Trending Articles

Friends of SOAR

For great posts about the business of art, check out The Artsy Shark HERE!
ArtistsBillofRights.org reviews competitions and appeals seeking creative content, listing those that respect your copyrights and highlighting those that don't. Art Matters! publishes calls to artists, and not all of them may be compliant with ABoR's standards. Visit their site to learn more.
We support the Embedded Metadata Manifesto.  Metadata is information such as copyright notice and contact info you can embed in your images to protect your intellectual property, save time when uploading to social sites and promote your art. Click to visit the site and learn more.

Join my Creative Writing Workshop!

Have you been waiting for the right time to get back to work on that novel or short story that’s started collecting dust? Or maybe you just need some inspiration to kickstart a new writing project? Join us at the Ashland library for our biweekly peer support creative writing workshop! Each participant chooses an excerpt from their project to read aloud and receives feedback from the rest of the group. Improve your work in a positive and collaborative environment!

Creative Writing Workshop takes place from 2:30–3:30 pm in the Ashland Library’s Guanajuato room on 12/4/2023, 12/18/2023, 1/08/2024, 1/22/2024, 2/05/2024, 3/04/2024, 3/18/2024, 4/01/2024, 4/15/2024, 4/29/2024, 5/13/2024, and 5/27/2024.

Advance registration is requested but not required. Please bring a copy of your work to the library ahead of time if you need assistance printing extra copies. Click here to register!

The post Join my Creative Writing Workshop! appeared first on Wendy Gell Jewelry and Art.

Palm Springs Art Museum Trunk Show in December ’22

Wendy Gell Palm Springs Art Museum Trunk Show December 2-4, 2022

 

I just got back from a short visit to Palm Springs. While I was there, I visited the Palm Springs Art Museum, and after seeing my recent work, they invited me to have a trunk show in the Museum Store! I’m so excited! Please join me on December 2-4, 2022 in this beautiful city and consider the fabulous jewelry I’ll have available. There’s a lot to enjoy at the Museum, including their Persimmon Bistro and Wine Bar. So click the link below to explore their website and plan a day of art & culture around my Palm Springs Art Museum trunk show. And soak up the compliments along with the sun while wearing your sparkling new Wendy Gell jewelry!

The post Palm Springs Art Museum Trunk Show in December ’22 appeared first on Wendy Gell Jewelry and Art.

Art Du Jour News – December 2019

Homeward Bound by Marilyn Zupan. Image courtesy of the artist

Homeward Bound by Marilyn Zupan. Image courtesy of the artist

Advance Release for December 2019:

Art du Jour Gallery, 213 E. Main Street in Medford will continue it’s seasonal exhibit with a transition to winter.  For Third Friday (December 20th, 5pm-8pm) we are planning a special Christmas event presented by harpist Kathy Yeoman.  Please go to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ArtduJourGallery) for any further updates.

Guest Artist Nancy Graham Returns to Help Art du Jour Usher in a New Year

Nancy Graham has always been passionate about art in all its forms and styles, as evidenced by the variety of subjects she likes to paint and the varied approach to each.  She was always encouraged by her mother, who was a well-known artist in California and an art instructor at Dominican College in San Rafael a number of years ago.  She paints only with watercolor these days and her current passion is teaching watercolor at Scrappy Craft in Phoenix, where her classes remain full year around. She tells us that the real thrill comes from the delight her students find when the composition comes together and there’s a sudden spurt of confidence. She pushes strong value shifts of light and dark, telling her students over and over, “The deeper the shadows, the stronger the light will be”.

While teaching that there is more to a successful piece of art than the basic fundamentals of art theory, she likes to experiment with a variety of styles and approaches as evidenced by the selection of pieces that will be showing during December and January. Florals, landscapes, abstracts, still lifes and even a motorcycle engine are the subjects she’s chosen to show.  She’s always excited to try something new,  and is challenged by the possibilities that watercolor brings to her artwork.  However, if one were to ask her what she likes to do best, she’d probably reply that she loves to paint the “close-ups” where she can use her small brushes to bring out the finest details of her subjects.

