New paintings by Mary Kay Neumann, 'Art Still Has Truth, Take Refuge There'

March 15, 2012, 7:44 pm

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Madison artist Mary Kay Neumann in her garden of watercolors

UPDATE: There will be an Exhibition Closing OPEN HOUSE for this wonderful exhibition on Sunday, April 29, 2012, 1 o’clock -3 o’clock pm. Plan to come if you are going to be in Madison.

One of my favorite Wisconsin artists, Mary Kay Neumann was kind enough to give me a preview of some of her newest paintings.

I have loved the intense and spontaneous feel of Mary Kay’s deeply moving watercolors since I first saw them. Her wet-into-wet watercolor florals are alive with emotions of joy, conflict, and and the intrinsic beauty of life. I’m delighted to get to show you some of her most recent works.

Her newest exhibition, Art Still Has Truth, Take Refuge There, runs March 19 through April 30, with viewings by appointment (email marykay@mknart.com). An artist’s reception, open to the public, is March 24, 5–9 p.m., at PilateSpa Studio, 2045 Atwood Ave., Suite 107. For more information, visit mknart.com. (Update: The exhibition is lovely. It is well worth the effort to call an make an appointment for viewing. Mary Kay’s paintings are alive with color and texture. Enjoy!).

Mary Kay’s says of her own work: “Artmaking can be an avenue of social change. This past year, Wisconsin has been overwhelmed by explosive politics. Many families, neighbors, friends and coworkers have become estranged from each other during this tumultuous time. My intent is to bring people together, leave their differences aside, and seek refuge in art”, says Mary Kay Neumann.

Mary Kay lives her beliefs every day. In addition to being an artist she is a trauma therapist who started a psychotherapy clinic for feminist therapy in Madison in 1988. She advocates for positive social change on the personal and societal level in one way or another in every part of her life as both artist and therapist.

“I work with many people who have been abused and see dignity and bravery in their efforts to overcome trauma. While painting or doing psychotherapy I move back and forth between what is painful and what is joyous. The faces of my intensely colored flowers sometimes reflect a struggle to exist. I deliberately infuse emotion in my flowers and invite the viewer to see the beauty in imperfection. Making art and doing psychotherapy both involve the search for what is honest and true…to make meaning out of chaos. ‘Art still has truth, take refuge there’ is a line from a poem by Matthew Arnold. I experience that phrase as a clarion call.”

“As a feminist, the personal IS political”

Mary Kay donates 10% of all her art sales to non-profits. She will be donating a percentage of her sales from this exhibition to “Options for Community Living”, a local group that provides residential services to adults with developmental disabilities.

Mary Kay Neumann has shown her paintings in solo and group exhibition in galleries and art centers across the US, including New York City, Chicago, and California. In Wisconsin she chosen traditional and non-traditional venues to bring her art to a broad audience, including shows in Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton’s Office at the State Capitol, the Wisconsin Arts Board gallery, the Pyle Center at the University of Wisconsin, and the 25^th Annual Artful Women Show at the UW Hospital and Clinics.

Mary Kay has a strong following of private collectors throughout the U.S.A as well as having works in corporate collections that include Meriter Hospital, Petkovsek & Moran and Red Sage Health in Madison; Dean Clinic in Janesville and D&K Pattern in St. Charles, Michigan. She also was juried into the Percent for Art Program in 2010 , and the State of Wisconsin purchased one of her paintings for their Public Art Collection (Unfortunately that program and several others serving individual artists is now defunct due to cuts to the Wisconsin Arts Board budget)

The exhibition space for the exhibition is the PILATESPA Studio, that Mary Kay calls an “art gallery for bodies”. The Studio is a gem in the midst of Atwood Avenue. The owner, Kathleen Conklin, has been an active arts supporter and promoter for many artists over the years. She has created a lovely art and movement venue that is well loved. Her beautiful space will be a fine setting for Mary Kay Neumann’s colorful paintings of flowers.

To see more of Mary Kay’s wonderful watercolors, plan to come to the opening reception on March 24th, 5-9 and I’ll see you there (tell me if you read this blog).

For more about Mary Kay Neumann’s watercolors check out the recent article written about her by Katie Vaughn in a Madison Magazine article: Flower Power

Again Art Still Has Truth, Take Refuge There, runs March 19 through April 30, with viewings by appointment (email marykay@mknart.com). An artist’s reception, open to the public, is March 24, 5–9 p.m., at PilateSpa Studio, 2045 Atwood Ave., Suite 107. For more information, visit mknart.com.

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Creativity Lessons: Art, Nature, and Finding Our Inner Voices

May 3, 2012, 10:32 pm

≫ Next: The Art Of Resistance: The Exquisite Uterus

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Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center

Join us for Art Workshops at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center outside of Spring Green, Wisconsin I am deep in planning a series of summer workshops at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center near Spring Green, Wisconsin for summer 2012. Below are the workshops that I, Liese Pfeifer, Subanna Nur (Bev Gordon), Marian Farrior and Jo Dusick will be offering at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center. Located between Spring Green and Dodgeville, Wisconsin it is near such wonderful cultural opportunities as the American Players Theater, Frank Lloyd Wright Hillside Studio and Theater, and the The House on the Rock. The school is itself a wonderful place to create and learn. I was delighted to be able to offer two workshops there last year during the first summer open to the public, and can't wait to be back this summer. Thanks to the work of the Cultural Centers volunteer Board we now have access to an architectural gem by one of our for most American Architect who made his home and school nearby. The Wyoming Valley School is an art piece in an of itself. Built in 1957, the school was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, who donated his design (and 2 acres of land) to the Wyoming School District in honor of his mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright. She had been a kindergarten teacher and taught him his lifelong love of learning. The school opened in 1958 with 46 students in grades 1 through 8. This was my grade school for first through sixth grade. I was one of the local children who started the first grade there in 1959. (Our family farm was about a mile away). There were two classrooms and a gym/cafeteria. There were also three grades in each school room with 4-8 students in a class. Each room full of student were taught by one teacher who would work on lessons with one class while the rest of us did our homework and studies our lessons. When attending a two classroom school, if you were precocious or slow in a subject you could join in the lessons of the class that was working at your level. We has a floor to ceiling cupboard that was our library and I received an award for reading all the books in the library. An art teacher (Mrs. Polly Hocking) came to teach us once a week. In that school I learned to love learning and I learned to love art. The River Valley School district used the building until the school closed for good in 1990. In August of 2010 the school was given to the not-for-profit Wyoming Valley School, Inc., by Jeff Jacobsen in recognition of his admiration for Wright. We who are able to use the school again are delighted and thank the volunteers are making it possible for the community to use the school and enjoy Frank Lloyd Wright's wonderful architecture. The Wyoming Valley School is currently hosting Wednesday Night Gatherings for artists and writers from Southwestern Wisconsin from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Join them! . If you would like to donate to support the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center go here. So, come and join my friends and I this summer at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center for lessons in Art, Nature, and Creativity! Check out fees and register here. [caption id="attachment_1202" align="alignleft" width="330"]

Sunset Hill, 14 x 19 1/2, watercolor, ©2011 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Watercolor: A Fresh Start with Helen Klebesadel, June 29-July 1, 2012 (2.5 days). Schedule: Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Watercolor: A Fresh Start is a beginning or refresher workshop, but more experienced artists welcome. This watercolor weekend is designed for absolute beginners as well as for those who have had some experience painting with watercolor but need a refresher to start again. Plan on enjoying this opportunity to learn or re-learn watercolor from an artist passionate about the medium. Workshop participants will explore basic traditional approaches to watercolor painting as well as fresh and experimental watercolor techniques. The goal is to send participants home with the skills and tools to keep on painting. A list of recommended places for lodging and meals will be provided. Plan to bring a sack lunch daily. Workshop limited to 15.

Give Meaning and Memory through Mixed Media I & II, with Liese Pfeifer. June 29-July 1, 2012 and/or August 17-19, 2012. Both workshops (2.5 days), Schedule: Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Take the total Workshop or register for each day separately (below). This course progresses through three parts (separate register possible) for beginner creative soul or experienced artist. Each class has guided exercises. Using play and intuition as a creative source is encouraged and some formal elements are taught Introducing Liese Pfeifer. Liese believes art enhances our living in this world and the process of creating nurtures our self. As a consultant with Integrated Art Group she builds diverse art collections for corporate and healthcare clients. She is Curator of the Design Gallery in the School of Human Ecology at UW where she is working towards a grand reopening this fall. Pfeifer’s art, like her teaching, encourages a spiritual connection through self acceptance in art play. She maintains an environmentalist ethic in her living.Whole Workshop (See daily descriptions below) Workshop 1A: Perception and Intention in Art with Liese Pfeifer. June 29, 2012, Friday Only 4:00-8:00 PM. Explore the difference between how our work is perceived and what we intended. What choices do we have in execution that will help our intention. Brush up on design basics that inform your ability to create impelling compositions. This eye opening workshop will be both lecture and experiential. Materials provided or bring your favorite sketchbook. Workshop 1B: Found Object Dilemma/Breaking the Rut with Liese Pfeifer. June 30, 2012, Saturday Only, 10:00-4:00. How to bring chaos into harmony; Use a variety of recycled materials to create something new. Technical workshop about connecting objects using adhesives, binding, joining and fastening. Emphasis will be on playing as a means to creation. Bring your collection of found objects, some will be provided. Bring sack lunch. Workshop 1C: Mixed media collage as purveyors of meaning, with Liese Pfeifer. July 1, 2012, Sunday only: 10am-4pm. Create a mixed media sculpture or work with collage elements on a board using a personal collectable as focal point. Discover what arises from combining seemingly random images. Bring found objects, favorite pictures, or favorite fabric. Supporting materials provided.

Introduction to SoulCollage®: Intuition Through Imagery with Subanna Nur (Beverly Gordon). July 15 2012, Sunday 10:00-4:00. SoulCollage® is an exciting and powerful process of working with visual images (cutting and pasting from printed photos--no particular skill, artistic ability or experience needed) and then using the cards to access information from your own inner guidance—your intuition and personal imagery. (You make cards that function as a personal "deck” that can be used like tarot cards or other tools for individual exploration.) The card-making is satisfying and fun--and a discovery in itself—but it’s only the first part; then you learn to do "readings," to learn what the cards you have made have to tell you. This seemingly almost magical process brings forth an even deeper level of wisdom.At this workshop you will experience both card-making and the interpretation/reading process. You will learn how SoulCollage® cards can be used and ways you can go further on your own. All materials will be provided. Bring a sack lunch. Workshop limited to 10. Introducing Subanna Nur (Beverly Gordon): Subanna is an artist, writer, and recently retired Design Studies (UW-Madison)professor who has been working with visual images, found and natural objects, spiritual practice and personal growth for nearly 40 years. (SoulCollage® brings all of this together

Patterns In Nature Workshop with Marian Farrior and Amy Jo Dusick. Monday, July 16, 2012, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. Learn about the fascinating world of patterns in nature. Topics include the interplay of form and function, the math and geometry of specific patterns, the science and art of the pattern, how these patterns can be applied in garden designs, and how these patterns might influence our lives. We will practice our observation skills outdoors, do some reflective practices, and use patterns to design creative projects. Dress for indoor and outdoor activities. Bring your own lunch and beverage, and pen and paper or journal for taking notes. [caption id="attachment_1207" align="alignright" width="384"]

Last White Poppy, watercolor, 9x12, ©2011 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Watercolor From the Center with Helen Klebesadel, July 16-20, 2012 (5 days of workshop), Schedule: 10:00-4:00 daily. Watercolor From the Center is a week-long watercolor workshop to encourage individuals to find or expand their own authentic artist's voice and subject matter. Designed or advanced beginners through professional artists. Through a series of guided exercises using mixed media and watercolor participants will take the first steps toward developing a personal iconography in their art making and toward overcoming the internal censors that stop us from moving forward. This workshop will take a number of creative approaches to learning how to use your own life as a resource in your art. In general the mornings will be used for guided exercises and the afternoons will be open painting sessions with the instructor offering feedback as needed. The workshop is designed to accommodate experienced and beginning artists who would like to participate in guided projects that will open you up to new directions. A list of recommended places for lodging and meals will be provided. Workshop limited to 15 [caption id="attachment_1209" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Ocotilla, watercolor, ©2011 Helen Helen R Klebesadel[/caption] Watercolor: The Expressive Medium with Helen Klebesadel, August 17-19, 2012 (2.5 days). Schedule: Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Watercolor: The Expressive Medium is a weekend workshop designed for advanced beginners through experienced painters. Drawing skills are useful but not required, and you do not need previous experience using watercolor to participate. Participants will explore a wide range of traditional and experimental techniques in transparent and opaque watercolors while they explore the possibilities of this expressive painting medium. Whether you enjoy painting from nature or you are ready to explore your own imagination, this course will give you the tools and direction you need to create strong statements in watercolor. Participants from previous workshops are welcome to repeat this class. A list of recommended places for lodging and meals will be provided. Workshop limited to 15 Plan to join us at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Center this summer! Contact me with any questions.

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The Art Of Resistance: The Exquisite Uterus

May 18, 2012, 2:52 pm

≫ Next: Susan Grabel: Art that Explores the Human Dimension of Social Issues

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Uterus Flag Project

We just couldn't take it anymore! Artist and educator Alison Gates and I had come together to discuss an art exhibition of emerging artists we are curating in conjunction with the regional Wisconsin Women's Studies and LGBTQ Conference . The conference if being planned for October 5-6, 2012 at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Our meeting happened to be during the time when the "War on Women" was becoming more and more visible. Virginia legislators had moved forward a new law requiring women have an unnecessary trans-vaginal ultrasound before having an abortion. This followed high profile attempts the same week to exempt religious organizations from being required to offer health insurance that covers contraception; Rush Limbaugh had recently verbally assaulted all women who use contraceptives through his attacks on Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke; Planned Parenthood Programs' basic health programs for poor women were being de-funded; GOP legislators have were seeking to exempt religious organizations from having to offer health insurance that covers contraceptives; in Arizona and Kansas Republican state legislators were pushing bills allowing doctors to lie about the health status of a fetus to pregnant women so they couldn't opt for abortion; women where I live in Wisconsin were seeing legislation passed that infringes on the physician-patient relationship and there were legislators blocking the Violence Against Women Act because they didn't want Native American Women, or gay and lesbian victims included, nor protective measures for undocumented women. It was just too much! (More has happened since. The Violence against Women Act was passed relatively intact in the Senate but the House of Representatives continues to support a bill that excludes women on reservations, ignores same-sex violence, and demands women who are undocumented choose between being reported or getting help.) After some very satisfying venting over coffee we gave into our natural tendencies to turn to art as a means of addressing the issues we were concerned with. Our collaborative feminist art project was born. We have dubbed it "The Exquisite Uterus: The Art of Resistance" and we invite you to participate along with anyone else who wants to join us in demanding that our reproductive health should be our own concern. We offer you a uterus to do what ever the heck you want to do with it. The art history buffs among you may recognize a reference to a Surrealist technique called the 'exquisite corpse' (cadavre exquis). It is among Surrealist techniques that celebrate the mystique of accident through a collective collage of words or images. Based on an old parlor game, it was played by several people, each of whom would write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for their contribution. We invite you to participate in our collective and collaborative Exquisite Uterus suspecting that each piece will be wonderful, but the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts, and will help to create a synergy that uses our outrage for a greater good. Interested artists and other motivated participants are asked to embellish a plain cloth uterus "blank" (a square of organic white cotton canvas fabric with a simple black and gray medical illustration of a female reproductive system printed permanently on its surface.) Final works should be approximately 13" square. Participation is free except for the cost of purchasing the organic cotton canvas uterus and mailing. The fabric uteri are available via on-line orders here: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1080580 (It will cost $14.00 for a 'fat quarter' that included two uteri. You can give one to a friend). All proceeds to the designing artist (me) from the sale of this fabric will be donated to organizations working for women’s reproductive justice. Participants are invited to manipulate the blank uterus in any way their fertile imaginations desire, making their prodigious powers of self-expression and creativity obvious to all. (Whether or not you still have an original uterus, this project offers an opportunity to use your originality to creatively fashion a new one.) Let us know by July first you are participating and send us your finished Exquisite Uterus by July 1, 2012. Participants are asked to send their self-defined uterus to the project organizers with a stamped self-addressed envelope for its return after the exhibition. We only ask that you don't take your uterus for granted. Claim it! Have fun with it but take your control of your own personal uterus very seriously. Take the time to think about what your uterus wants to say visually, and make it happen. You may use words, stitches, dye, colors, textures, images, sparkly stuff, fairy dust or whatever else inspired you. We want uteri both bold and shy, and will even have some made by guys. (There are already rumors of uteri aprons, pillows, sculptures and clothes). Once all the uteri have been received the artists will follow the tradition of the motherhood of church ladies and assemble their collection of unique, individual and righteously outspoken uteri for public viewing in the Steinhilber Art Gallery as a part of the exhibition entitled “Power, Politics, and Performance” Our timeline is as follows:

April to Early May 2012: Distribution of Uteri
July 1, let us know you are in
August 1, 2012: Uterus due
Exhibition , September 3, -October 6, 2012
Conference dates are Oct. 5-6, 2012
Conference reception Friday, October 5, 2012

More details can be found here: http://www.creativitylessons.com/call-for-proposals.html We are having an amazing response that is showing us that we are not the only ones who feel that enough is enough. Join us! Alison and I are looking forward to including an amazing installation calling for protection of reproductive autonomy as a part of out wonderful exhibition (which you should come see. I'll write more about the exhibition as it nears.) It turns out Alison and I are not the only artists who see the uterus as a symbol of independence. [caption id="attachment_1217" align="alignnone" width="640"]

Government Free VJJ, DIY Uteri and vaginas. Share with your legislators.[/caption] The women behind Government Free VJJ have a different approach than we do, but its equally effective. They say:

"Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican, or an Independent, female or male, please join us in sending a strong message to our government representatives.

Tell your male government representatives: “Hands off my uterus! Here’s one of your own!”

Please Note This is NOT a group for political argument and debate. This group is not in support of any specific political party and it is not pro-life or pro-choice. This group is against government regulation of women’s bodies and it is against the government making personal and moral decisions for us. If you disagree with this project, please find a group more suited to your tastes. Anyone who starts arguments, is rude or mean, or spams this site with religious or political debates will be banned.

