National Weather Center Biennale Catalogue

THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

Art’s window on the impact of weather on the human experience

THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA | NORMAN, OKLAHOMA | 2013

THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE art’s window on the impact of weather on the human experience

APRIL 22 - JUNE 2, 2013

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4. INTRODUCTION 6. NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER 8. FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART 10. NORMAN ARTS COUNCIL 12. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 13. PAINTING 63. PHOTOGRAPHY 89. WORKS ON PAPER 120. PUBLICATION NOTES

INTRODUCTION

THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE The idea was a simple one – that Norman, Oklahoma, home of the National Weather Center and the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, should also become the home of a national juried show of art about the weather. Getting here was not all that simple. The original concept, first generated in 2010 in response to an online appeal by the Norman Arts Council for new ideas, had lain dormant for some time when opportunity arose. The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art was undergoing a major renovation and, consequently, the annual student art show was looking for a venue. Upon hearing about the students’ plight, and eager to familiarize the university community with his spectacular new headquarters, Director Berrien Moore III volunteered the National Weather Center as the temporary home for the art students’ exhibition.

The event was such a tremendous success that Ghislain d’Humières, the director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and Director Moore were soon looking for ways to continue the collaboration between the world of art and the world of weather. All it took was a little hot air, and, as we say here in Oklahoma, “conditions were perfect for a major weather event.” Our joint proposal to host the first National Weather Center Biennale was met with enthusiasm by University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren’s office and before you could say “severe thunderstorm warning,” we were off and running.

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Visitors to the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma’s research campus are greeted by the Latin phrase Totum Animo Comprendere Caelum, literally “understand the sky with your mind.” It speaks not only to the work that goes on at the National Weather Center, but to one of the ancient inclinations of mankind: the desire to comprehend the dynamic nature of the environment in order to better understand our own place in the world. It is no accident that weather has become one of the most beloved metaphors for the condition of our own existence. Since antiquity we have spoken of “seasons of the heart” and “storms of passion.”

It is weather that keeps us humble in the face of the awesome powers that move in the heavens while at the same time stirring our awareness of the ephemeral beauty of creation.

As a result, weather has always been an important subject in visual art. From Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s Hunters in the Snow of 1565 to John Constable’s cloud studies in 1821-22, and on to Claude Monet’s atmospheric interpretations of suburban Paris in the 1890s (the founding “documents” of the Impressionist movement), weather has served as an inspiration to major artists throughout history. Because of this, my colleagues and I suspected that an art exhibition about the weather would tap a deep reservoir of creative energy, and we were not mistaken.

Our initial call for entries stimulated interest from artists all over the world. In the end, we received

more than 700 entries from all 50 states and a number of foreign countries. Due largely to logistical considerations, we limited this biennale to twodimensional works in three categories: painting, photography and works on paper (including printmaking and both wet and dry media on paper).

From the outset we knew that we were going to limit the size of the exhibition to 100 artworks selected by a team comprised of representatives from each of the co-sponsoring organizations: the National Weather Center, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the Norman Arts Council.

The amazing IT folks at the National Weather Center began work on a state-of-the-art system that allowed participants to register and upload works of art online in a high-resolution format. This allowed us to both view the artwork in great detail for selection consideration and prepare imagery for the printed catalogue. Even though the artist information was uploaded, only the titles, dimensions and media were available to the initial selection jurors.

Our challenge was to choose the best work submitted while at the same time balancing our media categories, holding onto the notion that all manner of weather should be represented, and that we should strive to recognize the wide variety of artistic styles and approaches encompassed by the submissions. In addition, we worked hard to keep in mind our initial charge to the artists: to consider the impact of weather on the human experience.

I must say that our initial reaction to the submissions was nothing short of gleeful. We knew immediately that this would be an exciting, wide-ranging and artistically challenging exhibition. I feel confident that our viewers will agree that we met all of our goals for the National Weather Center Biennale. The artists themselves, in the written statements and biographical notes that they have provided for this catalog, bring additional insight to the work. My only regret is that we were forced to leave a lot of great work by some very talented artists out of this exhibition.

impose his will and nature’s, or perhaps God’s, inexhaustible powers of transformation. For all of them, the weather has served as a means to reach out to us in ways that will startle and amuse us, provoke us and provide us with glimpses of the sublime. Through the work of these artists, I hope we will all be able to see and appreciate the world around us in ways that will deepen our wonder and strengthen our resolve to nurture it and each other, now and for the future. I want to thank all of the artists of this, the first National Weather Center Biennale, for their dedication to their art.

