Sunday, December 31, 2017

Day 332: Gabrielle Koza





Gabrielle Koza is a ceramic artist based in Tempe, Arizona.

Artist Statement:
Working with clay helps me feel grounded and connected to the earth. I am constantly exploring the balance between beauty and function in ceramic forms. I love the surprises that come with the transformation of materials from firing. It's not about complete control. Besides being intriguing to the eye, a well made ceramic piece begs to be picked up, held, and used. There's a lot of serendipity that affects the final result. The combination of clay, glaze, firing, and many small variables makes each piece unique.


Textured Yunomi

Four footed

Round Turquoise

Brown-white Bottle


Green-white bottle






Saturday, December 30, 2017

Day 331: Crystal Behmetuik

I’ve always been an artist. I forget to be in tune but when I am, I create. Art has always been my passion and my passion is expression. Humans inspire me; either with experiences or just random conversations. 

Instagram: crystalbehm







Friday, December 29, 2017

Day 330: Valerie Philip Harrison

I love portraits... I work primarily in acrylic and prismacolor pencil... I tend to want to draw and paint people that the world doesn't see as conventionally beautiful but is beautiful in its own right and I try to convey that in my work... Different does not mean ugly. In a world where there is a very uniform cookie cutter version of what makes a person attractive. Its a breath of fresh air to paint other things... I think the eyes and the smile of each person is what portrays that beauty..

Instagram:Eval18artistry











Thursday, December 28, 2017

Day 329: Darlene Mount Ritter

I am an abstract expressionist artist here in central Phoenix who has displayed at various places in Phoenix and Scottsdale. I am a member of the collective at The Artery now for three years. I have displayed at The Herberger Gallery, De Soto Market, Copper Star Coffee, The Holland House, The Ice House, Art Haus, Phoenix Center for the Arts, an Edward Jones, and Harumi Healing House. I am a member of Arizona Artist Guild, Sonoran Arts League and Arizona Art Alliance. I have two shows I am preparing for, one at the Olney Gallery at Trinity Cathedral and one at Harumi Healing House. I am a retired art teacher and I love to turn young people on to art.
darleneritter.com


Bridge at the Top

Static Electricity


Wading Out

Jazz and Rhythm

Mapping the Escape

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Day 328: Louise Fisher

Bio

Louise Fisher is an MFA candidate in printmaking at Arizona State University. Louise grew up on a farm in her home state of Iowa, where she obtained her BFA degree with honors from the University of Northern Iowa. Since then, she has shown her work nationally and organized in non-profit art collectives. In her work, Louise explores ideas of ephemerality, energetic transformation and life cycles using time-based mediums such as video and photography as well as the layering and repetitive action of printmaking.

Artist Statement
My work is grounded in the belief that all things are connected by pathways of time. I am captivated by time’s movement - from its cyclical nature to the layering of history. It is an energetic force that ties us all together. Waves of magnetism, sound and light flow to all corners of the Universe, propelling life into motion. Our bodies take in these frequencies through the senses, regulating them through biological rhythms. In my work, I portray ideas of ephemerality, energetic transformation and life cycles using time-based mediums such as video and photography as well as the layering and repetitive action of printmaking. As an artist, I look to aspects of my own memory, experience and external environment to help restore balance in life’s journey.

Links


Instagram: @louisefisherart


Displaced by Light, DASS transfer, 2017

Displaced by Light is street art project that highlights the damaging effects of light pollution on biological rhythms of the ecosystem. 

Circadian, pinhole photograph, 2016 

Circadian is an 8 hour exposure of the artist's bedroom at night, capturing the artificial light leaking through the window. The pinhole acts as a metaphor for the pineal gland, which assists in the body's ability to sleep.

Messengers (II), woodcut on Unryu paper, 2015, 16" x 16"

The Messengers series is a contemplation on natural fibers as pathways of energy via heat, chemistry and light. The image is made by recording of the shadows cast on the woodblock as it's placed in prairie grass.

