CONTROL An Exhibition of California Women Artists Presented by The Women’s Caucus for Art at Ceres Gallery 547 West 27th Street, Suite 201 New York, New York 10001
Exhibition Director: Karen Gutfreund
February 1 – February 26th, 2011
Curatorial Committee Karen Gutfreund – Curator Arabella Decker Kim McCool Nelson Ruth Waters
Copyright 2010 by the Women’s Caucus for Art. The book author and each artist here, retains sole copyright to her contributions to this book. Book designed by Karen Gutfreund Cover Design by:
Rozanne Hermelyn, Arc and Line Communication and Design. www.arcandline.com
CON·TROL - [kuh n-trohl] -trolled, -trol·ling, noun –verb “Control” is a loaded word, evoking both positive and negative images: in control, out of control, controlled, controllable, control freak, social control (etiquette), political control (censorship), and on and on. When “Control” as an exhibition theme was presented to the members of the Peninsula and South Bay chapters of the Women’s Caucus for Art, nearly all of the women reacted and responded negatively. In discussion, members were able to find some positive connotations, but it took effort. Clearly women, and women artists in particular, respond to the concept of control as victims and feel vulnerable. This reaction is understandable. The American Heritage Dictionary defines “control” as 1. To exercise authority or dominating influence over, direct, regulate; 2. To hold in restraint; to check. Roget’s Thesaurus chimes in with “get control of, have control of, in control, under control, rule, sway, command, govern, boss, be master”, and on and on. It seems fair to conclude that, by and large, “control” is masculine and “controlled” is feminine. This is clarified to some extent by quotations from GenderBabble by David Olive (Perigee Books, The Putnam Publishing Group, 1993)
Pythagoras, ca 500 BC: There is a good principle which created order, light, and man, and an evil principle which created chaos, darkness, and woman. Confucius: Such is the stupidity of woman’s character that it is incumbent upon her, in every particular, to distrust herself and obey her husband. Talmud, Sotah 3:4, ca AD 1501: The words of the Torah should be burned rather than taught to women. Leo Tolstoy: Clearly all disasters, or an enormous proportion of them, are due to the dissoluteness of women. Jean Jacques Rousseau: Women have, in general, no love of any art; they have no proper knowledge of any, and they have no genius.
We re-examined the theme and its “baggage” and concluded that the issue of control well merited exploration and representation by women artists, including the positive aspects: internal, external, involving people, space, process, materials, high tech, low tech, politically correct or not. Control is central to the human experience, especially in urban environments. Artists are capable of presenting these issues in visual form, creating a public forum for action, reaction, and informed discussion. by Ruth Waters
About Women’s Caucus for Arts: Founded in 1972 in connection with the College Art Association (CAA), WCA is a national member organization unique in its multi-disciplinary, multicultural membership of artists, art historians, students/educators, and museum professionals. The mission of the Women's Caucus for Art is to expand opportunities and recognition for women in the arts. WCA is committed to education about the contributions of women, opportunities for the exhibition of women's work, publication of women's writing about art, inclusion of women in the history of art, professional equity for all, and respect for all individuals without discrimination and support for legislation relevant to our goals. For more information visit: www.nationalwca.org
Founded in 1983 as an artist-run gallery, Ceres is a non-profit alternative cultural center dedicated to the promotion of contemporary women in the visual arts. Although Ceres defines itself as feminist, this does not refer to one particular kind of art-making or ideology. Rather, Ceres serves as a supportive base for a diversity of artistic and world views. Ceres is also a venue for male and female writers, visual artists, musicians, dancers and storytellers to perform and take risks. We offer experimental and nontraditional programming in a variety of disciplines without commercial constraint. This is possible because Ceres is member and donor supported. We are committed to providing a visual context for our community as well as an opportunity to all individuals for inventive exploration. We believe there is an inherent power in art to both enrich and empower artist and viewer. Our goal is to serve the community by supporting this creative diversity and is reflected in the eclectic aesthetic of our gallery artists and of our special programming. Control is the culmination of two years of collaboration between the California South Bay and Peninsula’s Women’s Caucus for Art chapters. Ceres is proud to bring Control, a thought-provoking and exhilarating exhibition of works addressing the issue of control in all its possible permutations, to the East coast. The mission of the WCA is to expand exhibition opportunities and recognition for women in the arts, a mission that meshes exquisitely with our own. Control also coincides with the 99th College Art Association conference happening in NYC and kicking off its centennial year. When considering bringing Control to Chelsea, we were struck by the realization that doing so at this time would be the perfect storm of women artists, points of view and audience and indeed we look forward to that happening. Stefany Benson, Director Ceres Gallery