"Follow these simple steps," their website beckons... 1. Knit or crochet a vagina or uterus. http://www.governmentfreevjj.com/the-patterns/ 2. Print a message to enclose. 3. Mail it to your male Senator or Congressional Representative [links provided] 4. We're in the process of arranging hand delivery to congressional offices in Washington, until then, go ahead and mail yours in! 5. Record your items in this spreadsheet so we can track which representatives still need to receive a "gift"! 6. Don't forget to thank your representative if he respects women and supports our rights." You can join them on Facebook too. There are other artists who have adopted the uterus as a subject and symbol, and not all of it is focused exclusively on reproductive choice. Some, like The Uterus Flag Project are social practice art projects to increase the awareness of over medicalization of women. [caption id="attachment_1257" align="aligncenter" width="633"]

The Uterus Flag Project, a social practice art project to increase the awareness of over medicalization of women.[/caption] Escondido artist Terrilynn Quick is asking participants to be a part of The Uterus Flag Project. She discovered this need while doing her MFA- Feminism,Fiber Arts and Craftivism and for her final grad show coming up in July 2012. She is seeking contributions. Her personal political concerns are about the over medicalization of women, and specifically having an unnecessary hysterectomy. On her blog she asks if you have a story, and to please share it and participate. You can contact her and she will send you a packet. Here is the Project Facebook page. Uterus Flags have been touring in Europe for a while too. Billed as 'public intervention' they make the lack of awareness of women's concerns more visible. [caption id="attachment_1223" align="aligncenter" width="393"]

Artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson install Uterus Flags in Rovereto, Italy[/caption] Artists Libia Castro and Ólafur Ólafsson ( who have established their center of work in the cities of Rotterdam and Berlin.) have exhibited Uterus Flags in various European cities. The flags are essentially a bunting in 9 different color combinations, inspired by heraldry and party-flags, but they bear the silhouette of the female sexual organs; uterus, falopian tubes, ovaries and vagina. Another interesting creative project is Incorporate My Uterus, a project of the Florida ACLU. They say: Coast to coast, conservatives get elected by promising smaller government and less business regulation but as soon as they get elected, they rush to put big government regulations on the personal freedom and privacy of your body. It’s a clear double standard. To them, there are too many regulations on pharmacies and fruit stands but not nearly enough government rules about your uterus. It was inspired by the following quote by - Representative Scott Randolph of Florida. "The point is that Republicans are always talking about deregulation and big government. But I say their philosophy is small government for the big guy and big government for the little guy. And so, if my wife's uterus was incorporated or my friend's bedroom was incorporated, maybe the Republicans would be talking about deregulating." The more I have looked the more I have found systematic outrage across the country at the efforts to regulate women's reproductive lives by imposing particular moral and religious perspectives. Organizations like the Women's Media Center are working to make sure women's perspectives are better represent in the media, and that sexism is called out when it occurs. Many individuals, including artists, are fighting back in our own ways. We invite you to join our project or create your own. I know there are many more feminist creative projects out there focusing on reproductive justice and rights. Please send us links to those projects in the comments, whether they are uterus-centered or not.

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Susan Grabel: Art that Explores the Human Dimension of Social Issues

June 3, 2012, 9:24 pm

≫ Next: The ‘Wright’ place to learn the art of watercolor

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Venus In Proliferation

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Susan Grabel. Venus in Proliferation, sculpture, 2006.[/caption] From January through May this year Staten Island artist and activist Susan Grabel had a retrospective of her work entitled “Constructions of Conscience” at the Staten Island Museum. The exhibition spanned her 35 plus years of creating art with a social purpose, and brought together works representing feminist critiques of contemporary culture that have brought a larger meaning to her creative work throughout her career. Susan Grabel explores the human dimension of social issues in sculptures of handmade cast paper, clay and mixed media and collagraph prints and collages. For many years Susan was best known as a sculptor of small humanistic clay figures and vignettes. Throughout her career Susan's creative work has always had an intimacy and empathetic feeling for the common person. Her works for the last decade have focused on her 'Venus' images of cast paper. In this series she examines the female image as it is, not idealized, not glamorized, but projected as a real and unvarnished display of female anatomy subject to the effects of aging, childbearing and gravity. These pieces are sculpted in clay and then cast in paper. They vary in size from figurines about six inches in height, to full figured woman slightly over life sized. In making the work she first forms the figures in clay and then casts it in paper, producing somewhat fragile yet elegant torsos with the strength of lives fully lived. In these works there are no heads or extremities but there form speaks volumes. Her work often demonstrates how the prevalent female ideal (underweight, young and artificially smooth) bears no resemblance to real women by contrasting this idea of an 'ideal' with the bodies of large, round women whose age and experience shows on their bodies. None-the-less her fuller figured and sometimes deeply scarred “Venus” series represent the beauty of life lived fully as a woman. The oldest work, Caught in the American Dream, from 1978, critiques our overwhelming in consumer culture, and exemplifies Susan's long term commitment to social commentary through her art. [caption id="attachment_1239" align="aligncenter" width="576"]

Susan Grabel, Caught in the American Dream, ceramic 1978[/caption] Her works in the 1990s examined homelessness by representing individuals, sometimes children, as beautifully modeled portraits in dry, unglazed clay often presented in rough boxes, made of slats. [caption id="attachment_1238" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Susan Grabel, Dirge, Mixed Media[/caption] Susan says of her creative and activist work: I have been doing figurative sculpture and exhibiting for over 35 years and am currently engaged in exploring printmaking, particularly the collagraph. My work on the human dimensions of social and political issues like consumerism, homelessness, alienation and aging women’s’ bodies is in the humanistic tradition of Kathe Kollwitz. [caption id="attachment_1245" align="aligncenter" width="360"]

Once I Build a Railroad, ceramic, by Susan Grabel[/caption] In the 1970’s & 80’s I was involved in the figurative co-op gallery movement in Soho. I was married and raising two children at the time so being a member of Prince Street Gallery worked well for me. It was good to be part of a community, have a goal and know I had a place to show. I have also had solo shows at the Elizabeth Foundation, Soho20 Gallery and exhibited nationally in group shows at galleries, universities and museums. My work has been included in such major surveys as In Three Dimensions: Women Sculptors of the ‘90's, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, curated by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein and Sculpture of the 70's: the Figure , Pratt Manhattan Center. My work has been reviewed in the New York Times, Art News and the Staten Island Advance. In the early 90’s, galvanized by The Clarence Thomas hearings and especially the Senate Judiciary Committee’s patronizing and sexist treatment of Anita Hill, empowering women became my mantra. Between 1992 and 1998, I worked with the Women’s Caucus for Art serving as President of the New York chapter, on the national board and later as national Treasurer. Together we created opportunities and stimulation for women to further their art and spirit. Also in the 90’s, I became interested in public art as a means to affect people in their daily environment. I created two public works: The World's Kitchen, a clay mural commissioned by the Staten Island Children's Museum; and, Regarding Women, a sculpture for the Center for Women’s Health of Staten Island University Hospital . [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Regarding Women, multiple views, ceramic, by Susan Grabel[/caption] Women's Caucus for Art: National Treasurer 1997, National Board Member 1995-1997, President NYC Chapter 1992-1995, Co-Chair 1994 WCA National Conference February 1994 I am a sculptor and printmaker and Feminism has informed all of my work although sometimes more explicitly than others. My early sculpture was in glazed clay – serious themes in a craft medium. There were genre tableaus dealing with personal family subject matter; a series called Caught in the American Dream depicting women strangled by commodities; a series on homelessness; and a series on Alienation - portrait reliefs in boxes with grates and bars in front. [caption id="attachment_1244" align="aligncenter" width="576"]

Address Unkown, ceramic, bu Susan Grabel[/caption] My work deals with the human dimensions of social issues. In the late 1990’s, I was particularly concerned about the lack of positive images of older women in our youth-oriented culture and how the media constantly bombards women of all ages with images of femaleness that bear no relation to what they see in the mirror. I began to explore the reality of the older woman’s body, bringing to the fore what we don’t want to see. The body is not idealized, but shown as it is, with all its wrinkles, lumps and bumps, imprinted with life’s experiences, its pains and joys. [caption id="attachment_1246" align="aligncenter" width="360"]

Earth Venus (EVC001), collagraph monoprint from cast paper fragments, by Susan Grable[/caption] Through classical references and the use of handmade cast paper with its rich textures, colors and lightness, I show the beauty of the aging woman’s body as well as its sensuality and grace. I normalize it, confronting the conventional biases about aging women and validating women’s experiences of themselves. [caption id="attachment_1240" align="aligncenter" width="576"]

Susan Grabel in her studio, 2011 - photo by Willie Chu[/caption] Susan and I both have served on the national board of the Women's Caucus for Art, in the 1990s. This was in addition to her leadership in the New York Women's Caucus for Art chapter. Susan Grabel has worked hard for social change and to further opportunities for women in the arts across the US. All the while she has created, and continues to create, rich and moving visual experiences for her art audiences. Thank you Susan for your years of activism, AND thank you even more for your rich and meaningful art. Watch for Susan Grabel's upcoming exhibition at Ceres Gallery next April 2013 if you are in New York. You can also find Susan's work in the Feminist Art Base of the Brooklyn Museum.

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The ‘Wright’ place to learn the art of watercolor

July 5, 2012, 8:05 pm

≫ Next: Hungry for Art: The Process of Turning the Negative to Positive

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Study of Jamie's Dahlia, 8x11, watercolor, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] I am just back from an enjoyable weekend teaching my workshop, Watercolor: a Fresh Start, at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center to a wonderful group of creative learners. The WVS is just 40 miles west of Madison and six miles from Spring Green, Wisconsin in the heart of the Wisconsin River Valley where I grew up. [caption id="attachment_1400" align="alignright" width="300"]

Watercolor workshop in session.[/caption] The workshop was billed as being for absolute beginners and for those who needed a refresher after time away from watercolor. I had a fabulous group of 13 participants that braved trying out a new medium and making it their own. Workshop participants will recognize the small painting above as my final demo of the workshop, created to show how to use the wet-into-wet techniques they had learned to paint flower pedals (I send a special thank you to photographer Jamie Wilson Carroll for lending her wonderful dahlia photograph to the cause). Instruction introduced participants to basic wet-into-wet watercolor techniques, and began to suggest how to use the techniques in paintings. (Some participants were especially excited by an approach to painting Queens Ann Lace, recorded here on Youtube for me by Akeem Torres). Most importantly, the workshop promoted the perspective that art is an ongoing process that our paintings or other artworks simply document. Meaning, the larger process is far more important than any individual work of art, so relax, and have serious fun while exploring new ideas, techniques and mediums, whatever they may be. Our class motto is "Exactly how much fun CAN we have painting with watercolor?" [caption id="attachment_1421" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Mixed-media found-object sculpture workshop with Leise Pfeifer in room 2[/caption] This was the first of three workshops I'm teaching at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed school this summer. My workshop is being offered along with other art, creativity and environmental workshops being offered by Liese Pfiefer, Bev Gordon, Marian Farrier and Amy Jo Dusick. There is still time to sign up. Most of the workshops are limited to 15 participants but there is still room for a few more participants. Having the opportunity to spend a length of time teaching and learning in this lovely space is a real treat (and its air conditioned). Our upcoming summer workshops include: Watercolor From the Center with Helen Klebesadel, Monday-Friday, July 16-20, 2012, 5 days of workshop, 10:00-4:00 daily, (mixed media artists welcome). Watercolor: The Expressive Medium with Helen Klebesadel, August 17-19, 2012 (2.5 days), Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Introduction to SoulCollage®: Intuition Through Imagery with Subanna Nur (Beverly Gordon), Sunday, July 15 2012, Sunday 10:00-4:00 Patterns In Nature Workshop with Marian Farrior and Amy Jo Dusick, Monday, Monday, July 16, 2012, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm Give Meaning and Memory through Mixed Media, with Liese Pfeifer. August 17-19, 2012 (2.5 days), Friday afternoon (4-8), all day Saturday (10-4), and Sunday (10-4). Participants can sign up for each day separately with the following focus: Friday Perception and Intention in Art; Saturday, Found Object Dilemma/Breaking the Rut; Sunday, Mixed media collage as purveyors of meaning. For longer descriptions, schedules, and registration information of the workshops being offered this summer go here. More about the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center [caption id="attachment_1352" align="alignleft" width="300"]

Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center, six miles from Spring Green, WI[/caption] The Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center is worth a visit just to see how Frank Lloyd Wright imagined the space in which education should take place for elementary aged children. The school hold a special place in my heart because its where I went to grade school. I grew up on a farm about a mile away and went there for first through sixth grade. The school was built in 1957. I remember as a small child being taken by my father to see the construction underway of the building that would be my first school. While there we had a chance meeting Frank Lloyd Wright who had stopped by to observe the construction himself. It speaks to how old I was that I remember him as a tall man, though he was not. Mr. Wright donated his design and 2 acres of land to the Wyoming School District in honor of his mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright. She had been a kindergarten teacher and encouraged his lifelong love of learning. The school opened in 1958 with 46 students in grades 1 through 8, and later in grades 1 through 6. Children from the Taliesin Fellowship, just down the road, attended the school as well. As the only two class-room school (with an additional large lunchroom/gym) designed by the foremost American architect, the school was a wonderful place to start your education and develop a life long love of learning. Like the old one-room school house it replaced, students in several grades took instruction together in the same room. Younger students listened to the lessons of those ahead of them, and it was not hard to insert an advanced or slower learner in exercises appropriate to their learning level despite their official grade. I have many memories of my six years as a student at the Wyoming Valley School, including being invited to Taliesin's small theater as a first grader with the rest of the school's children to watch animated films from Japan. It has been an extreme pleasure to return there to teach and share my own passion for the arts, carrying on the tradition the school was designed for.

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Wyoming Valley School side view[/caption]

In 1977, the school consolidated with the River Valley School district and was used as school for fourth graders only for ‘a year in the country.’ In 1990, with River Valley facing more consolidation, the school was sold. The building then changed hands several times but mostly remained empty. In August of 2010 the school was given to the not-for-profit Wyoming Valley School, Inc., by Jeff Jacobsen, a local landowner and neighbor of the school. A Wisconsin State Journal article written by Gayle Worland last year, when the Center opened, describes the efforts of local volunteers to bring the vision of an arts and culture center to Wyoming Valley and preserve another part of Frank Lloyd Wright’s legacy. [caption id="attachment_1360" align="alignright" width="623"]

Front Classroom[/caption] Recognizing its original use as a school, the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center Board of Directors is working hard to find ways to support the organizations legacy and mission as an educational center, by offering arts and cultural workshops, performances, lectured, and exhibitions to the community. You can find their schedule of events including the weekly Wednesday Night Arts Gatherings—6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.Every Wednesday evening, Wyoming Valley School hosts a drop-in gathering of local artists, writers, poets and readers. Visual artists are encouraged to bring their own supplies to draw, paint or sketch during the two hours. Writers are encouraged to bring samples of work for discussion, brainstorm ideas, talk about their obstacles, ways to get published, etc. People who love literature should come with reading suggestions or read aloud from favorite passages. Poets may read their works aloud or discuss poetry with others. Wyoming Valley School seeks to provide a space away from the distractions of home for folks to be creative, discussion or just have quiet time. Plans are underway to designate music nights and dance nights as well. There are volunteer facilitators for the various groups. At the moment, these Wednesday Gatherings are reserved for adults only. For more information contact Kate at 608.753.9000. [caption id="attachment_1368" align="aligncenter" width="542"]

WVS Cultural Art Center gym with lots of painting going on.[/caption] If you visit visit, the River Valley area and the Wyoming Valley School, you will be near the home to Frank Lloyd Wright’s National Historic Landmark site Taliesin, and the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Near to the Taliesin property is the wonderful American Players Theater. The company performs its Shakespeare and related repertory year-round to large appreciative audiences.

Within a mile of the school is the new White Church Theatre Project. The 1902 Methodist church (which was my church growing up), is now the new summer residency of the London based Theatre de l’Ange Fou and International School of Corporeal Mime. Slated to open this summer, the project will soon offer Summer School, workshops, performances, lectures, and films . The Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center is in the heart of a culturally significant and beautiful part of Wisconsin. Refurbishing and maintaining the 1956 Frank Lloyd Wright designed school building as an educational center in the Wyoming Valley will not only preserve and restore this significant piece of architecture, it will also provide a much needed space to enhance arts education and creativity. The concept that guides the Board of Directors of the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center is to offer a place to bring young students and their families together in pursuit of creative education, while paying homage to Frank Lloyd Wright, utilizing his building for its original intent. Wyoming Valley School, Inc is a Wisconsin registered not-for-profit 501c3 organization. Donors, volunteers, and supporters that share this vision are sought. (Volunteers are maintaining the building and the grounds, as well as contributing to grant-writing and other fundraising efforts.) Contributions are much appreciated and can be made out to Wyoming Valley School, Inc. and are tax deductable. The Wyoming Valley School Cultural Arts Center is a wonderful place to expose yourself to new arts, culture and creative experiences or it may be the place to plan public arts and cultural events of your own that fit within the Center's mission For more information or to inquire about how you might support the effort to preserve the Wyoming Valley School and its mission contact: wyomingvalleyschool@gmail.com I love having the opportunity to teach art at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center, with its open space, elegant lines and amazing light. If you would like a chance to explore your own creative impulses plan to join us for one or more of our upcoming workshops in a building designed for learning.

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Wyoming Valley School at dusk[/caption] It turns out you really can go home.

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Hungry for Art: The Process of Turning the Negative to Positive

July 22, 2012, 10:32 am

≫ Next: Second Nature: New Watercolors by Helen Klebesadel

≪ Previous: The ‘Wright’ place to learn the art of watercolor

Wisdom Tree, watercolor, 2012, Mary Friedel-Hunt

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Wisdom Tree, watercolor, ©2012 Mary Friedel-Hunt[/caption] I just spent a blissful week of teaching, learning, and expanding my circle of inspiration sources with eleven other wonderful women artists who participated in my 'Watercolor From The Center' workshop at the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center near Spring Green Wisconsin. Some participants were first-time painters, others were experienced artists and teachers already. All were generous with their creative knowledge, experience, and willingness to give themselves over to a learning experience that privileged process over product. We quieted our 'judges voices,' experimented with approaches to painting that we had never tried before, and allowed ourselves to see 'exactly how much fun we CAN have if we get out of our own way'. None-the-less wonderful artworks emerged in the form of paintings, experiment sheets, and artist trading cards.

