TEXAS DIMENSIONAL: Fine Art in Three Dimensions

January 3 - February 17, 2023

A State-Wide Invitatonal Exhibition designed and durated by Andre and Virginia Bally in collaboration with the San Antonio Art League & Museum

Copyright © 2023 by The San Antonio Art League & Museum

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written

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Printed in the United States of America First Printing, 2023

The San Antonio Art League & Museum 130 King William Street San Antonio, Texas 78204 www.saalm.org

The San Antonio Art League is the oldest arts organization in the city. Founded in 1912, the League has had countless exhibitions over the past 110 years, but Texas Dimensional is a wonderfully novel idea with a very different focus.

The exhibition is guest-curated by Andre and Virginia Bally, artists who have sponsored dimensional arts and fine crafts across the state. Their passion is showcasing objects that speak to aesthetics as much as (or even more than) function. Their own work in clay and glass summons symbol and memory and abstraction through intricate processes that require a great deal of technical expertise as well as conceptual authenticity.

The Ballys are arts advocates in the best sense – they create community wherever they go and immerse themselves in the active arts scene as leaders and innovators. So when they talked with us at SAALM about creating a statewide exhibit for artists working in three dimensions, we jumped at the chance. Because of their stellar reputation, they were able to call in artists from all over the state, particularly Houston, but also other cities, to participate by invitation.

As the photographs of the submitted work began to come in on the SAALM website, we grew more and more excited about the quality and the variety of the work. And when the actual work itself started arriving packed in crates, wrapped in quilts, boxed in unassembled sections to be unwrapped and revealed, we knew this was going to be a one-of-a-kind unforgettable event. We believe you will agree.

We want to thank every artist to who has shared their extraordinary work with us in this collection of dimensional delight. We profoundly thank Andre and Virginia for their hard work and their boots on the ground in curating and physically arranging this show so masterfully. And we thank all of you for coming to see it and sharing our excitement about the boundless talent of these Texas dimensional artmakers.

SAALM Texas Dimensional Exhibition Committee

Lyn Belisle, Liaison and Chair

Vikki Fields

Nancy Kempf

Bill Kurtin

Claudia Langford, SAALM President

Catalog design: Lyn Belisle

Cover Artwork Detail: Roy Hanscom

TEXAS DIMENSIONAL: FINE ART IN THREE DIMENSIONS

AN INTRODUCTION BY VIRGINIA & ANDRE BALLY, DESIGNERS AND CURATORS

It had always been a dream of ours to be able to curate an exhibition of 3-Dimensional work. We have so many very good friends and acquaintances that are supremely talented 3D artists. These incredible folks work in various media; wood, clay, metal, glass and fiber and some work with all of these in their mixed media creations. So, in 2015 we sponsored and curated our first 3D exhibition at Centro Cultural Aztlan on Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio. Our driving motivation was to expose the myth and generally held perception that fine art has to be two dimensional.

What do we mean by that statement? Typically, when you visit a fine arts gallery, the majority of the works are painting; oil, acrylic or watercolor and these command the highest prices. If a gallery does show 3-dimensional work it tends to be relegated to the realm of craft and “craft” is such a broad, collective genre it is generally perceived to have a lesser value.

We are not trying to disrespect or downgrade flat work by any means, the artists that produce this kind of work require a skill set and experience that give those works whether oil, acrylic or watercolor their great value. These works are visually intriguing, stimulating and thought provoking. However, we feel that the skill set and experience developed by the 3D artist is no less demanding and, in some instances, can be more demanding. 3-Dimensional work is just as visually intriguing, stimulating and thought provoking as 2-dimensional work. So why aren’t these works appreciated in the same way; as fine art?

In the late spring of 2022, we were given the fantastic opportunity to partner with the San Antonio Art League & Museum to once again curate an exhibition of 3-dimensional work utilizing their museum display space to celebrate the works by some very talented 3D artists. As we did before, we wanted to be sure to let the artists know that this is an invitational exhibition. The “jury” has essentially been the two of us. After much thought, we have invited 38 3D artists whose work in various media, including clay, glass, wood, metal and fiber, we greatly admire and feel is exemplary in their craft. We asked each artist to choose the work they felt best represented them.

We feel that this exhibition is amazing on so many different levels. We are so very grateful to the San Antonio Art League & Museum for the opportunity to partner with them and their very kind and generous contribution in letting us utilize their wonderful facility. And we are equally grateful to all the artists who agreed to participate in this exhibition. These talented people are what make this exhibition of very fine 3-dimensional art so wonderful, and fully illustrate our thesis that 3-dimensional is indeed fine art.

Andre and Virginia Bally, January 2023

Andre with his wife Virginia founded Bally Studios in 1994. They have been greatly influenced by the cultures and design motifs of the traditional Japanese Potters, that of the North American Indian Potters and various other Aboriginal Art Cultures. Along with a diverse Art and Design background, these influences are reflected in the design and finishes of Virginia’s and Andre’s work. Andre Bally has been experimenting with ceramics, glass, and metal for over forty years. The Ballys have curated numerous shows together and have pieces on exhibit in private collections in Canada, Europe, and the United States.

The San Antonio Art League & Museum (SAALM) is a venerable building in the heart of the King William Historic District. Built in 1896, this intimate house-turned-museum and gallery now houses over 600 works in its permanent collection, which focuses on Texas artists. Works in all mediaincluding paintings, drawings, prints and photographs, ceramics, and sculptureare available for public viewing. Revolving contemporary exhibits highlight both local and regional artists and represent the unique work of diverse Texas talent.

