Trained as a classical pianist, Chris Hayman is greatly inspired and influenced by music in her life. Her early interests also included performing arts and she was actively involved in theater and dance at the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and Baltimore. These creative talents eventually led to her primary focus as a visual artist.
In her paintings, Hayman concerns herself with space. She is interested in how forms are energized by the space around them, especially when incorporated into paintings with vivid contrasting color and thick painterly textures. Along with music, she is inspired by the natural world, and relies on a practice of constant study and exploration of the rural foothills and open lands near her home and studio.
Hayman received her BA in Art History at the University of Maryland and a second degree in Art at the University of Reno, Nevada where she began her investigation into painting. She currently resides in Northern California on a farm with livestock, orchards, gardens and beautiful surroundings.
Chris Hayman’s farm in Northern California
Chris Hayman is represented by Whitney Modern Gallery, Los Gatos; Thomas Deans Fine Art, Atlanta; Desta Gallery, San Anselmo, CA; Judy Ferrara Gallery, Three Oaks, MI; Gallery North, Carmel, CA; Jules Place, Boston; Merritt Gallery & Renaissance Fine Arts, Baltimore and Chevy Chase, MD; Haverford, PA; Kelsey Michaels Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA; Morrison Gallery, Kent, CT; Julie Nester Gallery, Park City, UT; Octavia Art Gallery, Houston and New Orleans.
Shannon Amidon always knew she loved creating and making things. In college she discovered photography and fell in love with the medium and the dark room. Having no formal training or skills in drawing or painting, photography was a natural and exciting way for her to express herself. She took photography courses, including an alternative process photography class with Brian Taylor at San José State University, which became a profound influence. Over the years Amidon’s practice changed and evolved significantly, but she says her “first love and roots will always be in photography.” Broadly Amidon’s artwork explores themes of nature, science and our environmental impact. The cycles of life, death and impermanence play a primary role in her work. Amidon feels that art should be an investigation similar to science, by asking questions, researching and seeking to see things in new or different ways. Curiosity is fundamental in her practice. As the cycles of life, curiosity, discovery and science inspire Amidon, so does the act of making art. Among women artists, she is drawn to the work of Eva Hesse, admiring her dedication to material and process. She is also encouraged by the work of Neri Oxman and Zaria Forman and sees them “really pushing the boundaries and shining a creative light on climate change and the environment.” Several significant life experiences, both personal and professional, have impacted Amidon’s work. The dualities of life and death, as well as becoming a mother as she lost her own, significantly changed her practice, color palette and the meaning of her work. Amidon explains that her “art went through a complete sea change. Most surprising is that it didn’t make it darker or melancholy, in fact observing and experiencing these cycles of life firsthand gave my work more hope, lightness and depth.”
An Interview with Shannon Amidon
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
SA: My childhood was spent immersed in nature on an 1800’s nonfunctioning dairy farm. We were a family of 6 sharing a two bedroom, one bathroom house with no heating. At times I had a very difficult childhood. I grew up in a very poor family with parents who were both drug addicts. They were both very creative and in their own ways tried to give us what they could. Despite the challenging living situation, at times it was a magical place to grow up. I often spent my days escaping into nature, climbing trees, sliding down the foothills on cardboard, playing in the creek catching tadpoles and frogs. I would dig up rocks, pick wildflowers and shake the cherry blossoms from the plum trees to make it snow. We had all kinds of creatures who would visit, deer, skunk, possum, snakes, and more. This experience seeded a deep connection with nature and an insatiable curiosity to learn what I can about natural history. I was always creative, and my parents were very supportive of me expressing myself in many different outlets. We never went to galleries or museums growing up and I didn’t really have an idea of what fine art was. But, I always knew I loved creating and making things. My Mom always liked to tell a story about a time when I was a kid and took all of the silverware from the house and hung it from the tree in the backyard. I was always creating these little art installations having no idea of what that even was.
Shannon Amidon in her studio
MKM: Why did you pursue art?
SA: In some ways I feel like I was a late bloomer in art. I was not one of those kids who always knew they wanted to be an artist. I loved to create and express myself, but I didn’t always know how. I never even took any art classes in high school. It wasn’t until I graduated and started going to college that I discovered photography. My boyfriend at the time (now my husband) had a really nice camera and let me use it and encouraged me to take a photography class. I fell in love with the medium and dark room. Having no formal training or skills in drawing or painting, photography was a natural and exciting way for me to express myself. I took all of the courses I could and eventually moved into alternative processes. For me they were a way to take what can sometimes be a cold medium and inject the artist’s hand. I always felt more like an artist than a photographer. I would paint on emulsions, print on fabric, wood and other substrates and experiment with cameraless techniques. From there I couldn’t stop, I found my purpose and there was no going back. I have tried many mediums over the years and my practice has changed and evolved significantly; however, my first love and roots will always be in photography.
MKM: Where did you study?
SA: West Valley College and San Jose State University. Although I am mostly self-taught in fine art.
MKM: Did you have any memorable art teachers?
SA: I took an alternative process photography class with Brian Taylor (SJSU) that really influenced me. He was such a generous and encouraging teacher and an incredible artist. His artwork opened a whole new world for me. A more mixed media approach to photography.
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns?
SA: I’m a morning creator. After my coffee I go into my studio where I turn on all of my lights, my music and put my apron on. Then I turn my wax on because it takes a while for it to melt and be ready to work with. Encaustic is a very physical medium, so I always try to do some stretching to warm up before I start. I usually work on the actual art making & painting for about 4-5 hours at a time. I am a very process oriented artist and my paintings take a lot of prep before I can actually start painting. There is a lot of research that goes into my artwork and then surface prepping, medium making, and image processing.
MKM: How has your practice changed over time?
SA: My practice significantly changed when I had a child. I became more focused and had to learn how to prioritize and be a lot more efficient with my time. Even though my creative time was drastically cut, my creativity, dedication and output actually went up.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums? Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?
SA: For the last 10 years I have been focused on encaustic. It is a medium that is so versatile and yet can still be challenging to work with. It’s never boring and continually pushes me and my technique. I enjoy using it in a mixed media way, incorporating paper, oil paint, pan pastels, mica, golf lead and more. But the encaustic paint is always the main material. I have always wanted to be a sculptor, ceramic or glass. I love the idea of creating 3d art and those mediums fascinate me. I follow a lot of sculptors on social media and buy all the glass making, sculpting and ceramics magazines and daydream about what I might create.
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
SA: Broadly my artwork explores themes of nature, science and our environmental impact. The cycles of life, death and impermanence play a primary role in my work. I feel art should be an investigation similar to science. It is about asking questions, researching and seeking to see things in new or different ways. A major factor in my practice is curiosity. I am interested in all aspects of ecology and the natural world and while I can’t know or learn everything, art allows me to discover and study these areas of knowledge without specialization. As I progress along my artistic path, I become more and more aware of the importance of ecological issues. It is very important for me to have a sustainable and environmentally friendly practice by using all natural and repurposed materials. I also hope to inform and possibly educate people about environmental issues with my work.
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
SA: I can’t live without music in my studio. I can often tie specific albums or song to my different series of artwork. Music is vital and often elevates my mood and motivates me. My most important tools are my hands, torch and loop scraper.
Shannon at work
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of?
SA: That’s a difficult question. I think it always changes and is usually my most recent creations. Right now, I am really proud of a 300-piece monarch inspired installation I recently created. When I started it, I had no idea how it was going to turn out. I loosely sketched it out but had no way to really do a test install to make sure it was going to work and look good. I had to do a lot of research and trial and error on how to create and install it. It was the first time I had ever done anything like that and spent about 8 months on it. I didn’t know what the layout was going to be until 2 days before it was to be installed. Everyone kept asking me how the pieces were going to be put together and I didn’t know until I knew. I just had to trust myself and the process. It turned out better than I could have imagined.
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
SA: There are several significant life experiences that come to mind, both personal and professional. I was deeply impacted by a number of heartbreaking deaths and the awe-inspiring gift of life. From 2010 – 2017 I lost seven loved ones, including my parents and grandparents. During this time, I also became a new mother to an amazing daughter. This duality of life and death as well as becoming a mother as I lost my own, significantly changed my practice, color palette and the meaning of my work. My art went through a complete sea change. Most surprising is that it didn’t make it darker or melancholy, in fact observing and experiencing these cycles of life firsthand gave my work more hope, lightness and depth. Professionally there are countless high points along my path as an artist that have impacted and informed my practice. Attending my first artist residency in Costa Rica in 2010 was a huge turning point for me and my practice. It opened a new world by giving me the time and space to create without distractions, obligations or pressure. I was bitten with the residency bug and have attended many local and international residencies since then which have all positively contributed to my practice. Being selected to create three large public art pieces for San Francisco General Hospital creatively pushed me in ways I could not have imagined. It allowed me to learn new ways of working large scale and sculpturally that I had never done before. It opened a number of doors with corporate and private collectors and gave me the courage and confidence to apply and reach for opportunities and goals out of my comfort zone.
MKM: What art do you most identify with?
SA: Assemblage and mixed media art. The first artwork that I really connected with was Joseph Cornell.
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
SA: Life inspires me. Curiosity and discovery, natural history, science. Also, just the act of art making itself inspires me. For me the art is the process of creating, not necessarily the finished piece.
MKM: Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history? Is there a specific work from this artist that you find interesting?
SA: I am really drawn to the work of Eve Hesse and her dedication to material and process.
MKM: Who are your female role models from history or present day?
SA: Right now, I am inspired by Neri Oxman and Zaria Forman. I feel they are really pushing the boundaries and shining a creative light on climate change and the environment.
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
SA: Be patient and trust the process. It’s something I often have to remind myself.
MKM: What is your dream project? What can we expect from you in the next year?
SA: One big dream project is to start an eco-friendly artist residency. Particularly one that accommodates parent artists and their children. I love participating in artist residencies, after I had my daughter, I found the opportunities for doing that were significantly reduced. I can’t leave my family for a month or more and there are few opportunities to bring your family with you. Artist residencies have had a significant impact on my career and process, and I think it’s so important to provide them to parents as well. One of the reasons I recently moved to Portland, Oregon was to pursue this dream. I am slowly taking the steps to make this happen. This next year I hope to create more large scale multi piece encaustic installations. I really enjoy creating them and hope to find a space where I can install and share them.
Brigitte McReynolds The Intelligence of Water, 2019 Oil on canvas
Brigitte McReynolds
Brigitte McReynolds
Brigitte McReynolds’ practice is a continuous investigation of abstraction and exploration of the human form. It is her visual diary, a “paper trail” of a process that is both spontaneous and deliberate. Working in layers of paint, she merges luminous color and palpable texture. For McReynolds, painting is a dynamic, intuitive process. A drip or smear reveals part of that process.
McReynolds works in series that start as a concept in her mind, or as a vision of a finished work. It can also begin as an emotion or process of the heart. When she develops a theme, she explores it in multiple materials: oil, acrylic, and encaustic, working figuratively and abstractly until the idea exhausts itself, or leads to another theme. McReynolds applies what she learns from shape, form and line in her abstract paintings to find the simplicity that is needed for abstracting a figure. Similarly, her abstract work profits from her figurative experience.