Nancy holds a secondary teaching credential and art degree from UC Davis, and is a member of the Southern Oregon Society of Artists, the Rogue Gallery, a past President of the Josephine County Artists Association and a juried member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon.

AmericanMade-NancyGraham

Nancy Graham exhibit at Art du Jour December 2019. Image courtesy of the artist.

Featured Wall to Transition to a Winter Themed Exhibit

In the interest of keeping with our theme “Always Something New“, for December a combined exhibit by participating AdJ members will be offering a visual representation of “Winter Wonderland”.   Several of our members are anxious and ready to showcase their creative talents in recognition of this special time of year.

Calling All Rogue Valley Artists!!!

We continue actively seeking new artists living in the Rogue Valley region who would like to join our co-operative and display their work to the Medford community. Membership includes an active role in the Art in Bloom festival in May, as well as our monthly Third Friday event. Media to be juried for membership includes pottery, sculpture, photography and jewelry.  Contact the gallery by email at [email protected], or log into our website (www.artdujourgallery.com) for full membership information.

Art du Jour Gallery
213 E. Main Street
Medford, OR 97501
(541) 770-3190
OPEN Tues – Sat., 10AM – 4PM

Reaching Through Time and Space – Wendy Gell’s New “Wenaissance”

REACHING THROUGH TIME AND SPACE

Wendy Gell Wendy’s New “Wenaissance.”

Wendy Gell presents a retrospective of her work at the May meeting of SOSA — The Southern Oregon Society of Artists — May 20, 2019 at the Medford Public Library.

Doors open at 6:00 pm.

6:30 Social Hour with snacks. You don’t have to be a member to be welcome at SOSAs monthly meetings, so come join us for some networking!

Wendy’s presentation starts at 7. The library doors lock promptly at this time, so please arrive early! A retrospective of her life and art, paintings and multimedia work in her series, “Mandalas with the Masters,” as well as other unseen experimental work.

“Mom backwards is Mom
Dad backwards is Dad
Bob backwards is Bob
Wen backwards is New”

The post Reaching Through Time and Space – Wendy Gell’s New “Wenaissance” appeared first on Wendy Gell Jewelry and Art.

Ashland’s First Friday Art Walk, December 7th from 5 to 8 PM

Ashland Gallery Association Art Exhibit Openings & Artist Receptions

First Friday Art Walk, December 7th from 5 to 8 PM

Stroll the galleries and take in the visual delights in downtown Ashland and the Historic Railroad District.  Enjoy this free year-round community event, filled with a diverse array of artwork, live music, artist demonstrations, refreshments and lively conversation!

Ashland Gallery Association December Spotlight Exhibits

Ashland Gallery Association Art Happenings!

Photographers’ Gallery

Bittersweet: Yosemite 20 years Later.

 

 Bobbi Murphy’s new show, Bittersweet: Yosemite 20 Years Later, opens on Friday, December 7th at The Photographers’ Gallery At The Ashland Art Center and will run through January.

 

Yosemite holds wonderful memories for me – of autumn walks in golden meadows and full moon nights along the Merced River listening to great horned owls call to their families on cold evenings. Tramping through spring meadows flooded with snow runoff, riotous with wild flowers.  John Muir walked here and helped create America’s second great National Park.

 

There is no denying the impact of climate change on the park: drought, fire, pine beetles have killed 129 million trees in California and Yosemite has not been spared. It is heartbreaking to see and experience while remembering how magnificent it was just a few short years ago. But the tourists come in crowds greater than ever.

 

Despite all that we have done to it, Yosemite is still a glorious, spectacular place that makes a heart sing, even in the midst of destruction and devastation. We are loving it to death and yet, somehow don’t love it enough to save it and ourselves.

