Art Focus Oklahoma, September/October 2013 by Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition

ArtOFocus k l a h o m a

O k l a ho ma V i s ual A r ts C oal i t i on

Vo l u m e 2 8 N o . 5

September/October 2013

Art OFocus k l a h o m a from the editor As we prepare to celebrate the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s 25th birthday this year, I’m struck by how one of the primary founding goals – funding and direct support for artists – has carried through and grown into some of our most ambitious programs today. Several of these programs are highlighted in this issue of Art Focus Oklahoma. In 1989, OVAC gave its first Artist Award of Excellence in the amount of $1,000 to James Seitz of Seminole. As one of our longest-standing programs, this award has now developed into the Oklahoma Visual Arts Fellowships & Student Awards of Excellence which grants two $5,000 Fellowships and two $500 Student Awards each year. Read about this year’s recipients on page 8. Also in this issue, we continue our series on the artists selected for the Art 365 exhibition, which combines funding for artists with curatorial guidance and an unmatched exhibition format. Romy Owens (p. 4) is one of the five selected artists, who each receive a $12,000 honorarium over the course of their year of artistic innovation. With a similar goal of helping artists accomplish ambitious projects at defining moments in their careers, Momentum Spotlight (p. 14) also combines funding, curatorial guidance, and an exhibition with a focus on Oklahoma’s young artistic talent. The three Spotlight artists selected for Momentum Tulsa 2013 will debut their projects on October 12 during the festive opening event, held at Living Arts in Tulsa.

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 speccreative@gmail.com

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: Supporting Oklahoma’s visual arts and artists and their power to enrich communities. 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.

As these programs demonstrate, funding for artists has never really been just about the money. It’s about providing artists with the support, guidance and means to realize their potential, to the great benefit of our wider communities.

OVAC Board of Directors July 2013 - June 2014: Patrick Kamann, Margo Shultes von Schlageter, MD (Treasurer), Christian Trimble, Edmond; Eric Wright, El Reno; Suzanne Mitchell, Renée Porter (Vice President), Norman; Jennifer Barron, Susan Beaty (Secretary), Bob Curtis, Gina Ellis, Hillary Farrell, Titi Nguyen Fitzsimmons, MD, Michael Hoffner, Kristin Huffaker, Stephen Kovash, Carl Shortt, Oklahoma City; Dean Wyatt, Owasso; Joey Frisillo, Sand Springs; Jean Ann Fausser (President), Susan Green, Janet Shipley Hawks, Sandy Sober, Tulsa

Kelsey Karper publications@ovac-ok.org

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.

P.S. Watch the November/December issue of Art Focus Oklahoma for more about OVAC’s 25th Anniversary.

Support from:

On the cover Eileen Thomas, Oklahoma City, The Elder, Oil, 18” x 24” See page 6.

contents p ro f i l e s 4

Art 365: Romy Owens

Romy Owens, selected as one of five artists for OVAC’s Art 365 exhibition, uses her meticulous and intensive process to create a comforting space for contemplating life’s big decisions.

Eileen Thomas: A Personal History

Growing up in rural Southeastern Oklahoma nurtured Eileen Thomas’ artistic abilities and provided endless material for the subject of her paintings, which tell the history of her family and childhood experiences.

Artists of Eminence: 2013 Oklahoma Visual Arts Fellowship Awards and Student Awards of Excellence

Each year, OVAC gives awards to four individual artists with outstanding vision. Meet this year’s award-winning artists.

p re v i e w s 10 Paper as Medium Remains Timeless in 24 Works on Paper

A partnership of OVAC and Individual Artists of Oklahoma, this biennial exhibition tours the state to 11 venues and features contemporary Oklahoman artworks on paper.

12 Limitless, Beyond the Boundaries: CLAY

A new juried exhibition at Norman’s Firehouse Art Center focuses on clay as a medium, and how it connects artists and viewers with the world around them.

14 On a Roll: Martin, Whitis & Youngblood Selected for Momentum Tulsa Spotlight

Three Spotlight artists are creating new bodies of work to debut at the annual Momentum Tulsa exhibition, which highlights Oklahoma artists ages 30 and younger.

16 Sharing a Journey: The Oklahoma State University Museum of Art

Several years in the making, the new Stillwater museum is the first permanent home for the University’s collection, which will be showcased in the opening exhibition.

18 Contemporary Craftsmen

108 Contemporary in Tulsa highlights the work of Oklahoma’s contemporary high craft artists in the biennial VisionMakers exhibition.

f e a t u re s 20 On the Map: Philbrook Downtown

With a longstanding reputation as one of the state’s finest art museums, Philbrook expands its presence to the burgeoning Brady Arts District in downtown Tulsa, making way for its collections of modern, contemporary, and Native American arts.

21 Collaborative Coworking at Tulsa’s Creative Room

Creative entrepreneurship can be an isolating endeavor. A new space in Tulsa’s Pearl District offers a collective workspace to foster a community of creative and freelancers.

22 Road to Ruscha

A pilot project from the University of Oklahoma took a group of students and faculty from Oklahoma to California, retracing the legendary route of artist Ed Ruscha’s Twentysix Gasoline Stations.

24 Turning Wood into Art

Having recently established a permanent home, the Northeastern Oklahoma Wood Turners Association offers a place to learn and experience the art of wood turning.

at a glance 26 Cheyenne Butcher at Tulsa Artists’ Coalition Gallery

During the month of September, TAC features a series of photographic self-portraits exploring identity and sensuality.

OVAC news 26 New and Renewing Members 27 OVAC News

business of art 28 Ask a Creativity Coach: Are You Living Your Calling?

The Creativity Coach offers tips for incorporating your big picture values into your artistic practice.

29 g a l l e r y

guide

(p. 8) Brent Richardson, Norman, (My) Absolute Truth, Wood, wood glue, TV tube, and book pages, 44” x 40” x 40” (p. 10) Elizabeth MD Vuong, Tulsa, Birds of Paradise III, Pen, ink, illustration paint, 12” x 12” (pg. 22) Road to Ruscha participant Seth Feken getting his hair cut at the Cut & Clean, a former Mobil station in Shamrock, TX. Photographed by Ed Ruscha in the 1960s, the station now serves as a beauty salon and dry cleaner. Photo by Sherwin Rivera Tibayan.

Art 365: Romy Owens by Kirsten Olds

Romy Owens, Oklahoma City (left to right) ann romano, Wool, Dimensions variable. carol brady, Cotton, 70” x 21”. edna garrett, Wool, cotton, acrylic, 46” x 16”. These pieces are studies for the larger knit project Owens is creating for the Art 365 exhibition.

This is the second in a series of articles profiling artists selected for Art 365 2014, an Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC) program that supports five artists’ innovative projects over the course of a year. Projects are nurtured in consultation with guest curator Raechell Smith, Director of the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute, and culminate in the Art 365 exhibition, which opens February 2014 at [Artspace] at Untitled in Oklahoma City and then travels to the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa’s Hardesty Arts Center in Tulsa in May 2014. 4

p ro f i l e

Oklahoma City-based artist Romy Owens’ project for Art 365 initially seems like a departure from the photographic practice for which she has become known. Rather than primarily visual, her planned installation, possibly titled An Imagined Motherhood / An Imagined Otherhood, would create an immersive experience that is tactile and emotional. Yet as Owens speaks about her project, threads of continuity emerge that underscore her overall approach to art-making: meticulous craftsmanship, time- and laborintensive processes, and the creation of new spaces and aesthetic experiences. Her plan, still very much in flux: to create a sanctuary space inside the gallery, lovingly and laboriously hand-crafted. To produce a shared experience, she hopes to build a space that can accommodate at least two people—but not one so large that it becomes a mass experience. This space is about intimacy. Exactly what will people do once they enter? “It will be interesting to see,” Owens muses. “I hope it will be the kind of environment that anyone can enter and take comfort from it, that it will be a space in which someone could make big decisions or spend time being contemplative.” Supported also by a Mid-America Arts Alliance Artistic Innovations grant, the project has grown out of her initial proposal, An Imagined Motherhood, which centered on a very complex and yet basic human question: what if my life had taken a different course? For Owens that involved the commitment to focus on her career and, in so doing, to decide not to become a parent. But what if I had had a child, she wondered? Through her art she could create an alternate reality, one in which she imagined the existence of a teenage daughter, her room and tastes. Yet as she has worked on it, the project has opened up, becoming more about the questioning—the process—than detailing the life of an invented child. “Instead of being about what I never did,” Owens confides, “the project became focused on what I do, which is nurture.” That sense of nurture is evident in the artist’s process. Deftly wielding 13-gauge needles and super-bulky wool yarn in a tight garter stitch, she carefully knits objects in preparation for the sanctuary space. It takes time. This is an art of duration, of craftsmanship and care, akin to that of cherished handmade baby blankets and keepsake booties. Owens encourages such associations, but hopes the space, with an array

of objects found and made in it, will open up others as well. Warmly enclosed at least partially by soft wool, the space might become a womb, an incubator of thought. Some of her recent photographic installations, such as a bright golden haze on the meadow for OVAC’s Concept/OK: Art in Oklahoma exhibition in Tulsa, created new spaces from photographs of urban blight. Comprised of sewn-together prints installed along the AHHA’s balcony, the installation was emphatically two-dimensional (which made its illusion of an idyllic landscape all the more poignant). For her project for Art 365, she plans to tackle the construction of a physical space, using materials not traditionally used in building structures. Soft, small, tactile, and temporary, her space will invert values commonly associated with architecture, just as her photography overturns ideas about the medium’s representational basis. She continues her sewn photography practice with a show at the Amarillo Art Museum in Texas in May 2014, where she seeks to evoke in backlit photographs the colorful strata of the area’s canyon. Owens has been a full-time artist since she received her M.A. in Photography from Oklahoma City University in 2005. The inaugural artist-in-residence at the historic Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City, she has set up in her studio there a photo booth of sorts; the project, Look at Me. Don’t Look at Me., reveals the ambivalence people face when confronted with the camera. “People love photo booths in theory, but at the same time they are so hesitant to be photographed.” She snaps four images of her sitters, in homage to the classic photo booth strip, and many of her subjects exhibit its playful posing hide-andsmile for the camera. For more on that project visit facebook.com/romyowensphotobooth. Look at Me. Don’t Look at Me. offers us a telling connection to her Art 365 project. In one example, a self-portrait, the artist alternately wears and hides behind, offers to the camera and looks through, a striped knit she has been working on. The knit item—not quite garment, not quite sculpture—shields her from viewers while also acting as lens through which she confronts the viewer and herself. Protection and comfort, it also becomes a vehicle for self expression. After having learned the technique only a few months ago, Owens has been knitting a variety