Brigitte in the studio
Her works often have a recurrent pattern or an illusion of repetition. However, not one shape is the same as the other. Similar to life, where we have days, hours and minutes that create a pattern, yet not a single moment resembles the next. McReynolds explains “Although I enjoy working with the ‘shapelessness’ of stripes I also love to work on abstract paintings that maintain shapes and forms. A shape in a painting is like a figure in a landscape. For me the abstract shapes are alive. They have a heart, an area with vibrant color; intense brush strokes, the limbs.”
When contemplating inspiration, McReynolds finds the mystic works of Hilma af Klint breathtaking and has never forgotten her visit to the Italian Tarot Garden designed by Niki de Saint Phalle. Inspiration also comes to her from women speaking out for justice through the #MeToo movement, and from the work of public figures like Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Senator Nancy Pelosi. McReynolds is most inspired by her mother, whom she describes as a creative, kind, humble and generous woman. She admires her mother’s strength, hard work and devotion in raising McReynolds and her siblings – nine children in total, while she managed her busy restaurant and hotel business.
Brigitte McReynolds is represented by Whitney Modern Gallery, Los Gatos; Pryor Fine Art, Atlanta, GA; Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA; Jules Place, Boston, MA; and Eminent Design, Sonoma, CA.
Working in multiple mediums, Josette Urso makes paintings, drawings and collages in direct response to her immediate environment. Large windows in her Brooklyn studio space afford her expansive views of the city, the weather, the light and colors, which all inform and inspire her work. Art making materials, in their variety, also nourish her practice. Urso’s approach to painting involves “moment-to-moment extrapolation where the contrasts and cross-fertilizations are cumulative, non-linear, free flowing and interpretive.” For Urso, space is “ambiguous and malleable” and she delights in the resulting acrobatic “mark making and image collision” on the canvas. With her collage works, Urso explores the dualities of information overload as it fuels our minds and creativity, but also desensitizes our attention. Her collages are packed with imagery that could both intrigue and overwhelm, but the information is ordered in a mandala like circle that conveys a sense of meditative peace amidst the spinning chaos of life.
Josette at work on a painting in her Brooklyn, NY studio
Growing up Urso’s parents brought creativity into their everyday lives; she describes her mom as “resourceful and fearless”. Her father, a math professor, also played the guitar. Both encouraged Urso’s artmaking, arranging lessons with students at the nearby university where he taught. Spending three semesters in New York during her undergrad years inspired her and made a profound impression. Urso immersed herself in the art, seeing everything she could, while becoming familiar with works by a wide range of artists. Women artists that have left a lasting impression on Urso include: Lee Krasner, Florentine Stettheimer, Anne Truitt and the choreographer Pina Bausch.
Collage materials and works in progress in Josette’s studio
Urso received her MFA from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Her work has been exhibited extensively, including exhibitions in New York at Markel Fine Arts, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, The Painting Center, The Drawing Center, The New York Public Library, The Bronx Museum of the Arts and in California at the Museum of Los Gatos and Chandler Fine Art. Urso has received grants and residencies including those from the NEA, Basil H. Alkazzi and the Gottlieb, Pollock-Krasner and Ruth and Harold Chenven Foundations as well as the Camargo Foundation, Ucross and Yaddo.
Sandy Ostrau Encountering Light Through the Fog, 2020 Oil on wood panel
An Interview with Sandy Ostrau
Sandy Ostrau
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
SO: I grew up in Palo Alto. I enjoyed art making from a very young age. You could often find me surrounded by my treasured art supplies, drawing and coloring for hours at a time. One of my bedroom walls was covered entirely with bulletin board so I could hang my art.
MKM: Why did you pursue art?
SO: I started a business selling my designs on textiles and clothing and that launched my career of selling my art. I moved into painting because I was interested in learning to use oils. I found them to be a perfect medium for my style of art.
MKM: Where did you study art?
SO: I studied Art History and took drawing classes at UCSB. After college I have taken numerous drawing and painting classes at the Pacific Art League and Palo Alto Art Center.
MKM: Did you have any memorable art teachers?
Jim Smyth and Brigitte Curt have both been incredible teachers and mentors throughout the years. Brigitte Curt teaches impressionist plein-air painting and Jim Smyth is a drawing and figure painting instructor. They are excellent teachers and both accomplished artists.
Sandy Ostrau’s studio
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns?
SO: I arrive at my studio by 10 am and I begin my day by mixing colors. I find the rhythmic movement of using the palette knife to mix is a great warm up and I then have a palette to work with for the day. It’s a wonderful ritual to focus my attention and loosen me up. Most importantly it switches my thinking to a work mode.
MKM: How has your practice changed over time?
SO: It hasn’t changed much over the years other than I used to spend more time painting outdoors and now I do most of my painting in the studio.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums?
SO: I paint with oil paint, but I often sketch with graphite or ink and sometimes paint with acrylic on paper. I use paper and acrylic for studies.
MKM: Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?
SO: Print making. I’ve been thinking about it for a while and in the near future I’d like to try it out.
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
SO: Mostly I work at integrating the figure into my paintings, whether interiors or landscapes. I’m mainly a landscape painter but I use figurative elements to connect the viewer to my work and to instill a feeling into the painting.
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
SO: My favorite tool is my large rolling palette cart that my husband built for me. I can wheel it around and it’s a big area for mixing a lot of paint. I use brushes and palette knives. I don’t really prefer one to the other and can transfer from one to the other easily. Also, Viva paper towels are essential.
Sandy Ostrau’s studio
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of?
SO: I did a painting that was exhibited in an exhibition called Inspired by David Park a few years ago. I sold the painting after the show to a couple that moved to Santa Rosa with that treasured painting a few months before their home (and the painting) burnt down. It was so tragic for the family to lose everything. They kept telling me how much they missed the painting too. In addition, I think my early small outdoor landscape paintings are very special because they allowed me to paint the same scene over and over and experiment with value, color and shape in a way that you just can’t working large in a studio. Working from nature not from photos I think produces the best work and really trains your eye.
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
SO: Painting outdoors. It allows you to work directly from nature, make a lot of small works so you can learn the painting process without worrying about making a great painting, and work quickly. I came to love outdoor painting and working from nature. I actually prefer it to painting in the studio.
MKM: What art do you most identify with?
SO: The art of Nicholas De Stael, Edward Munch, Joan Brown, Kim Frohsin, David Park and Richard Diebenkorn are painters I greatly admire. Also, Masaccio from the early Renaissance.
MKM: What inspires you?
SO: Nature is what inspires me primarily. More specifically, I am always astounded by the beauty of California.
MKM: Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history?
SO: I am particularly interested in the work of Joan Brown. I love how she depicts her scenes with such simplicity yet she captures the gesture and persona of her subjects. The impasto paint and expressive brush and knife work is thrilling.
MKM: Is there a specific work from Joan Brown that you find interesting?
SO:Girl Standing, Girl Sitting 1962
MKM: Who are your female role models from history or present day?
SO: I have always admired Kim Frohsin for how dedicated and her accomplishments as an artist. She follows her own voice, which I admire. Her work is entirely original and expresses her own interpretation of the figure or any subject. She is also highly skilled as both a draftsperson and a painter.
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
SO: There are two things my teacher Jim Smyth taught me that have been instrumental in my work. First, paint what the subject is “doing” rather than “what it looks like.” This is a way to shift your thinking so the work will express what is happening rather than just depicting a scene like a photograph; the work will have more feeling. The second is that value (light and dark) is more important than color, and the relationship and patterns created by dark and light is the basis for composition.
MKM: What is your dream project?
SO: I love creating a body of work for an exhibit, especially a solo exhibit.
MKM: What can we expect from you in the next year?
SO: More exploration of figure work and possibly some portraits; also larger works.
Sandy Ostrau is represented by Bryant Street Gallery, Palo Alto, CA; Gallery North, Carmel, CA; Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA; Thomas Reynolds Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Anne Loucks Gallery, Glencoe, IL; LeeAnn Brook Fine Art, Nevada City, CA; Anne Neilson Fine Art, Charlotte, NC; Peterson Roth Gallery, Bend OR; and Meyer Vogl Gallery, Charleston, SC.
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
JC: I grew up in Southern California, the only girl in a four-sibling household. Because of that I had my own room for the most part. My parents encouraged my natural making proclivities and put an old door on sawhorses in my room to use as a table. It gave me a place to make and experiment without interruption. It was a place away from brothers and a place to learn to be with myself. Looking back, I realize I never really acknowledged what a wonderful and supportive situation that was!
MKM: Why did you pursue art and where did you study?
JC: I pursued art because it was what I found enjoyable. I also got encouragement for my efforts. But it wasn’t really until college that I discovered the type of art that I wanted to pursue. I went to undergraduate school at several places- first Reed College where I was not a good fit and then at UCSB, and then at Stanislaus State in Turlock CA! It was at UC Santa Barbara that I happened to take a printmaking class, not really knowing anything about it. I had a wonderful (and handsome) TA and I was hooked.
MKM: Did you have any memorable teachers?
JC: In graduate school at San Francisco State , I had memorable teachers. (The handsome TA was great but mostly handsome!) John Ilhe really inspired a kind of technical appreciation that printmakers seems to get wrapped up in. There is so much technical jargon and protocol – printmakers can spend hours discussing the merits of wheat paste and paper. After graduate school I was lucky to meet Kay Bradner owner of Katherine Lincoln Press. Working for Kay is where my real knowledge of printmaking took off. I learned to print all kinds of prints, wipe all kinds or ways and appreciate printmaking in an entirely new way. From the “grunts” perspective to the distinguished printmakers proof. I believe Kay was the best teacher I ever had, and I still call her occasionally for help.
Jen Cole in the studio
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? rituals, patterns?
JC: My daily routine is relaxed now as I retired my jewelry business when my husband retired. I usually manage to get to Kala three days a week and other days I work at home or do “laundry” (the symbolic word for home activities). But mornings are always devoted to a meditation practice and walking the dog or/and yoga. If I can do these activities before arriving at Kala, I am ready to work.
I love the process of printmaking so much that I often let this take a long time and finishing a print is a nice outcome that sometimes happens. It means I go to work and really just enjoy whatever problem presents itself during the making of a plate. I work with very little premeditated imagery. My prints evolve and transform a great deal over time. Physical labor is definitely part of my process- scraping, burnishing, re-etching, re-aquatinting. For monotypes this means many layers and covering up parts of images that don’t work and tearing images down, whatever it takes to discover what I am looking for.
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of?
JC: Being proud of artwork is a relatively new experience. When I started teaching monotype at Kala about five years ago, I realized that I was actually very well informed. Students give so much, and I have learned to become a better teacher as well.
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
JC: Most of my seminal experiences have been of the internal kind of work–which most definitely is expressed in some way through my art. Maybe my most seminal experience was to finally understand that what I was learning through meditation and internal self-exploration was actually expressed visually in my art. It’s hard to verbalize but the joy that comes when working on printmaking is such a lovely and opening experience and that experience becomes the image.
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
JC: There are many artists whose work I love- Paul Klee, Kiki Smith, Kazuko Watanabi, Sean Caulfield, Golbanou Moghaddas… so many more. I like so many kinds of images. But I love prints most of all – above all other forms of art.
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
JC: The best advice that was ever given me was when my kids were young and a colleague of my husband said, “be flexible”. Buddha has a lot or good advice too like “things change”.
MKM: What is your dream project?
JC: My dream project would be to have a year to just work away on prints; actually I am living my dream now!
