Self Made 15 Years of eye lounge | Exhibition Catalogue

SELF MADE: 15 YEARS OF EYE LOUNGE January – March 2015

ARTISTS EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

In partnership with Vision Gallery of Chandler, AZ, eye lounge is pleased to present the work of over sixty Arizona artists to kick off an exciting year of celebration. Past and present members are participating together from near and far to celebrate 15 years of vital art making in Arizona.

The Vision Gallery and eye lounge share a common goal of supporting their growing cultural communities in Arizona.

Vision Gallery is a non-profit cultural center in Downtown Chandler managed by the Chandler Cultural Foundation. A portion of all art sales are used to fund the VISION KIDZ Program, a series of art education workshops offered to the community free of charge. The arts are thriving in Chandler due to the great work that Vision is doing in the community. eye lounge is a collective, artist-run, contemporary art space committed to fostering emerging and established visual artists. The collective was founded in 2000 by Cindy Dach and Greg Esser, together with a group of other equally passionate member artists. Over the years, members have ranged from novices fresh out of school to veterans with an already established international reputation. Since its launch, it has provided over 300 artists with creative, collaborative and entrepreneurial opportunities to be a part of a growing art community in Downtown Phoenix.

When the collective published its inaugural catalogue, Ted Decker had this to say, “It has opened doors to interesting challenges and opportunities for artists during and after their eye lounge stints.

Eye lounge has provided a portal into art and ideas for thousands of people who visit on First [and Third] Fridays, eager to get a pulse on the naissance of the Phoenix cultural scene.”

While a lot has changed since its early days, some things remain the same. Shelley Cohn (a former Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts) had this to say back in 2006 and it still resonates today, “Most significant in eye lounge’s continuing history are its always evolving group of member artists, its commitment to seeing the space grow, develop

and flourish, the gallery’s continual nurturing of artists and their work and validation from Valley visitors who come en mass to see and support the gallery’s ever-changing work.” eye lounge is proud of its alumni, many of whom have gone on to exhibit their work around the country and the world. Now in its 15th year, eye lounge has certainly improved with age but in keeping with its mission, has not forgotten its roots.

Bob Booker, Arizona Commission on the Arts current Executive Director and a frequent visitor to the gallery shared his thoughts, “This is truly an anniversary to celebrate. Fifteen years of artists showing their work, connecting with other artists and the public and growing together as professionals is in a word astounding.”

“The city’s cutting-edge art destination” - The New York Times “eye lounge has helped define the Phoenix art scene” - Deborah Ross, art critic Visual Art Source and explore art: Phoenix “This kind of out-of-the box event is typical for eye lounge...” - The Arizona Republic “This Roosevelt Row gallery has been the ‘it’ place to see and be seen on downtown Phoenix First Fridays for years” - Phoenix New Times

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CURRENT MEMBERS The current member artists are honored to be a part of this historic legacy. eye lounge has always acted as a portal; pushing artists to push their boundaries while developing their practices in contemporary art.

Cherie BUCK-HUTCHISON Turner G. DAVIS Mimi JARDINE Keith LABER Constance MCBRIDE Merkel MCLENDON Abbey MESSMER Teresa MORALEZ John Randall NELSON Christina You-sun PARK

SELF MADE: 15 YEARS OF EYE LOUNGE January 24 - March 8, 2015 The Vision Gallery 10 East Chicago Street Chandler AZ. 85244 Opening Reception Friday, January 30, 2015

ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION

Kristin Bauer, David L. Bradley, Betsy Bret Harte, Peter Bugg, Cherie Buck-Hutchison, Angela Cazel-Jahn, Sue Chenoweth, Cindy Dach, Lee Davis, Turner G. Davis, Sean Deckert, Nick DeFord, Alison Dunn, Paul Elliott, Greg Esser, Andrea Evans, Daniel Funkhouser, Jes Gettler, Dain Gore, Steve Hilton, Christopher Jagmin, Mimi Jardine, Keith Laber, Carolyn Lavender, Aimee Leon, Mark Leone, Chris Maker, Naomi Marine, Cheryle Marine, Melissa Martinez, Emily Matyas, Constance McBride, Merkel McLendon, R. Eric McMaster, Abbey Messmer, Mary Meyer, Ryan Peter Miller, Teresa Moralez, Ann Morton, John Randall Nelson, Dianne Nowicki, Christina You-sun Park, Marcus Payzant, Crystal Phelps, Benjamin Phillips, Lara Plecas, Christy Puetz, Karyn Ricci, Cole Robertson, Marco Rosichelli, Rebecca Ross, Kris Sanford, Chris Santa Maria, Lisa Marie Sipe, Joe Willie Smith, Tom Stritch, Karolina Sussland, Kaori Takamura, Kate Timmerman, Lisa von Koch, Nic Wiesinger, Mindy Sue Wittock, Denise Yaghmourian 5|Page

Kristin BAUER Kristin Bauer is a multimedia artist that lives and works in Tempe. Her work incorporates a straightforward combination of text and imagery executed in vibrant colors usually on multiple panels or planes. Bauer’s work includes sculptural painted towers of cubes, sitespecific installations and paintings. Her work is inspired heavily by the psychology of communication. She combines references and presents them as an opportunity for viewers to thread a new story and derive their own meaning. She says, “Our culture is highly visual, and rises and falls with the crests and waves of marketing and propaganda.”

Over the years Bauer has exhibited extensively in galleries and museums in the region, including the Arizona Biennial at Tucson Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum and Mesa Arts Center. She has participated in group exhibitions in Los Angeles, Santa Fe and New York. Bauer has curated several exhibitions, has been a guest speaker at numerous college courses and in a panel at Phoenix Art Museum’s Contemporary Forum, where she also received an artist grant in 2012. She exhibits frequently with her husband, Emmett Potter, with whom she shares studio space. Bauer and Potter have collaborated on murals in Phoenix and for the Indy 500. Bauer’s background in the arts also includes running a popup gallery with Potter, PR consulting for LA galleries, and arts writing for Beautiful/Decay, JAVA, FFDC and TONE. http://www.kristinbauerart.com/home/

The Thread of Your Undoing Mixed Media, MDF and Wood 36" x 56" x 12" 2013

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David Lloyd BRADLEY As an artist I view myself as a conduit for the stimulation received from the universe. Art is my way of finding understanding and connection to the universe. The pieces in this exhibition are part of a collaboration with my wife, Wendy Raisanen. Marriage itself is a collaboration; a compromise that benefits both parties, and since she and I have joined forces we have found that the work we do together is often, most often, better than that work we do separately. In these pieces we achieved a balance of masculine/feminine, hard/soft, straight/curved characteristics that together create a visually and intellectually interesting balance. Our process consists of one person creating/conceiving a piece, then passing it to the other, fully relinquishing control over the outcome. Once the second person achieves a sense of completion, the two view the work together and decide if more is needed or if the piece is complete. This collaboration is able to happen without rancor or malice due to the mutual respect of one towards the other. It means one has to give up complete control and to view the inputs by the other as valuable. It makes for lively dinner table discussions.

Deciding when he was 12 that he wanted to be an artist after reading the biographies of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, David Lloyd Bradley enjoyed making stuff with his hands so much that the idea of being an artist appealed more than anything else. At Louisiana Tech University he majored in painting but gave that up when he discovered clay and the potter’s wheel. Bradley earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Texas. He was juried onto the Artists Roster of the Arizona Commission on the Arts in 1990. Bradley has been a professor of art at PVCC since 2000 and has taken students on hands-on ceramics workshops to Mata Ortiz, Mexico for nine years, twice to China and once to Vietnam. He has been a potter for over 40 years.

He has given pottery workshops across the country, and has exhibited his work widely.

Bradley is the current President of Arizona Artists Guild, and is a former member and past leader of eye lounge.

http://www.davidbradleyart.com/

A Question of Balance Fabric, Metal, Ceramic 8’ x 10’ x 2’ 2014

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Betsy Bret HARTE My heart strives to be a place of departure in the world. It informs my direction, allows, expands, or muddles all experiences in my life. It places me within myself, and it places you within me. It is my greatest challenge.

Betsy Bret Harte’s work has always tested the limits of fiction and the veracity of autobiography. Much of her work explores the effect of solitude on an active mind, using photography to challenge the relationship between memory and storytelling, history and currency, identity and personal narrative.

Betsy Bret Harte was a fifth generation Arizonan, from the desert town of Tucson. She received her BFA from Arizona State University and taught photography and mixed media at New School for the Arts. She cherished her time with eye lounge and was a valued member of the Phoenix arts community. This past August, Betsy said farewell to this world, after a long experience with cancer. She lived with the love of her life, Mary Kay Zeeb, and took her last breath in their Phoenix home, surrounded by family. Her art will ever-echo her talent and her loving presence. http://www.eyelounge.com/bretharte/

Right Ascension Home Toned Gelatin silver Print with Collage 23” x 19” 2011

Unspoken Film Transparency sewn to Handmade Paper 26” x 54” 2000

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Peter BUGG In the series “Parings,” I begin with the most accessible forms of luxury goods - American and European fashion magazines, the most expensive of which is $25, far less than even the most affordable objects advertised therein. By removing sections of advertisements and editorial images with X-acto blades, I employ an easily understandable process to turn the commonplace, mass produced photographs into one of a kind objects, elevating them to the status of the referents in the original photographs. Through this process of excision, I combine positive and negative imagery and create material vacancies, allowing room for additional interpretation and contemplation.

Peter Bugg was born and raised in Madison, WI, earned a BA in economics from the University of Chicago, and an MFA in photography from Arizona State University. Since 2011, he has served as the director of the student galleries at ASU, where he also teaches exhibition and professional development classes. He has participated in numerous local, national and international exhibitions. Most recently, he was awarded a Good ‘n Plenty grant from Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art to pursue his project Equal Scouts. http://www.peterbugg.com/

Paring: DVF Hand Cut Paper in Lucite 8.5” x 5.5” x 1” 2015

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Cherie BUCK-HUTCHISON I fuse my interests into narratives through poetry, photography, video and performance. I interject the language of possibility onto dominating practices through the use of imaginative potential in order to invite change. Activating my topics through the reinvention of spatial boundaries, I challenge geographic boundaries by manipulating the private onto the public. I make use of storytelling as a form of activism to deconstruct social norms. In my most recent series, Keep on Doing This More Fully, formerly marginalized and/or ostracized individuals become reconciled while women are transformed through leadership in visually-poetic scenarios typically unseen within specific cultures.

My interdisciplinary projects bring many of my interests together by a combination of movement, rhythm, writing, and imagery. By comparing poetry within the context of timebased movement, I navigate the complexity of video-poetry, an emerging genre I am interested in exploring further. Utilizing legend, myth, imagination and allusion, I examine the collision of belief systems embodied in contemporary practices. Unfolding through time and space, my work is surprisingly futuristic; at other times melancholy. Ink bleeds on a bible page. Women become empowered. I employ my methodologies as a way to travel the interiority of hegemonic rhetoric and its influence on society.