of objects in wool. With their throwback colors and titles bearing the names of memorable 1970s and ‘80s sitcom characters, such as den mother Edna Garrett and blended-family matriarch Carol Brady, these knits cement their ties to gendered craft production. They also remind us of the values we have inherited from the era of second-wave feminism and debates about “career” versus “stay-at-home” women (and the art spawned from this era, such as Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro’s influential Womanhouse installation). Especially for those of us weaned on such staples of Nick at Nite, these television icons shaped our notions of femininity and motherhood, and it is these received ideas that Owens’ project revisits and urges us to contemplate. What factors guide our life choices? Whose model do we emulate? This complexity and ambivalence distinguishes Owens’ recent engagement with fibers from the yarn bombing phenomenon of recent years. While it deals with issues of femininity and feminism bound up with knitting and the project’s origins in An Imagined Motherhood, her sanctuary space makes no singular statement. Rather, it will provide a site for reflection and for questioning. In this respect it relates to artists such as Rirkrit Tiravanija and Olafur Eliasson who create environments for viewers to have experiences. Owens recalls her own amazement after experiencing two rooms by Eliasson, how they altered her actual vision of the world. Like these other artists’ work, Owens conceives of her space as one of potentiality. How will her room take shape? What will it include in, outside, or on it? Will people experience the solace Owens envisions? Will the space allow visitors to pursue their “what ifs,” imagine their own alternate realities? Like her careful handiwork, Owens’ art unfolds over time, slowly, accruing memories with it, and so it is only fitting that we have the long wait until February to find out. To view more of Owens’ work, visit www.romyowens.com. For more about the Art 365 exhibition, visit www.Art365.org. n Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Tulsa, Kirsten Olds received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on artists’ groups in the 1970s and the networks they forged as alternatives to mainstream institutions such as the art gallery, mass circulation journal, and network television.

p ro f i l e

Eileen Thomas: A Personal History by Cathy Deuschle

Eileen Thomas, Oklahoma City, Goin’ Piece of the Way, Oil, 18” x 24”

Eileen Thomas’ hometown is Idabel, in rural Southeast Oklahoma, a scenic area that is rich in natural resources. She lived without television until she was ten so she made her own entertainment by playing outside with friends, reading and making little comic books. Her parents took the family fishing and foraging for fruits and nuts which were preserved for the winter. This environment surely nurtured an observant and curious child with artistic leanings. Thomas studied painting at East Central

p ro f i l e

State University in Ada, OK and says her teachers, D.J. Lafon, Robert Sieg, and Bob Barker encouraged students to find their own styles. She now lives in Oklahoma City. Discussing her approach to painting she says: “I sketch my picture on canvas and let my spirit direct the rest. I want to show actual history and paint from memory, sketching, reliable conversation and research.” She explains her desire to focus on the past like this: “How do I know where I’m going if I don’t know where I came from? We are

products of our past and oftentimes the past is suppressed and altered. Everyone should be aware of history.” “Most of my paintings tell stories, even the old architecture,” says Thomas. And yes, architectural history is very present in her paintings of old (by Oklahoma standards) buildings of sod, brick or wood; structures seemingly painted brick by brick, or plank by weathered plank as though to follow, in spirit, the mason’s or the carpenter’s methods. The human connection is told through the

activity around a farm house or on Main Street; broken bonds are made visible through the physical distress and empty sidewalks of abandoned structures, most of which no longer stand. History also fills interior space with serviceable walls that could use some patching and worn wooden floors and furniture. Thomas emphasizes history in all her work. She may focus on childhood relationships with friends and family, or reach further back to her ancestral roots. Her history includes ceremony, such as a full immersion baptism; style, like zoot suits and vintage cars; pioneer life; and daily existence in small towns, on farms, and in nature. Poignant is Thomas’ painting entitled Pot Likker. A mother leads four young children in mealtime prayer around a deeply grained wooden table supporting five meagre bowls of food. Thomas explains, “I’ve heard that when people ate all of the greens (or whatever vegetable) and meat, they made another meal from the pot likker (the vegetable broth) with cornbread. My uncle, who was 92 at the time, told me he drank pot likker like tea or coffee. It has nutrients from the vegetables.”

I was doing research for a report on Deep Deuce which was the business and social hub for OKC blacks. At the Historical Society, looking at the Black Dispatch newspaper, I came across a Swastika Club meeting announcement. Years later I checked out a book about photographer James Van Der Zee at the library. Van Der Zee took many pictures during the Harlem Renaissance. I was surprised to see a picture of a woman wearing a Queen of Swastika ribbon.” Once she researched the history of the symbol, knew that Van Der Zee’s photo was taken before WWII and also that the mission of the Swastika Club was to present refined culture to uplift the Black community, Thomas realized that the swastika, at this previous time in America, held a totally different meaning from the Nazi Holocaust meaning we are now so infused with.

Queen of Swastika is Thomas’ statement against appropriating an ancient and benevolent symbol for modern and evil ends. Rather than preach against a wrong, she renders through her art one of the many good and positive meanings held throughout history. She counteracts the wrong by taking the symbol from the thief and restoring it to a prior, innocent state. “Go with what your heart or spirit says,” Thomas advises the beginning artist. “Just keep being creative even if the money isn’t coming in. If you persist, your works will sell. Maybe not enough for you to become a full time artist, but they’ll sell.” Given the insecurity of the present day, this affirmative statement from a thoughtful woman is worth contemplating in our own lives. n Cathy Deuschle is a Tulsa based artist.

Goin’ Piece of the Way is straight from Thomas’ childhood. Two young girls all bundled up stand together in a field flanked by crops. Behind them are a house and low hills. The sky is filled with radiating, crooked finger clouds that seem to emanate from the earth below. According to Thomas, “When I was growing up, people used to walk their guest part of the way or piece of the way back home. Sometimes we’d stand and talk for hours before departing. When more people got cars, this tradition gradually stopped.” Composition and the landscape’s energy both ground this painting and elevate it. Earth and sky play a strong supporting role in much of Thomas’ work by conjuring mood, directing focus, and specifying time.

Eileen Thomas, Oklahoma City, Pot Likker, Oil, 18” x 24”

Thomas has also gathered a wider American history through reading and research and she doesn’t skirt controversy. This is evident in Queen of Swastika. She explains her painting’s origins this way: “Years ago, while taking a course in Black History in Oklahoma,

p ro f i l e

Artists of Eminence: 2013 Oklahoma Visual Arts Fellowship Awards and Student Awards of Excellence by Krystle Brewer

Kate Johnson, Tulsa (left) Hit Like a Bullet, Cotton rope, wool, string, 22” x 22” x 2” (right) Let’s Make it True, Cotton rope, wool, string, 20” x 14” x 6”

Each year the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC) grants two Fellowship Awards and two Student Awards of Excellence to Oklahoma artists who show outstanding vision and contribute to the larger conversation of art making. A rotating guest curator selects the highest achieving submissions based on professionalism, craftsmanship, and creativity. This years’ guest curator is Lorelei Stewart, Director of Gallery 400 at University of Illinois in Chicago, who currently serves as the Interim Director of the Masters of Arts in Museum and Exhibition Studies program. The selected Fellowship Award recipients are Kate Johnson of Tulsa and Pete Froslie of Norman. The Student Awards of Excellence recipients are Sarah Engel-Barnett and Brent Richardson, both of Norman. Stewart says these artists, “stand out for the originality of their vision, their facility with materials, and what their artistic investigations tell us about our place in the world today. “

p ro f i l e

The work produced by this group of artists spans from the technological to craft influenced textiles but each addresses a crosssection falling within technology, biology or cognitivity. In this way, there are points of overlap while at the same time each trajects in unique and distinct paths giving commentary on the world we live in. The body of work Dreamscapes by Johnson, who received an MFA from University of Tulsa, explores the path of the brain as it is influenced by daily images and activities. She materializes this concept through crocheted fiber threads in repetitive organic yet asymmetrical forms, much like the thoughts of the brain are influenced by the previous chain of thought. This link of cognitive activity then circumnavigates previous thoughts causing it to circle around on itself. On her process she says, “The making of the stitches became a symbol for the transference of emotional memory from thought to hand

to fiber.” In her fiber forms some places protrude while other recede representing thoughts that act in similar ways: some falling below the surface accentuating those that rise to the external layer. Her fiber sculptures allude to biological organs that are soft and organic but also in places have evidence of portions being violently torn away. Stewart says of Johnson’s work, “The amorphous shapes skillfully balance solidity, ornamentation, and preciousness, emphasizing the enduring primacy of the tactile, everyday, and contingent in today’s complex culture.” In contrast, Fellowship Award winner Froslie, an MFA graduate from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, starts his process where art and technology intersect. He describes surfaces as being “considered static fictions” and infrastructures as “flowing and mutable.” This binary can be seen in his work Oscillating Cubes which are hand-

sewn images of Necker cubes (wire frame drawings that cause an optical illusion of depth) framed and hung on the wall in a grid. The front of the image depicts an individual frame of an animation revealing an oscillation between two cube patterns in clean geometric lines. In contrast, the verso, which holds the infrastructure of the image, is a “chaotic flow of lines.” The hidden chaos is necessary for the flawless and structured forms to exist on the front. Stewart comments on his work, “Blending technological systems and a seductive use of materials…[and] that they attempt to demystify our information world makes them only more vitally relevant.” A recent MFA graduate from the University of Oklahoma in Art and Technology, Student Award Winner Richardson also incorporates technology in his work, which critiques Capitalism and socially constructed systems’ impact on the everyday life. Prior to studying art, Richardson spent three years focusing on philosophy and theology to gain understanding of what feeds into the construction of worldviews and how they regulate life navigation. On philosophy and theology Richardson says, “I soon realized that purely academic knowledge of these things was not enough. Interaction became key and art was the perfect outlet to engage with people about how they view life.” In Richardson’s work Mutual Concession, he takes an old 1941 Philco Radio and places it in an acrylic case with a quarter push-slot and an open window below to reveal the quarters that have been inserted. The radio plays commercials incessantly only pausing when a quarter is deposited. In this way, Richardson exemplifies how in consumerism, even the intangible such as silence, can be commoditized. In the same vein of social critique Student Award Winner Engel-Barnett, who is currently pursing an MFA from the University of Oklahoma, works in photography to convey narratives of what she describes as a “tragically hopeful” view of human progress rather than one of pure nihilism. Her installation City of Cyclones, 2378 is a collection of 6” x 7.5” digital photographs hung on a grid that depict life in her imagined dystopian world that takes place 365 years in the future, after life moves below ground to escape the frequent tornadoes. She experiments with plants, LED lights, and old PC monitors to explore agricultural methods to be used underground. Through these works and many others, she advocates for creative approaches in addressing and reacting to environmental changes caused by industrial expansion. This year’s award winners are innovative in their mediums and methods while challenging boundaries and preconceived ideas of materiality. In each of their explorations, they question existing lines, whether it is art verses craft or technological versus biological, they blur these barriers to create inventive and stimulating works of art. n Krystle Brewer is an artist, curator, and writer who currently works at the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art as a Graduate Research Assistant. She can be found at www.krystlekaye.com.

