Nine by Nine

Nine

by Nine

Nine Women, Nine Tiles, One Cause

Frog Hollow Craft Gallery May, 2017

Nine by Nine Nine Women, Nine Tiles, One Cause May 2017 Frog Hollow Gallery Burlington, VT

Frog Hollow Craft Association Inc FROG HOLLOW IS DEDICATED TO CELEBRATING AND NURTURING CONTEMPORARY VERMONT CRAFT. WE ACHIEVE THIS THROUGH CRAFT EDUCATION, FOSTERING ARTIST DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNITY APPRECIATION OF CRAFT IN OUR NONPROFIT WORK, WHILE EXHIBITING VERMONT ARTISTS' WORK IN OUR GALLERY

Frog Hollow Craft Association Board of Directors Carol MacDonald- President Lynne Bond - Vice President Rachel Morton - Secretary Eileen Blackwood - Treasurer Susan Raber Bray

Frog Hollow Gallery Board of Directors Liz Lawrence - President Cody McKibben Kevin Ruelle - Secretary

Staff Rob Hunter Executive Director

Founder Allen Johnson

***Availability of items listed in this catalogue apply to the works only during the duration of the exhibit and are subject to change.

Nine by Nine

“NINE BY NINE� is the culmination of a collaborative effort by nine local artists, each with careers spanning thirty or more years. Having known these women as both friends and artists, I was inspired to bring together their varying perspectives and backgrounds in art to create a unified but dynamic piece highlighting the diversity and power of women in the arts.

Working as an artist is often a solitary endeavor, so bringing these women together -some who were not acquainted with one another or not familiar with working in clay-was a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas and reach a consensus on the direction of this project. Every aspect was discussed and voted on, from the size and shape of the tiles to the manner in which they were framed. Additionally, the project provided everyone with the chance to try a new approach or use different materials from what was familiar. Five of the artists, never having raku fired clay, chose to learn my techniques for glazing and firing their tiles. Others opted to use a more familiar medium as a means to complete their designs on ceramic. The finished tiles were brought together with matching frames much like a quilt, which allows the viewer to focus on each individual woman’s talent and expression as well as a combined effort when viewed as a whole.

True to the nature of this project, the tiles are being auctioned in order to continue the goal of collaboration and the empowerment of women. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to Vermont Works for Women, an organization that presents programs for women and girls to promote selfsufficiency and pursue careers in a wide range of fields. The exhibit will run the month of May with an auction closing event on May 31st. Gallery talks by the artists and representatives of VWW and participation in the Enrichment Evening at the Chittenden County Correctional Facility by a few artists will enhance the project. Generous contributions from Frog Hollow, including the venue, resources, and promotional efforts helped to make this fundraiser possible. Special thanks also goes to Rob Hunter, executive director of Frog Hollow for his invaluable assistance. The collaboration with Vermont Works for Women and Frog Hollow continues the spirit of working together to promote shared visions of our community and support for women.

Irene Lederer LaCroix Project Organizer and Participating Artist

Dianne Shullenberger Embracing Rocks Jericho, VT A recent series of work called CIRCULAR EARTH used all natural objects that were manipulated into unrecognizable forms to expose colors and patterns not normally seen. EMBRACING ROCKS is an extension of this series. Rocks were collected from Lake Champlain and Lake Michigan. The challenge was to take natural objects, rocks, and combine them with the textile materials that I use in my studio. Various strands of yarns, ribbons and cording were wrapped with thread and coiled around the rocks in various patterns. Man and nature can embrace each other and coexist.

Dianne Shullenberger creates intimate fabric landscapes, sculptures and colored pencil drawings. In her fiber artwork, Dianne uses hundreds of pieces of fabric and fiber scraps to convey the random beauty and mystery of nature. Her sculptures reflect the grace of natural shapes while incorporating elements such as feathers, rocks, leaves, pods and sticks. A passionate outdoor woman, Dianne’s art reflects the places she loves.

Numerous museums and galleries have exhibited Dianne’s work in both solo and group shows. She has been recognized with awards and feature publications. Her work is regularly commissioned and displayed in corporate, museum and private collections.

Daryl Storrs Untitled Huntington, VT My work is a reflection of the landscape I experience every day. Local farms, Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks are a few of the places I draw on a regular basis. In this instance I drew Camel’s Hump into clay instead of wood which felt very forgiving. By painting white into the incisions the look became similar to a printed woodcut. This view is from the cemetery in Huntington, a stone’s throw away from my home and studio and a peaceful place to draw.

While studying at Middlebury College Daryl discovered printmaking. “The creation of hand made multiples appealed to both my artistic and practical sensibilities.” After college she read an article in Vermont Life about Sabra Field which mentioned that she hired an assistant every year. Daryl wrote to her, interviewed, and 6 months later was working in her studio, learning about woodcuts and the business of art. After a two year apprenticeship, Daryl went to U. Mass, Amherst where she earned a Masters in printmaking while focusing on lithography and teaching art to undergraduates.

Returning to Vermont, she continued to make prints and to teach art while waitressing to pay the bills.

“I started to make earrings and began to sell them to customers when they saw me wearing them in the restaurant. This began the jewelry business and thankfully ended my waitressing career.”

Daryl moved to Huntington in 1990 and renovated an old barn next to her house which now serves as her studio. “My time is divided between making prints, jewelry and pastels which all focus on the Vermont landscape and color. The pastels have an immediacy and the added benefits of working larger, using more color, and getting me outside on a beautiful day!”

Ulrike Tessmer Sunflower Waitsfield, VT As a potter I enjoy making functional stoneware. I love throwing at the potter's wheel and finishing each pot with special care. Beyond the obvious purpose of a piece, I aim to also give comfort with rounded feminine shapes, simple repeated patterns, and the broken-in feeling my glazes evoke.

In 1975 Ulrike decided to become a potter and began her apprenticeship with renowned master potter Monika Maetzel in Hamburg, Germany, where she was born and raised.

An apprenticeship in Germany is a 2-3 year education with hands-on training, classroom time, and exams for a journeyman's diploma. As a journeyman, you then work for a master and go to master school for 3 or more years and take several more exams to become a master potter yourself.

After becoming a journeywoman and some ten years of working with potters in Denmark, and since 1982 in the United States, Ulrike finally went out on her own. In 1988 she started Waitsfield Pottery, a studio/storefront in Historic Waitsfield Village, where she has made pots now for over 28 years.

Over the years she has marketed her work in craft shops as well as craft shows across Vermont, Massachusetts and New York.

In 2011 Waitsfield Pottery was named Best Pottery in Yankee Magazine's annual Editors' Choice issue.

Ellen Spring Untitled Starksboro, VT After graduating from UVM with an Art major, Ellen settled in Starksboro with her husband in 1989.

Most of her studio time is devoted to creating a line of hand dyed fiber wearables which she has been doing for over thirty years. Each year, in order to prime her creativity, Ellen takes time to engage in a totally new artistic project. The Nine by Nine collaboration has been a wonderful opportunity to branch out and find new inspiration.

Irene Lederer LaCroix In Flight Jericho, VT The sculptures, vessels, and tiles that I create are expressive and sensual pieces that are reflective of the manner in which things grow, decay, or are shaped by natural forces.

After many years of making highly decorated traditionally shaped pottery, my forms are now looser and asymmetrical, more organic. When fired in a saggar, a sealed clay container filled with a variety of combustible materials and chemicals, the high heat and extremely volatile atmosphere leave dramatic marks of color and pattern that enhance the pieces.

A lifelong interest in art and history led Irene to pursue a degree in secondary education from the University of Vermont. She studied painting and sculpture in Europe and ceramics and painting at California State University, Sacramento. She taught both art and literature in local schools for several years and conducted numerous workshops in clay.

Irene has been developing her firing and decorating techniques for more than 25 years at her studio in Jericho under the name Rend’l Pottery. Her work is exhibited and sold through galleries, craft shows, and at the studio. She is juried into the Vermont Arts Council Teaching Artists Roster and in April 2010 and in October 2014, was the featured artist at Frog Hollow Vermont State Craft Center in Burlington.

Irene is a Niche Award Finalist, included in the Maison Kasini’s “Hello from Vermont” catalogue, the American Art Collector books, and on the cover of ArtMap Burlington. Her work was also featured on WCAX‘s “Made in Vermont” TV segment and in the Randolph Technical Career Center “Vermont Entrepreneurship 2017” video.

Carol MacDonald Stitches In Clay Colchester, VT Tugging at the threads of our shared humanity, I address issues of community, life, transition, process and communication. I am interested in the interconnectedness of life. Taking the concept that the personal is universal, I have looked for the issues and experiences that connect us.

The knitting series is a journey both inward and outward. I explore the routine of repetitive process that reconnect us to our souls and the rhythms of our lives, the cycles of creation, unraveling, tangles and re-creation. In a tradition that has largely been passed down the matriarchal line, from grandmother to mother to daughter, the act of creating a fabric from a single thread is an apt metaphor for community.

Carol E.S. MacDonald is an artist, and master printmaker living and working in Vermont. She attended the Maryland Institute College of Art and the Lake Placid School of Art. Recent exhibitions include: Etui Fiber Arts, Larchmont, NY; Madelyn Jordon Fine Arts, New Rochelle, NY; The Drawing Room, Cos Cob, CT; Washington Printmakers Gallery, Silver Springs, MD; Galerie Maison Kasini, Montreal, Quebec; Firehouse Gallery, Burlington, VT. She has been a featured artist at Vogue Knitting: LIVE in New York City, Chicago and Seattle. Her work was shown in Foot Print International at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT, Papier 12 Contemporary Art Fair in Montreal, Quebec and Parallax Art Fair in New York City and Miami.

MacDonald has been an artist fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. She received the 2008 Barbara Smail Award from Burlington City Arts, an Artist Opportunity Grant from the Vermont Arts Council in 2007 and the Susan B. Anthony Award in 1999 from the YWCA for Leadership in the Arts. Her work is in many private and corporate collections. Including: Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT; Johnson & Johnson Corp, NJ; Champion Paper International, Stamford, CT; San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA; Gelman Library, George Washington University, Washington DC; Shearson Lehman, American Express, NY, NY.

Wendy James The Letter Essex, VT The personal hand-written letter once held high-rank as a precious object. Many of us remember awaiting the mailperson’s bag opening at our front steps and the thrill of a long awaited letter freshly delivered to our mailbox.

Held in ones hands, to be savored slowly, with pause, one might hear the voice of a loved one, the penmanship as personal as holding hands.

Wendy James has been making ceramic sculptures, reliefs, and functional pottery for three decades. In addition to ceramics, she also works in photography and oil painting. Her photomontages can be seen at Frog Hollow and her paintings are in the Brickels Studio/Gallery in Burlington. She lives in Essex, Vermont, with her artist husband, John Brickels, and teaches art at Essex High School.

Heidi Broner Untitled Montpelier, VT A long time ago, I found this sentence in a novel: "A painting takes time; therefore it contains time."

I like to paint people, paying particular attention to posture and gesture. I work from my own unposed photos taken on the street. Each time I work on a painting, I bring a different view to it, adding another layer of experience and thought. Although the photo I began with displays a brief instant, through many hours of painting a different image emerges, suggestive of something much broader and richer than the original moment. It contains time.

Heidi Broner grew up near New York City in a family of artists, immersed in an atmosphere in which drawing and painting were a natural, delightful part of daily life. Her interests have led her to work in a wide variety of media: in addition to painting, she has illustrated books, designed and painted murals, created masks and puppets for theater and opera as well as huge outdoor pieces for the band Phish, and worked for many years with Bread and Puppet Theater as an artist and performer.

In 1999 she began working in the Vermont granite industry — a very physical and traditional industry — hand engraving custom drawings directly onto black stone. Working in the granite sheds alongside the stone craftsmen has given her a deeper appreciation of the skill, patience, and attention to the task that is developed by people who work in the trades.

In 2003 she began her At Work series of paintings, which formed the basis of a solo exhibit at the Vermont Governor’s office in 2009. In addition to this show, her paintings have been exhibited at numerous galleries and museums, including Studio Place Arts, T.W. Wood Museum of American Art, the Flinn Gallery, CVMC Gallery, TLBear Gallery, Woodshed Gallery, and Artpath Gallery. Her work has been collected by both private individuals and corporations.

Sally Duval Birds and Birches Essex, VT The simple act of creating, the process, the exploring of ideas, the problem solving, its physicality, is what draws me to working with clay. It has been a journey on a constantly changing path that has been both stimulating and satisfying.

In 1977 Sally began a two year work/study period with George Scatchard at his pottery in Westford. She has taken workshops from Karen Karnes, Cynthia Bringle, Warren MacKenzie, Sandy Simon, Robert Brady, and Linda Christianson at Frog Hollow in Middlebury, League of New Hampshire Craftsmen in Sharron, NH, and Haystack School of Crafts in Maine. In 2012 she retired from actively making pots for sale and has been spending more time on her 2D work.

Vision We work toward the day when women and girls make confident, deliberate choices about life and work that reflect an expansive grasp of the world's possibilities, a fearless commitment to pursuing their dreams, and that contribute to the vitality of our communities.

Acknowledgment Vermont Works for Women wishes to acknowledge with gratitude the commitment of Frog Hollow in assisting women and girls to recognize their potential and explore, pursue, and excel in work that leads to economic independence. www.vtworksforwomen.org

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