Women’s Work Exhibition at the Pence Gallery
Women artists have long used humor and satire to critique the unequal treatment of women, in areas
from reproductive rights to their depiction in the media. Women’s Work is a sampling of contemporary
sculpture and paintings by thirteen artists who redefine gender and femininity through their art.
Exhibiting artists include ACGA member Linda S Fitz Gibbon and Chaitra Bangalore, Suzanne M. Long, Sue Bradford, Emma Luna, Shenny Cruces, Shonna McDaniels, Lisa Reinertson, lanna Nova Frisby, Nancy Selvin, Julianne Wallace Sterling, Shalene Valenzuela, and Amy Vidra.
Linda S Fitz Gibbon, Legs Up, 2023. 16″ x 11″ x 9″
Sustainability at Cobb Mountain Art & Ecology Project
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Flame: CMAEP hosts six to ten woodfire workshops annually. Abundant fuel sources along with lots of labor are key factors to maintaining these educational wood-firing experiences. Resident Artists work closely with Scott to manage wood harvesting, processing and assist with firing workshops. Woodfire Resident Lucas Shick: “It’s been so beautiful seeing the life cycle and doing fire mitigation. I really enjoy the time spent in the forest as a community collecting that wood and having a more intimate relationship with the fuel…” Quantity of wood required varies depending on which kiln(s) are being fired. The largest kiln, the Anagama, is fired about twice a year. Those workshops include ten days of firing, and consume thirteen cords of hard and soft wood in the process. Woodfire Resident Dexter Gardner: “It gives me respect for people working in the firewood trade. It is a lot of labor to source all of your own wood for a 10 day firing.” Workshops connect CMAEP to the larger regional ceramics community and foster a learning environment for workshop participants and Resident Artists. |
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Tending to burn pile of brush during ecology management work at CMAEP. |
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Embers: All Resident Artists live on-site and working on the land at CMAEP offers a unique experience unlike any other ceramics residency experience. Scott Parady: “I hope that working with residents on the land gives them experience and a greater appreciation of what it can mean to steward a property. For me it creates a great appreciation for the land and human interaction with it, which has become a guiding force in my artwork.” The reasons artists might be drawn to spend time at CMAEP are varied and there are several residency formats including short and long term options. Dexter Gardner: “I saw it as a great opportunity to gain more woodfire knowledge, and to focus on developing work suited to woodfiring.” |
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ACGA INTERVIEW: MALIA LANDIS
ACGA Where were you born and raised? Thinking back, would you say that art was part of your upbringing?
I was born and raised tromping through the hills of St. Helena, California and exploring the diverse terrain and warm waters of the Big Island of Hawaii. While being creative was a huge part of my childhood, harvesting and collecting while being outdoors were what interested me most. I loved to gather stones and acorns, sticks and moss, shells and flowers, and display them lovingly, each a cherished prize. These collections were my own personal cabinets of curiosity that I cherished and marveled at, pondering the natural beauty of the world. Now I find myself making these things out of clay, attempting to capture a fleeting moment or phase in time.
ACGA When did you start working with clay? Tell us a bit about your journey with your craft.
While having first experienced working with clay in high school, it was not until undergraduate school at Humboldt State University that I fell in love with ceramics. I had started as a Botany major with an Art minor, but quickly found myself spending all my time at the ceramics studio fascinated with the possibilities of the medium. I soon changed my major and began to really focus on developing several bodies of work, one being more production based and the other conceptual. I enjoy this back and forth balance between a meditative reproduction alongside intense detail orientated sculpting. I continued to explore both bodies of work throughout graduate school at San Jose State University, where I discovered how to incorporate screen printing onto my ceramics wares. I have continued to work as a full-time studio artist, now living in Mendocino County of Northern California, producing my screen printed utilitarian wares under my business name, Salt and Earth, while designing
and creating one of a kind porcelain paper clay sculptures
for private clients and gallery exhibitions.
ACGA Are there things about your techniques that are unique to your process?
My wheel thrown and handbuildt functional wares are all decorated with screen printed map design and then hand painted with gold luster. I print and apply all of the mason stain screenprints myself, and love the imperfections translated throughout this process. I use mid range Laguna Frost Porcelain for my paperclay floral and fauna sculptures, and fire to cone 7-8.