Pantea Karimi Healing Gardens, 2019 (left to right: Buttercup, Cinquefoil, Asparagus) Digital illustration and print on aluminum
An Interview with Pantea Karimi
Pantea Karimi
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
PK: I grew up in Iran (Shiraz and Tehran) during turbulent times of revolution, war and family tragedy. My father is a civil-engineer and architect and my mother is a retired history and literature teacher. Despite all the hardships, I managed to take regular classes in painting and classical music, which led to my decision to pursue art professionally. My parents supported my decision to go to art university and my father built me an art studio, in Tehran, where I taught drawing and painting to both youths and adults.
MKM: Where did you study? How has your practice changed over time?
PK: I got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Graphic Design from two prominent art schools in Tehran and worked as a graphic designer for design firms and as a freelancer. While I was studying graphic design, I continued taking professional painting and drawing classes and exhibited my works in Tehran’s galleries.
In 2001, I moved to England, where I studied printmaking, worked as a studio assistant for a British landscape artist and exhibited my arts in Hastings and London in different venues. My residency in England provided creative time and allowed me to explore new media and printmaking techniques. This experience created a foundation for my art practice, which I continued in 2005 at the San José State University, where later, I also obtained (2009) a second master’s degree in painting and printmaking.
My first artistic inspiration as a 5-year old was my mother’s German fashion magazines and other intriguing publications around the house. I was fascinated with their layouts and the use of photos, and colors. I used to draw on those magazine pages, thinking that I was making good changes to the layouts. As an artist, I am naturally driven by my deep feelings and childhood experiences that have shaped my perceptions of the world. This fascination with print publications and their layout and design continued to my adulthood. I gradually developed a strong interest in their history as well. To complete my master’s degree in Graphic Design at the Art University in Tehran, I researched the beginning of print industry in 19th century Iran. I gathered reproductions of those newspapers (originally were printed in lithography) and studied their illustrations, layout, and design. I became fascinated by the ways in which text and image complemented one another in novel ways and communicated meaning. In 2014, I began a new research project which revisited my earlier investigations in the history of Iranian print media. Since then, my work has been an exploration into the pages of medieval Persian, Arab and early modern European scientific manuscripts. The scientific books from these periods offer nuanced understandings of the relationship between form and text, and above all, between scientific concepts and their myriad manifestations in visual forms.
MKM: Do you have any memorable teachers from your years as a student?
PK: Three female teachers have been very influential in my practice: In Iran, drawing and painting: Minoo Asa’adi; in England, printmaking and use of creative process: Joanna Kerr-Smith; and in the United States at SJSU, printmaking and the importance of content in art: Erin Goodwin-Guerrero.
Pantea’s studio
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns?
PK: I get to the studio at around 10:30 AM and leave at 7:30 PM, 4 days a week. Each day could be different in terms of how I start my routine; sometimes I start by checking emails and working on digital files, other times, I start with printing and painting. Every week, I create a list of projects I need to do. I go through the list and cross things out when they are done. That has created a working routine and has helped me to be organized.
MKM: What themes do you pursue in your work?
PK: My work as a multidisciplinary artist explores the intersection of art with history and science, and examines how the broader aesthetic considerations of science are closely related to art. I am captivated by the correlation between abstract ideas and their visual representations. I research illustrations and texts of medieval Persian, Arab and early modern European scientific manuscripts in five areas: mathematics, medicinal botany, anatomy, astronomy and cartography.
For me, these manuscripts provide a unique platform for investigating the influence of past scientific concepts and their manifestations on our contemporary perception of the world. They represent world cultures, their values and the progression of scientific ideas throughout history.
Utilizing conceptual and visual interpretations from my research, I create individual bodies of artwork using interactive installations, VR, silkscreen, digital illustrations, and prints. Collectively, my art highlights the pivotal role of epistemic images in presenting and communicating knowledge and generating new vision. It also represents my culture, identity, life-experience, and journey of self-discovery through science and history.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums?
PK: I usually work with prints: digital (illustration) and manual (silkscreen and monotype). I enjoy working with interactive installation and various substrates such as paper, fabric, wood and metal. Some of my works also use mixed-media techniques, such as silkscreen combined with ink or watercolor.
MKM: Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?
PK: Animation
A few more views of Pantea’s studio
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
PK: My computer (digital graphics applications) and silkscreen equipment
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of?
PK: My medieval and early modern scientific manuscript series. To me, the topic is unique and provides many opportunities for the creative process and artistic endeavor. It also presents some challenges, such as interpreting a scientific idea in visual form or gathering information about certain scientific subjects. But I see the challenges as an undeniable part of the process and in fact a positive factor; it keeps my curiosity and interest going!
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
PK: Perhaps immigrating has been the most inspiring experience and has influenced my work strongly. I am a two-time immigrant from Iran to the UK and to the USA. On a personal level, immigration provided challenges in the beginning, but at the same time, it presented great opportunities for my art practice and creative path; traveling experiences and living in diverse communities have informed my art content and identity as an Iranian-artist woman. It has broadened my world view.
MKM: What art do you most identify with? What inspires you? Other artists, your process, a theme?
PK: I am influenced by the works of modern avant-garde artists. In terms of abstraction and arrangement of my own forms, I draw inspiration from the Russian Suprematist artists El Lissitzky (1890-1941) and Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935). These artists were in search of a style of abstract painting based on geometric shapes, which they believed promoted the supremacy of pure artistic feeling over the depiction of objects. In my art, I also draw inspiration from artists from around the world, my peers, and art genres; I am an avid museumgoer, often visit local artists’ studios, and watch art documentaries on regular basis. Among male artists, I appreciate the technicality and creativity of William Kentridge’s work. I have seen many of his animations and exhibitions in London and San Francisco and his recent Opera, which was wonderfully performed and staged. His work is very inspiring to me!
MKM: Who are your female role models from history or the present day?
PK: Strong and independent women from any age group, any race or nationality who rise above their assigned stereotypes always inspire me. When it comes to female artists, I am usually inspired by their biographical narratives such as their struggles, achievements, and creative paths. My list is quite diverse; here are a few from various cultures and times: Artemisia Gentileschi: Her female perspective was highlighted in all of her paintings. Louise Bourgeois: Her thought process and artistry. Louise Nevelson: Her use of materials and composition. Barbara Kruger: Her use of bold images and texts as well as the message of her works. Sally Mann: Her work, creative process in general. Marlene Dumas: She draws inspiration for her works’ imagery and content from published media, such as newspapers and magazines. Her female figurative paintings have elevated the subject from its roots in vanity, using it to depict personal, psychological, social, and political concerns. Her works are emotional and make me think. Es DevlinHer most amazing, creative theater and stage-sculptures. For her confident thought process and outcome. Marina Abramović: Her persistence; the power of performance and feminist art. Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: (Iran) Her beautiful use of her Iranian heritage techniques and materials: mirror-mosaics. Her work is a perfect marriage between Iranian and the Western culture while keeping her Iranian identity dominant.
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
PK: I have not been given many pieces of advice but one I cherish: “Balance is the key to happiness in life.” I am very committed to my work; I always set goals and work towards them. In this process I try to strike a balance when I can, however, I haven’t been that good at it.
MKM: What is your dream project? What can we expect from you in the next year?
PK: My current project (medieval and early modern scientific manuscripts) is my dream project. I am lucky that I have had the chance to do it. Next year, I will continue my research; digging into more of these amazing archival materials. I am also working on solo exhibitions and new projects in the areas of astronomy and botanical.
Laura Gurton Unknown Species #215, 2017 Oil, alkyd, ink on linen
An Interview with Laura Gurton
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
LG: I was born in 1951 in Brooklyn, NY, into a family of artists. My childhood was filled with museum visits, art books, the theater, ballet, foreign films, music, and art classes at the Brooklyn Museum. When I was young, my mother was enrolled in an art education program at Brooklyn College and became an art teacher. My father was a pianist and, when he was not working, he would be home practicing; our home was always filled with his music and he always tried to share with me and my sister his love for classical music and jazz. I also had an uncle who was a painter and printmaker. Everyone in the family had his and my mother’s paintings, etchings and linocuts hanging in their homes next to Picasso reproductions. I have fond memories of creating art with my cousin in my uncle’s studio and drawing trees in Prospect Park with my mother. My artwork was always encouraged, validated, and displayed; my mother saved a lot of what I created then and I still have those early pieces. Actually, one painting that I made in the 6th grade won the honor of being exhibited in a children’s art exhibition at Lever House Gallery in New York City. I never saw that painting again, but I remember the feeling of seeing my work framed and on display in a gallery space, of watching strangers stand in front of it, observing, studying, and praising my work.
MKM: Where did you study art in college?
LG: For my first year of college, in 1969, I attended Philadelphia College of Art (now called University of the Arts). Although I loved the foundation year, I decided to transfer to The School of Visual Arts in NYC. In the early 70’s, SVA was not an accredited college and, although I had many well-known artists as teachers, I finished my 4th year of art school without a degree. SVA only became accredited the year I finished and by then I did not have the right credits for a BFA. So, when I was in my forties, I decided to return to SVA to complete my degree and to take art education courses to become a high school art teacher. A few years later I earned a Masters in Supervision and Administration in the Arts from a joint program run by the Bank Street College of Education and Parsons School of Design—an amazing experience that allowed me to work as a vice principal and the head of the art department at the high school where I taught.
MKM: Did you have any memorable teachers?
LG: I was lucky to have had a few women artists as teachers: May Stevens was so generous with her time and her willingness to share her experience, inviting my class to her loft in Soho; Marsha Tucker, who had just started the New Museum, taught a class about the art world; Audrey Flack and Alice Neel co-taught a painting studio. Having these women as teachers and role models made it seem quite possible that I could succeed as well. There were some male instructors who were also very memorable: I had Robert Pincus Witten and Monroe Denton for art history; Don Eddy and David Mann for painting studio; Sonnenberg, Bunnell and Blackburn for printmaking, all of whom were great teachers. I was happy to have Whitfield Lovell for art education and Leon Dylan for a technique class. The person who affected me the most was Lucio Pozzi. When I went back to SVA in my 40s, the fine arts department had a new procedure: in addition to regular coursework, students also had to meet with another artist to be evaluated at the end of each term. So, I had to present my work to Lucio Pozzi who encouraged me more than anyone else had until then. He loved my work and asked about my goals. When I told him that I planned to work full-time as an art teacher, he just shook his head and said “no, you must continue with your art.”
Laura Gurton’s studio
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? rituals, patterns? Has your practice changed over time?
LG: When I am about to start a new piece, I clear my schedule and prepare to work uninterrupted for as long as I can. Sometimes I paint for 10-12 hours straight, working continuously. I usually do not answer the phone and only stop for short breaks. The next day I’m usually exhausted and need to rest, and then I start all over again.
For many years, when I was home with my daughters, I had no choice but to work for only a couple of hours here and there. It was difficult to have to stop when a certain part of the process was incomplete. When I was teaching high school art, it was almost impossible to paint at home after a full workday. I always tried to be a working artist, but it was not until my children grew up and I was able to figure out how to support myself without teaching that I was I able to concentrate full-time on my work.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combinations of mediums?
