#womanartist – Page 2 – Marianne K. McGrath

March 9, 2020March 7, 2020

31 Women – March 9th: Sherry Karver

**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.

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.

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

March 8, 2020March 7, 2020

31 Women – March 8th: Michelle Mansour

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.

March 7, 2020March 6, 2020

31 Women – March 7th: Stephanie Peek

**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 17^th 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.

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 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

March 6, 2020March 6, 2020

31 Women – March 6th: Jeanne Vadeboncoeur

**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.

March 5, 2020March 6, 2020

31 Women – March 5th: Julia Jensen

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.

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.

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 20^th 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.

March 4, 2020March 6, 2020

31 Women – March 4th: Jennifer Pochinski

Jennifer Pochinski

Jennifer Pochinski is a Northern California based figurative artist. Raised in Hawaii, she earned a BFA from the University of Hawaii and spent much of her young adulthood traveling to the UK and Europe, finally settling near Athens Greece in 2003. In late 2010, she and her two children relocated to California.

Men, women and groups of people captured in moments from everyday life are the subject matter of Pochinski’s paintings. In a chorus of colors, lines and shapes, her paintings are unrestrained and energized, but reflect the discipline of a productive daily practice. She tells us “My studio practice is considered a ‘space to fail’. I have no specific method for painting. As with most ‘expressive’ painting it is never a linear process.”

Pochinski’s paintings are intuitive and honest, balancing energetic, gestural brushstrokes with human narrative. For many years Pochinski has collected photographic imagery – figures, environments and historical paintings to provide information that she cannot get in life, leading her to discover her subjects as she paints. Her improvisation and freedom in using the brush to grab color to define and describe, make overriding marks to correct or emphasize, reveals “being in the moment”. With this spontaneity and authenticity she creates the characters within her paintings like an author, each day “writing” something that feels true to her, at the end putting it together to make a story.

The stories of other women artists inspire Pochinski. While reading Ninth Street Women, she was reminded of her love for the work of Lee Krasner, which in person always “stops her in her tracks.” In particular she recalls a story about Krasner being so fed up with her work, she ripped up the canvases and shed them on the floor. A few days later Krasner came back to her studio and found them together looking like collages and it set her on a new, powerful path. In dealing with the emotion that comes when something doesn’t work, it heartens Pochinski to be reminded that “some good can happen when you get to the brink!”

Jennifer Pochinski is represented by Dolby Chadwick, San Francisco; b. sakata garo, Sacramento; Tregony Gallery, UK; and Baker Schorr Fine Art, Midland, Texas.

March 3, 2020April 3, 2020

31 Women – March 3rd: Rozanne Hermelyn

**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.

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.

March 1, 2020March 6, 2020

31 Women – March 1st: Linda Christensen

Opening March 1^st and on view through April 12^th, 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.