What a month! June was full of successes and more great new DreamMakers. And I took a vacation!
collaborating on a traveling art show for a cause. White’s paintings are beautifully ornate representations of love and selfempowerment while Lago’s paintings are At the June Board meeting, we accepted creepy portraits of abusers with a grotesque three new DreamMakers: Queer Dojo, pallet dashed with bold color. Along with Conversations About Power, and Humboldt our paintings, we are collecting testimonials Healing Path. of survivors that we will play on loop for viewers inside of a booth we construct. This “Queer Dojo seeks to bring Judo to interactive portion is for willing participants Humboldt while specifically placing to enter at their own risk. Overall, we aim emphasis on making Judo accessible to our to make people more aware of the impact Queer community. Not all of us need Queer that trauma has on people’s lives while Dojo. This area has an abundance of quality brainstorming ways that we can make dojos offering BJJ, Jiu Jitsu, Karate, etc. impactful change as a society.” If you are Queer dojo is here to fill the gaps that the interested or would like more information, mainstream for profit dojo's are not filling. contact Bianca Lago at One of those gaps includes safe spaces. biancalagoart@gmail.com. Every dojo is a sacred space in its own right but for the LGBTQIA+ community, entering Humboldt Healing Path: “I have been on a into a sports culture isn’t always an easy path to help bring holistic healing arts to thing. Our community includes a lot of non- the forefront in Humboldt County by binary individuals who are reluctant to have providing access to the practitioners and the to face further possible problems that may clients they serve. I began in 2001 with the come along with joining a dojo that isn’t mission of “Creating Opportunities That necessarily educated or prepared to truly Nourish Our Wholeness”. It is my experience welcome everyone.” If you are interested or that the healing arts are a valuable natural would like more information, contact Erica resource in our area, and an integral part of Lucarotti at tomboyinthecity@gmail.com. the culture. The personal empowerment and healing that occurs through the cooperation “Conversations About Power aims to give a between a skilled holistic practitioner and a voice to survivors of sexual abuse, to discuss willing client is deeply transformational to consent, boundaries, healthy relationships our community and beyond.” If you are and mental illness. Figurative painters interested or would like more information, Julia White and Bianca Lago are 2
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Page 4 Ecosystem at the Tuxford Gallery Page 6 Featured Artist Member: Alyssa Ravenwood Page 8 “How I found My North Star” -Kati Texas Page 10 Workshops & Classes
… contact Maya Cooper at info@wholisiticheartbeat.com.
Goldman, instrumental and electronic music; Ray Cisek, video production ($16,200 with 1:1 match)
We were awarded the three California Arts Council grants we applied for: Arts in Education Extension – Jesse Jonathon and Neil Bost teaching world percussion with an emphasis on steel pan at Blue Lake and Trinidad Schools after school ($15,300 with 1:1 match from the schools) JUMP StArts – Artists in Residence in the juvenile justice system: Cory Goldman, guitar and beats; Joe Shermis, poetry; Matthew Oliveri, basic drawing and mural spray painting; and Julian Lang, guitar and Native Culture ($37,500 with additional $30,000 from the Probation Dept.) Local Impact – General support for the MARZ Project with additional support for working with youth on Probation. Kati Texas, graphics, visual arts, voice; Cory
And, finally, I attended the Americans for the Arts’ convention in Denver. It was one of the best I’ve been to and I keep learning new things. They have made significant investments in the arts, both in Denver and in the Colorado school system. Governor Hickenlooper came and played the banjo with Mike Davis on guitar. Hickenlooper has pledged to make music instruction and instruments available to all Colorado students. You can watch the amazing and mind-blowing plenary sessions from links on americansforthearts.org. These are not academics, but provocative producing artists. And then, I rested for a week. Awesome! 3
ECOSYSTEM at the Ink People's Tuxford Gallery this July
Have you ever thought about how all living things are connected? How animals, insects, birds, plants, and everything in creation work together with their environment to survive, creating their ecosystem? Curator Mary Goecker Yates recalls camping with family when young, watching all the different creatures in their environment. Many of her artworks involve nature, and she decided to organize a show, inviting the community to share their creations about ecosystems. Artists from all throughout the community have come together to share their diverse works in this public exhibition. Ecosystem is an art exhibition exploring the interconnection of all living things and the environment. It will be held at the Brenda Tuxford Gallery, 525 7th St, Eureka, throughout the month of July, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. All are welcome; this gallery is accessible and free. 4
The Two Street Art Lab Community Art Space Hosts a variety of open studio times and activities! Teach Classes Make Art Learn Skills Find them on Facebook for a complete schedule.
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Alyssa Ravenwood Ink People Member Artist Profile
Our featured artist, Alyssa Ravenwood creates stunning masks with such pathos, such personality, you’ll want to introduce them to the family.
formed piece or you can sculpt leather on it. You can use the clay original to make a negative plaster mold and then cast neoprene or latex into it. If you used pottery clay you can fire the clay sculpture directly. There are so many options with clay.
When did you first figure out that art was important to you?
Always. Both of my parents are sculptors. I grew up surrounded by art and handmade things. As a teenager I spent hours looking What is your favorite art medium to at the art books at the school library. I feel work in, and why? blessed that I grew up with the belief that art is an important part of a good life. Sculpting in water based clay, especially Making art and appreciating art. My life WED clay by Laguna clay company, is my favorite. Water based clay is such a pleasure would have been so colorless and to sculpt. When it is fresh out of the bag it is disheartening without art. soft and pliable. I like to get the large foundation shapes sculpted at this stage. Then I let the sculpture air dry a bit. At this Who is your art mentor? point I can carve in sharp and intricate I've had many great teachers in my life that details. It's almost like carving wood or stone but, unlike stone, you can always add have had an impact on me. Thurston James wrote a book called The Prop Master's Maskmore material when needed. Once you have created your sculpture in clay Making Handbook. That book was my only there are many different kinds of final work real mask making teacher in the beginning. Books have always been important to my you can make from there. You can make a negative silicone mold of your clay sculpture development. and then cast the sculpture in resin, coldcast bronze, cement. You can use a positive Finish this sentence: My art is my‌ plaster cast as a base to make a vacuum6
My art is my source of joy, pride, spirituality, fulfillment, friendships, and income.
combine the styles of traditional commedia masks with German Expressionism. Two of my favorite art forms that don't seem to be related. The result was very successful. I came into my own style through this What advice would you offer someone experiment. just beginning their exploration of I also advise you to work as much as their own artistic self? possible for as long as possible. Chuck Jones' teacher said, "you have 10,000 bad drawings Make work that pleases you. Don't worry about what you think other people will want in you so get them out of the way as soon as or accept. Make the work because you need possible." Keep working no matter what. Be committed to your art for life and you will to see this creation in the world. As a mask maker a pivotal stage happened have an interesting and fulfilling career. for me when I was directing a commedia play, Scapin. As a designer I always had to Find more about Alyssa Ravenwood and her please the director. This time I was the versatile work on her Instagram. director, so I had full freedom. I wanted to Ravenwoodmasks
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How I Found My North Star * *
By Kati Texas
Dear Friends,
social and creative comfort zones on a daily basis. Add in the fact that NSQ Camp never turns away a camper because they can’t pay, and I realized I had found a really special place.
In 2004, I was working at the RAVEN Project, running different groups for at risk youth including an art workshop. There was a youth educator there who was planning on working as a camp counselor for I planned to do my part in the North Star the camp she had attended in middle school mission that year, establishing an Art Lodge called North Star Quest. They needed an where campers could participate in a variety art teacher, so she of low risk / high recommended I reward projects apply. which helped them explore themselves, Well, I did, and my their relationships, life hasn’t been the and their place in same since. You see, the world. It took North Star Quest months of thoughtful isn’t any ordinary preparation, camp. Yes there are planning projects, most things you soliciting donations might expect at a of tools and supplies, Summer camp; swim talking with middle Texas and some of the strong women of NSQ Camp time in the river, school girls to gauge campfire sing-alongs, what they were nature hikes, and games. In addition interested in. I wanted everyone who though, there are enlightening and visited the Art Lodge to find inspiration in informative workshops put on by the all one of the stations I’d be building, whether female staff which focus on building self it was making jewelry, throwing paint, or confidence, empathy, media literacy, just spending some quiet time meditatively women’s health, communication, and knotting a friendship bracelet. healthy relationships. There is a deliberate culture established with the camp rules Something else happened right in the where girls build each other up instead of middle of all that prep work that summer: tearing each other down. (Yes, really.) At my father passed away. It was two days NSQ Camp, people seek out each other’s before camp started when I got the call from strengths, and bravely step outside their my mom in Texas. Dad’s chronic illness had 8
taken a sudden turn for the worse, and he was gone. It would be a few weeks until the funeral, so I had a choice to make: Go to camp, a strange new place with people I didn’t know while nursing a broken heart from a huge personal loss, or turn over all my careful work and preparation to someone else, then stay home alone with my grief. The thought of suffering alone seemed miserable to me, so I went ahead and did the job I had been preparing for ... was so excited for. Turns out, I could not have possibly chosen a better place to be at that moment in my life. I thought I would tough it out. I thought camp would be a good distraction. What I didn’t know was that NSQ Camp would be the most loving, supportive, empowering place I could imagine. Among these women I barely knew, I found a group of sisters ready to listen, to hug, or to sit quietly by the river letting the sounds of wind, water and birds soothe our souls. I found an engaging and challenging group of young women campers, so full of enthusiasm, so ready to explore, so eager to be themselves in the sacred safe space we had created for them.
were over 40 kids on the waiting list, we took the enormous leap of expanding from one camp to two. While the curriculum and logistics change with the times, the core principles are still there. The Magic that happens when people set out to do something unexpected and amazing together is still there. North Star Quest is still changing lives. Thousands of lives now. In this world, this post-post-post feminist world, where social media is a platform for movements like #metoo along side strong female role models explaining why they “don’t need feminism,” we need girls who will think for themselves. In this world where young people have more ability to create and share their own stories in their own voice, while also being inundated with misogynist messages from sexists utilizing the same bullhorn available to anyone with a twitter account, we need strong young female voices. In this world, where our loftiest aspirations of equality, dignity and freedom are extending inch by inch to uplift every aspect of our truly diverse human family, while people are still in danger of attack for simply existing the way they were born, we need leaders of every shape, size, ability, gender, age, class, race, and culture. We need North Star Quest Camp.
North Star Quest Camp changed me. The campers inspired me. The staff impressed me. The river carried my troubled heart out to the ocean, and washed it clean. … I need North Star Quest Camp. It gives me hope. And in this world, hope is a rare I’ve been going back every year since. This and beautiful thing. Summer will be my 14th year at North Star. There have been many changes. I’ve With Love & Respect, gone from Arts Organizer to Planning Kati Texas Committee Member to Camp Director. We North Star Quest Camp Director joined the Ink People’s family of DreamMaker Projects. One year when there 9
Alternative Galleries Gallery
May/June/July 2018
Arcata City Hall
Arcata Park/Rec (May) Kara Snow (June/July)
Eureka City Hall
Mir de Silva
SHN Engineering
Reuben Mayes
The Vision Center
Pat Kanzler
GHD
Dana Ballard
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English Express Summer Semester 2018 Classes in three locations: Eureka, Fortuna and Redway. English Express offers English Best Practices, direct connections to community services, and educational field trips for adult English language learners. Free class. Free childcare. Free Fun! englishexpresshumboldt.org/ 707-443-5021 Karuk Language Classes with Julian Lang Thursdays, 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. United Indian Health Services 1600 Weeot Way, Arcata
Humboldt Ukulele Group Learn to play in a relaxed group setting The first Monday The second Tuesday The third Thursday All at 5:30pm in the Arts and Crafts room of the Arcata Community Center On 4th Saturdays at 10:30am, regular members play for the Seniors at Timber Ridge in McKinleyville for community outreach. Contact: Deanna Sanders, dsander1@arcatanet.com
Want to see your Event, Class, Workshop, or Call to Artists in Ink People News? Deadline: The 15th
Writers’ Critique Group Tuesdays, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Ink People Offices 525 7th Street, Eureka
Submit pictures and text (no pre-made flyers or pdf’s)
Life Drawing Group with Clinton Alley Thursdays, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Cheri Blackerby Gallery 3rd & C streets, Eureka Call 707-442-0309 to join. $5 fee Models needed.
Please punctuate and capitalize correctly. (Please no ALL CAPS, thanks.) Email content to the Ink News Editor :
inknews@inkpeople.org
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