We are all richer because of it.

The most delightful part of this whole experience has been the affirmation that weather continues to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists working in all media and who approach art making from a tremendous variety of perspectives. For some of the artists in this exhibition, weather serves as a vehicle for accessing their own subconscious; it becomes a very personal and often poetic way of describing the forces that shape both inner and outer landscapes.

Alan Atkinson Curator, The National Weather Center Biennale

For others, the weather is a signpost that points directly to changes taking place in the earth around us. It is a call to action; it is even a cry for help. Often it appears that weather provides the framework of an implied narrative, the eternal contest between man’s desire to

Alan Atkinson, Ph.D. is an independent scholar of Asian art and culture, an artist, a student of the Japanese tea ceremony, and a carver of fine jacko’-lanterns. He studied printmaking and film at the University of Oklahoma and received an MA and Ph.D. in Chinese art history from the University of Kansas, squeezing in a couple years at Nankai University

in Tianjin, PRC, along the way.

After several years in China and Japan, Atkinson spent ten years teaching art history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he also served as Director of Development for the Visual Arts Gallery and Associate Chair of the Department of Art and Art History. The declining health of his parents and a longing for the wideopen spaces brought him and his wife Susan back to his hometown of Norman, Oklahoma in 2002 to raise two children.

He is the author of a number of articles on both traditional and contemporary Chinese art and is the former director of the Hefner Collection of Contemporary Chinese Art in Oklahoma City.

Atkinson has curated several exhibitions at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art including Hung Liu: Now And Then and No Heaven Awaits Us: Contemporary Photography from the People’s Republic of China.

His paintings have recently been exhibited at JRB Art Gallery on the Paseo in Oklahoma City and at MAINSITE Contemporary Art in Norman. Atkinson has taught Chinese history and Asian art history as an adjunct instructor at the University of Oklahoma. He currently serves as the Scoutmaster of BSA Troop 241, chartered at McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church in Norman.

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NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER

In the fall of 2006, the University of Oklahoma officially opened the doors of the National Weather Center, one of the most important facilities in the world for weather education and training, research and development, and operations and services. This $67 million, 254,000-square-foot building unites the University’s world-class educational and research programs with the Norman-based research and operational programs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This state-of-the-art facility fosters and facilitates interactions among OU and NOAA colleagues, producing synergies in integrated education, research, and services that have significant impacts on the practice of meteorology worldwide.

Constructed through a unique OU-Federal collaboration, the National Weather Center is the flagship facility for OU’s 271-acre Cy and Lissa Wagner Research Campus across from Lloyd Noble Center. the University, the State of Oklahoma and the Federal Government shared the cost of construction of the National Weather Center.

The National Weather Center houses five stories of classroom, office and research space plus a rooftop outdoor classroom and weather observation deck. Over 500 people work in the National Weather Center, including research scientists, operational meteorologists and climatologists, engineers, technicians, support staff and graduate and undergraduate students. The National Weather Center proudly employs individuals who have won numerous awards for their work. Building staff members have received recognition for operational forecasting excellence, research excellence, teaching excellence, technology and innovation, and for excellence in tourism and bringing new business to the area. Not many facilities can claim awards and recognition in “all of the above.”

Since its opening, the National Weather Center has hosted numerous special events, projects and guests including Town Hall meetings for US Congress members, weather safety training for numerous national organizations including the NFL, Georgia Dome and Chicagoland Speedway, current and former astronauts, several Governors, a First Lady Retreat representing 28 states, authors, national conferences of our professional society (AMS), historical and literacy programs for the Oklahoma Historical Society and Oklahoma Libraries, the kick off for the National Weather Service’s Weather Ready Nation initiative, summer camps for students both locally and at the Clinton Presidential Library in Arkansas, and numerous social functions such as business parties, concerts, weddings and receptions.