INVITED ARTISTS

GLEN

ANDREWS

ANDRE BALLY VIRGINIA BALLY LYN BELISLE MICHELLE BELTO LOTUS BERMUDEZ SUSAN BUDGE ANNE BURTT SUSAN CALAFRANCESCO CECILIA CASTRO-HANCOCK DANVILLE CHADBOURNE CAROLYN DAHL ELIZABETH DELYRIA CAROL DOTIN KELLEY EGGERT JEFF FORSTER KATIE GARDENIA MARIA GOULD JOE HADEN ROY HANSCOM JAMES HENDRICKS LILLY LERNER LINDA MANNING ADAM MULDER CLAUDIA OBRANOVICH VIVIAN PAUL THOMAS PERRY LINDA RAEL MARC ROSENTHAL YVETTE SHADROCK RYAN TAKABA ALICIA TAPP DAMON THOMAS SHERRY TSENG HILL CAT WAMMACK FRANCESCA WATSON THOMAS WELLS ANDREA WILKINSON

GLEN ANDREWS

SAN ANTONIO

As a child, I was fascinated by glass and continue to find myself inexorably drawn to the medium. I began my career in glass in the early 2000s honing my skill at artistic and production studios. After a decade of working in glass, I joined Caliente Hot Glass Studio where I currently lead the studio as the resident artist and also create under my own brand.

I respect molten glass as sublime energy and work in unison with it to communicate grace to the world. Working with glass in the hot shop is akin to entering a sanctuary for me. My artistic process focuses on how the medium wants to be transformed, followed closely by a keen awareness of the way color and light will affect the viewer. Often my pieces go beyond the beauty of glass alone as I aim to elucidate philosophical and interpersonal concepts.

Delicate Conversations 2020

Sculpted hot glass 36”x7”x5” 6 lbs $1,800

SPRING BRANCH

Andre Bally, a graduate of Texas A&M University, Andre also spent one year studying art at Sam Houston State University. After graduating, Andre worked for A & M University in their Student Services Craft Center where he began researching and experimenting with various materials including ceramics, glass, paper, and metal.

Now after more than forty years, Andre produces works in each medium, combining them for unique results. While admitting his first love continues to be clay, Andre spends significant time developing and executing etched, fused, casted and carved glass designs. His design esthetic closely follows his interest in Native American Indian forms and patterns. Andre’s work can be found in exhibits and in private collections in Canada, Europe, North Africa and the United States.

With his wife, Virginia, Andre founded BALLY STUDIOS in 1994. This collaborative team, along with their diverse Art and Design backgrounds, are also greatly influenced by traditional Japanese design motifs along with those of the North American Indian Tribes. With long hours of research, trial and error, and a great deal of patience, each piece they produce is completely unique.

For this exhibition Andre is experimenting with exaggerated texture on circular tile forms. The glaze work is also experimental. On one piece, pushing the limit of low fire under glazes, fired at high temperatures to get deeper colors and a flux. On the other piece, the glaze work is layer and applied in thick lifts to get a soft icing like finish.

VIRGINIA BALLY

SPRING BRANCH

Virginia Bally began her art studies by attending the Houston Museum of Fine Arts School, now known as the Glassell School of Arts. She received her Associates Degree in Fine Arts, with honors from North Harris County College. Her major study was in ceramics. She was a featured artist in the 1991 Juried Student Art Exhibit and was awarded a scholarship on the strength of her work. Virginia’s work can be found in exhibits and in private collections in Canada, Europe, North Africa and the United States.

With her husband, Andre, she founded BALLY STUDIOS in 1994. This collaborative team, along with their diverse Art and Design backgrounds, are also greatly influenced by traditional Japanese design motifs along with those of the North American Indian Tribes. With long hours of research, trial and error, and a great deal of patience, each piece they produce is completely unique.

For this exhibition, Virginia is continuing to focus on the development and evolution of her Mask form. Utilizing the basic concept of the Catrina Skull (la Calavera Catrina), an icon of modern Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, Virginia has incorporated Mason Stains which are a combinations of oxides, that have been fritted to ensure uniformity of color and thus insure uniformity of results in firing. These colorfully stained porcelains greatly enhance the vibrancy and intensity of her final product. The Mask itself is captured from a live model using a complex face casting process. Virginia’s work is a constantly changing and evolving process.

SAN ANTONIO

Lyn Belisle is a multidisciplinary artist embracing encaustic painting, earthenware, digital imagery, sculpture, textiles and found objects. Her artwork gives expression to her quest to discover and connect synchronistic shards of meaning through collage and assemblage. She teaches mixed-media workshops at Lyn Belisle Studio in San Antonio, and also teaches nationally, most recently in Santa Fe, Provincetown, Washington State, and Taos. She has retired from the faculty in the Computer Science Department at Trinity University to work full time at her studio and has work at The Museum of Encaustic Art in Santa Fe and in the San Antonio Art League & Museum.

Statement:

My work has always been strongly influenced by the idea of “shards” as a metaphor for human communication across time. A shard can be a found fragment of clay, a rusty nail, a scrap of handwriting – any little clue that becomes a “secret handshake” between the maker and the discoverer.