Curator’s Notes: The curatorial committee endeavored to create a pertinent and timely exhibition for women artists with a theme that would stimulate the artists and viewers alike into meaningful dialogue. Control indicates power and strength for some and alternatively a sense of vulnerability and helplessness for others. The work in this exhibition reflects a myriad of interpretations on aspects of control and its significance to the artist. What does one control? What controls the individual in life, body, temperament, destiny, society, religion, family and addictions/desires? What does a sense of power over ones environment look like and what comes to mind if that power or control is stripped away? How have political, social or economic controls shaped ones life and the lives of others? In what ways does the media and popular culture dictate and control? And how much control does one have to exert or to yield in order to survive? The artists examine the juxtaposition of internal and external controls placed on our bodies, our minds, our lives and thus how we react and manifest these controls into our psyche and ultimately our art. “Control” talks about these crucial issues in the world and mirrors each artist’s individual experience. In this context, the message matters as much as the medium. The original exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco in August 2009 showcased 92 works by 79 artists. The work and statements were well thought out, personal and very moving; to me each was a gift that alternatively made me laugh and made me cry. The emotional honesty and strength of the works on themes of gender roles, consumerism, war, ethnicity, religion, body image, political and cultural power, motherhood, domestic abuse and family life, sexual identity and mind control are a testimony to the creative spirit of these artists. Due to gallery size constraints, we had to reduce the number of works (which was very difficult to have to choose from among all the powerful works) that would travel to the Ceres Gallery, to whom we are so very grateful to host this exhibition. We are also extremely grateful to our anonymous angel donor that made this traveling exhibition possible. I want to sincerely thank Ceres Gallery and WCA for their time on this exhibition and their continued efforts to support women artists. Karen Gutfreund, Curator
ARTIST DIRECTORY Arabella Decker
www.arabelladecker.com
Eleanor Dickinson
www.eleanordickinson.wordpress.com
Cosette Dudley
mhdudley@pacbell.net
Yvonne Escalante
yvonneescalante@yahoo.com
Angela Fortain
www.infernoartworks.com
Cynthia Grilli
www.cynthiagrilli.com
Karen Gutfreund
www.karengutfreund.com
Elaine Jason
www.elainejason.com
Judy Johnson-Williams www.judyjohnson-williams.com Louise Maloof
www.louisemaloof.com
Yoko Mazza
www.yokomazza.com
Kim McCool Nelson
kimikazi@sbcglobal.net
Joanne Beaule Ruggles www.beaulerugglesgraphics.com Centa Schumacher
www.centaschumacher.com
Caroline Seckinger
www.carolineseckinger.com
Leigh Toldi
www. toldileigh.blogspot.com
Ruth Waters
www.rjwaters.com
Corinne Whitaker
www.giraffe.com
Tamara White
www.tamarawhite.com
ARTISTS
Arabella Decker Biography: Arabella Decker’s early life was evenly split between business (daughter of a prominent Chicago banker, BA Summa Cum Laude from American InterContinental University) and art (The Art Institute of Chicago, Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, studied with a number of notable artists). Decker has lived in San Francisco and on the coast just south of San Francisco for nearly 50 years, and the “coastal light” permeates her paintings. She also sculpts, and has developed a unique method of creating larger-than-life sculptures for public sites. As an artist expert in both 2-D and 3-D, she is often called upon to judge competitions. Decker’s business expertise continues to benefit the non-profit art community: she is corporate treasurer of the Peninsula Museum of Art; founding member and mainstay of the Coastal Arts League in Half Moon Bay, CA; past president of the Peninsula chapter of Women’s Caucus for Art; past president of the Peninsula Sculptors’ Guild; and past president of San Francisco Artists’ Equity.
