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BEYOND THE STUDIO
Exhibitions
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TOLERANCE EDUCATION CENTER
I am honored that the Tolerance Education Center, also known as Holocaust Education in the Desert, located in El Mirage, CA, is hosting a solo exhibition of my work, now through early 2024.
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The Tolerance Education Center’s mission is to promote tolerance, civility, respect and understanding by eliminating hatred and bigotry. The Center offers programs, activities, and exhibitions that educate both students and the community in an effort to reduce prejudice, teach critical thinking, and empower visitors to assume an active role in creating a more humane society. My hope is that my work will support the Center's goal that visitors leave with a mind-set that rejects prejudice and hate, questions stereotypes, and promotes diversity.
The exhibition of my work includes:
“Sticks and Stones,” a collection of 42 matted and framed collages that explore of the impact of language in civil discourse and human relationships.
“Kristallnacht,” which laments the role of the church in Jewish oppression.
“Real or Fake” invites reflection on the erosion of truth telling as a shared value in our culture.
“Redux: Joseph’s Coat” images the broken-then-restored relationship between Joseph and his brothers as a reconstruction of his “coat of many colors.”
“I Am There” was made from silk sari waste to celebrate a collective of disadvantaged women from diverse faith traditions who have moved beyond tolerance to become community to one another.
“Disorientation” depicts chaos as an ingredient aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic experience.
"Toll" speaks both to the enormity of the global death toll attributed to the COVID-19 virus and to the death toll that continues to rise as the pandemic rages on.
Admission to the Tolerance Education Center, located at 35147 Landy Lane in Rancho Mirage, CA, is free and open to the public on Tuesdays from noon to 5 p.m. and at other times by appointment (contact [email protected]).
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CELEBRATION OF THE BOOK
Celebration of the Book, an exhibition co-sponsored by the Santa Fe Book Arts Group and the Libros New Mexico Book Arts Guild, will include two of my works:
“Mourning to Morning” was created from momigami papers stitched to soil-erosion cloth. Inspired by Psalm 30:5, the work employs a rich palette of gradated colors to trace the journey of grief from darkness to light.
“Three Graces” was created from repurposed magazine pages that were torn, stitched, painted, and abraded. In contrast to traditional depictions of the Three Graces, which suggest that young women’s lives are purposed in the cultivation of qualities believed to make them attractive (and submissive) to men, I chose to depict these Three Graces as mature, substantial, and somewhat weathered-and-worn from their labors personifying the biblical virtues of faith, hope, and love in the world (1 Corinthians 13).
The exhibition, which is part of a six-month Celebration of the Book, was displayed October 2-28, 2023, in Santa Fe’s three library branches. It will also be displayed March through April 2024 in the Visual Arts Gallery at Santa Fe Community College.
Click HERE to view all the works included in the exhibition.
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REFORMED
Reformed, an exhibition at Louisville’s Mosaic Gallery, will include my 8-piece installation, “Cross Words.”
Inspired by Jesus’ Seven Last Words from the cross, this mixed-media work includes seven background panels constructed from manifold layers of opaque and translucent fabrics, tissue paper, newspapers, discarded bible pages and musical scores, handwritten text of the four gospel Passion accounts, screen-printed versions of the Seven Last Words in English and Greek, etc. The layers were stitched together, then slashed and coarsely frayed to reveal glimpses of the layered “words.” The three-dimensional corpus was constructed from fiber and metallic paints.
The gallery is a ministry of Mosaic, a progressive faith-based organization located in Third Lutheran Church, 701 Camp Street in Louisville. The organization’s mission is to create an authentic and diverse community for all people and to center the voices that the world often de-centers, including LGBTQ, BIPOC, women, persons with disabilities, and persons who are economically disadvantaged.
The exhibition will extend from November 17, 2023, to February 9, 2024.
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COLORS ACROSS CULTURES
Colors Across Cultures, an exhibition of work by members of the Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists, includes two works reflecting my recent explorations of paper beads:
"All the Children" was inspired by one of the earliest songs I learned during childhood:
Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in God's sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
The beaded strand, featuring beads in the colors of human flesh tones, laments my adult realization of how hard it is for the the world to embrace this simple reality.
"For the Healing of the Nations," a large strand of prayer beads, was inspired by a musical litany in which a cantor sings the names of nations, after which the community sings the response, "Peace be yours." At four increments, cantor and community together sing the refrain, "For the healing of the nations, we pray to you, O Lord." Some of the beads reflect the colors of human flesh tones. Other beads reflect the words of the litany (including the names of more than 90 nations, plus immigrants and exiles) or mimic the tiny "worry beads" prominent in Latino culture. Click HERE to listen or to sing along with the litany.
The exhibition is on display now through November 17 at Gallery 104, located on 104 East Main Street in La Grange, KY.
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BEYOND THE STUDIO
In Due Season
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In conjunction with my work with the Center for Church Music, I create collections of seasonal liturgical visuals that are made available FREE of charge for use in congregations. The collection for Advent 2023, titled "Wait for the Lord," presents an image that can be can be experienced as angel, herald, prophet, messenger, or all those – including ourselves – who cry out for God’s coming into our world.
Click HERE to view an overview of the collection. Click HERE to access the editable files formatted and ready for customization to your congregation and its worship practices.
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BEYOND THE STUDIO
Publication
I'm delighted have had an article published in the United Church of Christ Music and Arts Journal. A follow-up, focused on integration of the visual arts in worship, is scheduled to appear in the autumn issue.
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WITHIN THE STUDIO
Gel-Printers Summit
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A few months ago, Joanne Weis, an artist friend from Louisville, KY, alerted me to a 14-day, international online Gel-Printers Summit that was being offered in early October. We were both eager to participate, but my schedule only permitted me to watch each day’s presentation, take notes, and capture screen shots for inclusion in a notebook for future reference.
Throughout the Summit and the following days, I pored over images of the diverse and wonderful work that participants were posting on the Summit FaceBook page. It was not until this past weekend, when Joanne came to my home/studio for a printing marathon, that I -- finally! -- I claimed time to try my hand at some of the techniques and processes demonstrated by the 14 Summit workshop presenters.
Joanne and I worked ‘round the clock, and I was able to try out all of the techniques and processes that I had identified as holding promise for my current art practice. Some outcomes were more effective and gratifying than others, but all were interesting and stimulated ideas for further exploration. I was surprised and delighted that I achieved a measure of success with everything I tried, save the photo transfer process, and even with that Joanne was able to provide some suggestions that might produce more satisfactory results in the future. What a marvelous experience!
Click HERE if you'd like to scroll through some images of what emerged for me during our whirlwind gel-printing marathon.
Gel-Printing Connections
At some point during the Summit, I was contacted by Janet, a participant who had figured out that we live in close proximity to one another. We met over coffee, hit if off, and then made plans for Janet and her friend Sara to join Joanne and me for about three hours of kindred-spirit conversation about our art practices, life experiences, and unfolding aspirations. Our time together was pure gift! I'm already looking forward to opportunities to get to know them better.
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FOR THE WORLD
In these days when the vast expanse of human brokenness weighs heavy on my heart, I often find solace in poetry, music, and hymns that express what I cannot. I invite you to read, listen, or sing along.
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