You know you are 'in the flow' when spirals appeared everywhere, even in Carrie's dried paint dish!

I don't think I can do a better job of further describing the experience than sharing a poem gifted to me. It describes the experience of the workshop. It was written by the artist who painted the image that leads off this blog, Spring Green writer, Mary Friedel-Hunt.

hungry

they all came hungry

each new technique

every idea

was inhaled

with an urgency

visible to all

enjoyed by all.

negative painting

collage

textures

looking inward

expressing outward

and more.

each grabbed up by

artists starving for new ways

to express...

to make art...

their leader

well prepared

so talented

real, joyful, passionate

gave and gave

to her "brood"

whose open minds and hearts

voraciously took in

all she shared

and share she did.

a perfect week

of art making.

with gratitude

mary

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The fabulous class holding our 'next step glass slipper sculptures'!: (Back row) Carrie, Jane, Yvonne, Sue, Katherine, Deb, Francine, (Front row) Helen, Sue, Wendy, and Mary. Missing from the photo, but not forgotten is Irene.[/caption] While all of the participants brought amazing gifts to the workshop, some have their artworks available for us to see online. Check out these websites of some of the workshop participants:

Sue Johnson, teacher and artist extraordinar. Look for her paintings and studio on the South Western Wisconsin 2012 Fall Art Tour, October 19-21.
Wendy Fern Hutton offers non-traditional doll making classes at the Madison starting in September. Go to the Madison Senior Center for more information and to register.

In this workshop we used art as a thinking process to draw on the knowledge we already have to guide us as we move forward with our creative thinking front and center in our lives. In one of the collage exercises we created a central image representing our most precious creative self, and filled in the negative space (the background) with images of those things that nurture it. [caption id="attachment_1837" align="aligncenter" width="655"]

Representing Creative Self Now, Collage and mixed media. Helen Klebesadel[/caption] As a final gift to this and future workshop participants, and you, I share below one of the popular painting demos I do in most of my workshops. This technique for developing a watercolor is called Negative Shape Painting. Here the subject is a small grove of birch trees: [caption id="attachment_1844" align="aligncenter" width="452"]

Step One: An all over light wet-into-wet wash with salt. Allow to dry.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1845" align="aligncenter" width="495"]

Step 2: Begin to define the shapes of the trees (in this case, birches) by painting wet-into-wet shapes to define the background, or negative space, BEHIND the trees. Here I lay a light green wash down and drip other colors into it, and sprinkle a little salt for good measure.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1846" align="aligncenter" width="526"]

Step 2 continues and allowed to dry[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1847" align="aligncenter" width="507"]

Step 3: Repeat the same process, just with smaller shapes and darker paint to define the shape of a second layer of trees. Darker blue-green paint with additional colors dripped in while wet that define the shape of the birch trees in the middle ground.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1850" align="aligncenter" width="534"]

Step 3 continued and allowed to dry[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1852" align="aligncenter" width="503"]

We could have stopped with Step 3, but I'm inclined to do one more layer. So, Step 4: paint one more darker and bluer layer that adds a third layers of birch trees back in the distance.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1855" align="aligncenter" width="720"]

Step 4 continued to complete the deep space, and Step 5 adds a bit of detailing to complete the painting. Birch Study: The Cabal, watercolor, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Thank you to all the participants in my summer workshops. It has been an extraordinary summer so far. I look forward to continuing the experience next week at Bjorklunden, in Door County (it is full) , and then back to the Wyoming Valley School Cultural Art Center near Spring Green, WI for Watercolor: The Expressive Medium, a weekend watercolor workshop in mid August. There are still a couple of spots left in the August workshop, and in my week-long watercolor workshop Watercolor: A Fresh Start, designed for beginners and those in need of a refresher, and offered at Bjorklunden in Door County in September. Descriptions and registration information can be accesses here. Keep making art! Helen Klebesadel

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Second Nature: New Watercolors by Helen Klebesadel

October 27, 2012, 9:09 pm

≫ Next: Artsy Shark Interview and chance to join the Exquisite Uterus Project

≪ Previous: Hungry for Art: The Process of Turning the Negative to Positive

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My visual concerns run the gamut from careful study to poetic, symbolic and sometimes political representations of nature.

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Humming Bird Pollinator, watercolor on paper, 5x7, ©2011 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] You are all invited to my exhibition 'Second Nature: New Paintings at the Grace Chosy Gallery, November 2-24, 2012. The Grace Chosy Gallery is at 1825 Monroe Street, (Across from Trader Joe's) in Madison, WI. [caption id="attachment_1940" align="aligncenter" width="540"]

Vanilla and Allspice: Super Naturam (Above Nature), 20x24, watercolro on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] I enjoy immersing myself in the careful looking that painting from life allows. Making art is one of the few activities we have were we are allowed to slow down, to a stop, and take a second look; to examine nature for the hours it may take to know it by looking. I often layer metaphoric meaning into the images I creates. This has been especially true of those paintings inspired by concerns for, or appreciation of, the natural world. [caption id="attachment_1952" align="aligncenter" width="472"]

The End of Cold, 20x16, watercolor on paper, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] My paintings consider our place in the landscape and our relationship, as humans, to nature, including the species that are dependent on cold for their survival. Some of my new paintings explore the complex realities of the changing climate while considering of the metaphors we use to describe our relationships with each other and Nature. They shift away from the very gendered metaphor of the unselfish, all-giving Mother Nature to a less human-centered Second Nature. This Second Nature responds to the pressure it is under without regard for humanity, much as we humans often ignore the effect of our actions on the world. [caption id="attachment_1942" align="aligncenter" width="497"]

Earth Elemnet" Drought, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] Increasingly I finds myself creating environments that contain both the decay of destruction and the beauty of new growth. My Elements Series emphasizes power and destruction that occur when earth, fire, water, and air are out of balance, becoming drought, forests burning, drenching precipitation, and dangerous storms. The fifth element, spirit, calls us to restore the balance. [caption id="attachment_1945" align="aligncenter" width="511"]

Spirit Element, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] My birds and bees are lovingly painted and celebrated for their beauty, but my paintings also evoke narratives reminiscent of the use of the canary in the mind shaft. My paintings ask “Where are the bees?” because as go the bees… [caption id="attachment_1946" align="aligncenter" width="527"]

As Go The Bees..., 22x20, watercolor on paper, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] How is it we are drawn to representations of nature but have moved so far from seeing ourselves as a part of nature; of knowing where our food, air, and water comes from; and from being responsible stewards for the earth? We seem to have become increasingly divorced from direct contact with the natural environment unless it intruded upon our lives in the form of extreme weather and its consequences, but nature is starting to get our attention. My basic premise is that: We are nature. What we do to the world we do to ourselves and we do to ourselves we do to the world. [caption id="attachment_1947" align="aligncenter" width="501"]

Water Element: Drenching Precipitation, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] This particular body of work also demonstrates my exploration of new media as I expands on my traditional use of watercolor on paper to explore the flexibility of painting with watercolor on canvas. [caption id="attachment_1949" align="aligncenter" width="510"]

Fire Element: Forests Burning, 40x30, watercolor on canvas, ©2012 Helen Klebesadel[/caption] I must thank my sister artist Nikki Kinne for convincing me to try a watercolor canvas on our plen air painting trip last November (what a difference a year makes). Nikki handed me a canvas and said "Paint" and I did. I haven't stopped. [caption id="attachment_1950" align="aligncenter" width="502"]

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Artsy Shark Interview and chance to join the Exquisite Uterus Project

August 24, 2013, 10:04 am

≫ Next: The Exquisite Uterus Project: The Art of Resistance -UPDATE

≪ Previous: Second Nature: New Watercolors by Helen Klebesadel

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I am honored to be the featured artist on the Artsy Shark blog this week. Please check it out here or read the same below.

Also, by way of an update on the Exquisite Uterus Project that Alison Gates and I are co-facilitating, the second call for participation is still out and artists planning on contributing new uteri should have them to the posted address by August 31st. Plan on joining us for the next opening reception for the EUP as a part of a larger exhibition on reproductive health at the Union Art Gallery of University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.

Sept.20 – Oct.11 Exhibition with artwork on display Union Art Galley, UW-Milwaukee (2200, E Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee WI 53211)
Sept. 20, 2013 Art Reception 5:00-8:00 PM

Watch here for more information about the Union Art Gallery offerings.

Featured Artist Helen Klebesadel

Artist Helen Klebesadel shares her rich and exquisite portfolio of watercolors, and invites you to visit her website.

“Milkweed Flowers” Watercolor on canvas, 20″ x 24″ I take great joy in careful observation of what is most common. Here I examine and celebrate the beauty of an often dismissed weed that is critical to the survival of the Monarch Butterfly. My visual concerns run the gamut from careful study to poetic, symbolic and sometimes political representations of nature and human nature. For more than two decades I have been creating watercolors that consider what, who, and how we value.

“Where Are the Bees?” Watercolor on paper, 30″ x 22″. Our common pollinators are critical to our food supply. Currently are under duress for due to multiple stressors, most human generated. I’m best known for my environmental and women-centered paintings. Artists have dealt with the human relationship to nature for centuries. My art is intended to remind us that we humans are nature and that our survival is tied to our recognition that what we do to the earth we do to ourselves.

“Peonies Love Ants” Watercolor on paper, 22″ x 30″. There is a certain cooperation between plant and insect species that I have begun to try to capture. I am endlessly engaged by watercolor as a medium, however I avoided the medium for years because of watercolor’s place at the bottom of the painting hierarchy. Forced to take a watercolor class by a snafu in my college schedule, I was immediately hooked by its flexibility and beauty, and have remained so for two decades.

“Ants Love Peonies”, Watercolor on paper, 30″ x 22″ My watercolors range in sizes from small and intimate to the monumentally large multi-panel watercolors. While I have recently been exploring watercolor on canvas, I typically work in transparent watercolors on paper.

“Bluebirds Love Sumac” Watercolor on paper, 22″ x 30″. Bluebird restoration is one of our greatest environmental successes. Thanks to citizen intervention we have brought them back from a 70% decline. Starting with detailed drawings, I develop them into recognizable images through layer upon layer of color washes and dry brush technique mixed with occasional areas of wet-into-wet spontaneity. I love exploring techniques that lead to rich textures too.

“Dresden Plate” Watercolor on paper, 30″ x 40″. In addition to environmental themes I have a series of watercolors that celebrate women’s traditional art like quilting, crochet, and the like. These are the arts I was surrounded by growing up in rural Wisconsin. I have taught courses and workshops on creativity, studio art, and the contemporary women’s art movement for decades. My prose and watercolors have been featured in books and journals. I’m also a past national president of the Women’s Caucus for Art.

“Altared”, Watercolor on paper, 20″ x 39″. In my still life painting the handmade table cloth is the main subject of the painting rather than the background. I believe everyone is an artist, and that people are more likely to find their activist voices when they find their artist voice. (You have to learn to think for yourself to make good art).

“Thorn Birds”, Watercolor on paper, 30″ x 22″ I’m currently interested in exploring collaborative art practices that have a social justice component to them, like my current co-facilitate Exquisite Uterus Project that can be seen here.

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The Exquisite Uterus Project: The Art of Resistance -UPDATE

September 6, 2013, 4:00 am

≫ Next: Jean Towgood: A Memorial Exhibition

≪ Previous: Artsy Shark Interview and chance to join the Exquisite Uterus Project

'Dont' Tread On Me,' by Jenifer Mokren has become the official flag of the Exquisite Uterus Project. Jenifer is an exquisite artist and educator from Green Bay, WI.

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'Don't Tread On Me,' by Jenifer Mokren has become the official flag of the Exquisite Uterus Project. Jenifer is an exquisite artist and educator from Green Bay, WI.[/caption] This blog was originally published in September of 2012 to celebrate the first exhibition of the Exquisite Uterus Art of Resistance Project. The project and the need continues. We have just invited another round of artist to join the project and continue to exhibit the wonderful uteri to collaboratively raise our voices on the issues surrounding women's reproductive health. First shown at the Steinhiler Gallery in Oshkosh, the project has to date been exhibited at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, the Red Gym Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison , and there was a nice article about the project in the August 2013 issue of BRAVA Magazine, written by EUP participant Karin Wolf (check out her exquisite uterus below) . The Exquisite Uterus Art of Resistance project will next be exhibited as a part of a larger exhibition at the Union Gallery, at UW-Milwaukee. Here is what we are up to now:

Save the Dates Exhibition Location: Union Art Gallery, UW-Milwaukee, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd. Exhibition Dates: Friday September 20-Friday October 11, 2013 Exhibition reception: September 20, 2013 from 5:00-8:00

The Exquisite Uterus Project was initiated in the spring of 2012 in reaction to, what is being called the most current ‘War on Women.’ Fiber artist and educator Alison Gates and I decided to offer feminists the opportunity to participate in this collaborative art project to channel some of the rage we were experiencing at the attacks on women's reproductive health in this political environment. I wrote about our motivation in an earlier post. [caption id="attachment_1879" align="alignleft" width="146"]

A plethora of uteri arrive in my mailbox in August.[/caption] Basically the project grows out of our contention that reproductive freedom is critical to our human dignity, self-determination and equality. We have a vision for a world where every woman is free to decide whether and when to have children; where every woman has access to the best reproductive healthcare available; where every woman can exercise her choices without coercion or discrimination. Essentially, we envision a world where every woman participates with full dignity as an equal member of society. It turned out others share that vision too, and withing the limits of the project these creatives have expressed their perspective on the issues in fiber, paint, bead, and sequins. The response has been awe inspiring. You can see the entire virtual version of this project with artist statements on a Pinterest Site we created. Please check it out! [caption id="attachment_1878" align="alignright" width="175"]

Give Birth To Yourself, mixed-media, by Nina Laden, Seattle, Washington[/caption] The Exquisite Uterus Project is currently on display in the Reeve Union/Steinhilber Gallery at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh as a part of a larger exhibition, Power, Politics, and Performance: Gender, Art , And Resistance, featuring four fabulous artists:Dan Barry, Edward Robin Coronel, Kerie Throw, and Angela Richardson. ~~The entire exhibition runs September 4th-October 6th, 2012, with a closing reception Friday October 5th, 5:00-7:00 PM.~~ The exhibition is held in conjunction with the regional Wisconsin Women’s Studies and LGBTQ Conference . The conference will be October 5-6, 2012 at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Join us! [caption id="attachment_1881" align="aligncenter" width="404"]

Debra Klebesadel's “'Golden Comfort Palace of the Womb' is an expression of and devotion to the miraculous power, creativity, and mystery of the female experience of fertility, including its exquisite joys and terrible sorrows, its profound pleasures and piercing pains, its highest hopes and bottomless fears, and, more so, its role in a woman’s sense of personal identity and direct connection to and participation in the universal Great Chain of Being. Yes, all that. Do not subjugate this power." (Yes, she is my sister).[/caption]

Exquisite: Carefully selected; marked by flawless craftsmanship or by beautiful ingenious, or elaborate execution; deep sensitivity or intense understanding; pleasing through beauty fitness, or perfection…

Exquisite Corpse: Among Surrealist techniques exploiting the mystery of

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Another 'Don't Tread On Me' was created by Kathleen Buchanan of Stanwood, WA. Other text on the piece includes "Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine![/caption]

accident, it was a collective collage of words or images called the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse). Based on an old parlor game, it was played by several people, each of whom would place their contribution on sheet of paper, fold the paper to conceal part of it, and pass it on to the next player for his contribution.

Uterus: a major female hormone-related reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to the fallopian tubes and ovaries. It is within the uterus that the fetus develops during gestation. It is attached to bundles of nerves, and networks of arteries, veins, and ligaments that are essential to sexual response in directing blood flow to the pelvis and to the external genitalia.

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"Tight' was created by artist Sara Detweiler of Green Bay, WI. This beautifully beaded piece is even lovelier in person. The photo doesn't do it justice.[/caption]

Exquisite Uterus: An ingenious collaborative project, elaborately executed and sensitive to the perspective of women who seek to retain control over their own uteri without over-medicalization, or government or religious intervention in their reproductive health. Beautifully executed to respond to the politics of the times. The project promotes common and affordable access for all to medical and preventative healthcare necessary for reproductive health and well-being, and recognizes that women are the appropriate decision-makers for their reproductive and other life choices.