(top) Pete Froslie, Norman, Diamond, Wood, custom software, electronics, thread, 7” x 4” x 3.5” (middle) Brent Richardson, Norman, Study of Perspective, Monitor, synthetic grass, bench, 5.1 sound, 48” x 72” x 96” (bottom) Sarah Engel-Barnett, Norman, The Old Ruiz-Berlinger Homestead, Treasure from the First Dig, Digital photograph, Inkjet print, 24” x 18”

p ro f i l e

24 Works on Paper Artists M.J. Alexander, Oklahoma City Marilyn Artus, Oklahoma City Deborah Burian, Oklahoma City Zach Burns, Oklahoma City Marsha Gulick, Hominy Eyakem Gulilat, Norman Jeff Hogue, Bartlesville Marcus Kesler, Edmond David Knox, Oklahoma City Michael Litzau, Edmond Traci Martin, Ardmore Bobby C. Martin, Tahlequah Brandon Mitts, Stillwater Eric Piper, Norman Saumo Puapuaga, Oklahoma City Laura Reese, Norman Amy Rockett-Todd, Tulsa Clarissa Sharp, Oklahoma City Cathryn Wallace Thomas, Tulsa Thomas Tucker, Edmond Elizabeth Vuong, Tulsa Crystal Walters, Pryor Blair Waltman, Oklahoma City Betty Wood, Norman

Exhibition Schedule Through September 27, 2013: Redlands Community College, El Reno September 27-November 25, 2013: Goddard Center, Ardmore November 25, 2013-January 4, 2014: Ponca City Art Center, Ponca City January 4-February 9, 2014: Northern Oklahoma College, Tonkawa February 9-March 21, 2014: East Central University, Ada March 28-April 28, 2014: Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios, Alva May 31-June 28, 2014: Tulsa Artists’ Coalition, Tulsa June 28-August 25, 2014: Oklahoma State University Gardiner Gallery, Stillwater

Paper as Medium Remains Timeless in 24 Works on Paper by Sasha Spielman

Our imagination develops from the moment we are born. Shapes, colors, objects, sounds and other stimuli help us learn about the ever changing world around us. In the next stage of our development someone puts a blank piece of paper and a crayon in front of us and the rest is magic. Though the development method is rather complicated the end result remains similar – drawings. Masterpieces our parents and teachers display to a crowd. Later in life we choose who we want to be – a fireman, an engineer, or an artist. Regardless, we continue to create. A collaborative project from Individual Artists of Oklahoma (IAO) and Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC), titled 24 Works on Paper showcases some of the most engaging art techniques on paper in Oklahoma today. Only 24 works are selected for inclusion in this biennial exhibition which began in 1985. Curator Kristen Fleur Olds said, “The many submissions to 24 Works on Paper attest to the richness and resurgence of paper as an artistic medium.” Many modern artists and designers now choose the digital medium to create, so it’s exciting to see an exhibition that focuses on paper as a medium. As we move forward we invent and refine other techniques to express ourselves – yet we keep coming back to the physical materials. All 24 Oklahoma artists included in 24 Works on Paper demonstrate engaging and unique approaches to the chosen medium – no two works are alike. As the curator describes in her statement, we see this in Cathryn Wallace Thomas’ paper and ink self-portrait where torn paper “usurps line’s function, unseating the basic tenets of drawing” or Blair Waltman’s photograph

entitled Collide where “glass bottles meet their doppelgangers in criss-crossed arrays.” At times we take for granted what’s important to us - our vision, for example. Zach Burns, who is partially blind in one eye, allows viewers to see how he sees, capitalizing on photography’s ability to show us the world through someone else’s eyes. Other artists, such as Michael Litzau and Marilyn Artus, explore the relationship between words and images. Each work tackles social myths. They express their view on sports, ladies’ magazines or science classes presenting a beautiful mix of several worlds. Both Bobby C. Martin and Saumo Puapuaga explore people’s relationship to the past, with personal experiences and heritage serving as inspiration. As Aldous Huxley said, “Every man’s memory is his private literature.” Searching in the past remains a strong theme among several other works from Deborah Burian, M.J. Alexander and Marcus Kesler. ‘These works all celebrate the potential for art to engage deeply within its own histories and future, while tapping into the most universal aspects of the human condition,’ Olds said. The 24 Works on Paper exhibition opened in July at IAO Gallery in Oklahoma City. Luckily, art enthusiasts will have more than one opportunity to experience the exhibition, which will travel across Oklahoma for over a year. For a full list of venues and events, visit www.24works.org. n Sasha Spielman is a web editor who enjoys blogging, appreciates beautiful black and white photography, and loves producing short documentaries. She firmly believes that “Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

August 25-October 27, 2014: University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chickasha October 27, 2014-January 2015: Leslie Powell Foundation & Gallery, Lawton

p re v i e w

Zach Burns, Oklahoma City, Hotel Duncan 63, Photography, 12 x 24

(left) Bobby C. Martin, Tahlequah, Aunt Kate McCombs, 3-color screenprint on paper, 24.5” x 16.5” (center) Marilyn Artus, Oklahoma City, You and Me, Mixed media with machine and hand embroidery, 16” x 20” (right) Cathryn Wallace Thomas, Tulsa, Assemblage, Paper and ink, 18.25” x 27.5”

p re v i e w

Limitless, Beyond the Boundaries: CLAY by Lucie Smoker

(left) Matt Mitros, Tuscaloosa, AL, Trees and Lines, Ceramic, wood, plastic, 14” x 12” x 4” (center) Brad Blair, Tallahassee, FL, Aqua Hopper, Earthenware clay, polymer clay, hair, 7” x 7” x 9.5” (right) Lucien M. Koonce, Haydenville, MA, Guinomi with Bidoro, Hand carved and hollowed (kurinuki technique) stoneware clay, shino (oni) glaze, natural ash glaze; fired on sea shells; wood fired (C. Gustin anagama), 2” x 2.25” x 2.5”

“It’s about being human, living on this planet,” said Douglas Elder of CLAY, the juried exhibition opening September 13 at Firehouse Art Center in Norman. “With social media, we sometimes lose that connection, but we will never lose our visual iconic communication. People feel the need to express themselves from scratch, from the earth.”

“The passion for clay is a weird love affair,” said Asprey. “When I first walked into a ceramics class I had no idea about this muggy, human, expressionistic, gestural process. It’s controlled pyromania.” The art of working this earthy medium drew him in. “So reactive in the beginning,” he continued, “the clay then becomes a semi-hard bisque.”

1971, the center has over 100 clay works in its permanent collection, an ongoing resource for students and art lovers alike. The FAC has broadened and expanded its non-profit mission with instruction and experiences in sculpture, painting, drawing, jewelry construction, stone carving, and glasswork—as well as the highrisk process of ceramics.

Formed by sunlight baking rocks, rain washing away sediments, and wind carrying tiny particles across continents, clay is the earth’s reply to the passage of time. Without shape but inviting form, it seems to be saying, “What’s next?”

Through fluid but distinct stages of clay manipulation, the artist’s vision first spills forth like liquid into muddy slip, then coagulates into a semi-solid form. At each stage, ideas deepen as the clay slowly solidifies and rough forms develop minute details. The firing stage brings one last refinement, a delicate but rock-hard clarity of vision--with the threat of failure.

This exhibition is a return to its roots offering even more than its $1,500 in juried awards. To participants, CLAY is a chance for recognition, to build a name as an artist. Director of the FAC, Elder explained, “We believe in juried exhibitions as a first step to helping artists elevate their work.”

The Firehouse Art Center (FAC) challenged artists to answer that question with works of at least 75% clay which “look beyond the expected boundaries, transcend them, and express a strong personal vision,” said Stuart Asprey, guest juror and Assistant Professor of Ceramics at the University of Oklahoma. An awardwinning ceramic artist himself, Asprey looks at clay art as sculpture, with or without function. Ceramic arts stretch far beyond the clay pot. Most of us have seen prehistoric vessels for transporting items from point A to point B. We’ve marveled at clay idols while listening to the sacred myths of lost worlds. We’ve even eaten our suppers from ceramic plates--microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe. But the modern artist uses clay differently from all of these. With shape, context, humor, texture, he tries to say something about this life on this earth right now.

p re v i e w

Clay art has to stand up to fire in a kiln. There’s a certain architecture, an exact science, to the creation of objects that are born, not annihilated, at 2300 degrees. If a wall is structurally weak or a single piece of clay too rich in moisture, the heat of the kiln seizes on that weakness and kaboom, a single flaw blows weeks of work to smithereens. Only a certain type of artist takes on that risk. The same sort that can look at a lump of mud and envision an idea taken to its apex. Perhaps that is why Asprey says, “The one common thread that runs through the exhibit is the love and passion for clay.” The FAC understands that passion like no other venue. Founded by ceramic artists in

Partially funded by the Oklahoma Arts Council, The Norman Arts Council, and the City of Norman. The FAC will host Second Friday receptions for CLAY on September 13 and October 11 at 444 South Flood Avenue in Norman. You can visit the exhibit during regular hours until October 21. Call (405) 329-4523 or visit normanfirehouse.com for more information. Expect to connect with something beyond the boundaries. FAC director Elder says, “As we fire CLAY, the possibilities are limitless.” n As a suspense author, Lucie Smoker explores the way art shows us what we cannot see. Her first mystery, Distortion, features murder in reverse perspective. More at luciesmoker.wordpress.com.