ACGA You have two distinct bodies of work. How do you balance the investigation for each and where to exhibit each?
While finding a seasonal exhibition rhythm can be different every year, I often work on both bodies of work simultaneously and love the back and forth each demands. I like to teach workshops in the Spring focused on my porcelain paperclay botanicals, then shift gears to stock up for the Clay and Glass Festival in Palo Alto for the summer. The Fall tends to be when I work mostly on groupings of works for my gallery exhibitions and commissions. Currently in the day to day I am focused working on commissions, which has been very fun and rewarding.
ACGA Clay and glass are physically demanding disciplines. How do you maintain your health?
Besides the help of my personal trainers, my son Bodin (5) and daughter Stella (3) to keep me in shape, I make sure to take time to be in nature everyday. If I am able to just escape for a short walk around our property or afford a long hike in the hills, being active in nature is still the driving force for inspiration in my work and helps me recalibrate when needed. I also have found throwing on the wheel standing up has helped my lower back flare ups and I have a silly looking but very functional yoga ball chair at my studio desk.
ACGA Is there one person or event that significantly inspired you?
My source of inspiration naturally is based on home and place. I find so much wonder in the world around me and the uniqueness that is in the here and now, ever grateful for the opportunity to exist among it all.
ACGA What is one thing that would surprise us to know about you?
I am in a band! We are called the Coyotes, and while only a few years together as a band, we eat together, all sleep under the same roof, and just can’t get enough of one another. I usually am on some sort of percussion instrument, Bodin plays guitar, Stella loves to rock a keyboard and rattle simultaneously, and my husband, Wesley Wright, leads us all on his ukulele.
The 6000 Circle Project
THE 6000 CIRCLE PROJECT
A Collaborative Exhibition Honoring the Divine Feminine
February 24 – April 6, 2024
Project Gallery at Arc Gallery
1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Curatorial Tour & Artist Discussion at Arc Project Gallery: Sunday, March 17, 1:30 – 3:30pm
In collaboration with The Calling (Artists Yasmin Lambie-Simpson, Chantelle Goldthwaite, and Sheila Metcalf-Tobin), everyone is invited to participate in the international art initiative, The 6000 Circle Project. The project focuses on the circle as a symbol of balance and unity, a never-ending container of feminine energy and light. The Calling envisions 6000 circles created by a multitude of artists from around the globe. Circles created by NCWCA members and the public will be exhibited in the Arc Project Gallery from February 24 through April 6, 2024. NCWCA is the first WCA chapter to kick off this global 2024 exhibition.
Artist Vicki Gunter at the opening reception with her piece: Mile 91- Buttercups @ Bampton- 165 to go!
Clay, Underglaze, Stains, Glaze 18 x 18 x 3.5 inches. My life-long friend, Carol invited me to join her on this amazing 256 mile adventure hiking coast to coast in Northern England. We did it in 2015!
THE BEAUTY OF PURPOSE: A Functional Ceramics Show
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
282 S. High Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472
MARCH 2 – 31, 2024
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 2, 2-4pm
Juror: Cheryl Costantini
Handmade ceramic works, showing excellence in technique,
including innovative and traditional explorations of clay.
The blind jury resulted in several ACGA members including: Ian Bassett, Suki Diamond, Ruth Ehrenkrantz, Geraldine Ganun, Rebecca Love, Loren Lukens, Vince Montague, Kathy Pallie, Jan Schachter, Karen Winograde, Lynn Wood, Melissa Woodburn, Emil Yanos
ACGA Board Meeting Minutes – February 19, 2024
Present: Mari Emori, Chris Johnson, April Zilber, Julie Taber, Sally Jackson, Jan Schachter, Ren Lee, Lee Middleman, Barbara Prodaniuk, Trudy Chiddix, Emil Yanos, Iver Hennig, Susie Rubenstein, Cheryl Costantini, Scott Jennings, Tamara Danoyan Absent: Sonja Hinrichsen, Vicki Gunter
The meeting began at 5:15 pm
Welcome (Mari): Review of All-Member Meeting
Mari thanked everyone for attending the All-Member meeting on January 20 and asked for feedback. Suggestions for future all-member meetings include the following: 1) have an activity that engages attendees by asking them to do something creative or state their thoughts on topics at hand, 2) arrange break-out rooms on Zoom to discuss particular topics or goals, and 3) make the meeting more fun, participatory and entertaining, with committee reports sent out separately ahead of time.