Artist Statement: Nothing's left but goo and rubble. Picking through the unrecognizable, I must salvage something. A glimmer of color; one reaches out. It is also destroyed by unknown others. My soul SCREAMS! Who do I hate? Why me!
Arabella Decker
Chaos 36 x 48, Mixed Media 36 h x 48 w inches 2008
Eleanor Dickenson Biography: Growing up under the tutelage of a strict Southern aristocracy Eleanor, the families' oldest child, was carefully schooled in the precise skills of a Tennessee lady. She could serve tea properly to a hundred ladies but was never taught to cook. The sweep of the Depression years had forced her parents to return to the imposing 30 room Queen Ann Victorian family home and the authority of matriarchal grandparents on Eleanor’s birth in 1931. The later arrival of her siblings on Circle Park kept the family there but the social domination of the Van Gilder clan was overwhelming for the young girl. Fortunately her grandmother had attended the University of Chicago where she majored in furniture design and carpentry – unusual interests for a Southern lady! and she had kept her interests in art which bore fruit in her granddaughter. She constantly provided art lessons for Eleanor, encouraging her to always seek ”the true, the good, the noble, the beautiful” in all she did. Although she welcomed the art lessons, Eleanor had her own ideas on interesting subject matter and quietly sought her own preferences. She would often ride the streetcar to draw at the farmers’ market and explore less seemly areas found beneath the Gay Street Bridge where local men held their cockfights and the wrestling arenas where fighters like “Gorgeous George” would perform. When a family friend would spot her artistic peculiarities she would be watched more closely for a bit. Once she entered the Art Department of the University of Tennessee she was trained and accepted as a skilled artist, winning a major Prize over her professors, and her eccentricities became proofs of her calling. After marrying in 1952 she moved to California, set up a studio, and began her extensive concentration on figurative work. In 1998 she said, “My art has always involved the figure. Work in the past ten years has been primarily the “Crucifixion” series: psychological portraits of suffering figures limned in pastel on stretched and sized black velvet from 8’ to 10’ high. Intensely charged epic struggles against pain and evil and toward the light of God. New portraits continue my explorations of ecstatic moments of human existence.” Her work in the intervening years was given Solo Exhibitions in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, Oakland Museum, Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, Menil Museum/ Screen Gallery, J.B. Speed Art Museum, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Santa Barbara Museum, the Triton Museum, Tennessee State Museum, and many others.
Artist Statement: The prison stood on a small box: wires were clamped to his fingers and his penis, a hood was placed over his head: standing for hours, he was told if he moved he would be electrocuted. By order of U.S. Brigadier General Karpinski.
Eleanor Dickinson
Abu Graib: The Crucifixion of Manadel-Al-Jamadi Pastel on Velvet 73 x 52 inches 2005
Cosette Dudley Biography: A third generation Californian, Cosette Dudley was born in Sacramento, California in 1935 during the Great Depression and subsequent world war. There was scarcity and hardship in families, her own included. This experience set the direction of her life. Starting in early childhood, she turned to imagination and creativity for help. She has been an artist for over sixty years. In the 1950s, Dudley studied with painter Wayne Thiebaud at Sacramento City College. After living in London for several years, she attended Stanford University, graduating in 1964. Lithography with Barbara Foster (San Francisco City College) and photogravure at Crown Point Press followed. Among her affiliations are California Society of Printmakers and Los Angeles Printmakers Society. Dudley’s work is dark in tone. It focuses primarily on war, social injustices, and the environment. In contrast, her close family ties have inspired etchings depicting multi-generational history. She is married, with two grown daughters, four grandchildren and a great granddaughter. In 1971 Dudley was a founder of Appletree Press, a fine-arts printmaking facility in San Mateo, which thrived for 32 years. In the community she worked as a social worker, and, during the Vietnam War, helped organize the Palo Alto Peace Union of which she was a director. Her studio is in Belmont.