122 EAST MAIN NORMAN, OK 405.360.1162 NORMANARTS.ORG

U N I V E R S I T Y C O L L E G E

O F

C E N T R A L

F I N E

A R T S

O K L A H O M A A N D

D E S I G N

Alive Alive “Flight” by Christopher Domanski

“Shakespeare” by Gary Lee Price

Where Public Art Comes

“Breath” by David Thummel

For more information, contact Zina Gelona at (405) 974-3432 13

On a Roll: Martin, Whitis & Youngblood Selected for Momentum Tulsa Spotlight by Kerry M. Azzarello

Art lovers of all ages are invited to view, purchase and experience artwork at the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s Momentum Tulsa: Art Doesn’t Stand Still, an exhibition showcasing Oklahoma’s emerging young talent. Celebrating its 10th year of moving audiences and propelling artists’ careers, Momentum Tulsa features Oklahoma artists 30 years old and younger working in all media including 2-D and 3-D art, film, installation, performance and more. Momentum Spotlight is a special component of the exhibition, which provides selected artists the opportunity to realize larger-scale artistic endeavors. This year’s Spotlight artists are Leigh Martin, Stuart Whitis and Molly Youngblood. The three projects were chosen out of a competitive application field by Guest Curator Emily Kern, Executive Director of 108 Contemporary, and Emerging Curator Krystle Brewer, Art History graduate student at Oklahoma State University. According to Brewer, each proposal was reviewed against three major criteria: “professionalism and quality of submission, how interesting and intriguing their ideas are, and lastly how probable their idea is to be carried out and function in the gallery space in the way they proposed.” The curators worked intimately with the artists over a period of three months to transform the proposals from concept to reality. The finished projects are on display October 12th-25th at Living Arts, a cross-discipline gallery dedicated to the development and presentation of contemporary art in Tulsa. Leigh Martin: Saprobia An organism that derives its nourishment from nonliving or decaying organic matter is known as a saprobe. A 29 year old, Oklahoma City-based artist intrigued by self-sustaining cycles is known as Leigh Martin. Equal parts fiber artist and nature enthusiast, Martin blends her passions in unique creations that often mimic ecosystems. In past work, such as the Decomposition Colony series, Martin creates an environment populated with realistic, knitted replicas of fungi alongside actual living components. It is only after closer inspection that viewers realize the fungi are man-made.

p re v i e w

Saprobia, Martin’s Spotlight project, deals specifically with nutrients’ role in forest life cycles – how organisms grow, die, decay and are reborn in new forms. She creates saprobic fruiting bodies using fiber as well as “foraged materials and pigments from an individual species of tree for each type of fungi created.” The result is a stunning interpretation of nature’s symbiotic processes. Both educational and aesthetically pleasing, Martin’s pieces also encourage increased interactions in the natural world. Wonder and surprises are everywhere; one simply has to take a look. Stuart Whitis: Vagua Bisbille Stuart Whitis, a 29 year old Norman artist, is using his Spotlight project to expand upon ideas and techniques originally developed while working on his MFA at the University of Oklahoma. Paintings by French Academic artist William Adolphe Bouguereau are reimagined through a painting process that involves the digital corruption and recombination of the originals. Whitis’ intricate tessellation combinations provide a multitude of tonal variations, while a luminous effect is obtained by flaking oil paint from top layers to reveal an underlying fluorescent substrate. The finished product can be seen in pieces such as Aubergine Passe. Whitis’ Spotlight project was a welcomed challenge. He explained, “With Vagua Bisbille I want to extrapolate the process into four layers. This means I’ll be painting four versions of the same painting on top of each of other at various levels of corruption and distortion.” Additionally, the work’s dimensions have been greatly expanded in order to fully encompass the viewer’s visual field. Whitis enjoys the labor-intensive process required to make paintings that include nearly a million pixel points of light. Molly Youngblood: Semblance of Society The human persona fascinates Molly Youngblood, a 22 year old Norman native and recent University of Oklahoma graduate. In previous work, such as her [headspace] series, she explores “the thoughts and anxieties one deals with in their own selfdefinition.” Each black and white large format photograph is created using a multiple exposure technique during the darkroom

printing process that results in a single, distorted composite image. For her Spotlight project Semblance of Society, Youngblood ambitiously opts to arrive at a composite image based on personal experiential data. She fictitiously alters her outward appearance before (think Cindy Sherman) then actively performs inside the Oklahoma subcultures of hunting, farming, gambling and spirituality. Equipped with an open mind and genuine curiosity, Youngblood blurs her own identity into an artistic ethnographer of sorts. Acceptance or rejection from these communities takes a backseat to her higher goal – critically challenging perception versus reality. Having obtained a deeper understanding of the complexities behind the people and ideas associated with each subculture, Youngblood presents her findings to Momentum Tulsa visitors through a multi-media display of photographs, video, audio, artifacts and performance. These Spotlight projects are featured alongside individual works from emerging artists across the state. Music, performances and interactive elements planned by the Momentum Tulsa committee, headed by co-chairs Julianne Clark and Val Esparza, round-out the exhibition. The opening event for Momentum Tulsa will be held on Saturday, October 12th from 8 pm-Midnight at Living Arts, 307 E Brady St, Tulsa. Tickets can be purchased online and at local retailers for $7 or at the door for $10. The exhibition will be on display October 13th-25th with free gallery hours TuesdaySaturday 1-5 pm and Thursday 1-9 pm. For more information, visit www.momentumoklahoma.org. To learn more about each Spotlight artist, go to www.cargocollective.com/bromeleighad, www.stuartwhitis.com, and www.mollyyoungblood.com. n Kerry Azzarello currently serves as OVAC Operations Manager. Her own creative momentum is fueled by art, architecture, traveling, writing and amazing people. She can be reached at office@ ovac-ok.org.

(top) Leigh Martin, Oklahoma City, Decomposition Colony I (detail), Yarn, wire, Oregon coastal forest (left) Molly Youngblood, Norman, [headspace] series, Black and white photography, 6” x 8” (right) Stuart Whitis, Norman, Aubergine Passe, Oil, fluorescent spray paint on panel, 48” x 91”

p re v i e w

Sharing a Journey: The Oklahoma State University Museum of Art by Lisa M. Chronister

Yatika Starr Fields (Cherokee, Creek, and Osage, b. 1980), Connecting Roads from Past to Present, 2013, Acrylic, spray paint, gold leaf, 66” x 144”

Sharing a Journey: Building the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art Collection will launch the highly-anticipated public opening of the Postal Plaza Gallery, part of the Oklahoma State University (OSU) Museum of Art. It opens October 8, 2013 and will be on view until January 15, 2014. “This will be the first permanent home for our collection,” explains Louise Siddons, Assistant Professor of Art History at OSU and Curator of Collections for the new museum. The new gallery will provide not only public display space, but also much needed consolidated collections storage. A diverse and committed group of OSU alumni, artists, faculty, and administrators have been working since 2009 to create a suitable home for the collection. Previously, the collections were housed in storage facilities across campus. This arrangement plus poor inventory records made it impossible for faculty and students in the Department of Art, much less the public, to view, study, and appreciate the collection. When the former 1933 Post Office building

p re v i e w

in downtown Stillwater became available, just a few blocks from campus, organizers jumped at the opportunity. Without question, one of the star attractions of the gallery will be the interior renovation designed by Elliott + Associates Architects. Organizationally, the building consists of two main gallery spaces; one will display selections from the permanent collection, while the other will showcase special exhibitions. New “museum white” walls and ceilings form the gallery boundaries while movable walls and pedestals will create more space for exhibition displays. Existing post office vaults remain intact and will be repurposed as mini-galleries for the display of sculpture and audio art. Collection storage is situated in the far northwest corner of the floor, but is intentionally made visible from the galleries through strategically-placed slits of floor-to-ceiling glass. The existing post office loading dock works as perfectly now for accommodating art handling as it once did for mail freight. Part of the architect’s design intent was to

reveal the history of the building, and this is done throughout, successfully I think, by exposing coarse masonry walls, steel mezzanine framing (originally primed with Cowboy orange paint, no less), and timeworn plaster. A particularly clever touch was to maintain the original post office security mezzanine (an overhead tunnel once used by managers to inspect for mail theft and other fraud). Although not accessible to the public, the mezzanine’s mysterious window viewports animate the walls while thoughtful lighting showcases the steel roof structure above. As wonderful as the renovation looks like it’s going to be, I have no reason to believe that it will overshadow the collection it is designed to showcase. “The collection itself is characterized by striking breadth, ranging from ancient Greece to the present day, and spanning five continents,” said Siddons. “Visitors are going to be surprised.” Main areas of strength include ancient Greek and Roman coins; 19th- and 20th-century works on paper; 19th- and 20thcentury African art; American regional painting and sculpture, including Oklahoma Modernism; and contemporary Native American art.

(left) Ella Jack (American, 1890-1972), Untitled (Landscape), 1950, Watercolor, 21.5” x 29.75” (center) Dale McKinney (American, 1911-1994), Untitled (Kinetic Sculpture), Spring, balls, wood, metal, electric motor, 47.5” x 10.25” x 8.5”. (right) J. Jay McVicker (American, 1991-2004), The City, 1952, Oil on composite board, 48” x 27.5”

Sharing a Journey will showcase over 200 works culled from every aspect of the collection. In particular, it will provide a unique opportunity to see work by former Oklahoma State University professors Dale McKinney, J.J. McVicker, Rena Penn Brittan and others who originated Oklahoma Modernism in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the exhibition catalogue, it was thanks to the state university system that art faculty from around the country came to Oklahoma in the first place, combining national trends with their own innovations. Works on display will include two of McKinney’s kinetic sculptures as well J. Jay McVicker’s abstract The City, from 1952, and a colorful landscape watercolor by Ella Jack from 1950. According to the catalogue, the Museum believes that Native art and experience are central to the history of modernism in Oklahoma. This conviction manifests in one of the collection’s newest additions: the colorful, frenetic mural Connecting Roads from Past to Present by Cherokee, Creek, and

Osage artist Yatika Starr Fields that was commissioned by the Museum specifically for the new space. The aptly titled Connecting Roads is intended to complement the 1963 History of Payne County mural by Grace L. Hamilton that has been preserved high on the wall of the building’s original lobby. Hamilton’s mural is a representational depiction of the Stillwater region’s early days, using images of buffalo, the Land Run, the agrarian economy, and historic structures. In Connecting Roads, Fields uses the colors of Hamilton’s mural in his signature graffiti aesthetic to portray Stillwater today; he energetically blends literal references of a feather headdress with more abstract animals and landscape shapes. Both pieces are hung on opposite sides of the same wall so you cannot see them both at the same time. I cannot help but feel that this is a missed opportunity to further recognize the tension between them, but one could also argue that it’s more meaningful to be greeted by History before being confronted by the Present. Now that the collection has its own

identifiable home, future challenges will include connecting to the main campus (the Gallery is a few blocks south of Highway 51, which to some people may seem close and to others like a whole different zip code); meshing with the surrounding burgeoning arts district; and relating to the Stillwater community as a whole. Siddons and Victoria Rowe Berry, Museum Director, seem confident, excited, and committed – and, admittedly, just a bit nervous – about the future. With its wonderful new facility, impressive collection, and dedicated leadership, I fully expect the Postal Plaza Gallery to be a success from day one. The gallery is located in downtown Stillwater at 720 S. Husband Street. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday – Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. The Gallery is open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is free. n Lisa M. Chronister is an architect and principal at LWPB Architecture in Oklahoma City.

p re v i e w

Contemporary Craftsmen by Karen Paul

Caryn Brown, Tulsa, Oil Spill, Iridescent and standard palate Mexican Smalti, 13” x 36”

Traditional high-craft techniques are updated and infused with contemporary subjects during the 2013 VisionMakers exhibition, hosted by 108 Contemporary (formerly the Brady Craft Alliance) from September 6 – October 27, 2013 in Tulsa. Juried by Lauren Ross, the former New York High Line curator and the current curator of modern and contemporary art at the Philbrook Museum, this cutting-edge exhibition showcases the work of Oklahoma’s best artists in two-dimensional and threedimensional high craft as they pioneer new paths in the movement. Featured artists include two former painters who have translated their fine art skills into innovative high-craft pieces. Julia Swearingen - Fiber Artist, Tulsa For embroidery artist Julia Swearingen the creative process is a core part of her artistic experience. “My process is about finding an image that strikes me, one that could be interesting to play around with,” she said. “Once I have that image, I make a stencil. After the outline goes down on my fabric, the process is really intuitive. It’s improvisation.”

p re v i e w

Swearingen originally studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, but found that painting wasn’t the best fit for her creatively.