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Day 327: Janel Garza

My artwork is predominantly influenced by the surrounding Sonoran desert. Through observation of the complex organic forms of the landscape and it’s native plant life, I extract simplified colors and geometric shapes. These shapes are repeated and often made symmetrical to create a sense of balance and harmony. The goal of these images is to bring forth an impression of the vibrant, resourceful, and diverse environment which is often over looked in the desert scenery. My images are produced with the use of  laser cut wooden pieces, and each piece is painted and assembled on to a wooden panel to create a layered 3 dimensional painting. With each painting my curiosity and admiration of this environment deepens and encourages me to further my research and attention to detail in the subject matter. 

Website: geniuslocijewelry.com

social media: janel_garza or geniuslocijewelry (specifically for jewelry)


Ocotillo

Burn

Hexagon Jewelry

Muse

Necklaces

Pure Love


Monday, December 25, 2017

Day 326: Mahala Lewis

Statement:

Mahala Lewis lives in Sierra Vista, AZ. Her paintings explore the
relationship between the divine feminine and the high desert
environment. She earned her BA in fine art from the University of
Arizona in 2012, and is currently a full time mother and part time
artist.



Dying in the Desert 2


Gourd Woman


Pot Woman



San Pedro Woman


Grapefruit Woman

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Day 325:Charmagne Coe

Charmagne Coe is a surrealist from Arizona. She earned a minor in art, a BA in elementary education at Northern Arizona University and is also self-taught. Charmagne creates paintings and drawings with watercolor, ink and pastel in the genre she calls “expressive surrealism”. In each work, characters and atmospheres-in-flux collide, entwine and are inseparably relational. The works contain elements extracted from memories, daily life, mythology, encounters in nature, spiritual questioning, and elements that are a mystery to her but feel right. Her paintings are mostly concerned with connectedness, both on a micro and macro level; she approaches this topic with hope and vulnerability. Historically, surrealism has been acknowledged as a genre, or a channel by which to arrive at the subconscious, sometimes portraying discordant, dream-like images. Similarly and differently, in surrealism, Charmagne explores how components in her works emerge and merge to become, or lay bare that they are part of an integrated whole structure. The real within the surreal. Her current work continues her interest in connectedness into themes of universality and holism. She seeks for her art to express organic, though sometimes not obvious, equilibrium.

Charmagne has presented artwork in international solo and group exhibitions. Her work has also been included in several publications such as Utne ReaderLuxe Interiors + Design and Michaels Meadow’s Viriditas: An Anthology of Contemporary Women Artists. She also enjoys writing free verse poetry, and is sometimes a contributing artist and writer for literary arts journals.  Most recently, she exhibited in downtown Phoenix at {9}The Gallery, and is a member of the creative group, Ladies Who Paint, who regularly exhibit at The Artery. She will have a solo exhibition at Royse Contemporary Gallery in Downtown Scottsdale called "Pan Door." It is a show of her expressive surreal drawings and paintings. Opening Reception is on January 11th, 5PM-10PM. It will continue to Feb. 3rd.

Charmagne Coe lives in Scottsdale, Arizona where she works in her home studio. Go to http://charmagnecoe.com for a complete CV, portfolio of recent projects and upcoming exhibitions.

http://charmagnecoe.com 


The Verse of Flora's Gate, watercolor, ink and pastel

We Speak Our Fossils Alive, watercolor, ink and pastel

 Locus One For Another, watercolor, ink and pastel

Sun Breaks With Helios, watercolor, ink and pastel

The Carrier, watercolor, ink and pastel
Steps Follow 2016 ink drawing 

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Day 324: Lauren Kelly













A
Artist Bio

 Lauren Kelly is a recent BFA graduate from ASU with a concentration in printmaking. Her academic work focused on prints, and utilizes the process to meditate on the concepts that she brings out in her artwork. Drawing is also an important aspect to her practice, and uses it to create a world similar to our own, but her figures have a deep spiritual connection to their reality and their own consciousness. She believes that the current problems of our world could be better solved with a closer inspection inward, and when an individual works to solve their own problems, they are better fit to help others and solve situations outside of themselves. Her artwork is personal, symbolic, and pulls inspiration from psychology, science, nature, and metaphysics to address themes of the unknowing abilities of our minds and how they relate to our bodies, souls, and the earth.