Artist Statement: “Control” depicts the final stage of war, The Occupation. The population is controlled. There appears to be no hope. But sometimes Art, in the form of music, poetry and other forms, can be the detainees’ salvation.
Cosette Dudley
War, III; Control: The Occupation (Poems from Guantanamo) Mixed Media on Paper 55 x 28 inches 2009
Yvonne Escalante Biography: A first generation American on her father’s side, Yvonne Escalante was raised in a household in which her father stressed the importance of American identity over cultural ties. As such, she learned at a very young age that outward appearances could be deceiving. In her work, she explores her internal conflict of identity, gender roles, and societal norms. Yvonne’s interest in art of every form led her to dabble in design, architecture, and ultimately metalsmithing, which became her primary medium. She graduated from California State University in Long Beach in 2005, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 3-D design, focusing in metal arts. She continued to explore her passion for small metal sculpture by creating custom jewelry designs for five years as a professional goldsmith. Yvonne has worked as an artist assistant to David Middlebrook since 2009, producing large-scale bronze and stone sculptures for private and public installations. In 2010 she returned to school to pursue her Master of Fine Arts degree in Spatial Arts at San José State University. Her current work continues to utilize metals, but is growing larger in scale and beginning to incorporate a variety of materials such as glass, plastics, wood, and fiber. Artist Statement: From the day we are born, our behavior and tastes are controlled by the social status quo. Little girls are fed an idealized image. Here, Barbie® has been deconstructed and reassembled for even easier consumption.
Yvonne Escalante
Baby’s Rattle Silver, Barbie Torso, 6 x 3 inches, 2005
Spoon Fed Silver, Barbie Arm, 6 x 2 inches, 2005
Sucker Silver, Barbie Arm, 3 x 2 inches, 2005
Angela Fortain Biography:
Angela Fortain is a native California artist, born in Pomona she now lives in Benicia, CA with her husband Stephen Stark a goldsmith and sculptor and their daughter Sabina who primarily works in Play Dough and polymer clay. As the multimedia matron of her creative family Angela works in blown glass, sterling silver and cast bronze, cast aluminum and cast Iron, she sews too. She has studied glassblowing at colleges in Santa Ana, San Bernardino and the corning school of glass in New York. She currently assists Dave Lindsay at Lindsay Art Glass and produces her jewelry in her home studio, and casts larger metal pieces at Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, CA. In her new series “Overt Underthings� she explores how distorting the shape of the body can be both liberating and imprisoning. The bodice, the corset and the bra can be instruments of empowerment, or torture. The same power that forces a person to attempt to control ones shape can deliver power over others. Society dictates which body shapes are pleasant and which are not. The beauty of the body is natural, yet in the garments that conceal and accentuate the physical form there is an unnatural beauty. By separating and immortalizing the sensual object that once transformed the wearer into an object of sexuality, allows us to examine not only the object, but our own desires. Artist Statement: The bodice, corset, and bra can be instruments of control. Separating the sensual object that once transformed the wearer into an object of sexuality allows us to examine the object, and our own desire.
Angela Fortain
Bodice Cast Bronze 48 x 36 x 24 inches 2008
Cynthia Grilli Biography: Cynthia Grilli received her BFA in illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992 and earned her master's degree in painting at the New York Academy of Art in 1994. Her figure paintings and drawings have been published in numerous publications including American Artist magazine and The Best of Sketching and Drawing by Rockport Press. She has won several awards in juried competitions for her figurative work and has been the recipient of two Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants. Her work has been exhibited throughout the country and is included in private and corporate collections across the United States and Europe. Cynthia has taught figure painting and drawing for fifteen years at various institutions including St. John's University, the Rhode Island School of Design, the New York Academy of Art, and the Laguna College of Art and Design. She currently teaches figure drawing and painting at Saddleback College and California State University at Long Beach. Artist Statement: “Fall Out” was inspired by my belief that control is an illusion. Releasing expectations of how the future should unfold can be exhilarating and frightening, like falling without a net. “Fall Out” represents the experience of letting go.