Cherie Buck-Hutchison was born and raised in the Southwest and currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona. Buck-Hutchison’s work explores the intersection of private and public through an interdisciplinary approach. Her practice includes the use of imagination to reorient spatial and social boundaries. Lately, the Southwest landscape has entered some of her imagery in the forms of canyons and red rock configurations. Buck-Hutchison is a current member and a co-president of eye lounge and exhibits her work frequently in the Phoenix Metro Area. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Intermedia from Arizona State University. http://www.cheriebuckhutchison.com/

Sisters Lead at Dinosaur National Monument Photograph Ltd. Ed. 16” x 20” 2012

This Time We are Going to Say Hello in the Painted Desert Photograph Ltd. Ed. 16” x 20” 2013

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Angela CAZEL-JAHN Making things for people to look at and think about is lovely fun, sometimes.

Jahn makes images, objects and spaces for people to play in and think about. She was a member of eye lounge from 2009 – 2011. Her work includes large-scale community projects, interactive sculptures, murals, paintings and collages. Each medium serves as inspiration for the others, and she has veered consistently among them for nearly twenty years.

http://www.cazeljahn.net/

Tripping Paint and Resin 36” x 36” 2010

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Sue CHENOWETH Born in Plainview, Texas, Sue Chenoweth now lives and works in Phoenix, Arizona and is one of Arizona's most innovative painters. She began her artistic career here in Arizona in 1968 and has continued to produce a prolific body of work since that time. In 1998 she graduated from Arizona State University with a master of fine arts degree in painting. She has received numerous grants and awards, including an Arizona Commission on the Arts Artist Project Grant, Phoenix Art Museum Contemporary Forum Artist Grant and a studio residency at the Cue Art Foundation in New York. She teaches drawing and painting at Metropolitan Arts Institute in Phoenix.

Chenoweth’s enigmatic, psychologically charged paintings, drawings and installations have been shown in New York (The Cue Foundation), Tucson (Tucson Museum of Art, The Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art), Scottsdale (The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art), Tempe (ASU Art Museum), and Phoenix (eye lounge, The IceHouse, Modified Arts and monOrchid). http://www.schenoweth.com/

Van Gogh is Holding Us Up Acrylic, Ink, Letroset and Vinyl on Panel 25.5” x 39.5” 2014

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Cindy DACH Cindy Dach is a writer and visual artist currently working in the medium of embroidery. Her work is available in small boutiques, galleries and by commission. Dach is a founding member of eye lounge. She is also the co-owner of Changing Hands Bookstore and MADE art boutique in Roosevelt Row. Dach has worked in collaboration with communities, city officials, public and private organizations to cultivate a walk-able arts community in Downtown Phoenix.

Up from Under, Over Cotton, Thread 6” x 6” 2014

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Lee DAVIS Lee Davis’ work can best be described as approachable conceptual art, with the subject matter being scientific, thought provoking and humorous. In this day and age artists must contend with many distractions like the Internet and its devices such as phones, tablets and laptops. Lee attempts to pry the viewers’ attention toward his work by deliberately using bold iconographic imagery with slight comical abstractions or absurdities to initiate a “double take”. Once a response is established the viewer can reflect that they did indeed see a peculiarity — for example a crab with chainsaw claws or an octopus holding a pistol. The simplicity of his imagery allows the viewer to create his or her own concept of the piece regardless of what the artist had intended to invoke. At the root, this is how he measures the effectiveness of his work; approachable conceptual art. Lee has found science to be an incredibly rich catalyst for his creativity. Inspiration comes from reading and expanding his knowledge of the disciplines’ many channels. By analyzing the scientific articles he has read he creates imagery to reflect a piece, a part, a whole, or perhaps an implication of the subject, discovery or theory. Science perpetually finds new or revamps existing ideas. Lee finds this dynamism to be the perfect stimulus for his work.

Growing up on ten acres in rural Missouri Lee developed an appreciation for flora and fauna and the habitats they reside in. His parents encouraged inquisitiveness and creativity at an early age. They talked him out of becoming a Paleontologist because of the poor salary prospects. So he went to college to study the arts. http://www.leedavisarts.com/

Objectify: XII Acrylic on Canvas 48” x 60” 2012

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Turner G. DAVIS My work is both autobiographical and fantastic. The distilled message has to do with how memory influences the paths we find ourselves upon. They are about the touching of healing scars and preparations for a journey.

When I’m at my best, my work skates along the crumbly edge between “real” and the imagined, the edge between the pleasure and burden of the body and the lightness of dreams and nightmares.

I believe in proficiency in many visual “styles” and techniques. I am interested in exploring different and iconographies and visual languages. I employ all of this to reach a place that resonates emotionally. http://www.turnergdavis.com/

The Last Unicorn Mixed Media 8” x 10.5” 2014

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Sean DECKERT Sean Deckert photographs intersections between art & science, still & motion imagery, natural and manmade environment with a strong interest in how the work operates in the public sphere. Through using a variety of traditional and unique light capture devices his aesthetic departs from the history of modern photographic rules while still identifying new ways of using old tools. Although he is trained as a photographer his work often associates with architecture, sculpture and video. His exhibitions usually employ conceptual installation methods by creating translucent networks of images and shapes through minimal design with a high level of technical execution. His projects frequently manifest through collaborative efforts with his network of friends ranging from scientists to local community organizers who advise and assist him during the research phases of his work.

His recent work focuses on sociopolitical environmental issues of urban spaces such as Urban Heat Island.

Sean Deckert was born in Culver City, California in 1984 and moved to southern Illinois in 1990. In 2008 he left Illinois for Arizona to attend Arizona State University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Photography. He volunteers in his arts community, including his membership with the eye lounge Collective and Artlink. His work has been featured in Art Ltd, Arid Journal, Photo District News and has been exhibited at the Tempe Center for the Arts, Scottsdale Center for Contemporary Art and Los Angeles Center for Digital Art as well as international locations in Beijing, Jerusalem and Concordia. http://www.seandeckert.com/

Smoke & Mirrors, V.5 Lenticular Print 16� x 20� created 2011, printed 2014

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Nick DEFORD Nick DeFord is an artist, art educator, and arts administrator residing in Knoxville, TN. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Fibers from Arizona State University, and a Master of Science in Teacher Education and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Tennessee.

He has previously taught both at Arizona State University and the University of Tennessee, as well as at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and Penland School of Crafts. He exhibits nationally, with recent exhibitions at the University of Mississippi, The Knoxville Museum of Art, Vanderbilt University, Lindenwood University and the William King Museum in Virginia.

He has had artwork or writing published in Surface Design Journal, Elephant Magazine, Hayden Ferry Review, and Willow Springs. Currently, he is the Program Director at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee. http://www.nickdeford.com/

On What Shall I Swear By Embroidery on Paper Two panels, 7” x 7” each 2013

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Alison DUNN I usually begin with a piece of language-- a word or phrase-- that sets in motion a chain of paint-based reactions. Somewhere along the way I drag in images and gestures and symbols and sometimes the word will grow or it will soften or even disappear altogether, leaving only wrappers and crumbs. I often imagine my paintings have feelings and let them react to themselves.

Alison Dunn was raised in Wheaton, Illinois. She received her MFA in painting from Arizona State University (1995), where she also completed both a BA and MA in Interdisciplinary Humanities. Her mixed-media paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the West (including the Tucson Museum of Art, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Albuquerque Museum of Art, Arizona State University Art Museum, Long beach Arts Center, and Arvada Arts Center, CO.) and in Florence, Italy. In addition to awards for academic scholarship, Ms. Dunn is the recipient of a Liquitex Excellence in Art Grant, a Contemporary Forum Materials grant from the Phoenix Art Museum, and the inaugural Lennox Visiting Artist fellowship at Trinity University in Texas (2000-2002). She presently resides in Tempe, Arizona, and teaches at Xavier College Preparatory, Phoenix. http://alisondunn.weebly.com/

Oh Watteau Oil and Alkyd on Canvas 40” x 30” x 1.5” 2011

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Paul ELLIOTT My decisions in art making (including writing) are highly dependent on who I am right now.

Ridiculousness and beauty make sense to me and if darkness and sadness and anger come along I have to let them. I strongly disagree with leaving behind what most consider negative elements. Honesty makes artwork better.

Paul Elliott maintains aesthetic choices revolving around the written word. As an image maker he refuses to abandon text as an instigator. As a writer, he employees a specific interpretation of what he sees. He is mostly interested in people and what they are. http://www.eyelounge.com/paul-elliott/

Coco St. James 2 Gelatin Sliver Print 16" x 20" 2013

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Greg ESSER Greg Esser is an artist, writer and curator currently living in Phoenix, Arizona. Esser's artwork encompasses performance, installation, video, music, printmaking and sculpture and is represented in public and private collections. In addition to his own studio practice, he has commissioned and produced works for artists including Louise Bourgeois, Ed Ruscha, Tom Otterness, Allen Ginsberg, Lucafausu, Clare Patey, Miguel Palma and Matteo Rubbi.

http://www.gregesser.com/

Please Pardon Our Dust Installation view Mixed Media 2014

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Andrea Sherrill EVANS Woven throughout my art practice is an interest in encounters: those we have with other bodies, as well as the world beyond them. Through slow and meditative processes including silverpoint and watercolor drawings, hand-knit sculpture, and repetitive per formative actions, I explore ideas of distance and proximity, points of contact, and spaces in between.

In the Siblings series, playful and sometimes antagonistic actions pulled from childhood take on new meaning as they are reenacted through adult female bodies. Translated into delicate silverpoint drawings, these works look at the structure of sibling bonds and the ways in which these early interactions set the stage for adult relationships.

Andrea Sherrill Evans is a visual artist residing in Boston, MA. Evans received her BFA in painting from Arizona State University (2004), and MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Tufts University (2009). She is a recipient of a 2012 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship and St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and her work has been exhibited widely throughout the United States. Evans is the founding editor of Temporary Land Bridge, a website featuring artist interviews, statements, and exhibition coverage. She currently teaches in the Studio Foundation program at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. http://andreasherrillevans.com/home.html

Siblings #1 Silverpoint and Watercolor on Prepared Paper 17.5” x 17.5” 2012

Siblings #2 Silverpoint and Watercolor on Prepared Paper 17.5” x 17.5” 2012

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Daniel FUNKHOUSER Based in paint and photographic media, these portraits of the artist and close people in his life delight in the gray areas of contemporary identity. Playful yet severe, autobiographical yet universal, these works diversely cross representations and expectations of gender, sexuality, history and the hidden worlds of illness and growth.

