Art Focus Oklahoma, September/October 2010

ArtOFocus k l a h o m a

Okl a ho m a V i s u al A r ts C o al i t i on

Vo l u m e 2 5 N o . 5

September/October 2010

The Evolving Nature of Humanity: Art by Steve Breerwood p. 13

Art OFocus k l a h o m a f ro m

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Drawing by Emma Ann Robertson.

I recently had the opportunity to visit nine artists in their studios over the course of two days. The artists I visited were recipients of awards from the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition and we were there to conduct video interviews with them. Their awards include the OVAC Fellowship, Art 365 and Momentum Spotlight. (Learn more about each of these awards in this issue of Art Focus Oklahoma.)

Being present in an artist’s studio, amidst all the worksin-progress and experimentations, is an opportunity to experience the process behind the finished works. For me, this look behind-the-scenes allows me to view the work, as well as the artist and their ideas, within a larger context. I have the benefit of having seen how the work was made, knowing what the artist was thinking about and sometimes even seeing the preliminary drawings. I feel lucky to have had a chance to see the works in progress for our Art 365 and Momentum Tulsa exhibitions and am excited to see how the artist’s creative process will shape the works in their final form.

On page 24, writer Cedar Marie discusses the increased visibility of the artist’s process, especially in the museum setting. This idea was spurred by her recent visit to a museum show that was made up almost entirely of artifacts from the artist’s studio: drawings, sketches, collages and even personal objects. This sparked the question, “Does exposure to an artist’s process inform the spectator’s perception of the work?”

Whether a visit to an artist’s studio, or flipping through their sketchbook, the work behind the artwork always seems to inform the way I view it. What about you?

To see the video interviews with the award-winning artists, watch the OVAC YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/okvisualarts. We will be posting all videos there as they become available.

Kelsey Karper publications@ovac-ok.org

Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition 730 W. Wilshire Blvd., Suite 104 Oklahoma City, OK 73116 ph: 405.879.2400 • e: director@ovac-ok.org visit our website at: www.ovac-ok.org Executive Director: Julia Kirt director@ovac-ok.org Editor: Kelsey Karper publications@ovac-ok.org Art Director: Anne Richardson anne@speccreative.com Intern: Erin Kozakiewicz Art Focus Oklahoma is a bimonthly publication of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition dedicated to stimulating insight into and providing current information about the visual arts in Oklahoma.

Mission: The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition supports visual artists living and working in Oklahoma and promotes public interest and understanding of the arts.

OVAC welcomes article submissions related to artists and art in Oklahoma. Call or email the editor for guidelines.

OVAC welcomes your comments. Letters addressed to Art Focus Oklahoma are considered for publication unless otherwise specified. Mail or email comments to the editor at the address above. Letters may be edited for clarity or space reasons. Anonymous letters will not be published. Please include a phone number.

Art Focus Committee: Janice McCormick, Bixby; Don Emrick, Claremore; Susan Grossman, Norman; MJ Alexander, Stephen Kovash, Sue Moss Sullivan, and Christian Trimble, Oklahoma City.

OVAC Board of Directors July 2010-June 2011: R.C. Morrison, Bixby; Margo Shultes von Schlageter, MD, Rick Vermillion, Edmond; Eric Wright, El Reno; Traci Harrison (Secretary), Enid; Suzanne Mitchell (President), Norman; Jennifer Barron (Vice President), Susan Beaty, Stephen Kovash, Paul Mays, Carl Shortt, Suzanne Thomas, Christian Trimble, Oklahoma City; Joey Frisillo, Sand Springs; Anita Fields, Stillwater; Bradley Jessop, Sulphur; Elizabeth Downing, Jean Ann Fausser (Treasurer), Janet Shipley Hawks, Kathy McRuiz, Sandy Sober, Tulsa The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition is solely responsible for the contents of Art Focus Oklahoma. However, the views expressed in articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Board or OVAC staff.

Member Agency of Allied Arts and member of the Americans for the Arts. © 2010, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition.

All rights reserved.

View this issue online at www.ArtFocusOklahoma.org.

On the Cover Steve Breerwood, Moore, Tightrope Walking Backwards, Oil on canvas, 48”x48” See page 13 .

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2010 Visual Arts Fellowships and Student Awards of Excellence

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The OVAC Fellowships and Student Awards of Excellence highlight artistic excellence in Oklahoma. Meet the 2010 recipients of these awards.

The Bones Within: Jack D. Titus

An artist living in Coyle, OK, Titus explores the earth and human body in his mixed media works.

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The Langston Retrospective

Currently touring the state, this exhibition showcases work from Langston University’s art program.

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p re v i e w s 10 VisionMakers: High Craft Comes to Tulsa

Organized by the Brady Craft Alliance, this exhibition displays some of Oklahoma’s best and brightest fine craft artists.

12 Re-visioning History: Adaptation Comes to Philbrook

Familiar images are recast and reclaimed by artists in this exhibition at the Tulsa museum.

13 The Evolving Nature of Humanity

In an upcoming exhibition at USAO in Chickasha, artist Steve Breerwood explores the complex nature of humanity in the modern world.

16 Mazen Abufadil and Laurie Spencer: Two Visions and a Voice

Two artists give a contemporary twist to traditional media, finding deep inspiration in nature.

18 MAINSITE’s Focus on Photography

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Featuring three Oklahoma photographers, this exhibition promotes the Norman gallery’s effort to encourage the medium of photography as a fine art form.

f e a t u re s 20 Failure is an option

Frank Wick’s Art 365 project, It’s All Wrong But It’s Alright, exposes failure and the future.

22 Momentum Tulsa Spotlight 2010

Three young artists are working with curators to create new works for Momentum Tulsa, opening October 9.

24 Drawing on Process

A writer considers the question of the artist’s process as art, and the influence it plays on the audience’s interaction with the physical objects.

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b u s i n e s s o f a r t 26 Making Commissions Work For You

How to balance commission work to both please the client and maintain your artistic voice.

a t a g l a n c e 27 Strange Times at TAC

A collection of paintings, both disturbing and enlightening, filled the TAC gallery in July.

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Gallery Guide

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OVAC News

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(p. 4) Glenn Herbert Davis, Tulsa, running 32 foot circular saw-cut, Video still, sawing a 7-foot throne in half from 60-minute performance that included rants, articulated props, musical saw-playing, image projection; (p.10) Lisa Sorrell, Guthrie, If We Make It Through December, Leather (photo by Bozarth Photography); (p.12) Girls at the Pool, 2005, Photo

by Benedikt Partenheimer. Courtesy the artists and Roebling Hall. (p.) Mazen Abufadil with his photo-fresco Aether #10.

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(left) Glenn Herbert Davis, Tulsa, Track and trolley, Common and salvaged woods, specialty lighting, 12’x24’x54’ (right) Cedar Marie, Norman, Something in the Air Between Us, Mixed media (window frame, seine net, Dimensions variable)

2010 Visual Arts Fellowships and Student Awards of Excellence

by Sarah Atlee

Each year, the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition gives two Visual Arts Fellowships with awards of $5,000 each to individual artists.

Additionally, two $500 Student Awards of Excellence are given.

Recipients of the 2010 Fellowships are Glenn Herbert Davis of Tulsa, and Cedar Marie of Norman. Sarah Engel and Sherwin Tibayan, both attending the University of Oklahoma in Norman, received this year’s Student Awards. These four outstanding artists were selected by guest juror Liza Statton, curator at ArtSpace in Hew Haven, Connecticut.

Statton states that the four artists chosen “offer singular, yet collective views on our rapidly changing environment. Each attempts to reclaim, re-contextualize, and re-imagine different parts of Oklahoma’s physical and cultural landscape in ways that connect them to the broader social and environmental issues of our time.”

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Through sculpture, performance and photography, Davis expresses “the struggle of the human body to endure and thrive within the systems to which it is subjected.” Davis constructs environments in which a person might rest, move, be sheltered or vulnerable, perform or play.

By subverting the traditional functions of objects (such as a wooden throne, which in a 2007 performance was cut in two), he infuses them with unexpected meanings, prompting viewers to question how we utilize the things that surround us. Art involving power tools could appear intimidating, but Davis maintains a humorous attitude, citing Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin among his influences. (They, too, were performance artists who used wit and improvisation to escape the perils of man-made situations.)

We surround ourselves with a forest of possessions, most of which we take for granted. Mass-produced, anonymous things clog our lives and our landscape. These four artists examine functional relationships between humans, objects, and environment – how we create things, interact with them, and what we do with them when we’re done.

Davis says that the Fellowship award comes “at a time of both radical change and creative continuance.” He is currently working on two short videos and an upcoming two-gallery project titled Pale, his most ambitious installation thus far. Davis also expresses a sense of accomplishment, noting that “Spiritually, this award pats one of many aching backs - it’s a present received for continuing one’s dance.”

Glenn Herbert Davis, Assistant Professor of Art and Gallery Director at the University of Tulsa School of Art, studies how the human body interacts with systems such as architecture, machines or furniture.

Cedar Marie, Assistant Professor at OU’s School of Art and Art History, creates sculptural objects “inspired by people who make their living on the water,” a topic made more relevant than ever by the recent oil

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spill. Combining traditional sculptural methods with a contemporary perspective, Marie’s work poses koan-like questions: What is an oar without water? What can you see through a window that is opaque?

Who fishes with a broken boat? Marie’s spare installations project a palpable silence that speaks equally of absence and presence. One work consists of a fishing net and a discarded door laid on the ground.

The phrase “Something in the air between us,” also the work’s title, is written in the dust on the door’s windowpane. The message’s author is unclear, as is the history of this seemingly found tableau. Even if the window was sparkling clean, all it would reveal is the gravel underneath.

Marie’s next exhibition, Environmental Cues, explores “the culture shifts of small fishing communities” through her evocative blend of anthropology and craft. Marie is also a member of OVAC’s first Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship.