Human faces, ancient or contemporary, fascinate me as summaries of life stories in the moment. Clay, paper, beeswax, and fiber are my instinctive, beloved media but mark-making through abstract painting challenges me to develop my own language of expression and translation.

The more aware I am of the little day-to-day incomplete clues that capture my attention by calling to me in a mysterious way, and the more I take note of them, the more understanding I gain about the purpose of my art as the re-assembling of human narratives across time.

BOTTOM LEFT:

Digital Divide 94: The Last Kimono 2022

Constructed kimono form mounted on stretched canvas panel with components of used studio drop cloth (torn), hydrosoluable fiber, walnut ink, paper twine, surface design, found objects, and a Noh-like mask made of fired earthenware. 21x15x5 3 lb. NFS

TOP CENTER AND BOTTOM RIGHT: Flights of Fancy 2022

Fired earthenware, encaustic and beeswax, hand-dyed shredded silk, found objects, 38x17x10” 8 lb. $500

When I look back at my almost fifty years of creative work, I am not surprised to learn that what attracts me most is what lies between things. I am interested in discovering how time and memory, for example, can share a space, or how an ending holds within it the seed of a new beginning. I come from a perspective that spirit, or the spiritual, is as real as our physical world.

I create complex surfaces that speak to eras of time where remembered experiences are viewed as scars and remains, traces of the original thought. Quotidian Reliquary references medieval church niches containing relics of saints, men and women venerated for their exemplary and holy lives. I gathered personal mementos of the “saints” in my life and buried these small objects in specially created niches in a dimensional support of cast paper pulp. Traditionally, these niches were covered with wax mastiffs consisting of beeswax, frankincense and marble dust. I used similar ingredients melted and torched as a way to add color and provide a protective finish. Having spent many years in a religious community, I am drawn to the image of a beehive as a social structure.

Sweet Sisterhood captures my remembered experience of that time of enclosure where I learned the values of silence, communal living and daily service. The simplicity of that life set the stage for later choosing my primary art mediums of paper and wax. In my current body of work, I am seeking insight into how the small acts of our everyday life can be used to widen and deepen our spirituality.

Everyday Sacraments, Ordinary Prayers is a series of paintings and sculptures that will be exhibited in 2024. For those interested in following the process of the development of this content and seeing the work as it progresses, follow my Blog, Breadcrumbs. You can find it on my website: www.michellebelto.com

2011

wax, resin, oil on artist made cast paper 24 x 30 x 1.25” 10 lbs Framed $1250

Sweet Sisterhood

HOUSTON

These two alternative fired vessels are an abstract depiction of the ever-changing flow of life materialized from the textures of wet clay and liquidity of glaze and flame.

Mercurial Moment 2021

Thrown and altered ceramic, alternative fired 7x8x8” 3.5 lbs $250

Molten Moment

2021

Thrown and altered ceramic, alternative fired 7.5x6x6” 2 lbs. $250

SUSAN BUDGE PATTISON

Touching clay for the first time was my epiphany. The physical, sensual, direct qualities of this material have challenged me for over forty years. I prefer to work spontaneously in the studio in order to allow subconscious thoughts to surface. Works containing a realistic eye evolved from the responsibility of being a mother and the recognition of the watchful eye of a child.

They also reflect the notion of Kandinsky that: “Everything has a secret soul…”

The cut forms incorporate a technique that is challenging and meditative. Recent works in bronze make large scale works suitable for outdoor installations in any environment. I enjoy the use of paradox: balancing fragility and strength through technique and material.

Gold Fish 2021

Stoneware with 14K gold luster 8 inches x 7 inches x 6 inches 7 lbs 700

ANNE BURTT

SAN ANTONIO

I am a San Antonio based, contemporary fused glass artist best known for my multidimensional, layered glass works. My love of color, texture and the beauty of glass is evident in all of my artwork. In my “Glasscapes” series, I create a diverse array of contemporary abstract panoramas painted with enamels on multiple layers of textured glass. My “Sea Anemone” fused glass sculpture series evokes memories of dives onto coral reefs. The colorful organic tentacles and the juxtaposition of their movement in delicate glass with the clean flat steel housing is very captivating and is truly a one-of-a-kind fused glass “sea creature!”

Bio:

After a successful career as a US Air Force investigator, Anne Burtt began to search for a creative outlet. With no formal art background, she was introduced to stained glass art while living in Alexandria, VA. After several years creating custom windows, Anne discovered the magical world of fused or kiln formed glass! This medium provides her an inexhaustible source of creative possibilities through the combination of colors, textures and techniques. Anne’s artwork undergoes multiple kiln firings to create movement and depth to her 3 dimensional artwork. Anne has been represented by several galleries including Globe Fine Art in Santa Fe, NM and recently with a successful solo show at Mockingbird Handprints Gallery, San Antonio, TX.

Tropical Reflections 2022

Tropical Reflections is a contemporary abstract “Glasscape” of painted fused glass. Multiple layers of enamels are painted onto flat art glass then fired several times in my kiln. Once cool, repeated applications of small layered sheet, crushed and sting glass added to the background design build texture and depth resulting in my abstract panoramas. Tropical Reflections is mounted on a whitewashed cradled wood panel.

