art focus oklahoma, may/june 2013
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May/June 2013 Art Focus Oklahoma is a bimonthly publication of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition dedicated to stimulating insight into and providing current information about the visual arts in Oklahoma. www.ArtFocusOklahoma.orgTRANSCRIPT
Art FocusArt FocusO k l a h o m a
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coal it ion
Vo lume 28 No . 3 May/June 2013
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In this issue of Art Focus Oklahoma, several stories showcase the ability of artists to overcome adverse situations and solve problems creatively. All three of the profiled artists have found their voice and inspiration in what, at first, seemed like a limitation.
Ally Richardson (p. 4) put her dream of an artistic career on hold for 25 years while she worked as a critical care nurse. Now fully devoted to her artwork, she has found her nursing experience provides a spiritual backbone to her abstract metal sculpture.
After a discouraging experience with a high school art teacher, Ginna Dowling (p. 6) opted for a career in public relations. Though she enjoyed the work, a drastic change in her personal life gave her the motivation she needed to go back to her true passion in art. Rather than let logistical constraints like time and space restrict her work, she instead found her signature style by working within those limitations.
Similarly, when Ellen Moershel (cover, p. 8) moved to Canada, her small apartment could not accommodate the large-scale canvases she was accustomed to working with. Rather than getting frustrated by this limitation, she adapted and her smaller paintings have become an important counterpoint to the larger works.
We all know that artists are creative, but these stories demonstrate further their ability to look at problems differently. Their unique perspectives and ability to explore issues from multiple angles to find a solution is part of what makes artists valuable members of our communities and important voices in the future of our state, and beyond.
Art FocusO k l a h o m a
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition 730 W. Wilshire Blvd., Suite 104
Oklahoma City, OK 73116 ph: 405.879.2400 • e: [email protected]
visit our website at: www.ovac-ok.org
Executive Director: Julia Kirt [email protected]
Editor: Kelsey Karper [email protected]
Art Director: Anne Richardson [email protected]
Art Focus Oklahoma is a bimonthly publication of the
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition dedicated to stimulating insight into and providing current information about the
visual arts in Oklahoma.
Mission: Supporting Oklahoma’s visual arts and artists and their power to enrich communities.
OVAC welcomes article submissions related to artists and art in Oklahoma. Call or email the editor for guidelines.
OVAC welcomes your comments. Letters addressed to Art Focus Oklahoma are considered for publication unless otherwise specified. Mail or email comments to the editor at the address above. Letters may be edited for clarity or space reasons. Anonymous letters will not
be published. Please include a phone number.
OVAC Board of Directors July 2012 - June 2013: R.C. Morrison, Bixby; Patrick Kamann, Margo Shultes von Schlageter, MD (Treasurer), Christian Trimble, Edmond; Eric Wright, El Reno; Traci Layton, Enid; Suzanne Mitchell (President), Norman; Jennifer Barron (Vice President), Susan Beaty (Secretary), Bob Curtis, Gina Ellis, Hillary Farrell, Michael Hoffner, Kristin Huffaker, Stephen Kovash, Carl Shortt, Oklahoma City; Joey Frisillo, Sand Springs; Jean Ann Fausser, Susan Green, Janet Shipley Hawks, Kathy McRuiz, Sandy Sober, Tulsa
The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is solely responsible for the contents of Art Focus Oklahoma. However, the views expressed in articles do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of the Board or OVAC staff.
Member Agency of Allied Arts and member of the Americans for the Arts.
© 2013, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. All rights reserved.
View the online archive at www.ArtFocusOklahoma.org.
On the cover Ellen Moershel, Norman, Stay in Front of the Storm, Gouache, gold and silver leaf, 50” x 65” See page 8.
from the editor
Kelsey [email protected]
Support from:
P.S. As a reader of Art Focus Oklahoma, we value your opinion. I hope you’ll give us your thoughts and feedback on the magazine through our reader survey, available until the end of June. Find it online at www.ArtFocusOklahoma.org.
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pro f i l es4 Awakening a Dream: Artist Ally Richardson Forges a New Beginning
After putting her artistic aspirations on hold for a 25-year career as a critical care nurse, artist Ally Richardson finds her professional experience can be a source of inspiration in her artwork.
6 Ginna Dowling: Aesthetic AccretionWorking within logistical constraints led Norman artist Ginna Dowling to develop her signature style of building up layers in her printmaking.
8 Ellen Moershel: Envisioning AbstractionThough her abstract paintings do not contain recognizable objects, Ellen Moershel’s work begins with observation of her surroundings and creating from memory.
p rev iews10 Art Interrupted at Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art
The Norman museum has recreated the 1940s exhibition intended to demonstrate American freedom of expression, which was cut short due to a political uproar.
12 Making Tracks by Keeping Track: Laurie FrickA new exhibition at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center features large-scale installations based on the artist’s own tracking of patterns in her behavior and daily actions.
14 Printing on the Edge: [Un]bound Explores Contemporary PrintmakingCurated by Norman artist Curtis Jones, this exhibition features non-traditional printmaking in the form of installations, video, and more.
18 Soundscapes: An Exhibition Where Sound and Art CollideIn the Satellite Galleries at Science Museum Oklahoma, art and science are inseparable, as demonstrated by their latest exhibition focused on sound.
22 Anna Moroney: Darkness in the Light Inspired by a box of old slides purchased at an estate sale, this Tulsa artist created a series of paintings and videos that tell a haunting story.
26 OVAC news
bus iness o f a r t28 Ask a Creativity Coach
Define your procrastination behavior in order to solve this common problem.
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(p. 6) Ginna Dowling, Norman, Fly Away Boy, Woodcut, 32” x 36”
(p. 10) Byron Browne (U.S., 1907-1961), Still Life in Red,
Yellow, and Green, 1945, Oil on canvas, 23 ¾” x 28”. Jule Collins
Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University, Courtesy of Stephen
Bernard Browne.
(p. 22) Anna Moroney, Tulsa, Phonesex, Acrylic on canvas,
36” x 36”
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Ally Richardson is an abstract artist and a founding member of Gallery 123 in Norman, Oklahoma. Her early roots in art grew from an interest in graphic design and painting. However, there was also a conflict: she felt commercial art was more about her skill as a designer and not about her work as an artist, and she did not want someone else to tell her what to draw. Richardson’s love for abstraction came from growing up dyslexic, though, at the time, did not know it. She remembers taking a perspective drawing class and being told over and again the marks she made on the paper were wrong. She felt working abstractly alleviated the painful frustration she experienced in the classroom.
When Richardson was a senior in high school, she was the first responder at several accidents. A paramedic told her that she should think about pursuing a medical profession because she had an instinct for it. Already dismayed at the realization that graphic design was not the career path she should pursue, she let go of her dream of a creative profession and enrolled in nursing school. After twenty-five years as a critical care nurse, Richardson retired to awaken that dream once more. I was curious if the experience of dealing with life and death every day influenced the abstract artwork Richardson now creates.
“It may have given me that spiritual connection,” Richardson said. “In critical care, you see a different aspect of people as they transition. If you didn’t believe in a higher power before that, you certainly do afterward. I don’t know if I would be able to create this [art] if I hadn’t lived the experience of being a critical care nurse.”
When she started to make art again, Richardson began with abstract painting, but the two-dimensional pieces did not satisfy her anymore. She was painting with thick textures, molding paste, and adding objects to the paintings. Richardson transitioned to metal fabrication as a result of her need to work with form.
“Every time I would see [someone working with] metal, I would say to them, ‘I really think I’m supposed to do that.’” She began to investigate what it would take to learn how to weld. She met Santa Fe artist Destiny Allison, who ended up taking Richardson on as an intern.
“I never worked so physically hard in all my life,” she recalled. “I looked like a chimney sweep and smelled like a bag of nails, and I had never been happier.” After two weeks in Santa Fe working fourteen-hour days, Richardson came home and built a welding studio.
“We poured the slab and it rained, and we could not build the framing. My work boots, my hearing protection, and my
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AWAKENING A DREAM: Artist Ally Richardson Forges a New Beginningby Cedar Marie
Ally Richardson, Norman, with her piece, Integrity, Brushed steel, automotive paint, 96” x 24” x 4”
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safety glasses and gloves were also sitting on the slab. I took a photograph of it and called it Awaiting the Dream. The first time I went out to weld, I got completely lost in it; it was like meditation.”