 Instagram: whoislaurenkelly

Perception / Stone lithograph

Polyps / Stone lithograph

 Fix Yourself First / Reductive wood relief, collage, string

The Delight in Human Error / Screen print

Puddling / Ceramic, screen print, copper, copper wire, epoxy, glitter

Friday, December 22, 2017

Day 323:Wendy Harford

 BIO
Born Halloween 1951 in Pomona, California, Wendy was influenced creatively by her desert, nature loving, landscape architect, stone mason, Uncle Kenneth Kriegh of SW California fame. 
A student of Fine Art through High School, too much of life got in her way to continue and she landed in BC Canada barefoot and pregnant, and dealing with a family and survival jobs for the next 20 some years. Wendy started playing guitar and composing her own songs and poetry from about age 12, and recordings of children’s songs and stories, as well as for Whale and Marine Conservation.
Through her young adult years as a single Mom, she studied Early Childhood Education and Recreational Therapy for Adults applying her creative skills to programming and activities for age 2 to 102 years of age.
In 1990 Wendy began the journey back to her own creative inspirations, exploring sculpture, painting, fiber art, and multi-media constructs. Her ongoing studies in Eco Psychology and earth friendly mediums compliment her close connection with nature.
2004 found Wendy returning to her beloved SW Desert where the smell of chaparral in rain, open skies and contrasting heat waves and monsoons felt like home. Since finding her way back home, Wendy has composed: art of desert found things, as well as many poems and songs about her beloved SW.
Wendy’s art work has found homes in Canada, Scandinavia, France, England and the US.  She currently display’s her diverse and unique works of art at her home studio/gallery in Cottonwood, AZ. Wendy also visits local events with her EAG = Earth Arts Gallery of community, interactive eco arts n crafts


ARTIST STATEMENT
“To inspire, to touch others through creations of my own truth, life motivates and inspires me to seek out the good, the inspirational, the mystic qualities of life, life on this planet, life in this universe, the mystic qualities of our minds, genetic memory, intuition, the beauty and balance in nature. Learning through creation, creating through learning, a never ending cycle of life and death and life."

‘Heart Born Eyes’
There is not in life that is not art when you open your eyes and with them your heart,
There is not at all in all of mankind that you cannot be when you open your mind,
There is not in magic nor mystical charms that you cannot when you open your arms,
With your heart afire, your mind alight, open your arms for the soul’s maiden flight
And when flying found remember the sound of voices raised in undying praise
For the beauty of those spacious skies, found only through our heart-born-eyes.
Copyright – Wendy Harford 2002


I guess you would say that my life, creations and philosophy are based on the above poem and statement.  I am in the process of writing the ‘Creative’s Handbook’ from that I have learned much about my personal creative process and how I long to connect with and connect others to the experience in heART and eARTh.

A statement from one of my ‘Creatives Handook’ exercises: 
“Experiencing our daily attractions allows us to slow down, re-experience and re-create trust in our personal sensory translations of our lives in relation to our world. Reconnecting us to the overall ’ ‘WEB OF LIFE’  thru a continuing relationship with natural attractions we open to ever changing, challenging and increasing ‘’CREATIVE FLOW’.”

Open Mind
Open Eyes & Heart
Open Arms


A Gaia Finished

Two of "Three Sisters" Squash Blossom and Corn Maiden Await the Bean Sisters Dancing

Jewelry Group Shot

Wand Amethyst Blossoms

Living Branch Full Window

All you need is love

Wendy Harford
Not Just Papier – Fine Arts
Cottonwood, AZ 86326

A multi talented, resourceful and organized artist, Wendy creates through many mediums: Impressionistic sculpture, imaginative graphics, creative home décor,sculpted fiber knit pieces, realistic in-depth paintings and murals, dramatic poetry and melodious lyrics.