12”x24”x2” 6.2 lbs $480

Curlique Anemone

2018

The Curlique Anemone sculpture is created by heating many layers of colored art glass in a kiln at very high temperatures. The glass is layered on a raised metal grid allowing the glass to melt through the grid to form the flowing tentacles. By watching through a small window in the kiln, I can see when the tentacles are almost touching the bottom of the kiln shelf. A slow cooling slows the movement. Once completely cooled, the sculpture is removed from the grid and turned so the tentacles are upright. The sculpture is once again placed in the kiln on an angled shelf and slowly heated until gravity bends the tentacles into a pleasing shape. The glass sculptures are mounted into a specially designed stainless steel framing which incorporates LED lighting and can be hung on the wall or placed on furniture. 9”x9”x7.5” 4.6 lbs $450

CANYON LAKE

Susan Calafrancesco was born in 1960 and has spent her life dedicated to the enchantment of storytelling with clay. What began as a high school ceramics class in rural Rhinebeck, NY; over time, blossomed into a life full of color, texture and form.

Susan attended SUNY Potsdam in New York state in the early 80’s and completed a Studio Art Bachelor’s Degree with an emphasis in pottery. She moved to Texas in 2007 and began her full-time artist career after raising her two children. Susan maintains a studio in Canyon Lake, TX.

She exhibits her works at various galleries in Texas and across the country. Recently she was chosen to exhibit at the prestigious, Strictly Functional Pottery National held in Pennsylvania. She exhibited a colorful, quirky sculptural piece to hold a salt and pepper basket and a toothpick holder. Her work, “The Duet”, and fun sculpture with a man and a mouse playing the same fantastical instrument, is featured in the Lark Book, “500 Figures in Clay volume 2.”

Her works are culled from dreams and silent meditation. Susan is drawn to nature and often includes animals in her sculptures. These intricate sculptures will usually tell a story. The viewer can discern their own story, and the hope is for the viewer to smile at the narrative.

Susan’s recent work encompasses an experimental process of using natural items, such as beehives, cactus “skeletons”, and other organic materials. These items are drenched in liquid, porcelain clay and the organic material is then burned out in the kiln. The resulting pieces are “stitched” together to form a sensuous, translucent porcelain sculpture.

Every finished sculpture morph from a lump of clay with an idea, to a flowered alternate reality that mixes earthen textures and delightful characters into a world of intricate fantasy.

SAN ANTONIO

Cecilia Castro-Hancock, a native of Mexico, graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University with a Master of Science in Counseling Psychology. She earned a certificate in Ceramics at The Southwest School of Art and has been a ceramic artist for over 30 years. Her work has been in Multiple Collective and individual exhibitions in the US and Mexico and she has been the recipient of several awards.

The creative process has been a constant in my life. To have the ability to work with clay, gives me much joy and pleasure. The time I spend creating moves me and nurtures my spirit. Clay offers many possibilities; it is a material so alive, that each encounter becomes a meditation where sometimes I take the lead and others I have to carefully and humbly, listen and follow what the clay wants me to do. My intent with each piece is to initiate an ongoing dialog between the piece and the observer.

Dance of life 2015

Mid Range Clay with Oxide wash 8” deep x 14” wide x 18” tall 18.5 lbs $500.00

DANVILLE CHADBOURNE

SAN ANTONIO

Essentially, my work is concerned with the evocation of spiritual or primal states, using simple organic forms, often in suggestive conjunctions that elaborate metaphorically primary issues of ambiguity, morality, accident/intention, contradiction or even existence. Frequently there is an allusion to circumstance, contextual usage, and time as a condition of the work, but it appears in a peripheral, indirect, or generalized way, never specific or obvious.

I have chosen by personal evolution to use forms and images that appear to be part of some culture with an elaborate mythological structure, never quite defined, but evidently interrelated. I am concerned with the intellectual speculation that we make regarding other cultures, especially primitive or ancient ones based on our observation of their artifacts. This anthropological perception is a key issue in my work.

Formally, I use relatively simple sculptural images, sometimes static like monuments, other times active, dynamic forms that suggest some usage, often ritualistic. I also tend to use materials and processes that imply cultural attitudes that are harmonious with nature and the passage of time.

Clay has the most associative power in archeological terms and easily responds to the expressive needs of my ideas as well as being rather permanent and durable. Wood, stone, fiber, bone, and some found objects also work effectively as materials charged with connotative powers in this context.

Hopefully, each element, as well as the whole body of work, contributes to the total effect of rediscovering an artifact that is evidently outside of our culture at one level, but reflects a kind of universal human consciousness and ultimately stimulates the perception of our own personal existence.

THE MORPHOLOGICAL DILEMMA OF IMPROBABLE TRUTH 2020

wood, acrylic and ink on wood, acrylic on earthenware

22” H. 14” W. 9½”D. approx 10lbs $2000

THE INVENTOR OF PRECARIOUS DESIRE 2022

wood, acrylic and ink on wood, antler, metal 75” H. 18” W. 17” D. approx 75lbs (total weight, 4 sections) $6000

HOUSTON

Do the flowers I grow in my garden make a difference to butterfly populations’ survival? Do the 200 butterflies I raise in a good year matter? I have to believe that any action we take to conserve nature’s intricate ecologies, to prevent habitat loss, and to slow the impact of development is important.

Through these artworks I express my concern for butterflies, but I am asking everyone: what things matter to you, what do you want to see continue in our world if nature is to survive our actions.

What If Butterflies Returned to Their Field of Flowers But Found Only Concrete and Condos?