Daniel Funkhouser was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona. While he studied painting at Arizona State University, his art practice has expanded into a variety of forms unified by a playful love of garishly saturated color schemes, dramatic imagery, and themes of identity, gender, family, and childhood memory. He has travelled and studied art all over the world, but Phoenix remains his beloved and nurturing home. She is comfortable with both male and female pronouns. http://www.eyelounge.com/danielfunkhouse/

The Monarch of Isolated Kingdoms Metallic Digital Print, Gold Leaf, Epoxy Resin, Wood 36” x 32” 2014

The Monarch of Unwanted Kingdoms Metallic Digital Print, Spray Paint, Epoxy Resin, Custom Frame 32” x 24” 2014

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Jes GETTLER My creative process is rooted in exploring and responding to the subtle details of my environment. The materials I am drawn to are often ones that are a part of my everyday life.

I look critically at the objects, textures and sounds that surround me and over time they begin to take on new identities and contexts. Often two dimensional work acts as a study or guide that leads to the construction or extraction of three dimensional works. These drawings are the result of examining the small marks on the plaster walls of my apartment left by myself and others before me. Starting as loose disparate marks the drawings soon evolved into tight and repetitive lines each leaving the traces of a unique pattern.

Jes Gettler is a visual artist currently living in the Pacific Northwest. She received her BFA in Sculpture from Arizona State University and was a member of eye lounge from 2006 to 2008. She was the recipient of the Contemporary Forum Artist Grant and has given artist and professional talks at the Shemer Art Center, Arizona State University and the New School for the Arts. Her work has appeared in Sculpture magazine and has been exhibited at such venues as the Phoenix Art Museum, The Mesa Arts Center and the International Sculpture Center. http://www.eyelounge.com/gettler/

Traces III Graphite on Paper 12” x 9” 2013

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Dain Q. GORE My art is pulled from the inexorable vortex of the theology and cosmology of my youth, of Baptism briskly steeped in doom and redemption; in short, I am and will remain JesusHaunted. The messages never truly deviate; however, my intent is always to throw in a twist that makes it uncertain as to how the story should really be told. I mock the way I peek into the universe through a prism of old-time religion; yet, I celebrate it. I enjoy the visions of other desert-dwellers before me vicariously through my paintings, yet at the same time I direct my own version of world creation and mystic myth-making; uncertain, excited, mildly misanthropic.

Dain Q. Gore is a current FA at ASU and Phoenix College, completing his MFA in 2009.

Having studied End-Times myths of his culture, he presents Bible stories as well as Apocryphal and other controversial philosophies in a humorous way. His recent area of interest has included puppetry, emulating the humor and questioning of his paintings in a manic sculptural and often bawdy performance-based setting. He has performed part-time for the Great Arizona Puppet Theater since 2007, having also constructed puppets that performed in his solo shows at Eye Lounge in 2010-2011 and Trunk Space in 2012, as well Phoenix Comic-Con in 2012-2014. http://www.daingore.com/

Billy Bob’s Prickly Pear Pie Acrylic on Foam Core 36” x 18” 2014

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Steve HILTON As a geologist and a clay artist, I have developed an appreciation for the anomalies in the many forms of life, clay, rock, and soil covering the Earth’s landscape. I am intrigued by the way plants, animals and weather influence the Earth’s surface, by both erosional and depositional means. This fascination has become an integral part of my art. I am currently thinking about these iterations as I make art. Since these fragmented and geomorphic shapes are repeatedly subdivided into parts, each a smaller copy of the whole, I'm compelled to use self similarity, iteration and subsequent textures which in turn allows me to interpret nature for the viewer and myself: hopefully with both of us seeing the natural world differently after spending time with my work.

Steve Hilton finished his MFA in Ceramics at Arizona State University in 2005. He also holds a MS in Art Education and a BS in Geology from Missouri State University. In the past nine years, his work, a fusion of sculptural and wheel thrown (sometimes functional) components, has been placed into the permanent collections of museums, universities and individuals in the United States, Thailand, Australia, Austria, Portugal, China, Japan, Canada, Romania and Cuba. During the same timeframe, he has been juried into numerous international and national exhibitions in conjunction with curated solo shows in the United States. Hilton currently is a full time ceramics and art education faculty member at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX and is the programs director for NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art). www.stevenhilton.com

Untitled Teapot Stoneware, Stain 7.4” x 6.75” x 5.75” 2014

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Christopher JAGMIN I have a love/hate relationship with the crush of information that bombards our daily lives.

It can be hard to make sense of the barrage of sound bites, advertising campaigns, talking points, and visual explosions coming at us from a noisy world. Everything can seem exciting, interesting, and important. Before we know it, something else has entered our radar and becomes equally exciting, interesting, and important.

My way of making sense of this clatter is to take a breath, and search for only the visual bits and pieces that resonate with me. Taking these fragments, icons, marks and notes, and graphic patterns, I mash them up to construct a story of what it means to live at this time, in this world. This freeze-framed moment... this personal epiphany is packed with memories, history, triumph, sadness, color, beauty, decay, energy, humor, and urgency. I hope that the viewer deconstructs my world-view, and reconstructs it to fit their story.My wish is to have the viewer form their own unique relatable tales from these works, and as they continue to look, they can see a revelation of new insights, and experiences.

One of Christopher Jagmin’s paintings was recently selected to be shown at All Art Arizona at the Art Intersection Gallery, and another selected by PhICA, now shown at the Offices of Phoenix Mayor, Greg Stanton. Christopher was one of the artists selected to have work included in the 2013 Tucson Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art, and was a recipient of an InFlux Cycle award grant. http://www.jagminart.com/

Harbor Encaustic and Oil on Wood 36” x 48” 2013

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Mimi JARDINE I am a conceptual artist afflicted with a preoccupation with the existence of litter. Born in Mobile, Alabama, where I attended The Julius Tutwiler Wright College Preparatory Day School for Girls, I was a victim of green-washing by the Keep America Beautiful campaign.

While majoring in Drawing and Painting at The University of Georgia in Athens, I participated in the study-abroad program in Cortona, Italy, where my obsession with litter and wastefulness was offered a counterpoint and, in turn, a sense of hopefulness.

As the creator of a fake government agency known as The Office of Environmental Responsibility, I was awarded Scottsdale Museum of Art's Good N’ Plenty Grant for my agency’s Mobile Remittance Unit. I was listed in Jackalope Ranch’s 100 Creatives and was a past president of eye lounge.

For more information about The Office of Environmental Responsibility, please visit: www.theofficeofenvironmentalresponsibility.org

http://www.mimijardine.com/home

2014 Outreach Report for the Office of Environmental Responsibility – To-Go Lid Division Paper 8.5” x 11” 2014

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Keith LABER My work, in its truest essence, is about being whole and complete. I am whole and complete when I create. I come from creation, therefore I am that which I come from, a creator.

Creation, however, doesn’t happen by itself. It comes from the sense of responsibility that is present knowing that I am part of a whole. I create to be a contribution to others; to give my gift to others, to let them know through my work, we are the same, and no one is alone.

The emotions and feelings communicated with each piece are the same emotions and feelings all human beings experience. Through this experience, we see our connectivity to others, our importance and relatedness, our mutual ‘humanness’ and create from nothing, and everything, the absence of aloneness, the joining of self to the whole.

Keith Laber is an emerging sculptor/artist working primary with stone, and beginning to explore the marriage of metal and stone. Laber grew up in Ohio and West Virginia and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Marshall University. She has been living in Phoenix, and working as an environmental graphic designer for 17 years. http://www.eyelounge.com/keith-laber/

Together Motion Sandstone 21” x 9” x 9” 2012

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Carolyn LAVENDER “The Woods- Preservation� is populated with taxidermy animals.

I am attracted to taxidermy, because they are animal forms, but I also find them deeply disturbing. The oddness of portraying them in the woods helps show my discomfort. I especially like putting the trophy mounts on the trees. I carry a camera with me and shoot taxidermy when I happen upon it. So the painting carries with it the memory of the places where I photographed the animals. The collaged combination of imagery creates an artificial effect that I do not hide.

Carolyn Lavender was raised in Seattle, Washington. Her parents moved her to Arizona while she was still in high school. Lavender teaches Drawing for Phoenix College in Arizona. She obtained her MFA in Drawing from Arizona State University in 1992. Her work has been primarily drawing and painting with ideas that utilize such subjects as animals, selfportraits, processed-based abstraction, and appropriation. Lavender completed artist residencies at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY in 1996 and at Studios Midwest in Galesburg, IL in 2005. Some resume highlights are the 2013 Creature, Man, Nature 3 Person Exhibition, the 2004 Arizona State University Art Museum show "Democracy in America", the 1995 and 2007 Tucson Museum of Art Biennials, and the "Group Show of Strangeness", Durex Arte Contemporanea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Public collections include: ASU Art Museum Print collection, Mesa Contemporary Arts, Tucson Museum of Art, City of Glendale, City of Mesa, City of Phoenix Municipal Print Collection and Shemer Art Center. In 2001 Lavender helped found the Phoenix artist-run gallery space, eye lounge and was a member for three years. http://artist-carolyn-lavender.blogspot.com/

The Woods - Preservation Graphite on Prepared Paper 24” x 40” 2011

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Aimee LEON Terroir de laine embodies the notion of place, a sense of place that within it holds a specificity that cannot be found elsewhere. A fingerprint of sorts, that marks a moment in time, not just in space or place, but elemental, cellular. Wool is an archive of sorts, a mark of time like tree rings, shaped by the food the animal ingested, the sun that was ruminated in, the rain that washed it, the birth of lambs that depleted it, the work of dogs, the treatment of humans. No year and no animal will ever be identical. The terroir is the essence of the geography that influences the genetic expression of a product that has grown and been shaped both within and by the place it inhabits. It is one and the same. It is both the expression and the creator, but each singularly independent of the other. Terroir is a compilation of the effects of place, the geography of space that produces a rarity that occurs only in that moment, never to be replicated.

Aimee Leon is an artist that is grounded in social practice, durational performance, and geographical exploration. She currently resides in Phoenix, and holds a MFA in Intermedia from ASU. Primarily working with sheep and wool production as both a source material and historical research base, she travels to isolated farm regions throughout the North Atlantic and Europe investigating communities, textiles, natural food production, alternative commodity systems, and human-animal histories via her work as a sheep shearer. http://www.aimeeleon.com/

Terroir de Laine #1 – Northern Arizona Wet Felted Raw Wool 6’ x 3’ 2014

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Mark LEONE The work explores geologic sources as metaphors and symbols within interdisciplinary formal directions combining painting, drawing, and sculptural techniques. Through layering and unearthing layers, I paint “crustal layers�, upon which to thrust mark making. Further, I use elemental carbon and mineral graphite at each layer to strengthen the connection to geologic origins. Many of the marks made on the paint come from power equipment. My control and at times, my lack of control of these tools, provide the means to erode, to cut, to dig, buff, sand, and to pock the surface and sub-surface paint in ways that are reminiscent of natural, man-made, and archaeological processes. In essence, I am working to explore the sublime and to quite literally work with the same materials that I symbolize.