Richardson hand-cuts, hand-grinds, and hand-welds every piece. Patinas resembling rust, copper or shades of blue and green appeal to her because they are similar to the colors metal can turn when exposed to weather.
“Depending on the impurities in the metal, you never quite know what the patina will turn out to be. I like the metal determining the color; I like the metal having that voice.”
While critical care nursing may be the spiritual backbone of Richardson’s larger sculptures, there are many other influences that stimulate her creative process. In her studio, which was meticulously clean and organized when I visited with her, Richardson often begins with drawing on the studio floor using soapstone. Some of the pieces she creates are inspired by dreams. If she gets up and does a rough sketch, she can go back to sleep. She will see an interesting shape or an angle in nature, or will look at pieces of metal that have partial cuts in them and ask herself questions.
“But the art does not necessarily have to be about anything, it can be just getting out of the way and letting that creative energy flow.”
Experimentation is important to Richardson. The piece Songbird came out of simply engaging with the materials and being open to the possibilities. “I bent a couple of pieces of metal and it looked to me like a bird arching its back. Though it is still abstract, you can clearly see that it is a bird.” A larger piece, Inner Light, is the result of Richardson responding to the visual cues that emerged during the process of shaping the metal and integrating light with color, movement and space.
Elements also repeat in Richardson’s sculptures, which range in size from four to seven feet tall. A curved line-like shape is prominent in both her sculptures and paintings.
“When you’ve seen the soul leave a body, it really magnifies the presence of a higher power. I feel connected to [a] Universal Truth having been a critical care nurse, and I think the soft curve represents those experiences. It is like the flow of life, the link between this plane and any other. I do not intentionally put it in the work.”
The last fifteen years of critical care nursing, Richardson travelled fifty weeks out of the year teaching cardiothoracic surgeons and other critical care nurses about their medical equipment. “It required a strong ego and intellect. Now, ego gets in my way. Learning to step around it supports my highest good. It’s the right thing to do because everything is facilitated. The right people are there, and there is excitement about the dream being fulfilled.”
Ally Richardson’s artwork can be viewed at Gallery 123, a cooperative run space in Norman, Oklahoma. n
Cedar Marie facilitates learning. She teaches at the University of Oklahoma School of Art & Art History.
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Ally Richardson, Norman, Song Bird, Painted and brushed steel acid rust patina, automotive paint, 57” x 24” x 4”.
Ally Richardson, Norman, Awaiting the Dream, Photography
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GINNA DOWLING: Aesthetic Accretion by Krystle Brewer
Born into a family of successful artists, Ginna Dowling spent her childhood in studios, workshops, and galleries with her mother and aunt. Despite her artistic upbringing an art teacher in high school took Dowling’s pencil from her and told her she was “doing it incorrectly.” The teaching she received paired with a failing grade in the class led Dowling to doubt her potential performance in the arts. She felt like she would always be in a battle between expectations and what she believed to be true about art that was instilled in her from her mother and aunt.
In college she instead pursued an undergraduate and graduate degree in journalism and enjoyed her freelance public relations work while building her family of two sons with her husband. This drastically changed when in 2001 a difficult divorce forced Dowling to reevaluate her life. “I just felt compelled to return to my roots… to a place that felt safe.” She gave up her marketing clients and decided to do a “no guts, no glory” move.
Dowling began to print prolifically while working with various artists to expand her knowledge of techniques. It was during this time that she developed her style of layering. Because she had limited access to a printing press, she would have to work on them in stages. When she was able to use a press, she would pull many prints to take back to her
studio where she would manipulate them and later complete them when she again could use a press.
It is this layering process that makes her work so intriguing. “I work in layers. To me printmaking is what images reflect or project onto another surface with layers and layers. It doesn’t even have to be an inked or a drawn layer. It could be light; it could be shadows or paper; it could be anything.” Her use of layers is multifaceted: she incorporates monotypes and woodblocks on different surfaces such as acetate or a thin translucent paper. The use of these materials creates an additional layer from the light that casts through them, causing shadows.
The body of work created during this period was her series of houses. She integrated a bright and lively color scheme with playful imagery addressing sometimes somber and pensive concepts. In a work titled They Felt Sorry for the Ones in Cages, she depicts a home with a family viewed through a window and a caged bird in another. The cage-likeness of the home itself is repeated by the bird cage, which both contrast against the un-caged birds outside the confines of the home.
The houses series led her to pursue an MFA from the University of Oklahoma. While studying there, her layering technique matured and her pallete took a more limited scope.
The narrative also narrowed in on the attack her younger son faced at age six. Cooper, who has an extreme peanut allergy, was accidently given a bite of an energy bar containing peanuts which resulted in his horrendous fight to survive. Throughout this body of work the image of her son, peanuts, and crows reappear frequently.
The crow, which is known for its intelligence and protective communal qualities, represents Dowling and her
role of a guardian mother but also the entire community of people who worked together to keep her son safe. The roles of these people she represents in two ways: the named and unnamed. Those named are the immediate friends, family, and teachers who were a support system before, during, and after the attack. The unnamed crows are those who she could not name, but who still had a vital role in his safety.
In the piece Aegis, named after the breastplate that both Zeus and Athena wore, a life-sized print of Cooper with a maternal crow on his arm is lit from below, casting a strong shadow on the wall. This shadow represents the burden the allergy forces him to carry. Behind this piece but almost functioning as a part of it, her work Unnamed is laid out as crows printed on a long roll of transparent acetate. The crows create a protective barrier for Cooper as the “unnamed” hold an imperative role in his continued health. One end of the roll is blank to represent the crows that he has yet to meet and who have not yet taken up that role.
The multiplicity of strata in her work makes for complex imagery with a collective of implied textures. This can be seen most apparently in the contrast of the defined contours of the woodblock prints layered over the painterly gestures of the monotypes. In addition to the added quality brought by the use of light and shadows, her work is a multifaceted coherence.
Dowling’s work will be on display at the Oklahoma State Capitol through June 23, 2013. More of Dowling’s work can be seen at www.ginnadowling.com and inquiries about classes should be directed to [email protected]. n
Krystle Brewer is a current graduate student in art history at Oklahoma State University and works as a research assistant at the OSU Museum of Art. She can be contacted at [email protected]
(opposite) Ginna Dowling, Norman, Aegis, Relief print carved from PVC board, transparency, black oil ink, air craft wire, magnets, light, shadow, 106” x 42”. (left) Installation view from outside. Ph
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Ellen Moershel: Envisioning Abstractionby Erin Schalk
Ellen Moershel’s abstract paintings are a visual banquet in their movement, vibrancy and contrast. Directional forces are a powerful feature of her work, and she mindfully integrates color, line and shape to imply movement which ranges from twisting and contorting to gracefully serpentine. Arrangements of saturated reds and greens pivot around stark whites or soft neutrals, and directional lines electrify these bold shapes, crackling through the composition like lightning. Moershel juxtaposes gouache with iridescent mediums, as well as gold and silver leaf, to rhythmically draw the viewer’s eye through a network of both matte and shimmering surfaces.
For many art students, the transition from the nurturing environment of school to a professional, sustaining art practice is often unsuccessful and short-lived. This reality motivated Moershel to keep her artwork as a high priority in her life. After Moershel graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2010, she moved from her native Norman to Nova Scotia’s cultural hub, Halifax. There she became an assistant to abstract painter Leya Evelyn, an internationally exhibiting artist whose career has spanned over fifty years. Evelyn provided Moershel with invaluable information on the Halifax art community, and soon Moershel made the transition from art student to artist.
Changes brought by life in Atlantic Canada changed Moershel’s perspective and her art practice in significant ways. Halifax is an amalgamation of tradition and modernity, where both preserved Victorian homes and sleek high-rise office buildings coexist. The eclectic architecture, as well as the unique beauty of the Nova Scotian landscape, provided Moershel with an abundance of fresh visual information for her paintings.
Moershel takes time to carefully observe her surroundings, and the content of her work springs from these tangible entities. However, Moershel avoids painting specific objects. Her work always remains nonrepresentational,
Ellen Moershel, Norman, Tiger, Gouache on paper, 28” x 44”
resulting from the manner that her brain processes and stores this observed information into a memory.
“My inspiration comes from reality. The reason my paintings are abstract is that I use the uniqueness of my perception and my mind’s inability to remember every detail to create an original image. When I see something striking, instead of snapping a photo or doing a sketch, I just really look and try my hardest to memorize it, knowing that I will be able to recall only certain aspects of what I’m seeing,” Moershel commented.