Cynthia Grilli
Fall Out Oil, Tixogel, Wax on Panel 58 x 36 inches 2007
Karen Gutfreund Biography: Karen Gutfreund has lived in all four corners of the United States but most recently came to the Bay Area in California from New York City. While in New York she worked in the Painting & Sculpture Department for MoMA, the Andre Emmerick Gallery, The Knoll Group and the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco. She now resides in San Jose, CA and is actively involved on the board of various arts organizations and is the National Exhibitions Coordinator for the Women’s Caucus for Art and a curator of feminist art exhibitions. Karen is also creating her own work, focusing on conceptual art and promoting the work of other artists as a Curator and Art Consultant. I create work that involves painting, mixed media, collage and photography, blurring the boundaries between these mediums. My paintings are large scale, both on canvas and wood panel. I start with a layer of text to create a grid in the background, even if completely covered with paint later. I use unconventional materials, such as roof tar, bone, red food coloring, wax, to create mood and texture that is thick and viscous. Then using hot political issues, I mix it up with text, pop culture images, stencils, and symbols to create works that are a combination of personal commentary, religious and moral teachings, political outrage and social observation. This process of working with disparate imagery and the revelations it produces morphs and evolves as I work. Often the imagery and core meaning of the painting is very personal and emotionally gut-wrenching, so that not being able to discuss it verbally, I present it visually. Part humorous, part tragic, I want to help others to see with my eyes, my perceptions and realities; the layering of images with mixed meanings echoes and reveals the layers and the inner complexity of my dreams, nightmares and emotions. Artist Statement: How often do I hear my brain screaming NO as I smile and say yes? These random words are all “NO” in different languages. So I am learning to say no in 520 languages, most importantly mine, NO.
Karen Gutfreund
I’m Learning to Say No in 520 Languages Mixed Media on Canvas 36 x 96 inches 2009
Elaine Jason Biography: Elaine Jason has been a professional artist and art educator for over 40 years. Born in Los Angeles, she received her BFA from the Chouinard Art Institute (now California Institute of the Arts). She has lived in the Lake Tahoe area of Northern California since 1982. Jason has had numerous solo exhibitions as well as inclusion in many juried competitions. Among her solo museum experiences was an exhibition titled “Light Waves/Night Raves” at the Museum of Neon Art in Los Angeles in 1997. The recipient of numerous awards and grants, Jason has also completed many commissions including wall sculptures for Lockheed Martin Corp., Kaiser Permanente Health care facility, the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, and Countrywide Funding Corporation in New York City among many others. Jason began incorporating neon into her 3 dimensional artworks in the mid 80’s. She approaches her work like a puzzle which she solves as she creates. Her studio is crowded with power tools, boxes of woods and found objects, paints and works in progress. She is inspired by her personal experience of constant changes and a contemplative spiritual space where she constructs and layers diverse materials. The luminous element serves as the animating principal of the deconstructed forms. Artist Statement: A stain - like a drop of blood that spreads into the fabric of your soul A parent / a spouse / a partner ... imprisons your mind ... (They) promise they will never hit you again (They) always do.
Elaine Jason
Never/Always Mixed Media Wall Sculpture w/Neon 49 x 23 inches 2008
Judy Johnson-Williams Biography : Judy Johnson-Williams is a self taught artist, who took a detour through chemistry before discovering the true meaning of life. She gleefully toured drawing, watercolor, pastels, and printmaking before hitting her true media of drawing with a knife on cardboard. Using large sheets of scavenged cardboard from boxes, she turns the rejected into the much sought after, while still respecting it's previous life by using the staple holes etc as a part of the composition. The entire cardboard is painted a single color and the layers are carved away to reveal the original colors and texture. This is a unique media that uses pattern and perspective to create depth while emphasizing the dance of light and shadow. She lives just south of San Francisco.