Board of Directors Directory 2024 (Mari)
Mari has updated the Board of Directors Directory. Those Board members not assigned particular roles should let her know what area interests them. Mari would like to create the new position of Volunteer Coordinator to interact with members volunteering outside of the Clay and Glass Festival. Also, we need someone to take over as ACGA’s historian.
Festival Report (April)
ACGA’s contract with Messenger Events is signed. Our contract with the City of Palo Alto lacks only the Certificate of Insurance. April is talking to Kathy Maag about the scope of her publicity work. The application for festival booths went out in an email last week. The deadline to apply is March 15 and Board members will get priority for booth location if they apply by February 27. The map is being reconfigured to accommodate more booths. This year, images submitted by festival artists and other booth applicants will go to a shared GoogleDrive folder. Ren will have access to these images for social media posts and other promotions. Joe Battiato will once again coordinate demos at the festival; a sign-up is included in the festival application. Susie Rubenstein will revise our post-festival artists’ survey. Sandy Feder will recruit high school students who can help with set-up and take-down. The committee is considering buying 3-4 portable, folding kiosks to be staffed by volunteers who will welcome visitors at the festival and tell them what’s happening, when, and where. The Board did not decide whether to approve this unbudgeted expense. April would like to mentor a new Festival Liaison who will shadow her this year.
Combine Membership Renewal & Festival Application (Cheryl)
Cheryl proposes streamlining the process of membership renewal by combining it with festival registration, presumably in January each year. This could work well for festival artists but must be arranged in a way that doesn’t make non-festival artists and other members seem less important. Also, it would be important to accommodate people who want to apply for membership at other times of the year. Julie, Emil, April, and Cheryl will meet to discuss this idea and see if it’s a possibility for next year.
Membership (Emil)
Membership sign-ups spike predictably in January and February. Emil proposes getting rid of the late fee and suggests that we shift to join-date-anniversary for renewals. The Board needs more time to decide about this, especially given Cheryl’s proposal to combine renewal with festival application.
The website issues that plagued this year’s renewal process appear to be fixed. The Board discussed whether the auto-renew feature hinders or helps in terms of membership numbers. During this year’s problematic renewal process, Emil received unkind, occasionally abusive emails slamming him and the ACGA. He and Sally Jackson will work on a Code of Ethics that will be sent in response to such emails. We will also prepare a letter that expresses the Board’s disapproval of harassment and inappropriate language. In some cases, a phone conversation with the Board President is also called for.
The Board discussed festival artists who propose adding someone to their practice and registering as collaborative. One important question is whether the additional artist should be required to jury in. This topic will be addressed in more detail at our next meeting.
Emil emphasized that we need a plan for increasing sponsorship or donations. Donors should be aware that their donations are not tax-deductible.
Treasurer’s Report (Julie)
As of January 31, our total assets were $117,698. Julie is now an authorized user for our Bank of America account. Julie and Sally Jackson are now authorized users of our Fidelity account. Mari Emori will serve as a third party to look at the bank statements each month. Now that we have two treasurers, April (festival treasurer) and Julie (general treasurer) have written their job descriptions and will share the monthly stipend that formerly went entirely to April. 60% will go to Julie and 40% to April. Julie will send the two job descriptions, along with the stipend structure, to Mari for presentation and approval at the next board meeting.
Juror Recruitment (Chris)
The next application deadline is March 31. Chris is recruiting jurors for the next festival jurying. Board members will send him names of possible candidates, particularly clay jurors. Jurying entails two meetings about two weeks apart, discussions with other jurors, and written comments that are sent to the applicants along with results.
Board Timeline 2024 (Mari)
Mari has prepared a detailed timeline of Board duties, and asked what needs to be added. She emphasized the importance of adhering to the timeline, especially in terms of our election process and budget approval in December and our festival application distribution in January.
The meeting ended at 6:50 p.m.
Next meeting: 5:15 pm, Monday, March 18, 2024