Relocating to Canada also presented Moershel with practical concerns which brought about changes in scale and her process. Moershel’s small Halifax apartment could not accommodate the large oil pieces she had become accustomed to making as an art student. Consequently, she adapted to these space restrictions by making intimately sized paintings and easily transportable works on paper. Such drastic changes in scale forced her to re-evaluate how she approaches and perceives individual sizes.
Moershel explained, “With large scale, my eye tends to focus on the features of the painting. Smaller paintings I take in as a whole, but with bigger paintings my eye moves around, and I see many paintings in one. By looking at paintings from other artists, I realize that most painters tend to approach small paintings with the same aesthetic concerns as they do with the larger pieces. I think that this is a mistake. I try to put more narrative into larger scale pieces, as if I’m painting a landscape. My smaller pieces are less grounded and more of an experiment in line and pattern.”
Since Moershel’s aesthetic goals are contingent on the size of the work, she feels that her process is continually evolving. When painting, she shifts between intuition and careful calculation, with the concordant end goal of creating artwork that is visually exquisite.
“Once I realized that I would overcome the obstacle of not being in the comfort of the art school, I felt quite liberated and my process became much more involved, less forced and far more personal. I start a painting by having a particular shape and color in mind. This is perhaps the most defining step, because everything else I do after that first big area of color is a reaction to that spot. I actually plan out the painting very carefully and thoughtfully, because it will affect so much of the process. At the same time, I want it to look effortless, as if I’m painting something in nature that is already beautiful without trying.”
Moershel has returned to Oklahoma and is currently working in her Norman studio, where she is now looking into constructing site-specific works and installations. Her paintings were recently featured in a solo exhibition at the Paseo Arts District’s Marvin Embree Gallery, and Stay in Front of the Storm (cover) was part of this year’s Momentum OKC exhibition. For more information on Moershel and to see a portfolio of her recent work, visit her website at www.ellenmoershel.com. n
Erin Schalk is a graduate from the University of Oklahoma, and she is an artist and writer who currently lives in Okinawa, Japan. Visit her website at www.erinschalk.com.
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Ellen Moershel, Norman, Hot and Sour II, Oil and gouache on canvas, 22” x 28”
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Art Interrupted at Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Artby Susan Beaty
Oklahoma visual arts supporters are keenly aware of recent legislative skirmishes over public funding of art, at both the state and national levels. The dilemma is not new. A nearly-forgotten battle over publicly funded art that occurred nearly 70 years ago is the subject of an intriguing exhibition intermingling art and history on view until June 9 at Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Art Interrupted is the first full re-creation of Advancing American Art, an ambitious cultural diplomacy project of the U.S. State Department following on the heels of World War II. In 1946, the State Department purchased 79 oil paintings of various styles from both established and
emerging American artists, with a plan to exhibit the works in other countries to demonstrate American freedom of expression.
After a successful premiere at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the show was divided - 49 pieces were sent to Europe and 30 to Latin America. The European show debuted in Paris and traveled on to Prague. The Latin American show opened in Havana and continued to Santo Domingo. At least one American tabloid had reported negatively on the use of tax dollars to purchase modernist, abstract art with little response, but the issue received broader notice in February 1947 when Look magazine published an article about the exhibit.
Backlash from the public was immediate. President Harry Truman’s response was, “if that’s art, then I’m a Hottentot!” Within two months, the show had been recalled to the U.S. It was soon put on the auction block, and universities were allowed to purchase the pieces at fire sale prices. The University of Oklahoma purchased 36 of the 79 paintings. Auburn University and the University of Georgia were the other major buyers, although the current exhibit includes pieces from the permanent collections of 10 museums, private collectors and other public institutions.
While OU has shown pieces from the collection through the years, Art Interrupted,
O. Louis Guglielmi (U.S., b. Egypt, 1906–1956), Subway Exit, 1946, Oil on canvas, 29 7/8” x 28”. Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University; Advancing American Art Collection.
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which is a joint effort of the Fred Jones, Jr. Museum of Art, Auburn University’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, and the Georgia Museum of Art, is the first time the full Advancing American Art exhibit has been shown together (a handful of pieces have not been located). Art Interrupted also includes a group of watercolors that the State Department had gathered to exhibit in Asia but that had yet to leave the U.S. when controversy shelved the project.
Art Interrupted groups the paintings as they were divided in 1946. The exhibit begins with the pieces shown in Latin America. The European show fills another, larger space, and the final gallery features the watercolors intended for Asia. The exhibit also includes the media reports which led to the public outcry and eventual recall of the exhibit, as well as the announcement of the auction by which the State Department disposed of the work. As visitors move from the end of the Latin American exhibit and enter the European portion of the show, the first piece confronting viewers is William Baziotes’s Flower Head, in which the primary image is a large, pink form in the shape of a jigsaw puzzle piece, unwittingly foreshadowing the puzzling events which would follow the show.
The show is an appealing mix of abstract and representational pieces, some with political content that was undoubtedly perceived negatively in an America on the verge of Communist hysteria. Although it is impossible to see the show from the perspective of someone living in 1946, the modernist style of many of the pieces and the political messages of others demonstrate why only a little media prodding was sufficient to create uproar.
The representational pieces include images of downtrodden workers, fearful city dwellers, and shadowed tenement buildings. O. Louis Guglielmi’s Subway Exit uses shadows and fearful expressions to convert an everyday action, a mother and child exiting the subway, into an experience of profound dread, despite the relative brightness of the colors. Robert Gwathmey’s two pieces, Workers on the Land and Work Song, feature African American laborers seemingly unable to look up due to exhaustion. Ben Shahn’s Hunger
combines somber colors and a young boy with his hand out, looking up at the viewer in quiet desperation. While these subjects could be expected in a country only ten years beyond the Great Depression, they were not the image of America politicians wanted to use to spread the idea of American freedom. Indeed, the political response resulted ironically in overt censoring of American freedom of expression.
A handful of the paintings belie the negative reaction. Reginald Marsh’s Lifeguards features an active scrum of swimmers surrounding a lifeguard stand on a beach, painted in bright, cheery colors and conveying a scene of exuberant, well-scrubbed American life. Louis Bouché’s Gallery K shows smartly-dressed visitors in an art gallery as an unthreatening image of “proper” American life. One of the highlights of the show is Karl Zerbe’s Around the Lighthouse, in which a young boy with a blank expression peers through a window, with several fish, a lure, and a large conch shell in front. A solid
lighthouse appears behind him. The piece is mostly white and brown, with an aged appearance, but the viewer’s eye is drawn to a column of red with the letter H on it along the left edge of the painting, which is suggestive of collage.
Art Interrupted premiered at Auburn University’s Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art September 8, 2012. It is on display at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art through June 9, before traveling to the Indiana University Art Museum and the Georgia Museum of Art. Overall, the show is an extensive and captivating display of American painting from the first half of the twentieth century. If you haven’t seen it yet, go now. You won’t regret it. n
Susan Beaty is an attorney in Oklahoma City and a member of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s Board of Directors.
Karl Zerbe (U.S., b. Germany, 1903-1972), Around the Lighthouse, Encaustic on canvas, 30 1/16” x 36”. Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University; Advancing
American Art Collection.
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Making Tracks by Keeping Track: Laurie Frickby Kerry M. Azzarello
How well do you know yourself? Can you spot trends in your behavior, identify patterns in your actions? Artist Laurie Frick can and does, on a daily basis.
Her art and life are inextricably linked, a natural byproduct of her belief that the job of an artist is to closely pay attention to oneself. The results of such monitoring are on display in her solo exhibition Walking, eating, sleeping which opens June 11th and runs through August 23rd at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center. The exhibition features a variety of artworks
that collectively create an immersive sensory experience and simultaneously raise questions of what it means to keep track.
Surveillance, tracking, self-awareness and pattern recognition are a few of the themes running through the work of this Austin/Brooklyn-based artist. With a diverse background, Frick’s work presents a hybrid of scientific research and aesthetic artistry. After being trained as an engineer and serving years in the corporate world, Frick returned to art school, launching her current career in a niche she fills nicely.
A quick visual scan of her latest exhibition is only the beginning. Each artwork is a visual representation of self-tracking data, a condensed display of countless data points. While for some, collecting large amounts of information may instantly conjure images of doomsday and a perilous Big Brother, Frick
is infectiously optimistic. Envisioning a (not-so-distant) future where information about movements, diets, sleep patterns and mood are collected constantly, Frick challenges us to see the allure and empowerment of such mindfulness, asserting it is “both soothing, beautiful and something like portraiture.”