(Left Panel) 2018

Handpainted & -dyed cloth, origami butterflies, applique, piecing, stitching 32” W x 48.5” H 2 lbs. $1600

ELIZABETH DELYRIA KATY

The line where water meets land is a compelling place of constant change and power, yet still capable of infinite calm. The sound of water as it reaches land, the feel of wind coming in over the lake, and the sight of driftwood and stones worn over time to their most basic forms all come together at this one place, this one line. I am never more at peace than when walking that line.

In my artwork, I combine the textures and forms of wood, water and stone to convey the essence of that line. I use life-like surfaces to give the feeling of nature but use them in unexpected ways to give them emphasis. Taken out of context, these textures of wood, water and stone compel the viewer to look at them in a deeper sense, perhaps even to value them more. Often my work is mistaken for real driftwood and real stone at first glance. It’s only upon a closer look that the viewer notices the driftwood morphing into an ancient fossil, that the stones carry my palm print as a reflection of the bond between man and earth, and that the surging, shifting driftwood ends in a smooth white surface highlighting its craggy edges, suggesting the ragged shoreline itself.

My work is of nature, but not an imitation of nature. I want the viewer to see the artists hand in the work to reinforce the balance between one’s self and nature. I want my work to take the viewer to that compelling line - for an instant perhaps to remember the time they too spent walking there and the emotions it brought to them.

Reach 2014

Pit Fired stoneware with terra sigilatta 3’ x 18” x 18” 14 lbs $2,500.

SAN ANTONIO

Fascination with throwing, the the glamour sport of ceramics, led me to enroll at the Craft Center (now UTSA Arts) in San Antonio many years ago. I had been an admirer and collector of clay objects long before I was a maker. Eventually after becoming fairly competent and thoroughly addicted to throwing, hand building loomed as an alternative. By then, the realization that I did not have the patience or fortitude (or enough family and friends to gift my work) to further develop the skills needed to take my throwing to another level had begun to sink in.

The much slower process, flexibility, variety, and ability to tell stories in hand building has satisfied my need for creative expression for two decades now Typically the clay tells me where it wants to go with a form, a concept, or a beguiling piece of mixed media. The versatility and joy of building sculptures by hand gives the me the ability to design only for beauty, make a statement, simply have fun with a piece, comment on the condition of my world, tackle a technical challenge, or often, bring my weird to life. Enjoying the process and the outcome along with exploration and experimentation are the principle goals. Laissez le bon temp rouler!

Buckeyed Forever 2019

Low-fired raku clay, underglaze, metal, silver/gold leaf 6” (d) x 9” (w) x 7” (h) 2 lb. 8 oz.

$600.00

HOUSTON

As we enter what some believe to be the Sixth Great Extinction, many creatures that currently roam the earth will become fossils. For every impressed relic, a niche will open for new life to grow and flourish. As a species, we must foster what cultivates and maintains life. A seed is an emblem of potential, continuation, and hope. It is concentrated energy, surging with life and vivacity.

My sculptures are designed to elevate the humble little seed to something significant and substantial, extolling its status as bearer of the spark. The seed is represented by a shiny orb-like form. It is supported by rigid yet sinuous structures that prop, encase, or intertwine its body. Elements of ornament flirt with each passerby, enticing them to lean in and take notice of what is precious.

HOUSTON

As a child I had plentiful opportunity to explore the bucolic rural Minnesota landscape which was dotted with dilapidated barns and “junk piles”. These piles were composed of cast off parts from automobiles and agricultural equipment, among other things. I remember as a child speculating what different parts might have been used for and imagining the people who had used them. There was a curious history to these objects that truly fed my imagination.

In my current work I am using cast off materials (ie. Styrofoam) as press molds to make abstract objects that are imbued with a sense of age. Modern day artifacts that reflect how our current culture functions. Additionally, I quite enjoy how different people bring their own interpretations to what the objects look like.

SAN ANTONIO

I have been in love with Fiber since I can remember and at the age of 30 I created my first Fiber Art Doll and now 50 years later and thousands of pieces all over the world, creating my Art is my life!

I am blessed .... A self taught artist with a passion to try new techniques ( embroidery, hooking, needle felting, sculpting) and stitching is my therapist as well as my Grandmother’s voice in my head saying “Make those stitches smaller !!!! “...each piece is my favorite untill I start the next and then it becomes my favorite and on and on and so my day’s are filled with ideas and creating ...I am blessed

SAN ANTONIO

I have been in love with terracotta for a very long time. The richness of the color and the brightness of the underglazes and glazes that fit this low fire clay, have been exciting for me to work with.

Sister Mary Six Pack 2014

Hand built Terracotta with underglaze surface 9X7X4” 3 lbs $350

HOUSTON

Joe Haden is a Houston based artist who loves to use the world as his art store for collecting scrape objects, trash, and materials. By recycling and re-purposing, Haden is able to invoke renewed interest in an object by changing the perception of its usefulness, lifespan, and/or status.

Likewise, Haden incorporates Dadaism into some of his work, which is the practice of taking useful everyday items and completely altering their original purpose for a greater beauty, something Haden calls “Making Pretty.” His freehand cut design imitates a soft filigree lace feel that plays with light and shadow; positive and negative space is a specialty found in his metal work. One of the things Haden loves about art is its ability to transform an idea into physical form.

