. It was not an easy decision to give up my secure lifestyle and pay check to undertake such a risky proposition, but it was time. I remember thinking that this is how it must feel for some birds, the urge to migrate at the approach of winter. It was quite an irresistible and overwhelming feeling. I feel that I made the right choice. I’m not sure what the outcome would have been, had I decided to play it safe.

What is your media?

My paintings are comprised of acrylic on ¼ inch birch panel supported with 1 x 2 inch clear fir. I prefer the structural integrity of the wooden panels over the give and flex of canvas. The use of wood also allows me the option of gouging and attacking the surface more aggressively. My work involves a lot of layering and often has a pronounced surface texture.

The Pull of Objects
Acrylic on Panel
40 x 40
2011

What is your current work about?

At the moment, I seem to be working on two separate themes. One of these involves the use of texture, line and marks that often resemble calligraphy, or writing of some form. I want the paintings to infer possible lost meanings, or an archaeological significance. The second body of work is centered around botanical references. For the last year I have been utilizing a series of leaf images that I photographed during the fall. These photographs were rather atmospheric and undefined. Having said that, the photographs are really just the starting point. My goal is to have the paintings find their own direction. My work tends to be process driven, and the final result often has little to do with the initial concept. I think that is one of the reasons that I am attracted to abstract work, the outcome is not decided in advance. I like the fact that I am not completely in control. That seems rather contradictory, since it’s so inherently against my nature to just leave things to chance. As far as actual meaning is concerned, I think that remains fluid as well. I think that at times, assigning meaning or a narrative only serves to limit the work. I have a wide range of interests, from history and archaeology to nature and science. These elements always have a way of influencing the work.

Two of Kidd's leaf photos that he took for reference:

What is your workspace like?

My studio consists of the ground floor of our home. It is basically unfinished and rather raw with nine foot ceilings and concrete floors. It is usually in a state of chaos with paintings stacked around in various stages of completion. I always keep a number of paintings going at the same time. I’ve entertained the thoughts of fixing my workspace up and making it less Spartan, but it seems that when I have the time, I don’t have the money, and when I have the money, I don’t have the time. To help open up the space and bring in additional natural light, we installed a set of French doors. That’s been a nice addition. Hopefully, we will do more improvements over time, but even with the lack of amenities, there’s something to be said for a workspace in which you can feel free to sling paint and not worry about where it ends up. I’ve also taken over the garage to use as a woodworking shop to construct my panels. That’s been a big help, keeping the painting and construction areas separate.

Density of States
Acrylic on Panel
36 x 36
2011

Are you involved with any arts groups or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it?

No, it would seem that I’ve become quite the homebody. I’ve discovered that it is one of the potential pitfalls of working at home. I tend to be a loner and a poor team player.

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists? How do you support your art colleagues?

I recently took the plunge and joined Facebook. Through that, I’ve reconnected with a number of artist friends and had the pleasure of meeting new ones. I have enjoyed seeing what others are working on, and sharing common experiences.

Botanical Image #12
Acrylic on Panel
24 x 48
2011

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

Sure, constantly. I’m not afraid to paint over something and start all over. I think that one learns to recognize when it is time to throw in the towel. Not all ideas are meant to become reality, and for some ideas, it’s just not time. They just need to stew a little longer.

Do you have any particular habits that you think support your art practice?
I am always trying to limit distractions. For me, it is difficult to transition from the outside world back to the studio. I try to maintain an environment that allows me to create, and that requires a certain amount of isolation and solitude. I am always thinking of projects, design, colors, textures, line and shapes. At times, it can be difficult to turn off and just enjoy the moment.

Degrees of Interaction
Acrylic on Panel
48 x 36
2011

Do you have other jobs other than making art?
No, not at the moment.

Where would you like to be in 5 years, as far as your art making?

I would like to be more intuitive and spontaneous in the creative process. I tend to over think. I always love it when my brain disconnects and I can turn off my self awareness. I want that to happen more often. I would also like to produce a greater number of finished paintings.

Do you have any upcoming shows that you would like to mention?

September 2011 Thomas Deans Fine Art , Atlanta, GA (404) 814-1811
April 2012 River Gallery, Chattanooga, TN (423) 265-5033

You can see more of David's work on his website.

Thank-you David!

Elizabeth Sheppell: Atlanta

2011-08-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

Ellizabeth Sheppell

Please share a little about yourself.

I was born in Ohio. I grew up on a farm about an hour from Cincinnati.

My family still raises horses there today. I had a lot of space and freedom growing up. I was lucky to have that experience. I learned to be very independent and my work ethic was instilled there.

Silk, 2010
acrylic on panel 16x16

Where do you live now?

I live in Atlanta, GA with my husband. We live in an eclectic neighborhood called Cabbagetown. It is a small neighborhood very close to downtown. There are row/bungalow homes that were once homes for cotton mill workers in the 1920’s. A lot of the homes are brightly colored and a lot of artists and young families live here now. We are in a great location for living in this city.

Dot, 201
acrylic on panel 16x16

Did you receive any formal art training?

I studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati throughout high school in the summer time. I went to college and studied painting and minored in sculpture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. I received my BFA there.

Making Waves, 2010
acrylic on panel 16x16

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

I knew early on as a child I wanted to be creative. I would spend a lot of time drawing or making collages as kids do. I would entertain myself and be extremely content as my Mom recalls. Instead of having a lemonade stand I would try to “sell” my abstract painted rocks. I think it’s funny that I would actually charge people and they were kind enough to pay.

Punch, 2011
9 x12 acrylic on panel 2011

It wasn't until high school that I realized I could get a degree and pursue it as a career. I had an incredible art teacher who pushed me and she knew about Pratt. My parents have always been very supportive and they supported my move to Brooklyn to study painting. It was an amazing time that I will never forget. It molded me as an artist to be very strong and push on through. Brooklyn was rough then. I grew up quickly and learned some street smarts. It was an incredible change from farm life. I met some wonderful professors, students, and really got to know New York. I miss it a lot in terms of all the art and inspiration living there.

The Fat Series #3 9x9"

What is your media?

I am working in acrylic on wood panels and sometimes on paper. I have worked in oil years past but I am enjoying the capabilities of acrylic and how quickly I can work. I am building the surfaces with a lot of different gel mediums and trying to create more transparencies. It allows be to build the layering that I am focusing on right now.