Artist Statement: “Knit� is about our particularly tangled relationships as daughtermothers. All of us are daughters with complicated relationships with our mothers and our daughters; we both create them and hobble them.
Judy Johnson-Williams
Knit Carved Cardboard 34 x 44 inches 2007
Louise Maloof Biography: I was born in West Texas and spent my childhood there an din New Mexico. The clear quality of sunlight and sere landscapes of those desolate places formed a hunger for visual expression and meaning in my life. I studied art at UCLA and Otis Parsons, where I was mentored by Simeon Wade, a disciple of Michel Foucault, Coleen Sterrit in the sculpture department and Scott Grieger, our fine arts chair and Renaissance authority. Studies of Surrealists and Poststructuralists opened a world of adventure into the mysteries of language connections within the mind and challenged me to make art of it. I work mostly in oils, beeswax, canvas, linen and wood. I paint late Renaissance style on very flat planes usually of birch or mahogany panels. The sides and backs are completely covered in a thick coating of beeswax, which protects the wood from moisture, fungi, temperature change and insects. The sculpture is crafted in mixed media derived from the arte povera school using found objects, wood, steel and ready mades. I use architecture, technology and nature as metaphors for the journey of the human soul, with all its yearnings. My work is collected in worldwide. Artist Statement: There is a violent line of blood and suffering throughout human history. It destroys our souls and our home, planet earth. Our blindingly silent conformities and complicities support these devastations generation after generation. I have chosen to portray some of their effects in parables for our early histories. What, then, shall we do?
Louise Maloof
Daedalus Mixed Media Sculpture 5’10” x 20 inches 2002
Yoka Mazza Biography: In her work, Yoko Mazza often paints Japanese traditional theatre mask wood sculpted “Noh” mask. She hopes to transform the canvas into “Noh” theatre and portray "life events and fantasies" using the image of the mask which is, for her, a real “face”, not a “mask to hide behind”, and her unique style - fusion of Japanese aesthetic sense and Western painting technique. After she graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice of City University of New York, she studied drawings and paintings under Nicki Obrah of Art Students League of New York and National Design of Academy of New York from 2001 through 2003. She also studied oil paintings at Laguna College of Art and Design in 2006, and under Glenn Hisch of San Francisco Art Institute from 2006 through 2009. Artist Statement: Let us celebrate our freedom and the strength of control of our blessed consciousness to hear the sound of the wind through the dark with small holes for light under the mask. (Noh-mask: Masugami )
Yoko Mazza
Goddess Protocol Acrylic 36 x 60 inches 2007
Kim McCool Nelson Biography: Kim was born in Stockton and educated in the San Francisco Bay Area. While still a student in college, she received multiple grants from the Philanthropic Ventures organization for an innovative children’s art program which served over six hundred children and their parents. She later worked on a mural project in San Francisco for the Salvation Army, all the while creating and exhibiting art work across the United States. Now she continues to do her own work while still working for the benefit of the peninsula by serving as curator for the Avenue 25 Gallery in San Mateo County and being the current president of the Coastal Arts League of Half Moon Bay. Artist Statement: Broken, unable to stand, my control slipping away‌ Without asking they began, to stand for me. Nourishing my strength, sustaining my courage.