Haden‘s favorite medium is metal. His ideas start flowing with endless possibility when working with the various shapes, textures. This is when the fun of transformation begins! The Haden’s interest in design and fabrication has been strong since childhood, with an ongoing struggle between being a structured engineer and a free form artist. As a child, he constantly drew everyday still-life drawings, as well as designed detailed blueprints for imaginary homes.

From then to present day, Haden continues to find creative ways to build whatever his imagination can dream up. Haden obtained degrees in both Engineering and Art, which lead to a short career in aerospace engineering before becoming a custom home designer/ builder for many decades.

Saturday Night 2021

Found Objects, airport luggage zipper pulls, piano hammers, stainless steel, gas nozzle 43” x 16” x 20”: 40 lbs.

Eve 2015

Found Objects, wooden head, steering wheel, airport luggage zipper pulls, steel 82” x 18” dia 70 Lbs $10,000

Roy Hanscom grew up on Long Island, NY. He began his ceramic studies in 1972 at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts. He continued with his studies at Institute de Allende, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. In 1980 he received his Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Roy has been a professor of Art at Lone Star College-North Harris, Houston, TX since 1989. Roy has shown in numerous state and national juried competitions. He has won several awards along with being included in the private collection of the San Angelo Fine Art Museum.

About the work: I enjoy working with clay because it is a material that sets no limit and has practically no boundaries in its ability to adapt to my ideas and designs. My latest body of work “Floral Wall reliefs” is the exploration of a complex embrace of textural diversity and multi-dimensional layering of organic forms. Constructed of porcelain and stoneware clay, the forms are oxidation fired to cone 9 in an electric kiln.

Opposite: Flower Garden #5763 2022

stoneware coils and porcelain flowers 17x21x3 14 lbs. 3,400

Above:

Flower Garden #5830 2022

stoneware coils and porcelain flowers 17x21x3 10 lbs. 2,400

JAMES WYATT HENDRICKS

HELOTES

James Wyatt Hendricks is an artist and metal specialist with Forty years of experience in his craft. HIS art work covers a wide range of mediums including, painting, stone sculpture, blacksmith steel, cast bronze, traditional welding. He is a professional artist who focuses on metal sculptures and oil paintings. He has designed and produced more than 150 commissions in the past three decades.

He was selected as artist of the year in 2017, by the San Antonio Art League and Museum. This culminated in a one-man show of 65 pieces of his sculptures and paintings. James has also worked as an illustrator for over 30 years, creating technical and scientific illustrations.

He has worked for Pearson Publications, San Antonio Express News (winning an Associated Press award in 2000), Fairchild Aircraft, as well as doing thousands of science related illustrations for Globe Book Company and Harcourt Brace Press. He uses this skill to design his sculptures and public works.

Tree of Life #14

2021

Cut steel and mixed media resin drawing 24in. 30in. 35lbs $2,200

SHERRY TSENG HILL

HOUSTON

I make mixed-media work to investigate what it means to be a part of a community. Like soap bubbles in constant flux, colliding together and pulling apart, forming larger groups and separating into smaller ones, the sense of belonging to communities is often fluid. It is this richness, this liquidity, and liveliness that I find the encounters and the inevitable entanglements among communities both agitating and exciting. Being an immigrant, a person of color, a woman, and a minority, I live in this fluid space of liminality and examine the joys and tensions arising from being on this liquid threshold.

My work translates the relationships between peoples, languages, and histories across cultural differences. I look for the shared universal experiences and the unsoluble sediments of these translations. I reference traditional craft practices and use personal objects of common denominators in our everyday surroundings, such as newspapers, photographs, and textiles. By cutting, tearing, and shredding, I excavate from my past and reconstruct new narratives by weaving, stitching, and gluing. Layering seemingly disparate materials and re-framing my own experiences, I question the attitudes and fears that have permeated our environment and behaviors within it. Abstracting these personal narratives is a way of sharing these explorations through a universal perspective.

TOP: Threading Edges, Fringes and Corners 2022

Multilingual newspapers, threads, archival paper 28x50x2.5 1 to 2 lbs. $20,000

BOTTOM:

Naming Ourselves/ATGC 2022

OurselvesATGC_Multilingual ewspapers, ID wristbands, yarn, archival paper 28x50x3.5 1 to 3 lbs. $20,000

I have always been a storyteller, and clay has become my preferred means of telling stories. I have created a number of ceramic purses and briefcases that symbolize individual and collective human stories. Each of these works is an attempt to bring the voices behind those stories to life. When I start building a clay purse, I have in mind a story or a distinctive trait of an individual or a community, for example, their ability to overcome obstacles. That is where the story starts, and as I continue building my piece, the clay starts to react and the story takes form.

One representation of a person is their bag and what they carry in it. In a purse there is everything that its owner needs or imagines that they need. The purse’s materials, its colors, its brightness and its textures distinguish one purse from another, one personality from another and are a reflection of its owner and their community. My work is inspired by the stories represented in the bags carried by important people in my life: relatives, friends, colleagues, and more distantly, politicians, writers and even the Queen. It is a collection of portraits of communities, stories and moments, narrated in ceramics

TOP: “Obsess with decency” 2019

Hand built in Clay. 9 3/4” W 7 “ H 4” D 5 lbs 400

BOTTOM: “Doña Anita, Movie buff to the last minute” 2020

Hand built in Clay

10” W 7 1/2” H 4” D 4.5 Lbs $400

BOERNE

The ability to try something new holds me to clay as my chosen art form. Trying new and risky things keeps my work from being static and me bored.