Bobbi Murphy, Lone Tree, photograph

Ashland Art Center

Giving Tree Program

Help a local child and celebrate the Holiday’s by donating to Ashland Art Center’s Giving Tree.

December First Friday will be packed with excitement at Ashland Art Center.  We will be kicking off our First Friday Weekend Sale, 10% off, December 7, 8 & 9th.   Handcrafted work by local artists will include: paintings; photography; prints; jewelry; scarves; fiber art; woodwork; ceramics. 

Shop, enjoy wine and music and help a child in need!  We hope will you join us and spread some holiday cheer.  

Giving Tree

Giving Tree

Gallerie Karon

Gifts By The Gifted

Gallerie Karon’s December show features all of our artists with gifts for the holidays. Let us be your personal shopper – bring your list – we’re here to help.

The biggest news is that Gallerie Karon is expanding! Our new addition, “The Feathered Wing”, will be open by the holidays! In this new area, accessible through our main gallery, is a two-part section. The first is full of small, multiple use furniture pieces for smaller spaces. The second is a special area for Oriental furniture and accessories with larger scale antique Buddhas and Quan Yins. It’s a serene room far away from today’s problems and filled with things that you can use to create your own serene space at home.

We’ll have a Grand Opening once the expansion is completed, but the move is on!

Gallerie Karon

Gallerie Karon

The Shepherd’s Dream

A Study on the Transition of Life

Nora Costley, Watercolorist, shares her artistic evolution through self-discovery and the mystery of the universe. Nora is a world traveler and holds a BA in Fine Art from the University of New Mexico.  Her work has been displayed in the National Museum of Art in Washington, DC.  She currently resides in the Rogue Valley. 

She enjoys many forms of art including sculpture, traditional pottery making in Japan, Installation and Photography.  Even as a watercolorist, Nora feels an artist does not need to stick with the same subject or medium.  She prefers an artist’s creation to reflect the transient beings they are, and continue to demand an evolution as individuals.  She states…”for me art is a constant exploration and experimentation of self and the universe, which parallels the exploration of medium and processes.”  Also…”a driving force is art that stimulates personal power and freedom in myself and others.”  Her practice has evolved from that of discovering and resolving the internal, to decoding the world at large.  Often her ideas flow, and it’s not until a piece is complete, that it either is understood or not.  The universe is of great curiosity to her, but as with Nora’s artistic endeavor, she is satisfied with the mystery.

Nora Costley, “Take Your Power Back” watercolor

Nora Costley, “Take Your Power Back” watercolor

Special Event!

Lithia Artisans Market

Lithia Artisans Holiday Market

Friday, December 14 ~ 10am-7pm
Saturday, December 15 ~ 10am-6pm
Sunday, December 16 ~ 11am-4pm

Our Holiday Market is moving to the Medford Armory after 13 seasons with the Art Wing at Briscoe Elementary in Ashland. For 2018, we plan to host over 60 artisans at this new location, featuring some of the finest locally crafted gifts you’ll find. Enjoy live music, a family-friendly atmosphere and a chance to support local artisans while shopping for one-of-a-kind gifts.

A raffle drawing will be held on Sunday afternoon at both of our holiday events. The winner receives a $100 gift certificate.  This Holiday Season Support Local Handmade. Join Us!

Artisans Market holiday wares

 

For more information about all of our exhibits and to download the December Gallery Tour map, please visit: www.ashlandgalleries.com  

 

Please see the attached “Spotlight Exhibits” and December Gallery Tour Map.

Download (PDF, 294KB)

Thank you for your support of the Visual Arts in our communities!

