REGISTRATION is now open!

I am teaching two PRINTMAKING classes this Fall at the Phoenix Center for the Arts:

8 Saturdays

9 AM to 12 PM

September 17 – November 12

$171

WHAT A RELIEF!

Forget linoleum!  Discover new and wonderful relief printmaking surfaces:  Gomuban, Borco Board and Sintra.  They cut easier than traditional lino and each have their charm.  Explore these new materials and expand your mark-making tool box.

6 Mondays

10 AM to 2 PM

September 19 to October 24

$170

BEGINNING SOLARPLATE ETCHING

Turn those photos into artistic masterpieces!  Learn how take a photo you have taken and turn it into a fine art etching.  You will learn the solarplate process and how to put the artist's "hand" into your image. 

Here is a link to register for my classes.

PHOENIX CENTER FOR THE ARTS

1202 N. Third St. Phoenix, AZ 85004

(602) 262-4627

Fall Printmaking Classes at the Phoenix Center for the Arts

REGISTRATION OPENS AUGUST 22^ND 2011

I am teaching two PRINTMAKING classes this Fall at the Phoenix Center for the Arts:

8 Saturdays

9 AM to 12 PM

September 17 – November 12

WHAT A RELIEF!

Forget linoleum!  Discover new and wonderful relief printmaking surfaces:  Gomuban, Borco Board and Sintra.  They cut easier than traditional lino and each have their charm.  Explore these new materials and expand your mark-making tool box.

6 Mondays

10 AM to 2 PM

September 19 to October 24

BEGINNING SOLARPLATE ETCHING

Turn those photos into artistic masterpieces!  Learn how take a photo you have taken and turn it into a fine art etching.  You will learn the solarplate process and how to put the artist's "hand" into your image. 

I haven’t seen the catalog yet but both classes should be under or at $200.  Online registration is not yet available but I will post when it is ready.

PHOENIX CENTER FOR THE ARTS

1202 N. Third St. Phoenix, AZ 85004

(602) 262-4627

DISCREPANCY: living between war and peace Opening

DISCREPANCY OPENING RECEPTION

What a night is was!  The show looked amazing.  Elegant.  Powerful.  Beautiful.  There were artist statements with the work, so the intention and heart of the artist was clear.  And the crowd responded.  My print, Ten, One Thousand, about the people who fell from the World Trade Center on 9/11, really touched people.  More than that really.  Strangers and friends came up to me to tell me how moved they were.  Some came to me crying after having just seen it.  I cried with them.  It is a feeling like no other to move people, to share the intent.  They understood.  They knew.  And they appreciated it.  It was a very emotional evening. 

The entire show was cohesive.  Every artist had a personal point of view of what it meant to live between war and peace and how it tied back to their regular artist practices.  The curator, my sister Nancy Willis, had a vision, born out of her own work, trying to reconcile living in the beautiful Napa Valley with images of conflict from the news.  She invited artists to create work that looked specifically at the rituals of daily life in relation to three events, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The work varied in media, size and dimension but it all tied into Nancy’s vision.  People noticed.  One woman remarked that she hadn’t expected it to be so strong.  “This is BIG!” 

Nancy and Wendy Willis

From her Curator’s Statement Nancy said, “I believe in the power of art to make a difference in people’s lives.  In a climate that seems propelled by divisiveness, art can be a powerful tool to remind us that we are all human and there is always more below the surface of what we see.”  I saw this to be true last night.  One woman told me she would be forever changed because of my print.  You just can’t ask for anything more than that.

The Napa Valley Museum just posted 59 photos from the reception last night on their Facebook page.  I will be uploading photos to my Flickr page later of more empty museum shots, some reception images and close ups of each piece.

Friends Born of the Internet

I was just explaining to my husband how I became friends with Candace Nicol.  We were lucky to spend a couple hours with her yesterday at her studio, Oxboo Press in Reno, NV.  My excuse for visiting was to see the 2.5 x 2.5 Print Exchange Exhibition. 

2.5 x 2.5 Print Exchange Exhibition

I first saw her work on Inkteraction, not so very long after it started.  I loved her prints and wrote comments about them.  She then, checked out my work and liked what she saw too...and an internet relationship was born.  I followed her work and one day Kathryn Polk in Tucson invited me to participate in Candace's project "6 Sides to Every Story" where 6 artists each carved one side of a cube based on a topic from the news. (100 cubes were sent out.)  I was thrilled to be "playing with the big kids" even though I hadn't done a woodcut in 30 years.

Candace Nicol, 6 Sides to Every Story in background

Then I was invited by Candace to participate in a print exchange - "Naughty, Taboo, Just Plain Wrong" - the title alone reflects on joy and fun she often puts into her printmaking practice.   She was going to exhibit the print exchange during Nada Dada Motel (where downtown motel rooms are turned into gallery spaces for a weekend) - and I decided I wanted to see it!  She invited me to teach a 2 day linocut workshop and again I said yes.   I finally met her face to face!  I had never taught before but have many times since.  So she has inspired me to grow just by inviting me to participate in stuff.
Yesterday we plotted a plan to bring her to Phoenix (it will be her first time!) and I am looking forward to sharing some AZ print time and hospitality with her.