This technique, when combined with her contemporary subject matter, creates a finished piece that is both vibrant and playful.

“I picked up embroidery during the winters at school,” she said. “I bought a book of stitches and learned how to do it. Over time, I found that I was much more interested in embroidery than painting.”

“My piece in VisionMakers is inspired by a two-headed calf skull I saw at the Museum of Osteology in Moore,” she said. “The skull was really interesting, striking and discomforting. I thought it would be interesting to explore it.”

Swearingen creatively connected to embroidery in a way that she never did with painting. This connection permanently changed the direction of her work from fine art to high craft.

Caryn Brown - Mosaic Artist, Tulsa Tulsa artist Caryn Brown also started out as a painter, but found another medium to be a better creative fit for her changing lifestyle.

“Embroidery is so much more hands on,” she said. “It just seemed more personal. I still draw a little, but embroidery is now the thing that I do more of. It’s also more exploratory. Instead of having techniques laid out for it, I can teach myself how to do it.” As part of her self-teaching process, Swearingen has developed a unique stitching technique that integrates her painting knowledge. Her current work uses thread like brushstrokes instead of traditional stitches, allowing her to build up surface strokes and create new surfaces on cloth.

“I wanted to originally be a painter, but it’s very time consuming,” she said. “Somewhere in my 20s, I saw mosaics. It’s a process that can be very painterly, but I can do it in short segments, which really spoke to my current lifestyle with children.” Like Swearingen, Brown feels that her background in painting translated well to her current, more contemporary work. “When people think of mosaics, they often think it’s limited to a mosaic ball in their garden,” she said. “It’s so much more than that. There are people making fine art works

out of it.” Brown’s current work is an exploration of finding beauty in unexpected places.

Julia Swearingen, Tulsa, Two Headed Calf Skull, Cotton floss on linen, 10” x 10”

“My piece in VisionMakers is called Oil Spill,” she said. “I’ve been struck by images of natural disasters and how beautiful really tragic images can be. For this piece, I was inspired by images from the Gulf oil spill.” Brown’s piece juxtaposes beautiful colors and a serious subject matter. Her large-scale iridescent oil-coated waves fill the visual space they occupy. She feels this piece represents the direction of her current work in which she is more personally expressive. Both Swearingen and Brown credit the VisionMakers show for advancing the community’s exposure to the high-craft movement. Brown sees VisionMakers as a tremendous asset to the mosaic community, which is growing throughout the country. She would like to eventually have her own mosaics-only show in Oklahoma. The awareness created through exhibitions like VisionMakers is helping to create an audience for such a show. “I’m so excited to have work in the show. 108 contemporary is a great part of the Brady Arts community,” Brown said. “They are so forward thinking.” Swearingen agrees with Brown’s feelings about the importance of the VisionMakers exhibition. “It’s always interesting to get work into a show to get recognition,” she said. “However, this show is meant for fine crafts. I’m definitely interested in seeing what the other artists who have been selected for the show are working on and what they are doing,” she said. To find out more about VisionMakers, visit 108 Contemporary’s web site at 108contemporary.org. n Karen Paul is a freelance writer based in Norman, OK. Paul specializes in arts-based articles. You can contact her at karenpaulok@gmail.com.

p re v i e w

Philbrook Downtown

ON THE

by Kelsey Karper

For 75 years, the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa has presented dynamic exhibitions and programming from the iconic Italian villa-inspired campus. In June 2013, Philbrook opened a new satellite space in downtown Tulsa, just three miles away, with a focus on modern, contemporary and Native American art. The museum seeks new opportunities and new audiences by launching Philbrook Downtown, located in the heart of the burgeoning Brady Arts District. Two transformational gifts spurred this venture. In 2007, Philbrook secured the Eugene B. Adkins collection of Native American and Southwestern art, which it shares with the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. This gift included approximately 1,800 objects and solidified the museum’s collection as one of the most comprehensive surveys of 20th century Native American art anywhere. To accommodate this expansion, Tulsabased philanthropist George Kaiser offered the renovated 30,000 square foot downtown warehouse space. The museum was designed by New York-based firm Gluckman Mayner Architects. In opening remarks, Director Rand Suffolk noted that the museum’s efforts to diversify its audience are working, with 40% of the museum’s audience in the last three years made up of minorities. The new acquisitions, identified as such on wall labels, reflect a desire to grow in response to their audience, showing a new focus on collecting works by women and artists of color. Philbrook curators drew primarily from Philbrook’s permanent collection for the opening exhibitions, which showcase

f e a t u re

recent acquisitions along with works that had not been exhibited previously due to space restrictions at the main Philbrook villa. Also on display at Philbrook Downtown, the curators offer fresh perspectives in the presentation and interpretation of the collection. The Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig Gallery on the first floor of the museum now permanently houses the Philbrook’s modern and contemporary collection. The first floor also includes space for rotating special exhibitions, such as Sirens of the Southwest, an exhibition of work by Georgia O’Keefe which remains on display through November 10. Curator Lauren Ross’s inaugural Meinig Gallery exhibition, Opening Abstraction, features abstract works from the 20th and 21st century arranged in three themes: The Organic, The Psyche, and The Built Environment. Ross combined permanent collection with borrowed artworks to capture artwork since 1945, including acclaimed artists such as Willem de Kooning, Richard Serra, and Robert Rauschenberg, along with relatively new names like Rachel Whiteread and Sabrina Gschwandtner. The second floor of Philbrook Downtown consists of three spaces, including the Jack and Ann Graves Gallery for Native American art, the Adkins Study Center, and collections storage. The opening exhibition, Identity & Inspiration: 20th Century Native American Art curated by Christina E. Burke, offers a refreshing presentation of the collection. Rather than organizing the works in the standard chronological or geographical orders, Burke opted to present them in four themes: Preservation, Adaptation, Innovation, and Integration. This arrangement

highlights the motivations behind the work and draws connections among themes which have endured across generations. While traditional materials and techniques are well-represented with objects like a Northwest Coast Chilkat blanket and a highly detailed woven Pomo treasure basket, the exhibition also includes plenty of non-traditional approaches, such as the Pop Art-influenced beaded bracelets by Marcus Amerman (Choctaw) depicting images of the Lone Ranger and Tonto. Upcoming exhibitions at Philbrook Downtown include In a Glorious Light: Masterworks from the Taos Society of Artists September 6, 2013-March 16, 2014. For more information, visit www.philbrook.org. n Kelsey Karper is associate director of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition and editor of Art Focus Oklahoma.

Collaborative Coworking at Tulsa’s Creative Room by Mary Kathryn Moeller

Located along 6th Street in Tulsa’s burgeoning Pearl District, the Creative Room is a collective workspace designed to offer its members a flexible and innovative work environment. Based on the idea of coworking, owner and manager Amanda Chea says her goal has been to foster a community of creative individuals and freelancers working in a variety of fields. “You don’t have to be an artist to work here,” Chea said, “It’s more of a creative mindset...a different way to approach things.” The term “coworking” took off in the early 2000s when Brad Neuberg opened the Hat Factory and helped to found Citizen Space, both in San Francisco. Since then the movement has grown rapidly across the nation and around the world. A registered nurse as well as an artist, Chea found that the coworking concept seemed the perfect fit for what she was after: a shared collaborative space that lent itself to creative endeavors. She began researching coworking spaces, looking particularly at one in Austin, TX, while also aiming to understand more about creativity. “I became fascinated with the idea of creativity in general,” Chea said. Believing that everyone is creative in their own way, Chea enlisted her friends and family to turn their talents on an old office space on 6th Street. “We’ve done a lot of re-purposing…it’s all very D.I.Y.,” Chea commented with pride. From the pallet-wood walls she installed herself, to the staircase and lounge area built by her dad, the Creative Room is a tangible expression of the power of the local community. There is more work Chea would like to do in the space but she knows she can count on a legion of helpers to make it happen. “It’s very grassroots. I couldn’t believe people would be on board with this weird and wacky idea I had. You put yourself out there and people support it and are excited about it.” Besides managing the space, Chea sees her role as primarily bringing together eclectic groups of people for creative endeavors. “Being around other creative individuals makes you inherently more creative,” she said, adding, “It’s all about community for me.” Chea is thrilled to be a part of the renewed community of the Pearl District and

has big dreams for expanding the scope of the Creative Room. She plans to host a fashion show in the near future and is contemplating a film night. A number of groups host classes and discussions in the open meeting room space which also serves as an art gallery. Since March, they have been averaging one show a month. The artists are usually local and may have never exhibited their work before. A native Tulsan, Chea is thrilled to use the gallery space as another opportunity to build the community. “I want to be present for this neighborhood [and] am having more fun bringing people together and encouraging them to keep doing what they are doing or take new risks.” With approximately 2,500 square feet, the Creative Room provides large desks, Wi-Fi, a shared open meeting space, and amenities such as a lounge, coffee bar, and kitchenette. The space is designed for any freelancer, contractor, or hobbyist who wishes to escape the sense of isolation that can come from working at home or spending too many hours at the local coffee shop. Chea offers a wide range of rates so that members can come for a single day, work part time, or move their belongings in and have a permanent office. Each coworker is given their own key code to have the freedom to use the space any time they wish. Chea hopes that more and more people will be drawn to the space and offer new ideas for how the Creative Room can best serve the creative spirit of the community. “I don’t think anybody has a bad idea. If it works in this space, we can make it happen.” The Creative Room is located at 1317 E. 6th Street, Tulsa, OK and can be reached at (918) 779-6875 or via e-mail at info@ creativeroomtulsa.com. More information can be found at creativeroomtulsa.com and on Facebook. n Mary Kathryn Moeller is currently pursuing her Master’s in art history at Oklahoma State University where she works as a Graduate Research Assistant for the OSU Museum of Art. She is available via e-mail at mkmoeller77@gmail.com.