Meeting Bob Dylan and My Forrest Gump Life

Meeting Bob Dylan and My Forrest Gump Life

by Wendy Gell

Last revised November 18 , 2018

I was living near the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal street in 1975, at the center of the West Village. My songwriting days were over, and I had started my jewelry business. Dot and Dora two black sisters worked for me making barrettes.

pink floral barrette by Wendy Gell

One of my floral barrettes

Dora would set them up with the hot glue gun following my designs and Dot would then glue them with epoxy. My apartment was 3 flights upstairs a railroad flat. The rooms were all in a row. My bedroom looked over Bleecker street, the bathroom at the other end. The bath tub in the kitchen had a table top that came down and became the kitchen counter. I loved it. I would be fast asleep when the sisters came in to work.

I went out some nights to a bar on MacDougal street, called Kettle of Fish to relax with a glass of vodka and my journal, a big black book filled with drawings and clippings pasted in. I settled in for a night of juke box music with my book and colored pencils.

A tall handsome man with piercing blue eyes and a cap asked if he could sit down with me. My heart stopped beating in my chest and I lost my breath.

Oh My God. It was the man who had written the sound track to my entire life. Bob Dylan.

Wendy at age fiften wearing her Fernwood High jacketMy first boyfriend, Bill Steigerwaldt, and I fell in love to Dylan’s music. I was the new girl in school having moved to the outskirts of Portland from NYC when I was fifteen. Someone tugged on my hair, I turned around to see the bluest eyes I had ever seen. Bill was 6 feet 5 ½ inches. One half inch more and they would not have sent him to Viet Nam. They didn’t make the uniforms that big.

We fell in love. I had the star of David around my neck. I didn’t know then I was the only Jewish person in school. My mother said not only did you bring home a giant but a German!

And his song– She Belongs to Me, was My Song, Bill said.

“She has everything she needs, she’s an artist she don’t look back. She can take the dark out of the nighttime and paint the daytime black.”

I could not believe my eyes. I mumbled, “of course.” And motioned for him to sit down.

“She never stumbles, she’s got no place to fall, she’s nobody child, the law can’t touch her at all.”

I heard he frequented the neighborhood but never saw him before this night.

I was dumbstruck and couldn’t say a word. I stared at him like a moron. He looked at the bright elaborate rhinestone bracelets on both my wrists and asked about them. I said I made them. He said liked them and they looked like they were from under the sea. He asked about my book if he could look at it. I said sure. He glanced at the pages of drawings, pages cut from magazines collages, some of my favorite poems and there were pop up 3 D- pages I had glued in from kid’s books. Also, a language I discovered or invented where I see words in impossible places, I call Wenglish.

'Paint with Gratitude,' from Wendy Gell's picture journal.

“Paint with Gratitude,” from my picture journal.

 

A collage with a picture of Jerry Hall in my Statue of Liberty Crown and Torch in Vanity Fair

A collage with a picture of Jerry Hall in my Statue of Liberty Crown and Torch in Vanity Fair

I wanted to tell him that his music meant the world to me.

“If today was not an empty highway. If tonight was not a crooked trail if tomorrow was not a long time, then lonesome would mean nothing to me at all.” Bill had gone to Viet Nam. Bob’s music, Masters of War, The times they are a Changing’, were Everything to us.

I looked at him while he looked at my book as I tried to gather myself together.

He might as well have been the Pope or the President. I was numb. He was the coolest, most important person I had ever met, and I could not say a word.

 

 

wenDYLANd

Half a magical hour flew by and many questions later as he did all the talking. He smiled a big grin said good bye and left, and I was too numb to even ask for his phone number. I was so mad at myself. We could have been friends forever if the damn cat didn’t get my tongue.

I had a whole gallery on my previous website called Wendyland. It is all artwork inspired by the songs of Bob Dylan. There is a lot of word play in Wendyland, Dylan is always in the middle of Wendyland.

beast, one of Wendy Gell's custom made dolls

Painting of Beast and my dolls

Once when I went to a Dylan concert with some friends and my doll Beast was with us, we were fooling around. Someone from Bob’s group came to us and said, “Bob doesn’t mind that you brought her but don’t forget whose concert it is.”