Dr. Berrien Moore III Director, National Weather Center Chesapeake Energy Corporation Chair in Climate Studies, OU School of Meteorology Dean, OU College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences, Vice President for Weather & Climate Programs, OU As a mathematician, Dr. Berrien Moore III began his academic career at the University of New Hampshire. He later spent a year at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at which time he began an intensive investigation of the global carbon cycle and climate. He has had appointments at the East-West Center in Hawaii, the University of Stockholm and the University of Paris.

He joined the OU College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences as dean designate in May 2010, and dean in July. He also serves as professor of meteorology, the Chesapeake Energy Corporation Chair in Climate Studies, director of the National Weather Center, and vice president for Weather and Climate Programs. Most recently, Moore served as executive director of Climate Central, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think-tank based in Princeton, New Jersey, and Palo Alto, California., which is dedicated to providing public, business and civic leaders and policymakers with objective and understandable information about climate change and potential solutions.

Moore has published extensively on the global carbon cycle, biogeochemistry, remote sensing and environmental policy. Prior to heading Climate Central, he served for 20 years as the director of the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire and held the position of Distinguished University Professor.

In recognition of his lifelong dedication to science, he has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal for outstanding service to the agency – NASA’s highest civilian honor; the NOAA Administrator’s Recognition Award; and the 2007 Dryden Lectureship in Research by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. As a participant in the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and coordinating lead author of the concluding section of the panel’s Third Assessment Report in 2001, Moore shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore for their work in advancing public understanding of global warming and its environmental consequences. He is an elected Fellow in the American Meteorological Society.

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FRED JONES JR. MUSEUM OF ART Located on the northwest campus of the University of Oklahoma, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is one of the finest university art museums in the United States.

In 1936, with the generous gift of Lew Wentz and Gordon Matzene’s large collection of East Asian art, Oscar Jacobson (1882-1966) was named director of the University’s new art museum. Jacobson’s vision for a museum building came to fruition in 1971, when Mr. and Mrs. Fred Jones of Oklahoma City donated a fine arts building to the University in memory of their son, Fred Jones, Jr. Over the years, the museum’s permanent collection has grown exponentially through the generosity of donors such as Max Weitzenhoffer and Jerome M. Westheimer Sr. In 1996, with an initial gift of $1 million from Mrs. Fred Jones, OU President and Mrs. David L. Boren spearheaded the successful fundraising campaign to acquire the important collection of the late Richard H. and Adeline J. Fleischaker, which is composed primarily of Native American and Southwestern art. This acquisition generated the gifts of collections from Priscilla C. and Joseph Tate, as well as William H. Thams, in memory of his wife, Roxanne Thams.

2000 was a watershed year in the development of the FJJMA’s collections, with the gift of the Weitzenhoffer Collection of French Impressionism. In 2005 the museum opened a new addition, designed by acclaimed architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen of Washington, D.C., and named in honor of Mary and Howard Lester of San Francisco.

In 2007, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa were

named joint stewards of the Eugene B. Adkins Collection. To properly display OU’s portion of the approximately 3,300-object collection, the University built a new level above the original museum structure and opened the Stuart Wing in 2011. Named after OU Regent Jon R. Stuart and his wife, Dee Dee, and designed by acclaimed architect Rand Elliott, the addition provides 8,300-square-feet for the Adkins Gallery and a new 4,500-square-foot photography and works on paper gallery. The museum now totals approximately 40,000 square feet of exhibition space.

In spring 2010, Arizona-based James T. Bialac decided to give his private collection to OU because of the University’s commitment to excellence in education. The multimilliondollar collection of more than 4,000 works represents indigenous cultures across North America, especially the Pueblos of the Southwest, the Navajo, the Hopi, many of the tribes of the Northern and Southern Plains and the Southeastern tribes. Included in the James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection are approximately 2,600 paintings and works on paper, over 1,000 kachinas and 400 works of varying media, including ceramics and jewelry, representing major Native artists.