Sarah Engel and Sherwin Tibayan, recipients of the Student Awards of Excellence, create quasi-mythic images of the American West that seem pulled straight from Oklahoma’s collective unconscious. Both comment on our state’s changing physical and psychic landscape as consumer culture takes over. Engel, a senior in media arts, combines photography with sewing and horticulture in her mixed-media compositions, some of which include live plants. For her series Myth of the Dreams of Stuffalo, Engel created toy buffalo figurines and photographed them in a traditional landscape. The buffalo, often used as a symbol for Oklahoma’s history, stands in for the people who have adapted the land to their changing needs. Engel plans to use her award to fund a new multimedia project examining homemade musical instruments such as cigar box guitars.

Tibayan, a graduate student of media arts at OU, also uses photography, particularly for its ability to reduce landscape to a two-dimensional object. Blank billboards are the subject of Tibayan’s recent project Horror Vacui. About these ambiguous non-advertising objects, he asks, “How much of their collective fate is the result of the equally empty, economically underdeveloped spaces that tend to surround them?”

Along with this award, Tibayan is also one of this year’s Momentum Spotlight artists, and recently volunteered at a photographers’ portfolio review event in Santa Fe featuring top professionals in the field. He describes these experiences as “very humbling,” but also encouraging and inspiring him to work harder. The Award of Excellence will facilitate Tibayan’s ability to travel and continue his investigations.

Viewers are invited to learn more about Glenn Herbert Davis and Cedar Marie by attending a free artist talk at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art on October 21. You may also view video profiles of the artists on OVAC’s YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/OKVisualArts. n Sarah Atlee is a painter living in Oklahoma City. Her current project, Occupied, examines the working lives of Oklahomans. She can be reached at sarahatlee@gmail.com.

(top) Sarah Engel, Norman, Of Moss And Men (detail), Digital photograph (center) Cedar Marie, Norman, Old Man Jenkins, Mixed media (wood, epoxy, copper, paint), 17’x5’x2’ (bottom) Sherwin R. Tibayan, Norman, Impact, Near Dallas, TX, Archival Pigment Print, 24”x36”

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Jack D. Titus, Coyle, Damaged (Portrait of Anna Vargas), Watercolor Mixed Media, 80”x27”

T he B ones W i th i n : J ack D . T itus

by Kristin Gentry

Looking atop, within, and beneath the layers, Jack D. Titus explores the earth and human body through a sensual touch of forms, textures, and compositions. Titus is not only a watercolor mixed media artist, but a three-dimensional constructional artist. Titus’ work is organized into three bodies of work.

Describing his most recent body of work, Titus said, “In general terms, paintings from the Fragments series are about loss and the passage of time. Specifically, these images are metaphors for the manner in which even our most intimate and precious experiences become altered, distorted, fragmented and illusive when viewed through the imperfect prism of our memory.”

Fragments 38 (The Johanna Suite) draws upon a delicately captured moment created by the composition of the woman’s body with her limbs drawn in close. The textures of her skin and background come in an out of clarity as we move throughout the piece. Shapes and lines are detailed in some areas, and then fade away in other.

Titus created this piece, as well as other works in the Fragments series, through a mixture of watercolor, photo emulsion and pencil techniques.

From the beginning of each piece, Titus works to create both an improvisational and structured piece simultaneously. The nude model is given full freedom to create the poses she wishes, without any direct instruction from Titus. By giving his models their own right to create natural and comfortable poses, Titus can let his art create its own life without directly orchestrating every aspect of creation. Titus then develops his film in a darkroom using a photo emulsion process so that the images are directly created on the same paper he will be painting on. Due to the nature of the photo emulsion process, the images often come out with blurred imagery, lost details, and missing information.

This directly parallels Titus’ beliefs about how our memory works. Titus then edits and crops the images so that only the necessary composition is remaining. He continues to work with colored pencil atop the photographic image emphasizing the colors and textures he desires.

Alongside this process, Titus also creates background surfaces with both watercolor and pencil. These surfaces are often reminiscent of earth and skin textures. He tediously cuts around the cropped model creating the positive piece, and cuts out an identical shape in the watercolor piece.

The pencil-colored photo and the watercolor backgrounds are then delicately adhered together with rice paper to create a new image of watercolor and photo emulsion. The new constructed piece is all on the

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Portrait of Jack D. Titus by Phil Choo

same plane keeping the piece entirely two dimensional. He continues to edit and rework surface details until the image has reached his desired point.

In addition to the Fragments series, Titus creates a series of tall mixed media pieces that push much further into the realm of surrealism as opposed to his abstract Fragments series. The piece, Damaged (Portrait of Anna Vargas), shows again a nude, but not in a natural organic movement like that of the Fragments. This nude is highly detailed with precise anatomy, and doesn’t contain the improvisational aspect of the Fragments models. She appears more statuesque, less sensual, and simply straight forward. The missing limb lends to the name of Damaged, and makes the viewer try to connect the contents of the piece. This is still a two-dimensional piece, but it’s pushing us to see it in a highly realistic way, verging on three-dimensional. Titus starts out with a much more rigid idea and doesn’t leave as much up to improvisational chance. Titus works more tediously in this body of work going over the drawn anatomy, surface textures, and symbolism of the items composed in the pieces. We see some of the similar skin and background texture applications, but the images in these pieces are in a realm of higher clarity and focus. This series is a nice bridge between the Fragments series and his three-dimensional constructions.

Titus’ other works are full of the forms of life through the human body and the textures of the earth, therefore, its a natural step for his work to go fully into the three-dimensional realm. Titus’ three-dimensional constructions hold true to his style of highly detailed surfaces, human anatomy, and alluring compositions. However, this series looses the formal representational nudes and goes toward a minimalist style of very limited anatomical features to allude to a human. Sometimes certain features are clearly male or female, and sometimes that is left up to the viewer. Savannah Altarpiece III (The Sacred Ground) is a compilation of watercolor, mixed media and found object. The once alive animal bones are now constructed among and juxtaposed with the faint imagery of human anatomy. The found objects are often from his family’s farm that

Jack D. Titus, Coyle, Savannah Altarpiece III (The Sacred Ground), Mixed Media, 30”x20”x3”

was once a fully working plantation. The bones and other found objects at the top of the piece are arranged in a composition that could be seen as mimicking the female reproductive organs. The constructions no longer have to allude to a three-dimensional form, and can explore into more symbolic imagery by actually using the life and death of things that Titus explores.

All three bodies of work hold deep meaning to our life now, our memories of it, and to what is no longer living. His meticulous textures and tempting compositions leave the viewer with awe for the life and death that we all hold either in reality or in our minds.

Titus is in his twenty-first year of teaching fine arts at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He teaches courses that emulate the same interests that appear in his own artwork. Titus teaches undergraduate watercolor and life drawing courses. Each fall Titus also teaches a course called Wilderness Studio. This class gives students an opportunity to work and live outdoors to create art on location and in nature. The content of his own art is very apparent to each student as they study watercolor, the human form, and nature with him.

Titus received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from East Texas State University in 1975 and his Masters of Fine Arts in painting and drawing from the University of Illinois in 1980. Titus has exhibited his work extensively in national competitions, as well as group and one-person shows. Titus has already won two national awards for his artwork in 2010.

Titus’ work was juried into the 2010 National Watermedia Oklahoma (35th Annual Exhibition). The exhibition will be held Norick Art Center in Oklahoma City through October 8th. n Kristin Gentry is a mixed media artist. She received her BFA from Oklahoma State University. Gentry is also the Children’s Programmer at the Stillwater Multi Arts Center.

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Artwork by Edward Grady, who has been a professor at Langston University since 1989.

The Langston Retrospective

by Callie Campbell

The Melton Art Reference Library is currently sponsoring an exhibition called the Langston Retrospective. The pieces showcased cover a large span of Oklahoma history and many styles of fine art, they come from artists both past and present and are exhibited to strike a chord of artistic significance in the state of Oklahoma.

The Langston Retrospective is a traveling art show composed of an eclectic mix of styles, mediums and eras. The show, which is made up of artwork from the now defunct art program at Langston University in Langston, OK, exhibits the craftsmanship of faculty and students from 1930 to present, according to the show’s curator, Amena Butler of the Melton Art Reference Library.

The artwork varies in skill level from mediocre to unbelievable and the subject matter for the pieces was across the board interesting. The most appealing part of the show is the historical value that comes from viewing the pieces. According to the Langston University website, the university started out as a land grant institution for African-American students in 1897. Langston University also claims it is the only historically black college in the state of Oklahoma and the westernmost historically black college in the country. The show presents the cultural history and emotions of bygone eras and present times in Oklahoma, the nation and abroad.

The Melton Art Reference Library, along with several former students and faculty, is interested in re-opening the art program at Langston University. “We want this show to prove that the art program at Langston had value and that a lot of people want to see it reopened,” said Butler. Butler said that there are faculty members who are already interested in teaching art at Langston should the program re-

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open, including Edward Grady and John Anderson. The Melton Art Reference Library is hoping to raise awareness of the artistic talent that Langston produced and get the attention of Dr. JoAnn Haysbert, the current president of Langston University, to convince her that the art program was culturally and historically important to not only Langston, but Oklahoma.

Racial tensions, the Great Depression, and oil booms have made the history of Oklahoma deep and fascinating. The emotional landscape of this state produces both tortured and triumphant art in the Langston Retrospective. Some of the artists featured have distinct styles and emotional work, while others produced pieces that are technically skilled, but lack emotion. All of the artists managed to produce a sense of the times they were creating in and captured a moment in their lives.

Eugene Brown, one of the featured artists and a teacher at Langston, started the art program in 1929, according to Butler. Eddie Jack Jordan is another prominent Langston Alum who became historically important in New Orleans, according to Butler. The Melton Art Reference Library was unable to obtain original pieces of Jordan’s work to include in the show, but they did photograph his pieces for the show. The show also features Wallace Owens and John Anderson, whose eye-catching pieces are the first thing you see when you walk into the exhibit.

A particularly strong artist for the exhibit was Edward Grady, who currently teaches at Langston University as an art education professor and used to teach in the art program before it was closed down.