So, I put Beast on the floor quietly and watched. Thankfully she didn’t act up and bite me.

“Shut Up!” growled Beast!

A dog purse. Wendy Gell never wore a regular handbag

A dog purse, I never wore a regular handbag

I went to every Dylan concert within 100 miles all my life and went to more then I can count. All us Dylanophiles would recognize each other after so many years. We knew each other and had a ball. I had a jewel and icon decorated video camera I sometimes brought with me Painting of Beast and my dolls to film the crowd. I used to carry a purse made of a stuffed animal and jeweled.

Wendy's embellished concert poster for Paul siman and bob Dylan - Hottest July Ever

So, I was especially recognizable. It was before the days of AIDS and Fear and everyone was happy and playful. I would publish my concert review on the pages of Bob Links for years, they are still online there. I saw him with Paul Simon, Jewel, The Dead, Tom Petty, so many people in New York, Oregon, Jersey, Connecticut, all over. I made and sold art out of the Concert posters.

Wendy Gell with her bejeweled video camera.

With my bejeweled video camera.

One of my friends told me my life was like Forrest Gump. I always seem to be in the right place at the right time to meet the right people. Well I wasn’t at Woodstock, but I was kind of everywhere else.

In the giant earthquake in Guatemala City in the 1970’s I was there. Got so shook up my boyfriend and I broke up then and there after he shit in his pants. He threw my passport at me and I never saw him again.

When the tanks rolled down Michigan Ave at the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968, I got tear gassed and terrified and met my next boyfriend in a doorway hiding from the cops. I went to live with him in Cambridge Mass where he was going to Harvard to be an architect. I learned to make the best apple pies from the New York Times Cook Book and they would bring their professors home for my pies. It was my only year of domestic life, my boyfriend Howie Konick was a bear of a sweet guy, a Taurus. But I left him to go study scientology in LA with one of his roommates. I wish him well. I never saw him or scientology again.

I was on Oprah’s show in 1986 as her favorite Jewelry designer. She was going to go national the following week. I had just come back from a tour of California for Nordstroms and was exhausted, I didn’t know who Oprah was back then she was only local in Chicago and I said no. They called back. Please, you are her favorite jewelry designer! She wears your earrings on her show 3-4 times a week. Her best friend Gail doesn’t like them thinks they are too flashy for daytime, but Oprah just LOVES you. Please come! So, I did. She was super nice to me. She gave me two segments and even had me do a demonstration. When I did, she said, “it’s just like vacation Bible school.” When I showed my crystal wristies she said,” You must be in a high spiritual plane from working with these crystals,” and I said, “I sure am.”

She asked if I knew what I was doing, and I said, “No, I just say a prayer, take a breath and do my best.”

When asked about the prices of my things, she said, “if you can’t afford $120 for a pair of earrings don’t buy Wendy’s.” She also stated she loved me so much that she was sharing me with all her viewers and had a fashion show with models of all races and ages. I was totally charmed by her. I had no idea she would become the icon celebrity and world leader who she is now. At that time, I was ironically more famous than she was. It was the year of the Statue of Liberty’s Birthday and that was part of the tour I was doing.

Wendy Gell on Oprah's show with her jeweled Liberty crown

I had my Statue of Liberty Crown and Torch with me and she held it up and said “there’s a liberty celebration in my neighborhood. This is what to wear!”

Wendy Gell on Oprah's show with her jeweled Liberty torch

She was just phenomenal. And hilarious. I loved her.

cover of single written by Wendy and Jackie de Shannon, Jimmie, Just Sing Me One More Song

When I was a songwriter in the 1970’s I rode alone in an elevator with Clive Davis at Columbia Records going 31 floors down and got up the nerve to introduce myself and tell him we had a song coming out on his label with Jackie de Shannon.

We made it to bubbling under on the Billboard charts but no hit. It was the follow up to Put a Little Love in Your Heart.