Marc Leone earned his MFA from Arizona State University and his BFA at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He is currently an Associate Professor of Drawing and Painting at Northern Kentucky University, next to the Ohio River just south of Cincinnati. http://www.marcleone.com/

Crater #1001 Graphite on Eroded Paper 36” x 36” 2006

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Chris MAKER The allegory of Plato’s Cave, in the Republic, is where Plato introduces the “essence of things” as well as society’s response to this illusion. The allegory of Plato’s Cave describes a society bound and chained together, around a fire of its own creation. From this fire, the shadows of society are cast on the walls of the cave. These shadows are mistaken for the real objects from which they are cast. And the essence of the “thing” is mistaken for its referent, created from society.

This painting depicts figures in black and white as the shadows cast on the cave walls. The chinks or opening in the cave are represented by white linear and planar elements, eroding the walls of the cave. The “subject”, painted in color, is placed in a position of awe and reckoning, and the “projection” of this subject’s reality is depicted on the cave’s wall. The suggestion of geometry is a means to represent the “rational view”, and is depicted here through the use of the golden section and with it the suggestion of the Fibonacci spiral sequence used to compose the landscape. This geometry is then simplified in a three dimensional Q-bert model and then re-represented again as “nature” through the pattern on Sonoran desert rattlesnake.

Chris Maker graduated from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture with a MA degree in 2011. This degree was his second Master’s, having obtained the first in City Planning from the University of Cincinnati (2004). Maker has a BFA from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (2001). Maker possesses a varied education with an equally diverse professional background, yet these interests are driven by a desire to experiment and integrate this educational/professional experience. http://www.eyelounge.com/chris-maker/

Plato's Cave Oil and Enamel on Panel 48” x 72” x 3” 2013

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Naomi MARINE My work is a philosophical engagement with daily, lived experience and the processes of perception that influence our individual and collective actions. Using the physical and mental realities of my life as the initial site for exploration, I examine the ways individuals perceive and internalize the phenomena that construct the boundaries of our existence. I mingle conscious observations of sensory information with the more unconscious mechanisms and imagery of dreaming and memory to create pieces that suspend or alter the constructs of linear time. By manipulating and re-contextualizing sounds, feelings, or tastes into fragmented or abstract imagery I am creating an externalized embodiment of the internal processes and reflections of the subjective individual. The resulting drawings and sculptures are nebulous, with layers of textural information obscuring reconstructed images suggestive of landscapes, atmospheric events, and organic processes. I utilize the visual tension between what is evident and what remains unseen to mimic the sense of confusion and dissatisfaction I feel as I try to reconcile my existential desires with my daily reality.

Naomi Marine is a sculptor and installation artist residing in Salt Lake City, UT. Her work is a philosophical engagement with the struggle of the individual to find significance in existence through the interrogation of perception, remembrance, and the constructs of linear time. Marine received her MFA in Visual Studies in 2009 from the University at Buffalo, State University of New York and her BFA in Painting from Arizona State University in 2005. Marine teaches sculpture, drawing, and design at the University of Utah and Westminster College. Her work has been shown nationally and locally, including in Finch Lane Gallery, Rio Gallery, and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. http://naomimarine.com/

Into the Wind C Ink on Bristol 16” x 20” 2014

Into the Wind D Ink on Bristol 16” x 20” 2014

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Cheryle MARINE My work investigates our human existence: the relationships we have with each other and with our environment. My work cycles around the objects I surround myself with, or find in my daily travels, whether simply being influenced by an objects beauty, history, form, purpose AND/OR the casting, collage, rubbing, tracing of them to incorporate into sculptural or two dimensional works. It is almost a process of breathing in my environment and releasing the essence. It comes naturally and with much thoughtfulness. I seem to want to hold life to a simple truth.

In this body of work, I am reducing the objects to shapes, pushing to have the shapes contain blackness and solidity on their own. Often, I am using thin horizontal strips of vintage or found papers, inferring subtle words, imagery, and color. This symbolizes our individuality and energy of past experiences, memories, and projections.

Like an archeological dig, and it's depth of sediment, for me, this is the daily layering of our existence.

Cheryle Marine attended Maine College of Art, graduated from Western Michigan University in 1988 with a BFA in Sculpture, Minor in Painting. Marine resides in Phoenix, AZ and has been an active participant in the Phoenix arts scene since 1999, former eye lounge collaborative member, part of numerous art collections, and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her talents expand into corporate theater and special events productions as a muralist, painter, and foam carver since 1992 with clients such as Pepsi, Carl's Jr, The Gap, Merrill Lynch, Nike, etc. http://www.eyelounge.com/cmarine/

Regency Collage, Roofing Tar, Acrylic, Pencil 42” x 33” x 3” 2014

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Melissa MARTINEZ Martinez’s artwork is very personal and reflective of her life and emotions. Melissa empathizes with nature, which inspires her to contemplate her own feelings. She often utilizes natural materials, movements, and phenomena that are often overlooked. Her drawings, sculpture, video, and installations provide a momentary focus upon basic beauty and the oddity of simplicity. With increasingly multitasking lifestyles, our interests often come from efficient new technologies and complex human engineering; Martinez’s work refers to moments that pass us by during ordinary, everyday moments. Rather than implying that we should “get back to nature,” it shows how nature, by its own engineering, is an integral part of our daily lives.

http://www.howestreetstudio.com/about/

: Sublime Cut Paper (Installation) 40' d x 16' w x 10'h 2011

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Emily MATYAS Emily Matyas began her photography career as a journalist. She free-lanced for magazines and later, worked with a non-profit in Mexico. There, her work developed a metaphoric and conceptual component. Back in the United States, she entered graduate school and received her MFA in photography from Arizona State University in 2002. She has taught photography at the college level and led many youth workshops. Her photos are exhibited nationwide and collected by organizations including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She lives in Tempe, Arizona with her husband and two daughters. http://www.emilymatyas.com/

Adjusting a Haystack Inkjet Print 24” x 18” 2013

Chopping Wood with a Toy Axe Inkjet Print 24” x 18” 2013

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Constance MCBRIDE My practice is inspired by the human form. Figures are created to punctuate the complexity of the human drama. By investigating concrete representations and creating situations that the viewer will identify with, I hope my work makes a connection. I produced decals specifically for this piece by taking snippets of news articles and re-arranging them to create a new narrative reinforcing concerns about privacy. The piece was created in direct response to the new world we live in; where social media has taken control and where we willingly give up our privacy with our “checking in”, our “likes” and our “tweets”.

Constance McBride is a figurative ceramic sculptor. A native of Philadelphia, PA, she relocated from the East Coast to the Southwest in 2002 and currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

Awards include receiving a development grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts in 2011 and being named one of the top 100 Creatives in the city by the Phoenix New Times in 2014. Her work is featured in Vasi Hirdo’s international platform Ceramics Now, and in the publication Paperclay Art and Practice by Rosette Gault. Her work has been exhibited at the Las Cruces Museum of Art in New Mexico, the Shemer Art Center and Museum and the Udinotti Museum of Figurative Art in Arizona. She is a current member and co-president of eye lounge and exhibits her work there and at other venues in the Phoenix Metro Area including R. Pela Contemporary Art and Art Intersection. http://constancemcbride.com/

Every Move You Make Paperclay, Under Glaze, Pastel, Decals, Wood 12” x 12” x 10” 2014

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Merkel MCLENDON Merkel McLendon only remembers being driven to create art. He expresses himself through ceramics, oil painting and now found objects. As he finds his way in the world, the items he stumbles upon become inspiring puzzle pieces spread across a congested table waiting to be placed together, to be a part of something. After a trip to Michigan, the Great Lakes State, Merkel was inspired by some public art: a huge fish sculpture. He then began a quest to find rare and fascinating items that when combined, became larger than the individual pieces. Finding the objects makes almost tangible to him the importance between man and art. The preparation is ritualistic and intimate not unlike the moment man cleans the single fish he catches after hours of silence.

Merkel has shown his artwork from the time he was in high school until present. He has had work in the Schemer Art Center Annual Exhibition, Burton Barr Gallery, Phoenix First Fridays, the Arizona Artists Guild, Mesa Art Center, Glendale West Gate Gallery, and currently at the eye lounge Gallery. http://www.merkel1.vpweb.com/

Suite 101 Mixed Media 18” x 3’ 2014

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R. Eric MCMASTER Using the structures of competitive sport, my works feature themes of obedience, vulnerability, resistance, and eventual acceptance. While all of these traits are apparent in sporting events, they can also be found in societal situations; as such my work mixes both easily read, ever-insistent sport regulations and the veiled societal interactions that manipulate our true selves. Using sports out of context allows my work to draw attention to the lack of the genuine, be it subtle or obvious. Recent work examines the relationship between perceived ideals and the actual. Images capture actions full of potential ruined by form, regulation, and/or absence. The works hint at possibility, but in the end they defy expectations.

R. Eric McMaster has shown his work extensively, including exhibitions in New York, Paris, Hiroshima, New Delhi, Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Seattle, among others. He is a recipient of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship, the Ted Decker Catalyst Fund and numerous scholastic grants and scholarships. Using competitive sports, McMaster explores themes of order, resistance, and the individual versus the collective. Objects, images, and actions thematically culminate in exhibitions.

McMaster holds a MFA in Sculpture from Arizona State University, and a Sculpture BFA from Penn State University. McMaster currently lives and works in Austin, Texas. http://www.rericmcmaster.com/index.html/

The Obstruction of Action by the Absence of Other Video documenting Tyler Harris, a competitive pairs figure skater, performing a routine without his partner present 4:45 Minutes 2013

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Abbey MESSMER We are shaped and mutated by our physical environment from microbes to ozone. Families provide not only the genetic code but also patterns and mantras that are the foundation of our daily decisions and emotional roots. As Americans, we see hundreds of marketing messages per day that inform what we view as normal. Today's technology allows us to be in one place mentally, while physically in another. We are constantly manipulated and transformed. I am interested in this constant state of flux and the effort by which we try to control our individual and social realities.

Water is a lens to see another perspective and is the tool for my latest work. My state of awareness is no more factual than the one distorted by water and processed by the digital camera. The experience of gathering the resource images is about juggling control and abandon, playing with light and buoyancy, training breath and allowing the eye to see against what the mind believes.

In 2014 I created an exhibition at eye lounge called Revelations in the Dark. This body of work embraces contrast. They began as photographs on a night swim in the desert, capturing white flesh suspended in still darkness. At their essence, these pieces are quiet meditations on universal questions of the unknown and personal truth. Like an astronaut floating between celestial bodies or a diver going into blue depths there is an experiential shift that allows us to feel irrelevant and important at once.