In November 2012, the University of Oklahoma announced a new annual gift from the OU Athletics Department, which now provides complimentary admission for all visitors to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in perpetuity. This unique collaboration between athletics and art is one of the first in the United States creating free admission for a university art museum through a university athletics program.

Strengths of the museum’s nearly 16,000-object

permanent collection are French Impressionism, twentieth-century American painting and sculpture, traditional and contemporary Native American art, art of the Southwest, ceramics, photography, contemporary art, Asian art and graphics from the sixteenth century to the present. Temporary exhibitions are mounted throughout the year with educational programs that explore the art of various periods and cultures.

The museum’s website is www.ou.edu/fjjma.

Ghislain d’Humières The Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art After studying history and art history at the Sorbonne in Paris, Ghislain d’Humières became a specialist in eighteenth-century furniture for Sotheby’s London, and then transferred to New York.

He became the director of the jewelry department at Christie’s PHOTO BY SHEVAUN WILLIAMS of Los Angeles and then transferred to Christie’s in Geneva where he was in charge of international clients from Europe and South America. In 2004, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco hired him as assistant director in charge of the opening of the new de Young Museum. Following that appointment, he joined the University of Oklahoma as the Bill and Wylodean Saxon Director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, where he has overseen the construction of the Stuart Wing, which opened in 2011.

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NORMAN ARTS COUNCIL

The Norman Arts Council has been working to support and promote Norman’s artists and arts organizations since 1979. Today, the NAC operates from MAINSITE Contemporary Art, a beautiful gallery in the heart of the Norman Arts District in downtown Norman.

Annually, the NAC grants funds in excess of $150,000 to more than 20 Norman arts and cultural organizations for the projects that make this a great arts community.

In addition to its granting program, the NAC serves as an anchor to the arts community with programming designed to enlighten and entertain. The 2nd Friday Circuit of Art is a free, monthly art walk sponsored by the NAC in which artists, galleries, organizations, and small businesses open their doors to visitors for a free evening of arts each month.

The NAC recently created the Norman Open Studios Exhibit and Weekend that invites visitors through the doors of spaces where Norman artists create their work. Through MAINSITE, the NAC curates and hosts contemporary art exhibits meant to engage audiences with work being created by emerging and career artists from around the world.

The Norman Public Arts Board, a collaboration between the NAC and the City of Norman, works to place art in the public spaces of the community and has installed many public art works around Norman.

The NAC is particularly proud of its collaborations with other Norman arts organizations to create meaningful and fulfilling arts education opportunities

for all ages in Norman. With the Pioneer Library System, the NAC hosts an annual writers workshop with prominent local and regional authors. With the Norman Public Schools, the NAC sponsors both a guest artist program and a youth writing workshop. With the Firehouse Art Center, the NAC funds Kids Art is Smart, a program that places a full time art teacher in two Norman elementary schools. And the NAC has multiple collaborations with the University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History that give university art students opportunities to expand their education to gallery, organizational, and community settings.

Erinn Gavaghan Executive Director, Norman Arts Council Erinn Gavaghan arrived in Oklahoma after graduating from Webster University in St. Louis with a MA in art history.

Prior to coming to the NAC, Gavaghan formed her foundations of arts management working for Ballet Oklahoma (now Oklahoma City Ballet) and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

PHOTO BY SHEVAUN WILLIAMS

Since returning to Oklahoma to lead the Norman Arts Council, Gavaghan has become engaged with many of the metro’s wonderful arts organizations. She has served as the Emerging Curator for Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s highly praised Momentum

program. She was awarded an OVAC Curatorial and Writing Fellowship in 2012, where she had the opportunity to work with such respected mentors as Hamza Walker of the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; David Pagel, art critic for the LA Times; and Shannon Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the Rochester Arts Center in Minneapolis.

Gavaghan also contributes as a writer to OVAC’s Art Focus magazine.

Gavaghan is a board member for the Cultural Development Corporation of Central Oklahoma where she co-chaired a focus group to examine the state of individual artists in central Oklahoma and serves as chair of the Oklahoma Artist Network, a new organization that facilitates creative growth through interdisciplinary communications and collaboration among Central Oklahoma artists. She is also very active in the Norman community and volunteers her time as a board member of the Norman Downtowner’s Association and sits on the Mayor’s Community Roundtable.