Grady’s vibrantly colored paintings bring forth an original style and

aesthetically pleasing palette with motion and fluidity. His work was the most recently completed at the exhibition. Grady imparts a sense of drama and excitement with various emotions swirling throughout a single painting. Even though his subject matter seems melancholy and intense, the overall feeling of his paintings produces a sense of being alive and celebrating.

For the month of October, the exhibition will be at the Langston Main Campus, 1600 M.B. Tolson Heritage Center, Langston, OK. The exhibit will run through 2011 and any former Langston students or faculty who are interested in being included in the show should contact Amena Butler.

Suzanne Sylvester, also of the Melton Art Reference Library, discussed opportunities offered through Melton for Oklahoma artists. Sylvester says that Melton is a non-profit that works with dealers, teachers, students and artists internationally. They focus on the lesser-known artists. They publish an annual Directory of Oklahoma Artists to bring attention to artists in the state. Melton also sponsors classes, exhibits and scholarships for artists.

Artists who are interested in having their work included in the Directory of Oklahoma Artists should submit resumes and samples of their work to the Melton Art Reference Library, 4300 N. Sewell, Oklahoma City, OK 73118.

Materials will not be returned. Address submissions to Amena Butler or Suzanne Sylvester.

Artwork by Wallace Owens. Owens was a student at Langston University 1955-1959 and art professor and chairman of the art department from 1966-1980.

Inquiries about the Langston Retrospective should be sent to meltonart@aol.com or call (405) 525-3603. n Callie Campbell is a freelance writer and artist based in Norman. She has experience in editing, marketing, technical writing and blogging. Follower her on Twitter @CallieCampbell.

U N I V ERS IT Y

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C E N TRA L O F

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African Art Collection Explore the most comprehensive exhibit of African art in the region!

Objects from the 1st Century BCE through the 20th Century.

Newly arranged and displayed for your enjoyment.

Chambers Library, 2nd & 3rd floors For information, contact: Dr. William Hommel (405) 974-5252 bhommel @uco.edu

*This collection features pieces on loan from the Kirkpatrick Center Affiliated fund and Perry and Angela Tennison.

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Shan Goshorn, Tulsa, Sealed Fate, Basket

VisionMakers: High Craft Comes to Tulsa

by Beth Downing

It’s fitting that the rebirth of VisionMakers is happening in the blink-and-it’s changed Brady District in downtown Tulsa. It is particularly appropriate since the 2010 rendition of this high craft exhibition is being organized by the newly minted Brady Craft Alliance (www.bradycraftalliance.org).

Led by Chairwoman Myra Block Kaiser, the Brady Craft Alliance (BCA) formed in 2009 only to dive into the exhibition game by bringing Modern Materials across the turnpike from Oklahoma City to show at Living Arts. On the heels of that success, the BCA is putting on VisionMakers 2010

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to display some of Oklahoma’s best and brightest fine craft artists.

The Brady Craft Alliance chose New York City’s Jeannine Falino as this year’s juror, who currently serves as the Curator of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. She is a guru of the decorative arts and has worked with artists from around the country in her curatorial pursuits.

show welcomes the inevitable question of the demarcation between art and craft and how, for instance, a piece of needlework could be “art.” (For those that have seen what modern fine craft artists can do, you already know the answer: there are mind-blowing things that can be done with a needle and thread. For those that haven’t, get thee to the opening reception on September 11th and you’ll soon find out what you’ve been missing).

Given the rich history of VisionMakers – it started more than 20 years ago – it is no wonder that the newly chic area of fine craft has been well-spotlighted in Oklahoma. The

This fundamental question – what is art – is far too large to be answered by any one person, medium or single exhibition. But fine craft follows in the esteemed footsteps of

movements like Dada and mediums like photography that were initially rejected by the art world at large only to become integral and celebrated parts of it now.

And this show certainly helps ask those kinds of questions. Take Jean Ann Fausser’s Let Me Entertain You and read just the description of the medium – the spout is a high heel from a shoe, the handle is an ankle strap, and intricately knotted red thread contrasts a hand against a black background. It’s a teapot with sass and turns a traditionally functional and overtly feminine kitchen object into a come-hither piece more suited to a pedestal. Fausser is also one of the founding members of the Brady Craft Alliance, and she describes her enjoyment in viewing and creating craft as “seeing the hand of the artist in the work is something I never tire of in my own collection and I hope that’s the response people have to my work.”

She’s right - the show is overwhelmingly tactile. The first impulse of many viewers is often to reach out, feel the fibers and stitching and the glaze in a way that most painting exhibits don’t. Bob Hawks’ Smoke Signal is an exquisite turned-wood piece that’s mirror surface all but begs to be caressed. The show puts an emphasis on materials and construction, but artists in all genres have been using what’s around them for hundreds of years. That’s exactly what craft artists of all kinds are doing in studios and living rooms across the country: making a conscious effort to use old techniques in fashioning novel compositions.

Fine craft answers the question of how to pay homage to the past while coexisting with modernity and its delight with everything retro. Craft connects the era of fifty years ago with the self-sufficient, out-there chic that pervades contemporary culture in everything from art to fashion to bands. Oklahoma artists are right in the thick of it. In the words of curator Jeannine Falino,“the strengths of this year’s VisionMakers in textiles, woodturning, and basket making demonstrate that the participants in this exhibition draw upon a deep well of regional practice.”

Craft has always been something appreciated in situ – a quilt on the bed, a beautiful piece of needlework on the kitchen wall – and it’s obvious that these artists have turned everything on end to help us see materials and techniques for the pieces of art that they really are. It makes the prestamped ceramic bowls sitting in your dish drawer seem nothing if not banal and manufactured. You’ll never look at your teapot, your favorite sweater, or a quilted blanket the same way again.

VisionMakers will be on exhibition at Living Arts, 307 E. Brady in Tulsa, from September 3rd through September 30th, 2010.

An artist’s critique with curator Jeannine Falino will be held September 11th from 4-6 pm followed by the opening reception from 6-9 pm. Visit www.bradycraftalliance.org for more information. n Elizabeth Downing is not an art critic, but a photographer of the urban landscape and a technical writer who lives in Tulsa. She can be reached at beth@bethdowning.com.

(top) Jean Ann Fausser, Tulsa, Let Me Entertain You, Knotted thread, Spout: Shoe high heel, Handle: Shoe ankle strap (bottom) Bob Hawks, Tulsa, Smoke Signal, Turned wood

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Photographic still from Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation’s The Rape of the Sabine Women (Disintegration at Hydra)), 2005, Photo by Ricoh Gerbl. Courtesy the artists and Roebling Hall.

Re-visioning History: Adaptation Comes to Philbrook

by Carolyn Deuschle Adaptation, an upcoming exhibit at Philbrook Museum of Art, offers visitors a look into one of contemporary art’s most complex and obsessed-over topics: the art of adaptation. Transforming source material into new modes of expression, video artists Guy Ben-Ner, Arturo Herrera, Catherine Sullivan, and Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation explore the ways that memory—induced by the original material—triggers response. In an era of media saturation, these artists reclaim and recast familiar images and narratives so as to shed new light on the meaning of the original work as well as to represent the source material as subordinate to a contemporary perspective.

In the vein of photographer Cindy Sherman, Israeli-artist and stay-athome-dad Guy Ben-Ner casts himself and his family in semi-scripted, short videos that adapt classic stories to film. For example, Ben-Ner’s Moby Dick (2000) condenses Herman Mellville’s magnum opus into a brief retelling of the story of Captain Ahab and his quest for the great white whale. Along the way, Ben-Ner does what so many artists have done in the past: he looks to the art of previous generations to see what qualities to continue to propagate. Interestingly, his role as father has him exploring similar ground and this dynamic is what makes his work shine.

Working primarily in drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography, Venezuelan-artist and University of Tulsa-graduate Arturo Herrera creates works that draw on the unconscious, mixing abstract shapes with more recognizable elements, such as cartoon characters. Les Noces (The Wedding) (2007) is his first piece using the moving image and is featured in the exhibit. For Les Noces, Herrera sequenced 80 of his previous works on paper to create an adaptation of Igor Stravinsky’s 1923 ballet of the same name. The projected images respond to the pitch of Stravinsky’s score, both paying homage to as well as reimagining the original piece.

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In her work, Catherine Sullivan examines human behavior as actions in concert with learned or innate emotional states and gestures. Unlike the other works in Adaptation, Sullivan’s Triangle of Need (2007) adapts email, in the form of a money extortion scheme, to film. For Sullivan, we “perform” in accordance with a script that we are given by nature and society. Using the rhetoric of film and dance, she explores the way that humans adapt their “lines” to the present moment, in an effort to allow viewers to perceive human behavior as performance.

Eve Sussman and her collaborator, the interdisciplinary group The Rufus Corporation, create feature-length videos based on the narratives of paintings from the canon of the history of Western art.

Adaptation features Sussman and The Rufus Corporation’s The Rape of the Sabine Women (2007), which is inspired by Jacques Louis David’s painting The Intervention of the Sabine Women (1799). The artists offer a contemporary—and at times, radical—retelling of the myth that David’s painting is based.

Ben-Ner, Herrera, Sullivan, and Sussman & The Rufus Corporation investigate and challenge not only the meaning of the original source material but also its cultural authority, leaving viewers with both an insight into major questions facing contemporary artists today and fresh understandings of historical works. Adaptation is on view from October 17th through January 9th, 2011 at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa. Visit www.philbrook.org for more information. n Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Carolyn Deuschle is a freelance writer based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Previously, she was an editor at Princeton Architectural Press in New York City. Her writing has appeared on DesignObserver.com and RL Magazine.

(left) Steve Breerwood, Moore, Dyed Daisies, Oil on canvas, 36”x52” (right) Steve Breerwood, Moore, Broken, Oil on canvas, 48”x48”

The Evolving Nature of Humanity

by Karen Paul

The complex nature of humanity in the modern world plays a fundamental role in the work of Moore artist Steve Breerwood. For Breerwood, an examination of mankind and the society in which we all live demonstrates a disconnect between the individual and his surroundings.

“I don’t think that we ever have an understanding of who we are and what the true nature of humanity is,” Breerwood said. “Right now, we’re at a point socially where we’re forced into this huge communal existence that we’re not biologically adapted to yet.”