Abbey Messmer was born in Dallas, Texas in 1978. She received a BFA in Painting and Drawing from University of North Texas in 2001 and moved to Arizona shortly thereafter.

Messmer has recently exhibited work at Mesa Arts Center, Herberger Theater Center, Shemer Art Center and participated in a project called ART360 with the Arizona Science Center where her work was animated and projected on the dome of the Dorrance Planetarium. Messmer was a Contemporary Forum Arts Grant recipient in 2015. http://www.abbeymessmer.com/

Infinity Oil on Canvas 56" x 48" 2014

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Mary MEYER From my early work in traditional stone carving, to recent mixed media installations, my practice has always been inspired by the study of natural form. There is a kinship in living things that is so ubiquitous: from microscopic cell structures, to the veins in our bodies, to leaves on a tree we are mirrored throughout the natural world. I find this interconnectedness both fascinating and comforting; that so many similar shapes, patterns, and symmetries appear as a result of different physical processes. I enjoy investigating these commonalities through a variety of media and processes exploring the beauty of shape and texture in a very methodical, intuitive way. I am drawn to tactile materials and repetitive methods that foster a meditative state of mind. This often results in series that carry an evolution of forms. The centeredness I experience while working in my studio is reflected in the symmetrical compositions I create. My goal as an artist is to build works that evoke that feeling of centeredness for the viewer as well to create an atmosphere of stillness, reflection, and recognition.

Mary Meyer has exhibited her mixed media compositions at venues such as the Phoenix Art Museum, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, Calvin Charles Gallery, Grounds for Sculpture (New Jersey), and Agripas 12 Gallery (Israel). Her work is represented at Gallery five18 (Idaho) and numerous private collections. Meyer earned her BFA from Arizona State University, and her MFA from the University of Arizona where she received the MFA Fellowship. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Scottsdale Community College and has served as a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University, as well as a Workshop Instructor for the Visions Program at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Originally from the Midwest, Mary Meyer works full time from her home studio in Gold Canyon, Arizona. http://marymeyerstudio.com/home.html

Luster Cast Aluminum, Wood, Graphite, Sewing Needle 14” x 48” x 2” 2013

Luster 12 Cast Aluminum, Wood, Graphite, Sewing Needles 30” x 10” x 2” 2014

Shimmering Autumn Wood, Graphite, Pigment, Pins 40” x 8 x 1” 2014

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Ryan Peter MILLER The ideas that define the discipline of painting are as malleable as the material itself. Paint has always been in service of the evolving needs of its cultural context. Intrinsically, paint has little value; it is directionless color. Its chemical compounds are as varied as its applications. The signifiers we use to identify paint are complex and elusive. Wet paint on a wall is a force with which to be reckoned: “Caution, wet paint.” While the same paint, now dry, inextricably defines the form, identifying a wall by the color to which it has been applied. That same dry paint, raised centimeters in front of that same wall, will remain solely and eternally paint. Only through its application is paint elevated to its aspiring rank, from obfuscator of time to timeless icon. Painting speaks to the human desire to create order from chaos. It is a process through which we understand our finite existence. As an enduring practice and material, paint has evolved from an instrument of depictive representation, into a cognitive reality that precludes “direct” understanding of the construct. Where once the medium was in service to the image; the image now serves the vehicle. And when the image need not be applied, it is enough for paint to represent itself.

Ryan Peter Miller received his BFA in Painting from The University of Georgia and his MFA in Painting from Arizona State University. He currently works as a painter in Chicago, IL and as a visiting assistant professor at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI. His body of work objectifies paint playing with ideas of representation in abjection to conventional hegemony of the image. Among others, his credits include residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Chicago Artists’ Coalition, a Scottsdale Public Art Grant, and the exhibition of his work internationally in Beijing, Berlin, Chicago, and Los Angeles. http://ryanpetermiller.com/

Thank You Have a Nice Day #01 Acrylic 12” x 12” x 12” 2014

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Teresa MORALEZ “Still so different, still so appealing? I-III” and “The stories I was told/will tell” belong to a series of paintings that reference women’s roles as a result of the domestication of society due to agriculture. By using my personal experience as a woman, the work reflects the collective structures and systems in which I am placed. As a wife and mother, I question my teachings and those which I have been taught. I believe in the practice of self-reflection and the downfall that occurs when we fail to do so. I am curious about the psychological and environmental destruction that transpires from indoctrinated habit. “Still so different, still so appealing? I,II, and III” I are a play on Richard Hamilton’s collage from 1956 titled “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing?”. “The stories I was told/will tell” is a collaborative piece painted with Dianne Nowicki. It is a reaction to the book “Women Who Run with the Wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Teresa Moralez received her Master in Fine Arts from the University of Iowa where she studied printmaking and inter-media. As a printmaker she exploits concepts such as repetition, multiples, layering, and ritual, and infuses them into her painting, collage, video, sound and performance art. Teresa’s work is a reflection of her maternal, feminine, and domestic experience. Through the use of instructionals, guidelines, and how-to’s, her intention is to convey ambiguity in didacticism so the audience is allowed to formulate their own questions within themselves and their own circumstance. Moralez currently resides in North Texas with her husband and two children. http://teresamoralez.com/home.html/

Still So Different, Still So Appealing I, II, III Acrylic, Gold Leaf, Collage on Canvas 20” X 10” X 1.5” 2014

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Ann MORTON Thru the filter of my own experience as a white female born in1950's America, I explore themes of assumed entitlements, homogenization, marginalization, and human obsolescence - social divides we’ve come to accept as normal cultural paradigms. In questioning this acceptance, I recognize the insignificant - marginalized found objects and disenfranchised people. Driven by a desire to make right, the work I do reflects my own handwork, but also orchestrates handwork of homeless individuals or interested community members through public interventions that seek to socially engage the hands of many to create a larger whole.

My work exploits traditional fiber techniques as conceptual tools for aesthetic, social communication to examine a society of which we are all a part - as bystanders, participants, victims and perpetrators. After a professional career as a graphic/environmental graphic designer spanning nearly 35 years, I returned to ASU to receive my Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in fibers in 2012. Currently, I practice as an artist and teacher at ASU and Paradise Valley Community College. My work has and is showing nationally and internationally. Currently, I am engaging with the citizens of Houston, Texas in preparation for a solo exhibition at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in September of 2015.

After a professional career as a graphic/environmental graphic designer spanning nearly 35 years, Ann Morton returned to ASU to receive a Master of Fine Arts with an emphasis in fibers in 2012. Currently, Morton practice as an artist and teacher at ASU and Paradise Valley Community College. Her work has and is showing nationally and internationally.

Currently, she is engaging with the citizens of Houston, Texas in preparation for a solo exhibition at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in September of 2015. http://annmortonaz.com/

Ground Cover Digital Print and I-pad 26” x 36” 2013

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John Randall NELSON John Randall Nelson is known for taking simple, bold, instantly recognizable images of everyday life and imbibing them with a sense of Theatre. If there is a theory behind his images it is semiotics: the theory of signs. In semiotic theory images can function like words in a sentence, the meaning of each image dependant on how it is paired with other symbols.

Influenced by “outsider” artists such as Bill Traylor and Simon Rodia, he has added a cogent post-modern twist that transforms an outsider sensibility into conceptual, text-influenced art.

Nelson lives and works in Tempe, Arizona. An MFA graduate of Arizona State University’s Herberger School of Fine Arts, his folk art inspired works have been exhibited and collected both nationally and abroad. A sculptor as well as a painter, he has completed commissions for clients as diverse as, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Postal Service and the Perrier Corporation of Paris, France. His work is represented by Gebert Contemporary in Arizona and he teaches painting at Phoenix College. www.whonelson.com/

Bobo Johns XXV Acrylic on Newspaper 20” x 20” 2014

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Dianne NOWICKI I traveled to Santa Barbara this past spring to have a change of scenery and to spend some time with Kenny. I have to confirm that the rumors are true- Santa Barbara, California is absolutely breathtaking. I went around the city and spent a lot of time at the beach, and soaked in the blue light of the golden coast. My reaction when I got home was that I couldn’t shake the feeling of transparent light layers and sparkling aura of that environment, so I have been working on paintings to reflect that experience. I have included news clippings from my stay there, used water I took from the ocean to lay the paint down, and visited my overwhelming personal experience again and again, to show others what that felt like.

Raised as an only child in a military environment, Nowicki turned to drawing to keep herself company. Generally when you do something more, you develop a fondness for it, as happened with Nowicki and picture-making. She went to ASU to get a degree in painting, since it was the strongest constant in her life of consistent ebb and flow. Still making pictures as a hobby, she provides drawing-based party entertainment in the Phoenix area to support her painting habit. http://www.diannenowicki.com/

Refraction Paper, Aluminum, and Acrylic on Canvas 48” x 36” 2014

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Christina You-sun PARK Christina You-sun Park uses alphabetic imagery to explore the everyday failure of verbal communication and the human instinct to fix this chaotic fragmentation through the construction of alternative language structures. This is based off of her own experience growing up in a bilingual immigrant household. Park’s current work is focused on sound installations mimicking airplanes in midflight that explores how today’s rapid global movement of culture through airline travel has changed language itself.

Park received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2008 and her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, School of Art at Arizona State University in 2013. Her sculptures and installations have been shown at the Neus Museum in Germany, Franconia Sculpture Park in Minnesota, Saratoga Train Station in New York, and The Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum for Art. Park currently lives and works in Downtown Phoenix. http://www.christinayousunpark.com/

Sentence Structure #1 Resin, Cardboard, Fiberglass, Dictionaries 4’ x 2’ x 3’ 2012

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Marcus PAYZANT My current work is rooted in the manipulation of representational imagery into abstracted two-dimensional works, predominantly paintings and drawings. Each approach involves the exploration of light, forms, and shapes that together help create a composition in which imagery is materialized. Using photographs, observational drawings, collages, and personal experiences, my works intersect representation and abstraction so as to orchestrate new spaces and interactions between objects. The objects are typically banal and overlooked cultural artifacts that teeter between formation and disintegration. Much of my process is about creating a visual problem that I then have to solve by surrendering to the materiality of each piece. I experiment with color and mark- making to draw attention to the tangibility of the surface of each work, but I also have to allow spontaneous ideas to inform that work and possibly change its trajectory. Through the use and exaggeration of light, I seek to merge form and space in order to create an atmospheric milieu of marks. Ultimately, my process is about discovering and learning techniques that are dependent on the visual problem that I am trying to communicate and resolve.