LG: I have worked with oil paint mixed with alkyd on linen and on panels. I have also painted on top of panels on which I have first made reliefs with thick paper and matte board. That technique was inspired by the collagraph plates I used in printmaking. I have worked with acrylics on canvas and on clay board panels. I use the clay board like a scratch board, using a fine point to create textures with cross hatching and fine lines. I’ve experimented with encaustics, painted with textured gels and pastes, and, in the past few years, I’ve also developed a portfolio of digital art. I digitally manipulate photographs of my oil paintings, print the images on paper, and then work on top of the image with a variety of mediums: colored pencils, ink, gouache, metallic paint, sequins, rhinestones, beads, so as to create one of a kind mixed media pieces. I also recently added animation to the mix, and I am starting to collaborate with various musicians to create videos of my animated shapes with a musical score. I will always paint, but I have plans to exhibit the videos in galleries on a screen or projected on a wall. Right now, they are on Instagram and Facebook.
Inside Laura Gurton’s studio
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
LG: My paintings consist of concentric circular lines and colors that mimic pieces of agate, rings inside of trees, mold, other patterns in nature and—most importantly—microscopic cells. I once read that when humans are born, they have an instinctual attraction to the shape of concentric circles, which makes sense since the nipple is the first shape they need for survival. I have always been fascinated with the idea that we have instincts towards shapes. My paintings are titled the Unknown Species, a phrase that suggests that my shapes are alive. Since all of the paintings have multiple shapes varying in sizes, I see them as families that have gone through the reproductive system and are related to each other.
My way of applying paint remains constant from painting to painting, and yet, as in nature, there is still a variety in the work, revealed by the choice of colors, the relative density of the circular forms, and the overall flow of the imagery. Some paintings seem tranquil, while others I find highly energized. Some of them are reminiscent of landscapes, reinforcing the theme of the shapes in the natural world. I see the shapes with their concentric circles as representing time itself, displaying their growth like the rings in a tree which come with age.
My digital art, the Bits and Pieces Series, developed directly from photographic images of my paintings. I became intrigued with the complex patterns that developed by manipulating the image and I liked being able to see how the same image looks in various color combinations. The cellular shapes in all my paintings, digital art, and videos, which echo naturally occurring shapes, repeat the rhythms of life and existence.
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of?
LG: My Unknown Species paintings are executed on the floor and I need to be able to reach the center of the canvas to be able to paint. For a while, none of my paintings were larger than 36” wide. I then realized I could do multiples, with three or more panels that were each 60” x 36”, but I would need to paint them all at the same time for them to look like one painting. The first time that I completed a triptych where the panels all looked like they belonged together was a challenge that I was proud of.
MKM: In your art career, what has been a seminal experience?
LG: After four years of painting in my present studio, a gallery I was connected to told me they received a request for applicants to exhibit in the Pallazzo Bembo, a collateral event of the 2013 Venice Biennale. I applied and got into the exhibit Personal Structures. I knew that the Venice Biennale was the first worldwide art fair and very prestigious, but what I loved the most about it was being part of an international project with artists from all over the world. It will always be one of the most amazing experiences that I have had in my career.
Laura Gurton’s studio
MKM: Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history or present day?
LG: I first learned about Paula Modersohn-Becker in an art history class in 1993 and I felt a connection to her because she painted many portraits of children, pregnant women and nudes, some breastfeeding. At the time I was painting portraits of my daughters and their friends. I was intrigued by her abilities, the beauty of her paintings, and the short synopsis of her life that my art history teacher presented to the class. I then found the book Paula Modersohn-Becker: The Letters and Journals and learned more about her life—that at times she left Germany, her husband, and her stepchildren to paint in Paris. The more I read, the more connected I felt to this German woman who died in 1907. She wrote about her life as an artist and the struggles she had with the expectations her family, her husband, and society put on her as a woman and as a wife; I identified with her struggles. She was incredibly brave for the time period.
MKM: Who are your female role models from history or present day?
LG: I came of age during the 60s and 70s and was influenced by Gloria Steinem and Andrea Dworkin, among others. I was interested in the suffragettes and in women’s history, joined women’s support groups, and tried to raise my daughters thinking about what they were up against. Today I appreciate the Guerrilla Girls, women’s marches, and my daughters, both very amazing and powerful women.
MKM: What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
LG: Although I get accepted to many exhibitions, I still get rejected at times. The best advice that someone once gave me is to not take rejection personally and to just keep working… and know how lucky I am just to be able to create and be part of a community of worldwide artists.
Ellen Heck Girl with a Blivet Pendant Wearing a Möbius Strip as a Hat, 2016 Woodcut, drypoint, and watercolor on Somerset Velvet paper
An Interview with Ellen Heck
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
EH: My family moved often until I was 10, but then I grew up in Austin, Texas. There are several artists in my family, and I always had access to a wide range of materials. I would often use art as a tool for meeting people in a new school.
MKM: Why did you pursue art?
EH: I have always enjoyed the process. If art had not developed into a career, I would still be making things.
MKM: Where did you study?
EH: Brown and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
MKM: Who were your memorable teachers?
EH: My mother is a commercial artist and my most influential teacher/enabler. I was able to work freelance for her for several years in art school and at the beginning of my professional life. This allowed me to work at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley during the day and make more reliable money doing graphic design at night.
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns?
EH: There are many steps involved in my printmaking practice. Usually, I am working on several prints at a time, each at different stages of completion. In this past year, I’ve been working on oil paintings with multiple layers of glazing, so this has been the case with the paintings as well.
Ellen Heck
MKM: How has your practice changed over time?
EH: My work changes most significantly when life presents a certain constraint, or I have access to new materials. But generally, I try to keep my practice balanced carefully between intentional conceptual planning and an openness to chance.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums?
EH: For the past decade, I have been predominantly a printmaker, but in the past year, I’ve been painting much more.
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
I am interested in making work that shares a sense of wonder. I also like to use a body of work as a way of exploring an abstract question or concept. Generally, this gives rise to more questions, which become the foundation for the next body of work.
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
EH: I have an agate burnisher that works as an eraser of drypoint on a copper plate. If you make a scratch into the copper with a drypoint needle and decide that it is too deep, or misspaced, this burnisher can remove it to any degree without leaving a gray shadow on the print. It allows me to work deep into a plate and then remove the majority of those lines.
Ellen’s studio
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of?
EH: There have been a few pieces that I love because they were the origins of a discovery.
MKM: What has been a seminal experience for you?
EH: Working at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley for nearly seven years was the foundation and formation of my career. I was part of a critique group of artists who became mentors and close friends. They are role models and demonstrate a variety of ways that one can sustain an art practice.
MKM: What art do you most identify with?
EH: I like to look at all types of art, but I find myself most frequently connecting with work that has some aspect of representation or a focus on harmony.
MKM:What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, or a theme?
EH: I have been deeply inspired by the work of Mary Cassatt, Dieter Roth and David Hockney. I also frequently get ideas by reading and teaching.
MKM:Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history?
EH: Mary Cassatt
MKM:Is there a specific work from Mary Cassatt that you find interesting?
EH: The set of 10 color prints are my favorite works by Cassatt and my favorite works of printmaking in art history. My first gallery solo show was based on this series.
MKM:Who are your female role models from history or present day?
EH: Mary Cassatt, Audrey Niffenegger, Maria Popova
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
EH: Keep making work. Make more work. Persist.
MKM: What is your dream project? What can we expect from you in the next year?
EH: I’ll begin the year at the printing press if all goes well!
Ellen at work
Ellen Heck is represented by Wally Workman Gallery, Austin, TX; Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA; Groveland Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA and Baker Schorr Fine Art, Midland, TX.
Lisa Noonis Crisscross, 2019 Mixed Media (acrylic, graphite, collage, latex) on paper mounted to panel 28″ x 18″
Crisscross began as a drawing from a live model; it developed over time. I began simplifying lines into shapes. Then added some unexpected color through collage and paint. For a while there wasn’t anything in the background. I had been working on several still life paintings at the same time, and decided to suggest a still life in the background. For me, it put the figure in an space. I aimed to keep the figurative feel while pushing it toward abstraction. – Lisa Noonis Lisa Noonis
Lisa Noonis
Lisa Noonis grew up in a large, loving Greek family and is still inspired by the memory of her Yia-yia (grandmother) who was patient and present, teaching her that life was like sorting rice – you have to pick out the bad and keep the good. Noonis discovered art early in life, winning first place in a children’s art festival and showing so much talent that her high school art teacher insisted that she go on to art school and pursue a career in the fine arts. After a detour as an engineering student her first year of college, she went on to earn her BA in art, communications and advertising.
Noonis worked at a communications firm, then embarked on her own as a freelance graphic designer and art director, eventually forming her own successful advertising, marketing and design company. Despite this achievement, she sensed that something was missing, and always felt the need to express something “more personal and more permanent than ads, logos and brochures”. This feeling spurred her to ultimately make a leap of faith by renting an art studio and committing to seriously pursue a fine art practice. Noonis took workshops, studied with masters and became dedicated to painting every day—still life, portraits, landscapes, and anything that would “sit still in the studio or in front of her canvas”.
When interviewed for 31 Women and asked about her inspirational women, Noonis named “late-bloomer” artist Katherine Bradford as a current day heroine, noting “she’s 78!! and just hitting her stride.” In looking back, Noonis’ early work and vision were visibly influenced by such masters as Cezanne, Modigliani and Morandi. However, she cites Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler as inspirations for their courage and for the sheer scale and energy in their work. Similarly, Noonis often works in large scale. A 9’ x 19’ span of paper may stay on the studio wall for a while, allowing her the time, freedom and space for continuous thought. Once the concepts are complete, she cuts and crops into individual works to be mounted on panels.
Lisa Noonis at work in her studio
Lisa Noonis’ creative practice has changed over the years as her work shifted from advertising to fine arts; and within in her fine art as realism evolved into abstraction, painting from life moved into painting from memory, and small canvases grew into large. Today, she continues to evolve and grow as an artist as she “explores the objects, people and places in her world”.
Lisa Noonis is represented by Blue Gallery, Kansas City, MO; Carver Hill Gallery Camden, ME; Pryor Fine Art, Atlanta, GA; and Whitney Modern, Los Gatos, CA
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative? Why did you pursue art?
MC: Although I was born in NYC, I grew up in Maine and Nova Scotia, I had an idyllic childhood full of beachcombing for sand dollars and amethyst, canoeing on lakes and building forts in the woods. I lingered in orchards of apple blossoms, and hillsides of lupine. I gathered wild blueberries, blackberries and picked apples in the fall. In winter there was cross-country skiing and all year long there were crafts! My mother and grandmother taught me embroidery, sewing, crochet, quilting, rug hooking, rug braiding, block printing, refinishing furniture, woodworking and painting – there was always the sense that you could do anything! I loved drawing and painting the most, and though art was not available in our schools, I enjoyed the odd lesson, including watercolor classes by Mi’kmaq artist, Leonard Paul, and I was chosen for a summer art intensive at Acadia University conducted by Jeannie Edmonds Hancock and David MacNeil, culminating in a show opened by Alex Colville! Although I was always interested in going to art school, this one-on-one with these artists made me understand that it was possible to have a life as a working artist. I couldn’t not make art!
MKM: Where did you study?
MC: I earned my BFA from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada where I majored in painting, and minored in sculpture and photography. I graduated with honors and was awarded a Lavina Esterbrooks Art Scholarship and later a Canada Council Explorations Grant.
MKM: Can you tell us about your memorable teachers?