The theme of feeling separated from one’s community is a personal one for Breerwood. “I feel like I’m an outsider. My paintings are my attempts to understand the society in which I live.”

Building upon this theme of an individual outside of society, Breerwood’s pieces show an artist’s evolution, both in process and narrative visual form, and a deep respect for artistic influences.

“I’m more deliberate with my current paintings,” he said. “These days, when I start on a painting, I have a clear idea of where I’m going and what I’m going to do. The style of the painting is necessitated by the concept of the painting.”

Tightrope Walking Backwards (2010) consists of an abstract American flag hidden within a series of lines. The top red and white lines are curved, evoking connotations of circus shapes. As they descend, they shift into a dark, rigid stratum, representing history and empire.

“It is an arrogant attitude to look at history as leading up to us, like our culture is the ultimate culmination of all the ages that passed before,” Breerwood said.

In Dyed Daisies (2005), Breerwood creates a display of brightlycolored flower arrangements that have been cheapened by the mass consumer experience. Enhanced with flecks of glitter embedded into the paint, these flowers have unnatural qualities and are being distributed at super-low prices. The painting is framed with corrugated cardboard, further emphasizing the temporary qualities of our mass-market society.

Breerwood believes that an artist must analyze different view points to get outside of humanity. This theory is seen in his extensive use of portraiture, ranging from friends and family members to self-portraits.

In these works, he pays homage to one of his strongest influences, continued on pg. 14

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Lucian Freud. Like Freud’s works, Breerwood’s portraits have a realistic quality and deep paint techniques. They also represent the end process of the creative experience. He frequently creates his portraits during an extended period of time and with little use of photographs for assistance.

In Broken (2010), which will be seen at his October exhibition in Chickasha, OK, Breerwood’s portraits take a new turn. The main figure in this painting is essentially a non-figurative self-portrait, a dog that represents the artist. The dog, with tail tucked between his legs, is obediently being pulled by the forces of mankind, represented by an almost non-existent woman. The woman is seen only as her leg walks off of the canvas.

“That’s the psychology of an abstractionist. They are explorers. They are searching for the right answer. It’s a hard transition for me because I tend to think more like a realist, I’m hunting. I have a clear visual idea in my head of what something in my painting should look like.

I’m hunting for the right color combinations to match the picture I see in my head. But there comes a point when the painting starts to head in a different direction under its own momentum and I have to decide if I should take control again or follow.”

As a whole, the new paintings also represent a different creative process. Breerwood, who is also a musician, found that his songs and paintings evolved together.

“I don’t distinguish between different forms of art, whether it is the visual arts, or music, or literature. It’s all an attempt to express something meaningful in the world. For me, it’s all art.”

“Sometimes the painting and the song lyrics came together at the same time. Other times, the painting may be based on only one lyric. In my latest paintings, I am incorporating lyrical content into symbolic language, converting non-visual elements into something visual. It’s an old abstractionist idea that a good abstract painting should have music to it,” Breerwood said.

Breerwood’s next exhibition, entitled An Inherent Condition, will be October 8, 2010 through November 5, 2010 at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma Art Gallery in Chickasha, OK. For more information, visit USAO’s Web site at www.usao.edu. n

Breerwood’s work also visually blends the qualities between representational and nonrepresentational art. Although he is primarily a representational painter, Breerwood’s representational pieces include heavy abstract qualities.

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“When I paint, I’m looking at the tiny little spaces. There are deliberate shapes created within the negative spaces in my paintings,” Breerwood said.

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Karen Paul is a freelance writer based in Norman. She is currently working on her Master’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.

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(left) Mazen Abufadil, Tulsa, Leaf for Leo, Photo-fresco (right) Laurie Spencer, Tulsa, Moribund, Press-mold and slab-built ceramic, 55.5”x18”x23”

Mazen Abufadil and Laurie Spencer:

Two Visions and a Voice

by Janice McCormick

Individual Artists of Oklahoma presents Mazen Abufadil and Laurie Spencer September 17th through October 10th, 2010. Both Abufadil and Spencer give a contemporary twist to a traditional medium as well as find nature to be a deep source of inspiration, yet each artist has a unique aesthetic vision.

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Mazen Abufadil Mazen Abufadil’s new body of work is entitled Aether. He calls his pieces “Photo-Frescos” since he incorporates printmaking and photographic techniques with traditional plaster fresco, although he uses US gypsum plaster rather than Italian slaked-lime. His ten works in this exhibit range from the quite large to the intimately small. The large pieces range in size from 4-x-4 feet to 4-x-8 feet, and the small pieces range in size from 2 inches wide to 8 inches wide. All of them are framed in a black wooden shadow box without glass.

In his artist statement, Abufadil writes, “Although my work takes a significant amount of planning, once I set the parameters, I work quite intuitively. Each piece develops independently, and I don’t allow preconceptions to drive the production. If, for example, while preparing the surface of a plaster slab, I notice some visually pleasing distress, I may accentuate this. I often choose to build upon this sort of imperfection. In fact, I allow the process to take each piece to completion, indeed much like time can create by weathering an old piece of steel, copper, or wood, or the face of an old stone sculpture.”

The resulting imagery varies from representational (as seen in his A Leaf for Leo) to quasi-abstract work with subtle imagery emerging from color fields (as seen in his Aether #10). The plaster panels of Tuscan Sky in Tulsa create the impression of looking through a window to see an orange and red sky above the dark silhouettes of trees and buildings.

All of the works have a mottled surface, reminiscent of ancient frescoes.

As for inspiration, Abufadil says, “The grand sky that blankets our state is a wonderful source of inspiration, and in my recent fresco work I feel an intimate relationship between trowel, plaster, pigment, aether and earth.” He adds, “In Oklahoma life moves along at a pace like that of the branches of the sycamore swaying in that breeze that rolls off the north slope of my roof. My work is slow, and Tulsa doesn’t rush me. As a visual artist, I am fortunate to reside in an environment that complements my work and my work ethic.”

Laurie Spencer Laurie Spencer adds a distinctive voice to her ceramic works - her vessels whistle.

In the past, she created clay vessels by slip casting organic forms and applying terra sigillata for a smooth, satin gloss to the vessels’ surface.

Recently, however, she has added wheel throwing, hand-building, press mold and slab construction to create her elaborate clay whistles. Her surface treatment also has changed. Spencer explains, “I now apply a copper stain to the clay body and then airbrush on enamel paint (either opaque or transparent). The result is a brighter surface as compared to the more subdued terra sigillata.” She adds, “I am enjoying the lushness of the pure colors.”

In her artist statement, Spencer reflects on her exploration of clay whistles and their connection to natural, organic forms. “My work has evolved around the exploration of whistling sculptures. I make organic plant-like forms that have whistles incorporated into the design. I am interested in creating life-like forms that seem familiar yet are unidentifiable. While my whistles are not intended as musical instruments, there are many aspects of the whistles and their forms that I have explored over the years and which continue to fascinate me.

I am intrigued with the connection between the life-giving breath and how the whistle seems to come to life when breathed into. My flower series deals with the seductive flower form and how it is suggestive of the fullness of life.” Indeed, these vegetative shapes appear almost overripe, weathered, and sere. Appropriately, one work is entitled Moribund.

Spencer then describes the three types of whistles she creates: “Some of my whistles are intended to be blown into and others are waterwhistles or fire whistles which will whistle with the assistance of the water or fire. The water-whistles are inspired by the ancient South American whistling water jugs. Water-whistles have two or more vessels that are connected, usually near the base. The upper part of the vessel contains one or more whistles. When filled with water and rocked back and forth, they produce sounds as the air is pushed through the whistles by water movement. The tones created by these pieces are incredibly life-like. They often sound like bird chirps or warbles. The fire whistles are designed to be used inside my fire sculptures. When the fire gets hot, the water inside the fire whistle begins to boil sending steam through the whistles. As the heat intensifies, the sounds get louder, higher pitched, and frantic. The pitches soften when the fire cools.”

Both Abufadil and Spencer draw inspiration from nature, but neither one idealizes or romanticizes nature; theirs is a nature that has endured, not altogether unscathed. Don’t miss this opportunity to see these two Tulsa artists in Oklahoma City’s IAO gallery. Visit www.iaogallery.org for more information. n Janice McCormick is an art reviewer who has been writing about art in Tulsa and Oklahoma since 1990. Currently she teaches philosophy part-time at Tulsa Community college. She can be reached at artreview@olp.net.

Laurie Spencer, Tulsa, Flower Fire Whistle, Wheel thrown and hand built ceramic, 24”x9”x9.5”

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Ann Sherman, Oklahoma City, Wyoming 28, Pinhole photography, 12.5”x18.5”

Joshua Meier, Claremore, Perhaps This Time, Silver gelatin photograph, 9”x11.5”

MAINSITE’s Focus on Photography by romy owens

Joshua Meier is interested in the relationship between identity and action. “My goal is to distill down the absurdness of our endeavors so we can see ourselves more honestly,” explains Meier. Along with fellow artists Ann Sherman and Esteban Pulido, Meier will be part of the exhibition of photography works at MAINSITE Contemporary Art in Norman through September 4.

Meier’s photography is old school, large format camera, printed in the darkroom, using materials and chemistry that allows for unpredictability. He calls it controlled chaos. The series he’s exhibiting at MAINSITE is from a body of work called The Parables.

His photography encompasses a focused range of ideas including ritual, labor and futility. Every aspect of each photograph from the construction to the staging is born from Meier’s imagination. The images are beautifully captured, evoking a tone one might describe as lovely.

Also working in an old school technique, but with a very different aesthetic is Ann Sherman, who uses pinhole cameras to capture her images. “My use of pinholes came about with the digital revolution in photography,” said Sherman. “I believe it was my way of resisting.”

In the MAINSITE exhibit, Sherman’s photos are small landscape and soldier images. She travels with her lead soldiers wherever she goes. At the time of print, Sherman’s son should be arriving home after his second tour in Iraq. “I didn’t allow toy guns in the house when my kids were growing up,” explains Sherman. “In a prime example of the humor of the universe, my son is now a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne.”