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This fabulous painted piece by Deb Flagel from Madison, WI is entitled 'Rosie Returns,' She declares "My Uterus, My Decision!" Note the fatigues, hand grenade ovaries, and red scarf.[/caption] An invitation was extended to interested artists and other motivated participants asking them to embellish a plain cloth uterus "blank" (a square of organic white cotton canvas fabric with a simple black and gray medical illustration of a female reproductive system printed permanently on its surface.) The 'blank' was made available in my shop print-on-demand fabric shop on Spoonflower.com. (Its now my best selling fabric). Participants were invited to manipulated creativity obvious to all. We only asked that participants not take their uterus for granted, but that we claim it as ours to direct! When asked for guidance from the curators the typical response was, “Its YOUR uterus. You get to do whatever you want with it!” Participants were urged to have fun with it but to consider how our ability to take control of our own personal uterus (and health care decisions) is a very serious and, increasingly political issue. [caption id="attachment_1893" align="alignright" width="196"]

Wisconsin Fiber artist Jill Robinson gets right to the point with exquisite detail![/caption] The response to the project has been overwhelming. Makers range from professional artists to first time creatives, all determined to have their say. They are healthcare workers, and parents, men and women, of all ages and backgrounds. Close to 200 uteri appeared from all over the USA, Canada, Germany, and Denmark. They came as quilt squares, pillows, aprons, and headdresses. [caption id="attachment_1895" align="alignleft" width="209"]

This apron created by Theresa McNeil, Mary Sanderson and Sara Williams all of Madison, WI declares " I choose when I cook in this kitchen!' (Sara and Mary are both members of the Raging Grannies, radical singers of Madison, WI).[/caption] Each uterus is unique, and each one addresses some aspect of women’s reproductive health or well-being. Along with the uteri have come statements and stories that range from empowering and moving to sad, and funny. Stories of the making of the uteri have included individuals creating their submissions anonymously, because it was too hard to be identified with the project, to groups women coming together in their communities (Red Lodge Montana was a model for this approach) to make art, support and learn about their local reproductive health providers, and to register to vote, sometimes all in the same evening. [caption id="attachment_1884" align="alignright" width="217"]

This is a truly exquisite uterus. It was submitted anonymously from Montana. The text says 'Its a mad, mad, mad, mad, world.' We agree.[/caption] Alison and I are humbled and awed by the power of feminist humor and creativity represented in this project and its promise of agency and action. Our understanding of our own experience was summed up in this message I received from one of the participants: "I wanted to thank you so much for the opportunity to be part of this project! I've been fighting for women's reproductive rights since I was 17 (I'm now about to be 46), and nothing I've been involved in (protest, letter writing, visiting politicians and local law enforcement, clinic defense) has brought me such a sense of catharsis, healing, joy and accomplishment as the Exquisite Uterus Exhibition. [caption id="attachment_1896" align="alignleft" width="232"]

'Venus Envy' was created by Julie D'Angelo of Burbank, CA. She says "The elephant symbolizes the 'GOP' -a group who is obsessed with women's reproductive power and how to limit it…but they even realize that the elephants are a matriarchal society."[/caption] My husband found your call for entries and shared it with me. As soon as I read about it, the ideas started flowing. If I'd had the time, I think I could have executed at least thirty submissions. Something about the project has struck me, very deeply and profoundly. I also wanted to thank you for photographing and posting all of the entries, including the creators' statements. I can tell that so much love and care has gone in to representing each one accurately. Being able to see them all is a powerful experience -- I've laughed, I've cried, but most importantly, viewing them all has given me a sense of hope and community for women's reproductive rights on a larger scale than I had experienced previously." Alison and I are honored by the all the participants who made contributions to the Exquisite Uterus Project. Continuing in the same vein, in the continuing effort to use serious humor to bring visibility to the issues I send a shout out to the women of Michigan. Thursday September 20th Michigan women legislators and citizens held flash dance mob on capitol steps for reproductive rights in the face of conservative legislation moving through senate. They are asking their Governor to veto the bill should it make it to his desk. Check out their moves to exert control and autonomy over their bodies! I wish I could show all of the uteri to you. If you are near Oshkosh, check out the exhibition in person. See all 160+ on Pinterest. Here are just a few more of wonderful uteri that are a part of the project, along with their artist statements! [caption id="attachment_1919" align="aligncenter" width="375"]

Sampler, is a mixed-media, by Margaret McDowell, Carrollton, TX. She says, "In the style of Klimt, but honoring Adele Bloch-Bauer, this piece is a metaphor for something prized, stolen, valued, and retrieved. The next election will prove if the last part will ever come true."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1916" align="aligncenter" width="396"]

'Like a Flower,' by Clarice Zucker, Milwaukee, WI. "My obstetrician said, a post meopausal uterus was like an old sock! I said, "How about a flower"…and showed a Georgia O'Keeffe painting to him."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1915" align="aligncenter" width="417"]

Eunice Choi of Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts created this delicate and beautiful needle worked uterus.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1912" align="aligncenter" width="437"]

'My Body is Not Your Issue' by Tess Rutz, Madison, WI. It calls for: 'Equal pay for equal work. Right to choose. Legal Potection against any violence. The right to speak freely and openly. Birth control. Sex education. Cancer screenings, Unbiased medical care and advice.' Yes![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1918" align="aligncenter" width="430"]

The Beauty of It All, by Future Akins, Lubbuck, TX. It has not been my'gut' which offered advice over the years but my uterus. Sometimes whispering invitations of enticing encounters, other times hushed warnings of betrayal. What a mysterious pulsating organ of womanhood, connecting me to nature from the monthly flows of a young innocent to the desert dances of a sage. Each bead, each sequin is a celebration of the journey.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1913" align="aligncenter" width="445"]

'Healing Uteri Buddha' was created by Madison, WI artist Maxene White. Part of her statement reads: " Acts of Resistance take great strength from those who have the awareness, energy, & time to fight back. My “Self-Defined Uterus” represents a space for the women of the world, who are having a war waged against them, to heal. It is both an internal & external place for the collective to replenish, rest, and re-strengthen...Fight back![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1898" align="aligncenter" width="436"]

Ed Check of Lubbock, TX (raised in Manitowoc, WI) created this moving uterus. His text says "I never got to thank my working class mom for letting me wear a dress in 1961. To all working class women who are intelligent, wise, and visionary -- we queer son's honor you.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1901" align="aligncenter" width="414"]

Eugenia (Jody) May of Spring Green, Wisconsin created this many layered work called 'Femininity.' Jody writes about the piece, "For 70 years I have camouflaged my Femininity. Now I embrace it and meditate on the pearls scattered in the fields.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1904" align="aligncenter" width="414"]

Anne Waitzman of Fennimore, WI created this fabulous history lesson for us in 'My Politicized Uterus.' Take a close look at the progression away from and back toward the hanger.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1891" align="aligncenter" width="404"]

Artist Candace Forrette has created this absolutely delightful piece entitled 'Put on Your Best Panties," and included the additional text "Start Marching" and "Protect your rights." She is from Billings, Montana. Montana was second only to Wisconsin in submissions to the project[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1905" align="aligncenter" width="453"]

Dee Czarniecki's, mixed media with buttons is a wonderful piece. Dee is from Madison, WI.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1909" align="aligncenter" width="314"]

Alison Gates shared her own Bayeux Tapestry inspired Uterus . It says, in pidgin Latin : "Do not allow the bastards to grind you down." A nod to both Margaret Atwood's A Handmaidens Tale but also, a speculation on the Holy Grail and ... Well, Monty Python too![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1914" align="aligncenter" width="412"]

Artist Tiffany L Pascal of Grand Forks, Nebraska send this fierce and fabulous piece that could be a study for a graphic novel (I'd buy it). Her texts include such phrases as "You know you live with a strong woman when you walk in the bathroom and see her vibrator lying on the sink." "Just because I'm a Muslim woman doesn't mean I don't like vaginas."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1907" align="aligncenter" width="434"]

Feminist artist Carol Flueckiger of Lubbock, TX shares this piece we call 'Emancipation.' Carol explains her process here: "Cyanotype on printed square. Text is from 19th century broadside calling for dress reform. Early American feminist/reformers/abolitionists were discussing how their clothes affected their ideas about equality and democracy."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1920" align="aligncenter" width="436"]

Fruit and Flower, embroidery by Maggie Rozycki Hiltner, Red Lodge, Montana. Maggy is one of the Montana Red Lodge Art of Resistance leaders. She was one of the professional artists who were on hand one evening in June in Red Lodge to assist and encourage participants' creative process as they made their uterus their own. We thank Maggie and her cohort for using this project to bring women together to organize and share information about the issues (and register voters!)![/caption] [caption id="attachment_1877" align="aligncenter" width="459"]

Lori Ushman of Madison, Wisconsin created this wonderful photo collage. "Don't F*** With Mother Nature.'[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1900" align="aligncenter" width="424"]

Artist Amy Bethel lives in Madison, WI. Her uterus overlays an internationally recognized warning sign which is, itself, overlaid with text which includes, but is not limited to, phrases such as "Unauthorized reproduction may be illegal. Does not cause mental retardation or mental illness. Not intended as a penis substitute. Do not avoid contact with legislators. Act now, this opportunity may be withdrawn at any time. Comes complete with clitoris (not pictured). This unit is self-cleaning."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1930" align="aligncenter" width="436"]

Hanging by a Thread, mixed media, by Roberta Condon, Portage, WI. She says, "This piece shows the Gemini, mother of twins, with the words of “The Vagina Monologues” forming the texture of the background. The mop washes up blood, sweat, and tears that spring from our womb and souls as we struggle to bring these beautiful people into the world. My male children give the women they love freedom, and mark their accomplishments. They’ve seen my struggle, and love me, and I hope they’ll make good husbands."[/caption] [caption id="attachment_1921" align="aligncenter" width="464"]

I began my uterus the day it arrived in the mail. I knew instantly that I wanted to adorn it with sequins in the style of a Haitian Drapo Voodou to signify that I am, indeed, a devotee of the exquisite uterus. My step-children, ages six and eight, sorted a thousand multicolored sequin into muffin tins. Being a novice sequiner, I began with the uterus itself, choosing to make a radiant all-American uterus from reds, and pinks, silver, and blue. This project is a patriotic ode. As soon as I was done with the uterus itself I realized my mistake. I need more contrast between my uterus and the glittery golden sky. I was paralyzed in an artistic quagmire of my own creation. I rolled up my uterus and threw it in the bottom of an 'Urban Outfitters' bag and waited for inspiration. My uterus did not bejewel itself. With a lack of contrast, the actual uterus blnds into the yellow background like a subliminal femivision test. I waited so long that finishing my uterus became an emergency. We had to take it along to Ethiopian Culture Camp. There was a huge cross by the fire pit. I was worried of being judged, of being labeled the crazy-vodoo-uterus-spirit-flag-sewing-lady. It has happened before. "Oh, how beautiful, what is it?" they asked. "Chicken," My partner teased. Easy for him to say. He was not the one sitting under the shadow of a giant cross sewing sequins on his uterus for the entire world to see. It was surprisingly hot beneath the super-sized cross. I walked to the edge of Geneva Lake and met a woman named Colleen resting below the protective arms of an old broad oak. She pointed out her 19 year old biological son and her six year old adopted one playing Frisbee together. She wanted more children when her eldest was born. At age 48, after invasive and expensive fertility procedures had not worked, she adopted a child from Ethiopia. Now she has ovarian cancer and it is spreading about and the treatments are exhausting. Ovarian cancer sucks. I told her the truth. Its not just any old abstract art project. Its a exquisite (healing) uterus. She saw it then. We were quiet together. I thought about my friend, mentor and professor, Mimi Orner, who died of ovarian cancer (1959-2000). She taught me and many others about the value of the exquisite uterus and the art of resistance. I will always miss her.[/caption] Finally, my own: [caption id="attachment_1923" align="aligncenter" width="413"]

This wearable headdress is entitled 'Ms. WeAreWatching (and voting since 1920)' created by co-curator Helen Klebesadel[/caption] There are so many more fabulous pieces and interesting statements in this project. Please take check out the virtual exhibition and do your part to act to ensure our access to good and complete reproductive healthcare continues and grows!

The post The Exquisite Uterus Project: The Art of Resistance -UPDATE appeared first on Helen R. Klebesadel.

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Jean Towgood: A Memorial Exhibition

November 19, 2013, 10:02 pm

≫ Next: Join in the Women’s Caucus for Art Conference in Chicago

≪ Previous: The Exquisite Uterus Project: The Art of Resistance -UPDATE

Primal Embers VIII, 1988, 48 x 60 Oil on Canvas

“I am exploring a painterly myth for myself to explain the power of what I see and feel. Nature is a mystery- volcanic activity hidden from view by steam and the earth’s crust. To know the earth through the senses is to experience it sensually and intimately. [caption id="attachment_2088" align="aligncenter" width="720"]

Primal Embers VIII, 48 x 60, oil on canvas, Jean Towgood, 1988[/caption] Death took Jean Towgood, Huntington Beach artist and women's rights advocate, in May of this year. Jean Towgood was a passionate and committed artist. She was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and friend to many. She was a leader, and an activist that tithed for her right to be an artist by helping to create a diverse community of women in the arts in her home area and nationally. Jean was my friend and a fearless advocate for women in the arts. Ada Brown, Suvan Geer and other family, friends and sister artists have arranged an Memorial Exhibition of her artwork on Sunday, November 24^th, from 2:00-5:00 PST at the Brewery (in Jean’s last studio space) 2100 North Main Street, Studio A-5 , Los Angeles, CA . The exhibition will celebrate Jean's passion for art, the land and the people she loved and worked with over the years. A percentage of all sales made will benefit the non-profit Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art Legacy Project. Jean created artwork that focused on the personal, political, and environmental issues that affect her life. She was drawn to focus on the “cracks” in nature – the places where the earth was still forming and transforming – volcanic eruptions, geysers, fires, storms, geographic erosion, and rocks and trees sliding into the ocean. Her aggressively composed and articulated paintings were abstract yet completely grounded in the wild nature she loved. [caption id="attachment_2089" align="aligncenter" width="598"]

Red, Yellow, Blue V, 15x22, oil on paper, Jean Towgood, 2003[/caption] I met Jean Towgood as a chapter representative in the national Women’s Caucus for Art, and was privileged to be her supporter as she took on the national presidency of the Women’s Caucus for Art (1992-1994). The WCA is the largest multi-disciplinary women’s art organization in the United States, serving women artists and art historians in and out of the academy, and in local communities through a network of chapters that do local advocacy and provide opportunities to come together to exhibit and grow feminist art community. The WCA grew out of the College Art Association, starting first, in 1972, as a caucus of that organization dedicated to fighting sex discrimination in art departments. It became a separate independent, but affiliated organization, in 1974. The WSC continues to advocate for women in the arts and celebrated its 40^th anniversary in 2012. It will again hold its annual conference February 13-15, 2014 in Chicago, with the theme “Balance." When Jean became the 12^th president of the WCA she brought her experiences as an independent artist who had been president of the Southern California WCA. She remained a proud and active member of the SCWCA all of her life. Jean had found her own voice by pursuing her painting. She wanted the same for other women. She knew we needed more art from more diverse voices to better understand the world we live in. Her advocacy for all women in the arts took many forms. It took great courage and commitment for this soft spoken woman to become one of the first WCA President who did not have an affiliation with an institution of higher learning. While Jean worked hard to ensure the WCA provided important support for women working in University art and art history programs, she also understood what it meant to be an independent artist grappling with the forces in the art world that disadvantaged women artists. Understanding that the woman-centered art communities formed by the WCA the local chapter structure is especially important in providing opportunities for women artists across the country, she brought a strong voice from the chapters to WCA leadership. [caption id="attachment_2090" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Thermals II , 30 x 40, oils on canvas, Jean Towgood, 1996[/caption] Jean brought this regard for all women artists and art historians with her. Jean will be especially remembered for her dedication to working to make the WCA into a community that provided equitable support for all women artists, and her particular commitment supporting the art and leadership of women of color. It was during Jean’s term of office that the WCA supported a diverse team of curators and ensured the publication of the Women of Color Slide Project so that it could never again be said that there were no visual resources to support the teaching about women artists of color. There were many ways Jean fought for women artists and one way was to model an absolute commitment to bringing her critical and creative voice to the world through her own art. Jean was a painter who found the support of other women artists extremely valuable to her own development as an artist. She created a series of paintings to commemorate the late Joan Brown, an artist who was significant to her own development. Jean said at the time: "Brown's work reflected her life. That started me thinking that my art is part of me, connected with what I did in my life. Whatever we artists do revolves around what's going on in our lives. The same shapes and images that were in my work two years ago are still popping up. The work is really a serial of my life." Her pieces are included in many private collections. She exhibited her art across the United States as well as in Europe. Her pieces are included in many private collections and can be seen on her website: www.jeantowgood.com [caption id="attachment_2087" align="aligncenter" width="365"]

Firefalls XVII, 72 x 30 in. oil on canvas. Jean Towgood, 1997[/caption] A passionate voice for humans and nature, Jean painted on huge unstretched canvases and smaller works on paper. Her large-scale paintings were environments that embraced the viewer. Her subjects were most often rooted in her awe of nature and her lived experiences of the land from sited as diverse as her own back yard, Anza Borrego, Yellowstone, Kenya and Hawaii. I had the opportunity to walk with Jean once through the park near her house and saw the twisted trees that inspired some of her dynamic psychological landscapes. She spoke of her intent to translate what she felt in her work. Favoring bright and bold color, dynamic mark making, and energetic line to embody wild nature images that often served as metaphoric representations of the human emotion. Her paintings ranged from pure abstraction to dynamic images of erupting volcanoes, writhing tree limbs, raging wildfires and rolling deserts capes that suggested an emotionally charged psychological terrain. Jean's paintings represent an earth with dynamic, unfettered power. She grew up close to nature and had always felt its living power and wanted her audience to feel it too. [caption id="attachment_2091" align="aligncenter" width="527"]

Weeping Trees III, 24x24, oil on canvas, Jean Towgood ,2011[/caption] Jean Towgood successfully translated the wild spirit of humans and nature and showed us a woman who are not afraid to fully be an artist while still fully loving her family and friends and working to create the world she wanted to live in. If you are in Los Angeles on Sunday the 25th of November, 2013 please stop by the Brewery and experience Jean Towgood's creative and critical thinking through her art.

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Join in the Women’s Caucus for Art Conference in Chicago

January 4, 2014, 12:27 pm

≫ Next: Memory Cloths: Leslee Nelson

≪ Previous: Jean Towgood: A Memorial Exhibition

Sandra Perlow, Landfall, 2012
monoprint, gouache, crayon, paper, 18x24"
www.sandraperlow.net

[caption id="attachment_2125" align="aligncenter" width="498"]

Sandra Perlow, Landfall, 2012 monoprint, gouache, crayon, paper, 18x24"
www.sandraperlow.net
One of the pieces available through the LTA Benefit Raffle at $15 for 1 ticket or 3 for $30
(Drawing will be held at the WCA Awards Ceremony, participants need not be present to win.)[/caption] I just registered for 'Balance' the Women's Caucus for Art national conference in Chicago this February 12-15, 2014. Early bird registration for the conference ends this Monday, January 6th, but you can continue to register for the conference through February 7th. The WSC Conference parallels the College Art Association Conference, which offers its early bird registration through January 10th. The WCA conference organizers have kept the actual conference registration at the very accessible price of $40 non-member fee so artists from all backgrounds can afford to attend. There are a number of additional optional events that have added costs but there are ways to attend and keep the costs down. You can register until February 7th, but costs are lowest through Monday. The WCA Lifetime Achievement Awards ceremony is free and open to the public too. This year an amazing group of feminist artists, activists, and thinkers are recognized: Phyllis Bramson, Harmony Hammond, Adrian Piper, and Faith Wilding. The 2014 President's Art & Activism Awardees: Janice Nesser-Chu and Hye-seong Tak Lee will also receive their awards Saturday, February 15, 2014 from 6:00 -7:30pm at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The event is followed by a Gala which requires purchased tickets, but the ceremony itself is free and open to all. The artworks publishes in post are all offered as part of a fund raising raffle that you can purchase tickets for on the conference registration page. The conference program offers events on Thursday and panels and presentations throughout Friday and Saturday that include a wonderful line up of presentations offered by The Feminist Art Project (TFAP) on Saturday. In addition to the panels and presentations being offered there are a number of exhibitions taking place in association with the conference, and I am delighted to be able to mention that I will have paintings on display in two of them.

