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Art Studio Tour May 3-4 Reveals Local Creativity |
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Written by Jeff Radford
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Monday, 26 May 2008 |
You’ve seen their work in local galleries, store windows or display
cases… those stunning silver and stone pendants, those fresh, colorful
oil paintings, those one-of-a-kind ceramic pieces.
If you’ve admired their artistry and wondered how they accomplished
their art feats, you can visit with the artists in their studio or
galleries May 3-4 during this year’s Corrales Art Studio Tour.
Fifty-six local artists are participating in the free self-guided tour
that weekend. Among them are some of Corrales’ best known
artists, as well as several whose works will be shown locally for
the first time.
Working in media ranging from oils and acrylics, silver, clay, stone,
pastels, fiber, collage, photography, bronze, digital imagery, wood and
horse hair, the artists will generally be on-hand throughout both days
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Directions to participating studios, galleries and other businesses can
be obtained from tour staffers under a tent at the corner of Meadowlark
Lane and Corrales Road that Saturday and Sunday.
A preview exhibit with one item from each artist will be mounted
at Madeleine’s Place, formerly Serenity Day Spa, 3824 Corrales Road,
starting April 27.
Joining the tour for the first time this year is David Keene, who
produces his “sculpture and mixed media constructs” at his home on
Knott Lane.
Whimsical, even comical, in nature, Keene’s pieces include creations of
imagined creatures, such as shriveled gourd with wings and a piranha
head.
Seated in a large, comfy chair in Keene’s living room is a
nattily-dressed Kermit the frog who has interrupted his saxophone
lessons for a chat with visitors.
“Sometimes I say that I sculpt what I hallucinate,” Keene explained. “A
lot of things that I do turn out to have bodies that are animal-like.
“Most of my career before coming out to Corrales was as an electrical
engineer, chip designing. Art was always something to get away from the
stress of the tech side of my life… to do something more abstract
and creative. When I retired from the tech world, I was able to move
out here so I could do art full time.”
That has been since 2003.
Keene took a few art classes in college, to offset the highly technical course work.
He said his creative process usually starts with collecting interesting
things that may later turn into art. “Most of the time, I just collect
a bunch of objects and have them all sitting around. Eventually
one of them just suggests something to me.”
Pointing to a rotund gourd on his shelf, he said, “One day that one wanted to be a mouse.”
He produces an average of one a month. Keene has only sold a few pieces
so far. “I’m trying to get enough inventory so I can really start to
show it.”
Now that he has a large Corrales yard, rather than more cramped space
where he lived in California, Keene anticipates creating larger
sculptures. “I had less room when I was in the San Francisco area, and
now that I have all of this yard space, I’m starting to think of much
bigger works. I’m starting to work on some of the more classical
sculptural materials, like stone.”
He said he will finish a website for his artwork soon, which should
enable potential art buyers to contact him. For now, he can be reached
by phone at 897-4649.
Another of the artists on the studio tour this year, Susan Cahill, also
moved to Corrales to pursue art after a hectic career. She produces
mixed media collages and assemblages. In general terms, she thinks of
her collage work as “fine art” and the assemblages as “fine craft.”
Cahill works in a studio at her home where she will typically have several works in progress.
“I started in collage work because I fell in love with paper, all kinds
of paper… the excitement of seeing the colors and the textures come
together.
“I’m much more abstract than realist, things with symbolism. I do a lot
of pieces with Asian styles, but since I moved out here to Corrales,
I’ve started to do more with Native American and Hispanic styles. I
find new influences coming in.”
Cahill moved here from Austin, Texas, after retiring in San Jose,
California as a global marketing manager for a high-tech company.
She got into professional art by way of an interior design course after
retirement. “So there’s not a lot of formal art training, but I have a
lot of experience with textures, colors and relationships with space.”
She uses acrylics, watercolors, pastels and wax with paper and other materials in her collages.
“I work in spurts,” she explained. “I’ll go for four to six weeks when
that’s all I will do. I’ll be out in the studio creating. Then I would
probably take a little break, maybe a little trip or go visit family. I
find I do a lot more in the winter and spring time, getting ready for
the season,” referring to the art and craft fair cycle of May through
September.
Cahill works on several pieces at the same time since “a lot of pieces
have to be left alone to dry, so I’ll usually have four or five pieces
going at a time. If you try to overlay and overlay and overlay a bunch
of papers and other elements, they won’t be set, not ready.
“And then sometimes you get to a place where you just stop and say –
‘What the hell is this?’ and that’s the time to put it aside for a
while and maybe come back to it.”