MC: My teachers from University were all memorable in their own way, Thaddeus Holownia (photography), Rebecca Burke (painting), Tom Henderson (sculpture), David Silverberg (printmaking), John Asimakos (foundation), Dan Steeves, (printmaking), Terry Graff (sculpture), David Bobier (sculpture). Mount Allison allowed me the time, space and support to focus on developing my work and style.
Marie outside of her studio
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns?How has your practice changed over time?
MC: My favorite thing is to have a long stretch of undisturbed time to work in my studio. I can see my studio beckoning me from my breakfast table and I like to get out there with a hot cup of coffee as soon as I’m fueled up! Ideally, it’s a Monday morning and I’m starting with a new canvas full of possibility, reference material (if needed) already printed out and gridded up, creamy paint squeezed out and clean brushes on hand. I like to listen to NPR, it keeps me connected and engaged without being obtrusive, it helps to keep me in the moment and in front of my easel. I am at my best in the morning, so I try to protect that quality painting time by scheduling all the other stuff (research, photography, prep, cleaning, applications, social media, appointments and gallery visits) for late afternoons, evenings and weekends where possible. I take breaks in my garden to stretch my body and eyes, to get some clean air and to see what’s blooming or why the birds are making a ruckus. It’s all about honoring the flow and showing up for it. Routines definitely change over time. When my children were small, I would snatch what time I could, turning artistic pursuits that were more child-friendly, like photography (in which they were often the subject). Currently, I like to rotate through my various series, working on something very large, followed by something very tiny, working with something very familiar, then playing with unfamiliar materials, this helps to keep things fresh.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums?
MC: I am primarily an oil painter, working in imaginative realism, with the narrative taking precedence over the medium, but I also love to dabble in mixed media assemblage and even encaustic to explore and appropriate the intrinsic properties of various mediums and objects as part of the message, reinforcing the narrative.
MKM: Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?
MC: I was given some exquisite crushed shell pigment from Japanese artist, Hiroko Ohno, which she uses in her amazing Galaxy paintings. I am saving it for something special, perhaps a mixed media painting; an ode to the ocean.
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
MC: I have several themes that thread through my work. I like to reflect on the fleeting nature of life which makes beauty even more precious due to its ephemerality. I bring this perspective to my environmental work, (Critical Masses, Birds and Teacups, All Water is Holy, Fade to White) and human nature pieces (People in my Neighborhood, Florilegia, Tattooed Babies, and portraits in general). I like to lace my narratives with contrasts, wild and domestic, light and dark, life and death, beauty and sadness, holy and profane. White hummingbirds and deer, (seemingly conjured but real) are examples of recurring motifs in my work, symbolizing the startling moments of beauty in an increasing ugly and domesticated world. My lexicon also includes teacups, shells and anything ocean…then there are my portraits. One day they will all come together.
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
MC: My paintbrushes are my most important tool and it’s criminal how I neglect them, but without them in tip-top condition all is drudgery and missteps!
Inside Marie’s studio
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of? Why?
MC:Memento Mori (1998) is the piece I’m most proud of. It’s a painting of a visual field of mussel shells bisected by the impression of a barnacle and seaweed covered basalt cross. For me it’s the perfect synthesis of personal and historic narrative, laced with environmental symbolism. The up-tilted, in-your-face perspective and scale, the use of masses of naturalistic shells with a centralized, surreal element (symbolizing a human interaction) all feels unique to me and this piece continues to hold a central spot in my heart and studio, giving rise to the entire Critical Masses series.
Studio shot of Memento Mori, 1998
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
MC: I would say I have two seminal experiences; 1) traveling to Pakistan with Canada World Youth helped me to see myself as a global citizen, to grow in empathy and understanding and perspective, and upon my return, 2) making my home in a small seaside church in rural Nova Scotia, exploring how the impact of culture, history and nature would inspire my art making process, throughout art school and beyond. I carry the influence of these connections in my work and life to this day.
MKM: What art do you most identify with?
MC: Imaginative Realism
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
MC: Nature is my primary inspiration, I love to spend time by the sea, hiking in the woods or even in my own garden which attracts many birds and deer, reptiles and insects. I take loads of reference photos and mental notes. I also love antiquing, pondering what these objects can say about who we are. I think combining intriguing objects of our past with nature can make for interesting and even powerful representations, harnessing the power of the familiar but in unfamiliar contexts. Gallery and museum going is also endlessly inspirational, I love learning how other artists have approached their work, and feeling part of this [art] community.
MKM: Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history?
MC: Ha! I am wearing a Frida Kahlo T-shirt as I write this! Frida Kahlo, all day, every day! I love the way she was able to tell her personal narrative through her art in a way that was grounded in her cultural tradition but also universally accessible, using a lexicon of powerful and totemic imagery and color she elevated the personal to the iconic. She painted through pain and love and pain, living her life as art. I draw so much inspiration from her as a person, as an artist and a feminist!
MKM: Is there a specific work from Frida Kahlo that you find interesting?
MC:Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940. I love the direct gaze and all the symbolism she communicates with in this densely packed portrait with its shallow depth of field. I feel her power and passion emanating from this work like an icon.
MKM: As we think about Women’s History Month, who are your female role models from history or present day?
MC: Frida Kahlo, Maria Sibylla Merian, Ayesha Durrani, Malala Yousafzai, Michele Pred, Elizabeth Kolbert, Rachel Carson and Rachel Maddow, Greta Thunberg, Toni Morrison, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Danielle Krysa, Rina Banerjee, Pantea Karimi, Ana Theresa Fernández and Maude Lewis!
Marie with recent work: (left) Unwilding, 2020, oil on canvas; (center) Periphery, 2020, oil on canvas; (right) Hinterland, 2020, oil on canvas
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
MC: To follow your passion and to believe in yourself. I know how cliché this sounds, but it takes a lot of dedication and perseverance to be an artist. You must deeply love what you do to stay with it through the struggle of each piece and over the larger arc of finding your voice and developing your process. You must have the confidence that what you find authentically interesting and that which resonates fully in your own heart is worth exploring and will speak to others as well.
MKM: What is your dream project?
MC: I would like to see my Critical Masses paintings on exhibit in sea-side art museums with related sculpture installations and a companion series of speakers addressing ocean health and the importance of biodiversity and sustainability.
MKM: What can we expect from you in the next year?
MC: Melting oysters, a bombardment of barnacles and an abundance of abalone.
Marie Cameron is currently represented by Curated in Capitola, CA http://mariecameronstudio.com
Sherry Karver “At the Edge of Perception”, 2018 Photo images, oil, narrative text, and resin surface
An Interview with Sherry Karver
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
SK: I was born and raised in Chicago, and as an only child I found ways to be creative at a very early age. I collected rocks and shells and built little sculptures with them on the kitchen table. My father was a tailor, so often there were scraps of fabric and large shears at home that I wanted to use even when I was just three or four years old – round kid’s scissors were not for me! My mother worked for a company that made the colored squares for paint chip samples and she brought home extra samples that I cut up to create collages. I was probably the only child who knew what color aubergine or chartreuse was.
I attended children’s painting classes on Saturdays at the Art Institute of Chicago when I was about 9 or 10. Classes started before the Art Institute was open to the public, so the kids were allowed to come in early and wander through the museum by ourselves, on our way to the classrooms which were in the basement at that time. The lights were barely turned on yet, and the semi-dark, cool hallways filled with art left a great impression on me. There was a simple obscure door between the famous paintings that opened into the school section, and when I opened the door the smell of oil paint and turpentine immediately hit my nostrils and it was delicious.
MKM: Why did you pursue art? Where did you study? Memorable teachers?
SK: Although I always loved art, I didn’t seriously pursue it in college because I didn’t think there was any way I could make a living doing it, and my parents weren’t going to pay for college unless I studied something “useful”. So, I got my undergrad degree in Sociology from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. I took one or two art classes each semester, and during my senior year I took a class in ceramics and the rest is history. I was hooked! Clay spoke to me like nothing else ever did, and even though I had already been accepted to a graduate program in Sociology, I decided not to go, and instead started doing ceramics full-time. The teacher who inspired me in this early stage at IU was John Goodheart.
I moved back to Chicago and had the wonderful and magical opportunity to open my own ceramic shop and studio with a business partner Barbara (Bobby) Prignano. Since we were both relative beginners to ceramics, it was quite an undertaking to open a shop. I don’t know if we were just dumb, naive, or ballsy!
During this time, I went back to the Art Institute of Chicago and to Loyola University part-time and took more ceramic classes to hone my skills. The teachers who inspired me and were most supportive at this time were Harris Deller and Bill Hoffman. Also, I met the amazing ceramic artist Ruth Duckworth, who really became my main inspiration even though I never had the opportunity to study with her. She was really the only female artist I was aware of at the time who was a ceramic professor and did large scale wall sculptures in public places. To this day I love her work.
After four successful years of having the ceramic shop/studio in Chicago, I decided I really wanted to teach ceramics on the college level, so I went back to graduate school at the Newcomb School of Art of Tulane University, in New Orleans, LA, where I received my MFA in ceramics and minored in glass. My terrific teacher Gene Koss taught me the work ethic I have today, and how to compete in a man’s world. I went on to teach ceramics at San Diego State University; Chico State University; U. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; and Laney College in Oakland, CA.
Sherry Karver in her studio
MKM: How has your practice changed over time?
SK: Although I continued to teach ceramics until just last year, and I did many large-scale 2D wall sculptures that are in numerous public corporations and private homes, my own work gradually shifted around 1996. My work evolved into photography and painting, adding narrative text around 2000. This might seem like a drastic change from ceramics, but really it was just a hop, skip, and jump away. I was already working with clay in 2D on the wall, using representational imagery, and painting on the clay. It just gradually morphed into a different medium. I still do ceramics on the side, just for enjoyment, but professionally I only exhibit my photo-based paintings, and most recently have been doing photography that is printed as dye sublimation on metal.
Works from the “Movement Interrupted” series
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
SK: I pursue a couple of different themes in my two-ongoing series. My photo-based work combines photo images that I take in public places, with oil paint, narrative text, and resin surface on wood panels. This series called “Identity and Perception”, confronts today’s individual and societal issues so rampant in our impersonal metropolitan areas: alienation, loneliness, loss of identity, time passage, and how others view us. I write fictional bios on some of the figures as a way to personalize them and make them stand out from the crowd since we each have a unique story to tell.
My photography series called “Movement Interrupted”, harnesses data corruption glitches for aesthetic purposes. I photograph my TV screen when the images pixelate due to uneven reception. It seems we are in a difficult time in history where things are disintegrating and falling apart which is what this series represents. Currently, I am focusing just on these two related mediums, but I can see pursuing more traditional oil painting in the near future. Changes in medium happen very gradually for me over time and are an outgrowth of one another.
Sherry’s studio
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? rituals, patterns?
SK: I don’t really have a daily routine or pattern. I think my routine is to not have one! The reason for this is that every day is different. I spend about equal or more time doing the business aspect of my art, so when one of my galleries asks me to send images, price list, etc. I have to do that right away. Art is a full-time business for me, and I am good at multi-tasking to make sure everything gets done, but the order of when it’s done always varies.
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
SK: There are many tools I can’t do without in my studio as they all work together to create my art. The computer, the printer, and my camera are essential, as are my oil paints, brushes, etc. It would be impossible to choose just one item.
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of? Why?
SK: I also don’t have just one artwork that I am prouder of than another – maybe one of my large-scale ceramic wall sculptures because they were technically difficult and complex to make.