I also rode in an elevator alone with Jesse Jackson once going to a fundraiser for him held by my friend Princess Lilly Lawrence who I made jeweled tiaras for. It was in a hotel in New York where she lives.

I even met Mohammed Ali waiting for our baggage alone in an airport and we got to talk for 20 minutes. I could see it was hard for him to find words, so we talked about simple things and sat silently as well.

Maurice, Wendy Gell's first laptop computer

Maurice, my first laptop computer

I also spent a few sublime hours with the writer of Roots, Alex Haley, before I ever saw the show because he saw me typing in my computer Maurice in an airport lounge. He asked if we could have dinner together.

I said of course. He told me he became a writer in the army when his friends would have him write love letters to their girl friends because he had such a good way with words. The reason he wanted to sit down with me was because of my computer named Maurice.

I had painted a Buddha’s face on Maurice and when it was open I guess people across the room could see it. I was in airports often. I traveled all the time doing truck shows for my business. I worked on my writing in my computer on the road.

In this case Play.

One of Wendy Gell's favorite all time fashion photos of her work.

One of my favorite all time fashion photos of my work.

A picture of my jewelry with two wristies, Statue of Liberty Crown worn backwards and ring, and earrings.

I loved this editorial shot. It was in a book about costume jewelry, All that Glitters, The Glory of Costume Jewelry, by Jody Sheilds, Max Vadukul Photographas, published by Rizzoli New York.

I love her eating Chinese food, and the tin foil wand. I always thought it was a joke for me.

I have the opposite of paranoia. I made it up. I call it pronoia. When you think people are doing nice things for you behind your back. It’s not a mental illness, it’s a mental wellness.

I guess I was born on a lucky day. It was in the giant snow storm of 1948; the same year Israel was also born, on the first day of spring. The night before I was born my Mom and Dad watched a 5-alarm fire sitting on pickle barrels, in downtown Manhattan. My Dad was kind of a fire buff and loved to watch them put out fires.

Mona Lisa assemblage, by Wendy Gell

He was a true artist and took me to the Museum of Modern Art when I was only 3 for classes because I was so precocious. My mom was mentally ill and very abusive. She called me Garbage and Ox, Miss Pimples of 1966. But my Dad would take me to the museums in New York all the time and saved this little girls creative spirit by buying me anything I wanted at the gift store there. I clearly remember when I saw the tall twisted forms of Giacometti’s figures, I understood at that young age of three how the artist sees something with new eyes in a way that creates a reality of their own. At the gift store there was a painting of a tree with hidden figures of children in it I remember so well finding the children in it counting them and delighting in finding more each time with my father. It’s the only thing I remember that he bought from from the museum. I remember being older and hearing a fire had partially destroyed it at the Museum of Modern Art and later it was restored. I never remember the real name. We called it the Tree of Life.

I was always obsessed with the Mona Lisa and have done many versions with her likeness. In this version-American Mona Lisa. The reason she is smiling is because she is covering her wrist, her bejeweled bracelet cuff, that I make and wear, with her hand. You can see the jewels pouring out behind her fingers. It is our little secret. La Dee Da Vinci.

 

 

 

 

Download (PDF, 2.01MB)

The post Meeting Bob Dylan and My Forrest Gump Life appeared first on Wendy Gell Jewelry and Art.

Ashland’s First Friday Art Walk, August 3, 2018 from 5 to 8 pm

Ashland Gallery Association Art Exhibit Openings & Artist Receptions

First Friday Art Walk, August 3rd from 5 to 8 pm

Stroll the galleries and take in the visual delights in downtown Ashland and the Historic Railroad District.  Enjoy this free year-round community event, filled with a diverse array of artwork, live music, artist demonstrations, refreshments and lively conversation!

For more information about all of our exhibits and to download the August Gallery Tour map, please visit: www.ashlandgalleries.com  

Please scroll down to “Spotlight Exhibits” and August Gallery Tour Map.