Since her son began military service, Sherman has extensively photographed toy soldiers. Sometimes she places the figures in an existing landscape and sometimes she creates the landscape for them.

The resulting photographs are poignant and contemplative as small lead toy soldiers depict realities most people only imagine, if they have not served in combat.

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In People Where They Live, the third photographer in the MAINSITE summer trio, Esteban Pulido, explores the relationship between people and their homes.

The contrast between the imagined worlds in Meier’s photographs and Sherman’s photographs and the honesty in Pulido’s photographs is remarkable and an entirely necessary addition.

Pulido’s photographs provide viewers with an opportunity to write their own narrative regarding the relationship between the physical appearance of a person and the appearance of his/her home. While Pulido has and does use a view camera to make photographs, for this series he used a digital SLR. “I had been trying to find a way to remove aspects of a photograph that too strongly reflected the presence of the photographer,” said Pulido. “This also let me create an aesthetic that gave the viewer an opportunity to come to their own conclusions about the people in the photographs and about the images themselves.”

The combination of the three photographers seems effortless, as each is able to unfold a unique vision while depicting photographs focused on the experience of relationship - either with work, home or family.

This exhibit is the inaugural exhibition promoting an upcoming national photography competition designed by MAINSITE to encourage the medium of photography as a fine art form. Plans include an annual juried competition beginning in August 2011.

The competition would be open to any photographer not enrolled in school, and will result in five photographers selected to exhibit together at MAINSITE. More information regarding the national competition will be available next year. Visit www.mainsite-art.com. n romy owens spends most of her time taking photos and sewing them together. She can be reached via mental telepathy or at romyowens.com.

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Failure is an option

Frank Wick’s Art 365 project, It’s All Wrong But It’s Alright, explores failure and the future

by Holly Wall The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s exhibition Art 365 will open at [ArtSpace] at Untitled in Oklahoma City in March 2011. Five artists each receive a $12,000 honorarium and one year of interaction with curator Shannon Fitzgerald. Visit www.Art365.org for more information.

Frank Wick hasn’t experienced any more failure than the next guy, and yet it’s the subject of his Art 365 project, It’s All Wrong But It’s Alright. The project is a set of sculptural works that “differ conceptually, inducing a low-frequency anxiety.”

In his project proposal, Wick writes, “The pieces submitted are not documents of failure, but rather things charged with the potential of failure. The work reflects more about the roles we take in life, rather than the roles we aspire to.”

“I think most failure is predicated on how we feel about ourselves or see ourselves,” Wick explained later. “I don’t think failure can always be avoided. It is a given factor in every situation.”

Wick works in the exhibits department at the University of Oklahoma’s Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in Norman, doing exhibits work and mount making. He teaches art classes when the chance arises.

The “low-frequency anxiety” he refers to in his project proposal is a phrase he borrowed from a good friend, Gean Moreno.

“I see this as a sort of unheard vibration that makes you feel something without knowing it outright,” Wick explained. “Low frequencies have a way of hitting you in the stomach, as opposed to a higher frequency that gets into your head. I took it that way, anyway; Gean may have meant it some other way.

A sculpture in progress in Frank Wick’s studio.

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Inside Frank Wick’s Norman studio.

“The bottom line is, we make our own hell,” he continued. “I think what I do is try to reflect on that struggle and reconstruct it in a sort of fictive sense. I think I am making props or something you might find in a movie or play.”

Wick had his first experience with art at six years old, when he enrolled in a summer photography class for kids at Southern Illinois University.

“A very low frequency works without you really knowing it,” he said. “I like the idea that things exist in the universe that we can’t measure.”

The sculptures that comprise It’s All Wrong But It’s Alright are meant to be stand-alone pieces that work together to reflect the project’s intention. Wick, since proposing his project to OVAC, has reevaluated and reworked some of the pieces with the help of curator Shannon Fitzgerald.

“As it stands, I have been working on a completely different body of work than that proposed for the show,” Wick said. “I am not turning my back on the work; I am enjoying the process of making some other work. The pieces I am doing now may find their way into the final exhibit.”

Wick doesn’t offer too much detail about his work, which utilizes beer cans, a BMX bicycle, a shotgun, some spray paint and mirrors as their media.

“One is a kind of post-apocalyptic piece with a BMX, shotgun and dance floor,” he said. “Another is a proposal for a monument on the moon. Thirdly, there is a sort of odd little piece that is site-specific. It is kind of a joke about work and the need to not work.

“I am thinking of a new piece that fits in with the moon piece and the BMX (piece),” Wick said. “It is sort of a meteorite but from a more beautiful place. It is inspired by science fiction and horror posters, as well as haute couture. I guess if you sprayed Lady Gaga over a Halloween mask and wrapped that around a large piece of popcorn, you would get the idea. It is something I really like and I am not sure why. Again, that wasn’t proposed but I would like to consider it for the show.”

Wick shies away from the word “inspired” when explaining what caused him to create these pieces.

“I don’t know if I would use the term ‘inspired,’” he said. “It sort of has some real optimistic tones to it that may not really translate into my work… I just feel like, at the heart of mankind, there is a definite struggle. This struggle is usually of our own making and not something foisted on us by anything else.

“The cut-off age was 9, but I was really big for my age and wanted to take the class,” Wick said. “We printed black-and-white images on wood and learned some basics. I remember trying to make money photographing dogs for all of the neighbors. I lost money on that venture. This should have been a lesson, but I was really excited.”

After that, Wick delved into drawing and sculpture and later earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and two master’s degrees, in design and sculpture, from UI and the University of Miami, respectively.

He said his work, while exploring the theme of failure, is also an investigation into the future. Wick said he loves “speculating about what may come.”

“We will keep having BP oil rig disasters and massive socio-economic problems that can’t be cured by science,” he said. “But we seem to feel — and this is where hubris comes in — we can take care of and manage things that aren’t meant to be managed. We have sort of overstepped our bounds. Even saying that makes me sound like a radical. But basically, we keep convincing ourselves that we have the answers or can get them.”

Wick has worked closely with Fitzgerald in developing his Art 365 project.

“I feel like — and again, I am being presumptuous — I am not getting guidance as much as I am getting access to someone very experienced and someone with whom I can talk,” Wick said of his relationship with the project’s curator. “I think, at nearly 40 years old, I don’t need guidance as much as someone to run ideas past and someone with a strong background in the arts.

“She suggested I speak with a couple people in the area who are also in the arts. I have asked one to come by the studio. I wouldn’t have done that had she not mentioned it. I think making a network in the arts is critical.” n Holly Wall has been covering the arts in Tulsa for three years. She writes weekly arts columns for Urban Tulsa Weekly and monthly for the Tulsa Performing Arts Center’s Intermission magazine.

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May Yang, Tulsa, Great Wall, Ten color screenprint with chine colle, 22”x15”

Momentum Tulsa Spotlight 2010

by Kelsey Karper

Momentum: Art Doesn’t Stand Still is a program of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC) designed to foster Oklahoma’s young artistic talent. Featuring artists ages 30 and younger working in all media, Momentum Tulsa will be held at Living Arts of Tulsa, 307 E. Brady on October 9, 8 pm – Midnight.

To further encourage artists to develop in-depth projects, OVAC created Momentum Spotlight, an opportunity for three artists to create new works for Momentum Tulsa. The three selected artists each receive an honorarium of $1,750 and several months of interaction with the Momentum curators.

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Ahmadi is an Iranian artist working towards her master of fine arts (MFA) at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman. Her project, entitled Anti-Consume Tale, is a short stop-motion animation about cultural consumption and the process of losing relationships with objects. Ahmadi creates every piece of the animation from hand, including the paper cut out puppets that become alive in her films, as well as their environments. The final work will be presented in three episodes, each exploring the idea of cultural objects becoming products to be consumed and replaced quickly – processed, digested and thrown away.

This year’s lead curator is Shannon Fitzgerald, an independent curator living in Oklahoma City and formerly Chief Curator at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Sarah Jesse was selected as the Emerging Curator. She is a writer and educator working as the Berson Director of Education and Public Programs at the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa.

“I think the thoughts and ideas [of the curators] have helped me a lot,” Ahmadi said of the experience so far working with the curators.

“They helped me to see the ‘cultural consumption’ idea from another point of view, made by a more western experience than my own experience which is more eastern. Cultural consumption is a reality that is happening all around the world and I think putting all these experiences and thoughts together can add a lot to the body of work.”

Together, Fitzgerald and Jesse selected the three artists for Momentum Spotlight: Tara Najd Ahmadi, Oklahoma City; Sherwin R. Tibayan, Norman; and May Yang, Tulsa.

Tibayan, also an MFA student at OU, is investigating the role that images, or photographic evidence, play in the way we remember our experiences. In his project, Screen Captured, he pulls images from found

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color slides taken by tourists in the 70s and 80s. These images are often common visuals of the American West: waterfalls, mountains, forests, grand canyons. They serve as evidence to others that we were actually there, but are they a substitute for a direct experience with nature?

of clear Mylar and Plexiglas. Much like a collage, the layers will be sandwiched together and will serve as a self-portrait of sorts, using old family photos juxtaposed with images of American culture that she recalls being enamored with as a child.

“More often than not, our first encounter with a place comes to us as a picture.” Tibayan said. “It’s not uncommon then to believe that we know a place simply because we’ve seen it before – the sky was blue, the grass was green and the magazine was glossy. In this respect, I’m working on a project that considers how our relationship to the natural environment is complicated by our dependence on images as a way of knowing.”

In her project proposal, Yang wrote, “While I was born in the United States, I experienced a period of assimilation while growing up.

According to my parents, I was a very talkative child and readily spoke Chinese at home until the point that I attended preschool. After just one day at school, my interest in Chinese waned and I wanted to embrace all that was American. All the while, my family remained true to their Chinese roots. There was a constant clash of cultures in my household.”

Tibayan’s final images will be large-scale photographic prints. These images will be documentation of elaborate scenes created through the use of the found slides.

