Immortalized: Lens + Light Exhibition Catalog

The idea for Immortalized was inspired by three female artists who live and work in Evergreen: Trudy Chiddix, Maria Sheets, and Susan Wechsler. Each artist is a force in her artistic vision. I love that each of them works in glass but in three completely different ways. Maria’s work uses traditional stained-glass techniques with contemporary themes. Trudy mixes her glass and ceramic pieces together in a way that elevates each medium and combines to form a wholly new medium. Susan works with found objects—specifically glass in the case of this exhibition—to create beautiful mosaics. When I thought about combining their work, what stuck out to me was the way in which each artist uses glass to immortalize people or places. I encourage you to read their artist statements for a better understanding of how each piece pays homage to specific moments in their lives.

With the glass portion of the exhibit in place, I turned my attention to the other ways in which artists use glass—specifically using the lens of a camera. I was searching for photographers with a strong narrative thread in their work. I happened upon the Photo Pensato cooperative, and the rest is history. This exhibit showcases a small sampling of the works of 7 of Photo Pensato’s members. Each artist has a different narrative voice that shines through in their individual work. Not only do many of their photos speak to the Immortalized theme, but some photographers leaned more heavily into the theme of glass. You will notice some beautiful images that capture reflections in glass or in which the subjects interact with glass. Lens + Light became a theme within the theme—providing these artists the chance to examine it from many viewpoints.

It has been my honor to work with this talented group of 10 artists in creating this exhibition. Thank you for trusting me with your work. And to our sponsors, Mountain Home Evergreen, Alexa Interiors, and Pandora John Properties, thank you for all you do for CAE and our community. We are truly grateful for your support. I hope all of you enjoy the show as much as we do. Thank you all for keeping the Arts Alive in our Mountain Community.

With gratitude,

Sara Miller Senior Director

CENTER FOR THE ARTS EVERGREEN

Executive Director: Lisa Nierenberg

Senior Director of Exhibitions & Outreach: Sara Miller

Director of Marketing: Amanda Ingalls

Events Manager & Administrative Assistant: Laney Camferdam

Education Program Manager: Emiko Martinez

Accounting Manager: Tom Maxey

Board President: Lance Paulson

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

THOMAS CARR

My artwork is a synthesis of photography and archaeology. As a young photographer in the 1980s, I found myself drawn towards making images of places with subtle indications of a past human presence. This led to my pursuit of a career in archaeology, which has allowed me to visit many significant historic sites and associated landscapes. Having been trained in photography, I endeavor to document the essence of these places in visual terms. This subtle sense of presence is what I seek in my photography. I’ve applied this approach to a variety of projects over my 40 year career. I have two major types of portfolios that I create – these are straight film based photography, typically large or medium format, as well as more impressionistic/abstract work that uses digital composites. My artistic influences include photographers Eugene Atget, Clarence John Laughlin, Linda Connor, Edward Weston, Diane Arbus, Paul Caponigro, Fay Godwin, and Francesca Woodman; as well as filmmakers Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Akira Kurosawa, and Andrei Tarkovsky.

My photography has been shown in numerous juried, group, and solo exhibitions over the last 40 years, and has received a number of awards and honors with numerous invited solo exhibitions at major cultural institutions such as the Center of Southwest Studies in Durango, the University of Denver Museum of Anthropology, the Farmington Museum, the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument Museum, the Ute Indian Museum, the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, the Denver Public Library Western Art Gallery, the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center; as well as invited group shows at the Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Mizel Museum, Durango Arts Center, Arvada Center, Open Shutter Gallery, and dozens of juried exhibitions. My filmmaking work has been recognized with screenings at film festivals in the USA, Belgium, and France. I have also lectured extensively on the history of photography, archaeology, visual ethnography, and historic preservation at professional conferences and public symposiums across the country over the last 30 years.

TRANSFORMING UNCERTAINTY

DOORWAY TO SOLITUDE

TRUDY CHIDDIX

I was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area and discovered ceramics when I was an undergraduate art major at the University of California Santa Barbara. Clay has been my passion and pursuit ever since. After graduating from UCSB I stayed in Santa Barbara for a number of years working as a functional potter and part-time ceramics teacher. I also organized workshops for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, directed the Santa Barbara County Arts Festival and founded and ran the Palm Park Craft Center for the Santa Barbara City Recreation Department. Eight years after receiving my BFA I returned to school and earned a Masters Degree in Art Education from San Francisco State University. While in graduate school I met my husband, Jim Chiddix, an East Coast transplant living in Hawaii. After my graduation I joined him there to begin our life together.

I have continued to develop my artistic skills by attending workshops at institutions including Watershed, Haystack, Penland, Anderson Ranch, Honolulu Academy of Art, Pilchuck, Urban Glass and the Art Students League of New York. While living in Manhattan I spent endless hours in museums and galleries and also studied glass as an artistic medium. For the last 20 years much of my work has combined glass with clay.

We came to Evergreen, Colorado, in 1986 and have lived here part-time ever since. We consider Evergreen our primary home, but have lived part of each year in other locations. Since 2005 we have split our time between San Francisco and Evergreen. In San Francisco I work in a converted warehouse that provides studio space for 100 artists, while my Evergreen studio is located beside a mountain stream in the forest.

My arts community participation includes serving on the board at AMOCA, the American Museum of Ceramic Art, in Pomona CA, as well as the board at ACGA, the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California. I have attended more than 30 annual conferences of NCECA, the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts. In 2022 at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, I was inducted into the International Academy of Ceramics, a branch of UNESCO.

I was honored by this recognition and was thrilled to meet fascinating ceramic artists from around the world.

TREASURES OF INDIA (LIT)

TREASURES OF INDIA (UNLIT)

RON JOHNSON

As a ‘baby boomer,’ I traveled a lot. Never more that 2-3 years in any one location or school. Finally settling down in Colorado, I studied engineering, political science international law and business in university. That was cut short by the military lottery during Vietnam. I served a tour in the Navy, all of it in Japan where I met my wife-to-be. Returned to Colorado, studied commercial photography, and began a 40 year career in architectural photography. My work won some awards, was widely published, and allowed me to travel. That travel opened my eyes to the landscape surrounding us, and to the art and culture of both the American west and that of Japan. I became aware of the spirit residing in elements within the landscape. Finding and capturing that spirit continues to guide my work today. My work has exhibited widely, won some awards, and I hope to publish some of it as a book.

HAT MOTEL

BONES BONES BONES

TOP

RAJ MANICKAM

What makes Raj Manickam's work, so singular is his engagement between image and story. He strives to shine a light on the reality of the human experience through composition and honest storytelling.

Working within a unique "triangle" of context, Raj brings a synthesis of Fine Art, Story Telling, and Photojournalism to his photography that is rarely seen in modern pictorial circles. His photos can often be seen as an attempt to recapture missed opportunities from the past while seeking to secure and preserve the present. From spectacular landscapes to humorous everyday scenes and deeply personal moments, Manickam maintains a lightness of touch and an eye for the truth that sustains the difficult balance between the abstruse and the everyday. He uses the rich language of his eastern culture, and his more than two-decades gained Western point-of-view to draw in viewers and tell a uniquely framed story that only he can.

MILLET SEEDLING & TAPIOCA CULTIVATION FOR FARMERS AND FAMILIES IN SRI LANKA

As the economic situation is mounting in Sri Lanka, the famine is inevitable. To effectively face this crisis, our Sri Subramuniya Kottam is helping to distribute Millet Seedlings and tapioca sticks free of charge to farmers and home gardeners in the northern province. Raj Manickam is directly connected with people on the ground with this two projects. Any help to supplement these efforts will be much appreciated. 50% of proceeds from the sale of these ‘Street and Spirituality' series images will go towards these efforts to lighten the struggle in Sri Lanka.

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT LOW TIDE

DRAMA OF THE DANCE

STEPHEN PODRASKY

Stephen W. Podrasky is a graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute with a bachelor’s degree in Fine Art photography. Steve worked as a commercial photographer in Kansas City and Denver but now focuses solely on fine art. He has several bodies of work in both Black and White and Color. As artist and photographer , he primarily works as a visual storyteller using a street photography approach.He has been published in notable magazines and journals and his work is held in private and corporate collections. His work has been shown at The Robert Anderson Gallery, San De Christo Art Center, Leica Seattle and others.

PODRASKYFINEART.COM

WARD RUSSELL

Ward Russell, award winning Cinematographer/Photographer, adapts his Hollywood art to the world of fine art photography. Transitioning from the moving image to the still frame, he masters the same depth of meaning and emotion. Just as he added mood and drama in movies, he now creates that complexity in his stills. Ward converts the cinematic close up into the revealing portrait. He adapts the story telling of movies to that momentary truth of people in time and space of the still photo.

Ward’s motion picture, “Days of Thunder” established his reputation for bringing stylish and breathtaking photography to action pictures. His contemporary film noir, “The Last Boy Scout”, has become a cult film, studied in film schools. “X-Files, the Movie” expanded the acclaimed TV series onto the big screen.

Ward has been commissioned by leading corporations and advertising agencies around the world to photograph over 500 national television commercials. He has created images for most of the major automobile companies, and has photographed every type commercial imaginable, from fashion, to food, humor, toys and lifestyles.

Ward currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico where he owns and runs WARD RUSSELL photography. His still photography keeps him busy investigating lands and cultures around the world. His Gallery/Studio fills with shows of his current work and examples of his Fine Art portraits.

WARDRUSSELLPHOTO.COM

MARIA VALENTINA SHEETS

Maria Valentina Sheets is a professional art objects conservator and master painter in kiln fired stained glass. She is presently being contracted by world renowned art icon JUDY CHICAGO for her skill in replicating master works on glass.

Sheets spent her childhood within the top story of a Russian Orthodox Church in San Francisco where her family and great Uncle(a Russian Orthodox priest and prolific Iconographer) lived and preserved the art/artifacts of the church. In spite of the obvious influence of traditional liturgical iconography, Sheets own work now adheres to contemporary social realism through portraiture on stained glass.

Sheets holds an MA from UT Dallas and a Professional Associates Status Certificate from the American Institute for Conservation. She was introduced to the medium of stained glass after being contracted as chief conservator for the fire recovery project at the Museum of Biblical Art and the National Jewish Collection. During that time she also served prestigious art collections such as The Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Samurai Museum, Ross Perot Collection, George and Laura Bush Collection, and Nasher Sculpture Center.

Sheets’ signed commissioned works in architectural glass include large scale projects presently housed in museums, universities, houses of worship, businesses and private residences internationally. Last year she was honored to have designed and painted the “LEGACY WINDOW” for Tulsa’s Vernon AME in Greenwood illustrating 120 years of the church’s history and survival from the Tulsa Race Massacre. . Her own work was included in recent juried exhibitions such as American Glass Guild NOW 2016(juror, contemporary artist Judith Schaecter), Texas National 2018 (juror Jed Perl, international art critic), and Materials Hard and Soft International Craft Exhibition 2019(2nd place of 1100 entries). She is a resident artist for Core Art Space and Valkarie Gallery in Lakewood, Colorado.

Sheets conservation and glass studio is located in Evergreen, Colorado.

WONDER WOMAN

JOHN SHELTON

John Shelton’s work emphasizes both natural and manmade elements, separate or together, exploring connection, relationships, and drawing attention to the depth and power of his subjects, isolating their importance within the moment. Using the tools of perspective and illumination, his imagery highlights the textures, patterns, line, and layers within, while presenting strong contrasts and rich complementary hues throughout. Whether in color or grayscale, his work evokes mood, frequently ranging from serenity to complexity, even exhibiting an etherial quality that brings added depth, beauty and meaning to a thing, place or situation.

As a 35-year arts administrator, Shelton has the privilege of experiencing countless beautiful, as well as disturbing, insightful perspectives represented by the artists he works with, raising questions about a broader social context that explores how all the pieces fit together. Shelton resides in Estes Park, Colorado, and is a frequent traveler nationally and internationally.

SHELTONPHOTOWORKS.COM

TRUMPETER AT FIVE POINTS

MICHAEL TRUPIANO

Michael Trupiano is interested in how light, both manmade and natural (sunlight and moonlight) – individually or in combination – change the nature of the scene being photographed. He is also interested in how our memory of a place effects our feelings about his prints. As a result, his images evoke a feeling of both something known and something unfamiliar.

More and more the scenes are reduced to not what they are but how they affect the light around them. And as a result, how we perceive ourselves in the world.

The work is not complete until a master print is created. Michael works in “historical” processes, primarily platinum/ palladium, gum bichromate and cyanotype over platinum/palladium, and polymer gravure.

Michael is a resident of Denver, Colorado. Currently he is on a long-term personal sabbatical in central Italy. He can be contacted at studio.mtrupiano@gmail.com.

MICHAELTRUPIANO.COM

GAS NEBULA OVER MONT ST. MICHELLE,

SALT CAVES, STUDY 31, GOZO, MALTA

SUSAN WECHSLER

Wechsler, a multi-media artist who was a theatrical costume designer in New York City earlier in her life and remains a passionate collector, found her “signature style” as a mosaicist when – who else? - her mother suggested that she make a mosaic on a dress form. Her intricate, playful, and just plain gorgeous mosaic dresses attracted attention nationwide. Soon, she was manufacturing dress-form substrates specifically for mosaics and turning her intimate knowledge of costume design into a specialty mosaic class. Now, you too can indulge a love of all-thingsfashion in the mosaic medium.

Wechsler’s classes have been runaway successes in such fashion-conscious cities as Los Angeles, but also at mosaic conferences such as the 2015 CMA summit in Ashland, where her students made bold and beautiful mosaic masks. In her three-day workshop coming up at the IMA over the July 4th weekend (ending July 3rd) she’ll share her mosaic dress making secrets.

Her students always come away with a creation that is more than pretty, more than just a decoration – a dress they couldn’t otherwise have made. Even for experienced mosaicists, it wouldn’t quite happen without Wechsler’s experience and guidance.

MOSAICSBYSUSAN.COM

ABOUT CENTER FOR THE ARTS EVERGREEN

BRINGING THE ARTS TO EVERGREEN SINCE 1974

What started as a dream by local art enthusiasts in 1974 has become a lasting community resource. Center for the Arts Evergreen (CAE) provides quality art instruction, exhibitions, and events. Our main gallery showcases local and nationally-acclaimed artists in both curated and juried exhibitions. We offer myriad educational opportunities for adults and children in the visual arts, writing, and art history. In September of 2017, Center for the Arts Evergreen moved into the newly renovated and historic Bergen Park Church, which additionally features a retail shop filled with artisan handmade gifts for any occasion. Visit us for monthly cultural events, concerts, lectures, artist demos, wine tastings, and much more.

OUR MISSION

To enrich and serve our mountain community by promoting and cultivating the arts through quality educational programming, exhibitions, and events.

WHO WE SERVE

Schools, preschoolers, teens, young adults, senior citizens, adults with special needs, singles, and more. CAE embraces diversity, equality, and individuality. Artists at all levels of their development from beginners to professionals.

ALL CREATIVES

CAE includes creatives in all mediums and in all forms of artistic expression: the visual and performing arts, literary arts, music, and other forms of artistic expression.

2023 PROGRAMMING CALENDAR

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

• February 23 - April 1: Immortalized: Lens & Light Exhibition

• April 5 - 9: Landscapes of the West Pop-Up Exhibition: Ambrosier, Zimmer, Mehmert

• April 14 - May 20: Touch & Go All-Call Exhibition [Guest Juror: Libby Garon]

• May 24 - 29: Characters of Colorado Pop-Up Exhibition

• June 1 - July 8: Sculpture Exhibition

• July 13 - August 19: Hike/Bike/Ski Exhibition

• August 24 - September 15: 130 for $130 Exhibition

• September 21 - October 28: Rocky Mountain National Watermedia Exhibition

• November 2 - December 2: Don Sahli—Friends with Color Exhibition

• December 7 - January 6: CAE Member Exhibition

UPCOMING EVENTS

• February 24: CAE’s ART BAR Series Event

• March 2: Art of Wine Tasting Series Event

• March 4: Pastel Workshop w/Jane Christie

• March 9: CAE Concert: Story & Song with Mary & John

• March 18: Make Your Own Ring Workshop w/Dante Perozzi

• April 20: CAE Concert: Manas Itene

• April 29: Evergreen’s Got Talent

• June 3: Evergreen Sculpture Walk and Day of the Arts

• June 5: Start of Summer Camps

• July 29 & 30: Summerfest

• August 26: Art & Wine: CAE Annual Gala

• September 15: 130 for $130 Fundraising Event

• October 19: CAE Concert: Kayla Ruby

• December 9: Winterfest

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

DEIA Speaker Series: Listen, Learn, & Create Change

• January 31: SafeZone Training

• March 15: Medical Providers and Art to Prevent Burnout

• April 26: Accessibility and Art

• June 7: Cultural Bias in Art

• August 30: LGBTQ Representation in the Arts

• October 25: Ageism in the Arts

Women’s Art Circle (bi-monthly art-centric events)

CAE Book Chat (virtual, third Wednesdays of the month )

Pandora, Jenna, Maria & John

130 for $130 Sponsor Exhibition & Concert Sponsor