Thank you for your support of the Visual Arts in our communities!

Ashland Gallery Association August Spotlight Exhibits

Gallerie Karon

All Women Artists Invitational

Over 20 artists are represented in this popular annual show. Everything from photography to pastels, collage to mixed media and everything in between is available. Many of the artists will be here at Gallerie Karon to answer questions about your selections.

Raina Bradshaw is one of the jewelers represented. She produces one of a kind, delicate crystal, pearl and semi-precious stone jewelry. Judy Benson le Nier’s African animal photographs and accessories continue to fascinate. Janet Patterson shares her prize-winning pastels, many exploring nearby scenes around Emigrant Lake in all it’s seasons. Our latest artist, Denise Hazelton brought her fabulous baroque pearls and ethnic – themed necklaces and earrings from her studio in California.

As a special feature, Zahara will be dancing Middle Eastern dances accompanied by Shiviti with all female musicians. They will appear from 5:30 – 7:30 during the

First Friday Art Walk August 3rd. Join us as we celebrate the accomplishments and creativity of the female artist.

Pegi Smith, “Flying Dreams,” acrylic painting

Pegi Smith, “Flying Dreams,” acrylic painting

Ashland Art Works

Whimsical Assemblage and Patterned Ceramics

Elin Babcock presents Circles, Cogs and Wheels with her whimsical assemblage sculptures. Repurposing found objects, broken instruments and welded metal, she creates an imaginary world. Lyrical Abstract paintings will also be included in her Featured show. Color is woven and overlaid throughout the canvas as forms appear and blend together.

Marydee Bombick, ceramic artist, will present a wide variety of individually patterned handmade platters and plates, both large and small, for every occasion. Multi-sectioned vases are presented to display your garden’s beauty. Even a single bloom will look lovely in one of the many bud vases – whimsical, carved, or twisted.

First Friday at Ashland Art Works will feature music by the Ashland Taiko Drummers.

Ashland Art Works – local artists, 5 galleries in a garden setting.

Elin Babcock, assemblage sculpture

Elin Babcock, assemblage sculpture

Photographers’ Gallery

Featuring Kate Geary

Kate Geary, an Ashland photographer, opens her new show Where Sea Meets Sand at The Photographers’ Gallery At The Ashland Art Center on August 3rd during the 1st Friday Art Walk.  Her show explores the seaside beaches of Bandon and the Oregon Dunes near Reedsport, OR.

The sea creates an ever-changing, often dramatic interface with the land.  It shapes wide sandy beaches, rough rock-cobbled shores strewn with shells and other gifts from the sea, or flat vistas strewn with towering rock formations.  The remote beaches of southern Oregon seems to go on forever and gives one a sense of utter solitude. But upon closer inspection, a multitude of sea-dependent creatures cling to the rocks in multi-colored tenaments exposed by low tide.   Wind is the sea’s partner is shaping the coastal landscape.  Where the sea has created fine particles of sand, the wind spins it into myriad, ever-changing shapes and designs.  At the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area one could easily imagine being in an exotic desert in far distant lands.  But glancing down, there are exquisite abstract designs at your feet.  Kate’s new show explores the intersection between sea and land on the dramatic Oregon coast.

Kate has also shown her work at the Illahe Gallery, Liquid Assets and Studio 5 in Ashland, and Rogue Gallery in Medford.

Image caption:  Kate Geary, “Low Tide,” photograph

Image caption:  Kate Geary, “Low Tide,” photograph

Hanson Howard

Outside the Lines: Robert Koch, Peter VanFleet & Pamela Kroll, mixed media painting

Robert Koch, Peter VanFleet & Pamela Kroll are three painters indulging in the freedom of playing outside the lines.

Join us for a reception for the artists during the First Friday Art Walk, August 3rd, 5-8 p.m.  Show runs August 22nd – September 4th.