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
SK: A seminal experience for me actually happened many years ago, which encouraged me to make the switch from ceramic wall sculpture to photo-based painting as my main focus. I had been invited to send 5 or 6 large ceramic pieces to a group show at a university in Los Angeles. The university had applied for a grant to ship all the work, but at the last moment the grant fell through and there was no money for shipping. Since my work was large and heavy, requiring separate crates for each piece, I couldn’t afford to send the work, and had to withdraw from being in the show. The university was upset about this, as was I.
Then a thought hit me – I had 6 small photo-based mixed media paintings in my studio that I had just begun playing around and experimenting with and had never shown them to anyone except my husband. I asked if I could send those instead – all fit into one box, and the university was thrilled. After sending them off I began worrying that maybe they wouldn’t be good enough in comparison to the other artists in the show (one was a NY painter), since this series was very new for me and quite ‘beginnerish’. Long story short, they were a big hit, hung in the window of the university gallery, one sold, and the NY artist and I became great friends. At that seminal moment I knew I could go full force professionally with my new series, compete on a national level, and I never looked back.
MKM: What art do you most identify with?
SK: I like a lot of different art, mainly contemporary, but I don’t really ‘identify’ with any one school or ‘ism’. I’ve always been on my own trajectory, and don’t get influenced by other’s work, even if I admire it. I didn’t have much influence from women artists, or women in general when I was in school or even now. It would have been nice to have a female mentor to look up to, but that never happened. Maybe that’s for the better – I always had to forge my own path.
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
SK: One wall sculpture I always liked at the Art Institute of Chicago was by Lee Bontecou, who I had assumed was a man, and was thrilled to find out many years later that Lee was a woman! Other than the ceramic sculptor Ruth Duckworth, there aren’t any women from art history that I relate to. Of course, I was aware of such artists as Sonia Delaunay, Louise Bourgeois, Louise Nevelson, and Eva Hesse, but their work didn’t resonate for me personally, though I admire their visions and technical skills.
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
SK: The best piece of advice was given to me by a friend who was a financial advisor. I called him after I made my first big sale of a ceramic wall sculpture back in the early ’90’s for $1,000. I asked if I should invest it in stocks, bonds, CD’s, etc. He said, “Invest it in yourself”. I followed that advice and bought a really good camera. I have followed that advice ever since.
MKM: What is your dream project? What can we expect from you in the next year?
SK: My dream project would be to have a solo exhibition in a major museum like NY MOMA, The Met, The Art Institute of Chicago, etc. or at a big New York gallery. I do have gallery representation in various cities, and in the next year I plan on continuing to create and show my art as much as possible. Since this is how I make my living, it’s important for me to sell my art too. I am working on getting representation in a New York gallery, as well as a local gallery in San Francisco. You can expect to see new art from me in the coming year!
Sherry Karver’s work is held in more than 175 public and private collections and exhibited nationally. She has is represented by Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV; Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Seattle, WA; Shayne Gallery, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and Cumberland Gallery Advisory, Nashville, TN
Michelle Mansour (left) Warrior of Clarity (Blue Topaz), 2019 (right) Warrior of Renewal (Emerald), 2019 Acrylic, ink, and silicone on muslin on panel
Michelle Mansour
Michelle Mansour is an artist, educator, curator, and the current Executive Director of Root Division, a visual arts non-profit in San Francisco. Her work as been shown in a variety of non-profit and commercial venues and can be found in both public and private collections. Mansour’s work is a convergence of art, science and spirit. She says that her paintings are based “on an investigation of the interior world of the body where beauty and illness mingle in the same fluids and membranes…[and] become a broader reflection of where science and the metaphysical intersect.” Her work invites the viewer to slow down and contemplate their own mind, body and spirit.
Mansour tells us that her process includes the application of fluid pigment to wet surfaces, the marked ground referencing a stained biology slide. She then applies tiny marks and patterns to create an ethereal space where particles gather and disperse in an endless geometric cycle. The repetitive process of adding layers of material to the bead-like patterns create an interconnected relief of rhythmic texture, ordered like data points but rendered in gemstone colors that are reminiscent of chakras or healing crystals.
Traversing between organic fluidity and structured symmetry, Mansour uses this combination of techniques to ask us to reflect on “what we can and cannot control, as well as the exquisite and delicate balance between certainty and faith, what is known and unknown, and holding on and letting go.”
Mansour’s themes come from growing up in a family of science and health practitioners; her mother was a nurse and her father was a doctor. Her focus on this subject matter intensified when her mother was diagnosed with, and ultimately lost to cancer. The process of repeating layer upon layer, mark upon mark, becomes a devotional practice, much like prayer beads or a meditation to contemplate the relationship between spirit and matter, presence and loss.
Stephanie Peek Last Paradise II, 2016 Oil on panel Courtesy of Satellite of Love Gallery, San Francisco
Suspended in silence, these flowers speak for me of fragile beauty and the ephemeral nature of worldly concerns. Flowers traditionally represent the intransience of life, a kind of memento mori, yet the very fact that they ever existed can afford solace and be seen as an intimation of beauty as an immortal quality. – Stephanie Peek
An Interview with Stephanie Peek
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
SP: The genesis of much of my painting is the garden of La Pietra in Florence. This Italian garden triggered memories of a garden I had known as a child. Revisiting these sites of memory in my studio, I became aware that paintings themselves could be a refuge, as gardens are in real life; they could be a site of meditation.
This romantic notion inspired my Dark Arcadia series exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum and was furthered during my stay as a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, where I studied more Renaissance gardens. Into one of these dark paintings, I painted a loose rendering of a deep red flower from a still life by 17th Century painter Rachel Ruysch. She painted from age 15 to age 83 while raising 10 children. Her floral work is free and luscious; rich colors glow out of dark backgrounds.
In addition to floral borrowings from the Northern European tradition, I appropriate flowers, leaves, insects from many different sources, for example, the iconic magnolia from the 19th century American painter Martin Johnson Heade. I also work from direct observation and photography.
I have also been inspired by the writings of Agnes Martin and Barbara Hepworth because they bring a spiritual dimension to their practice. Mostly, my intelligent painter friends have been the most inspiring by being both encouraging and critical.
Stephanie Peek’s studio
MKM: Where did you study?
SP: At Wellesley College. Weekly studio classes accompanied the art history eras we were studying. For example, when studying early Italian Renaissance painters like Fra Angelico, we learned how to apply gold leaf and paint with egg tempura; when studying the Early Northern Renaissance oil painters like Van Eyck, we practiced underdrawing overlaid with layers of oil paint glazes.
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? rituals, patterns?
SP: My daily studio routine begins with a review of my previous day’s work. At the end of each day, I stick pieces of tape on the painting to remind me where to enter back into the canvas. My practice has not changed much over the years. I am less conscious of technique; just as in The Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance, I keep my tools in the same place, so I don’t have to think as I reach for particular brushes or colors. But I do get a charge from new colors now and then, such as Robert Doaks’ unique paints. I stick with oil paint although I’ve worked in many different mediums, such as Japanese brushwork and watercolors.
MKM: What is your dream project?
SP: My dream project would be to paint wall work as if I were surrounded by gardens remembered from my childhood.
Stephanie prepares her palette
Stephanie Peek is represented by Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA ; Satellite of.Love, San Francisco, CA; SFMOMA Artists Gallery, San Francisco, CA; Michelle Bello Fine Art Consulting; Sloan Miyasato, San Francisco, CA; Andra Norris Gallery, Burlingame, CA; Argazzi Art, Lakeville, CT; Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, NY; The Great Highway Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Jeanne Vadeboncoeur 12. Bologna, 2020 Oil on canvas
An Interview with Jeanne Vadeboncoeur
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative?
JV: I grew up in Cupertino, and except for a brief stint in Southern California for college, I have always lived and worked in the Bay Area. I’ve always been creative but have strong analytical side too. I think that’s why my work is so literal and precise.
MKM: Why did you pursue art?
JV: I thought that I had found the perfect blend of art and science in the field of art restoration and was heading that direction when an opportunity came my way to take a more traditional studio arts/gallery artist path. I fully admit [I’m] a path of least resistance kind of gal, and when that door opened, I went through it.
MKM:Where did you study?
JV: Laguna College of Art and Design (called Art institute of Southern California when I attended) and San Jose State University.
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns?
JV: [I don’t really have a routine or ritual,] except that I make huge messes. Truly bomb-went-off in the studio, tornado passed through, earthquake aftermath, kind of mess, which is very at odds with my finished work. Also, I’m much more productive at night. Working at 10am feels forced and awkward, while at 10pm I am hitting my creative stride.
Jeanne in her studio on a “fainting couch turned painting couch”. Her favorite place to work when the pieces are small enough to permit.
MKM: How has your practice changed over time?
JV: Works have gotten larger. There was a time when I considered 24” x 24” “big”. Also, I’ve embraced canvas, which I used to hate as a surface for painting on. A side effect of working large: 6 foot + hardboard panels become unwieldy and impractical.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums? Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?
JV: I focus mostly on oil and alkyds on canvas or panel. I would love to do more with paper. I have files full of papers I have collected but haven’t figured out what I’m going to do with them yet.
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
JV: My work is very object oriented. Sometimes the objects are stand-ins for interpersonal relationships and other times they are just strict glorification of the everyday and ordinary. I like to include a touch of humor or nostalgia whenever possible.
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
JV: My reference objects. I always start each piece with an actual real-life item. If I can’t find what I want to paint – I make it. I can’t live without an audiobook playing and keeping me company in my studio.
MKM: What has been a seminal experience?
JV: On a personal level I think making that leap to paint larger than life has had a massive impact on my work. Outside myself, the Daily Painters or Painting-A –Day movement, though I never participated in it, really opened my eyes to how everyday mundane items could make interesting paintings.
MKM: What art do you most identify with?
JV: Anything narrative, but you have to work for it. Nothing too literal, but just enough of a hint of a story.
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
JV: Surfaces. I love figuring out how to recreate the illusion of a given surface.
MKM: Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history?
JV: Wendy Pini. She is the artist and co-creator of an independent comic called Elf-Quest. I don’t quite know how she fits in the pantheon of woman artists in an art history context, but I do know I can credit her for single handedly launching me from a child who liked art to self-actualized artist.
MKM: Who are your female role models from history or present day?
JV: Most of my female role models have been familial or literary. [For example, in my family I admire] the strength and endurance of my librarian paternal grandmother who went back to school for a masters while raising 10 kids. I remember visiting her at the Stanford Medical Library and being shown ancient texts that required gloves to handle. Literary role models were found in the “sheroes” created by Tamora Piece, Joan Aiken, Mercedes Lackey, and Anne McCaffrey. The characters I connected most to were tough, independent, problem-solving girls and women.
Julia Jensen It Simply Spills Over, 2019 Oil on panel
An Interview with Julia Jensen
MKM: Tell me about your childhood? Were you always creative?
JJ: I grew up outside of Boston in a big old New England house. One of my indelible memories is making a small drawing of a horse’s head; I was in second grade. My mother just loved the drawing, so much so that she made it into an embroidery design. I was very impressed by the fact that my mother was pleased and made such a fuss. From that moment on I was the artist in the family.
MKM: Where did you study?