Whether drawn into one of Wendy's paintings, floating on her songs, or enticed to caress her sculpture, Wendy inspires and touches with her own unique, creative truth
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Day of the Dead Exhibition. THE MANHEIM GALLERY, Event Coordinator, Facilitator and presenting artist 2015
‘A River Runs Thru Us’ Verde Artist Challenge – Verde Valley Land Preservation traveling exhibition 2012
Verde River Days. 2009 & 2015 Eco Artist  and EAG = Earth Art Gallery
Sustainable Visions Exhibition.
Sedona Visual Artists Coalition, Exhibition Chair/ Facilitator & Exhibitor, Sedona 2007
Javelina On Parade. Juried selection, Sedona, AZ 2006
Scrapture Fest – Barbara’s Park – Sedona, AZ 2005,  Participating Eco Artist
‘Poetry and Politics of Water’ Sedona Visual Artist Coalition: Co-Exhibition Chair/Facilitator & Exhibitor 2006
Sedona Art Festival. Sedona, AZ 2005 Juried:  Papier Mache Sculpture and Functional Art
Fiber Arts Festival: Gibsons Public Art Gallery, 2004 Juried.  Gibsons, BC, Canada. Invitational Exhibitor
'Portrait of an Artist' Gibsons Public Art Gallery One Woman Show, 2004: Gibsons, BC, Canada
Sunshine Coast Goddess Concert and Art Exhibition 1996-97-98 Roberts Creek, BC Canada


Educator Experience
‘Not Just Paper’ Workshops– all ages, multiple techniques, all levels, ongoing
EAG = ‘eARTh Art Gallery’ Verde River Days
Tilted Earth - Sedona Art Festival: Kidz Zone Eco Arts n Crafts
Institute of Eco Tourism – Eco Artist and Environmental Educator, Sedona, AZ 2006 – 08
Steffen Thomas Museum of Art – Artist Out Reach Program. Buckhead, GA 2004 – 06
Artists in the Schools: Sunshine Coast BC, Canada 1997 & 98

SELECTED PERFORMANCE in song and poetry
Red Earth Theater: Guest performer in song and word 2016, and including theme related visual art.
Guest Speaker and Artist: ART WORDS and WINE. June 2006. Steffen Thomas Museum & Archives, GA
Keynote Speaker and Performance: Winter 2006. Steffen Thomas Museum & Archives, GA. Volunteer Award
Sunshine Coast Goddess Concert and Women's Art Show
1996-97-98 Roberts Creek, BC Canada
Powell River Folk Festival Powell River, BC  Canada, 1997, original tunes with Hahle Jerow and Jenica van Eli


SELECTED FINE ARTS AND RELATED STUDIES
Ceramic Sculpture  – Yavapai College- David Woof 2009 & 10.
Water and Oil based Clay Sculpture (to firing and bronze cast)  Barbara R Brown of Sculpture in Sedona 2005
Watercolor Technique with BC, Canadian Artist Lyall Nanso, 1995
Papier Mache Sculpting  with Canadian Artists George Gamache and Micheline LaRose 1995
Acrylic Painting Technique with BC, Canadian Artist Ed Hill 1993
Art Therapy Justice Institute, Vancouver, BC Canada 1992

OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Celebrate the River – Performer/Co-Coordinator: Concert and Songwriter contest – OTCA - Cottonwood 2014 and 2015
Verde Artist Challenge – Artist and Artist Coordinator for ‘A River Runs Thru Us’ traveling exhibition 2012
Hopi – Sedona Student Exchange  - Participating Artist & Environmental Educator - Institute of Eco Tourism
Women's Story Quilt - co design, sewing and production of, including original performance in song
Canada Futures Grant  - to create a designer line of knitted wearable art and patterns