Advances in science and technology allow us the opportunity to delve into the unconscious, unnoticed parts of our selves. A fitbit device tracks the wearer’s footsteps, a ZEO headband records sleep quality, and MoodJam.com users color-code their emotional states.
Frick has kept records of her sleep patterns through the aid of the ZEO for three years, adding additional tracking mechanisms along the way. “I often use myself as a test subject and gather my own data for installations and hand-built work. The pieces use underlying algorithms – as I experiment with ways to
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Laurie Frick, Austin, TX & Brooklyn, NY, Making Tracks, Wood, Alucore panel, Abet Laminati samples, paint pen, 13 ft x 40 ft
Making Tracks (detail)
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use memory, color, sense and data to build a patterned language that substitute as portraits of ourselves.”
Walking, eating, sleeping provides an approachable context to critically examine the highly debatable topics of data collection rights, usage and ownership. In larger works, such as Making Tracks and Moodjam, Frick creates walls of color and rhythm. In addition to a condensation of daily movements, her choice of simple materials highlights that the chaos of life remains very much an ordered experience comprised of individual building blocks. In this case, the building blocks are Abet Laminati laminate countertop color samples. Uniform in shape, these rounded rectangles provide saturated color punches reminiscent of pixels. Far from technological alienation, these pieces are intended to be comforting. Their internal patterns and rhythms resonate via a sense of the familiar.
In a less familiar setting, visitors are also invited to walk through a data-maze comprised of hundreds of suspended drawings. Quantify-Me uses mundane measurements such as weight, pH balances and hydration levels and transforms them into an elegant three-dimensional experience. These laser-cut drawings, impressive even in isolation, form a comprehensive whole that is both overwhelming and calmingly surreal. One is presented with a chart of information made up of the very components of existence. The exhibition is rounded out with smaller pieces.
This is art. This is science. It imagines a future where through intimate knowledge of ourselves, we become ever more mindful. Realizing that which is typical highlights instances of the a-typical. “At this intersection of art and science, I’ve found intense beauty in the patterns of how we live. In us.” Rather than being fearful, Frick invites the world to take back the collection of data into their own
hands, creating an awareness that is gratifying.
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center is located at 3000 General Pershing Blvd in Oklahoma City, OK. It is free and open to the public Monday through Thursday 9 am to 10 pm and Friday through Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm. For additional information, visit www.oklahomacontemporary.org or call 405-951-0000. To learn more about Laurie Frick’s artistic practice, visit www.lauriefrick.com. To begin your own self-tracking, visit www.quantifiedself.com, www.moodjam.com, www.fitbit.com and www.myzeo.com. n
Kerry M. Azzarello is an artist, writer, and thinker. She currently serves as Operations Manager at the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. Those wishing to track her down should email [email protected].
Laurie Frick, Austin, TX & Brooklyn, NY, Quantify-Me with falling section, Laser cut drawings, laser cut bits, electrical wire and copper clips. Photo by Rino Pizzi.
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“You’re not just going to see a bunch of precious objects in a frame on the wall,” curator Curtis Jones explained, discussing [Un]bound: 3D Printmaking, his exhibition of contemporary printmaking that soars between installation, illustration, video, and more, occasionally in the same work. The work of seven innovative printmaking artists - Laura Berman, Aaron Wilson, Tim Dooley, John Hitchcock, Emily Arthur, Jenny Schmid, and Curtis Jones - challenge presupposed limitations of their medium in this show, running from June 14 to September 7, 2013 at Oklahoma City’s [Artspace] at Untitled.
Populating her works with stark, large-headed figures who casually subvert expected performances of gender roles, Jenny Schmid draws inspiration from Renaissance engraving
techniques, graphic novels, and feminism as she works in media from lithographs and mezzotint to animation and performance. As Jones describes, Schmid is “an incredible illustrator: her work is instantly identifiable no matter what process or media she happens to be working in.” Her work for [Un]bound will consist of projected animations that offer dreamily disorienting, familiar yet unsettling worlds.
Laura Berman, associate professor at Kansas City Arts Institute, has spent recent years creating expansive, sprawling installations launched by what Jones describes fondly as an “obsessive” dedication to the repetition of small multiples. Her work All She Ever Wanted Was Everything: Laura Berman’s Rock Collection presents over 2000 individually
printed, life-size samples from Berman’s personal rock collection. Each printed rock carries its own unique identity, carefully rendered with precise color and gestural, scrolling lines. The rocks are individually affixed to walls, accumulating across gallery space and spilling over corners in a frenetic cloud that presents this decades-long collection in a frank yet celebratory display.
Curator Jones is also a featured artist in this exhibit with work including Swelter, a piece that draws inspiration from a newcomer’s experience with blistering Oklahoma summers. Jones describes Swelter’s use of spiraling, compounding repetitive elements and three-dimensional pop-up forms to “get across the idea of the printed page” in a non-literal way.
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Printing on the Edge: [Un]bound Explores Contemporary PrintmakingBy Jennifer Barron
Laura Berman, Kansas City, MO All She Ever Wanted Was Everything (detail), Intaglio on paper, hand cut and assembled
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As he describes his own work, a cohesive theme of [Un]bound emerges. Jones’ first movements toward installation-scale work began after leaving graduate school - and with it, his university’s specialized printmaking equipment. As he explains: “I didn’t have access to the school’s presses anymore, but I did have Kinko’s and a pretty good grasp of traditional book art practices.” This creative exploration paved the way for subsequent work, and book arts became for Jones “a launching pad between installation and printmaking.”
In bringing this work to [Artspace] at Untitled, Jones aims not only to introduce audiences to an impressively experimental group of printmaking artists, but to a particularly tight-knit, mutually supportive, and wildly collaborative community of artists who often partner on ventures from individual projects to entire galleries.
Jones describes John Hitchcock as an artist with a profoundly cooperative ethos, very well-known for his willingness to support other printmakers that his participation in [Un]bound became a “lynchpin,” facilitating the participation of others. After being accepted into the 2011 Venice Biennale, Hitchcock generously shared the spotlight of the 2011 Venice Biennale by inviting other US printmakers to show alongside. Giving himself the tagline “Committed to Politically Motivated Printmaking!”, Hitchcock is a rare printmaker who moves easily between different printmaking communities, earning respect with both the academy - as a professor in the celebrated printmaking program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison - and with establishment-challenging print collectives like the “Dirty Printmakers.”
Emily Arthur is also known for her generous spirit towards other artists, as well as for a singular printing style that Jones refers to as “semi-botanical in a way that transcends the genre.” As Jones describes, “She is absolutely not intimidated by the general restrictions of printmaking.” Creating striking, delicate organic forms and gradual shifts of color that bleed into one another, Arthur demonstrates a mastery of her media that stands out, even among the formidable printers in [Un]bound.
(top) John Hitchcock, Madison, WI, Epicentro, Screenprint on mixed media.
(bottom) Tim Dooley and Aaron Wilson, Cedar
Falls, IA, Untitled, work in progress (2013), Screenprint on paper, hand-cut and folded.
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Tim Dooley and Aaron Wilson are two artists with a history of successful partnership, including a joint venture and gallery, Midwest Pressed, which bills itself as “Screenprinted Madness from the Middle of Everywhere,” and promises “if it is relatively flat, we will print on it.” Jones holds clear admiration for Dooley and White as endlessly inventive artists who “use an immense variety of approaches and outcomes and an incredibly playful spirit,” adding, “They just try so many things, fearlessly.”
In keeping with the collaborative spirit so characteristic of these printers, Jones is working with Untitled to arrange interactive
events to engage visitors throughout the run of [Un]bound. Events will range from artist-led workshops to a steamroller woodblock event, during which prints will be literally steamrolled from large pieces of wood in an alley behind the gallery.