'The Eyes of the Mother' at the Korean Cultural Center Gallery in Wheeling, Illinois, a panel discussion and reception Thursday, February 13th,
'Water: A Universal Human Right' sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of the WCA at the Robert Morris Gallery. Reception Thursday, February 13th. (My watercolor of canvas 'Air Element: Storm ' will be on display among the other works).
'The WCA Best of 2014' and 'Korean feminists’ Songs for our Muses' at the ARC Gallery. Reception Thursday, February 13th. (My watercolor of canvas 'Earth Element: Droughts' will be on display among the other works).
'Equilibrium' a national juried exhibition at Woman Made Gallery. Reception Friday, February 14th

[caption id="attachment_2124" align="alignleft" width="338"]

Mary Ellen Croteau, Endless Columns 2012-13
Size: variable (installed floor to ceiling)
Value $1000 (for 3)
www.maryellencroteau.net[/caption] The Women’s Caucus for Art was founded in 1972 as a caucus of the College Art Association (CAA) as women's artists and art historians in the academy began to organize to fight sexism in the arts and art education. The organization has fought for greater representation and participation for women and under-represented people in the arts and art education throughout its history. Today the WCA is a national member organization that serves women in the arts in and out of the academy. Offering its membership 23 local chapters, and several internal caucuses (Eco-arts, international, Young women's, and the Jewish Women's Artist Network) the WCA is still unique in its multidisciplinary, multicultural membership of independent artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The mission of the Women’s Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism. WCA is committed to recognizing the contribution of women in the arts; providing women with leadership opportunities and professional development; expanding networking and exhibition opportunities for women; supporting local, national and global art activism; and advocating for equity in the arts for all. Also an NGO (non-governmental organization) of the United Nations, the Women’s Caucus for Art actively supports the UN Millennium Goals. WCA utilizes art as the universal language to engage artists, NGOS, and civil society on a broad range of issues such as gender equity and environmental sustainability. [caption id="attachment_2126" align="alignright" width="296"]

Corinne D. Peterson
Retaining Wall I
26 x 5 x 4 inches, terra cotta clay, 2000
Value $950
www.cdpeterson.com[/caption] A founding member of the Feminist Art Project, WCA is part of a collaborative national initiative celebrating the Feminist Art Movement and the aesthetic, intellectual and political impact of women on the visual arts, art history, and art practice, past and present. I am very proud to be a past-president of the Women's Caucus for Art. I was the organizations 13th national President served from 1994-1996, and preceded that service as a vice president and by serving on the Chapter Council representing Wisconsin. I was particularly lucky to have had the WCA participation in the United Nations NGO Forum as a part of the World Conference on Women in China during my presidency. My vice president, artist Jo Hockenhull organized most of the trip and set up collaborative exchanges with Chinese women artists that continue today. I was especially proud to have written a grant that allowed the Spiderwoman Theater ( 2010 WCA Lifetime Achievement Award recipients) to join us on the trip with 100 artists from the USA, Canada and Mexico. It was a life-changing adventure that taught me much about American privilege (the WCA was able to bring more participants to the NGO forum than many countries). This was the most complicated and rewarding project of the WCA during my presidency, but there were many more adventures in arts leadership that make me take my hat off to the leaders of today's Women's Caucus for Art and thank them for their mighty efforts to continue the success and leadership of the WCA. [caption id="attachment_2137" align="aligncenter" width="550"]

Ida Applebroog
Vellum Sketches, II
Sugar-lift aquatint, 20 x 29 inches
Edition size: 25
Value $3500.00
(This is a special opportunity to for WCA members to own an Ida Applebroog piece. Its an online fundraising auction accessible here: http://www.nationalwca.org/awards)/auction.php[/caption] I highly recommend participation in the organization at what ever level you are able. I spent ten or more years working with the WCA. I started out helping to form a local chapter of the WCA in my community while I was in graduate school so I could meet and get to know other artists who identified as feminists. As a new faculty beginning my career I found myself representing the chapter and State to the national organization. Before I knew it I was in national leadership at the same time I was earning tenure. It was both a joy and a challenge that I do not regret. The WCA allowed me to experience national leadership in a way that a woman artist, at that time, from Wisconsin building an art career and teaching at a small liberal arts college (Lawrence University) could never have done otherwise. The experience helped me grow in so many ways (that leadership was the hardest thing I had done to date, and taught me I was capable of far more than I realized). My leadership in the WCA laid the groundwork for a lot of the work I did after both as an artist and as an activist and educator. The most important thing I gained from my participation in the organization was the national and international community of women artist that became my friends and colleagues through our mutual efforts to help create a world were women and people of color are valued contributors to our cultural exchanges. It is a journey that is not complete, but the community is still there to join, participate in and grow. Maybe I'll see you in Chicago? Early bird registration is available through Monday January 6th. You must register by February 7th to attend. Let me know if you are attending!

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Memory Cloths: Leslee Nelson

February 2, 2014, 10:28 pm

≫ Next: Reflections on Creative Process: Georgia Lang Weithe

≪ Previous: Join in the Women’s Caucus for Art Conference in Chicago

Artist Leslee Nelson creates Memory Cloths using the creative process to reflect on her life and makes art from her memories. In December 2005 Leslee Nelson saw an exhibit, The Art of War, which included Memory Cloths from South Africa. These brightly colored fabrics had embroidered images from the maker’s memory. Accompanying them were narrative paragraphs, the maker telling the story of the scenes depicted. It was part of an effort to reclaim the memories of women’s experiences of Apartheid left out of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s official record. It was an A-HA moment for her.

Since then Leslee has been making these embroidered stories from her life. She embroiders images on a vintage textile (mostly her Mother’s or Grandmother‘s) and writes the story of the memory that is exhibited next to them. Leslee started with stories from her childhood, from her travels and from her love life. For the artist the process of making have been are very healing to make. Occasionally she embroiders meaningful words she want to embed in her memory. Leslee is careful to attribute her inspiration for the project to the South African women fiber artists who stitch their own lives and experiences into their work. Even as she found herself inspired buy the process of using the arts, and fiber arts in particular, to capture meaningful memories, it has been very important to Leslee to avoid appropriation of the specific traditional cultural forms and images that drew her in originally. In 2012 Leslee went to South Africa and was invited to speak at the Phansi Museum where the South African artists Memory Cloths are currently on display in the exhibition Amazwi Abesifazane: Voices of Women. The South African women artists were pleased and delighted with how engaged Leslee has become with their process. “I felt a little guilty about stealing this idea from these women who have these incredible traumas (in their past) — people being murdered, their houses being burnt down,” she said. “I told them how I’d come to this healing place and asked if that had happened to them. And they said yes, basically, that is the whole point. “They talked about how part of (the process of memory cloths) was the making of it, and part of it was putting it on the wall until it no longer triggered a response,” she said. “They were so delighted that I had fallen in love with their process and was doing it here, too” Leslee was honored that these artists where so generous and supportive of her art making. If you live near Madison Wisconsin you will have a chance to see her wonderful artworks in person.

Plan To Attend!

Memory Cloths: Leslee Nelson

February 3-April 12

Steenbock Gallery

In collaboration with the

Wisconsin Academy of Science Arts and Letters

1922 University Avenue

(Weekdays, 10:00=4:00 PM)

Exhibition Reception

February 23, 2014, 1:00-3:00 PM

A Chance to Make Your Own Memory Cloths

If you are in Madison you are invited to join Leslee in Making Memory Cloths, Wednesdays, Feb 2 - April 30, 1:30 – 3 pm at the Lakeside Street Coffee House, 402 W. Lakeside Street, Madison.

Two Chances to hear Leslee Nelson Speak on her art and influences

Leslee retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in December 2012 after 32 years. She both taught in the art department and did art outreach through the Division of Continuing Studies. Art outreach included organizing non-credit outreach classes for adults and being the director of the Wisconsin Regional Art Program. Come to her Emeritus Lecture, Finding Joy in Art Textiles and Travel on Sunday, April 27, 2-3pm at the Pyle Center, 702 Langdon St, Madison, Wisconsin

Leslee will also be talking about the cross cultural inspirations on her work at the Madison Wisconsin Regional Arts Program (WRAP) Workshop on April 12, 2014, also at the Pyle Center. There is a small fee ($5.00) for participants who are not participating in the Madison WRAP exhibition.

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↧

Reflections on Creative Process: Georgia Lang Weithe

March 16, 2014, 11:01 am

≫ Next: The Memory Cloth Collective: Stitches in Time –“Meant to Be”, April 15- May 11, 2014

≪ Previous: Memory Cloths: Leslee Nelson

My pieces are a reflection of the inspiration I find within, and the beauty that surrounds me. The designs come from a deep place in me, and I hope to touch a corresponding deep place in others.

[caption id="attachment_2213" align="aligncenter" width="461"]

Georgia Lang Weithe says: "My pieces are a reflection of the inspiration I find within, and the beauty that surrounds me. The designs come from a deep place in me, and I hope to touch a corresponding deep place in others."[/caption] I have the privilege to have a large number of wonderful artists among my friends and acquaintances. In an entirely selfish urge, I like to explore their stories to look for echoes in their experiences that help to reinforce my own devotion to creative work. It no longer surprises me when I am drawn to an artist's work because of its depth, layered meaning and beauty , to find that the maker of the art is as interesting and complex as their work. Wisconsin's Georgia Lang Weithe is such a person. An artist and author as well as an educator who focuses on healing practices, Georgia Lang Weithe creates unique one-of-a-kind and production art jewelry pieces that, to me, reflect depth of spirit and subtle life-rich meaning. Her art and other creative and critical work are informed by the concept of Reflection, with its dual distinct meanings: meditative—the inner and spiritual journey. I see this in her artworks as well as her writing. Georgia makes her art metals pieces available in multiple venues through her art business Reflection Jewelry. [caption id="attachment_2217" align="alignright" width="212"]

Night Sky Pewter Box[/caption] Georgia discovered jewelry making when she was newly graduated from college. She took a course at a technical school where she had a very inspiring instructor and access to an extensive array of equipment. Several years later she moved to Germany with her husband where she took private lessons with a master goldsmith, named Lutz Quambusch. Many of her early designs had moons and stars and suns, while his work was strictly geometrical and abstract. He declared her style to be distinctly American. Georgia originally puzzled over that, but has come to think he might be right, declaring "I am definitely a product of my culture and my environment, and it shows. " When she was living in Germany they had a tiny apartment. It consisted of two rooms: there was a living room and a bedroom. In the tiny bedroom she managed to cram a jewelry workbench on one wall and a meditation corner in a small alcove. When she became pregnant they and had to figure out where to put the baby’s crib, and the choice was clear. She rolled up her mat and set up the crib in the meditation corner, putting her daily meditation period on pause for a few years, and demonstrating how strong her commitment to her jewelry has been. [caption id="attachment_2221" align="aligncenter" width="300"]

The Goddess, one-of-a-kind, sterling silver with oxidized accents, and features a fascinating Bird's Eye Rhyolite. Rhyolite is volcanic glass formed when rhyolite lava is explosively ejected from volcanoes.[/caption] Over the years Georgia has come to realize that with the elimination of the meditation corner, she didn’t stop meditating. Making jewelry for her is in its own way, a meditation. The designs flow from within when she is connected to her deepest self, and what they say is an expression of her own unique quality of spirit. She says "Everyone has a unique quality spirit, and we each do things and express ourselves in ways that nobody else can… it can be a work of art, or it can be how we solve a problem or care for a friend." [caption id="attachment_2215" align="alignleft" width="376"]

The art metal bench.[/caption] It is endlessly interesting to me to explore what drives the creative process in other artists, who like me, are compelled to make despite the reality that being an artist in this culture holds such an odd place in terms of being both devalued (as the chair of a university art department I spent many an hour reassuring parents that their child's desire to be an art major was not actually a tragedy), and sometimes admired, almost as magic, when individuals spend the time to achieve mastery of their chosen mediums. I do believe it takes courage to be an artist, to commit to making the space in your life for your creative work, and the ability willingness to determined your own criteria for success, and to map your own journey with no clear set path. Georgia's path is interesting too. She says, "When I look back over the years I realize there has never been a period of my life when I didn’t feel compelled to surround myself with a torch and the equipment I needed to make jewelry, even during my career in education. So a few years ago, I decided to honor the pull I have felt my entire life, and spend all my time making jewelry. After all, I have learned I can’t NOT do it. " [caption id="attachment_2214" align="alignright" width="370"]

Georgia's new studio[/caption] In my occasional coaching of other artists I have learned that we need three things to maintain a creative life centered around art making: time, money, and space. Too many times we think we need a lot of each to even start our creative work. The reality is that we can find a way to make some kind of art with whatever time, money and space we have. To wait to have our creative life until we have all three is a devastating mistake. However, to start where you are and create the time and space for the creative in your life no matter what your economic situation is can lead to a bigger and bigger commitment of all three. Three years ago Georgia decided to stop renting studio space and use the money she would have paid for rent to purchase a log cabin from a local Amish man. She now has the dream commute (several hundred feet) and spends her days in her beautiful cabin studio, surrounded by a lovely flower garden, wild woods, and the birds and animals that inhabit it. [caption id="attachment_2226" align="alignleft" width="174"]

Dragonfly Wings, This is not an abstract design. It is the actual pattern of a real dragonfly wing. "Dragonfly - Look in the mirror and see that each expression of life is unique and beautiful."[/caption] As an artist, a collector of art, and in my daily life I happen to be the kind of person who is not neutral about objects. I like to surround myself with objects that I find aesthetically pleasing and that have a deeper meaning to me. As a result I tend to approach any jewelry I wear more like talismans than body decorations. As a result I am most interested in jewelry that have symbolic meaning for me on a personal, political, spiritual or social level, or that remind me of a person, place or occurrence that matters to me. [caption id="attachment_2223" align="alignright" width="120"]

Seed of True Self, sterling silver seed has dark patina highlighting the design, and a small turquoise stone. "Seed of True Self - Your true self knows all there is and acts as your compass."[/caption] Georgia's jewelry works for me in that way. I recognize in her imagery the same love of nature and the patterns of life and death that I aspire to as well. Her wearable artworks resonated with me in the same way as some of the images I bring into my own paintings. The symbolism of Georgia's wings, trees, branches, spirals, and shapes, for me imply a depth of knowledge and larger connections with our own bodies in relation to the body of the earth, recognizing our relationships to the other creatures that inhabit it. This is a true gift for me and many of her other collectors. When I wear a piece of Georgia's jewelry I am preparing for a day of mindful connections. [caption id="attachment_2216" align="alignleft" width="462"]

Sterling silver bracelet with vines and 7 flowers(two on either side of the main bunch). Available with garnets or with turquoise stones. Flower and Vine Bracelet with two matching pairs of earrings with flowers and vines.

Flower and Vine Bracelet with two matching pairs of earrings with flowers and vines. Sterling silver bracelet with vines and 7 flowers (two on either side of the main bunch). Available with garnets or with turquoise stones.[/caption] As I alluded to earlier, like so many artists, myself included, Georgia Lang Weithe can be considered a 'hybrid-artist' in that she has a foot on more than one career path. While she has long pursued her work as a metal artist and jeweler she has brought abilities to connect larger pattens to her work as an educator and an In addition to creating wonderful art, Georgia a certified teacher, and since founding the Reflections Educational Consulting Firm in 1988, she has appeared as a guest speaker presenting workshops on a variety of topics to professionals in the fields of education and health care. Georgia has enjoyed a long-term affiliation with the Courage to Teach Program, created by the Fetzer Institute. She is also a certified Well-Springs Facilitator, and has a private practice in which she incorporates the Well-Springs massage, Reiki and Healing Touch. In all of her life’s work, be it art or teaching, Georgia has the ability to offer up a remarkable degree of reflection about things that matter. In 2008 this included authoring the book 'Shining Moments: Finding Hope in Facing Death.' The book offers what she learned while navigating unknown territory of supporting her father through the process of dying.

"I kept a journal to help me find my way. When I read through it after my father died, I realized it contained exactly the kind of information I had been seeking from others, but was unable to find. So I offer my story to help those who, like myself, have been terrified of death and who feel the need to have a conversation—even if it’s only with themselves—about this phenomenon, which has generally become unspeakable. By sharing my experiences and the insights gained through them, perhaps I can provide you with a tool for courageously facing the death of others and the prospect of your own." A review of her book describes it this way: "In Shining Moments: Finding Hope in Facing Death, Georgia Weithe provides an intellectual rationale for the importance of coming to terms with death, an emotional glimpse into what it is like to sit vigil while someone we love is dying, and spiritual directions for how to create an atmosphere of comfort and safety to support the dying person and help them let go. The book shines a positive light on death to help us accept its presence in our lives. It offers readers the hopeful message that when we have found the key to living with the knowledge of our own death, the door to inner peace and the hope of fulfilling our true purpose on earth is opened. Shining Moments is a valuable resource for all who have an intellectual curiosity about death, for friends and family members of loved ones who are in the final stage of life, and for Hospice and other end-of-life care professionals who assist them with their journey." Georgia Lang Weithe is an artist whose metal arts extend to fabulous art jewelry that draws on the connections she has made in her own life's journey that has included travel through the places that allow us to reflect on our relationship to the cycles of life and death. [caption id="attachment_2219" align="aligncenter" width="319"]

My Egyptian Dream, The design stretches from bird to bird, and at the bottom of the frame where the water lilies hang beneath turquoise gemstones and glass beads.[/caption] "This is a piece I have been dreaming about for a long time. I am very attracted to ancient Egyptian artifacts, and I have always wanted to make a pectoral – a large necklace that sits on the chest." Thank you for bringing beauty and rich insights to the world Georgia Lang Weithe.