Gavaghan’s dedication to arts management is equal only to her dedication to higher education.

She is currently an adjunct professor of art history at Oklahoma City Community College and also has lectured as an adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma. She continues to teach, write, and curate while managing the operations of the Norman Arts Council.

The opportunity to serve as an initial juror for the National Weather Center Biennale has been one of the most pleasurable of her career with the Norman Arts Council.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Collaboration is key when pulling off an international biennale. The success of the inaugural National Weather Center Biennale is due to the many people and organizations who made it possible. From its inception to completion, the biennale has proven a wonderful collaboration between the National Weather Center, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, and the Norman Arts Council.

First and foremost, we are grateful to University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren for recognizing and supporting the roles art and weather play in the human experience, and how they are related and can work together. Thanks to Nick Hathaway, the Office of the President, and OU Public Affairs for generous support throughout the process.

Alan Atkinson, the biennale’s curator, helped create the initial vision for this project, and has carried this vision to fruition over the past nearly three years. His hard work and creativity are evident in the quality of artwork represented in this exhibition; both are much appreciated.

We are grateful for the participation of our guest jurors, Spencer Finch, a contemporary American artist specializing in glass and light installations; Christoph Heinrich, the Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the Denver Art Museum; and Jacqui Jeras, a broadcast meteorologist with WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., and their help selecting this year’s prizewinners.

Much appreciation is given to Navajo artist Tony Abeyta, whose painting, Storm from the South, graces the cover of this catalogue and has served as the primary marketing image for the entire run of the biennale. Thanks also to the private collector who lent us the image of this painting.

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We extend special thanks to Jon Brightbill, Marty Thompson, and the OU Health Sciences Center for the use of display panels throughout the exhibition.

Thank you to the staff of the National Weather Center who worked tirelessly to provide a beautiful venue for staging the exhibition, to create an innovative new online application process, and to help with much of the operations behind the biennale: Melissa Bird, Heather Bowers, Jim Davis, Tanya Guthrie, Devon Harr, Mary Anne Hempe, Alicia Keys, Kyle Keys, Kevin Kloesel, Greg Leffler, Chris Maxon, Matt McCord, Heather Murphy, Lee Anne Sallee, Mona Springfield and Daphne Thompson.

We wish to thank the staff and student interns at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art who worked diligently to help the biennale come to pass in the midst of regular museum exhibitions, events, and programs: Gail Kana Anderson, Michael Bendure, Tracy Bidwell, Michelle Bui, Selena Capraro, Joyce Cummins, Page Grossman, Parker Hubbard, Kelly Johnson, Chelsea Julian, Daniel Sperle, Brad Stevens and Becky Zurcher Trumble. Thanks also to Keli Pirtle from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Public Affairs Office in Norman.

Special thanks to Cassie Gilman at the OU President’s Associates office for networking and calendar support.

Much appreciation is given to Joshua Boydston and Lauren Kelly Lester at the Norman Arts Council, who provided countless hours of research and promotion, as well as the NAC Board of

Directors for their support of this endeavor.

We would like to especially recognize and thank Joshua Boydston for his beautiful catalogue design.

Thanks to Kris Smith for additional assistance, on behalf of Rich Taylor, Dean of the OU Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts.

We are grateful for the University of Oklahoma and Norman, Oklahoma communities who continue to support the arts, weather research and unique collaborations like this.

Finally, this biennale would not be possible without the participation of all the artists who shared their artwork, passion, and vision with us throughout this project.

It has been our great pleasure working with so many supportive and creative people from so many backgrounds and affiliations. We hope you enjoy this premiere of the National Weather Center Biennale — and many more to come.

Dr. Berrien Moore III, Director National Weather Center Ghislain d’Humières, Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the University of Oklahoma Erinn Gavaghan, Executive Director Norman Arts Council

PAINTING

In Fear Of The Sky, Ippongi 13.6 x 17.3 in.

Oil on canvas board

Jason Michael Amster 1974 Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan I paint the people, places and things around me.