In this series I’ve chosen to work in the raku and saggar process. Using bare clay with no glazes to add pattern or color, instead, I paint with organics, fire, smoke, temperature, and time. The raku firing process has been around since the 1580’s. One of its main characteristics is removing the clay piece from the kiln when it is at its firing height. Saggar is a container used during the firing process to enclose or protect ware being fired inside a kiln. This firing method creates confined atmospheres within the container or saggar which, depending upon the organics or chemicals you use, will create various marks and colors on the ware.

I suppose clay can be a metaphor to our lives. We don’t have full control of any outcome but through the journey, decisions we make, corners we turn, doors we go through, eventually leads to every moment…and everything that is our story.

A Study in Smoke, 2022

Coil built; Raku clay; Saggar fired 14” x 9” x 5” 5lbs $895

Fruits of the Desert 2022

Ceramic stack; saggar fired utilizing aluminum foil as the container that holds the ware with the organics and chemicals. The atmosphere forms within the saggar when firing creating the colors and marks on each sphere. Assembled on steel rod with cholla cactus limb.

10” x 40” 8lbs 1200

SAN ANTONIO

I use natural forms as a metaphor for human experience. Nature forms and transforms through external and internal stimuli much like the way human personality traits and emotional identity form through our daily encounters with hardship and blessing. Similar to the way nature needs external stimuli and internal reactions to transform into its intended final form, humans also need this action to reaction process to form beliefs, values, character, and identity.

Many of the seemingly insignificant occurrences in our lives can have significantly powerful effects on the formative processes that lead to the eventual outcome of our psyche. We often do not realize or understand the effects these stimuli have had upon our psyche until they have already taken hold. Life cycles in nature are similar to human psychological and physiological development. Think of a seed as a specific stimuli and the interpretation and evaluation of how we let that stimuli change us. Bundle that seed together with thousands of others and you will have a forest that makes up the whole of our experience which informs who we are.

My work is intended to make the viewer question their own experience. By using natural forms that seem familiar to most, but strangely different, I hope the viewer will question what their own reality is and whether or not their experience is true. Humans have a simultaneously wonderful and terrible ability to lie to themselves. We often will remember things differently than they actually happened.

That being said, most of my work addresses a personal experience and the struggle I have with what actually occurred. Each work is an expression of emotion, memory, or experience that I have had in my own life. For example, my sculpture Faith is the physical form of a childhood memory. I grew up attending a church that had several large maple trees around its parking lot. While I may not remember much about the service, or what I was supposed to learn from going to church, I do remember going out after the service with other children and playing in the piles of “helicopters” that had fallen from the trees.

CLAUDIA OBRANOVICH

SPRING BRANCH

I enjoy seeing my ideas progress and find expression in the end result of my work. The softness of the woven materials contrasts with the spaces and hard edges of the architectural forms in a building. I strive to convey a mood and aesthetic value through each piece. The structure and the design of each piece are of greatest importance. Color is secondary; color serves as a highlight to enhance the structure and design of the piece.

For each weaving I select materials which I hope will evoke feelings in those who view my work. I weave with raffia, linen weft, silk ribbons, metallics and I dye many of the fibers that I use. I also incorporate some pieces with clay. The sharing of myself through my weaving gives special attention to my work. I feel pleased when other people experience the mood that I hope to convey through my work. My weavings are fiber expressions of my feelings,senses, and aesthetics.

VIVIAN PAUL

SAN ANTONIO

Vivian Paul holds a University of Oregon undergraduate minor in ceramics and Art History BA, a University of California, Berkeley, Art History MA and Architectural History PhD. After teaching Architectural History in Texas A&M’s College Station College of Architecture, she retired to San Antonio to pursue ceramics at the now School of Art at UTSA Southwest. Her area of interest lies in hand-built forms, using molds, found objects and cold finishes.

Artist’s Statement: I have always been interested in form and structure, finding aesthetic concerns, the way things are constructed, or how an artist or architect manipulated composition and structure to be more interesting than content. These interests governed both my research into the methods used by masons to construct French medieval cathedrals and my ceramic work.

Jellyfish 2016

Formed, Stacked and Hung Porcelain with cold finishes 18 x 24 x 48 display case 35lbs NFS

Totem 2018

Formed and stacked porcelain vessels with cold finishes and a metal stand 14 x 14 x 72 90 lbs NFS

THOMAS PERRY

HOUSTON

As a potter, I am attracted to the co-themes of the vessel’s use as container and server for food and beverage and its metaphoric meaning as container and server of space and spirit. I am awed and inspired by the myriad forms that a variety of cultures and often unknown artists have created throughout human history for everyday use and ritual functions. I strive to pay homage to this rich history by challenging myself through my work processes and personal interpretations to create both functional and ritual ceramics that celebrate traditions past and present.

Among my inspiration sources are Asian bronzes — their surface designs, patinas, and stories — and the Indigenous cultures of the Americas— the land they interacted with as well as their pottery. These vessels link my creative cycle to history, tradition, and the earth.

BOERNE

I construct highly textured figured pieces that depict animal and nature deities. The medium I use is plaster gauze in addition to.natural elements such as bone (skull), sticks, mosses and wood. In addition, I make figures in stuffed cloth with embroidery. I make figures representing aspects of the natural world at risk. I want to bring attention to our environment that is disappearing due to urban sprawl and pollution.