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The Memory Cloth Collective: Stitches in Time –“Meant to Be”, April 15- May 11, 2014

April 19, 2014, 8:43 pm

≫ Next: Artists! An Opportunity to Exhibit and Share Your Tiny Treasures

≪ Previous: Reflections on Creative Process: Georgia Lang Weithe

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Memory Cloth –TATTOO, by Leslee Nelson
As soon as Kaylee turned 18 she started getting tattoos. I was not delighted by it, until she got the Flying Toothbrush. It was to represent me. She used to dress up in a skirt I’d made with fabric I had silkscreened. The flying toothbrush represented my Grandfather. He sang the song My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. When I was a kid I didn’t know what a bonnie was so I made it look like a toothbrush flying over the sea.
Started 1/11/11 ~ Made 2/5/2014[/caption] An exhibition The Memory Cloth Collective: Stitches in Time - "Meant to Be" is currently on display at the Lakeside Coffee House at 402 W Lakeside Street in Madison, WI until May 11, 2014. This is a wonderful exhibition of non-traditional fiber works that have grown out of weekly sewing sessions session focused on Making Memory Cloths was initiated and facilitated by artist Leslee Nelson. It was initially as a part of the Cafe' Allonge, performance art in coffee shops for the Wisconsin Triennial exhibit at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. I have written about Leslee Nelson's Memory Clothes and what inspired them here. [caption id="attachment_2269" align="aligncenter" width="528"]

FIRST GATHERING, by Ann Engelman
Three years ago my friend Joan and I met at the Chazen Art Museum and saw Memory Cloths by Professor Leslee Nelson. We were stunned by the elegant simplicity of embroidery on vintage materials including hankies, dish towels napkins and a table cloth. One year later, for my birthday, Joan presented me with an e.e. cummings poem embroidered on a hankie that belonged to her grandmother.
Treasure!
One year after that I saw an invitation to join a gathering to create Memory Cloths with Leslee. I would now have a use for my vintage hankie collection! Joan and I immediately joined and could not believe our good fortune! We see more of one another as we come early, have lunch and save the table for our gathering.[/caption] Last fall 50 people joined Leslee Nelson in making their own memory clothes. They loved doing it and didn't want to stop, so Leslee kept right on coordinating the Wednesday afternoon meetings at the cafe. May people kept coming and this exhibition shares some of the pieces that were created. [caption id="attachment_2259" align="aligncenter" width="388"]

TORN AND MENDED – RED, by Pamela Niebauer
Hand-dyed cotton voile, silk & linen with various threads, 2013[/caption] Artists contributing to show include: Leslee Nelson, Barbara Westfall, Pamela Niebauer, Elizabeth Prose, Marilyn Wedberg, Sherri Shokler, Bobbie Malone, Cynthia Quinn, Ann Engelman, Marge Engelman, Joan Klaski, Catherine Stephens, Brenna Hopkins, Pamela Egan, Pamela Olson, Maureen Griffin, and Helen Klebesadel. [caption id="attachment_2260" align="aligncenter" width="549"]

LUCKY ME!, by Cynthia Quinn
I was attracted to this Irish linen handkerchief because of the shamrocks. As I looked at it, what popped into my head was Lucky Me! This phrase comes from a small glass ornament my mother had with a shamrock on it that I’ve kept for years. My mother suffered from the effects of brain cancer when I was raising my daughters. I worked as a graphic designer and tried to help my Dad. I used to think Why Me! as the years went by and she deteriorated. As I stitch Lucky Me on the linen, I’m thinking a lot about my mother, the time she lost to enjoy life, family and her interests. With that in mind I am grateful to be the age
I am, seeing each small event in life as special.
I miss you mom & Lucky Me![/caption] [caption id="attachment_2261" align="aligncenter" width="443"]

TORN AND MENDED – BLACK, by Pamela Niebauer
Linen & Silk stitched with embroidery floss, 2013[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2262" align="aligncenter" width="624"]

NUMBER ONE by Marilyn Wedberg
This is my first cloth. When I sat down to stitch with Leslee, I had trouble choosing a memory, so I decided to just start stitching and see what happened. First a blue circle appeared, then it was filled with pink stitches, and then green lines began to radiate out . I call this intuitive stitching -- no rules and no plan. What a relief![/caption] [caption id="attachment_2263" align="aligncenter" width="614"]

WISH YOU WERE HERE
Mixed Media, bu Maureen Griffin
Dear Dad,
Going to visit Devil's Lake soon with Dave.
So many wonderful memories!
The best two weeks of the year.
Sure do miss you.
Love,
Maureen[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2264" align="aligncenter" width="567"]

POETIC LINEAGE, by Ann Engelman
My poet friend Mary Linton signed off her emails with this list of her grandmothers and natural characteristics. It got me to thinking about my own lineage and what images I might apply. Future Memory Cloths I thought! So as I stitched this I thought of my Grandma Memories. Mary is a remarkable poet. I honor her often for helping me to see my world and my place in it.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2265" align="aligncenter" width="518"]

OLIVIA AS CANIS MAJOR, by Cynthia Quinn
In December we moved from our wonderful Baltzell Street house of 27 years to a new place, plus in August, we bought a playful Cardigan Welsh Corgi puppy named Olivia. Months were spent packing and moving, during one of the coldest winters on record. Poor Olivia endured days of boredom. The constellation Canis Major includes Sirius, the dog star, which is the brightest in the winter sky. Legend tells that Canis Major loyally follows its mythical master Orion across the sky. I’ve stitched Olivia into that sky, patiently waiting for us and spring.
This is part of a Robert Frost poem I tweaked-
Olivia, that heavenly beast,
with a star in one eye,
gives a leap in the east.
She dances upright,
all the way to the west,
and never once drops,
on her forefeet to rest.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2266" align="aligncenter" width="577"]

WISCONSIN REKLAW, by Marge Engelman
The theme of the Memory Cloth session with Leslee Nelson was Politics. I had no idea how I would do a stitchery related to that but, I began stitching randomly using stitches I learned long ago. I took the piece home, added more stitches to make the image of a small headed animal. Then it came to me that it would be a Wisconsin Reklaw - - - Walker spelled backwards.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2267" align="aligncenter" width="566"]

MY BROTHER THIS TREASURE, Joan Marie Klaski, 66 Years Old
My brother, Donald, embroidered the four panels on this little quilt, made for my dolls. It was 1949. He was twelve years old and I was two. Don was my only brother, my only sibling. He passed away three years ago. This piece was the obvious choice for my first “memory cloth.” My own embroidery and words are an affectionate tribute to his.
Spring 2014[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2270" align="aligncenter" width="507"]

PUNCHLINES FROM SHEP SCHARLACK'S "STORIES" , by Bobbie Malone
in process: antique machine-stitched quilt top with hand embroidery
Sheppard Scharlack was my father, who died very suddenly at age 58. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and the entire family still talks in the punchlines from his unending array of borscht belt stories told Texas-style.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2278" align="aligncenter" width="320"]

Detail of PUNCHLINES FROM SHEP SCHARLACK'S "STORIES" by Bobbie Malone[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283" align="aligncenter" width="590"]

CHOICES # 1, by Sherri L. Shokler
Materials: Scraps of vintage family quilts, pillowcases, and sewing supplies from my great-grandmothers, embroidery from a childhood blouse, contemporary quilt fabric, scrapbook supplies and game pieces.
This piece is a meditation on a lifetime of reproductive choices. As a young woman I lived in a time and place where a full array of reproductive health options was available to me. As a middle-aged newlywed advanced technology was an option to enhance my childbearing possibilities. From the other side of menopause I find myself reflecting again on the paths I have chosen –
and not chosen – for my life[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2280" align="aligncenter" width="574"]

CHOICES # 2, by Sherri L. Shokler
Materials: Vintage hankie from Anna Jones Quinn Dusenbury Mendenhall (my great grandmother), pieced backing from a thrift store throw, and transfers of family photos.
This piece shows four generations of the women in my family beginning with my mother in the center; her mother Beulah; her grandmothers Louella and Anna; and her great-grandmother Leah. As a child I knew all of them but now, that they have all passed, I am seeing their lives, their stories, and my own, in new ways. Some left abusive relationships, some did not. In some way, all of their choices have become part of my story.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2268" align="aligncenter" width="610"]

DEMETER, by yours truly Helen Klebesadel
I created this little spirit doll in a sewing session with several of my artist friends, that like me, usually work in other materials. I created it not long after we has suffered a death in my family. The figure symbolized, not death but a dark living spirit in a time of mourning, with its dark red ribbons mixed in with the black. I brought my figure to Leslee’s gathering and found my self beginning to embroider spring flowers twining up the edge of the skirt. She had found her name. Demeter. The mother goddess who mourns throughout the winter while her daughter, Persephone, was lost to here in Hades. While Demeter mourns the world is dark and cold, with her daughter's return come the greens and flowers of spring[/caption] These are just some of the Memory Clothes inspired by Leslee Nelson's creative journey into Memory Clothes. We thank her willingness to share her inspiration with other creatives. Check out the whole exhibition at the Lakeside Coffee House until May 11, 2014! Thank you Leslee!

The post The Memory Cloth Collective: Stitches in Time – “Meant to Be”, April 15- May 11, 2014 appeared first on Helen R. Klebesadel.

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Artists! An Opportunity to Exhibit and Share Your Tiny Treasures

May 23, 2014, 10:21 am

≫ Next: Art-Science Collaboration: My Artist-in-Residency at the Trout Lake Research Station

≪ Previous: The Memory Cloth Collective: Stitches in Time –“Meant to Be”, April 15- May 11, 2014

Let There Be Light!, watercolor by Sherry Ackerman, Project Coordinator

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Let There Be Light!, watercolor by Sherry Ackerman, Project Coordinator[/caption]

Create, Compete, and Participate with Your Tiny Art

One of the real pleasures I receive as a part of my day job as Director of the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) with the UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies, is working with the Wisconsin Regional Artist Association (WRAA) in supporting the creative work of other artists. One of the many arts based projects this organization has going is its annual Tiny Treasures exhibition and fundraiser organized and nurtured by WRAA board member Sherry Ackerman (see her own art above). Sherry talked me into participating in this project last year and it was a blast. I invite you all to do the same this year. [caption id="attachment_2465" align="alignleft" width="353"]

His Shoes, watercolor, 2013 2nd place award, to Susan Porubcan,, Jefferson, WI[/caption] Get your own creative juices flowing and create one or more one-of-a-kind 3.5 x 2.5 inch TINY TREASUREs. For the fifth year in a row, the Wisconsin Regional Artist Association (WRAA) invites artists from everywhere in the world to participate in an exhibition/fundraiser of miniature works of art. Create art, compete for awards and participate in the WRAA Buy-It-Now fundraiser. Artworks will be displayed virtually and physically, and are eligible for prizes and other recognitions. It costs $10.00 per treasure to enter.

ARTWORK s must be RECEIVED in the mail BY JULY 11, 2014 Entry forms can be downloaded here: http://www.wraawrap.com

[caption id="attachment_2456" align="alignright" width="322"]

Got Milkweed?, acrylic, by Marilyn Knipfer, Deerfeild WI[/caption] WRAA is an organization devoted to providing opportunities for artists who make art for the joy of creative growth and who do not receive the majority of their income from their art. Another of their objectives is to support WRAP Exhibits and Workshops around the state. The organization collaborates with the Wisconsin Regional Arts Program (WRAP) to offer lay artists the opportunity to show their work in over 20 self-juried exhibits/workshops in Wisconsin communities across the State, as well as sponsoring youth art exhibitions, and producing wonderful art publications for its members. (Go to the Wisconsin Regional Art Blog to learn about the latest calls for entries or go tho the WRAP website for a whole list of opportunities.) The proceeds from the Tiny Treasure fundraiser benefits the WRAA’s Publication Fund. The WRAA Publication Fund helps support the color catalog for the Wisconsin Regional Art Program’s statewide exhibit each September, the WRAA newsletter Contour Notes, and the Tiny Treasures WRAP Pocket Calendar.. [caption id="attachment_2453" align="alignleft" width="276"]

Ruby Slippers, watercolor, by Anne C. Tedeschi, Ferryville WI[/caption] All entered art pieces must be original, appropriate for all ages and not entered in previous years. (No decorated kits are acceptable.) It is called a TINY treasure because the size must be exactly 2 ½” x 3 ½”. It should be submitted unmatted and unframed (However your 2D work will be matted for display by the exhibition organizer). Depth of piece not to exceed 1”. These works are the same size as modern trading sports cards, and are also known as Artist Trading Cards. This competition is open to adults and teens at least 14 years old (calculate age as of July 11, 2014). Each Tiny Treasure entry costs $10.00. You do NOT need to be a WRAA member to participate. There are cash awards: 1st Place $100, 2nd Place $75 and 3rd Place $50. You may enter as many Tiny Treasures as you’d like – submit $10 and a separate ID label for each one. Tiny Treasure entries from prior years can not be submitted again. WRAA members, a registration form can be found in Contour Notes (for WRAA members), or, for everyone else, the Entry Form can be downloaded from the WRAA website at http://www.wraawrap.com

[caption id="attachment_2466" align="alignright" width="353"]

Swan Dive, watercolor, 2013 3rd place award , to Kathleen M. Ward, Edgerton, WI[/caption]

The 2014 Tiny Treasure exhibit will be on display in Wausau, as a part of the Wisconsin Regional Art Program ( WRAP) State Conference activities, August 8th to September 26th 2014. Also new this year is the ability to donate your unsold Tiny Treasures to WRAA to be gifted to a nonprofit organization. Since Wausau is the location for this year’s WRAP State Day, the WVAA (Wisconsin Valley Art Association) has agreed to coordinate donations to local area non-profits including the Neighborhood Place as well as a Women's Shelter. So rather than sticking your Tiny Treasure in a closet if it is not sold, you can share your creative work with the shelter and bring smiles to a lot of women. All you need to do is check the box on the Entry Form when you enter to indicate your intention. All entries will also be exhibited virtually on-line at www.wraawrap.com (You can see the 2013 exhibition there now) and the entire Tiny Treasures exhibit will be on display physical in Wausau at the Marathon County Public Library in August 8th to September 26th 2014.Awards recipients will be recognized as a part of the Wisconsin Regional Art state conference activities the weekend of September 26-27. [caption id="attachment_2467" align="aligncenter" width="318"]

Ghosting, stained glass, by Marcia Nelson, Middleton, WI[/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="264"]

Artwork 'Chanricleer' is an acrylic by 2013 first prize winner Sandra Haspl, Fitchberg, WI[/caption] Not only are there cash prizes for the top 3 Tiny Treasures, but there are additional honorary awards: 12 Tiny Treasures will be featured in WRAA’s Timely Treasures 2015 pocket calendar that lists the schedule for all of the WRAP exhibit/workshops for the year.

Winners will be notified by phone after July 20, 2014.You can also choose to donate your Tiny Treasure to the WRAA Buy-It-Now fundraiser, or you may include it in the exhibition and competition and mark it Not For Sale (NFS).You don’t have to be a WRAA member to participate - although new members are always welcome. Why not get your friends together and have a Tiny Treasure’s making party? There is nothing like making art together with friends!Professional and nonprofessional artists are welcome to participate.There is still time to make new work to enter and to be inspired by past Tiny Treasure entries.You can see wonderful online exhibitions of our Tiny Treasure entries from the past several years here. Imagine your own Tiny treasures as a part of the 2014 virtual exhibition. [caption id="attachment_2455" align="alignleft" width="255"]

A Cool Summers Night, brush painting on rice paper, by Lynna Zakaria, Oak Creek, WI[/caption] If you are at it planning to see the 2014 Tiny Treasure Exhibition in person at the Marathon County Public Library in Wausau, WI, travel to the other side of the town square and stop by the Center for Visual Art (CVA) as well and see the Wisconsin Regional Art Program (WRAP) State Art Exhibit, which will also be on display in Wausua August 8-September 26th. Plan to attend the gallery's Gala Reception on August 15th as well, or join us for the WRAA Evening with the Arts Reception on September 26th and meet many of the artists in the Tiny Treasures Exhibition AND the Wisconsin Regional Art Program exhibition. (A reservation is required for Evening With the Arts. You can find it here.) Time for me to go make some Tiny Treasures....Join me!

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Art-Science Collaboration: My Artist-in-Residency at the Trout Lake Research Station

July 6, 2014, 5:41 pm

≫ Next: Penokee Impact Statement: an art exhibition

≪ Previous: Artists! An Opportunity to Exhibit and Share Your Tiny Treasures

Allequash Lake, plien air watercolor by Helen Klebesadel, near Boulder Junction, WI

[caption id="attachment_2592" align="aligncenter" width="588"]

Allequash Lake, plein air painted watercolor by Helen Klebesadel, near Boulder Junction, WI, June 2014[/caption] I have just returned from a splendid ten days of non-stop plein air painting (and skitter swatting) in the lake country around Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. It was my extreme pleasure to bring my art research through observation to the University of Wisconsin Trout Lake Station as a part of a new artist residency program. I was given a space to stay and access to a canoe and the researchers working this summer at the Station. The Trout Lake Station is a year-round field station operated by the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Located in the Northern Highland Lake District in northern Wisconsin, the station provides access to a wide variety of aquatic ecosystems and their surrounding landscapes. More than 2500 lakes are within 50km of the station. The Trout Lake Station is a field site of the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project, which is part of a national network studying long-term ecological change. The residency is designed for visual artists, writers and musicians who have specific interests in exploring the relationship between people, northern lakes and landscapes, and the long-term scientific investigations of the LTER project. One 1-2 week residency between June 1 and August 31 will be offered each year. (Keep an eye out for the next call for applications in the fall. I will post it on my Art Face Book page.) My thanks to Trout Lake Research Station Director, Tim K. Kratz , who made me feel so welcome, and to freelance artist and field biologist, Terry Daulton, who was both a guide and an inspiration. Both Tim and Terry have been involved in actively imagining how the arts and humanities can become a part of the long terms reflections and research being done at Trout Lake Research Station. [caption id="attachment_2591" align="aligncenter" width="590"]

Field notes and studies for my artist-in-residency at the UW Trout Lake Research Station.[/caption] The Artist-in-Residency program is a part of the larger Ecological Reflections that is a network of sites dedicated to long-term, collaborative science and art inquiry in places of ecological or cultural importance. The network grew from the NSF funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. Outreach efforts at more than a dozen of the twenty-six LTER sites have developed programs that foster collaborations among the sciences, arts, and humanities. Sites represented in the Ecological Reflections network extend from the hardwood forests of New England to the old growth forests of the Oregon Cascades; from the fresh and saltwater wetlands of the Everglades to the temperate lakes of Northern Wisconsin. The creative responses cultivated through the network mirror the diverse scientific, artistic, and cultural facets and legacies of these places. After several years of imagining and planning the University of Wisconsin Trout Lake Station ‘Artist in Residency’ was launched in 2013. The first artist-in-residence in 2013 was Ann Singsaas. I am happy to have been selected as the second artist-in-residence. The goal of this artist-in-residency program is to create collaborative art/humanities and science projects focusing on the long-term ecology of lakes and their surrounding landscapes in Vilas County, Wisconsin. My goals for the residency initially were to capture a bit of the sense of what its like to do lake research by looking at the tools of the trade, as well as to visit and paint in watercolor my own reflections on and responses to as many of the sites that are the focus of the Trout Lake researchers as my time there would allow. I made it to five of the seven main research subjects, but I could have painted any one lake or blog repeatedly during my ten working days there and still not have truly captures the beauty and dynamism of the places. [caption id="attachment_2583" align="aligncenter" width="548"]

Allequash Creek, into Trout Lake (one place water is sampled regularly) Watercolor, June 2014[/caption]

The North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program studies the ecology of lakes as one of a network of sites established by the National Science Foundation to support research on long-term ecological phenomena. They are interested in how biophysical setting, climate, and changing land use and cover interact to shape lake characteristics and dynamics over time (past, present, future). Their primary study sites include a set of seven northern Wisconsin and four southern Wisconsin lakes and their surrounding landscapes. The project, which started in 1981, is administered by the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

[caption id="attachment_2585" align="aligncenter" width="655"]

Crystal Bog, watercolor, June 2014[/caption] Ecological Reflections is a network of sites dedicated to long-term, collaborative science and art inquiry in places of ecological or cultural importance. The network grew from the NSF funded Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program. Outreach efforts at more than a dozen of the twenty-six LTER sites have developed programs that foster collaborations among the sciences, arts, and humanities. In recent years the National Science Foundation provided the Trout Lake Station with seed funding to initiate an arts and science collaboration titled LTEArts. This effort created three earlier traveling art/science exhibits and the web site for the exhibition Drawing Water. [caption id="attachment_2595" align="alignleft" width="239"]

Terry Daulton drawing plein air with pastel o a beautiful day at at Crystal Bog.