For me, painting is a way to stop and appreciate the moment. Each painting is a story in which colors and tones reveal the physicality — the existence — of that moment. Why not snap a photo? For me, I guess it’s selfish. I don’t feel that I would own the moment without focusing and examining and recording it with my own hand. I 14

paint to remember. I want to stop time and hold on to right now. Of course I can’t exactly do that, but painting is a way for me to slow down and observe the moment. The process lets me enjoy the subject in a deeper way before it slips by. I’m not just painting a person, I’m painting my love of light; my reaction to the person; my relationship with the paint itself; that person’s relationship to

their surroundings; to others — the list continues.

Looking at my paintings brings me back to people and times long past as if they were happening still.

This is a painting of a crosswalk in my town named Ippongi. I use it almost daily. My area is built up with tall apartment buildings and criss-crossed with power and telephone lines.

This intersection offers one of the few open

views of the sky. I often stop to enjoy a sunset or watch how the clouds are getting along. On this particular day I was struck by the intensity and weight of the sky. There were so many levels of clouds and each level reflected the light in a different way. I was instantly drawn to the situation visually while emotionally responding to the beauty and power of nature.

Downburst 30 x 30 in.

Oil on canvas

Dawn Waters Baker 1975 Garland, Texas, USA Painting the delicate light with a still hush as through a clouded pane of glass. Almost as if you have walked into an enchanted place where the trees and sky can

talk, where everything is a metaphor of our gritty world. Only, here, it has been given a softness of light, a feeling, a glimpse into the mystery.

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Bright Moment Before Dusk, Painted Desert 30 x 40 in.

Oil on canvas Loan courtesy of Rick J. Krause, Oklahoma City, OK

Carol Beesley 1938 Norman, Oklahoma, USA Oklahoma artist Carol Beesley uses personal experience of the landscape and the power of color to reveal what is “seen” beyond the reality of physical presence. Her work is in numerous 16

private collections and public venues including the Oklahoma State Supreme Court, Oklahoma City; the University of Oklahoma Schusterman Learning Center, Tulsa; and OU’s Catlett Music

Center, Norman. Her paintings were recently featured in the film Bringing Up Bobby (dir. Famke Janssen, 2011). She is represented

by JRB Art at the Elms on the Paseo,

Oklahoma City. Carol Beesley received her M.F.A. from UCLA in 1973 and is a University of Oklahoma emeritus professor in studio art and art history.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Tornado 20 x 30 in.

Chromogenic color photographic print mounted on plexiglass

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Wildfire 28 x 48 in.

Chromogenic color photographic print mounted on plexiglass

Matthew Albanese 1983 Rutherford, New Jersey, USA My work consists of small scale dioramas that I build by hand out of everyday, simple, mundane materials that are transformed into hyperrealistic vistas through the lens of my camera. In my worlds, ostrich feathers become willow trees, steel wool becomes a tornado, cooked sugar becomes a glacier and paprika allows me to explore the

surface of Mars. Nothing is off limits. I employ various methods to create a highly emotional and atmospheric space representational of my personal experiences.

Each diorama can take up to 7 months to build, light and photograph. It’s through the lens of my camera I am able to reveal my true intentions to

the viewer by utilizing various techniques and complex lighting situations. Flying by the seat of my pants (in my living room) I am able to discover new methods and techniques which I always try to implement in future works.

Deeply influenced by the world of special effects in film, I treat each diorama as if

it were a miniature movie set, a small film still of an ephemeral realm where weather and atmosphere play a key role. The final photograph is always the final destination of a deeply emotional and rewarding journey that I hope can inspire others like myself to get out and go make something.

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Cloud Cabin: Kiowa County 30 x 20 in.

Photograph

M. J. Alexander 1961 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA M.J. Alexander documents people and places of the American West, with an emphasis on the overlooked and under appreciated. The International Photography Hall of Fame describes her as “combining the vision of an artist with the skills of a storyteller.” She is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, a veteran of The Associated Press in New York City and former head of the journalism department of St. Michael’s College in Vermont.

Alexander is author and illustrator of two books: Salt of the Red 66

Earth, a collection of portraits of and interviews with 100 Oklahoma centenarians, and Portrait of a Generation: Sons and Daughters of the Red Earth, winner of a 2011 Oklahoma Book Award. Her work has been featured on national magazine covers and in 15 solo shows since 2006. Her ongoing magazine series of Oklahoma photoessays — 77 Counties, scheduled to run through 2019 — allows her to continue the search for the West’s best barbecue while heading for the curve of the horizon.