Marcus Payzant was born in Schuyler, NE in 1982 and currently lives and works in Boston, MA. He received a MFA from the University of Texas at Austin (2012). He has recently exhibited his work at Zhou B Art Center, Chicago, IL (2014); Fouladi Projects, San Francisco, CA (2013); UT Visual Arts Center, Austin, TX (2012); and Squeeze Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ (2011). He was also featured in Art Business News Magazine, “30 under 30� (Summer Issue, 2013); and New American Paintings (volume 93: MFA Annual). http://marcuspayzant.com/home.html/

OK Bouquet Graphite on Bristol 14” x 17” 2014

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Crystal Gale PHELPS I use abstracted forms of religious iconography and theological signifiers to act as tools to address concepts of grief, loss, and the confrontation of mortality in a death denying culture. This notion is what drives me to create work that is simultaneously beautiful and repulsive. The images that I create are broken down into minimal components with universal signifiers and shapes that are common across religions, cultures, and geography.

The uses of both traditional and ephemeral media juxtapose the preciousness of life and the imminence of death. The organic forms embody a post mortem identity and symbolize the desire to preserve both self and loved ones. Geometric sewn elements balance the intense concepts with the stability that each of us tries to achieve with the balance of life and our awareness of death.

Crystal Gale Phelps is a conceptual artist. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from Arizona State University. She currently lives and works in Toledo, Ohio where she was Co-Director of Launch Pad Cooperative Art Gallery for two years, is a city organizer for Pecha Kucha Night Toledo, and is a contributing columnist for the Toledo Free Press. Her works are held in both public and private collections including projects with Scottsdale Public Art, Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, The Arts Commission of Greater Toledo and the East Toledo Arts Initiative. She is currently working on two dimensional as well as object based works for installation that continue to explore concepts within our culture of death denial. http://crystalgalephelps.com/home.html/

Mortal Meditation India Ink, 24k Gold Leaf, & Embroidery Thread on Paper 11” x 14” 2014

Sentient Dignity India Ink, 24k Gold Leaf, Livestock Blood, & Embroidery Thread on Paper 8” x 10” 2014

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Benjamin PHILLIPS On “Olympia” - My interests in the body and sculpture inhabit a space in time that is both contemporary and historical, a juxtaposition that has been shaped by my broad interests in the history of objects and their relationship with personal narratives and the human condition. Olympia represents an anthropomorphized bloomery furnace, an ancient and highly versatile furnace for smelting iron. Historically, the success and therefore the survival of a village was dependant on the quality of tools and weapons it could produce out of iron, a material proven superior to copper and bronze that had to be melted from crude rock. A common practice, reflecting the male culture, was to gender the furnace into a female form.

The female form is similarly represented in Olympia, celebrating the creative power of the womb where fertilization occurs.

In its original form, Olympia was designed to create a heavy and uncontrolled bodily discharge by gradually voiding over a gallon of Vaseline onto its base and the floor below.

Its purpose was to grotesquely reference the 19thth Century Parisian prostitute famously portrayed by Edouard Manet in the painting sharing the same title. As the neon transformer in the “belly” of the figure heated up, the Vaseline became more fluid and the discharge commenced until the contents inside the vessel were emptied. Upon request of Vision Gallery the action of the Vaseline discharge was reserved for future exhibitions elsewhere.

Benjamin Phillips was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and received his Masters degree in art at Arizona State University. In 2010 and 2011 he was an eye lounge member. Phillips’ artwork has been exhibited locally and internationally in the United States and Canada. His sculpture has been exhibited commercially with Udinotti Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona and Elliot Louis Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia. In 2011 he exhibited at the Tucson Museum of Art in the Arizona Biennial. Phillips is a two-time recipient of international artist grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and a three-time recipient of the (U.S.A.) National Sculpture Society scholarship. http://www.benjaminphillips.info/

Olympia Brass, Neon, Vaseline 33" x 18" x 16" 2008

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Lara PLECAS In my work, I explore the connection between human emotion and our environment. We have a deep personal connection with the places where we visit and live, as well as, the experiences that may have endured there.

Lara Plecas has been working as a visual artist in the valley since 2000. She is a self-taught artist and has been an integral part of the blossoming Phoenix Arts community for over a decade. She has participated in over 25 group exhibitions in the valley and has had four solo exhibitions. Lara was a member of the eye lounge collective for three years (20092012). She has organized several exhibitions, taught encaustic workshops and participated in several art fundraisers over the years. Lara is a recipient of the Ted Decker Catalyst Fund and Arizona Artists Commission Artists Development Grant.

http://larakupcikevicius.blogspot.com/

Crossroads Paper and Encaustic 12” x 12” 2014

Autonomy Paper and Encaustic 24” x 38” 2014

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Christy PUETZ My artwork uses a combination of unique design and materials to create mixed media, natural fiber, and beaded sculptures. The sculptures symbolically tell stories of insecurity and vulnerability, world and medical history, disease, and re-envision fairytales or myth.

Visually, many of my pieces walk the boundary of creepy and cute. I am dedicated to the art of handwork- the use of methods and materials traditionally associated with craft. Through a personal connection to the process and materials, I explore boundaries and re-conceive how craft materials and methods are seen in the art world.

For over 24 years Christy Puetz has exhibited her artwork extensively, been published in multiple books, and designed dozens of commissioned art pieces for collectors. Her artwork uses a combination of unique design and materials to create mixed media, natural fiber, and beaded sculptures. As well as being dedicated to creating and exhibiting her artwork, Puetz is heavily involved in the Phoenix Art and Education Community, formerly serving as a board member for the Arizona Museum Association and Director of Education at The Bead Museum. Her passion for art and the community carries over into her other field of expertise which is developing and facilitating community educational workshops, lectures, and Artist-in-Residence programs at schools, libraries, community centers, and nationwide hospitals. http://xtyart.com/

Harvey Foam, Glass, Paint, Clay, Ostrich Eggshell, Mixed Media 21” x 15” x 19” 2013

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Karyn Clark RICCI Hold. Protect. Preserve. Now that I am a mother, I have this need to document my experiences by collecting and saving found objects associated with ordinary, daily activities.

These objects are physical proof of an order to my memories in an otherwise chaotic world.

They are touchstones and even talismans in my act of self-discovery as a mother, for they provide an illusion of control over the world around me as well as satisfying my need for order. The act of collecting these disparate items together is a way of becoming more aware of my emotions and how they are triggered by objects, spaces, and my experiences with my daughters. Each tells its own story, yet they are all interwoven evidence of the experiences and the beauty of growing.

Karyn Clark Ricci earned her MFA from the University of Arizona and is a professor in the digital media department at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona. She was the recipient of an "Ideas That Matter" grant. This grant enabled her to work with a nonprofit organization to produce "52 Reasons� a deck of cards that highlights reasons to support the arts in Arizona. In addition to teaching, Clark Ricci owns a small design studio where she creates materials for various clients. http://www.eyelounge.com/ricci/

Whisper Fabric, Digital Collage 16” x 20” 2014

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Cole ROBERTSON I’m interested in the fragility of the image, the degree to which modification and viewer interaction, whether slight or drastic, can transmute beauty into horror, humor, or some mixture of the two. In addition, I’m fascinated by ways image creators, consumers, and image-delivery systems shape photographic meaning. My research and writing focus on concepts of embodied thought, primary metaphor, and their application to visual texts.

Born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, Cole Robertson now lives in Chicago and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Robertson has exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, most recently in a two-person show at Governors State University in Illinois. He has received numerous artist grants, including five awards from the city of Chicago Community Arts Assistance Partnership and a recent award from the Illinois Arts Council. Robertson’s work was also published in the latest issue of Scrapped Magazine, a new arts journal based in New York City and affiliated with the International Center for Photography. http://colerobertsonphoto.com/

The Search for America’s Next Hot Mugshot Laser Cut Acrylic Panels 10” x 10” each 2015

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Marco ROSICHELLI The dictionary app on my iPhone has the ability to show me word searches made near to me overlaid on a local map. I find this fascinating. When in Arizona, words like “deported” are popular searches. When near a University, it becomes clear that research papers are being written. This map and data set allows me to see into an intimate world around me, and provides an unintended source of material for potential art production. At its basest level, my work always starts with an observation. From the popularity of certain material in contemporary artworks, to aesthetically pleasing pattern made by discarded “stripper” advertisements discarded on a Las Vegas street, to the curious nature of family as they become complicit in mediating their own behavior while navigating a theme park. I am fascinated with life’s minutiae.

Whether I am cutting foam, nailing wood, or checking out library books, I choose my materials with a discerning eye. An appropriate level of craft is important so that attention can be paid to the content in my work. Whether the end result is a large plastic snowman in an Arizona gallery, or a rack of rejected thrift store clothes displayed in a museum, I am being ridiculous, and at the same time deliberate. I am critiquing the very culture and world to which I myself am inextricably linked. http://www.rosichelli.com/

Illustrations Pen and Ink, Printed Digital Color and Wood Various dimensions 2014

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Rebecca ROSS Metamorphosis and change have always held mysteries for me. For decades, I have photographed princess parties, Halloween, drag queens, the human aging process, and the decay of buildings. As a spinoff to the Broadway Show, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, I was invited to photograph a make-up competition during which students competed against the clock to transform willing male volunteers into the best drag queen. Here, I document the transformation that happens through the application of make-up, wig, and clothing. By maintaining as many similarities as possible in the photography (lighting, background, camera-to-subject distance, position of subject in the frame, etc.) viewers can direct their attention toward making comparisons between the subjects, in this case, the same person presented as male, then as female.

Rebecca Ross is a photographer and public artist whose awards include an Artist Fellowship and Artist Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Her work has been widely exhibited in the US and Europe and is represented in public and private collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, and the Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas-Austin. Ross is co-author of When the Water Came: Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina (UNO Press, 2010). http://www.rebeccarossstudio.com/

Brett / Male Archival Pigment Print 20” x 16” 2013

Brett / Female Archival Pigment Print 20” x 16” 2013

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Kris SANFORD A 1954 diary that belonged to a grandfather I never met serves as the inspiration and background in many of the photographs from my latest series, Between the Lines. The figures that emerge from the pages, actual vintage photographs, represent the memories contained in the text. Shallow focus reveals small details, while obscuring the larger story.

Friends and family members pass, relationships end, change occurs and we are left with the memories of people and places that were once central to our lives. Photographs and diaries stand in as tangible objects representing these fleeting experiences. These objects are personal and detailed, yet hopelessly incomplete at telling the whole story. My images are works of fiction. The individuals pictured serve as characters in a search to uncover lost stories of life, family, and love.

Kris Sanford grew up in southeast Michigan. She received her MFA in photography from Arizona State University in 2005, where she served as art editor for Hayden's Ferry Review.