[Un]bound promises to present vital, dynamic contemporary printmaking art to Oklahoma audiences at a seemingly perfect time: The stellar printmaking facilities at [Artspace] at Untitled, mostly dormant in recent years, are poised for re-emergence with an increase in organizational support. “I’ve been happy to watch that evolve,” says Jones. Bringing leading printmakers to Untitled seems to be
a particularly auspicious way for this program to gain steam going forward. Timing aside, [Un]bound is bringing new, innovative voices to the state’s art audiences as most of the artists in [Un]bound will be showing their work in Oklahoma for the first time. Jones states, “My big thought is this: this is a lot of work that I’m excited about but haven’t seen locally. I’m very much looking forward to seeing this come together.” n
Jennifer Barron is an Oklahoma City based artist and arts administrator who believes firmly in the power of art to enhance lives, build communities and push us forward from our comfort zones.
continued from page 15
Curtis Jones, Norman, Swelter (detail), work in progress (2013), Hand-cut and folded paper
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JUNE 14, 2013 - JULY 20, 2013OPENING RECEPTION
JUNE 14, 6:00-10:00PM
CLOSING RECEPTIONJULY 12, 6:00-10:00PM
122 EAST MAIN STREET, NORMAN, OK 73069WWW.NORMANARTS.ORG | 405-360-1162
WITH NAC INDIVIDUAL ARTISTMICHAEL JOY WILSON
WATER CLOSET GALLERYDiscernible Discourse
MAY 10 & 11, 2013
SEE WHERE NORMAN ART IS BEING MADE
INTERRUPTIONSINTERRUPTIONSINTERRUPTIONSMATTHEW BOONSTRA
For more information about Norman Open Studios, visit
www.normanarts.orgor call 405-360-1162
UNIVERS I TY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMAC O L L E G E O F F I N E A R T S A N D D E S I G N
Melton Art Gallery, UCO Art & Design BuildingHours: Tue.-Fri., 10 am-4 pmFeaturing selected works from the College of Fine Arts and Design’scollection, along with selected works from the Melton Legacy Collection.
For information: (405) 974-2432www.uco.edu/cfad
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SOUnDScAPES: An Exhibition Where Sound and Art Collideby Sasha Spielman
More often than not, art lovers and artists experience art through its visual element, but music is art, movement is art, and combining the three elements creates an interactive way for people to experience art. Eleven Oklahoma-based artists joined forces to create Soundscapes, an exhibition where the visual and aural domains collide.
Pauline Oliveros, composer of post-World War II electronic art music, defined the term soundscape as “all of the waveforms faithfully transmitted to our audio cortex by the ear and its mechanisms.” Each artist was given the task to create a sculpture that can produce sound or sound that can create sculptural form.
Scott Henderson, director of the Satellite Galleries at Science Museum Oklahoma, said, “I wanted to make an exhibit that was created by artists that could be interactive, and still express the originality of the creator at the same time be educational and fun.”
Sound and art go hand in hand. Cognitive neuroscience studies have found that hearing enhances seeing, but Soundscapes is not necessarily about music, rather it is about the auditory experience of sounds and tones.
Christie Owens titled her sound sculpture Tympanum, which is Latin for drums. The sculpture consists of various steel, wood
and plastic triangular forms that produce an array of sounds when struck. Owens was inspired by the notion that any material can become a drum. Caribbean steel pannists, jazz musicians and rock drummers opened her to a limitless acoustic palette.
“This exhibit demonstrates the multitude of mediums and genres one artist is capable of producing when challenged,” Owens said. “This type of work is important because it allows my art to evolve beyond the visual realm.”
Each artist had to create a focal piece and several other pieces to compliment the main
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Jerrod Smith, Phillip Danner and Dustin Ragland, Oklahoma City, contextual Relations, String Installation
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one. All the sculptures were specifically designed for Soundscapes.
Henderson thought challenging the artists to leave their comfort zone would be both rewarding and educational. Most of them had four months or less to come up with an idea and execute it. This undertaking was ambitious but in the end a success. People are encouraged to interact, play, touch and experience each piece at Soundscapes. The works are meant to present the visitors with a new way to feel and view art.
Works such as Mr. Quintrons Sound House and the instruments of Walter Kintundu, as well as the Lumiphonic Creature Choir inspired Soundscapes.
“I think to take an artist out of their comfort zone and push them into the unknown really shows the capacity of a true artist,” Henderson said.
When approached by Henderson, Oklahoma native artist Christie Hackler decided to present pieces inspired by the Oklahoma wind and the natural sounds it produces. She was working on a chandelier made out of sheet steel when the idea struck her. The chandelier made natural sounds that further inspired Hackler to
incorporate it in Soundscapes.
“Living in Oklahoma all my life, the wind is an ever-present force,” Hackler said. “Whether it is a much-needed breeze on a hot day or a spring storm rolling in, the wind creates sounds that are natural and man-made.”
Hackler admits that as an artist her head constantly thinks of how a piece looks - the movements, the shapes and the sounds it creates. Each section of her sculpture was cut by hand using a plasma cutter, then grinded and sanded smooth. Similar to the wind, her piece is centered on movement, then sounds.
A sound is what opens our senses and magnifies life experiences. The sounds themselves inside the music need to be lyrical and descriptive. Dustin Ragland, a local musician, teamed up with Jerrod Smith and Phil Danner to create an impressive string-work spread for Soundscapes.
“I tried to use the strings’ visual vectors as metaphors (i.e. length, gradient of color, altitude, anchoring, bending, perspective tricks, etc.) to limit the sonic texture a bit,” Ragland said.
The Soundscapes exhibition takes visitors beyond the realm of visual. It explores the implications of aural elements within
contemporary sculpture, in a way that’s easily digestible for visitors. Instead of “please don’t touch the painting,” at Soundscapes a person is encouraged to find a personal connection with the sculptures.
Henderson hopes to present the public with similar shows, because as he puts it, “Oklahoma is full of very creative people and I want to show that side of innovation and experimentation to as many people as possible.”
This ambitious art exhibition is currently on display at Science Museum Oklahoma in Oklahoma City until August 2, 2013. Works by Joshua Heilaman, Christie Owen, Christie Hackler, Beatriz Mayorca, Phil Danner, Jerrod Smith, Christopher Clark, Dylan Bradway, and Dustin Ragland are included.
“The artists all worked incredibly hard and produced such amazing work,” Henderson said. n
Sasha is a web editor, who enjoys blogging, appreciates beautiful black and white photography, and loves producing short documentaries. She firmly believes that “Art washes from the soul the dust of the everyday life.”
continued from page 18
(left) Christie Owen, Oklahoma City, Typanum, Steel, wood, plastic. (middle) Beatriz Mayorca, Oklahoma City, Angel Falls, Mixed media. (right) Christie Hackler, Oklahoma City, A Snake in the Grass is Better Than Two in the Bush, Metal.
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(left) The community piano experiment, which invites participation from the audience. (right) Dylan Bradway, Oklahoma City, Bow to the Beat, Mixed media.
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ANNA MORONEY: Darkness in the Lightby Mary Kathryn Moeller
Anna Moroney knows how to tell a good chilling story, one filled with dark twists and long-held secrets brought to light in a thrilling manner. A story that may not outright scare you but is bound to make you look over your shoulder once or twice and make you question the sanctity of the past.
A practicing artist since 2010 after she relocated to Tulsa from London, UK, Moroney draws from a deep well of personal experience with misfortune as well as an active imagination to bring her stories to life on the canvas. “I was born an artist,” she states, “but…sort of discovered through adversity that I should be doing it.” A self-taught artist who has suffered for years from night terrors, Moroney turned to painting as a way to exorcise her demons. “I don’t like storing things away,” she says. For Moroney it is important to channel her immense feelings into her work in order to confront whatever issues have been raised by her dark dreams. The same holds true
for family secrets she has uncovered in recent years. Whether it was revelations about the grandfather she never knew or the grandmother she only thought she knew, those stories and tragedies are reclaimed and brought into the light in her work.
For her series The 1950s Never Happened, Moroney drew not on personal or family trauma, but rather on a highly elaborate story she crafted from a found object. “I bought a box of old slides at an estate sale…[I] looked at all of these pristine cars and everyone smiling and I thought why would you sell off your entire family history? And then my mind starting making up all of these scenarios….” Those scenarios involved a tortured and tragic cast of characters, each one hiding a dark secret under the glossy veneer of the high-polished 1950s. “I am just bringing it up-to-date and pointing out all of the things that weren’t talked about…stalking, obsession, infidelity, molestation. It’s not nice to talk about but it happens
now and it happened then. It was a beautiful time but it was still sinister.”
A menacing quality emanates from Stalker which Moroney composed from multiple slides including several of a man in a crisp ironed shirt with a pair of binoculars. She positions him as the perpetrator in the act of obsessively watching his object of desire and rage. He nervously glances towards the viewer aware of the possibility of getting caught but his glance also makes the viewer complicit in his pursuit of the woman whose face has been obliterated by furiously scribbling. The erasure of her identity seems to suggest that this is less about her and more about the hunt in general. However unspoiled a simple family snapshot might have been, it is now transformed into an image of a frightening fetish that will surely evolve from agitated defacement to real violence.