Terry Daulton drawing plein air with pastels on a beautiful day at at Crystal Bog.[/caption]

Artist Terry Daulton has been instrumental in many of these art/science projects. Her wonderful pastel paintings reflect her deep ties to the landscape and her background as a biologist and environmental educator. Terry and her husband, Jeff Wilson, live in small log cabin on a remote island in Wisconsin’s Turtle Flambeau Flowage. Her paintings chronicle their life on the flowage and other Northwood’s haunts.

[caption id="attachment_2598" align="alignright" width="300"]

Crystal Bog, 19×27, pastel, 2012, by Terry Daulton. This is a piece was created for the Ecological Reflections show at National Science Foundation[/caption]

In 2006 Terry created art for and curated the art/science education exhibit called “Paradise Lost? Climate Change in the Northwoods” which I participated in. It involved 20 artists and 6 scientists. Paradise Lost? was seen by over 100,000 visitors in the Upper Midwest.

Building on that project she began a longer term collaboration with the University of Wisconsin – Center for Limnology and the North Temperate Lakes Long Term Ecological Research Project. In this collaboration, she is working with scientists to bring the arts and sciences together in a public education campaign. Their first project was “Drawing Water: Arti sts and Scientists Explore Northern Lakes”.

This exhibition grew out of the question "What happens when six artists and six scientists join in exploring the complexity, beauty and future of northern lakes?" The participants were determined to combine the insights of artists and scientists to create something extraordinary: to visualize life below the surface, to travel backward and forward through time, to anticipate our future. The exhibit invites viewers to enter a realm where abstract thought, imagination and vision meld with the scientific world. You can see a slide show of some of this work here.

The goals of all of these art projects like the artist-in residency are to:

create new ways to share research and information with the public,
create a long term record of arts and humanities responses to the lake landscapes in our region
foster deeper collaborations between scientists and artists

[caption id="attachment_2584" align="aligncenter" width="586"]

Cathedral Point-Trout Lake,watercolor, June 2014[/caption] I’m suspect that I was selected to be given this experience because , as I mentioned earlier, I was lucky enough to be a part of an earlier arts/science collaboration in 2006 called Paradise Lost?: Climate Change in the North Woods, in which 20 artists, 7 scientists and 6 educators met in a boy scout camp in May to learn about climate change and the potential role of art in increasing public awareness of science. I and the other 19 artists subsequently created pieces including paintings, sculpture, poetry and music reflecting our perceptions of the science of climate change, its impacts on northern ecosystems and the actions that can be taken now to lessen those impacts. An exhibition of this work traveled throughout the region for three years. A downloadable catalog is available on the website. My watercolor for the project, Winter's End, focused on the flora and fauna that are cold weather dependent and likely to move north in as the Wisconsin climate warms. [caption id="attachment_2588" align="alignleft" width="307"]

Trout Lake Research Station boot room. Watercolor.

Trout Lake Research Station boot room. Tools of the trade...Watercolor.[/caption] The science educators created a dynamic website out of the work we did. It has been built to link concepts, activities, videos, art and science together for K-12 teachers to aid in teaching about climate change. You can check out Paradise Lost?: Teaching Climate Change in the Great Lakes Region THE RESEARCH I met many of the researchers, graduate students and undergraduates who are there for all or part of the summer, and learned a bit about the kinds of long-term research being done, which includes but is not limited to: Lake Level Monitoring by Citizen Scientists: Carl Watras and Noah Lottig are monitoring groundwater and lake water levels in Wisconsin Northern Highlands region, which have reached record low levels in the last decade. Because there was no existing mechanism for monitoring long-term trends, they established a lake-level monitoring network comprised of citizen scientists in collaboration with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, United States Geological Survey, and the North Lakeland Discovery Center. Data was first collected in 2008 and the network has been expanding since. They are also now crowdsourcing water levels at several lakes using installations that provide instructions for any individual to text them current water levels. These data appear in near real-time on www.lakechange.org. Carl also heads up the Sentinel Lakes Project: responses to acid rain, mercury rain and climate change, which tracks the response of lakes to atmospheric contaminants, like mercury deposition and acid rain, as well as the compounding effects of climate change on water budgets Researcher Susan Knight is doing a Field Test on the Effectiveness of Milfoil Weevil for Controlling Eurasian Water-Milfoil in Northern Lakes. The Eurasian water-milfoil (EWM) is a nuisance aquatic plant growing in an increasing number of Wisconsin lakes, and some prior research has shown that the water-milfoil weevil, Euhrychiopsis lecontei, can significantly reduce densities. Through this research they hope to determine whether there is reason for the Wisconsin DNR to adopt augmentation with native weevils as an option to control EWM. Another project underway that seeks to fight invasive species is the Crystal Lake Mixing Project. Rainbow smelt are an invasive fish species that have displaced native fish populations and changed the ecology of Crystal Lake. Since smelt are the only cold-water fish in Crystal Lake, scientists are using mixing technologies called GELIs (Gradual Entrainment Lake Inverter) to warm the lake and eliminate the habitat that smelt need to survive. After two years of mixing, results show that the thermal manipulation decreased but did not eliminate the smelt population, and that GELI is an effective system for lake mixing. The project is in the final monitoring stage to restore normal thermal conditions. [caption id="attachment_2589" align="aligncenter" width="671"]

Floats used to support the equipment used to 'mix' Crystal Lake. Tools of the trade. Watercolor[/caption] Invasive species are one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss in freshwater and are quite widespread in Wisconsin lakes. Graduate student Adrienne Gemberling is looking at how the three most common invaders in Wisconsin, Eurasian water-milfoil, rusty crayfish, and banded mystery snails frequently co-occur. Her summer research will evaluate how these three species are impacting native plant and snail communities. Aquatic Invasive Species Survey and Public Education: Carol Warden works on sampling northern lakes for Aquatic Invasive Species to determine their abundance and to calculate the negative impacts they may be having on native populations. This work is done, in part, to inform the public on methods to stop the spread of invasives, as well as to teach how to identify the invasives from their native look-alikes. There are several other long-term studies underway that are considering how biophysical setting, climate, and changing land use interact to shape lakes over time, including how humans affect and are affected by lakes, with the goal of understanding ecological and social response of lake districts to climate change. Some of this work includes understanding the role of bacteria within lakes. [caption id="attachment_2590" align="alignleft" width="337"]

Pitcher Plant from the Crystal Lake Bog, watercolor, June 2014[/caption] Other studies are concerned with the dynamic relationship between lakes, bogs, and the forests that surround them. Researchers are looking at how aquatic insects that emerge out of lakes impact populations of birds that breed in the surrounding forests. Many of the birds that eat flying insects have declined in recent years and lakes may be a key food source for these bird species. (I think this will be a future series for me). Still other researchers are looking at small mammal ecology, tick abundance, and vector-borne diseases (like Lyme disease) in the Wisconsin Northwoods to evaluate if and how small-mammal abundance, small-mammal community composition, tick abundance, and the prevalence of Lyme disease are related. Their long-term aim is to help disentangle the complex interactions responsible for determining Lyme disease prevalence. There is plenty of interesting and important research being done at the Trout Lake Research station that has the potential to inform our actions in the future. I applaud the creation of the artist-in-residency program as one way to help get the word out about the kind of research being done here, and how it relates to the lives we lead. One additional artwork I am working on (which I will report back on once its finished) is an art piece focused on the water level research that actually has data going back 70 years. Researcher Carl Watras leads the Wisconsin Wetland Observatory monitoring the effects of weather and climate on wetland water tables in the Northern Highland Lake District in northcentral Wisconsin, with the long term objective to better understand the potential impact of climate change on fluxes of water and carbon. Changes in the balance between evaporation and precipitation are a major focus of the study. There is a hypothesis that climate change will bring an acceleration of the water cycle over time, causing both more evaporation and more precipitation on a global scale. That could be a difficult hypothesis to study because calculating evaporation rates in larger systems like Lake Michigan can be a challenge. However a smaller system like the Wisconsin Wetland Observatory is an easier place to collect data. The hope is that the research will contribute to questions about the water cycle on both local, regional, and perhaps, global scales. So far the local research seems to be echoing global findings. [caption id="attachment_2593" align="aligncenter" width="635"]

Big Musky just before the rain, watercolor, June 2014[/caption] The research apparently shows that local lakes and ground water wells rise and fall at the same level. We have historically been on an approximately thirteen-year cycle of the rise and fall of the water levels that regularly return to a mean level. This occurred regularly over the past 70 years of measurement until about 15 years ago when water levels dropped, and dropped, and dropped…until this year when they returned to the mean level. [caption id="attachment_2594" align="alignright" width="429"]

Helen painting Big Musky Lake, June 2014.[/caption] Future research will tell us if the most recent 15 year cycle is an anomaly; if we have a new normal, or if the return to mean water-levels if the anomaly and our water levels will continue to drop in the future as precipitation and evaporation get out of balance. Though the data will be valuable for understanding how the local system functions, the scientists working with the observatory are also hoping their work could play into climate change research on much larger scales. Now that is something to create art about…. Thank you to the everyone involved in creating this opportunity to bring creative and biology and zoology researcher doing science focused on the lake ecosystems. I am proud to be a part of the collaborative process. If you would like to see my watercolors in person, or the mixed media artwork I will be completing this month focused on 70 years of lake level research, plan to attend the Trout Lake Research Station Open House, August 1, 2014. I'll see you there.

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Penokee Impact Statement: an art exhibition

August 22, 2014, 8:15 pm

≫ Next: Carew, Klebesadel, and Torres share their art at the Opera House Art Gallery Sept. 6th

≪ Previous: Art-Science Collaboration: My Artist-in-Residency at the Trout Lake Research Station

Penokee Impact Statement

[caption id="attachment_2667" align="aligncenter" width="805"] Penokee Impact Statement[/caption]

"An Environmental Impact Statement is a tool for decision making, describing the positive and negative environments effects of a proposed action. Projects like the proposed Penokee open pit mine however, are driven by deeply held human values and emotional connections not included in an EIS. In this exhibit, five visual artists will share their interpretation of an Environmental Impact Statement for the Penokee Hills."

Penokee Impact Statement

An Art Exhibition

Washburn Cultural Center

(Located just north of Ashland on the beautiful Chequamegon Bay)

September 5-28, 2014

Opening Reception September 5th, 5-7 PM,

Guest Speaker Bob Jauch

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS

Joel Austin - Terry Daulton - Ann Singsaas

Amanda Szot - Wesley Ballinger

Artists, in general, value and are drawn to places and expressions of beauty. It is not at all unusual for artists who live in Northern Wisconsin to be inspired by the beauty of the surrounding landscape, and to find its beauty and spirit making its way into their art. In Northern Wisconsin, GTAC intends to dig the world's largest open-pit taconite mine—4.5 miles long, 1000 feet wide, and 900 feet deep for phase one—at the top of the Bad River watershed, which flows through the Bad River reservation and into Lake Superior. In this ecologically delicate area, a mine of this size is certain to alter the environmental wetlands, rivers, groundwater, and cultural heritage for generations to come. The artists in this exhibition use their art to ask us to reflect upon the values that drive decisions that will effect the waters, air, and lives of those who make their homes in the Penokee Hills watershed, and the rest of us who love and depend upon the health and beauty of the area, now and in the future.

Will the proposed Gogebic Taconite open pit iron mine in the Penokee Hills be a devastating example of mountain top removal, or a job creating modification to the landscape which enhances northwoods culture and protects the environment ?

This question is explored in the exhibit “Penokee Impact Statement”, which will be on display at the Washburn Cultural Center, September 5- 28. An opening is planned for Sept 5, from 5 pm – 7 pm. Special guest speaker will be retired Senator Bob Jauch, who was deeply involved in the mining issue during his time in the Wisconsin State Senate and has continued his work to protect northern Wisconsin interests since his retirement this past spring.

[caption id="attachment_2671" align="aligncenter" width="667"] "Value Penokee: head water, wet land", pastel painting by Terry Daulton[/caption]

The five artists in the show have taken the concept of an environmental impact statement and worked to turn facts and scientific findings into imagery that captures the science, and the intangible values that are at stake if the Penokee Mine is permitted. In the show, they take an artist’s view of the formal government process in which the mining company creates an environmental impact report. The DNR uses that report as a basis for its environmental impact statement and eventual mining permit decision. At the opening, Bob Jauch will share comments on his work on the mining issue. The artists will be on hand to give perspectives on their work.

“Artists are able to capture not only facts, but feelings. Impacts from this mine include not just loss of wetlands and streams, but emotional losses relating to our sense of place and the wild character of our region”, says exhibit coordinator and artist, Terry Daulton.

Terry Daulton’s pastel paintings reflect her deep ties to the landscape and her background as an environmental educator. Daulton, a biologist by training, takes both a literal and aesthetic approach in her pastel paintings which portray wildlife, streams, wetlands, even the dark star filled sky; things which she believes will be impacted by this project. Daulton lives in Iron County and has been hiking in the Penokees for 3 decades.

[caption id="attachment_2670" align="aligncenter" width="783"] True Value, watercolor by Ann Singrass[/caption]

Ann Singsaas is a painter and former field biologist. Her art work centers on natural elements using watercolor, oil on aluminum, or digital painting. Of this piece she writes:

"Some of the things of value: wild rice, boreal chorus frog, red maple, wood turtle, canadian yew, brook trout, winter wren, mayfly, yello birch. ad valorem (according to value) bonum commune communitias (for the common good of the community)

Ecosystem Service: treatment of waste, clean drinking water, pollination of food crops

Native Americans consider the effects of their decisions on future generations, they are investing wisely."

[caption id="attachment_2672" align="alignright" width="276"] Birch Crane, by Amanda Szot[/caption]

Amanda Szot, sculptor and bead artist from Ironwood, Michigan, creates works from recycled iron, found objects and beads. Growing up in the aftermath of the last mining bust in Ironwood, she has a strong perspective on what values can be found in our region. She focuses not only on the Penokees, but also on Lake Superior and the Bad River Watershed.

"We live on a beautiful, abundant, nurturing planet. Yet, as human beings, we separate ourselves from the rest of nature by constructing dwellings with controlled environments and by taking more plants, animals, and minerals from the earth than we need to survive.

When I moved from the Milwaukee, WI area to Ironwood, MI in the early 1990’s, I fell in love with the landscape and Lake Superior, as well as the strange nostalgia associated with the mining history of Upper Michigan and northern Wisconsin. My artwork uses a visual language to communicate the human impact on our environment, showing how other living things have needed to adapt, as well as how we have sacrificed our health and happiness to acquire resources from nature. Consumption is necessary for everything to live, and hopefully our future use of the earth and its inhabitants will be more responsible than that of the past."

Wesley Ballinger, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, is an oil and watercolor painter. His work brings a Native American perspective using traditional storytelling to share views on how this mine could impact environment and tribal people. His works are mainly oil paintings with themes that represent our responsibility to care for the earth, the water and all the species that inhabit the earth. He is also an Ojibwe Language Specialist and graphic artist working at the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Service in Ashland, and a children's book illustrator.

[caption id="attachment_2677" align="alignleft" width="303"] Discovering the Penokees, book cover, by photographer Joel Austin[/caption]

Joel Austin is a photographer and writer. He has recently published the photo and essay book “Discovering the Penokees”. Proceeds from the book go toward work to protect the Penokee Hills watershed from the proposed GTAC mine.

His photographs, taken in the area of the proposed mine’s footprint or downstream, make a clear statement about the natural beauty and health of the existing Penokee ecosystem. “Mining, by definition, cannot create a truly sustainable-in-the-long-term economy. Beauty and an intact and healthy ecosystem can.” Joel aims to use his photographs to increase awareness of all that is slated to be lost if the open pit mine happens.

Sources for more information on the proposed Penokee Hills open pit mine:

Bad River Watershed

The Lake Superior Binational Forum

Midwest Environmental Advocates

Penokee Hills Education Project of the Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin

Penokee Hills Information Directory: Protecting the Penokee Hills and Bad River Watershed of Northern Wisconsin

Save Our Sky Blue Waters

Wisconsin John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club

Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

The Washburn Cultural Center is open Mon-Sat from 10 am – 4 pm. For more information on this show please contact: Terry Daulton, 715-476-3530 or the Washburn Cultural Center at 715-373-5591.