The Creative Room is located at 1317 E. 6th Street, Tulsa, OK

f e a t u re

Road to Ruscha by Sherwin Rivera Tibayan

(left) A group of students and faculty from the University of Oklahoma stop for a group picture near a “D.I.Y.” signpost, Mojave Desert, CA. Photo by Sherwin Rivera Tibayan. (right) Sherwin Rivera Tibayan, Fresh Jerky, 36 Miles (near Rice, CA), Photography

For ten days in the middle of spring, three white vans full of students and teachers from the departments of Geography, Architecture and Art & Art History at the University of Oklahoma (OU) travelled from Oklahoma to California and back documenting their efforts to collaboratively retrace and reframe sites first made famous in a book of photographs from the 1960s by artist Ed Ruscha. The book, Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962), a work largely conceptualized before the first photo was taken, presents a straightforward series of black and white images (with accompanying captions providing names and locations) of the fill-up stations that Ruscha came across during road trips from his family’s home in Oklahoma City to Los Angeles. In the years following its publication, the book’s unadorned photographic style and use of comic understatement has established a deep influence on contemporary artistic practices and ways of looking.

f e a t u re

In 2012, fundraising efforts by the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art to acquire Ruscha’s painting, No Man’s Land (1990), coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the book’s publication. Todd Stewart, Associate Professor of Photography and Digital Imaging, saw an interdisciplinary educational and artistic opportunity to recast the influence and example of Ruscha’s original book through the multiple lenses of contemporary media. With institutional support from OU, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the Kirkpatrick Foundation, and the committed participation of faculty, staff, students—and Ed Ruscha himself—the Road to Ruscha trip was set to begin in May 2013. As a 2012 OU MFA graduate, I had stayed in touch with Stewart, my former professor, and was excited when he contacted me about participating in the project. It was an interesting position to be in, neither student nor teacher. Everyone involved seemed to have projects and ideas they wanted to work on or were asked to engage

with: site photography, audio recording, video interviews with locals, writing and speculating on the geography and changing shapes of places. In the absence of my own personal project, I began to pay attention to their projects, the processes they undertook and the larger work that each was helping to create, sometimes using my camera to cast them and their work against the landscapes of the American West, and other times just watching, giving myself enough space to commit some observations to memory. For the first few days of the trip, however, all that I seemed to observe was the heat from an unbroken sun. We usually worked in the cloudless afternoon sky. It felt the same at the beginning of a long washboard roadway near Amarillo, TX as it did at the end of a fence line protecting an old military training ground in the Mojave Desert of California. I can remember that at each stop the brightness limited where I could look—a few degrees here, a few degrees there, mostly straight ahead. But with my camera I could see the

(left) Students approaching a former Texaco gas station in Vega, TX. Photo by Sherwin Rivera Tibayan. (right) Road to Ruscha participant Courtney Struttman with found skateboard in Lupton, AZ. Photo by Sherwin Rivera Tibayan.

way that we would leave the vans when we arrived at a new site: always dispersing quickly, leaving in small groups or alone, and always radially out and away.

the iPads, the note taking and the questions. I watched how these conversations always finished with our new friends asking where they could see our results.

I watched them walking away from the vans towards abandoned lots, crouching over dry dirt and grass looking for evidence of an old gas pump, displaying artifacts that they found (left-behind clothes, destroyed suitcases, a handwritten box of restaurant receipts, empty bottles of wine, a skateboard). I watched them engage with locals, listening to their stories, discovering what they knew about that old gasoline station, and who owned it when and for how long, and how the interstate changed things for the town. And I watched them meet fellow travelers curious about those three white vans full of young people walking in every direction with iPads and cameras, taking pictures, taking notes, and could we tell them what we were up to? I saw the animation on those travelers’ faces—in our faces, too—when we explained the purpose of the vans and the cameras and

We would tell them to visit our website. This was the place where we posted our images, videos and sound recordings, where we had an opportunity to share our thoughts about the places we visited, the objects we found and the people we met to an audience larger than can be carried by three passenger vans. Here was where they could discover an interactive map that showcased every town we stopped at and their relationship to Ruscha’s original gas station locations. Here was where we could describe finally meeting Ed Ruscha at his studio in California, how he spoke about those original road trips and was curious about our own. Here was also the place where students who were affected by the Moore tornado were able to write candidly about the disconnect between experiencing a sunny day in Los Angeles and learning about the devastation back home.

I’d like to imagine that when they did visit our site—and seeing the range of topics we undertook and the way we tried to balance gravity with levity—that they would come away with the sense of an experiment situated in its intended form. As in Ruscha’s own process, the road was the place where material was collected for the final work. In contrast to the predetermined conceptual structure of his book, the Road to Ruscha site serves as an ongoing collaboration with each of us continuing to make sense of the information and experiences we accumulated. With the website format serving as a network of linked images, sounds, videos and text, what we’ve created, I think, is a spirited attempt to generate a contemporary sense of technology and its relationship to human movement. Visit www.roadtoruscha.com/2013 for more about the project. n Sherwin Rivera Tibayan completed an MFA in Media at the University of Oklahoma in 2012. He currently lives in Austin, TX.

f e a t u re

Turning Wood into Art by Britt Greenwood

A bowl by Rozetta Howard, turned from spalted magnolia wood, was included in the Empty Bowls 2012 fundraiser for the Community Food Bank.

For over 3,000 years man has turned trees into functional and beautiful works of art. Although the lathe, a wood turner’s main tool, evolved dramatically from the ancient tools of the Egyptians, the same concept remains. In Tulsa, a group of wood turners developed an organization and facility to protect the art of wood turning and grow interest locally in the historical art form. For 20 years, the Northeastern Oklahoma Wood Turners Association (NEOWTA) has gathered turners together, connecting through their passion for the art. A highlight in the organization’s history is the establishment of a permanent building. Three years ago, through the tenacity of group members, NEOWTA opened the doors to its own facility at 10117 E. 5th St in Tulsa, OK. For the previous 17 years, the group met in various locations across Tulsa with an established location being the ultimate goal. President of NEOWTA John Scott shared how the group obtained the building, “Something wonderful happened. We had a member willing to donate a 4,500 square foot building to us if we could raise the $25,000 it would take to remodel a portion of it to allow

f e a t u re

us to have enough room for our members to sit down and watch our demonstrations.” Scott further explained it only took the group several months to acquire funding for the partial remodel and has actually gone on to remodel the building in its entirety. NEOWTA Secretary Bruce Holden looks to the facilities future, hoping the building will soon be “the regional go-to facility for lessons and seminars” as well as displaying a “gallery and sales shop.” Membership currently ranges from 100-120 people and includes males and females of all ages — although many are closing in on retirement. Holden enjoys “the diversity — they are just a wonderful group of people.” Membership can start as young as 10-yearsold. Any participant, despite age, starts by taking safety classes in order to have access to the equipment and tools. Throughout the year, the organization hosts events and demonstrations. In the facility’s 100 seat auditorium, nationally recognized turners are brought in to showcase their skills with classes to follow. Clarifying the need and effectiveness of the master turners,

Scott said, “This level of exposure can help all levels of turners to improve quickly. In my case, I think that the first class I attended improved my turning ability at least as much as one year’s practice.” The group also meets once a month for member demonstrations, business meetings, discounted tool sales and raffle giveaways. In addition to learning to turn wood, members can learn “wood burning, carving, dying of wood and any number of other things that can be done to wood,” explained Scott. He also mentioned the group receives a large portion of wood from the Tulsa Green Wood Dump and tree trimming companies. “In other words, a lot of our work comes from wood that would otherwise be firewood or wood chips. “ Beyond the practice of wood turning, four year member and Treasurer Chuck Pearson enjoys the group’s fellowship. “It’s just a great group of people. They are helpful and work together.” Being helpful, NEOWTA takes part in local outreaches. Members raise funds through the Empty Bowls fundraiser benefiting the Community Food Bank by

turning wooden bowls and auctioning them off. In 2012, the group auctioned off over 500 bowls. Scott mentioned, “One of our club’s major goals is to reach out to younger generations and teach them so we can keep this great hobby going forever.” To accomplish this notion, NEOWTA invites Boy Scout troops to learn wood turning and earn a merit badge. Recently, the organization gained local recognition among the art community. In August, the Brady Arts District’s new gallery 108 Contemporary displayed an exhibit of turned wood, all from NEOWTA members including several of Holden’s and Pearson’s works. “Several of the country’s finest wood turners belong to NEOWTA. They have work in the Smithsonian and in the White House permanent collection,” said Emily Kern, director of 108 Contemporary. “They are a great group and we were happy to introduce them and their work to a new audience.” Membership with NEOWTA is $40 per year. To find out more about the organization, visit www.sites.google.com/ site/neoklahomawoodturners. n Britt Greenwood is a freelance writer, founder of Tulsa Art Spot, www.tulsaartspot.com and Arts Advocacy Captain for Oklahomans for the Arts

(top) Chuck Pearson’s beaded and colored maple piece was included in the Empty Bowls 2012 fundraiser for the Community Food Bank. (bottom) Bruce Holden gives a wood turning demonstration to the Northeastern Oklahoma Wood Turners Association

f e a t u re

AT A GLANCE:

Cheyenne Butcher at Tulsa Artists’ Coalition Gallery

by Janice McCormick

Simultaneous revelation and concealment set the tone for Self-Portraits: Photographs by Cheyenne Butcher, September 6th through September 28 at Tulsa Artists’ Coalition gallery. Through fifteen untitled, soft-focus, warm (peachy) color photographs, Cheyenne Butcher plays hide and seek with her own camera, trying to catch herself off-guard. In the first image, the artist hides behind a shower curtain, all that is exposed is her hand holding on to one of the two curtain panels. Will she reveal her nakedness? The second photograph depicts the lower half of her body: her bare feet splayed out, legs knock-kneed and her hand tugging at the towel in order to cover up her sexuality as much as possible. This awkward pose, with strong diagonals, confirms her inner struggle.