A deep physical and emotional pain seeps from works like Unrequited while a macabre
(left) Anna Moroney, Tulsa, Stalker, Acrylic, watercolor pencil and ink on canvas, 36” x 36”. (right) Anna Moroney, Tulsa, Greed (Smiling at a Funeral), Acrylic, watercolor pencil and canvas on canvas, 16” x 20”
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giddiness radiates from the blonde woman in Greed (Smiling at a Funeral). No matter what aspect of a story Moroney may be telling, it is most certainly rooted in a powerful and affective sentiment. Though each work fits into the larger narrative created by the artist, the raw emotions available in the works are identifiable to all as an inescapable part of the grotesque quality human society can take. Moroney aims to present this unpleasantness with clarity and emotional realism in the hope of stimulating a collective catharsis.
She further expands this effort through her second artistic passion, filmmaking. With selected paintings, Moroney shoots a short trailer to allow her material a new expression. Stocked with a cast of faithful friends, Moroney’s characters move through their storylines exploring the darker side of human nature. The finished trailers are uploaded to her “Deadlyoxen” YouTube channel as an extension of her painted narratives.
With her choice of “Deadlyoxen” as her artist identity Moroney conspires to challenge viewer expectations. Her selection was the product of a search to find something wholly unique that would preclude those who encounter her work from coming to any easy decisions about what sort of artist she is or even that she is a she. “I wanted something not gender specific…ambiguous.” Moroney’s moniker is designed to deliberately thwart society’s expectations and deviate from the norm. Such a move leaves things opened ended and allows her to move on to new storylines and characters while maintaining a raw intensity and dark expression. n
Mary Kathryn Moeller is currently pursuing her Master’s in art history at Oklahoma State University where she works as a Graduate Research Assistant for the OSU Museum of Art. She is available via e-mail at [email protected].
Anna Moroney, Tulsa, Back Alley Abortion, Acrylic and watercolor pencil on canvas, 16” x 20”
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The Cherokee Art Center: A Gathering Place for Artistsby Molly O’Connor
Across Oklahoma, several community leaders are taking innovative approaches in repurposing old and dilapidated buildings and spaces in order to revitalize their downtown areas. In towns and cities both large and small, there is a growing interest in transforming historic and abandoned buildings into art spaces or art centers. Community art spaces play an integral role in providing opportunities for local artists, and they have the capacity to generate new revenue and interest in the downtown areas. In addition, they can build civic pride and serve as a space to bring diverse people together.
Tahlequah is just one example of a community that is rapidly continuing its development as an arts and cultural destination. If you take a drive through the downtown area, you will notice a cohesiveness and strong community identity. From the central downtown sector to the campus of
Northeastern State University (NSU), historic buildings have been maintained and house several local businesses, eateries and retail stores. Galleries and performance venues such as the NSU Jazz Lab offer residents and visitors diverse opportunities to experience the arts. Festivals such as the Cherokee National Holiday, the Red Fern Festival, and Arts on the Avenue generate tourism and provide an opportunity for the community to come together to purchase art, experience live music and celebrate the local cultural heritage. The town exudes vibrancy, and even the street signs (which include the Cherokee language) make one feel like they have arrived at a unique destination.
In the case of Tahlequah, the Cherokee Nation has been a momentous driving force behind the city’s revitalization. After three years of planning and major renovations, an historic WPA building in the downtown area
was reopened as the Cherokee Arts Center in November of 2011. The center includes classrooms, art studios and a gallery, and it provides a venue for Cherokee artists to exhibit and sell their work. Artistic mediums include metal work, pottery, loom weaving, painting and more.
Donna Tinnin, Director of Community Tourism Planning and Development for the Cherokee Nation has been instrumental in the plans and process of opening the arts center. The early concept for the Cherokee Arts Center was centered on a place that would be instrumental for Cherokee artists to work and thrive. The Cherokee Arts Center is also a place that allows the artists to pass on cultural and traditional art forms to the next generation.
“All of our teaching artists are Cherokee, therefore it is a natural fit to pass along the culture, language, history and traditions,”
(left) The Cherokee Arts Center, opened in November 2011, is located in a renovated historic WPA building at 212 S. Water Ave. in Tahlequah. (right) The metalsmith classroom at Cherokee Arts Center.
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said Tinnin. “Though not all Cherokee artists produce traditional art, even the contemporary artists usually incorporate some type of history, language or ancestral design in their work.”
Special focus has been placed on providing Cherokee artists with professional training and resources needed to develop their entrepreneurial skills. The staff at the Cherokee Arts Center offer a program called Native Artist Professional Development, which provides training in business planning, marketing and pricing of work.
“The Cherokee Arts Center has provided Cherokee artists a year round outlet, as well as an online tool for selling their work,” Tinnin explained. “It has also offered the artists interested in teaching a location to do so. In addition, it gives students an opportunity to learn a new art form while giving artists an additional revenue stream.”
The Cherokee Arts Center, which is a project of the Commerce Department, is positively impacting the local economy. Tinnin
estimates that the center has provided over $40,000 in direct revenues to the artists in the first year through classes and art sales in the gallery. In addition, the center seems to be attracting other artists to the area with new art studios opening up in close proximity to the building.
“The local community has responded well to attending classes, however the greater interest is from visitors from out of town,” said Tinnin. “We are located in the Cherokee Historical area in downtown Tahlequah, just between the Cherokee Supreme Court Museum and the Cherokee National Prison Museum. We host a lot of groups from out of town who are interested in classes and in purchasing authentic Cherokee art.”
The restored and refurbished building is now a shining gem in downtown Tahlequah, an active energetic mecca for creativity. It is difficult to imagine it once empty and with boarded up windows. The remodel included replacing the roof, knocking out doors and adding new windows. New lighting and display cases were installed to create a gallery
room within the building. The restored building has a strong presence and seems to elevate the overall quality of life in the local vicinity. It can also serve as an example of what is possible in other Oklahoma communities.
“The remodel and subsequent addition of signage and public artwork has enhanced the aesthetics of the area,” Tinnin said.
The Cherokee Art Center is located at 212 S. Water Ave. in Tahlequah, OK and is open to visitors Monday through Saturday. To find out more information or to plan your visit, call 918-453-5728 or visit www.artscenter.cherokee.org. n
Molly O’Connor is a multi-disciplinary artist from Oklahoma City. She also serves as the Cultural Development Director for the Oklahoma Arts Council. She can be contacted at [email protected].
(above) Artist Dan Mink with the concrete art installation outside the Cherokee Arts Center.
(top left) Sterling silver ring by Steve Mashburn, a teaching artist at CAC.
(bottom left) Copper bracelets by Steve Mashburn.
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MAy | JUNE 2013OVAC NEWS
ovac news
Anyone is welcome as a member (if you’re not one yet), whether an artist or art fan. Join online at www.ovac-ok.org or call us at 405-879-2400. Save the date for the OVAC Annual Member meeting, which will be held the afternoon of June 15 in Oklahoma City. This gathering will give people a chance to meet fellow members and have some fun while learning more about what OVAC has been up to this year. Members receive notice in the mail and information will be on our website.
With all the recent activity in the OVAC office, we are especially grateful to our spring interns. Clare Newton is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, holding degrees in Meteorology and Geography. Drawing upon her science background, Clare’s artwork often centers on themes of weather and wind energy. Tiffany McKnight holds BFAs from Oklahoma City University (Graphic Design) and the University of Oklahoma (Printmaking & Sculpture). When not creating art or interning, she can be found working at Kitchen No. 324. Clare and Tiffany, along with returning intern Cierra
Linander, have been working diligently behind-the-scenes assisting with mailings and on-the-scene at events such as Momentum. Thank you for your hard work this semester!
We had a blast at the Tulsa Art Studio Tour. Many thanks go to the featured artists and the energetic committee led by Susan Green and Alan Frakes. Audiences got to see the working studios of 10 artists. We had an anonymous donor that matched other sponsors, allowing us to cover the entire costs of the event. Thanks also to the The George Kaiser Family Foundation and Kerry Walsh for their lead gifts. See more at www.TulsaArtStudioTour.org.