Seeing Stars

What do Deborah Oropallo, Hung Liu, Lewis de Soto, Eleanor Coppola, Sibylle Szaggars and I all have in common?  We are among the 24 artists invited to participate in the exhibition "Discrepancy:  living between war and peace" which will open Friday, August 5th at the Napa Valley Museum in Yountsville, CA.  I am pinching myself for being included in a show with them.  Plus other California artists I have met during my frequent visits to the Napa Valley - Sharon Anderson, Helen Wilson, Rob Keller, Sue Bradford, Anne Trinca and Alondra Contreras.  I am so excited by this opportunity.  Curated by Nancy Willis, the call asked artists:

to create a visual response to the discrepancy between being emotionally         connected/disconnected to events from which they are geographically distanced.   It is an opportunity for artists that typically do not address political and/or emotionally charged events directly in their work to investigate these events on a personal level that will ultimately be part of a public dialogue. In particular, we are looking to present a view of daily life from the territory between war and peace... Discrepancy is centered on three major events; the World Trade Center bombings and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

 Not my typical work, no.  But a challenge that immediately got my juices going.  I considered the wars and the events of September 11th and imagined what I would want to say about them.  

Ten, One Thousand

Ten, One Thousand

In the end I felt the most connected to my memory from the World Trade Center of people falling from the buildings.  After discussing it with Nancy, who encouraged me to search for information on the internet, I discovered many of the images that were censored in the US of the people who fell or jumped.  It was a difficult but important period for me, the researching the images, the stories and the facts of what happened that day.  And in the end my print seeks to recognize their bravery and bring light to their story.   At least two hundred people jumped or fell that day.  Less than a dozen fell from the South Tower which was hit second and stood for  56 minutes.  The North Tower, hit first, stood for 102 minutes.  People fell from all 4 sides, from right after the plane hit to just as the tower was falling.  No one survived from the floors where people jumped.  No one could save them.  It was a lack of oxygen and extreme heat that drove them to the windows.  

It is hard to read about the conditions and not put yourself in their position.  Observers have stated that those who chose to jump were silent as they fell. The fall lasted 10 seconds.  Not fast enough to cause unconsiousness in the fall.  I have such a fear of high, open spaces that I can't imagine making this choice.   Skydivers have told me that 10 seconds is a long time but it seems a short time when that is all that is left.  They died instantly.  People in the South Tower seeing people jumping from the North Tower immediately began evacuating.  Before the second plane hit 1400 had already left the building.  So in the end they saved many lives by their act of courage.  And as one blogger put it, they chose to die by wind, not by fire.


DISCREPANCY:  living between war and peace
Also included in the exhibition will be artwork made by military personnel in a therapeutic program after returning home of Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Pathway Home facility is located near the VA Home in Yountville.  From their website:   "The Pathway Program is a Residential Recovery program specifically created for, and dedicated to serve, our Nation’s “New Warriors”—those of any age who have served our Nation’s Global War on Terror in areas of the world such as Afghanistan and Iraq."
Another innovative aspect of the exhibition will be art writers, who will view the installed exhibit and write essays to help put in cultural and art historical context the work presented in Discrepancy.

I am honored to be in this exhibition and hope you will have a chance to see it.  The show has been extended to October 30th. 

Turtle Reef

I heard there was a new sea turtle exhibit at Sea World so I HAD to check it out.  After we were inside the park we learned it didn't open until June 18th!  I was so disappointed.  When we walked by the barricaded entrance we noticed a sign saying there was a preview of the exhibit - and it was opening in an hour!  Yay!  As you may know, I LOVE turtles so I was thrilled with the beautiful (but fake) coral filled tanks in which the turtles swim.  They were quite active and mostly small but they packed lots of personality and happily swam by the windows, seemingly as curious about us as we were them.

The exhibit was still under construction, parts were blocked off but I was just happy to be in the right spot at the right time.

You will be seeing some of these little guys appearing in my artwork one day...

MCASD Jennifer Steinkamp

The highlight of all the art we saw today at both locations of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, was the video animation "Madame Curie" by Jennifer Steinkamp in the Farrell Gallery.  The work was inspired by her research into the effects of atomic explosions on nature.  Sounds heavy but the video installation was magical.  Flowering branches blowing in the wind in the huge gallery space was awe inspiring. 

In between Museum visits we stopped by La Jolla Cove to listen to barking sea lions and watch a young woman boogie boarding.  The weather was a perfectly sunny 70 degrees...sigh.  

We finished off a great day with dear friends Terry and Marlene and an unusual dinner at Rei do Gado, Brazilian Steak House in the Gaslamp District.  With a wood marker on your table you indicate with the green side up, that you want more meat and over time, men with skewers of 16 different types of meat come by and slice off a piece for you.  We had beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon, chicken and cheese, pork loin, turkey, hump of brahma bull (Steve and Terry only) and one or two others.  There is a great salad and vegetable bar too.  It was a wonderful way to celebrate our 23 wedding anniversary.