Kim McCool Nelson
My Stand-ins Bronze Sculptures Series of 9 5 x 7.5 x 15 inches 2007
Joanne Beaule Ruggles Biography: Born in New York City in 1946, Joanne Beaule Ruggles grew up in northern Ohio and attended Ohio State University on scholarship to earn both BFA (1968) and MFA degrees in painting (1970). After graduate school, the artist held studio art teaching positions at Ohio State University, Alan Hancock College, Cuesta College, and at California Polytechnic State University where she taught for most of her career. A twenty-five year retrospective of Ruggles’ mixed media figure drawing was held at Cal Poly in January, 1994. Recipient of two State Faculty Support Grants, the artist was also awarded two sabbatical leaves (1995 -96 and 2001 – 2002 academic years) in order to work on figurative painting projects. She was nominated for the College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Scholarship / Creative Activity Award, the CLA Student Council’s Teacher of the Year Award (1999), and was a finalist for her university’s Distinguished Teaching Award (2000). Since 1980, Ruggles has participated in and received awards at international drawing and print biennials in sixteen countries throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. For 16 years she has served as a reviewer for artist residencies at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, and she has juried numerous California exhibitions, scholarship competitions, and Art in Public Places projects. Additionally, Ruggles was selected as an artist / participant in the Art in Embassies Program of the US Department of State. As a result of this honor, several of her paintings were loaned in a three-year exhibit at the US Embassy in Luanda, Angola, and second collection was loaned for the American Ambassador’s residence in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Joanne Beaule Ruggles retired from her university teaching position in 2004. That year she was named the recipient of Cal Poly’s Annual Outstanding Research Award. She now teaches occasional workshops and pursues her own art projects that have garnered grants from the James Irvine Foundation, San Luis Obispo Community Foundation, Puffin Foundation, and Capelli d’Angeli Foundation in recent years. A solo exhibit of the artist’s figure work Hand, Eye, Heart was held in August of 2010 at the Western Colorado Center for the Arts. Artist Statement: I have no patience for those who attempt to dictate appropriate subject matter - declaring as "off-limits" anything but the most trivialized portrayal of the human condition. The dark side of the human psyche exists.
Joanne Beaule Ruggles
Implorante IV Acrylic on Canvas 12 x 12 inches 2004
Centa Schumacher Biography: Using her camera as a tool for exploration, Centa Schumacher searches nature and herself for insight into the world around her. A special lens made from old camera parts gives her a unique perspective and helps her create images that hover somewhere between reality and the sublime. Centa, like many of California’s Bay Area residents, is a transplant. Originally from a rural area outside of Fresno, California she is still influenced by the farming community that was her original home, but has an increasing attachment to her new residence in San Francisco. Centa has exhibited her work throughout the Bay Area, including SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco and Kalied Gallery in San Jose. She recently received a BFA in Photography from San Jose State University. Artist Statement: There are times when self-control, the medium of the level-headed, can be destructive. The binds we place upon ourselves can become so tight that our very existence is painful.
Centa Schumacher
None But My Own (1) Silver Gelatin Print 24 x 20 inches 2008
Caroline Seckinger Biography: Caroline Seckinger is a conceptual artist with a working repertoire of printmaking, drawing, sculpture in metal, fibers, fabric, and wax; film, and digital media. Seckinger counters this diversification of modalities with a honing of her content, focusing her inquiry fairly specifically on a phenomenon in contemporary social discourses. The result is a diverse and ambitious body of (art) work that is increasingly conceptual, intellectual and political, and yet unrelentingly lyrical and aesthetic. Seckinger uses low-tech and ancient skills that are the traditional domain of women’s work (carding, spinning, stitching, weaving) applying them to the most basic human tasks such as making clothing, tools, shelters, containers and vessels. The often repetitive nature of these working practices permeates both the content and the form of the work, much of which is based on serial presentations and narrative expositions. When she ventures into metal working or brings her very high-tech and modern skills as a film-maker and digital graphic artist to bear on the same set of materials and themes, viewers are invited to consider the relationships between the domestic and public realm, high and lowcraft, and “his and her� work. Seckinger is a graduate of University of Santa Cruz (BFA) and California Institute (MFA). She has worked as an activist, investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker which has informed her practice as artist as a social lens. She is the recipient of numerous film awards and artist grants. Artist Statement: Constructed from the fabric of a wedding dress, this piece brings into question who/what is served by constraining the innate/animal instincts of attraction, mating, and desire to fit into the structures of monogamy and marriage.