Cheyenne Butcher, Tulsa, Untitled, Photography

The third photograph depicts her head and bare shoulders seen through a nearly transparent shower curtain and the mist of a shower. Its extreme soft focus, luscious flesh color, curving lines and

demure downcast eyes combine to create a highly sensual self-portrait. Not until the eighth image do you see her sexuality exposed. Yet, even here, this reclining nude shields her bare breasts from view. In fact, you never do see both her face and her full torso together which creates a certain psychic distance. This exhibit is as much about what is not seen as it is about what is seen. Butcher’s exhibit is an ambivalent exploration that reflects both her reluctance towards and fascination with her newfound sexuality. For more information, visit www.cheyennebutcher.com or www.tacgallery.org. 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.

Thank you to our new and renewing members from May and June 2013 Ginette Adamson Ron Allen Sharon and Jeff Allred Eileen Anderson Teresa Andrus Narciso Argüelles Stuart Asprey Alyson Atchison Sarah Atlee and Michael Beam Kerry Azzarello Rex and Delanie Barrett Nick Bayer Debbie Bedolla Pamela Bell Kerry Billington Valerie Blackburn Bill Boettcher Bryan Boone Patricia Brant Irma Braun-Hampton Patti R. Bray & Bill Birchall Jeanette Brown Zach Burns Amena Butler Pattie Calfy Jean Artman Campbell

f e a t u re

Eleanor Davy Carmack Claudia Carroll Sharon Caudle Mona Chamhidray Douglas Clark Chad J Clark Josh T. Cleveland Candace Coker Scott Cowan Angela Cozby Ryan Cunningham Kathleen Curran Debbie Curtis Rhonda Davis Adrienne Day Josh DeLozier Elise Deringer and Mohammad Reza Javaheri Cathy Deuschle Linda Dixon Ronnie Dollar Chelsea Dudek Nick Dwyer Jan Eckardt Butler Konrad Eek Douglas Shaw Elder Gina Ellis

Don Emrick Ann Eslick Ellen Etzler Lauren K. Florence B. Alan Frakes Melanie Fry Joeallen Gibson Shan Goshorn Ginny Graham Timothy Grischkowsky Stephanie Grubbs Patricia Harriman Pat Harris Brian and Sarah Hearn Carla Hefley Laura Anne Heller Michelle Himes-Mc Crory Dan Hites Gabrielle Howell Kendall and Christine Howerton Joseph A. Hudson Elizebeth Huff Claudia Hunter Theresa Hurt Didier Jegaden Todd Jenkins

Kate R. Johnson Kimberly Jones Judy Kelley Joseph K. Kirk Andrea Kissinger David Knox Carol Koss Stephen Kovash Emily Kzany Adam Lanman Michele Lasker Jimmy Leach Haley Luna Vicki Maenza Greg Main Jonathan Manning Jason and Leigh Martin Traci Martin Bobby C. Martin Cindy Mason Michael McRuiz Michelle Metcalfe Stacey D. Miller Madison Miller Jacque Mitchener Michelle Moeller Phillip Moffat Michelle Moore

Dedra Morgan Caryl Morgan Tony Morton, Paseo Originals Art Gallery Glenda Cook Mullins James Myers Zach Nash Ann L Neal Judy Neale Kim Pagonis Ronald Painter Beth Parker Sarah Iselin and Frank Parman Jacklyn Patterson Gus Pekara Ben Pendleton Scott Perkins Nancy Peterson Emily Petree Ted Petty Tony and Celia Powles Zachary Presley Rush Prigmore Chris Ramsay Suzanne King Randall Laura Reese and

Jonathan Curtin Michelle Firment Reid Laura Rice Brent Richardson Keith Rinearson Elliott Robbins Amy Rockett-Todd Cathy J. Rowten Stephanie Ruggles Winter Erin Schalk Sherry Schoenfeldt Nancy and Phil Sears John and Mary Seward Carol Shanahan Tony and Clarissa Sharp Carl and Beth Shortt Silver Rick Sinnett Mark Sisson Julie Skidmore Joe and Angela Slack Gail Sloop Geoffrey L. Smith Douglas Sorocco, Dunlap Codding Clint Stone Cassie Stover

William R. and Nancy Struby Shannon “BC” Summers Shirley Sutterfield Lucy and Jordan Swanson Ashley Sword-Buster James and Linda Taylor Cathryn Wallace Thomas Tony A. Tiger Paul Timshel Tom R. and Carol Toperzer Alex True Corazon S. Watkins Carla Waugh Emily Williams Michael J. Wilson and Bonnie Amspacher Jason Wilson Nathan Winfrey John Wolfe Jordan Wong Eric Wright May Yang Loretta Yin

OVAC NEWS

september | october 2013 Oklahoma Arts Conference October 23 & 24 - Ardmore Gathering arts leaders and artists from around the state, the Oklahoma Arts Council’s conference takes place October 23 & 24, 2013 in Ardmore. Several guest speakers especially pertain to visual artists and supporters, offering inspiration and practical examples of arts activities.

Gayle Curry, Oklahoma City, Emotional Prism, Encaustic on birch, 60” x 24”. Curry recently received an OVAC Professional Basics Grant to attend an advanced encaustics workshop.

The inaugural Artist INC Live program in Oklahoma City kicks off in October. Artist INC Live is a cutting edge training program that addresses the specific business needs and challenges of artists of all disciplines. Limited to 25 competitively-selected participants, artists gather once a week for eight weeks to learn business skills specific to their art practice and apply those skills cooperatively with their peers. Artist INC was established in Kansas City, MO, in 2009 and has been completed by more than 250 Kansas City-area artists. OVAC hosts the program in partnership with the Norman Arts Council, Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center, Oklahoma Film & Music Office, and the City of Oklahoma City Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) is bringing the program to Oklahoma with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts and local funders Sonic America’s Drive In, the Ad Adstra Foundation and the Cultural Development Corporation of Central Oklahoma. Watch for more updates this fall. We were pleased to have Jessika Davis, Lauren Gardner and Cierra Linander as OVAC’s 2013 Summer Interns. Jessika Davis completed 150 internship hours at OVAC, receiving course credit at the University of Central Oklahoma where she recently graduated with a degree in Fashion Marketing and minors in Business Administration and Art. Lauren Gardner received a degree in Art History and a minor in History from Oklahoma State University in May. In addition to her work in the arts, Lauren is very active in campus ministry.

Cierra Linander recently moved to OKC and remained on as intern assisting with writing projects and office needs. We appreciated everyone’s enthusiasm and dedication. Many thanks to all the OVAC interns and volunteers! OVAC invested $5,285 in artist project grants with the last round of proposals. Creative Projects grants were awarded to Brent Richardson, Norman, for his Thoughts on Technology artwork at Science Museum Oklahoma; Romy Owens, Oklahoma City, for an Amarillo Museum of Art Exhibition; and Holly Wilson, Mustang, for her booth and a group exhibition at SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market. Professional Basics grants will help Elise Deringer, Norman, Nicholas Bayer, Piedmont, and Marilyn Artus, Oklahoma City, frame artwork for upcoming exhibitions. Artist Education Grants were awarded to Cathryn Thomas, Tulsa, for a workshop at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass, CO and Gayle Curry, Oklahoma City, for her advanced teaching workshop in encaustics. OVAC released new application forms for the grant proposals, available at www.ovac-ok.org. Art People Congratulations to Ghislain d’Humieres, director and chief curator of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, who has been appointed director of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. n

Presenter Risë Wilson is the Founder and Board Chair of The Laundromat Project, an organization that mounts topical and timely art programs in New York City’s neighborhood laundromats as a way of strengthening the quality of life of communities of color and communities living on low incomes. Presenter and Artist INC director Diane Scott designs and manages innovative professional development programs for fine artists. Scott is also the Director of Professional Development and Adjunct Assistant Professor for the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, teaching fine arts students the entrepreneurial skills they’ll need to create sustainable fine arts careers. OVAC will play a role, co-hosting a reception at the Goddard Arts Center in conjunction with the 24 Works on Paper exhibition on the evening of October 23. The reception will be free to attend, so Ardmore-area artists and patrons are welcome. Also, Director Julia Kirt & Associate Director Kelsey Karper will present about outcomes-based program evaluation along with OVAC consultant Denise Caudill. The conference includes many other topics, such as culture in community building, nonprofit leadership, teaching as an artist and more. See the Oklahoma Arts Council’s website for more information. www.arts.ok.gov

ovac news

Ask a Creativity Coach: Got Talent? Motivation Matters More by Romney Nesbitt

Ask a Creativity Coach:

Are You Living Your Calling?

by Romney Nesbitt

Dear Romney, I’m a model citizen of the planet. I recycle and buy my vegetables and fruits from farmer’s markets. Is there a way to incorporate my career as an artist into my bigpicture view of life?

— Living in the Now

Dear Now, I commend you for your commitment to living your values. By going green and eating local you’re joining with others to make the world a better place. You can choose to feel this way about your vocation as an artist, too. A vocation is defined as a strong impulse or inclination to follow a particular career, but a vocation is more than a career or a job—it’s a calling. An article by Susan Whitbourne in the August 2013 issue of Psychology Today titled “8 Key Behavioral Catchphrases” refers to the idea of vocational callings. She states, “When you think of your job as a calling, you’ll be more satisfied with it…and motivated. The key to this kind of job satisfaction is not only that you feel you have a calling, but that you are able to live out that

Where Art & History Come Alive. The First Friday Gallery Walk takes place on the first Friday of every month, rain or shine, from 6-10pm. Paseo galleries host lively opening receptions featuring new artwork, live music, and refreshments. The Gallery Walk is free to attend and open to the public. Join us for an unforgettable art experience. The Paseo is home to 20 galleries and working studios, all within walking distance, and occupied by more than 75 artists. Intermingled with the galleries are a variety of unique gift and clothing shops, an event center and restaurants. For more information, call 405.525.2688 or visit thepaseo.com.

business of art

calling. Once you have the congruence of your desire and your experiences, you’ll feel more in control of your career’s direction, which, in turn, can further help you feel connected to a larger purpose in life.” Here are a few ways to live out your calling: • Teach a workshop for free at your local library or make a presentation at a school. • Create a piece of work that could be displayed in a public space. Imagine the fun of seeing small paintings hanging from a tree in a park. Knitters in Eureka Springs, Arkansas are beautifying city streets by knitting “sweaters” for trees! • Donate a piece of art to a charity auction. • Enlist other artists to join with you for a special project. • Claim the benefits of being a “called” artist: motivation, purpose and joy in serving others. n

Romney Nesbitt is a Creativity Coach and author of Secrets From A Creativity Coach (available on amazon.com). She welcomes your comments and questions at romneynesbitt@gmail.com. Book her to speak to your group through OVAC’s ARTiculate Speakers Bureau.