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Carew, Klebesadel, and Torres share their art at the Opera House Art Gallery Sept. 6th

August 29, 2014, 4:20 pm

≫ Next: The Flowers Are Burning: Incandescent Watercolors by Helen Klebesadel and Mary Kay Neumann

≪ Previous: Penokee Impact Statement: an art exhibition

Exhibition Announcement for Recent Works by Kelty Carew, Helen Klebesadel, and Danny Torres

[caption id="attachment_2712" align="aligncenter" width="657"] Exhibition Announcement for Recent Works by Kelty Carew, Helen Klebesadel, and Danny Torres[/caption]

Join us for an exhibition of

Recent Artworks by Kelty Crew, Helen Klebesadel, and Danny Torres

at the

Opera House Art Gallery

Second Floor at 115 East Main Street, Mt Horeb, Wisconsin (No Elevator)

Hosted by Nancy Howard, owner

September 6-November 3, 2014

Opening Reception: Saturday, September 6, 2:30-5:00

VERY brief artists talks 3:00

I have been busily framing some of my more watercolors for this exhibition I am doing with two of my favorite artists, Daniel Torres and Kelty Carew. Danny Torres (who happens to be my watercolor slinging step-son) will share a series of watercolors that primarily focus on relationships people have with each other, themselves and the universe. They are rich and expressive paintings that inspire the viewer to reflect upon their own relationships. Kelty Carew shares etching, created both on paper and granite. Her incredibly delicate and representative drawings capture both the personalities and commitments of people involved in contemporary agricultural practices, like CSAs, as well as expressive and symbolic works. Both artists share work drawn with awesome yet expressive detail.

Danny and Kelty showed some of their work together last fall in a wonderful exhibition in Minneapolis. I immediately began looking around for a place where the three of us could do a shared exhibition in southern Wisconsin. I was delighted when Nancy Howard, the owner of the newest gallery in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin invited us to show together in her lovely Opera House Art Gallery in a historic building on main street Mt. Horeb. (Thank you Nancy).

Daniel, Kelty and I invite you to come and check out the gallery and our art. If you are a Facebook user you can share our event and invite others.

[caption id="attachment_2710" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Kelty Carew "Kyle and Lauren" granite engraving[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2707" align="alignright" width="427"] Kelty Carew "Dragon Rolls Over" etching[/caption]

Kelty Carew has been drawing for years. I first spotted her work in an art exhibition that both she and Daniel were in at their high school. Her facility and commitment to the arts has continued as she has pursued her education and career.

Kelty has worked as an artist in the monument industry for over a decade, designing memorials in stone and bronze and specializing in hand-etched portraiture. As a current graduate student in Sustainability Leadership at Edgewood College, she has channeled her passion for community art, sustainable agriculture, and social justice into a development project between her hometown of Madison and communities in Jacmel, Haiti and Alto Cayma, Peru. Her work draws upon imagery and traditions of these places, while continuing the Midwest lineage of magic realism in exploring themes of resilience, death, and renewal.

Kelty has also facilitated collaborative mural projects in the US and abroad by drawing on her passion for community organizing and participatory art. She is attracted to the intersection of art and ecology, specifically the transformative power of collective creative process on psychological and physical environments.

[caption id="attachment_2706" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Danny Torres, "Neutralism," watercolor, 15x22[/caption]

Danny Torres is a watercolor artist who is best known for his surreal portraiture. He uses bright colors and dark themes to explore concepts of self and the mind. Danny studied Fine Art at the Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is very accomplished web designer. (He designed my own art website that you are now looking at.) Danny is a multidisciplinary designer & artist, who I can attest has been making art since he was old enough to hold a brush. While painting & drawing were early passions, he also spent shamefully large swaths of his youth tinkering away at his computer. His transition into digital art has therefore been both natural & fulfilling (so if you need a website contact him). He enjoys applying his creativity to digital and traditional media. For this exhibition he is focusing on watercolor (my favorite).

[caption id="attachment_2708" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Danny Torres "Mutualism" watercolor, 15x22[/caption]

If you are reading this you probably already know I exhibit my watercolors nationally and internationally. I'm best known for my environmental and women centered artworks that push the traditional boundaries of the medium in scale, content, and technique. I usually start with detailed drawings, and develop images with layer upon layer of color washes and dry brush technique mixed within areas of wet-into-wet spontaneity.

[caption id="attachment_2704" align="aligncenter" width="539"] Helen Klebesadel, Peaches, watercolor, 30x22[/caption]

For this exhibition I will be sharing watercolors on paper that are in keeping with the season in their displays of beauty and abundance. With so much craziness in the world and an over-riding sense of distress at the direction our world and country seems to be going, I find myself needing to focus on noticing and appreciating the beauty and abundance that surrounds me. I feel very lucky to live in a community where so many people appreciate and work to protect our natural world. Flower gardens lower my shoulders and their beauty calls for me to 'stop and smell the flowers.' I am privileged to have access to the amazing rich smell and taste of home grown garden vegetables and fruits.

I long ago figured out that artists are allowed to sit and stare at flowers and plants for long hours without too many people asking us why we are 'wasting our time.' Learning to look and appreciate the natural world around us is something we should all experience (it might help us appreciate the natural world enough not to destroy it). I suspect that until quiet, meditative observation is a part of our education for everyone it will be the artist's job to stop, notice, and share what others are too busy to take the time to stop and notice for themselves.

If you are in southern Wisconsin, please join us September 6th for the opening reception of our shared exhibition. If you cannot make the show you can see images of many of the artworks that will be in the exhibit online here.

[caption id="attachment_2697" align="aligncenter" width="625"] Summer Bouquet Study III, a watercolor by Helen Klebesadel, 20x13[/caption]

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The Flowers Are Burning: Incandescent Watercolors by Helen Klebesadel and Mary Kay Neumann

July 10, 2015, 6:13 pm

≫ Next: Colors of Light and Light by artist Ann Schaffer

≪ Previous: Carew, Klebesadel, and Torres share their art at the Opera House Art Gallery Sept. 6th

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[caption id="attachment_2781" align="aligncenter" width="803"] Details from 'Prairie Fire II' by Helen Klebesadel , and 'Lover of the Light,' by Mary Kay Neumann[/caption]

As an artist I spend plenty of time alone in my studio working on my watercolors, but in recent years I have also found it very fulfilling to work in collaboration with other artists. Now I consider myself to be a serial collaborator. Some of those collaborations I have written about here, describing: the 2011 Places In Between: Transitions and Transformations project with Leslee Nelson and 33 Paintings in 33 Days project with Nikki Kinne, and the 2012 and ongoing Exquisite Uterus Art of Resistance Project with Alison Gates (more is coming about this project in the next few months).

In July and August this year, artist Mary Kay Neumann and I are sharing our collaborative The Flowers Are Burning Exhibition and Environmental Project with the Madison Community. We started thinking and planning this collaboration two years ago and are delighted to have it come to fruition. Ultimately our intentions in this project grew from our shared concerns for the negative effect of climate change on the creatures we share the planet with, and by extension, for ourselves and other humans. It is an exhibition we hope to travel, and a website of resources suggesting what we can do to finally come together to meaningfully address climate change issues. Our goal is to lure you with the beauty of our art and then to engage you to stay with us in shared purpose.

First the art:

Our collaborative exhibition is currently on displayed in Madison, Wisconsin at the Overture Center Playhouse Gallery, from July 3-September 2, 2015. The exhibition reception is scheduled for July 12, 2015 from 1-4. Join us if you are in Madison for Art Fairs on or off the Square, and then keep coming back and bringing others to see the exhibition and explore the website.

[caption id="attachment_2788" align="aligncenter" width="566"] The Last Waltz–Melting Seastar Series, Mary Kay Neumann, 30x 40, Watercolor[/caption]

“The Flowers are Burning” exhibition currently has 15 paintings ranging in size from 30x22 to 30x40. They are all transparent watercolors on paper and demonstrated a shared love of intense color.

From the beginning of our work together Mary Kay and I knew we would embrace the potential of flower as metaphor. It was natural for us to explore the poetic, symbolic and political representations flowers offer in exploring both human nature and the natural world. We recognize and celebrate cultural association of flowers with the feminine, at the same time that we both render our paintings with strong color palettes, implied emotional content, and complex compositions. With our large expressive 'flower paintings' we are intending to create environments of saturated color and texture that belies the assumed fragility of flowers and their feminine associations.

[caption id="attachment_2783" align="alignright" width="411"] Silent Spring. Mary Kay Neumann & Helen Klebesadel, 22x30, watercolor[/caption]

We consciously work to shift the historical stereotype of the female ‘flower painter’ from something to be avoided by the serious woman artist. Rather we embrace flowers as creative and critical metaphors that are an inspiration for breaking through the paralysis of overwhelming despair that is necessary for us to come together with shared purpose.

Collaboration:

Besides collaborating on the idea of the exhibit, and in the creation of the website, we also made art together. Three of the paintings were created collaboratively by passing the watercolors back and forth until we decided they were done.

The act of collaboration is a powerful metaphor in and of itself. We are all going to have to learn to work collaboratively and cooperatively to address the climate issues that inspire this project. Mary Kay and I know from our own collaboration that the product of shared work contains the participants but creates something larger than the sum of its parts, that could never be achieved by one person alone.

The remaining paintings include six individually created works by each of the artists inspired by the plight of creatures we have personal attachments to. We have come to recognize the threats they face due to damaged and declining habitat as the consequence of larger climate change issues that are all connected and due to human activities. The good part of that recognition is that it is within our abilities to change human activities. It means what each of us does matters. It means what you do matters... despite the many messages we get to the contrary.

[caption id="attachment_2782" align="alignleft" width="406"] Paradise Lost, Collaborative Watercolor by Helen Klebesadel and Mary Kay Neumann, 22x30[/caption]

Within the exhibition Mary Kay and I are seeking to both evoke a sense of alarm at our immediate need to address urgent environmental concerns and to hold up the vision of the positive possibility of rising from the ashes of restorative prairie burn if we can push through our denial, our sense of being overwhelmed, and the larger narratives we hear telling us we cannot do anything about it.

In her paintings, Mary Kay’s sunflower fields have looming fires that evoke the ominous droughts in California, and her tide pool studies hint at the current ocean crises of sea star wasting syndrome, where the starfish are literally melting away.

My themes tend toward the birds and the bees, and other pollinators that are vital parts of our food systems, as well as beautiful living gifts that teach us about the cycles of life. At the same time, I am fascinated by the destructive force coupled with necessity of prairie fires that preserve habitat and restore balance to the eco system.

While we are both haunted by the phenomenon of destructive climate change, the we intend to use our art to counter the denial and despair in favor of encouraging actions that could make a difference. It is important to us to share a vision of hope and not contribute to the narratives of hopelessness that do not serve us well. We seek to hold up the same vision that organizations like 350.org and Earth Guardians-Youth in Action and many others do, choosing to believe that we can come together to make and demand of our leaders the changes we know are necessary.

THE LARGER PROJECT

A personal relationship with nature can lead to appreciation and even love for those varied but important parts that make up the whole of our ecosystems. The Flowers Are Burning Project is designed around the belief that we will act to save that which we love. It is a collaborative visibility project urging each of us to take immediate action in whatever way we are able to alleviate the damage of climate change. Throughout our time working together we found ourselves grappling with key questions:

What are we missing that used to be abundant, or what are we concerned will be lost if we don't make the necessary changes?
Are we willing to take positive actions to contribute to making a real difference?
How can we find ways to work together to create the world we want to live in?"

[caption id="attachment_2790" align="alignright" width="312"] Thorn Birds, Helen Klebesadel 30x22, watercolor, (Photo by Lori Ushman)[/caption]

It became increasingly apparent throughout our work together that we would need to move beyond the exhibition to share our questions, inspirations, and the results of own research to find potential answers, for what we could do to make a difference, in the work that so many people and organizations are already doing.

Hence The Flowers Are Burning website was born. There we share background for the exhibition (which we would like to travel), as well as sources, resources, and perspectives on the many ways we can take action to make a difference. We are asking individuals to enjoy the exhibition, think about where they are already or will soon engage with the issues for themselves. We also are asking those already engaged in this work to share information about other organizations, projects or efforts that we should add to the website.

This project is especially timely as the world prepares for the November/December United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, otherwise known as Paris 2015. This event has the stated purpose of achieving a new international agreement on the climate, applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. Global negotiations on climate change have been carrying on for more than 20 years, but now push has come to shove as the UN urges nations to develop clear sustainable development goals. Climate Justice groups around the world are coming together to plan and network for actions impressing governments with the importance of achieving a viable agreement leading up to the Paris COP21* UN climate talks. If nations can meet and agree equitable goals on the climate, on economic development, on social and environmental issues, and do so in a spirit of cooperation we just might have a chance.

So this is huge! How can we be a part of the conversation and bring attention to the issues in the best way we know how? Since Mary Kay and I are artists it made sense to use that we would look to the visual art as the place to start. Our art, what we do best, is the nexus for bringing people together and introducing them to the website and the vast web of others thinking about and working on the issues. The website shares information about other artists, arts-based environmental projects, and arts/science collaborative opportunities. It also makes available other thinkers and philosophers that share the perspective that we do our best work when we are engaging from the heart and working on behalf of those things we care most deeply about. These things are what will sustain us as we face the issues before us.

[caption id="attachment_2789" align="alignleft" width="439"] "Whispers In The Dark" Mary Kay Neumann, 22x30, Watercolor[/caption]

The project started by using the love of art, and art making, as a way to mitigate the distress and denial that may overwhelm us at the idea of the unthinkable losses we are experiencing in the natural world. The project goes on to ask all of us to think about how we can learn to resist that which separates us and come together to make the changes we need to create and maintain the world we want to live in. Beyond these first steps we must recognize that the costs of climate change are not borne equally by all people, often affecting those with the fewest resources. If we seek a world that is sustainable for all its inhabitants we are going to have to learn to cooperate and work together. How better to reach out than through our arts and culture.

We have been astounded at the very positive response we have received so far. The exhibit has received mention in Madison Magazine and Brava, and the Isthmus, Madison's weekly newspaper, has published a wonderful article by Brian Rieselman about the exhibition and project aptly entitled Flower Power.

We have many people to thank for supporting us in this project. It would not have happened without the support of our friends, family, science sources, climate activists, and other supporters of the arts.

Please look at the website and the organizations, artists and projects we are gathering. Please share information about art/science collaborations, and organizations working to mitigate the effects on climate change, pollution, overuse, and habitat destruction that you know of that we should include. We especially seek connections to larger efforts related to building coalitions aimed at working to change state, national, and international environmental policies, especially those advocating to stop the rise of CO2.

Mary Kay and I invite you to engage with our paintings and website to witness the energy of flowers burning with power AND beauty. More of our art can be seen at the Yahara River Gallery in Madison or on our personal websites: Helen Klebesadel or Mary Kay Neumann.

[caption id="attachment_2785" align="aligncenter" width="585"] Prairie Fire I, Helen Klebesadel, 30x40, watercolor. (Photo by Lori Ushman)[/caption]

If you are interested in using our exhibition as a way to start or continue a conversation in your community or organization, please contact either of us through our websites. If you are interested in purchasing artworks you can see the pricelist in our shared gallery here. We have both committed to tithing 10% of sales to organizations working to mitigate the consequence of climate change.

The post The Flowers Are Burning: Incandescent Watercolors by Helen Klebesadel and Mary Kay Neumann appeared first on Helen R. Klebesadel.

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Colors of Light and Light by artist Ann Schaffer

September 23, 2015, 8:20 am

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'Neither Shall I', watercolor by Ann Schaffer

[caption id="attachment_2930" align="aligncenter" width="660"] 'Neither Shall I', watercolor by Ann Schaffer[/caption]

"My paintings are about beauty and the power of beauty to resist all that is soul stifling in this world." ~ artist Ann Schaffer

If you have followed my blog for a while you may recall that I have written about the watercolors of Madison artist Ann Schaffer before in posting called, A Beauty Manifesto: Art As Resistance.

Ann will be exhibiting a retrospective of her artworks, watercolor paintings and documentation of her installation work as a part of this fall's Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Gallery Night extravaganza. Be sure to put this exhibit on your list of 'must sees.' (Gallery 800 UBD is #34 on the Gallery Night list.)

COLORS OF LIGHT AND LIFE

A retrospective of art by Ann Schaffer

Reception Friday October 2 , 2015, 5:00-9:00

Gallery 800 UBD

800 University Bay Drive, Madison WI

If you go you will see that Ann Schaffer’s artwork is inspired by the belief that creating beauty is an act of resistance to all that is sordid, unjust and repressive. She says:

[caption id="attachment_2926" align="alignright" width="321"] ' Nasturtiums,' watercolor[/caption]

"Just as native Americans ornamented and decorated their ration cards when forced onto reservations, just as I saw bits of colored glass hanging in windows in Nairobi slums, just as prison inmates will paint and draw on pieces of cardboard…….beauty contacts the spirit and the soul and affirms life.

I have been a psychotherapist as well as an artist for many years. People have often asked about combining this work in an art therapy practice. I haven’t done this because making art is personal, my way to balance the pain and suffering in the many stories I have heard.

I have always worked in watercolor and I earned my Master’s of Fine Arts in watercolor painting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I love the fluidity of watercolor and the interactive nature of both exerting control and letting the paint flow and dry on the paper to create it’s own shapes and textures. I love the transparent quality of the paint as it allows the paper quality and texture to be part of the painting.

As an artist I have participated in, acted as juror for, and chaired exhibitions; received grants and awards, taught and lectured, directed photoshoots, fulfilled commissions, participated in juried art fairs. I have been represented by regional and national galleries and am part of personal and corporate collections. While I enjoy this wide experience and exposure I am especially pleased to be exhibiting here in my own neighborhood of Shorewood Hills.

The exhibition will be on display through 2015. The UBD 800 Gallery features two local artists a year, and we are delighted that in 2015 Ann Shaffer is one of them.

Gallery Hours: Monday- Friday 9:00 A.M.- 6:00 P.M. or by appointment (Phone: 608.238.0623)

Address: 800 University Bay Drive (Corner or University Bay Drive and Marshall Court)
Parking and entrance on Marshall Court

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