Artist INC Live Oklahoma City is a cutting edge training program that addresses the specific business needs and challenges of artists. Limited to 25 participants, artists of all disciplines gather once a week for eight weeks to learn business skills specific to their art practice and apply those skills cooperatively with their peers. Finding inspiring artist entrepreneur training, six artists and two OVAC staffers attended the Artist INC training supported by the Mid-
America Arts Alliance in March. Artists may apply through June 14. See info at www.ArtistSurvivalKit.org.
Momentum OKC grew with hundreds of artists submitting and more than 1,700 attendees. Thank you to the top sponsors COOP ALE Works, LEVEL Urban Apartments, Frontline Church, Keep It Local OK, and Rand and Jeanette Elliott and our location 50 Penn Place for helping us encourage young artists. We appreciate the hard work of the committee led by co-chairs Bryan Cook & Becki Warner. See video profiles about the Spotlight artists and photographs from the event at www.MomentumOklahoma.org.
Concept/OK: Art in Oklahoma wrapped up with the presentation of Focus OK<->KC with the Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City. Four Oklahoma-based artists and five Kansas City-based artists created new work for an exhibition at the Hardesty Arts Center in Tulsa, then at the La Esquina Gallery in Kansas City. See videos about the artists or the catalog about the entire exhibition at www.Concept-OK.org.
Six artists and two OVAC staff members attended the training for the upcoming Artist INC professional development program, coming to OKC this fall.
Heather Ahtone & Marwin Begaye
Andrew Akufo Lisa Allswede Andrew Baker Kimberly Baker Tommy and Tahlia Ball Randall Barnes Duff Bassett Carol Beesley Julie Marks Blackstone Tom Boepple Barbara Fluty Boydstun Jenna Bryan Milissa Burkart Rebecca Burr Chris Cameris Sarah Capshaw Lydia Cheshewella Lori Chipera Dian Church Angela Church Jonathan Clarke
Leslie Cormack John L. Cox Dorothy Danen Hilary Davis Samantha Dillehay Meredith Downing Elizabeth Downing Kika Dressler Sandra Dunn Elizabeth K. Eickman and
Marvin Quinn Vonda Evans Cathleen Faubert and Pete
Froslie Sandra Fendrych Janice Filler Ron Fleming Natalie Friedman Cody Frusher James and Judith Gaar Dan Garrett Mary German Irmgard Geul
John Gooden Audrey Goodine Douglas Gordon Mary Lou Gresham Ashley Griffith and
Andrea Martin Jeudi Hamilton Neal Hampton Nancy Harkins Ryan Harris Marissa Hornpetrie and
Jody Horn Joyce Jackson Pam Jackson Heidi James Elizabeth Jantz J. Jann Jeffrey Kreg Kallenberger Deborah Kaspari Madison Kay Haylee Keenum Bob Kenworthy Sharyl and Paul Landis
Maury Langston and Susan Moore
Klair Larason Anna Lee Rosie Leonard Dana Lombardo Patta Lt Angela Mabray Rebecca Mannschreck Cathy Martin Jay McCormick Lisa McIlroy Peggy Megginson Sunni Mercer Amanda Meyer William Miller Susan Mills Arielle Monks Sharon J. Montgomery Wendy Mutz Kurt Nagy Don C. Narcomey Clare Newton
Galen Nichols Lori Oden Romy Owens Lori Palmer Rose Paluckis Pete Peterson David and Patty Phelps Cheryl and Peter Poorman Mattie Ramirez Laura Reese Betty Refour Karen A. Renfrow George Rooks Justin Scott Mark Sharfman Erin Shaw Peggy Shelden and Dana
Talbert Rachel Shropshire Lisa Sorrell Karin Stafford Jim Stewart Michi and Charles Susan
Cheryl Swanson Lissie Teehee Marion McKenzie
Thompson Tracie Tuck-Davis David Uriell Cindy Van Kley Mark Waits Jason Wallace Lisa and Julia Wasinger Randy Watkins Hubert Wedell Angela Westerman Stuart Whitis Teresa J. Wilber Gary and Debby Williams Carrie Wilson Chad and Paige
Woolbright Adrienne Wright Dean and Kelly Wyatt
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Thank you to our new and renewing members from January and February 2013
ovac news
Allied Arts will celebrate the 2013 Campaign in May. We appreciate their support and determined efforts to raise more than $3.1 million in funds for 20 agencies, including OVAC, and several other community-wide grant programs. See www.AlliedArtsOKC.com to donate and receive the OKCityCard.
Art People The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition welcomes Laura Reese as Event Coordinator. Reese has served as a previous intern with OVAC and worked as the Emerging Curator for Momentum Tulsa in 2012. She also interned with the Girlie Show of OKC, a craft fair for up-and-coming women artists, and with Dr. Sketchy’s OKC, a branch of a national organization centered on alternative drawing classes. Reese received her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Oklahoma, where she served as president of the Print Club. She is an active artist, creating works based in printmaking. She will be the primary organizer of the 12x12 Art Fundraiser, Momentum OKC & Tulsa, and the Tulsa Art Studio Tour. Welcome, Laura!
With much gratitude we say goodbye to Kim Baker as the Oklahoma Arts Council’s director. Her family is moving to St. Louis. For more than 20 years, Baker championed artists and art throughout the state. Her sensitivity to small and rural organizations was especially notable. She certainly has been part of the support system for OVAC as we’ve grown over the years. Thanks Kim for your hard work and heart for Oklahoma’s arts. n
(top) At the opening of the Focus OK <-> Kc exhibition at La
Esquina Gallery, Kansas City: Aaron Hauck, David Hughes, Julia Kirt, Sarah
Hearn, and Kate Hackman.
(bottom) Momentum Spotlight Artist Erin Latham and OVAC Intern Tiffany McKnight at Momentum OKc 2013.
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Dear Looking,
Piers Steel’s new book The Procrastination Equation, gives the best explanation for why humans procrastinate. Procrastination is an unwillingness to endure short-term pain for long-term gain combined with impulsiveness. A short quiz in the opening chapter will help you identify your procrastination behavior. Steel lists three reasons we procrastinate: expectancy, value and time.
EXPECTANCY: you delay starting because you fear the worst. Why put forth the effort when it will probably fail?
VALUE: the less you value a task, the harder it is for you to start it. This is why the post office is open until midnight on April 15!
TIME: the task will “take too much time” and can be done “anytime.” Motivation happens only at the last minute.
bus iness o f a r t
ASK A CREATIVITY COACH: Got Talent? Motivation Matters More
by Romney Nesbitt
ASK A CREATIVITY COACH
Dear Romney,
Everyone I know struggles with procrastination. What’s the logical explanation
for this common problem? — Looking for answers
by Romney Nesbitt
Here are the solutions.
To solve an EXPECTANCY problem: remember your past successes, surround yourself with people who are reaching their goals, be specific about your goals, see the gap between where you are and where you want to be and develop a daily plan of action steps to get you from here to there.
To solve a VALUE problem: reframe the way you view the task (from no value to some value), reward yourself when you complete an unpleasant task, check to see if you have truly overcommitted your available hours, create a pleasing work environment and use your high energy times for your most valuable work.
To solve a TIME problem: see your future as concretely as you see the present, define the steps of a task so you won’t blow things out of proportion, create a series of short term deadlines to keep your motivation high, reward yourself with small treats to curb your impulsiveness and log in output (what have you completed in an hour) rather than input (time spent).
Take the test in the book to see whether your problem is expectancy, value or time then put these solutions to work in your life. Try one tip per week. You’ll see your output increase and your stress levels decrease. n
Plan to attend the May 18, 2013 Artist Survival Kit workshop Artistic Practice: Motivation, Discipline and Busting Creative Blocks, at the Multi Arts Center in Stillwater, OK. Romney Nesbitt will be one of the presenters. More information and registration available at www.ArtistSurvivalKit.org.
Romney Nesbitt is a Creativity Coach and author of Secrets From a Creativity Coach (available on amazon.com). She welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected]. Book her to speak to your group through OVAC’s ARTiculate Speakers Bureau.
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Gallery Listings & Exhibition Schedule
AdaSenior ExhibitsMay 1-10Alumni Exhibit: Stacey Miller, Justin Irwin, Patrick RileyJune 3 – August 30The Pogue Gallery Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center900 Centennial Plaza (580) 559-5353 ecok.edu
ArdmoreCarol Beesley & Harolyn LongMay 2 – June 29Opening May 2, 6 pmThe Goddard Center401 First Avenue SW(580) 226-0909 goddardcenter.org
BartlesvilleChristo and Jeanne-Claude: The Tom Golden CollectionThrough May 5Frank Lloyd Wright’s Samara: A Mid-Century Dream HomeMay 17-September 8Price Tower Arts Center510 Dewey Ave.(918) 336-4949 pricetower.org
DurantSE Art Majors Senior ExhibitionThrough May 11Southeastern OK State University1405 N. 4th PMB 4231sosu.edu
NormanDreamer 49: The Arts Education ExperienceMay 10-June 6Dreamer Concepts Studio & Foundation324 East Main(405) 701-0048 dreamerconcepts.org
Miquel Barceló’s Areneros y mulerosThrough May 26Art Interrupted: Advancing
American Art and the Politics of Cultural DiplomacyThrough June 9Pablo Picasso’s Woman in the StudioThrough June 30Stirring the Fire: A Global Movement to Empower Women and GirlsThrough July 28Into the Void Through July 28Hopituy: Kachinas from the Permanent CollectionsJune 28-September 15Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art555 Elm Ave.(405) 325-4938 ou.edu/fjjma
Norman Open Studios ExhibitNorman Featured High School Artist Alex RivasMay 10-18Matthew BoonstraNorman Featured Artist Michael Joy WilsonWater Closet Gallery: Discernible Discourse curated by Krystle BrewerJune 14-July 13Mainsite Contemporary Art Gallery122 East Main(405) 360-1162 normanarts.org
Oklahoma CityUnbound: 3D PrintmakingJune 14-September 7[ArtSpace] at Untitled 1 NE 3rd St.(405) 815-9995 artspaceatuntitled.org
Jessica Beethe & Keegan O’KeefeMay Bombs AwayJuneDNA Galleries1705 B NW 16th
(405) 371-2460 dnagalleries.com
Beth HammackOpening May 3, 6-10 pmShirley Thomson-Smith
Opening June 7, 6-10 pmJRB Art at the Elms2810 North Walker(405) 528-6336 jrbartgallery.com
Michelle JunkinReception May 31, 6-9 pm2013 National Watermedia ExhibitionReception June 28, 6-9 pmIndividual Artists of Oklahoma 706 W Sheridan (405) 232-6060 iaogallery.org
Bryan Adams: ExposedThrough May 17Laurie FrickJune 4-August 23Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center3000 General Pershing Blvd.(405) 951-0000 oklahomacontemporary.org
Sam JoynerThrough June 16Ginna DowlingThrough June 23
Janice Matthews-GordonThrough June 30Oklahoma State Capitol Galleries2300 N. Lincoln Blvd(405) 521-2931 arts.ok.gov
Herb Ritts: Beauty and CelebrityMay 9-July 28Member Reception May 8Oklahoma City Museum of Art415 Couch Drive(405) 236-3100 okcmoa.com
SoundscapesThrough August 2Out of the BOX 2Through September 15The Satellite Galleries at Science Museum Oklahoma2100 NE 52nd St(405) 602-6664 sciencemuseumok.org
Park HillTrail of Tears Art Show and SaleThrough May 27Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc.
21192 S. Keeler Drive(918) 456-6007 cherokeeheritage.org
Ponca CityMembership ShowThrough May 19Double Vision: The Fiber Art of Stephanie Grubbs & Sue Moss SullivanMay 26 – June 30Ponca City Art Center819 East Central(580) 765-9746 poncacityartcenter.com
TulsaCeramics of Bean FinneranMay 3 – June 30Opening May 3, 6-9 pm108 Contemporary108 E Brady(918) 237-9592 108contemporary.org
James Marshall & Doug FreedMayAberson Exhibits3624 S Peoria (918) 740-1054 abersonexhibits.com
ga l l e ry gu ide
Mark Yearwood, Spirit Rising, Acrylic/Mixed Media on Canvas, 54” x 40” at Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, June 15-July 15.
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MEMBER FORMPATRON - $250 -Listing of self or business on signage at events -Invitation for two people to private reception with visiting curators -$210 of this membership is tax deductible. -All of below
FELLOW - $125 -Acknowledgement in the Resource Guide and Art Focus Oklahoma -Copy of each OVAC exhibition catalog -$85 of this membership is tax deductible. -All of below
FAMILY - $60 -Same benefits as Individual level for two people in household
INDIVIDUAL - $40 -Subscription to Art Focus Oklahoma -Monthly e-newsletter of visual art events statewide (sample) -Receive all OVAC mailings -Listing in Annual Resource Guide and Member Directory -Copy of Annual Resource Guide and Member Directory -Access to “Members Only” area on OVAC website -Invitation to Annual Meeting Plus, artists receive: -Inclusion in online Virtual Gallery -Monthly e-newsletter of opportunities for artists (sample) -Artist entry fees waived for OVAC sponsored exhibitions -Up to 50% discount on Artist Survival Kit workshops -Associate Membership in Fractured Atlas, with access to services such as insurance, online courses and other special offers.
STUDENT - $20 -Valid student ID required. Same benefits as Individual level.
¨ Patron ¨ Fellow ¨ Family ¨ Individual ¨ Student
Name
Street Address
City, State, Zip
Website Phone
Credit card # Exp. Date
Are you an artist? Y N Medium?_____________________________________
Would you like to be included in the Membership Directory? Y N
Would you like us to share your information for other arts-related events? Y N
Comments:
Detach and mail form along with payment to: OVAC, 730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Suite 104, Oklahoma City, OK 73116
Or join online at www.ovac-ok.org
Become a member of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition! Join today to begin enjoying the benefits of membership, including a subscription to Art Focus Oklahoma.
Dreams and Visions: The American West and the Legacy of Imagination Through August 25, 2013Gilcrease Museum1400 Gilcrease Road(918) 596-2700 gilcrease.org
University of Tulsa Alumni Exhibition – MFA Graduates 2002-2012Through May 31Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education124 E Brady St(918) 631-4400 gilcrease.utulsa.edu/Explore/Zarrow
Hardlines: Bregelle Davis, Geoffrey Gorman, Mark YearwoodJune 15-July 15Opening & Artist Demos June 15, 10-5Lovetts Gallery6528 E 51st St(918) 664-4732 lovettsgallery.com
5x5 Art SaleOpening May 3, 5:55 pmDeadly Oxen: The 1950s Never HappenedJune 7-29Tulsa Artists Coalition Gallery9 East Brady(918) 592-0041 tacgallery.org
Senior ExhibitionThrough May 9Alexandre Hogue Gallery Phillips Hall, The University of Tulsa2930 E. 5th St.(918) 631-2739 cas.utulsa.edu/art
WoodwardCaleb Jones: Tattoo ArtistMay 21-June 22Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum2009 Williams Ave(580) 256-6136 pipm1.com
Where Art &
History Come Alive.
The First Friday Gallery Walk takes place on the first Friday of every month, rain or shine, from 6-10pm. Paseo galleries host lively opening receptions featuring new artwork, live music, and refreshments. The Gallery Walk is free to attend and open to the public. Join us for an unforgettable art experience.
The Paseo is home to 20 galleries and working studios, all within walking distance, and occupied by more than 75 artists. Intermingled with the galleries are a variety of unique gift and clothing shops, an event center and restaurants.
For more information, call 405.525.2688 or visit thepaseo.com.
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MEMBER FORM
Non Profit Org.US POSTAGE
P A I DOklahoma City, OK
Permit No. 113
Art FocusO k l a h o m a
730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Suite 104 Oklahoma City, OK 73116Annual Subscriptions to
Art Focus Oklahoma are free with OVAC membership.
May 1: Momentum Tulsa Emerging Curator Application Deadline
May 10: 24 Works on Paper Artist Entry Deadline
May 11: ASK - What Works/ What Doesn’t?, OKC
May 16: Photo Slam, OKC
May 18: ASK - Artistic Practice, Stillwater
June 3: Momentum Tulsa Spotlight Artist Application Deadline
June 14: Artist INC Application Deadline
June 15: OVAC Annual Members’ Meeting
The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition supports Oklahoma’s visual arts and artists and their power to enrich communities.
Visit www.ovac-ok.org to learn more.
JRB ART AT THE ELMS2810 North WalkerPhone: 405.528.6336www.jrbartgallery.com
June
Opening Reception:FRIDAY, MAY 3
6 - 10 P.M.
Opening Reception:FRIDAY, JUNE 7
6 - 10 P.M.
BethHammack
ShirleyThomson-Smith
Gallery Hours:Mon - Sat 10 am - 6 pm
Sun 1 pm - 5 pm
May