JJ: Later in high school I moved away from art because it seemed like play and not something that one should pursue in any meaningful way. That attitude continued into college and I seriously thought I would be a math major. My sophomore year I discovered Art History. A dark room at the end of the day, it was like going to the movies and I loved it. Art history lead me back into painting and once again I discovered a very cool professor who was only a few years older than me. She introduced us to the art community in New Orleans, which at the time was not a city known for a very vibrant arts scene but underground there was a lot going on. We would take outings to galleries and her friends’ studios. It dawned on me that art could be a way of life, a living community. Unfortunately, since I was well into junior year, I didn’t have time to pull off a studio major. I graduated on time but with a degree in Art History.
After college I moved back to Boston and worked in galleries and took painting classes at the Museum School. Working in galleries was a great way to be fully immersed in the contemporary conversations around art. I was exposed to the very broad range of what was happening. There were many conversations, styles and interests.
Julia’s studio
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums?
JJ: I think like everyone, I experimented with different styles and mediums. But to really learn to use paint, [when I began painting], I needed to work with realism. I needed some kind of external measure. During this early time, I was interested in work by realist painters, Edward Manet, Andrew Wyeth and of course Georgia O’Keeffe. All of these artists were working in realism, but they seemed to be hinting at the influence of something just beyond the canvas, something unseen.
MKM: What themes do you pursue?
JJ: What I am most interested in exploring in my work is a sense of mystery. I am not bold enough to find my way into the mystery in a direct way. I have been on a path from observing the outside world and am finding myself now turning inward. I have this whole vocabulary that I have developed over time that references the landscapes around me. What I am striving to do is use those shapes and gestures to evoke mood, emotion, psychological space as opposed to actual spaces.
MKM: What art do you most identify with? What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
JJ: I am drawn to painters who manage to find the threshold between representation and abstraction. I love expressive color held together in compositions that have some kind of resonance, response and perhaps resemblance to the world around me, Madeline Denaro, Eric Aho, Connie Hayes are a few of the painters I turn to again and again for inspiration.
Julia’s studio
MKM: Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history?
JJ: At the moment, I am utterly fascinated with Hilma af Klint and a number of previously ignored early 20th century women artists like Emma Kunz and Georgina Houghton. All of these painters worked by channeling disembodied spirits. They saw their work as art, but also perhaps more significantly as messages from an unseen source. They were completely dismissed by their peers, but what they were bringing forth were completely original responses to internal worlds.
It makes sense to me that women are the source for this kind of work and that it would happen outside of any kind of movement or officially sanctioned group. I think that since these women were ignored, they were completely free to follow their instinct and were able to be honest in the way only an outsider can be. Their work is iconoclastic and seems to be born in another time, before any abstract work was appearing anywhere by either men or women. It popped up out of nowhere and referenced nothing that had come before it.
At the risk of sounding grandiose, it is this deep connection to myself and perhaps even something beyond myself that I am trying to explore in my art. I don’t however want it to be a solitary exercise. I want to be able to connect with others through my paintings. So, I continue to include references to the external world to give others a path in. Using landscape as jumping off point also gives me a handrail into the process. I have tried to paint completely non-objectively and just find that I am at a loss, the process becomes arbitrary. I need to have some kind of structure and for the time being landscape is what is serving me.
Rozanne Hermelyn Unrepeated, 2020 Monoprint, oil on paper
“They say identical, but we are not. They say interchangeable, but we are individual.”
Unrepeated honors human diversity and expresses the tension and duality between what is universal and what is unique. As with every human life, no one-paint stroke is exactly the same. We may all share a common form, but we differ in race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, skills, and many other attributes. Collectives have flourished because of the innovative alchemy that occurs when diverse people and ideas merge to collaborate and create. However, in many diverse cultures the history of intolerance is long and callous. To heal intolerance, it is critical to develop prosocial skills like empathy and forgiveness, to cultivate relationships across differences, and to value individuality. Diverse communities thrive when they appreciate and protect what is universal and unique. – RH
Rozanne Hermelyn is a San Francisco Bay Area artist working in printmaking and mixed media. Since she can remember, she has painted, drawn and followed her passion for the arts. Hermelyn tells us “I’ve been creative every day most of my life. It’s like breathing – not a want, but a need.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, Hermelyn attended UCLA and Art Center College of Design, receiving a BA in design and BFA in graphic and package design, with distinction. She moved to San Francisco to begin her career and within five years became owner of Arc & Line Communications.
After twenty years in her successful design business, Hermelyn has now transitioned to focus full-time on fine art. She has been awarded Best of Show and 1st place in numerous exhibitions, her work is shown nationally and abroad, and can be found in the permanent collections of the Harvard Art Museums and the Library of Congress. Rozanne at the Boston Printmakers 2019 North American Biennial. The Boston Printmakers 2019 North American Print Biennial presents the best in contemporary and traditional printmaking, and has long been recognized as one of the most prestigious events in printmaking. Her piece, “Facts Are Stubborn Things“, was selected to be the featured work to promote the event. “Facts Are Stubborn Things” was acquired into the permanent collection of the Harvard Art Museums.
31 Women – Artist Interview with Rozanne Hermelyn
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up?
RH: I was born in an English colony called British Guyana in South America. My mother is Portuguese and my father is Dutch and Chinese. My parents moved our family to Los Angeles for education opportunities when I was one. You could say my life was that of a stereotypical “California Girl”; school and beach on the weekdays, and beach and work on the weekends. For my college years, I lived in Westwood, studied at UCLA and explored the Hollywood scene. Two years after graduation, I went back to art school at Art Center College of Design. Both were very exciting and explorative times in my life.
MKM: Were you always creative?
RH: My mother was an amazing and talented fashion designer and seamstress, so I was surrounded by creative energy my entire life. I remember drawing a lot when I was young and making my own clothes with her through middle school. Around 12 years old, I dragged my entire family to the Getty Museum to see the Queen’s edition drawings by Leonardo Di Vinci. Soon after, I begged my mom to let me take the life drawing class at the adult education center where she took a painting class next door. I recall being the only youth in the class and I would sit in the front row without any thought, just like a pro. I laugh now because it would not be allowed today.
MKM:Why did you pursue art?
RH: After a very successful career in design, I felt it was time to speak with my own voice.
MKM: Where did you study?
RH: I enrolled in UCLA as a math major to appease my father, but a year and half later, I secretly applied to the Design department. I ended up graduating in design without him even realizing it. Actually to this day, I have never even told him about that. After graduating, I worked for a few LA design agencies. I soon learned the fastest way to get where I wanted was to go back to art school because, of course, I wanted to be a top creative director. I was so motivated that I again secretly applied to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Believe it or not, Art Center would not allow me to enter a Masters program because they did not accept the BA design degree I received from UCLA. I was required to enter the undergraduate program again to earn a BFA. At the time, I didn’t care what I had to do. Fortunately, they allowed me to enter as a sophomore, which was never heard of at the time, with a full scholarship.
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns?
RH: There is no routine in my creative process, especially in the conceptual initial phase. Sometimes an idea will come from experiences or contemplating the daily news. Sometimes it’s during a run, or in the state when I’m half awake, or in the shower. Sometimes it develops in an instant, or in a few days, or at times over years. I need to visualize the image first in my head, and it often develops right away, or sometimes over time like slow motion viewing. With every project it seems there are times I just hate the piece so I have learned to walk away, to absorb, stew, stew some more, and then jump back in. I can’t say how or when but my work always seems to need time to percolate and just become.
MKM: How has your practice changed over time?
RH: I have learned to accept and trust the images in my head and also the surprises that happen along the way. It’s all about following my gut that always leads.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums?
RH: I wasn’t trained as a “fine artist” in art school, but I have always studied life drawing and much later, oil painting. At some point, I came upon a book about Russian-American painter Sergei Bongart whose work just spoke to me. I would study the small red book I found with his recorded lessons. I remember his words “There are two kinds of artists, the emotional painter and academician…The academician always creates something acceptable, boring, but acceptable. The emotional artist often misses, but when he/she hits, it is breathtakingly beautiful…touched by the gods!” It all made sense to me, that a great painting should express an emotional message, and that the emotional connection was equally important as color relationships and values, painting passages, and modeling light. This drew me toward the monoprint printmaking technique that I love. Every stroke and mark made is recorded and the process is full of unknown surprises.
Rozanne in her studio
What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
That’s easy, my hands and eyes, but it would be difficult to live without my etching press.
MKM: Is there an artwork you are most proud of? Why?
RH: Today, I am most proud of my “Facts are Stubborn Things”. It might be because it’s my newest piece. The image speaks of my worst frustration of today’s struggle between facts and truths. Rather than factual evidence, today unwelcome truths have become the narrative of reality. Facts have become overwhelmed by false information so it’s difficult to believe that the truth will overcome. Trust has been lost to fear.
What has been a seminal experience?
My mother’s death was a seminal experience. It marks the first time I entered a series of monoprint paintings into a juried show that won the Best of Show award for the exhibition. The images portrayed moments of the experience and suffering that comes with terminal cancer. They were my tribute and my final goodbye to my mother.
What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
Sadness, fear, anger, happiness and joy inspire me. The emotional connection when making, seeing and experiencing art is universal. It is what makes art, art.
Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history? Is there a specific work from this artist that you find interesting?
I feel most connected to the pop art movement, maybe because of my design background. I appreciate the hidden messages, graphic contemporary style, use of typography and simplicity of image. Idelle Weber, an American pop artist, who later switched to photorealism, is known for her figurative silhouette paintings with bright colors (think Mad Men) and later her photorealist trash and litter work. She also went through phases of monotype works and collage. I really appreciate how she reinvented herself/work from one extreme to the other. Corita Kent also did some interesting things. She was a LA pop art screen print artist in the 50s and 60s, she juxtaposed ads, street signs, billboards with poetry, scripture and song lyrics, transforming them to hopeful messages and call for action. I love anything type.
Who are your female role models from history or present day?
I respect Angelina Jolie because she’s owned her bad-girl reputation while growing into an amazing humanitarian, aiding those in need and traveling to visit those suffering in places like Pakistan, Kosovo and Syria. She confronted her risk for cancer publically and then became a poster woman for breast cancer-related issues. Did I mention, I was the ‘bad girl’ of our family, following in my older brother’s foot-steps. My two sisters were rule followers while I was forging my own path.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Don’t waste your time and energy convincing yourself you can’t do something, instead spend that energy doing it. Believe you can and it will happen.
Carla Goldberg Stratford Panel 1 and 2, 2020 Oil ink, enamel, resin on acrylic panels
An Interview with Carla Goldberg
MKM: Tell me about your childhood, where did you grow up? Were you always creative? CG: I grew up in a retirement condo with my grandparents in Palm Springs California. I have been making art since I was four, and in fact have known I was going to be an artist since then. I blame it on a Bugs Bunny episode where Bugs is running away from that big red furry monster and at one point blends into the background dressed as a french artist. I remember asking my grandma what he was doing and she explained and I said I want to do that. Then I begged her for paints and canvas, a french beret and smock and art classes non-stop. I was either very persuasive or just broke her down. She was amazing and supportive. She took me to the only art class she could find. An adult painting class 2 bus transfers away at the WMCA. She convinced them to let me in at only four years old. I behaved when I had a paintbrush in hand.
MKM: Why did you pursue art? CG: I paint in my sleep, so it isn’t something I can ignore. I don’t just dream of making art. I wake often with my arm in the air painting the air. I once gave myself a black eye when my hand that only moments earlier was hovering in the air with me wondering why it was up there came down smack on my eye in the moment of acknowledgment that that was weird.