Gallery Listings & Exhibition Schedule

Ada

Edmond

Romy Owens September 3 – October 16 Marshall Gettys Collection of Native American Objects October 24 – November 26 The Pogue Gallery Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center 900 Centennial Plaza (580) 559-5353 ecok.edu

Inclusion in Art September Functional Art October Fine Arts Institute of Edmond 27 E Edwards St (405) 340-4481 edmondfinearts.com

Alva

24 Works on Paper Through September 27 New Harmonies: Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition September 28 – November 9 Redlands Community College (405) 262-2552 redlandscc.edu

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Exhibit & Sale September Forge Fest and Sculptural Arts Exhibit October Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios 523 Barnes St. (580) 327-ARTS gracefulartscenter.org

Ardmore

Sharon Montgomery & Janet O’Neal Through September 7 Don Holladay, Jimmie Dodson, & Stacey D. Miller 24 Works on Paper October 1-26 The Goddard Center 401 First Avenue SW (580) 226-0909 goddardcenter.org

Bartlesville Frank Lloyd Wright’s Samara: A Mid-Century Dream Home Through September 8 Price Tower Arts Center 510 Dewey Ave. (918) 336-4949 pricetower.org

Broken Bow Masters at Work Competition & Exhibit September 13-October 20 Forest Heritage Center Beaver’s Bend Resort (580) 494-6497 beaversbend.com

El Reno

Guymon The Normal Wild West Show: Semi Serious Art by Norman OK Artists October 12-November 16 Opening October 12 Wild Horse Gallery and Art Center 421 N Main St (580) 338-4278 artistincubation.com

Lawton Gayle Curry Opening September 8, 7-9 pm The Leslie Powell Foundation and Gallery 620 D Avenue (580) 357-9526 lpgallery.org

Norman CLAY: 2013 Juried Exhibition September 13 – October 19 Firehouse Art Center 444 South Flood (405) 329-4523 normanfirehouse.com Hopituy: Hopi Art from the Permanent Collections Through September 15 Dark Light: the Micaceous

Ceramics of Christine Nofchissey McHorse September 14-January 12 Libertad de Expresión: the Art of the Americas and Cold War Politics October 5-January 5 Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art 555 Elm Ave. (405) 325-4938 ou.edu/fjjma The Zhang Sisters September 11 – October 8 Opening September 12, 6-8 pm The MFA Show October 14 – November 1 Opening October 18, 6-8 pm Lightwell Gallery, University of Oklahoma 520 Parrington Oval (405) 325-2691 art.ou.edu Skip Hill: Babel Through September 14 Donald Longcrier Norman Featured Artist Barbara Ryan October 11 – November 9 Mainsite Contemporary Art Gallery 122 East Main (405) 360-1162 normanarts.org

Oklahoma City Bjorn Bauer Opening September 6, 6-10 pm Bryan Boone Opening October 4, 6-10 pm aka gallery 3001 Paseo (405) 606-2522 akagallery.net Unbound: 3D Printmaking Through September 7 New Art in the Middle East October 18-January 10 [ArtSpace] at Untitled 1 NE 3rd St. (405) 815-9995 artspaceatuntitled.org Lynden Wilcoxson & Steve Webber

September 6-29 Doris Bewley & Karam Cheong October 4-27 Contemporary Art Gallery 2828 Paseo (405) 601-7474 contemporaryartgalleryokc.com

Years of Italian Painting from Glasgow Museums Through November 17 Oklahoma City Museum of Art 415 Couch Drive (405) 236-3100 okcmoa.com

Brooke Rowlands, Lindsay Harkness, & Angela Westerman September 13-30 Opening September 13, 7-11 pm Joey Alvarez & Dylan Bradway October 11-31 Opening October 11, 7-11 pm DNA Galleries 1705 B NW 16th (405) 371-2460 dnagalleries.com

Ana Maria Hernando October 15 – December 20 Opening October 15, 5:307:30 pm Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center 3000 General Pershing Blvd. (405) 951-0000 oklahomacontemporary.org

Nick Bayer Opening September 6, 6-10 pm B.J. White Opening October 4, 6-10 pm JRB Art at the Elms 2810 North Walker (405) 528-6336 jrbartgallery.com Urban Artist Exhibition Through October 27 Istvan Gallery at Urban Art 1218 N. Western Ave. (405) 831-2874 istvangallery.com Faces of Bettina Steinke Through December 22 Prix de West Collection A Fresh Take: William S. and Ann Atherton Art of the American West Through December 31 National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum 1700 NE 63rd (405) 478-2250 nationalcowboymuseum.org Wayne White: Halo Amok Through September 1 Of Heaven and Earth: 500

Bert Seabourn Through September 1 Helen Howerton Through September 8 Glenn Fillmore September 2 – November 3 Anne Spoon September 9 – November 10 Larry Layton September 16 - November 17 Oklahoma State Capitol Galleries 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd (405) 521-2931 arts.ok.gov Out of the BOX 2 Through September 15 Jennifer Cocoma Hustis: Untamed Through March 10 The Satellite Galleries at Science Museum Oklahoma 2100 NE 52nd St (405) 602-6664 sciencemuseumok.org

Park Hill Cherokee Homecoming Art Show Through September 15 Ani Tsalagi: The Cherokee People, Portraits by David Fitzgerald September 23 – March 31 Cherokee National Historical Society, Inc. 21192 S. Keeler Drive (918) 456-6007 cherokeeheritage.org

gallery guide

Piedmont Works by Theresa Hurt September 20-October 11 Opening September 20, 6-9 pm Works by Celeste Davis October 18-November 8 Opening October 18, 6-9 pm Red Dirt Gallery & Artists 13100 Colony Pointe Blvd #113 (405) 206-2438 reddirtartistsgallery.yolasite.com

October 8-January 5 Curator’s Talk November 7, 6 pm Graphic Design Senior Portfolio Exhibition October 30-November 15 Opening November 3, 2-4 pm Gardiner Gallery Oklahoma State University Museum of Art 108 Bartlett Center for the Visual Arts (405) 744-4143 museum.okstate.edu

Ponca City

Tulsa

Michelle Himes-McCrory Through October 6 Art Center Faculty Exhibit October 16-November 24 Ponca City Art Center 819 East Central (580) 765-9746 poncacityartcenter.com

VisionMakers September 6 – October 27 Opening September 6, 6-9 pm 108 Contemporary 108 E Brady (918) 237-9592 108contemporary.org

Stillwater CHINA: Lost/Found Through September 27 OSU Department of Art, Graphic Design and Art History Faculty Exhibition September 30-October 25 Opening September 30, 5-7 pm Sharing a Journey: Building the Oklahoma State University Museum of Art Collection

Yellowstone and the West: The Chromolithographs of Thomas Moran Through September 8 The New Frontier Through September 29 Folio Editions: Art in the Service of Science Through March 30 Gilcrease Museum 1400 Gilcrease Road (918) 596-2700 gilcrease.utulsa.edu

Indie Emporium October 18-19 Hardesty Arts Center 101 E Archer St (918) 584-3333 ahhatulsa.org American in Ink 2 Through September 29 Connection October 4-26 Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education 124 E Brady St (918) 631-4400 gilcrease.utulsa.edu/Explore/Zarrow Dirty Fabulous Lost, Found, Forgotten September Living Arts 307 E. Brady (918) 585-1234 livingarts.org To the Touch: Merlin Cohen and Sam Jones IV September 21 – October 21 Opening & Artist Demos September 21, 10 am-5 pm Lovetts Gallery 6528 E 51st St (918) 664-4732 lovettsgallery.com

Tulsa Artists’ Coalition Member Show September 6-28

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. PATRON - $250

-Listing of self or business on signage at events -Invitation for two people to private reception with visiting curators -$210 of this membership is tax deductible. -All of below

FELLOW - $125

-Acknowledgement in the Resource Guide and Art Focus Oklahoma -Copy of each OVAC exhibition catalog -$85 of this membership is tax deductible. -All of below

FAMILY - $60

Remainder Through September 29 Sirens of the Southwest Through November 10 Opening Abstraction Through June 29, 2014 Identity & Inspiration Through June 29, 2014 The Philbrook Museum of Art 2727 South Rockford Road (918) 749-7941 philbrook.org Self-Portraits: Photographs by Cheyenne Butcher September 6-28 Watercolors by Tommy Ball October 4-26 Tulsa Artists’ Coalition Gallery 9 East Brady (918) 592-0041 tacgallery.org Kristy Deetz: Earth Texts Through September 26 Alexandre Hogue Gallery Phillips Hall, The University of Tulsa 2930 E. 5th St. (918) 631-2739 cas.utulsa.edu

Woodward Photography Contest September 7-October 26 Plains Indians and Pioneers Museum 2009 Williams Ave (580) 256-6136 pipm1.com

MEMBER FORM ¨ Patron

¨ Fellow

¨ Family

¨ Individual

Name Street Address City, State, Zip

-Same benefits as Individual level for two people in household

INDIVIDUAL - $40

Website

Phone

Credit card #

Exp. Date

-Subscription to Art Focus Oklahoma -Monthly e-newsletter of visual art events statewide (sample) -Receive all OVAC mailings -Listing in Annual Resource Guide and Member Directory -Copy of Annual Resource Guide and Member Directory -Access to “Members Only” area on OVAC website -Invitation to Annual Meeting Plus, artists receive: -Inclusion in online Virtual Gallery -Monthly e-newsletter of opportunities for artists (sample) -Artist entry fees waived for OVAC sponsored exhibitions -Up to 50% discount on Artist Survival Kit workshops -Associate Membership in Fractured Atlas, with access to services such as insurance, online courses and other special offers.

STUDENT - $20

-Valid student ID required. Same benefits as Individual level.

¨ Student

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?

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 OVAC membership. Sept 5:

Momentum Tulsa Artist Application Deadline

730 W. Wilshire Blvd, Suite 104 Oklahoma City, OK 73116 The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition supports Oklahomaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visual arts and artists and their power to enrich communities.

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

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

Sept 20: 12x12 Art Fundraiser, OKC Sept 28: ASK Workshop Artist in Print, OKC Oct 12:

ASK Workshop Business of Art 101, Tulsa

Oct 12:

Momentum Tulsa

Oct 15:

OVAC Grants for Artists Deadline

September Nick Bayer Opening Reception: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 6 - 10 P.M.

October B.J. White Opening Reception: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4 6 - 10 P.M.

Gallery Hours: Mon - Sat 10 am - 6 pm Sun 1 pm - 5 pm

2810 North Walker Phone: 405.528.6336 www.jrbartgallery.com

JRB

ART

AT THE ELMS