Sanford has exhibited her work nationally, including group exhibitions in Portland, Chicago, and New York. In 2010 she was awarded a Contemporary Forum Artist Grant from the Phoenix Art Museum and exhibited her work at the museum in May 2011. Her work was selected by the Phoenix Public Art Program for the 2011 installment of the 7th Avenue Streetscape Panels. Sanford is currently an assistant professor at Central Michigan University. Her art explores intimate relationships, specifically queer desire, through the use of appropriated images and text. http://www.krissanford.com/

Between the Lines (no. 30) Archival Digital Print 16” x 11” 2012

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Chris SANTA MARIA My work samples illustrate a body of work that I completed in 2012 using the medium of paper collage on wooden panel. I rip out images from printed media and break them up into two visual channels. In one, color and implied motion guide the viewer’s eye from point to point. In the other, unexpected juxtapositions engage the observer’s attention more directly, as when we find Mick Jagger in a lunar landscape with speed lines and boots painted by Philip Guston. My hope is to enable a heightened awareness of the tension between the brain’s urge to look and its capacity to imbue what we see with meaning.

As badly as I wanted to leave my hometown of Phoenix, it was also a place that nourished the kind of aesthetic and professional principles I needed as a young artist. I was the copresident of eye lounge for a year. I received grants from the Phoenix Art Museum & Arizona Commission on the Arts. After fulfilling a residency at Yaddo, I was seduced by the “move to New York City to become a distinguished artist” narrative. Instead of pursuing the traditional path of a MFA program, I maintain a robust studio practice and serve as the Director of Gemini GEL (the LA-based artists’ workshop). http://www.chrissantamaria.org/works.html/

Eye of God (State I) Paper Collage on Wood Panel 16� diameter 2012

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Lisa Marie SIPE In her sculptural, encaustic works of art Lisa Marie Sipe captures the destructive force of wildfires. Her work comments on the ability that forest fire has to scar and transform the landscape. The work is about control and what is precious, natural and unnatural. Sipe’s success as an artist has been recognized in The Arizona Republic’s article “Making their Mark,” as well as other publications, including the artist of the month in Phoenix Magazine.

In her work, she captures incidents of affliction in nature such as fire or disease. She treats her surface as a three-dimensional space. Her work has been exhibited twice at the Southwest Biennial at Tucson Museum of Art as well as Tempe Center for the Arts, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, NAU Art Museum and Orange County Center for Contemporary Art. Sipe currently lives in Bend, Oregon.

http://www.lisamariesipe.com/

Tangled Ravaged Encaustic and Photography on Panel 10” x 10” x 5” 2013

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Joe Willie SMITH Joe Willie Smith is an artist, musician, and designer. He is also what current American culture calls a “picker.” He has an innate sense for finding value in cast-off objects that are given away to thrift stores, found on the street, in the desert, and un-noticed by others. He is a cultural treasure hunter. Smith collects objects that are imbued with the human spirit.

He sees sculptural messages in salvaged pieces of bent steel, wood or broken glass. He treasures the cultural detritus of humanity and identifies with the universal need to create.

Since the age of ten, Joe Willie Smith has constantly created art from anything available. He creates with sound, collected treasures, and found objects to be exhibited and shared in homes, galleries, special places. His compulsion to arrange, collect and create beauty in the world around him is an unstoppable force. His own artwork—furniture; sculpture, paintings, drawings and unconventional musical instruments are unavoidably inspired by the messages imbued in his collections. Smith’s work is not traditional - not traditional for the Phoenix art scene, or anywhere else. Smith has captivated viewers for years with his foundobject instruments and furniture, leading to exhibitions at eye lounge and Bentley Gallery.

More recently, to accompany his personal work, Smith has instructed a class at Phoenix College entitled “Urban Field Studies: The Art of Finding,” teaching students to utilize found materials in their art. http://www.scottsdalepublicart.org/temporary-art/exhibitions/cultural-savant-the-artand-collections-of-joe-willie-smith/

I thought that I Could Fly Polychrome Steel 30" x 60" x 10" 2013

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Tom STRITCH I am a mixed media artist who has been working on public art and studio art projects professionally since 1993. I value making and working in both spheres of artistic production. The connections between art and science are important within my work. My particular focus is on the processes of perception and the tools we use to understand the world around us. Early on, I developed a love of the aesthetic qualities of scientific instrumentation. References to these instruments have been an ongoing theme throughout my work. I have used these forms to explore the human relationship to the land and to consider physical landscape as a metaphor for terrains of the mind.

Recently, as part of my artistic practice, I have been delving into the speculative history of the reclusive and eccentric rocket scientist Dr. Hugo Kinstler Volans. Not much is known about Dr. Volans. It is thought that he was originally a political refugee from Europe prior to WWII. The histories state that he participated in the early development of America’s space program, but somewhere along the way he became disillusioned and left the institutions of established research. He is said to have settled somewhere in the deserts of Arizona and/or New Mexico. It was in this isolation he pursued his own direction of research. In my investigations I have stumbled across some of his notebooks. I have learned that Dr. Volans felt that the American space program had lost its way and had strayed from its greater purpose in the pursuit of minute measurements, mundane practicality, and political symbolism. He proposed to create his own series of space probes and satellites that he felt would take an alternative approach toward exploring the fundamental questions of the human condition and its place within the cosmos.

This model depicts my proposal to construct a re-interpretation of Hugo Kinstler Volans' speculated launch site. This full display was developed and proposed as a public art project for the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was presented as one of five finalist designs for the International Symposium for Electronic Arts (ISEA) 2012 Sculpture Design Competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The scale is 1 inch = 1 foot. http://www.eyelounge.com/strich/

Launch Pad into the Space of Dreams Wood, Plastic, and Metal 24” x 50” x 24” 2012

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Karolina SUSSLAND The supersaturated photos of sunsets put forth by Arizona Highways magazine (circa late 1970s) helped motivate my parents to immigrate to Arizona rather than to Australia — our most promising choices due to the positioning of relatives that got out of then Czechoslovakia before the borders closed. We had to escape. These sunsets represented the utopian American freedom. I’m drawn to this pretense of perfection. I painted a couple of sunsets with color and then started to wonder how they would look if they were black and white. Eventually I removed all the color and am painting the foreground with interference gold — my chosen color of goodness in my goodness project.

Karolina Sussland was born in the Czech Republic in 1971 and came to the United States in 1980. She graduated from ASU in 2000 with drawing after switching her major from Chemistry in her senior year. Sussland has shown at Modified Arts, LoDo, eye lounge, and Ice House which has allowed her to develop more relationships with local artists. At eye lounge, Sussland did a series of cowboy paintings done from movie stills using a paused DVD. This was a response to Phoenix Art Museum showing the exclusively male group "Cowboy Artists of America" as a major annual show that women aren't allowed to participate in. Also, she did a series of lush paintings of Sex Offenders using a downloaded PDF from Garland, Texas. More recently she had an exhibition at the Ice House where she focused on pornography. Sussland had the local art goers and artists pose for their portraits and manipulated their nose and mouth into an anus and a vagina. There were about 70 drawn portraits on about 90 feet of almost continuous paper. Sussland has been reviewed in Art Papers and Arizona Republic and was published in "Phoenix: 21st Century City". http://www.eyelounge.com/sussland/

White Sunset with Flowers Acrylic on Paper 38” x 50” 2012

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Kaori TAKAMURA Carefree Arizona artist Kaori Takamura works in acrylic on canvas with machine stitching in selected colored threads. In her works entitled SEWN, she presents quiet emotions while evoking distant memories. What she is constantly seeking to capture in her work is the essence of long forgotten memories embodied in letter forms and familiar icons found in everyday objects. A graphic and packaging designer by trade, she balances the interrelationship between design and art through her explorations on canvas. The title SEWN refers to the stitching together of various themes, concepts and emotions in a kind of patchwork quilt of expressions. In all of her work, Takamura treats letterforms, packaging icons and signage as timeless and strangely familiar subjects that evoke subtle memories and emotions.

Kaori Takamura lives in Carefree, and her work has been shown nationally as well as internationally. Her work can be described as a unique harmony of silk-screened patterns with machine stitching in a kind of patchwork quilt of expressions. Takamura is represented

by Gebert Contemporary Art Gallery in Scottsdale.

http://www.kaoritakamura.com/

Aloha Shirt 50” x 40” Acrylic on Canvas, Stitching 2014

Adidas Superstar 11” x 11” Acrylic on Canvas, Silkscreen, Stitching 2014

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Kate TIMMERMAN As a witness to over a decade of drought in the Sonoran desert I rely on my inner monologues to navigate the river of anxiety that flows through humankind and nature.

Layering pigmented waxes and punishing the surfaces with razor blades and gouges formally expresses an inner drama. The altered ocotillos function as metaphors for my search to understand the ways environments change our consciousness.

Kate D. Timmerman is a mixed media artist capitalizing on the physicality of materials (wax, pigment, wood, stone and steel) in order to reveal human nature and express experience.

Timmerman studied art in Italy, New York, Seattle, Maine and Phoenix. Her background includes curatorial positions at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Phoenix Art Museum and Herberger Theater Center Steele Gallery in Phoenix. She is the recipient of the 2005 and 2009 Artist Career Development grant from the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. Her public art and collaborative community projects include Free Arts of Arizona, Thomas Pappas School for Homeless Youth, Tempe Public Library, Scottsdale Unified Public Schools, Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. http://kdtimmerman.com/kdt-bio.html /

Altered Ocotillo Encaustic on Panel 12” x 24” x 2” 2008

Solo Ocotillo Encaustic on Panel 7.25” x 7” x 2” 2008

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Lisa Corine von KOCH In Mysore, India, there is a temple dedicated to the Goddess Chamundi on the top of a hill, Chamundi Betta, reachable by climbing the Thousand Steps. As they climb the hill, people stoop to leave marks with their fingertips on each and every step along the way. They use the yellow spice turmeric, and the red pigment kumkum. These pigments are kept in abundance at shrines along the way, encouraging everyone to participate in the ritual. As you climb and leave these marks, your journey becomes a meditation and an offering. You leave a trace of yourself in your wake; you participate with a river of humanity in designating space as sacred. The stairs are luminous, covered in these glorious colors; a gorgeous integration of human presence in the natural world.

In my hometown of Moab, Utah, there are stairs that lead to an astonishing canyon in Mill Creek.

Frequented almost entirely by locals, this canyon has been a temple for me as well. I have spent many hours hiking, meditating, healing, and taking photos. In the canyon, I feel both grounded and free to be fully and authentically myself. I wanted to do something to designate this as sacred space, and started to make marks with natural earth pigments on the steps that are built into the canyon. I did this at first as they do in India using only dabs of pigment with my fingertips, but as I did it, I felt so lucky to have this easy and free space so close to home. I couldn’t help but think about all of the effort and intense amounts of labor that was required to build these steps in the first place, and how grateful I am that it exists for all of us. We in Moab are incredibly fortunate to have immediate escape into nature all around us, which is one of the greatest reasons to live here. What is not always considered is how much work goes into creating these avenues for escape, particularly onto public lands. Many people are involved in the planning and design of these trails and access points: meetings are held, funding must be procured, bureaucratic hoops jumped through, and many hours of hard physical labor are required to create these trails, which are, by design, invisible. They are meant to integrate as minimally into the environment as possible. The piece that I created, For Chamundi, is designed to make this work impossible to overlook, but only for a short time. The pigments that I used were Earth-based natural pigments, completely non-toxic and non-staining, and wore away quickly under foot traffic and weather.