After receiving her Professional Printer’s Certificate from Tamarind University of Fine Art Lithography in Albuquerque, NM, Yang recently returned to Tulsa. Her project, American Dreaming, focuses on her background as a first generation Asian American. Growing up, Yang was immersed in two different cultures – the traditional Asian influences of her family and the pop culture appeal of American youth.

The body of work consists of large screen prints on multiple layers

Still from Tara Najd Ahmadi’s stop motion animation Time Machine, an 8-minute film about a time machine that tells the story of a friendship between a girl and a chicken.

The final projects by these three artists will be on view as a part of the Momentum Tulsa exhibition, opening on October 9. It will remain on view through October 24. For more information and to view video interviews with the Momentum Spotlight artists and curators, visit www.MomentumOklahoma.org. n Kelsey Karper is editor of Art Focus Oklahoma and a photographer working in historic and alternative processes. She can be reached at publications@ovac-ok.org.

A test shot in the studio of one of Sherwin Tibayan’s scenes created with found color slides.

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Rachel Whiteread, London, Study for Village, Ink, pencil and collage on paper, 11 13/16”x16 3/16”

Drawing on Process

by Cedar Marie

The artist’s process in the studio is clearly important to making art. The studio is a private setting where the preparatory studies and explorations between point A, “the idea,” and point B, “the resolution,” take place. Confusion comes when the birth of the idea is elevated beyond the privacy of the studio and brought into the museum. Does the exposure to an artist’s process inform spectators in ways different from interacting with the physical object?

If not considered closely, unresolved or “sketchy” plans can weaken an exhibition and the intended messages that artists wish to convey. However, for some audiences, this information can bring a more complete understanding of the artist’s idea and can lead spectators to make connections with the art to their own lives.

This past May at the City Arts Center in Oklahoma City, Edmond artist Dustin Boise presented a series of works that describe the process of drawing. What is interesting about his exhibition, Delineation, is that drawn imagery is decidedly absent. Instead, Boise focuses attention on the traditional materials that help drawing to occur: pencil and paper.

Though primarily hung on the wall, some pieces cross the boundary into sculpture and performance. Because of the absence of drawn imagery, the exhibition becomes a step-by-step guide for spectators. Paper is

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placed, pencils are sharpened, sharpeners are emptied, marks are made on paper, and pencils are worn down through the physical act of drawing. Even the sound of drawing is included in the exhibition through audio.

Each work leads to the next and is read much like a sentence on paper, from left to right.

Boise directs spectator traffic at the entry of the exhibition by positioning a pedestal near a wall piece (Creation A & Creation B). On the pedestal is a divided box with pencils inside.

On the wall hangs a blank sheet of paper, matted and framed, but without the glass covering. This blank canvas invites spectators to participate in the exhibit.

Remains of both pencils and paper are recycled to create new forms. In Shavings #2, for instance, pencil lead and wood particles from sharpeners take the place of the drawing that might normally be enclosed within the picture frame. The fine earth texture is reminiscent of meandering trails in a childhood ant farm.

Reversal consists of a paper-constructed replica of a pencil and a graphite sheet of paper, while Reconstruction is handcrafted paper made from pencil shavings and paper shreds.

“I wanted to pay tribute to what I consider the foundation of art,” says Boise. “Drawing has long been part of our lives. As children we illustrate scenes of family and as adults

we often doodle. Yet drawing is frequently overlooked as a means to an end, and the materials used to create a sketch are even further removed. This gave me the basis for the work in Delineation.”

I asked Boise about his studio practice, if his preliminary ideas and studio experimentations should be an aspect of his public exhibition. His response was mixed.

“The process in the studio is very important, especially with conceptual works. Whether the process should be revealed depends on the work itself, the concept, and the artist. I do not believe the process should be shown [in Delineation]. Since many of the pieces lend themselves to one another, it was my hope that people could figure out how they were created by spending time with the exhibition as a whole. Revealing my process would overshadow the works themselves and take away from my original emphasis of the simplicity of materials.”

Boise goes on to talk about the influence of instant gratification technology in today’s culture, like text messaging as opposed to letter writing, a phone call, or a simple faceto-face conversation. “The show comments on our overlooking of ‘simple things,’ when there may be a less complicated way to achieve the same task. As we continue to grow,” says Boise, “we have to remember what has allowed us to get where we are.”

One role of the museum is to provide a setting in which spectators might gain insight into how art can express new ways of understanding contemporary culture. By providing exposure to innumerable artists and infinite possibilities of cultural expression, these institutions help us to re-consider our perceptions of the complex world we live in.

I asked my friend and fellow Professor Ben Buswell to weigh in on the debate.

Buswell references the drawings of sculptors Alberto Giacometti and Richard Deacon in his response, yet his comments speak to the essence of what needs to occur to validate the status of the studio drawing to a museum level.

Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas, for instance, hosted the first museum retrospective of Rachel Whiteread Drawings.

Included in the exhibition are over one hundred drawings from the artist’s studio, select sculptures, and a carefully chosen “vitrine” of personal artifacts.

“The value of a sculptor’s drawings lies in their ability to communicate the ideal context of the physical object. The drawings create an artificial ideal while the object creates a palpable surrogate. Each, in its own way, needs the other to catalyze the viewer’s apprehension. The dialectical function of these two modes does not speak to the lower value of the drawing (as an “in-between”) but rather to the place of both the artist and the viewer in relationship to the works.”

Whiteread is a respected British artist known for her monumental public art sculptures and casting the spaces in and around domestic objects such as tables and chairs. I approached Nasher Sculpture Center Curator Jed Morse to talk about the Whiteread drawing exhibition in the context of revealing the artist’s process. As we walked around the exhibition, Morse indicated that the drawings were an extremely important entry into Whiteread’s thought processes behind her work. “Modern art and abstraction can be difficult to understand, yet, there is nothing in the drawings in this exhibition that is unintentional,” Morse says, as he points to Study for Valley (1991), a small ink and watercolor drawing of a bathtub. “They are independent works that serve as parallel interpretations of similar themes.”

The drawings range from quick, unresolved sketches, technical ruminations, photo collages and explorations with materials such as correction fluid and varnish. If you consider the purpose of correction fluid, its intended function is to erase text. Whiteread’s sculptures bring forth this erasure, in that the trace remains of human activity are captured through the casting process (the text) and the physicality (the language) of her forms. The varnish equally allows Whiteread to explore these surfaces. The material is significant in another way, as it mimics both the color and texture of the plaster, cement, and resin so often utilized in Whiteread’s larger works. But this connection doesn’t really occur for spectators unless they are willing to investigate what they are viewing more closely. How does the work relate to the social or political consciousness of our time?

In revealing that process, Morse says, “you have to let yourself go on that journey.” It is important for spectators to be willing to take that risk as well.

The goals of the museum go beyond the collection and preservation of art. Museums are “the keepers of cultural heritage” as they are contemporary culture communicators and the liaison between artists and spectators.

Spectators will always bring their visual preferences and aesthetic sensibilities to the debate of what art is and is not, and this is part of what makes viewing art such a rich individual - and also collective - experience.

Both Whiteread and Boise comment on the intimate and often taken for granted relationship between our bodies and the objects in our daily lives. They use the studio practice to deeply investigate these overlooked relationships, give them voice through the use of their materials and design, and bring these relationships into our view again.

“We sit ‘in-between’ the work and our own perceptions,” Buswell continued. “The relationship between the drawing and [the] object serves to inform us of our place and, in the best of circumstances, allows us a more involved relationship with it.”

The way artists think and work in the studio can lend insight into this relationship.

Is it art? The answer is in the looking. Each spectator then gets to decide for himself. n

Dustin Boise, Edmond, Innocence, Paper and pencil

Dustin Boise is an Edmond Oklahoma native and graduate student in Art at the University of Cincinnati.

Rachel Whiteread Drawings is organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. It will travel to the Tate Britain Museum in London September 8, 2010-January 16, 2011

Ben Buswell received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He curated The Necessity of the Sculptural Object, an exhibition consisting entirely of the preparatory sketches of numerous 3D artists. Ben teaches Sculpture and Design at Portland Community College, Oregon.

Special thanks to Marguerite Winslow, Lisa Staton, and Angelique Naylor

Cedar Marie makes art and writes. She is a professor of art at the University of Oklahoma.

f e a t u re

25

b u s i n e ss of a rt

Making Commissions Work For You

by Romney Nesbitt

I have a love/hate relationship with commissions. I love the money but I hate doing the work. My creativity shrinks when I try to please a client - that’s when the commission becomes artwork. When I create an image from my imagination, time flies, but when I’m on the clock working for someone else, time drags. There’s a difference between doing what I want to do and doing what someone else wants me to do. The difference is motivation.

Daniel Pink, author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Riverhead Books, 2009) said, “Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money… that’s a mistake.” Amen. By the time I hand over the finished piece and get my check, I feel financially cheated and emotionally exhausted. The previously agreed upon amount now seems too small for my time, anxiety and stress, and I rarely feel satisfied with the finished product. I want to take my check and hope I never see that person again lest they ask me to do another commission.

In Drive, Pink quotes Teresa Amabile’s study about artists and commissioned art work (pgs 44, 45). Twenty-three professional artists submitted ten commissioned works and ten non-commissioned works. Amabile gave the works to a panel of accomplished artists and curators (who were not privy to the study) and asked them to rate the pieces on creativity and technical skills. “The commissioned works were rated significantly less creative than the non-commissioned works, yet they were rated equal in technical

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business of art

skill.” Several artists said commissions were creatively “constraining,” but when artists saw the commission as “enabling” in some way, their creativity shot back up. An “enabling” commission could provide the artist an opportunity to do something interesting, build on a desired skill or receive useful feedback.

Sounds like the secret to conquering commission backlash is to change your thinking about the process. I offer the following nine thinking tips to lessen the frustration of commission work and boost your creative satisfaction.

1. Increase your autonomy when working on a commission piece. Is there a way you can claim more creative control over your project?

2. Uncover the higher purpose behind the job and become a partner in that process.

If you’re painting a mural for a non-profit food bank focus on how your work is a part of the good the organization brings to your community.