I constructed the figures for the current show by applying gauze over wood or paper armatures. The heads are formed using the same technique with the addition of a skull and a clay face. The figures are further embellished with paint, fibers, sticks, and found objects. Wings are constructed with wire and hog gut.

She Who Shelters 2022

Plaster gauze on wood, mixed media 26”x6” 3.2# $300.00

MARC ROSENTHAL

CANYON LAKE

I explore universal themes, often based in mythology. I am forever inspired by my dreams. The dreamscape connects us and tells a story that all of us can relate to. It begins with a loss and travels a fateful journey. It concludes with a return, a rebirth, and a renewal.

IT WAS A GOOD DAY 2022

Although I’ve been primarily a painter for most of my artistic career, I’ve always enjoyed working on three-dimensional pieces as well. I think of my assemblages as little homages to various ideas, myths and stories, and historical figures and events. I am greatly influenced by science and nature. I like to give my work an air of mystery and antiquity, like discovering an ancient artifact.

SAN ANTONIO

I am a material artist whose sculptures, tableaux, and installations are centered around a study of scientific reason and the power of belief. I experiment with properties and functionality of materials to solve design problems, formal aesthetics, and conceptual stances. My interest in materials as it pertains to science, exploration of process and duration, chance and unpredictability stem from my training and education in the ceramic discipline.

I earned an MFA in Ceramics from Kent State University and a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Hawai`i. I have participated in residencies at the European Ceramic Work Center-Netherlands, The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen -China, and was awarded a residency through The Contemporary at Blue Star to live and work at The Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin -Germany. I currently live in San Antonio, Texas where my practice consists of three components -exhibition work, public art with my collaborative team (R & R & R), and teaching at the University of Texas San Antonio.

ALICIA TAPP

SAN ANTONIO

I began my artistic journey as a fashion Illustrator in NYC, illustrating for world renowned companies.. like Gucci, Womens Wear Daily, etc. Through my creative process, I was recruited by a huge shoe company designing and creating slippers for licensed companies.like Hello Kitty, Gi Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninjas Etc.

For the past 20 years I have been transferring images onto tiles for indoor and outdoor use. My website AliciaTappDesigns.com has an excellent reputation for quality and great customer service. I have developed a signature technique in creating ceramic sculptures with a fresh sophistication that links narrative figurative fine art with fashion illustration and old rusty found objects to help the stories unfold. My technique is a painterly approach consisting of any medium at hand

Enlightened 2022

Ceramic with found objects and crushed glass 18” tall x 7” wide x 6” deep 5 lbs $1000.00

DAMON THOMAS

HOUSTON

Houston artist Damon Thomas works in clay and mixed media to create figurative art that explores the emotional range of the human condition. In works such as “Refugees,” Damon uses birds or other animals as standins for humans. With its precarious sense of balance and weatheredlooking materials,”Refugees” explores the fraught journey of displacement. The birds facing in both directions suggest the heartache of leaving home and the fragile hope of arriving in a new place.

Damon’s work has been exhibited at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Art League Houston, Art Car Museum and Artspace111. His art is included in the Houston Airport System’s Portable Works Collection and Armadillo Clay’s sculpture garden. He earned a certificate of achievement in Ceramic Art from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Glassell School of Art in 2015.

Refugees 2022

Clay, glaze, underglaze, paint 15” x 17” x 4” 5 lbs. 700

SAN ANTONIO

I come from a line of Texas women artists. My journey in art-making stems not only from a family passion but also from inspirations of living and traveling abroad in Africa, Greece, Egypt, and Mexico. I graduated from UTSA with BFA and concentration in Ceramics and maintain a pottery studio in San Antonio.

My current work runs the gamut of functional and sculptural utilizing low fire clay bodies, mid-range stoneware, as well as porcelain.

FRANCESCA WATSON BULVERDE

These pieces are metaphor for the lives of women: Life leaves marks, and we tend to focus on dressing up the outside to mask them. But the good stuff is inside, and we have to look for it.

Redemption Series - Untitled 2022

24k keum boo over sterling silver; 18k gold and green sapphire

1.25 inches on an 18” sterling collar 6.8 gr 425.00

Redemption Series - Untitled 2022 24k keum boo over sterling silver; 18k gold and orange sapphire 1.5 inches on an 18” sterling collar 9.1 gr 475.00

THOMAS WELLS HOUSTON

This piece is the third separate design in a series of jewelry armoires. The framework is in the Krenov style. The base is constructed of American Ash and ebonized Mahogany. The casework is ebonized Mahogany and the doors and drawer fronts are veneered in crotch Mahogany.

Back in Black 2022

Jewelry Armoire 22” wide x 50” tall x 18” deep 60 lb $1500.

KINGWOOD

My art reflects my fascination with, respect for and love of animals both wild and domestic. I endeavor to share my feelings with others through my interpretation of each animal.

The animal’s pose, a tilt of the head, a look in the eye form an emotional connection with the viewer which, I hope, will lead to their own fascination, respect and love.

San Antonio Art League & Museum 130 King William St San Antonio, TX 78204 saalm@saalm.org

HOURS

Tuesday: 10AM–3PM

Wednesday: 10AM–3PM

Thursday: 10AM–3PM

Friday: 10AM–3PM

Saturday: 10AM-3PM

Sunday & Monday : Closed