WORKS ON PAPER

Last Light 39 x 46 in.

Watercolor and mixed media on watercolor board

Daven Anderson 1943 St. Louis, Missouri, USA As a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, nuclear submariner and sailor, water has been and continues to be an important part of Mr. Anderson’s life. It is truly in his blood. Living in St. Louis and within walking distance of the river, he witnesses river life and activity almost daily. Being near the confluences of the Missouri and Illinois 90

Rivers with the Mississippi adds to the volume and variety of river activities.

Our nation’s inland waterways are as varied in their looks and uses as they are extensive in length. Mr. Anderson’s intention is to capture and celebrate the work and life on these very important national arteries. The series, Working the

Rivers, of which Last Light is one, will number over forty and will picture much of our national river system’s diverse use.

In capturing his river subject matter, first by photo and then by watercolor, oil or other artistic medium, Mr. Anderson rides and frequently lives aboard the river’s push boats, tugs, work boats,

ferries, ships, dredges and countless others means of water transportation. He explores the shipyards and industrial sites that line the river’s banks and give them human purpose in addition to their natural beauty and native life. As the series develops, a book is intended that will show the works and tell the stories of their development.

Faire Weather 30 x 25 in.

Ink on paper

David Abdo Bayazeed 1963 Norman, Oklahoma, USA David Abdo Bayazeed is a self-taught artist who uses pen and ink as his chosen medium.

He has been doing pen and ink drawings continuously since he was 15 years old. He supports himself with a lawn business

that he operates with a friend.

Currently, he goes to college online and helps his mom around the house. He is very excited to have been accepted into the National Weather Center Biennale.

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Kelvin-Helmholtz Cloud 24 x 32 in.

Mixed media on archival illustration board

Jess Beyler 1957 Champaign, Illinois, USA The Midwest has a natural resonance with Zen aesthetics. As my father used to say, “There’s nothing to get in the way of all that beauty.” My work is about the Wabi-Sabi of gritty reality and the magnificence of the Void.

The large emptiness of sky with its shifting calligraphy of clouds, each one the signature 92

shape of the exact NOW moment formed by the forces of wind and light, is the place where science and dreams meet. We watch them to make our daily practical decisions and we know our dreams by the images our minds conjure when we gaze upward.

All my painting comes from a fascination

with things we often think of as empty — sky, ocean, wind, light, the shape of motion, the passing of time, the dreaming mind and the inarticulate longings of the heart. These things are as monumental as mountain rocks and city skyscrapers.

My visual vocabulary comes from marrying

the gestures of dancing and karate (I have a second degree black belt from the Japan Karate Association) with a carefully built light field structure, a skill I learned in art school, but which is ultimately rooted in the tradition of the Venetian renaissance, Cezanne and 20th century color field painting.

PUBLICATION NOTES

Copyright Š 2013 The University of Oklahoma.

This catalogue has been published in conjunction with the exhibition The National Weather Center Biennale at the National Weather Center, April 22 – June 2, 2013.

The National Weather Center Biennale is a collaboration between the National Weather Center, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma and the Norman Arts Council.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form without the written consent of the National Weather Center. All works are the copyright of the artists. All rights reserved.

1,000 copies of this catalogue have been printed at no cost to the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma.

Catalogue editor: Alan Atkinson Catalogue design: Joshua Boydston Copy editors: Michael Bendure and Erinn Gavaghan The National Weather Center 120 David L. Boren Boulevard Norman, Oklahoma 73072 Phone: (405) 325-3095 Fax: (405) 325-3072 www.nwcnorman.org Cover: Tony Abeyta (Navajo, b. 1965) Storm from the South, 2011 Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.

On loan from a private collector.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013935726 ISBN: 978-0-9851609-2-0

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THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

Art’s window on the impact of weather on the human experience

THE NATIONAL WEATHER CENTER BIENNALE

THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA | NORMAN, OKLAHOMA | 2013