Caroline Seckinger
The Bridal Bridle Dress 84 x 13 inches 2008
Leigh Toldi Biography: Originally from Big Sur, CA, Leigh Toldi received her BA from University of California, Davis, and a Graduate Printmaking Certificate from California State University, Stanislaus, 1980. She has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows, her paintings and drawings now being held in private collections across the country. While always emphasizing a feel of the fine arts, Toldi’s quirky drawings have been found in many magazines and books, and from 1984 to 1990 she illustrated a nationally syndicated daily column. Leigh Toldi has been involved with and served on the boards of many arts organizations, at present serving as secretary for WCA-Peninsula. At different times in her life she has worked as an arts educator, a gallery manager and curator, a set designer, a newspaper production manager, and a documentary photographer. Leigh Toldi directs her fine art towards celebrating the inner strengths of the human psyche. Her most recent solo exhibition presents 900 tiny drawings of abstracted human timelines, each depicting birth to the age of 50 or beyond. Toldi has a world-view that incorporates cultural diversity, history, biology, and at times spirituality into her work. Her teachers can be found in fine arts venues as well as sitting next to her on the subway. More info is at. Artist Statement: We must learn to go with the flow yet guide our ship with a strong hand, understanding that gifts are found in shadow as well in light. “View from Above� explores the concept of controlling thought in order to overcome obstacles.
Leigh Toldi
View From Above Acrylic on Board 18 x 24 inches 2009
Ruth Waters Biography: Fifty-plus years in sculpture and thirty years in arts administration have come together for Ruth Waters as she heads a campaign to develop the Peninsula Art Museum in San Mateo County. The Museum currently occupies its “starter home” in Belmont’s Twin Pines Park. A spectacular full-service art museum is planned. Waters, a Seattle native, graduated from Stanford University in 1955 and started working in hardwoods in 1957 (her mediums now include bronze, marble, constructed room-size sculpture, and painting). As a sculptor, Waters often turns to universal issues of human identity, relationships, and interactions. As a painter, she explores and expresses personal sensations – the feel of hot sun or cold wind on her skin, the delight of a sunrise or sunset – in iridescent pigment, then mounts the paintings so that they curve out from the wall, shimmering and shifting as the light changes. Founder and director of the 1870 Art Center in Belmont (since 1977), which is a complex of working studios for 26 visual artists plus gallery, she is also a cofounder of the Peninsula Sculptors’ Guild and the Peninsula Arts Council. Artist Statement: Home is the most dangerous place for women, and it's not much safer for children. Violence and the implicit or explicit threat of violence are commonly used to "keep them in line".
Ruth Waters
Home, $weet Home Mixed Media, Sculpture 95 x 97 inches 1963
Corinne
30 years 17 years
W h i t a k e r Biography:
Digital imaging pioneer Digital painter Digital sculptor Webmaster Programmer Editor Author
hundreds aka
Exhibitions world wide publications the Digital Giraffe www.giraffe.com
Artist Statement: Circulation Navigation Population Stimulation All gone wild All out of control.
Corinne Whitaker
Traffic Unique Digital Painting on Canvas 36 x 36 inches 2009
Tamara White Biography: A mixed media artist based in Northern California, Tamara White has been featured at several galleries throughout the area, and has been named as representing the vibrancy, fearlessness, and experimentation that is trademark of the Bay Area. With notebook in hand she is constantly recording visual and auditory cues that surface day to day, lyrical expressions, found objects, borrowed words and symbols, building one layer upon the next to produce a richly, texturized piece. Tamara was born in Chester, California and graduated from San Francisco State with a graduate degree in Visual Communications. Thereafter, she found the tactile approach of fine art more appealing than computer graphics; basically liking to get her hands messy. Tamara is currently working with high school students as an artist in residence at Castro Valley High School and elementary students at Escuele Bilingue International. Artist Statement: This piece focuses on the remarkable women who took control of their destiny by refusing to accept the terms that were placed upon them while commanding a change over their future and those of generations to come.
Tamara White
Suffrage Mixed Media 36 x 36 2009