This ephemeral work was intended to designate the canyon as sacred space, to celebrate the people involved in creating this incredible system of trails that give us easy and free access to this sacred space, and to contribute to the unique and magical environment for those that experienced the rainbow steps, while they lasted. I entered this work into the Moab Plein Air competition, in the category of Dry Media. It was an attempt to expand the definition of what Plein Air might be in the contemporary art context. The work met with criticism from some members of the community and beyond, but many others who have visited the site had a wonderful experience, and saw what I have done as beautiful.

Lisa Corine von Koch is an artist and educator, and is proud to have grown up in beautiful Moab, Utah. She received her B.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from the University of Utah in 2005, and her M.F.A. in Painting and Drawing from Arizona State University in 2009. Her personal practice has expanded from painting and drawing to include sculpture, performance, installation and collaboration. She is the recipient of fellowships to attend residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Santa Fe Art Institute, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts. Von Koch’s work has been included in the Arizona Biennial and been installed at the Phoenix Art Museum and she was the winner of the Artist Grant from the 2011 Contemporary Forum in Phoenix Arizona. http://lisacvonkoch.com/

For Chamundi (Chakra Ascendance) Video of performance 1:37 Minutes 2014

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Nic WIESINGER It has been said there is no straight line in geography, that nature moves toward the path of least resistance and therefore geometric absolutes do not exist in landscape. Anyone who has flown across the middle of this country has seen that this is not true. The land has been divided and appropriated with systematic manipulation, creating a patchwork of squares, rectangles, and circles turning the land into a false representation of natural terrain, water flow, and habitat. These images are taken from screen shots of Google Maps, then created in Adobe Illustrator. The colors and geographic regions most closely match the colors from the aerial photography to create a palette and composition for these images that is startling and harmonious, ordered and chaotic.

Nic Wiesinger completed his MFA in Intermedia Art from Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. He received BFA’s from Ball State University in Education with a focus on Social History, and Herron School of Art and Design in Photography. His interdisciplinary, social based art practice weaves history, place, participation, ecology and technology. Drawing on a background of social history, land art, and mapping practices, he creates online participatory websites, site specific performances mediated through technology, and social / spatial mapping events that tie history and water with place, experience and memory. He has shown in the ASU Art Museum’s Open for Business show, The Ohio State University’s Re.SURFACING show, and at the International Digital Media and Arts Association Conference. He was a member of eye lounge and a Contemporary Forum grant recipient from the Phoenix Art Museum. http://www.nicwiesinger.com

The Geometry of Geography: Near Copeland, KS C Print 24” x 36” 2012

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Mindy Sue WITTOCK This piece is an exploration in the new experiences that come with motherhood, specifically breastfeeding. I am interested in recycling household textiles and reusing them in my studio practice. Milk Pads is made from disposable breast pads and embellished with sequins to cover the breast milk stains. I am completely fascinated in the body changes that happen with pregnancy and postpartum.

Mindy Sue Wittock received a BA from the University of Wisconsin Green Bay and a MFA from Arizona State University with a concentration in fibers and textiles. She currently works in her home studio. She enjoys drinking coffee, collecting vintage household textiles, and playing monsters with her one-year-old daughter. http://mindysuemeyers.blogspot.com/

Milk Pads Disposable Breast Pads, Sequins, Beads, Thread 10” x 4” 2014

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Denise YAGHMOURIAN Working with found objects, fabric remnants, wood, sewing notions and other everyday objects, Denise Yaghmourian creates sculptural forms that rely on repetition to create a sense of infinite wonder. Conjoining the repetitive process inherent in machine-made items with laboriously repetitious handwork, Yaghmourian embraces the hypnotic and meditative inherent in both. The artist enjoys scavenging through notion and fabric stores, thrift shops and toy stores to ferret out materials she uses to entice the viewer to step closer to her finished work in order to relate to the objects in divergent ways and ultimately to observe them in a different light.

Denise Yaghmourian was born in Bethpage, New York in 1967. She moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1976, at the young age of 8. She enjoyed her childhood in central Phoenix, and spent lots of time in the pool, playing in vacant lots (filled with date palms and olive trees) and enjoyed gardening with her grandparents. Yaghmourian studied art at Arizona State University and works as a full time artist. She has exhibited her work at The Tucson Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Bogena Galerie in Saint Paul de Vence, France, SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery in NYC, and Bentley Projects, Arizona. Her work is in public collections including Tucson Museum of Art, The University of New Mexico, Banner Desert Samaritan Hospital and The Institute for Mental health Research. She is represented by Bogena Gallery. http://deniseyaghmourian.com/

Black w/Grey and White Cube (House) Fabric, Thread, Hooks, on Wood 10” x 7” x 7” 2011

Stained Stacked Cubes Fabric, Thread, Wire, Eyelets, on Wood 8.25” x 8.25” x 8.25” 2011

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ARTIST DIRECTORY Kristin Bauer, p. 6-7 kristinbauerart.com

Mimi Jardine, p. 48-49 mimijardine.com

Crystal Phelps, p. 92-93 crystalgalephelps.com

David L. Bradley, p. 8-9 davidbradleyart.com

Keith Laber, p. 50-51 eyelounge.com/keith-laber

Benjamin Phillips, p. 94-35 benjaminphillips.com

Betsy Bret Harte, p. 10-11 eyelounge.com/bretharte

Carolyn Lavender, p. 52-53 artist-carolyn-lavender.blogspot.com

Lara Plecas, p. 96-97 larakupcikevicius.blogspot.com

Peter Bugg, p. 12-13 peterbugg.com

Aimee Leon, p. 54-55 aimeeleon.com

Christy Puetz, p. 98-99 xtyart.com

Cherie Buck-Hutchison, p. 14-15 cheriebuckhutchison.com

Marc Leone, p. 56-57 marcleone.com

Karyn Ricci, p. 100-101 eyelounge.com/ricci

Angela Cazel-Jahn, p. 16-17 cazeljahn.net

Chris Maker, p. 58-59 eyelounge.com/chris-maker

Cole Robertson, p. 102-103 colerobertsonphoto.com

Sue Chenoweth, p. 18-19 schenoweth.com

Naomi Marine, p. 60-61 www.naomimarine.com

Marco Rosichelli, p. 104-105 rosichelli.com

Cindy Dach, p. 20-21 eyelounge.com/dach

Cheryle Marine, p. 62-63 www.eyelounge.com/cmarine

Rebecca Ross, p. 106-107 rebeccarossstudio.com

Lee Davis, p. 22-23 leedavisarts.com

Melissa Martinez, p. 64-65 www.howestreetstudio.com

Kris Sanford, p. 108-109 krissanford.com/

Turner G. Davis, p. 24-25 turnergdavis.com

Emily Matyas, p. 66-67 www.emilymatyas.com

Chris Santa Maria, p. 110-111 chrissantamaria.org

Sean Deckert, p. 26-27 seandeckert.com

Constance McBride, p. 68-69 constancemcbride.com

Lisa Marie Sipe, p. 112-113 lisamariesipe.com

Nick DeFord, p. 28-29 nickdeford.com

Merkel McLendon, p. 70-71 merkel1.vpweb.com

Alison Dunn, p. 30-31 alisondunn.weebly.com

R. Eric McMaster, p. 72-73 rericmcmaster.com

Joe Willie Smith, p. 114-115 scottsdalepublicart.org/temporaryart/exhibitions/cultural-savant-the-art-andcollections-of-joe-willie-smith/

Paul Elliott, p. 32-33 eyelounge.com/paul-elliott

Abbey Messmer, p. 74-75 abbeymessmer.com

Greg Esser, p. 34-35 gregesser.com

Mary Meyer, p. 76-77 marymeyerstudio.com

Andrea Sherrill Evans, p. 36-37 andreasherrillevans.com Daniel Funkhouser, p. 38-39 eyelounge.com/danielfunkhouse Jes Gettler, p. 40-41 eyelounge.com/gettler Dain Gore, p. 42-43 daingore.com Steve Hilton, p. 44-45 stevenhilton.com Christopher Jagmin, p. 46-47 jagminart.com

Ryan Peter Miller, p. 78-79 ryanpetermiller.com Teresa Moralez, p. 80-81 teresamoralez.com Ann Morton, p. 82-83 annmortonaz.com John Randall Nelson, p. 84-85 whonelson.com Dianne Nowicki, p. 86-87 diannenowicki.com Christina You-sun Park, p. 88-89 christinayousunpark.com Marcus Payzant, p. 90-91 marcuspayzant.com

Tom Stritch, p. 116-117 eyelounge.com/strich Karolina Sussland, p. 118-119 eyelounge.com/sussland Kaori Takamura, p. 120-121 kaoritakamura.com Kate Timmerman, p. 122-123 kdtimmerman.com Lisa von Koch, p. 124-125 lisacvonkoch.com Nic Wiesinger, p. 126-127 nicwiesinger.com Mindy Sue Wittock, p. 128-129 mindysuemeyers.blogspot.com Denise Yaghmourian, p. 130-131 deniseyaghmourian.com

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS eye lounge artists who made this exhibition possible Vision Gallery Staff eye lounge Exhibition Committee:

Cherie Buck-Hutchison

Mimi Jardine

Constance McBride

Christina You-sun Park eye lounge has been featured in local and national press including Art In America, ArtNews, Phoenix New Times, Sunset Magazine, Java and others. The collective participates as a shuttle stop for Artlink First Fridays and is a founding member of Roosevelt Row. eye lounge is located at 419 East Roosevelt St. in Phoenix. For more information, please visit www.eyelounge.com.

Vision Gallery is a cultural center in Downtown Chandler, a place where art is integrated into the community. Exhibits are rotated on a regular basis. The gallery is located at 10 E. Chicago St. in Chandler. For more information, please check the exhibition schedule at www.visiongallery.org.

eye lounge – a contemporary art space 419 E. Roosevelt St. Phoenix, AZ 85004 www.eyelounge.com

eye lounge art space press | eye lounge – 15 year anniversary member artist catalogue, 2016 Catalogue Editor: Constance McBride Catalogue Assistance: Abbey Messmer, Christina You-sun Park Cover Design: Keith Laber Library of Congress Control Number: 2016931964 Published to recognize members of the eye lounge artists collective Catalogue @2016 eye lounge.

All artwork, photography and texts @2016 by the individual artists and writers.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher.