Current and Recent Exhibitions
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Horse Country: Horses in the Southwest
Tohono Chul Gallery - Tucson, AZ Oct 25, 2012 - Jan 20, 2013 |
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Top row - left to right: McClellan Calvary Saddle and detail. Stoneware clay, fired to 2250 degrees, enhanced with oxides and stains. 18"Lx16"widex8"H
Pinch Pot Ponies, low fired and high fired clay and glazes. 4"Lx3"Wx4"H
Bottom row - left to right: Western Saddle-Tucson Style with three details. Cone 6 fired stoneware clay, 20"Lx15"Wx13"H
Pinch Pot Ponies, low fired and high fired clay and glazes. 4"Lx3"Wx4"H
Bottom row - left to right: Western Saddle-Tucson Style with three details. Cone 6 fired stoneware clay, 20"Lx15"Wx13"H
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Arizona Valentine
Phoenix Airport Museum Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport - Phoenix, AZ Nov 12, 2011 - Jun 3, 2012 Artist Statement: I was sixteen when I decided I was going to move to Arizona. Just a small town farm girl from rural Wisconsin, the intrigue of the southwest captivated me. Throughout my childhood, I watched countless western movies and television shows. Rawhide, The Virginian, High Chaparral, F Troop, Maverick — the list goes on and on. I felt I would fit right in. We raised dairy and beef cattle, I could handle a gun. I had a horse my entire life, and I didn't particularly enjoy six months of winter. Arizona was such a mystery, so unique. Mountains, deserts, gorgeous sunsets, different climates, strange creatures like javelinas, rattlesnakes, roadrunners and quail with odd little curved topknots. There were scorpions, lizards, bobcats, coyotes and gila monsters! Not to mention cacti in every conceivable size, shape and armament. I already possessed a great appreciation of nature, and I looked forward to living in such a foreign environment. It was the perfect plan. After I graduated I would drive to Tucson, work for a year to achieve residency, major in Art Education at the University of Arizona, get a job as an art teacher, and become a professional artist. So, in December of 1973, I packed my belongings and life savings of $300 into a junker 1964 Volkswagen Beetle. It took me seven days and one case of oil to complete the 2000 mile journey. The car broke two days later, but I made it. I did not have a place to stay, nor a job lined up, and I did not know a soul in Tucson. Nearly forty years later, I remain in Tucson. Of course I was befriended by a ton of generous and helpful people along the way. I have shared my knowledge and taught art to ages 5 through 85, and have shown my work professionally since 1990. As I reflect back, it seems things worked out as if by some grand design. I purchased the printer's drawer for this piece a few years ago at a neighbor's yard sale. Someday I knew I would create a worthy use for it. Arizona Called To Me gave me the opportunity to express some of the various reasons I fell in love with our state so long ago. The state's history, cultural influences, geography, geology, plants, wildlife and unique features are depicted in the hand made clay tiles created to fit into the different compartments of the type-set drawer. I invite the viewer to look closely, see the contrast of textures, shape and colors. Looking carefully with your eyes as well as your heart, you can feel the richness, diversity and love that could draw a young girl here from so far away and keep her here so long |
Arizona Called to Me
2-D clay/wood bas-relief wall hanging (details below) 32" high x 18" wide x 2" deep 16lbs This piece is an assemblage of 89 handmade clay tiles embellished with colored slips, stains, oxides, glazes and enamels that are adhered into the varied compartments of an antique printer's drawer. The drawer was manufactured by the Hamilton Company between 1900-1940 in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
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