The Fat Series #4
8.5x8.5ish

What is your current work about?
I am working on a new series of paintings where I am pushing the boundary of the panels. The work is all about surfaces. I am enjoying working in thick layers and creating new shapes with the over hang of paint. I feel like they are becoming more like objects. It is something I have been thinking about for a long time and played with different substrates in the past. I have found a material that I use as the base on the panels to build the edges. It is definitely a more sculptural process for me. I also have been trying to expand my color palette and push myself in this way as well. Color has always been a huge factor in my work and I want that to stay fresh.

What is your workspace like?

My workspace is in my home. It is the largest bedroom of the house. I have had studios separate in the past but this is what works best for me. It is a sunny room where my loyal dog of 15 yrs has been my studio mate. I am a very messy painter and somehow I make it work. I am need of more space but that will have to wait. I dream of a barn studio down the road when we move to the country. (Click HERE to see Liz's blog post with more photos of her studio!)

Elizabeth Sheppell's Studio

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?
I have been featuring an artist every Sunday on my blog since February. I think it’s important to support and connect with other artists. I have gotten a lot of joy introducing a different artist I admire every week. I have a new network of artists from all over the world which is so amazing. I am inspired and in awe of so much good work there is out there. I hope to shed a little light on these works.

I also try to post about shows that are happening in Atlanta art community.

Upcoming shows
I will be having a show Jan 2012 at Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, GA.
I will be exhibiting the new series of paintings that go beyond the edges.

The Fat Series #2
10x10 ish

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

Oh yes I do get stuck. The best thing for me is to put it away and come back in a few days, weeks, or sometimes years. I recently re-worked 4 paintings that I had started in 2009. I came back to them this year and finished them very quickly.

I also will sit with my work and just look. I let them reflect back to me and take them in. I know when something in the piece isn’t working. I might have to get rid of an area I love but I know it has to go. This used to bother me a lot, but now I know better. I now feel almost relieved when I paint over that section that I coveted. It’s a strange thing but I would be holding onto something or giving it too much power in the piece. It wasn’t letting the piece be a whole painting.

Do you have other jobs other than making art?

If so, please give us some details.

I do have a normal day job. I work for a wholesale furniture manufacturer. It has helped me to become more assertive and aggressive in the way I approach my art career. I wear a lot of hats at this job and it very similar to what artists have to do for ourselves to have any kind of art career. I think working with customers toughens you up which I believe I needed. It’s funny since I have been at this particular job I have been involved in more shows, written more blog posts, and have really focused to what’s next. I feel the most driven and ready for more right now.

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?

I would like to continue to evolve and keep the stamina. I hope to have a few more galleries representing me by then. I would love to be a full time artist. I hope to make that a reality someday as we all do!

You can see more of Elizabeth Sheppell's work on her website, and she is represented by Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, where she will be having a show in January, 2012.

She also writes a blog featuring her work and that of other artists.
Thank you Elizabeth!

Thank you so much for this opportunity!

Lee Emma Running: Grinnell, Iowa

2011-08-15T23:37:00.006-04:00

Emma Lee Running

Please share a little about yourself.
Where did you grow up and what were any early influences on your work? Where do you live now?

I grew up in Denver Colorado. In high school I worked for a sculptor, Jefferson Rubin, and also for The Bloomsbury Review a great book review magazine. From Jefferson I learned a lot about the daily life of being an artist, and the Bloomsbury Review exposed me to a remarkable community of writers and thinkers. Both of these experiences were instrumental in me wanting to lead a creative life.

Swailing, 2011
Site specific installation. Project Space. The Charlotte Street Foundation Urban Culture Project, Kansas City, MO. Front windows of the installation. Cut vinyl on glass. 82 X 60 inches.

I got my BFA at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, working as a studio assistant for many great artists, including Ann Messner, Emiko Kasahara, and Grimanesa Amoros. I also worked at Dieu Donne Papermill, which was my first introduction to the world of hand papermaking and the New York gallery scene. I moved to Iowa to work at The University of Iowa Center for the book in 2001, and got my MFA in sculpture from UIowa in 2005. I live in Iowa where I’m an Associate Professor at Grinnell College.

Swailing, 2011
Detail of vinyl on glass

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

I think I’ve wanted to live a creative life for as long as I can remember. As a child I wrote a lot, and attended a high school for performing arts in Denver where I wrote, performed in plays, and made art. When I applied to college I knew I wanted to be in New York. I had a lot of ideas about what that life would be like, some of which were true. I studied for a semester in Amsterdam in 1997. Being in another country where I knew no one and didn’t speak the language taught me an enormous amount about being alone with my work. I also saw a tremendous amount of art while I was there. Sensation was up in London, Documenta and the Munster Sculpture Project were happening in Germany, and when I was in Amsterdam I went to the Stedelik Museum ALL the time. It was the first time I’d seen work by Nan Goldin, Rebecca Horn, William Kentridge, Jenny Saville, and Rachel Whiteread. I remember thinking I didn’t know art could be like this and wanting so much to be a part of that world.

Intimate Structures, 2010
5X6 feet. Cut paper, graphite and wheat paste

What is your media?
I make installations and drawings. I was trained as a papermaker, and though I don’t make all of my own paper these days, the aesthetics of that practice inform a great deal of what I do. I often print or paint directly on the walls and windows of the spaces I work in. Lately I’ve been working a lot with cut vinyl stencils.

Swailing, 2011
Detail of cut paper drawing and graphite print.

What is your current work about?
My current work is looking at patterns that exist in the natural world. I’m very interested in botanical form. I’m also particularly interested in systems and structures that are similar in micro and macroscopic scale, such as the way the veins in a leaf mimic those in our bodies and also a river system seen from space.

Intimate Structures, 2010. Detail

What is your workspace like?
I teach at Grinnell College and have a studio space there. I also work site specifically, so most pieces come together on location. Sometimes my car and my laptop are as much my studio as my physical space!

Esplanade, 2009
Latex paint on glass

Do you involved with any arts groups or communities?
I’m a core member of the artist collective The Moving Crew. This incredible group of artists is interested in site responsive projects that engage with ideas of transformation and change. I’ve found my work with this group to be some of the most challenging and rewarding work that I do. In 2010 we completed our first international project with the two-part exhibition Ideal-X in Rijeka, Croatia and Grinnell, Iowa. Four core members shepherded this project to completion with the help, hands and vision of more than 200 artists in the US and abroad. In huge projects like this we all contributed in as many ways as we could. Sometimes that means brainstorming and making art, and sometimes it means writing grants and cooking meals. All of it is generative and very exciting.

Ideal X, 2010
Collaboration with The Moving Crew. Site Specific Installation, Rijeka, Croatia.
Screen printed cardboard boxes and shipping containers.

Specific Night, 2011
Front windows of gallery. Paste on glass.

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?
Making art in Central Iowa is sometimes a lonely task. I have the pleasure of being married to a great artist, Jeremy Chen, and also to working with great colleagues in my department as well as artist colleagues and friends across the country. Each of these relationships presents it’s own opportunities for support and community. A good example is the project Kind Favor Kind Letter that I’ve undertaken for the last 2 years with my good friends Kate Carr and Tatiana Ginsberg. We are close friends, but live very far apart. The project began as a year-long commitment to writing physical letters to each other about our work. It became 2 site-specific installations and an artists book.


Kind Favor Kind Letter, 2011 Site Specific Installation. Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell, IA. Collaborative Project with Kate Carr and Tatiana Ginsberg.

Kind Favor Kind Letter, 2011
Latex paint on drywal

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?

If I’m stuck I give myself a new deadline, and apply to a new residency or exhibition. A new site always has challenges in the architecture, light, physical materials and scale of the space. Proposing projects for new locations can force me out of stagnation.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?
I walk as much as I can and I take a HUGE number of photographs. Documenting closely the specific botanical information I’m interested in gives me an archive that I can draw from while making new work. Many of the phenomena I’m interested in are fleeting. I always try to make myself take the images right now rather than putting it off. Often when I return to a subject, it’s changed.

Do you have other jobs other than making art? I’m a professor teaching sculpture and drawing.

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?
I would like to be making more permanent site-specific work. I’m very interested in art in the public sphere, and I would like to continue to work in non-traditional spaces.

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention? I am in a group exhibition at Catich Gallery at St. Ambrose University in Davenport Iowa this month, and will be working on the windows of the old fire station in West Des Moines
this month, and will be working on the windows of the old fire station in West Des Moines for a public art event in October.

You can see more of Emma Lee Running's work at these sites:
http://www.olsonlarsen.com/
http://www.charlottestreet.org/2011/05/swailing-by-lee-emma-running-opening-friday-may-20-at-project-space/
http://www.grinnell.edu
http://www.idealxshipping.com/

Thank you!

Lloyd Martin: Providence RI

2011-08-03T22:58:00.006-04:00

Martin with a work in progress, 78 x 144

Please share a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and what early influences on your work? Where do you live now?

I was born in Providence RI and grew up there. Currently I live in North Providence RI and my studio is in Pawtucket RI. Drawing and painting were a part of my identity at an early age.


Lloyd Martin at work in his studio

Did you receive any formal art training? If yes where and what did you major in?

I got my BFA at RISD in 1980 where I majored in painting.

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

I was interested in art making very early on. I did finally settle into the idea of being a painter at RISD. I also played guitar in some rock bands and maybe would have pursued that if I connected up with the right folks, who knows. I really loved the whole punk rock scene in the 70’s and still love that music.

Which rock bands did you like and do you currently listen to?

Some of the bands from the 70's I still listen to are the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, Toots and the Maytals, Iggy Pop, to name a few too many to list.

I am really a long time Smiths fan but also I love Beck and Tricky — again just to name a few.

What is your media?

Primarily I work in a very traditional way. My paintings are oil on stretched canvas. I also do some works on paper/drawings that are more mixed media.

Stratum
84 x 96

What is your current work about?
Mostly it is about the idea that I still find making abstract painting challenging, I need a good challenge or battle to look forward to, to call me into the studio. Great abstract painting is a powerful thing. Metaphorically, the work is about architecture. The paintings rely on a synthetic architecture.

I take photographs of my immediate surroundings that have, in the past, acted as a springboard. In 2006 I started a series of works titled “Finestrae” based on some photographs of windows in my building. I liked the multi-layered meaning associated with the window. Painting being a “window” I was thinking about all of the wonderful Matisse “window paintings as well. Those Matisse works were created by default—they weren’t about the great epic subjects they were just a reason to smear down some paint and explore the potential of color and form without any external meaning. So they are very modern, in that sense. I wanted to make work that didn’t rely on irony to be interesting like a lot of contemporary art does.

Inspiration: windows in Martin's building

I am fond of the nature metaphor where the artist through the process acts to transform their given medium. Much in same way Nature transforms our environment daily. The sense of perpetual entropy is life. Each painting is fed from the last effort. Also I am such a visual person what I see every day in my life enters in and becomes part of the mix. I try to continue to open things up within a limited vocabulary. I have settled with these rectangular forms that float or activate space or the environment they occupy. It is a sort of figure/ground relationship. I like to think of the canvas as a place where “painting events” take place. So I begin by setting up compositions or color relationships that may be a little challenging. Then the painting sort of takes over. There is this point where I rely solely on my gut and intuition.

Red Stilt
48 x 102

This is the sweet spot where I’m not thinking and good stuff starts to happen. Some of the good stuff stays and some doesn’t. There is a point where I do have to edit and work towards a statement that feels resolved enough. The palette I have been using lately has added a new challenge for me the where the color is more synthetic.

Lithograph created at Landfall Press in Santa Fe
image size is 30x30 and is an edition of 30, 2007

What is your workspace like?

I work in an old textile mill here in Pawtucket RI. I have about 1500 sq. feet of space and I have been in this building for around 10 years.

A view inside Martin's studio

Do you involved with any arts groups or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it?

I am kind of a loner so I don’t really belong to any groups currently. There were a couple of years back in the 90’s where I belonged to a “crit” group. There were 8 or 10 artists that would get together at one of our studios. Each one would bring a piece or 2 and we would have some pretty good open discussions and critique each others work. I met some great people some of whom I am still in touch with today.

Finaestre 7
60 x 84

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?

I try to get to as many openings of my closest artist friends as I can. The mutual support some of us have had for each other over the years is very meaningful to me.

Do you ever get stuck with your work, and how do you remedy this?

Yes, I do get stuck on occasion, but it usually doesn’t last too long. I find this mostly occurs when I venture too quickly into territory I don’t understand yet. Not that you ever want to define what you do but it is important to at least have a good hold on the reins.

Do you have any shows coming up?
I have some shows in the works but nothing official yet. I just had a one person show at The Stephen Haller Gallery that ran from May 19 to June 25th.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?

My habit is to show up to work everyday, things happen through working. There is no other way to will things into existence. It’s a job and requires a daily effort.

You can see more of Lloyd Martin's work on his website.

"The fascination of Martin’s painting lies in its pitch-perfect balance between the constraints of a formal grid and the rhythmic movement of horizontal bands within it. The tactile materiality of the paint, contained within strict, incised margins, contrasts with the immateriality of the image. Color is arranged antiphonally, occurring in alternating patterns of call-and-response. An orange band across the bottom of a canvas echoes a vertical of the same orange set across a span of neutrals. A single red bar draws the eye to the center of Dissever (2010) in terse rejoinder to the red plane that commands the upper left corner. "

— Maureen Mullarkey

Maureen Mullarkey wrote a review of Martin's show On the Grid, this spring at the Stephen Haller Gallery. Be sure to check out her Studio Matters Blog.

Thank you Lloyd!

Cheryl McClure: Six Miles Out of Overton, Texas

2011-07-31T11:16:00.004-04:00

Cheryl McClure: teaching
(photo by Nancy Johnson Standlee)

Please share a little about yourself. Where did you grow up and what were any early influences on your work?

I have not gone far afield of 150 mile radius of where I was born in southeastern Oklahoma to where I now live in northeastern Texas. I have been married forever…and have three grown children, three grandchildren. I have been free to travel quite a lot since they left home. I’m looking forward to another trip to Italy in 2012.

I now live on a 200 acre ranch/farm between Longview and Tyler, Texas. The property was in my husband’s family until we moved over here three years ago. I love living out here with all the trees, pastures, animals. The peace and quiet is wonderful.

Bee-line Straight-Line Secant
mixed-media panel 20 x 16

Did you receive any formal art training? If yes where and what did you major in?
No, I am not formally trained in the arts. I married young and raised a family all while still wanting to paint. I just didn’t have a lot of time for it then. I can still remember the fingers in the oil paints smeared all around from a two year old. I have great admiration for the young women artists who can do both now. It is not easy. I did, however, take a lot of classes and workshops in painting from artists whose work I admired.

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?
Before my dad died (I was barely 9 years old), I told him I wanted to take lessons in painting from my third grade teacher. He even made me a small hand-held palette. Of course I didn’t know she was not teaching much more than paint by numbers. However, I did not want to paint that way, and with my little oil painting box and home-made palette, I chose pictures from an encyclopedia to try to emulate. I laugh now since I have a feeling at least one of those pictures was a Cezanne landscape when I try to picture it in my mind’s eye now. Strangely, I never really like coloring books. I didn’t like staying in someone else’s line. I’ve always been drawn to abstraction as well. After dad died and we moved down to Texas, I never had much chance to take other classes in painting other than the art offered in school. I never really called myself an artist then or made any conscious decision that I wanted to be one. I guess I just am.

What is your media?
I’ve been painting more than thirty years with acrylic mostly, although there were periods of using other materials to try them out. I also am very interested in collage and have discovered encaustic painting the past five years. Acrylic is still my primary medium. It is more about making a painting than it is about the medium for me. I’m still trying out different things like oil and cold wax right now. I think I like the hot wax better however. It suits me better with the instantaneous drying.

Meander, 2010
30 x 40" Acrylic on Canvas

What is your current work about?
My work is mostly about the process of applying paint….gesture, color, surface quality. Unconsciously, the land, landscape, and other natural forms always seem to appear even when I am mostly thinking about how I am layering, gesturing, mark-making to make a painting. I love the juicy paint, whether it’s wax, acrylic or oil. I’m really into making marks and how I want to place color and shape……hard and soft edges and that sort of thing.

What is your workspace like?
For more than 25 years I worked in a converted garage in my home. When we moved over here to the ranch, I took over a 3 room garage apartment on the property near the main house. I LOVE having this space all to myself. Sometimes I wish I had higher ceilings and maybe less steps to haul down panels and canvases. Other times I’m happy I’m up a little higher so I can look down over the pasture, creek and our little lake.

I set up the kitchen area for my encaustic painting so I could reserve the other room for acrylic, oil and collage work. The living area is for storage, book shelves and paint storage mostly along with a hide-a-bed sofa we brought in from the house. (Good place for a nap sometimes.)

Main painting room

Do you involved with any arts groups or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it?

Through the years I have been very involved in the local art community and with art organizations. I don’t do as much of that sort of thing any longer. In the past I was the adult education coordinator for the local art museum…all while holding down positions on the board, including President. I learned a lot while working at the museum. I became more aware of professional practices, what work looked like before it was hung on the wall, etc.   I was active in several art associations here in Texas. Currently, I am involved with TX WAX and International Encaustic Artists, starting out with the group in Dallas. While I was learning more about encaustic painting, the Dallas group has participated in many exhibits around the Dallas/Fort Worth area. It had been a long time since I had shown my work this way instead of in a commercial gallery.


View from McClure's studio

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?
After all the years of volunteering at the museum and involvement with Texas art societies and the like, I took time off so that I could spend more time concentrating on my painting rather than organizing for other people. However, I do love people and I do go to conferences or an occasional workshop since I wanted to learn more about encaustic painting. I spend a lot of time networking with other artists who are interesting to me or that I can share with. I recently held a workshop (my first) in Dallas and enjoyed the experience very much. You can learn a great deal from teaching when you have to organize and explain how you work. It was a rewarding experience but not one I think I would do too often as it takes so much thought, preparation and physical stamina. I want to reserve that as much as possible for the studio.

Since the 5th International Encaustic Conference, five of us who attended decided at the conference to get together to talk and share our work…take in some art shows and generally just have fun. I’m looking forward to our first meet-up in Dallas in September where we will also exchange work.

I’ve also been an active member of Mississippi Art Colony for about 11 years. We all get together to paint and share our work as well as learn from visiting artists who come to tell us about the world outside our own.

Interstices
Acrylic on canvas 36 x 48

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this?
HA HA… of course. This happens mostly if events have conspired to keep me out of the studio too much. When I am there all the time, work and inspiration just comes from the work being done. I, also, love to get out now and then and make gallery shows in Dallas or wherever else I might happen to travel.

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?
That’s a good question. Although I am an organizing type person, the past couple of years I got a little off course due to the move and the remodeling of some rooms of our home.

I keep a database inventory so that I can be professional when working with galleries or organizations. I’ve had a website since about 1996 or so. I always designed and kept it up myself. Recently, I had another person, for the first time, set me up on the technical design of a new Word Press based site.

I have great respect for my gallery owners/directors. I try to help them in their efforts to sell my work by being professional in my dealings with them. I keep my promises and schedules. I find it very off putting to hear someone say they can be late or flighty…”after all, I’m an artist.”

I try to always be disciplined about my studio time. With that said, I am always thinking about making paintings, looking at shapes, colors. I feel agitated if I can’t get in enough studio time. I’m happy to have the quiet time out here so I can be in studio without interruption more than I was in town. I try not to get too down on myself if time is short in the studio occasionally. After all, you have to have life experiences if you want something to come out in your work.

Do you have other jobs other than making art?
Making art is my job…other than wife, mother, grand-mom, cook, laundress, etc.

Pink Sky
Encaustic on panel, 30 x 30

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?
I don’t generally make myself a list of long range/short range goals. I know I should, but like my painting process, I prefer to know generally where I am going and let the practice/painting tell me what I think will be best as it happens. 

I hope that I will keep evolving slowly with my painting. I don’t want to stagnate or stand still with where I am. It is hard to evaluate your own progress when you are so close to it. I keep up with gallery and museum exhibits so I hope to continue sharing my work through commercial venues and possibly an occasional art center or museum show.

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?
I don’t right at the moment. I have work in five commercial galleries. Some of them no longer have ‘shows’ per se. Possibly when the market gets a little better, they will start setting up more solo or two person shows again.

You can see more of Cheryl's work on her website and you can read her blog here.

Gallery Mack, Art Connections Seattle, WA

Harrington Brown Gallery Memphis, TN
Jackson Street Gallery Ridgeland, MS

Jack Meier Gallery, Houston, TX

P's Gallery, 912 Glencrest (upstairs), Longview, TX

Thank-you, Cheryl!

Tamar Zinn: New York City

2011-07-11T18:50:00.006-04:00

Tamar Zinn

Photo: Harry Wilks

Where did you grow up and when did you become interested in making art?
I’ve lived in NYC my entire life and from the time I was quite young, music, dance and art loomed large in my life. I was fortunate to grow up near the Henry Street Settlement (on Manhattan’s Lower East Side) where I was a serious student of classical music, taking violin lessons along with music theory and history. Saturdays were filled with modern dance classes and orchestra rehearsals (also at Henry Street Settlement). At some point, I also managed to squeeze in art classes at the nearby Educational Alliance art school.

By junior high, art had fully replaced dance as a major activity for me. I attended classes at the Art Student’s League for several years and I think it was at that time that I was first conscious of the joy of making marks on paper. The smell of turpentine was intoxicating and even the chore of cleaning brushes was somehow special to me. I was the kid who painted the team banners at summer camp (instead of playing volleyball) and illustrated the playbills for theater productions at my high school. Painting and drawing, alongside violin lessons and chamber music, were activities that I enjoyed—with no thought of pursuing either professionally.

Broadway 70

16x16, oil on panel

I began college as a double major in art and music. However, it quickly became clear to me that I was obsessed by art—drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, looking at art, reading about it, running the student art group—there weren’t enough hours in the day to satisfy my hunger. The art department at the college I attended had some fine teachers but offered little in terms of practical career advice, so the very idea of earning a living as an artist seemed preposterous. Few of the people I studied with had active careers outside of academia. I just knew that painting made me feel good and that I could spend endless hours at it, so somehow I was going to keep at it.

After college, I worked full time for a commercial printer and painted at night and on weekends. A few years later, I did a month-long residency in Woodstock, reveling in the freedom to paint 12 hours a day. At that point, I knew for sure that this was what I had to do with my life. Not long after the residency, I had the audacity to show my paintings to a couple of NY art dealers and found there was some interest in my work. After that, there was no looking back.

Do you have other jobs besides making art?
Except for a short period in the late 1990s when art sales were booming, I’ve always had part-time (and sometimes not so part-time) work outside the studio, often in fields unrelated to art. And I’m grateful to have that second income stream when times get tough in the art market. Both my husband and I (photographer Harry Wilks) have kept our feet in two worlds—pursuing our careers as artists while juggling other work to pay the bills.

Studio progress shots, June 2011

What was your early work like?
Before turning to abstraction about ten years ago, my imagery was primarily that of invented landscapes. Throughout my formal art education I studied almost exclusively with figurative artists and had little if any exposure to abstraction (a rather incomplete education, to say the least). When I went to museums and galleries most of my time was spent looking at landscapes, portraits, still-lifes, so I began by painting what was familiar to me. Since I never enjoyed working directly from the subject, I rapidly turned to making invented landscapes, generally with a palette quite disconnected from reality. I continued in that direction for about twenty years but became increasingly preoccupied with the areas of the image that were most abstract and not about the landscape. At museums and galleries I was increasingly drawn to the work of Diebenkorn, Scully and Marden. Although I periodically dipped my toes into abstraction, I kept returning to the familiarity of my invented natural world. That finally changed for me when the pull of abstraction was stronger than my fears about where it might take me.

Fermata 4

10x10, oil on panel

What is your current work about?
I see my current work as an exploration of rhythm and movement. The Broadway series mirrors how I experience my surroundings—intense engagement in small areas of activity set against a quiet field. These paintings are in part a reflection of the music I listen to, particularly jazz and salsa, with themes and improvisation occurring across the series. It is critically important to me to find the just right balance between paring the image down to reduce the amount of information and having enough complexity to keep me engaged. My goal is to take the viewer on a bit of a journey. Another series I’m working on right now is called Fermata (fermata is an Italian word used in classical music which means pause). The Fermata series began with my desire to slow down the image by stepping in closer. Fermata gives me an opportunity to be more contemplative and think more deeply about the layers and surface, rather than focus on activity.

Broadway 72

16x16, oil on panel

Can you describe your process?
Although I begin each painting with a general sense of direction, the images emerge slowly through an organic process of exploration rather than by using a system. Of course, all artists establish rules, consciously or not, but what I want to convey is that my images are driven by looking and reacting, rather than through a preconceived program. I begin by layering in broad areas of color to have something to work against and after several painting sessions, the geometry and palette begin to offer clues about where the painting is heading. I’m always open to accidents, such as stumbling across an unexpected patch of color that can make the image sing. To work against the compositional formality of geometric abstraction, I scrape and coarsely sand areas to reveal some of the history of the making of the painting. I also rotate the paintings from time to time—which can reveal dialogues between different areas of the painting that I might not have noticed.

More studio progress shots, June 2011

Do you ever get stuck and how do you remedy this?
Is there anyone who doesn’t get stuck? Getting stuck and failing are both part of the routine of making art. But there is always jumping back in the next day with total optimism that on this day, the image will sing. There is getting stuck when you know you are onto something good, but don’t yet know how to get there. And there is getting stuck when you know in your gut you are moving in a fruitless direction, but you keep going. It continues to surprise me just how far I can go in the wrong direction, frustration and helplessness growing, until I get so angry (or filled with self-pity) that I finally get myself to STOP. Sometimes I look to other pieces in the studio to help me understand why I’m struggling, more often I start flipping through art books and find solace in the work of others. Sometimes I’m stuck because I’m working around and around a wonderful small moment in a painting that I desperately don’t want to lose. On a good day, I’ll put the painting aside until I understand why I am so in love with that one area. It is only when I’m ready to risk painting out that small moment that I get unstuck.

Broadway 68

24x24, oil on panel

Who are the artists whose work has most influenced you?
There are so many I could mention and of course some of the artists that loom large have changed over time. But these artists consistently top my list:

Morandi: I was introduced to Morandi through his etchings, which I admired, but was speechless when I first saw his paintings. I was immediately pulled in by the way the forms are in dialogue with each other; the deliberateness with which he placed the objects and the way he could make muddy colors look so passionate. The show at the Met a couple of years ago brought me to a state of nirvana. It is Morandi who I turn to most often when I’m stuck.

Cezanne: Cezanne’s still life paintings are deeply satisfying -- apples and pears on tables that are distorted to such perfection, table corners that tilt up instead of remaining flat, distended plate rims. I’m also drawn to the odd portraits of his wife—she is often seated quite awkwardly and framed by sculptural drapery.

Diebenkorn: I gravitated towards the paintings of Diebenkorn long before I pursued abstraction or had a conscious understanding of the vocabulary. The vigorous gesture of his brushwork reigned in by the geometry of the paintings was enormously appealing. And there is so much going on in the perimeter of his paintings. Although I first became familiar with his Ocean Park series, I also very much enjoy his earlier work from Albuquerque.

Scully: Sean Scully is another painter whose work I started to follow many years ago when I was still deep into landscape. Although I didn’t understand why the paintings appealed to me, I knew I had to keep looking at them. I find that his paintings have a powerful structural certainty but also incorporate a sense of questioning and unknowing.

Some of the other artists whose work I keep going back to include Bourgeois, Heilman, Marden, Serra, Puryear, Manet and Goya as well as medieval Spanish ivory carvings.

Do you have particular habits that support your art practice?
Looking, looking and more looking. Going to gallery exhibits and museums shakes things up—helps me to break out of stale patterns. In the studio, the first thing is always a cup of tea. It helps me to sit quietly rather than impatiently jumping in (usually a mistake when I let that happen). I need quiet time to find my way back into the paintings, to see what needs working on that I missed the day before. Since I have several paintings in progress at the same time, I generally start with the one I am least afraid of destroying and build up my courage as the day progresses. I try to end my day in the studio as it began, by sitting and looking for a while—looking for an opening of where to begin work the next day. And I need to leave the studio neat and orderly. It totally throws me off if the studio is a mess when I first walk in.

Fermata 12

10x10, oil on panel

How do you develop a sense of community with other artists?
Apart from a small handful of friends who are painters, I‘ve tended be fairly isolated in the studio. This certainly is not a good thing in terms of building community, but I’m slowly coming out of that isolation. Through Facebook and by following blogs, I have developed connections with more artists. Although I’ve only met several of them in person, the online dialogues have often been very satisfying. A residency at VCCA several summers ago also provided a wonderful experience of being immersed in a community of visual artists, writers and composers and I look forward to more of those nourishing experiences.

Where do you want to be in five years?
Taking more risks in the work and experimenting with new materials, connecting with more artists, participating in group exhibits, and possibly blogging. Of course the greatest challenge is finding time for it all.

Do you have shows upcoming that you would like to mention?
This summer, two paintings from my Broadway series are at The Painting Center (NY), in the Grey Matters exhibit, from June 21 – August 6.

Where can your work be seen?
The best place to see an overview of my work is at www.tamarzinn.com. I also participate in geoform.net, Julie Karabenick’s wonderful compendium of contemporary geometric abstraction. My work is available in NYC at Kathryn Markel Fine Art and at Swenson Fine Art in California.

Tracey Adams: Carmel, California

2011-07-05T21:02:00.338-04:00

Hypnagogia
Installation of eleven scrolls in Adams' show:
Between Gesture and Geometry,
Fresno Art Museum
Fresno, California 2011

LH: Can you tell us a little about your background?
TA: I was born in L.A. and am the daughter of a ceramic artist. My Mom provided many opportunities for art expression in her studio and through summer programs and classes. Her sensibility was Japanese minimalistic drawings and prints, obviously a very strong influence on my work.

Adams at work

After college in L.A., where I majored in music, I received a scholarship to study conducting (grad school) at the New England Conservatory of Music. At the same time, I realized I wanted to be an artist, but did not have a portfolio to support my being accepted anywhere. I enrolled in many drawing and printmaking classes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and MFA courses later on at California State University at Long Beach. I studied with Michael Mazur, Hugh O'Donnell, and others who influenced and shaped me as an artist, but this was many years ago. I've been painting in a focused way since 1978 and creating art since I was a child. Art and music have been the primary focuses of my life since I was young.

LH: What is your current work about?
TA: My current work is about the "cannibalisation" of my prints, both encaustic monotypes and etchings. I cut and tear my works on paper into fragments deconstructing them, then proceed to construct new images in a jigsaw puzzle-like process. This way of working allows me to recycle my long scrolls, which have been exhibited in many public installations as well as creating new smaller works. For the last 2 years I've been working on collages on paper as well as on panel. The works on panel use encaustic and oil as a basis for embedding the collages. To provide a little history, I attended New England Conservatory of Music and am a trained musician. This helps me visualize things in a musical way. In other words, people who choose to spend time with my work view it horizontally as well as vertically, much like a piece of music.

Collages photographed by Renee Balducci Huston

Collage on paper
17" x 14"
2010-2011

LH: What is your studio like? TA: My studio is on the second floor of my house and looks south to Point Lobos, though now it mostly looks out to trees which have grown and blocked my little ocean view. I have an etching press, 2 hot boxes bought from Paula Roland, an inking table and a table for working on encaustic paintings (I work flat).

Adams at work in her studio

LH: Are you involved with any arts groups or communities? TA: At various times I've been involved with the Los Angeles Printmaking Society and a group of women who are printmakers where I live on the Monterey Peninsula. For many years, I offered workshops through my studio and the Monterey Museum of Art, but have not done so for quite a while. I am a member of IEA, but don't participate. I live 2+ hours from San Francisco which makes active participation difficult. I am also a member of the San Francisco Collage Collective, a group of artists who get together on an informal basis to collage and share work and ideas. Recently, some members of this group had work featured in a collage show at Bryant Street Gallery in Palo Alto. The demands on my personal life have become such that I don't have very much time to be involved in arts organizations.

Collage on paper
17" x 14"
2010-2011

LH: How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?
TA: I have a few good friends/colleagues who live locally and we share our work and our struggles, helping each other out as needed. I also have 2 close friends who live in Santa Fe, one being Paula Roland, and we share issues pertaining to art and the art world. I receive many emails and requests via my website and Facebook, usually with questions attached about how I create my work, how to find a gallery and getting started as an artist, etc. I always answer these questions.

Collage on paper
17" x 14"
2010-2011

LH: Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?
TA: Habits? Yes, I meditate daily and try to live as presently as possible. I am a quiet and introspective person by nature which allows me periods of observation and contemplative time. As I've gotten older I realize these moments of solitude are essential to my creation process, not to mention my well-being. I do a lot of drawing where I turn off my brain and see what happens. This practice is a prerequisite to almost everything I do in the studio.

LH: Do you have other jobs other than making art?
TA: I have another job that is really important and essential. I teach yoga at 2 studios: Yin, Restorative and Gentle yoga, and Pilates. I love sharing with people and helping others learn to relax and work through the stressful moments of their lives. Most of my classes are filled with women who are between 40 and 60, trying to connect with something that gives them peace and balance in their lives.

LH: Please describe a bit about your process.

TA: A few years ago, I realized that I enjoy process. Process in printmaking, process in painting, specifically in encaustic. I was a member of the first R&F Encaustic workshop in San Francisco in 1998 — we came close to burning down the post WWII wooden building in Sausalito where the workshop was held. I am a restless artist who works in series and when they come to their natural completion, I move on to another body of work. My work is deeply connected to the music, to the coastal area where I live, and to my spiritual life.

LH: What is your media?
TA: Drawing, printmaking, painting in oil and encaustic and for the last 2 years: collage. I combine and reconfigure many ideas that I've worked with for the last 30+ years.

LH: What are you reading?
TA: I don't have a lot of time to read, but find I like to constantly educate myself about yoga and Pilates. I'm currently reading Allen Menezes: Joseph Pilates' Techniques of Physical Conditioning.

Photo from Amazon.com

Where would you like to be in five years from now?
TA: I try not to go there as it gets me in trouble when I think about the future too much. I love to solve problems within the art making process and am satisfied to let this lead me down the road to wherever things end up. Everything has always worked out during the last 30 years of art making, not without the usual bumps in the road and struggles, but that's when the good stuff happens. I love struggle and get concerned when the "process" goes too easily. There are times every few years that I stop working for a few months because I'm stuck. The last time this happened was the end of 2007 for four months and that was followed by an incredibly fruitful period of collage work and scroll making.

You can read another interview with Tracey on Geoform.net

And you can see more of her work at http://www.traceyadamsart.com. There are inks on her website to galleries where her work is shown.

Thank-you, Tracey!

Julie Speidel: Vashon Island, Washington

2011-06-28T16:39:00.001-04:00

Julie Speidel with Nidaba
Nidaba – 2010
Goddess of the harvest.
Sumerian Bronze. 74“ x 18” x 8-5”

Photos: Mike Urban

Where did you grow up and what were the early influences on your work?
Where do you live now?
I live on a beautiful island called Vashon in the Pacific Northwest which lies just off the city of Seattle, Washington. My grandfather was a doctor in Seattle long before there was a medical school in the city. He found property on the island by rowboat and built a summer home there and now five generations of my family are connected to Vashon. We are a 15 minute ferry boat ride from Seattle and this 26 mile by 12 mile stretch has not had an appreciable population growth for decades. There are 200 foot tall Douglas firs here and the glaciers that passed through 15,000 years ago gave us many ravines that make this land sculpturally interesting.

Julie Speidel

Local beach on Vashon Island

Seattle sits between two bodies of water – Puget Sound to the west and Lake Washington to the east. Where I live now on Vashon Island lies to the west across Puget Sound. As a child, I lived across the other body of water, on the eastern shore of Lake Washington in a rural area called Medina. I did a lot of camping with my parents and brother and sister, traveling to the ocean beaches and Washington’s wilderness areas.

Bendis — 2008
Moon Goddess. Thracian.
Bronze 89” x 16” x16”

When I was eight my parents separated and four years later I moved to Spain with my mother and sister. When I was twelve, living in Mallorca, my sister and I would take long bike rides exploring the countryside of this Balearic Island. I saw my first standing stones there. My sister Marion, who was seven at the time, could fit into the short empty Roman graves or sarcophagi, cut out of the barren stone hills. I thought about how small those people must have been. I began to understand the difference in historical human sizes. It was an epiphany for me. My mother remarried and we moved to England. My step-father was a geologist and we took trips around the British Isles exploring the land and discovered many megaliths, dolmens and stone circles. I climbed Ben Nevis. The awe and wonder of the stones is still with me. The Ancients erected stones in powerful places. I seek out these sacred sites in my travels. To be standing out in the land, and to allow the sense of these sites to flow into me feeds me in a special way.

Drachlaw— 2010

Ancient ring of stones in ScotlandCast glass & bronze 32.5" x 27" x 8"

Did you receive any formal art training? Tell us about your education.
After finishing High School in England, I went to the University of Washington and went on to the University of Grenoble and studied French, and skiing. I returned to Seattle to study art at the Cornish College of the Arts. One of the major lessons that I learned as I ventured into making art my way, was when there was something I wanted to know how to do, I was drawn to artists and people in industry who could teach me the process I needed. From that, I created a reservoir of knowledge that I have continued to build upon. I have big full folders and filing cabinets bursting with information!

At what point in your life did you become interested in making art and was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?
I think I was destined to work in 3-D. As a child I always collected 3-D objects, little sacred treasures. Before I was eight years old, I remember going camping at Klaloch, a remote beach on the Washington Coast. There I saw a tremendous dead whale, with its ribs sticking out – that image has always stayed with me. Natural and manmade wonders are an endless inspiration for me. This was the beginning of my art. It took form with jewelry making. I started with thin copper sheets that I cut up and bent into amorphic shapes. I had made some jewelry pieces I wanted to see bigger, so I took a welding class at a technical college and made my first five-foot bronze sculpture. It was then that Linda Farris, a gallery owner in Seattle, had a healthy conversation with me about my goals and advised me to quit the jewelry business and get three sculptures ready for her next show. It became clear to me that making sculpture was what I really wanted to do. It still has that certain 'magic' for me.