3. Maintain balance. Visualize a tightrope walker using a balance beam. Choose an equal balance between non-commission and commission work to keep your creativity fresh.

4. Open the process to others. Can you solicit help from another artist to help you complete the work? Share what you’ve learned from the project by writing an article for an arts magazine.

5. Talk positively about your project (to

yourself and to others). Negative talk puts your energy in the tank and slows your productivity.

6. Experiment with new materials or techniques. Use the commission project as an excuse to try a new paper or paint.

7. Limit your time. A sure way to feel cheated is to spend too many hours on a project.

8. Create confidence by completing your work on deadline. Use every job to grow your reputation as a professional.

9. Invite your client to become a patron. Ask your client to advertise your next show by sending your invitation to their email contacts along with a short personal note.

Doing work for a company? Ask to display work for sale in common areas.

Commissions are part of the life of an artist.

Don’t work on a commission, let your commission work for you! n Romney Nesbitt is a Creativity Coach, artist and writer living in Tulsa. She is the author of Secrets From a Creativity Coach, available on Amazon. com. Romney welcomes your ideas or questions for future columns. Contact her at romneyn@att.net, or at www.romneynesbitt.net.

At a Glance

Strange Times at TAC

By Don Emrick

Zac James Heimdale, Kansas City, Communication #2, Oil on Canvas, 36”x48”

Strange Times is an apt title for Zac James Heimdale’s exhibit at the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition Gallery during the month of July. The gallery was filled with just five of the large paintings, which are both disturbing and enlightening.

The sheer size and subject matter of the art doesn’t hold back. It’s not only in your face, but also in the realm of the soul barely recalled from dreams.

The looming images, part of what Heimdale calls his “Frankenstein aesthetic” raise the question: if Frankenstein was the modern Prometheus, then what does Heimdale’s work say in this postmodern era?

In the words of the artist, the huge, distorted, figures: “…seem to be caught in some limbic state.” They echo his stated themes of loss, physical deformity and sexual frustration.

The feeling is one of alienation from self and society: base emotions rule over logic and reason. His style fits in well with the influences he cites: Francis Bacon, Jean Michele Basquiat, Paul Klee, and Willem De Kooning. When looking at the work – with the heavy, thick strokes, coupled with primitive outlining and unnatural color palette, one can see how they’ve been adapted to Heimdale’s view, and our disoriented, fragmented, multitasked world.

Disturbing? Yes. But it’s why we find them disturbing that enlightens.

A question each viewer has to answer individually. Understanding, however, may only come in the dark hours of the night.

Tulsa Artists’ Coalition Gallery is located at 9 E. Brady and can be found online at www.tacgallery.org. Heimdale’s other works may be seen at www.zacjamesheimdale.com. n Don Emrick is a Fine Art photographer with a M.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from OU. He currently teaches photography, both film and digital, at Tulsa Community College and also works with various non-profit art organizations. He can be reached at donemrick@att.net.

at a glance

27

&

Gallery Listings Ada

Durham

Rally on the Row 19th Motorcycle Celebration September 1- October 1 Bob and Sandy Sober October 4-29 The Pogue Gallery Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center 900 Centennial Plaza (580) 559-5353 ecok.edu

Stained Glass by Sandra McManus and Watercolors by Glenn Lamb September 1- November 30 Metcalfe Museum Rt. 1 Box 25 (580) 655-4467 metcalfemuseum.org

Ardmore

Shelley Tate Garner September 2- October 16 Group Exhibition October 21- November 20 Studio 107 Gallery 107 East Main (580) 224-1143 studio107ardmore.com Jack Dowd’s Last Call September 7- November 24 John Kingerlee Through October 2 Lecture on John Kingerlee with Richard Vine September 17, 1 pm The Goddard Center 401 First Avenue SW (580) 226-0909 goddardcenter.org

Bartlesville Fellowship: 75 Years of Taliesin Box Projects Through September 19 William Schickel: Spirit Made Manifest October 1- January 9 Price Tower Arts Center 510 Dewey Ave. (918) 336-4949 pricetower.org

Chickasha John Kingerlee September 3-October 1 An Inherent Condition- The paintings of Steve Breerwood October 8- November 5 reception October 8, 6 pm University of Sciences and Arts of Oklahoma Gallery-Davis Hall 1806 17th Street (405) 574-1344 usao.edu/gallery/

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gallery guide

Edmond Bubbles and Beauty: The History of Housewives Through September 30 Edmond Historical Society & Museum 431 S. Boulevard (405) 340-0078 edmondhistory.org Lisa Homan Conger September 10 Leah Lopez and Kenny McKenna October 8 Shadid Fine Art 19 N. Broadway (405) 341-9023 shadidfineart.com

El Reno The Artists of Medicine Park Through September 24 Unique Creative Visions: The Art of Jessie Montes October 4-November 30 Redlands Community College (405) 262-2552 redlandscc.edu

Idabel Visions in Stone Opens September 28 Lifewell Gallery Museum of the Red River 812 East Lincoln Road (580) 286-3616 museumoftheredriver.org

Lawton Carolyn Faseler, Paul Walsh and John Hernandez Opening September 11, 7-9 The Leslie Powell Foundation and Gallery 620 D Avenue (580) 357-9526 lpgallery.org

Exhibition Schedule

Norman

Oklahoma City

Dreamer 28: A Celebration of Oklahoma’s Lake Culture September 10 reception Dreamer 29: Out of the WorldScience Fiction, Robots and Spaceships October 8 reception Dreamer Concepts Studio & Foundation 324 East Main (405) 701-0048 dreamerconcepts.org

Ashley Griffith September aka gallery 3001 Paseo (405) 606-2522 akagallery.net

Children’s Summer Art Show Through October 15 Firehouse Art Center 444 South Flood (405) 329-4523 normanfirehouse.com Amelio Amero Exhibition September – October Jacobson House 609 Chautauqua (405) 366-1667 jacobsonhouse.com Wanderlust: Travel and American Photography Through September 12 Bruce Goff: A Creative Mind October 9- January 2 Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art 555 Elm Ave. (405) 325-4938 ou.edu/fjjma John Seward and O. Gail Poole September 10- November 6, Exhibit opening September 10, 7-9 Midway reception October 8, 7-9 Mainsite Contemporary Art Gallery 122 East Main (405) 292-8095 mainsite-art.com Victorian Womanhood September 10- October Performing Arts Studio 200 S. Jones (405) 307-9320 thepas.org

Altered Books Through October 9 [ArtSpace] at Untitled 1 NE 3rd St. (405) 815-9995 artspaceatuntitled.org Nigel Hall October 12- December 18 Delvie McPherson October 12- November 6 City Arts Center 3000 General Pershing Blvd.

(405) 951-0000 cityartscenter.org

James Walden and Steve Webber September 3- 29 reception September 3, 6-10 Art Unmasked October 1- November 2 Reception October 1, 6-10 Contemporary Art Gallery 2829 Paseo (405) 848-8883 Sebastion Otto September 10 Haveldids and Nots October 8 DNA Galleries 1705 B NW 16th (405) 371-2460 dnagalleries.com Photofest: Brett Weston, Olivo Barbieri, Beat Steuli September 3- 24 reception September 3, 6-10 Elizabeth Brown, Charleen Weidell, Barbara Broadwell, John Brandenburg, Janet Massad

Ellen Sandor, Chris Kemp, Chris Day, Ben Carney, and Miguel Delgado, (art)n, Perfect Prisms: Crystal Chapel, 2009, PHSCologram: Duratrans, Kodalith, Plexiglas, 30”x40”.

This work was inspired by Bruce Goff’s breathtaking designs for a nondenominational chapel at the University of Oklahoma. The chapel has been constructed with an array of various prisms advancing out into space. Refraction of light and reflection color break up the serene environment and awaken it with new energy.

This work is a part of the Bruce Goff: A Creative Mind exhibit at the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art in Norman, October 9-January 2.

O. Gail Poole & John Seward September 10 - November 6 Artists’ Reception, September 10th from 7-9 PM

MAINSITE Contemporary Art 122 East Main Street, Norman, OK 73069

www.mainsite-art.com

October 1- 29 reception October 1, 6-10 JRB Art at the Elms 2810 North Walker (405) 528-6336 jrbartgallery.com The Cowboy Way: Harold Holden Through November 30 Gaylord-Pickens Oklahoma Heritage Museum 1400 Classen Dr. (405) 235-4458 oklahomaheritage.com Diane Jackson Through September 4 Individual Artists of Oklahoma 706 W Sheridan (405) 232-6060 iaogallery.org Lori Oden and Kate Rivers Through October 31 Kolbe Roper, Christen Humphries and Beverly Herndon November 12- January 31 Istvan Gallery at Urban Art 1218 N. Western Ave. (405) 831-2874 istvangallery.com Traditional Cowboy Arts Association 12th Annual Exhibition September 25- December 5 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 NE 63rd (405) 478-2250 nationalcowboymuseum.org Denise Duong Through October 10th Nick Hermes October 18- December 19 East Gallery Emily Warren Through October 3 Angela Castro

October 11- December 12 North Gallery Liz Roth Through October 17 Joan Matzdorf October 25- December 26 Oklahoma State Capitol Galleries 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd (405) 521-2931 arts.ok.gov New Frontiers: Jonathan Hils: Intersection September 9- January 2 La Serenissima: 18th Century Venetian Art from North American Collections September 9- January 2 Alfonso Ossorio: Gifts from the Ossorio Foundation Through November 14 Oklahoma City Museum of Art 415 Couch Drive (405) 236-3100 okcmoa.com Photo Fest 2010: A Juried Exhibition September 3-25 reception September 3 6-10 Jean Keil and Annette Sinesio: Personal Space October 1-30 reception October 1, 6-10 Paseo Art Space 3022 Paseo (405) 525-2688 thepaseo.com

Park Hill Homecoming Art Show Through September 26 National Treasure Exhibit October 4-April 3 Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc. 21192 S. Keeler Drive (918) 456-6007 cherokeeheritage.org

Ponca City

Tulsa

Ponca City Art Center Collection September 5- October 3 36th Annual Fine Arts Festival September 18-19 Southern Plains Fiber Guild Exhibit October 10- November 7 Ponca City Art Center 819 East Central (580) 765-9746 poncacityartcenter.com