MKM: Where did you study? CG: University of Redlands- Johnston Center for Integrative Studies, with Honors. An incredible program where you don’t get traditional grades but rather evaluations and you evaluate the professors. You can create your own classes as well. I had gone through every art class they had by the end of my junior year so my senior year all the art classes we projects I worked with one on one with my professors. It was the beginning of a lifetime of chasing ideas and experimenting. I still had a great foundation in classical art studies but was able to accelerate learning down this path of experimentation that last year. For my MFA I found another program similar to Johnston at MICA Mount Royal School of Art where experimentation was emphasized.
MKM: Memorable teachers? CG: I’ve been really lucky to have a slew of teachers that took me seriously and really supported me or changed the way I think. The two professors that probably had the most profound effect on me were Sal Scarpita and Babe Shapiro, my professors at MICA. They would have these fights over my work. One would love it and the other hated it. Seriously loud debates. So I’d listen and change things and they would switch places. The one who loved my work would then hate it. After a year of this I was so frustrated I broke down in front of them. I lost it for the first time ever balling my eyes out crying I can’t please you both! I don’t know what I’m doing! But suddenly had the revelation that they were playing with me trying to get me to learn to listen to my own voice and stop painting to please others. That it doesn’t matter who likes or doesn’t like my work. It was a profound moment that allowed me to finally own my own work and creative voice. I am forever in their debt for that. Turns out they actually both liked my work. Those little devils!
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? Rituals, patterns? CG: Coffee!!!! A must and plenty of it. When I am finally ready to work, it’s usually around 2pm. I am a late night kind of person. I’ll take a break to cook a nice dinner but I start work again around 10 pm and work till around 3 am. It’s quiet then. No phones ringing, no one asking me for anything. Total undisturbed time to think full thoughts to their logical end, plenty of time to make art. I get at least 8 hours of work in most days. I also take some days, or between waiting for work to dry, to work on PR or searching venues, galleries, exhibitions opportunities. I am rarely doing nothing.
MKM: How has your practice changed over time? CG: Obviously when my kids were babies and really young, I could not stay up late so I would drop them off to school and work till pick up. It never felt right. It was always this fight with my internal circadian clock. But some things never changed. I was always chasing ideas and experimenting with materials. My children would experiment with me too. I’d often have art materials out ready for them to use along with me.
MKM: Do you focus on a specific medium or combination of mediums? Which creative medium would you love to pursue but haven’t yet? CG: I work with a lot of unlikely materials. Many have industrial applications. Most of my work is put together with resin and plexiglas usually figures in the work because of its ability to give support to the work but also kind of disappear if I want it to. I am very interested in encaustic but haven’t had a chance to try it yet. I’m also really interested in gelatin prints. You literally print on a sheet of jello. I did a lot of printmaking in college and gelatin prints allows you to print without a press, leaving you really portable and they are one of a kind works on paper.
MKM: What themes do you pursue? CG: Some of my work is political when it deals with the environment and I pull in remnants from the homebuilding industry. I try to rescue as much plexi as possible from going into the dump and often pick up remnants that my supplier has saved for me. Themes weigh more heavily in the memory of water and the preciousness of water. We are all conned by water across this whole planet. We are mostly water ourselves. Since I experiment so much and have a new series every year, I need something that ties all the work together. Keeping the subject about the memory of water allows for a lot of varied materials, yet does pull it together via theme. I recently had my 10th anniversary at BAU Gallery where I do my experimenting each year, and presented a retrospective of those experiments.
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio? CG: Probably my level. If I want a good resin pour, my plexi had better be level. Resin is like juggling honey. It’s going to go to the lowest spot, so that level is key to having it stay where I pour it. Also important is my blowtorch. Without that, I will have cloudy resin. The blowtorch removes bubbles.
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme? CG: I tend to be more influenced by the artists around me currently making art. It’s a rift on ideas in conversations or sharing information, discoveries, just bouncing ideas off of each other. Some of my favorite time, especially when stuck trying to figure out my next series, is getting together with fellow artists (mostly women) for breakfast, just spending the whole morning and afternoon talking. I am refreshed and energized after a day like that. It’s important to have community and a sense of camaraderie. Making art can be a lonely experience. I don’t let that happen.
MKM: Do you have a sense of connection to a particular woman artist from art history? Is there a specific work from this artist that you find interesting? CG: Yayoi Kusama and her infinity work with all those polka dots is very inspiring. The Queen of Polka Dots! My own seafoam drawings are comprised of hundreds of thousands of micro polka dots, so I gotta love Kusama. She was so experimental and such a fighter in her early career. Always having to fight against sexism in Japan and in the heart of the NY Art scene. Men stealing her ideas and taking the credit. Her eventual rise to absolute dominance is something truly astounding to me. How did it happen? I think her talent was just too big to be ignored forever. Her dedication to her daily routine despite her challenges is something I deeply feel akin to. I also struggle with health issues and honestly, art keeps me going. I admire Helen Frankenthaler’s stain paintings. Again it’s someone who experiments and thinks out of the box that paint can be stain and canvas can be raw. That’s exciting to me. I also use a lot of stains and pooling of paint. I also feel a connection to Agnes Martin’s minimalist paintings which to me are these tiny lines of humanity. They force you to concentrate on the tiniest lines of the imperfect human hand in a field of order. Pattern, texture and light is what I see in her work. Although my lines are looser, my work is about line, pattern, light and shadow.
MKM: Who are your female role models from history or present day? CG: Lisa Zukowski is a friend of mine and she is a master of every medium she touches. She is an artist who has taught me so much, helped me to get a backbone in business, taught me how to hang shows and run a gallery, as well as how to put a show together. She doesn’t even realize how much of a mentor she is to me. I admire her art. Her talent. Her no nonsense approach. She is one of the artists who I love to get together with and bounce ideas around with her.
MKM: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? CG: Don’t give others power over your emotions or your self worth. This is a business. If they say no, don’t give up. NEXT! Move on and find a yes. Keep building. Make your own projects. Think out of the box. Reapply with better work.
Carla Goldberg presenting an installation of her work
Opening March 1st and on view through April 12th, 2020, Whitney Modern Gallery @whitneymodern is pleased to present 31 Women, an exhibition curated by Marianne McGrath @theartistcollector with Karen Gutfreund @karengutfreundart and Suzanne Whitney-Smedt @whitneymodern. 31 Women celebrates the work of 31 female artists, one woman for each day in the month of March, in honor of Women’s History Month. Women’s History Month annually commemorates women’s contributions to history, culture and society throughout the United States.
Highlighted individually throughout the exhibition are each artist’s process and inspiration, as well as her sense of connection to women in history and art history. Along with the show at Whitney Modern, artists will be featured on social media, blogs, websites and in the gallery – one woman a day for the month of March. This aspect of the show is intended to be a virtual exhibition that will be available to those out of the area, and it provides an opportunity to focus on a particular woman artist, emphasizing her unique practice and contributions to the art community.
ONE WOMAN A DAY begins today, March 1st with LINDA CHRISTENSEN
Linda Christensen Picnic, 2019 Oil on canvas
As a California Bay Area native, Linda Christensen has always drawn inspiration and serenity from her natural surroundings, especially the coast. In her evocative paintings of ocean landscapes and domestic interiors, Christensen pays homage to the universality of human emotion. More than merely observing the figure, the viewer is invited to sympathize with the subject. Christensen states: “It is not enough to simply observe; we understand ourselves and others through feeling, through checking in emotionally. As a child I was always in tune with the subtle shifts in mood of those around me and this sensitive observation of strangers has continued to inspire my work as an artist.”
Linda Christensen is represented by Gail Severn Gallery, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Winfield Gallery and Stremmel Gallery. Her work is prized in numerous public and private collections across the United States.
Excerpts from an interview with Linda Christensen
MKM: Tell me about your childhood? Were you always creative? Where did you study?
LC: I grew up with lots of coloring and drawing. The line drawings from coloring books were my first exposure to the beauty of line. I also scribbled and filled in with color as my way of experimenting with abstract shapes. I was very observant of people too and learned about what was going on in the world when I couldn’t make sense of the generalized information my parents gave me.
I studied art at San Jose Sate but tabled ideas of becoming an artist when I married a law student and began working full time in clerical work in San Francisco. I finished my art degree at UC Santa Cruz in the late 1980s.
MKM: When you’re creating what’s your daily routine? rituals, patterns?
LC: My daily routine is to create an environment that is calming and also entertaining. Studio work is isolating and can become tedious at times. I learned early on that black and white movies with simple plots provided a contrast to the pigments of my palette. The velvety grey-scale, deep shadows and single camera angles of the old movies are some of the elements that have informed my work. The day must be set up as to feel limitless with time as well as supplies, and someone else to make dinner. Everything is in abundance including a cabinet full of paint and a 6ft long glass palette.
MKM: How has your practice changed over time?
LC: In the past I thought nothing of having several paintings in progress at one time but now I have more reverence for what I’m doing in that I care about following the story to the end, independently. Each painting is a novel and I want to remember what happened in last week or month and stay curious and loyal to the process to the end. I’m still trying to figure out what the work is about and with painting one painting at a time I can better hear myself.
MKM: What would you love to pursue but haven’t yet?
I am still fascinated with the printed line. I would like to figure out a way of incorporating the delicate look of a printed line with an oil painting. I would also like to try a larger format. I work up to a 6×5 but I would like to work larger than that.
Linda’s studio; Sketch from a live model session; Works in progress
MKM: What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
LC: I can’t live without a palette knife. It frees up the work when used, making my marks less controlled and it keeps the color from mixing when working wet in wet. I use the palette knife for mixing color on my 6ft. palette and use it to apply paint onto the canvas as well. It’s rough and sloppy but I can grasp the illusion of a hand or a face, which keeps me from getting too detailed. The image is not about getting everything correct but about getting the emotional content expressed. I also can’t live without my small oil pastels in black and white. Sometimes I use a blue. For a quick line addition, I love the pastel. It’s a chance to bring in the direct application of the artist’s hand at work. It feels especially intimate.
MKM: What do you like best about working in oils?
LC: I like to build up the surface of the work and scrape back and remove paint too. Oil paint represents butter to me… and when I’m resistant to going into the studio I imagine just putting butter on toast.
Studio visit photo – Linda’s 6 foot palette, up close
MKM: What inspires you? Other artists, other women from history, your process, a theme?
LC: Watching people inspires me. I can see glimpses of the human condition if I wait for it. I instinctively observe people, but I also use art books for reference and inspiration, I follow people on social media, I observe myself, and I have recently started hiring a model to come to the studio. I attend art conferences to hear and see other artists and their work; I love talking with other artists
Gabriele Munter was a woman I wrote a paper on during college. I was impressed by her ability to use black and the use of line. Munter was married to artist husband, Wasily Kandinsky and found it difficult to be recognized in her own right as a painter. I had a similar situation [in the past] being married to a criminal attorney. Graduating with an art degree was considered a frivolous undertaking and I was encouraged to instead go for a degree in education.
Squeak Carnwath is another artist that I admire. Her work is deeply personal and is based on her childhood. She also lets her political views be known and incorporates them into her work. I am inspired by Joan Mitchell for her abstract work and Dorothea Lang for her ability to capture the emotion of the time through photography.