Sambara in the snow 2005- The deity of supreme bliss. Nepal. Bronze. 9' x 10'8" x 8"

What is your media?
I fabricate from bronze sheets. I also work in marble, basalt, wood and cast glass. The range of materials has expanded and new combinations have permitted me to realize ideas that are more ambitious structurally.

What is your current work about?
I have just been commissioned to create a patina-ed bronze baptismal font for a lovely church in Seattle called St Paul’s. The font will greet people in the entry way. It is the centerpiece of the newly designed glassed-in narthex. The church plans to fill their space with work by artists. I am also designing their altar.

It can be said that Nature is the manifestation of the divine. The font appears to emerge from the earth itself. It is an ancient form – it is amorphic and mimics nature. Natural shapes are asymmetrical. The font is a fountain and the water appears to come from beneath the Church. The source seems to rise like a stream or spring from the building’s very foundation. It reinforces the sacredness of the Church’s site, its connection to primal, life-giving elements.

Model of St Paul’s baptismal font

Water is an inherent part of our human existence. It is all around us and within us. Our bodies are mostly water. It is crucial to our existence. Yet its presence may be subtle in our lives - we may be relatively unaware of this powerful element. The font repeats this concept. There is little sound of water to be heard, it does not dominate proceedings. Yet it flows through the sculpture, lives within the sculpture

When people ask me about my creative process, I like to go back to what the sculptor and painter Anne Truitt said as to how artists "spin their work out of themselves, discover its laws, and then present themselves turned inside out to the public gaze."

I continue to be intrigued with Totemic forms that I first experienced as a child in Spain and in the British Isles. They still speak to me. There is so much left to explore.

What is your workspace like?
I am fortunate to have an environment around me that helps me be creative. My studio is five minutes from my home – on one of the original 5 acre strawberry farms brought to fame by the novel set in the Pacific Northwest called “Snow Falling on Cedars”. Because I work in stone and cut some large pieces, I have my studio in a rural area. There are large metal outbuildings and an old barn – which I’ve divided into workshop and design space. I look out on the most beautiful field surrounded by firs. I particularly like it when it rains and I am connected by the sound on the metal roof to the world outside.

Speidel in her studio

Are you involved with any arts groups or communities? If yes, what do you gain from that affiliation and what do you contribute to it? How do you develop a sense of community with other artists, and how do you support your art colleagues?

I have been long involved with the Seattle art community. I have been a member of the Board of the Cornish College of Arts for many years which has been a wonderful connection for me to the school where I studied. We have been working on creating a new sculpture facility for the school. I’ve been on the board of the Pratt Fine Arts Center and served as Chair of Public Art for the Seattle Arts Commission. I was also invited to be the curator for a sculpture exhibition at the Bumbershoot Festival and was on the board of the International Music Festival of Seattle.

It’s so stimulating to surround yourself with creativity and people travelling on a similar path. Sharing the artistic experience in its many facets offers great opportunities. There is so much to receive and give in this process. Deep and lasting friendships result.

Shimla – 2011Himilayan hill station.

Marble. 83.5” x 13” x 6”

Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this? In the vast mix of materials available to us there is an endless capacity to take what you've done before and go forward. Each new piece builds on the piece before. This process helps keeps the momentum going for me.

Jarmo in process

Jarmo — 2011
Neolithic village 7000 BC
Bronze. 16” x 16” x 24”

Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice?
What I do is so stimulating. It’s joyful and fast paced. There is a lot of movement around me. I balance this with stillness. My home space strongly connects me to the natural beauty of the earth and the sea. I live on four acres on the waters of Puget Sound. We have a tidal estuary reaching out from our home. I go to the beach almost every day. It feeds one in a special way.

I walk daily and living on an island filled with beautiful gardens and forests is very enriching.

I have also practiced yoga for forty years. This is meditative and centering for me and has significant positive impact.

I also try to always take in what is around me. I think it’s a habit of noticing things. There's a kind of recording of objects in space that goes on for me – contrasts in height and depth and breadth. Noticing what is stimulating is part of my habit that feeds my art.

Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making?
I would like to be doing exactly what I'm doing now, building on the work that's gone before.

Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?
I have solo exhibitions at the following Galleries:

Gail Severn Gallery
Sun Valley, Idaho
July 1st to August 31st, 2011

Caldwell Snyder Gallery

San Francisco, California

October 6th to November 10th, 2011

The inspiration for my work is rooted in the power of travel,” Speidel remarks, and indeed, her sculptures assimilate cultural influences in a manner reminiscent of travelogue—organic and intuitive, not academic or preordained. Her work encourages us to make complex associations, but it delights as well in purely formal properties; color, carefully poised compositions, the natural qualities of bronze, glass, and stone.

Seen in a landscape, Speidel’s sculptures have a Zen-like relationship with the surrounding area, humbling themselves to the natural world while simultaneously enhancing it, amplifying its effect. When installed indoors, they act as oases of nature, exuding an enigmatic, earthly quality despite their manmade origins, as if in conversation with the organic universe. This, perhaps, is among the most remarkable aspects of Speidel’s sculpture; its capacity to engage in dialogue with the world--not only with its natural elements, but also with the whole of human history and art.

Speidel's studio

You can see more of Speidel's work at:
www.juliespeidel.com

Gail Severn Gallery
Ketchum, Idaho

Caldwell Snyder Gallery
St. Helena, CA
San Francisco, CA

Winston Wächter Fine Art
Seattle New York
www.winstonwachter.com

Geological Metaphors in Wax: Laura Moriarty

2011-06-26T18:57:00.000-04:00

Please Consider Supporting this Project.
If you've been following my blog, you are either an art lover, an artist, or both...Even $5 or $10 will help. But a $50 contribution will get you a limited edition, signed book about Laura's work.
FEEL GOOD AND HELP THIS WORTHY ARTIST!!!
Earlier this year, I interviewed artist Laura Moriarty, her work intrigues me and her process is very original. I finally met Laura, in person during the 5th International Encaustic Conference on Cape Cod. She has been selected by USA artists to be a featured artist; they assist her in fundraising for a self-publishing project she has in mind and also structure the fundraising via their website.

Thanks for your consideration.