Cahill usually starts with an idea of what she wants to do, firmed up
by a sketch. “As the papers and different elements meld together,
something else happens and you adjust to that. Hopefully it happens in
a good way. So the creative process continues. If you don’t like
something you’ve done, you cover it up, take it away or cut it off.
“Collage is very forgiving,” she said with a laugh. “So if you want to get started in art…!”
She produces about 40 fine art collages and perhaps 150 assemblages over a year’s time.
Most of her pieces are under 16 by 20 inches, but she’s trying larger compositions as a challenge.
She will sell at this summer’s “Art in the Park” events as well as from her website.
Rick Snow produces ceramics in his studio along Camino de la Tierra. It’s clearly the challenge that motivates him.
“Porcelain is a bear to work with. The idea is to make it look simple.
It’s the difficulty of execution that I find very attractive.
“One of the things I like about doing pottery here is that people will
actually pay to buy something that I would make just for the fun of
making it.
“I think I would have a hard time being a production potter. You can
look around my studio and see that there are no two or three pieces
that are alike.”
Snow produces three to four pieces a week, mainly evenings and weekends since he works full-time in Albuquerque.
“It’s just fun. I like the difficulty. A lot of my pieces are
high-risk. A certain number of them fail –and then they become pottery
shards in my driveway.
“That’s the walk of shame,” he said of the hundreds of ceramic pieces on the ground between the studio and the parking area.
“It a piece doesn’t work, I walk outside and throw it into the air as high as I can.”
Snow said that’s fun, too.
He has done ceramics for about 10 years. He and his wife were retired
in Florida on the Gulf Coast, where he worked as a teaching assistant
because that allowed free access to a community college ceramic studio,
clay and glazes.
“Then I had a head-hunter come and steal me away to come to Albuquerque
about six and a half years ago” where he now works for a research firm
that specializes in explosive materials.
In his Corrales studio, he does “things that are just fun… whimsies”
that tend to be high-risk and therefor usually more expensive if they
are successful.
His signature pieces are airy, weavings of clay into bowls and double-walled sculptural pieces.
Snow likes working here because “in Corrales, there are five or six
very good potters, and in Albuquerque there are a couple of dozen very
good potters. And then there are the Native Americans, who have a
spirituality in their art that most Anglos have a hard time
understanding, much less executing.
“It’s fun to see their work, and some of it rubs off.”
He also sell at the “Art in the Park” events in La Entrada Park and
through the Corrales Society of Artists’ web page, as well as through
Third Moon Gallery on Corrales Road.
He can be contacted directly by phone at 898-5845.
Other artists participating in this tenth year of the tour include:
Stephen Bennett, fresco panels; Elaine Bolz, ceramic sculpture; Doreman
and Sheri Burns, western-themed paintings; Cheryl Cathcart,
photography; Juanita Cheng, stone and glass carving; Barbara Clark
pastels; Kelly Cozart, fresco; Cindy Daly, gourds; Bert Davis,
photography; Eric deBoer, oils; Carmine DeVivi, contemporary art;
Pauline Eaton, watercolors; Susana Erling, sculpture;
Virginia Escamilla, silver jewelry; Carol Estes, abstract paintings;
Dan Feibig, pottery; Lynda Fivekiller, ceramic sculpture; Sandra
Garcia, functional pottery; Jana Grover, paintings and prints; Sylvia
Gormley, oils and watercolors; Claire Haberfeld, fiber art and jewelry;
Randy Jensen, paintings; Robert Johnson, ethnic beadwork; Michaela
Karni watercolors and oils; John Keyser, metal sculptures, art
furniture; Carol Klimek mixed media and monotypes; Kim Krupnick, oils;
Ali Launer, beaded animal skulls;
Susan Lange-Marshall, oils; Patricia Massingill, oils; Lamoyne
McCaulley, pine needle baskets; William McCoy, expressionist paintings;
Jan Mikkelsen, painted tiles, acrylics; Valerie Namoki, clay kachinas;
Patti Norman, watercolors; Jay Norman, digital imagery; Joe Orr, oils;
Pietro Angel Palladini, oils and acrylics; Kate Reightley, bronze
sculpture; Don Reightley, wooden bowls; Mariana Roumell-Gasteyer,
ceramics; Sandy Robinson-St. George, watercolors and oils; Dyanne
Strongbow, mythic paintings; Mike Tarter, horse hair ceramics; Mary
Alayne Thomas, mixed media; Storm Townsend, bronze sculpture; Laura
Tuzinowski, furniture; Catherine Veblen, pottery; Doris Wagner,
jewelry; Krysteen Waszak, oils; Jon Young, charcoal and pastel on wood;
and Deborah Wilcox. |
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