Adam Shaw October John Paul Phillipe September Aberson Exhibits 3624 B S Peoria (918) 625-1314 abersonexhibits.com

Shawnee Andean Textiles September 3- October 24 Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art 1900 West Macarthur (405) 878-5300 mgmoa.org

Stillwater 24 Works on paper Through September 10 Reception and Guest Speaker September 2 Roger Shimomura September 15- October 8 Reception and Guest Speaker September 16 Faculty Exhibition October 13- November 4 Reception October 21 Gardiner Art Gallery Oklahoma State University 108 Bartlett University (405) 744-6016 okstate.edu

Tonkawa Creators 2010: Biennial Faculty Exhibition October 18- December 15 Eleanor Hays Gallery Performing Arts Center Northern Oklahoma College 1220 East Grand (580) 628-6670 north-ok.edu

America: Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Nation Through July 3, 2011 Gilcrease Museum 1400 Gilcrease Road (918) 596-2700 gilcrease.org VisionMakers September 3-30 reception, September 10 Living with Art Garden Tour September 25-26 Momentum Tulsa October 9-23 Living Artspace 307 E. Brady (918) 585-1234 livingarts.org Myths and Memories Through October 17 Adaptation: Video Installations October 17- January 9 The Philbrook Museum of Art 2727 South Rockford Road (918) 749-7941 Philbrook.org

Photo Exhibit Ballet Dancers September Tulsa Performing Arts Center Gallery Third and Cincinnati (918) 596-2368 tulsapac.com Above Ground: Views of Toxic America Through Photographs: Rhonda Zwillinger and Mark Abrahamson Through September 23 Red Heat: Contemporary Works in Clay September 30- November 4 Reception and Lecture September 30, 4-7 Alexandre Hogue Gallery Phillips Hall, The University of Tulsa 2930 E. 5th St. (918) 631-2739 cas.utulsa.edu/art Pinwheels for Peace September 21 Waterworks Art Studio 1710 Charles Page Blvd.

(918) 596-2440 cityoftulsa.org/recreation/parks/ Waterworks.asp

The Artists’ Muse: TAC’s Juried Members Show September 3-25 Energy Stream of Consciousness: Work by Nancy Carlson October 1-30 Tulsa Artists Coalition Gallery 9 East Brady (918) 592-0041 tacgallery.org

gallery guide

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Round Up This summer, OVAC was lucky to have the help of three dedicated interns. Becki Warner is a graduate of the University of Central Oklahoma and has an Applied Liberal Arts degree. She has been a big help interning with us this summer doing data entry for 12x12, helping load images to the Virtual Gallery, providing grant support and submitting writing assignments for the OVAC Blog.

Becki has been a lot of fun to work with and we have valued her time at OVAC! Shelby Woods worked from Tulsa, helping research artist grants nationwide and producing articles for the OVAC blog. Shelby will be attending graduate school in Scotland in the fall and we wish her all the luck. Finally, Erin Kozakiewicz served as our Art Focus intern, helping with putting together the magazine, distribution and research. She also produced articles for the blog and is relentless in advocating for OVAC in the community.

At the Annual Members Meeting in June, OVAC welcomed two new board members.

We are pleased to have them involved. New members are: Traci L. Harrison, Enid, is a certified early childhood and elementary teacher who found her niche while teaching a very talented and creative 6th grade class in 2005. She discovered the beautiful potential that unfolded in each of her students while

september | october 2010 teaching art history, art production, and art criticism. From that point on, she has been an advocate for arts and arts education.

and clay workshops for the Edmond Fine Arts Institute. She is also part of the 2010 Leadership Arts class through the Oklahoma Arts Council.

The Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship will offer the final public panel of the year on September 18, 1-3 pm at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Panelists include Tracy Abeln, Editor of Review Magazine in Kansas City; Tyler Green, Founder and Editor of Modern Art Notes, Washington DC; and Eleanor Heartney, contemporary art critic and Contributing Editor to Art in America, New York City. Panel is free and open to the public. Visit www.writecurate-art.org for details.

Margo Shultes von Schlageter, M.D., Edmond, is a graduate of OU and works for the state of Oklahoma as a staff psychiatrist and is a volunteer clinical assistant professor for the OU Department of Psychiatry. She was the emerging curator for Momentum OKC 2010. She resides in Edmond with her ever-patient husband and two dogs.

In the same vein, save the date for: The Oklahoma City Museum of Art presents: Jerry Saltz, senior art critic, New York Magazine The Good; The Bad; and the Very Bad: A Year in the Life of an Art Critic October 7, 2010 Watch the Museum’s website for more information www.okcmoa.com.

She has chaired a Meet the Masters art enrichment program for an elementary school in Edmond and taught yoga, mixed media,

New Board officers include: Suzanne Mitchell, Norman, President; Jennifer Barron, Oklahoma City, Vice President; Traci L. Harrison, Enid, Secretary; and Jean Ann Fausser, Tulsa, Treasurer. Thanks to these leaders for signing on.

Outgoing members include Cathy Deuschle, Richard Pearson, and Elia Woods. We appreciate their varied contributions to the growth, services and outreach of the organization and will miss them thoroughly in their board role.

Art People Rick Fry is joining the Performing Arts Studio in Norman as executive director. Most recently he was executive director of the Norman Arts Council.

Thank you to our New and Renewing Members from May and June 2010 Jo Ann Adams Ann Simmons Alspaugh Randy Anderson Eileen Anderson Narciso Argüelles Sid Armstrong Sarah Atlee Paul Bagley Bill Bartee Dylan and Amanda Bradway Patti R. Bray Steven L. Brown Christine Brown Pattie Calfy Eleanor Davy Carmack Sue Clancy and Judy Sullens Diane U. Coady Shawn Conner Bryan Cook Mireille Damicone Tünde Darvay

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ovac news

Sam Echols Gina Ellis Don Emrick Jeanie Etris Ken Fergeson Brian and Titi Fitzsimmons Whitney Forsyth James and Yiren Gallagher Andrea Gardner Kristin Gentry Stephanie Grubbs Michael Hall Ted Hammond Susan Hammond Ruth Harris Traci Harrison Mark Hatley Brian and Sarah Hearn Don Holladay JJ Holley Carla Houston Paula Howell

Eric Humphries Claudia Hunter Donna Johnson Kate R. Johnson Curtis Jones Melissa Key Howard C. Koerth Carol Koss Trent Lawson P. Keith Lenington Martin Lopez John Lovett Kelley Lunsford Vicki Maenza Phyllis Mantik Roberta Martin David Maxwell Jim McCue Nicole McMahan Michelle Metcalfe Arielle Monks Ann Morris

Vicki, R.C., and J.P. Morrison Deborah Myers Don C. Narcomey Molly O’Connor Wallace Owens Suzanne Peck Vinicio Perez Scott Perkins Nancy Peterson Andrew Phelan Angie Piehl Amanda Poteete & John Bryant Kamaca Reavis Robert and Renee Reed Michelle Firment Reid Dawn Riden Liz Roth Stephanie Ruggles Winter Joe and Verletta Russell Ann Shaw

Jamie Shook Margo and Ray Von Schlageter Joe Slack Jansen Sterba Cristina Stone William R. Struby Shirley Sutterfield Paul Timshel J. Diane Trout Harwood Alex True Terri Wagner Kay Wall Emily Warren Christine Wheaton Dawn Williams Lee Williams Richard and Kathy Wills Cherra June Wilson John David Wolf John Wolfe

Become a member of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition! Join today to begin enjoying the benefits of membership, including a subscription to Art Focus Oklahoma.

Sustaining $250 -Listing on signage at events -Invitation to private reception with visiting curators -All of below

Patron $100 -Acknowledgement in the Resource Guide and Art Focus Oklahoma -Copy of each OVAC exhibition catalog -All of below

Family $55 -Same benefits as Individual for two people in household

Individual $35 -Subscription to Art Focus Oklahoma -Inclusion in online Virtual Gallery -Monthly e-newsletter of visual art events statewide -Monthly e-newsletter of opportunities for artists -Receive all mailed OVAC call for entries and invitations -Artist entry fees waived for OVAC sponsored exhibitions -Listing in Annual Resource Guide and Member Directory -Copy of Annual Resource Guide and Member Directory -Access to “Members Only” area on OVAC website -Up to 50% discount on Artist Survival Kit workshops -Invitation to Annual Meeting

Student $20 -Valid student ID required. Same benefits as Individual level.

GET INVOLVED

MEMBER FORM ¨ Sustaining

¨ Patron

¨ Family

¨ Individual

¨ Student

Name Street Address City, State, Zip Email Website Credit card (MC or Visa Only) Credit card #

Exp. Date

Are you an artist? Y N Medium?____________________________________________ Would you like to be included in the Membership Directory? Y N Would you like us to share your information for other arts-related events?

Y

N

Comments:

Detach and mail form along with payment to: OVAC, 730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Suite 104, Oklahoma City, OK 73116 Or join online at www.ovac-ok.org

ArtOFocus k l a h o m a Annual Subscriptions to Art Focus Oklahoma are free with membership to the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition.

730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Suite 104 Oklahoma City, OK 73116

Non Profit Org. US POSTAGE PAID Oklahoma City, OK Permit No. 113

The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition supports visual artists living and working in Oklahoma and promotes public interest in the arts.

Visit www.ovac-ok.org to learn more.

Upcoming Events: September 18: Art Criticism: Writing, Editing and Publishing, public panel September 25: 12x12 Art Show & Sale October 9: Momentum Tulsa October 15: OVAC Artist Grants Deadline

September PHOTOFEST Brett Weston Olivo Barbieri Beat Streuli Rachel Papo Opening Reception: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 6 - 10 P.M.

October Elizabeth Brown Charleen Weidell Barbara Broadwell John Brandenburg Janet Massad Opening Reception: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1 6 - 10 P.M.

2810 North Walker Phone: 405.528.6336 www.jrbartgallery.com

JRB

ART

AT THE ELMS