Robert Koch

Gestural strokes and spontaneous marks collide with color blocks in Robert Koch’s narrative vignettes. Often prompted by found photographs, Koch takes the liberty to make his subjects humans or creatures inhabiting the same world. Having the appearance of quickness and even naiveté, Koch’s deft drawing skills mean each mark is playful and intentional at the same time.

Peter VanFleet

Part painting, part sculpture, Peter Van Fleet‘s work invites us to experience dimensionality, structure, and vibrant color. In this new body of work Peter has reworked paintings appropriated from other artists. He calls these paintings “Cowbirds”, referring to that bird which lays its eggs in another bird’s nest so that fledgling will be raised by the host.

Pamela Kroll

 Influenced by folk art, myth, and cultures from around the world, Pamela works with acrylic on paper, combining collage elements such as wires, beads, sequins, bird bones, and other small found objects. Many of the pieces have an iconographic and sometimes humorous quality and have been described as sophisticated folk art.

Robert Koch, “Hush,” acrylic on panel 24x24

Robert Koch, “Hush,” acrylic on panel 24×24

Download (PDF, 288KB)

Life is Hard, Clay is Soft – New Chapter!

Life is Hard, Clay is Soft

Picture of Jeck Gell, father of fashion jewelry designer Wendy Gell.

Jack Gell

My father Jack was an artist.

When I was little, my room had murals of nursery rhymes on all the walls. Jack jumping over the candle stick. Mary and her little lamb. The cow jumped over the moon. And a little mouse running up a clock. I still remember them. Dad painted them for me. But we moved from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Long Island when I was 5 years old, leaving the painted walls behind.

 

The coolest place in our new house was the basement. Going down the stairs was a stained glass window my Mom had found covered in dust in an antique store. For some reason they had it installed going down the dark staircase to the basement instead of a window. It was a beautiful reclining lady, her face and hands were hand-painted and illuminated in a garden with butterflies and flowers around her, and round glass circles above and below.

picture of stained glass window in Wendy Gell's childhood home

marilynWhen I grew up the window resided at my lake house in Connecticut for 18 years, enjoying the western light passing through. Now she lives at my brother’s ranch on Pioneer Road only five miles from me above a fireplace well lit from behind. It is our Family’s Treasure.

There was a bar downstairs and above it was a nude picture of Marilyn Monroe with her elbow up above her head, turned aside, posing all pink and blonde and pretty. It wasn’t this one but this was the closest I could find.

The best part was the Art Table, a large piece of plywood always filled with projects on it. My father had made a life-size bust of my face and head out of a plastic clay. I wanted to make something too. My father had used up all the clay. He was a generous-spirited man. Out of the back of the head—the clay one of course, all curly hair—he took a handful of the cool gray clay and gave it to me. It felt wonderful as it squished through my small fingers.picture of Wendy Gell as a child

Day after day Daddy would give me more and more clay, and the figurine of Wendy’s head went hollow as the clay became giraffes and tigers and snakes. Soon the clay replica went limp and was gone.

Now thinking about, it a sadness flows through me, tinged with great joy, that Dad gave me a wondrous adventure as we cannibalized his own sculpture  creation of his daughter—allowing my wild creative energy to grow and flow like the raging river it is.

Sometimes when I paint now, I hear his voice…Alizarin Crimson…Rose Madder Light…Ultramarine Blue…In life he never taught me the painting colors (that I recall), but somewhere in the Akashic record, my father Who Art in Heaven tells me the colors to use and I am filled with a Cadmium Yellow joy to hear his voice. Over and over again.

Creativity and Duality, painting by Wendy Gell,1974.

Creativity and Duality, painting by Wendy Gell,1974.

“Thanks Daddy,” I say in my head.” Thanks again.”

He answers back, tenderly, “Of course, Wen.”

Years later I made a plaque of clay and jewels, it says My Truth. ” Life is Hard – Clay is Soft. ”

It stands outside my front door now, beaming a welcome to all my visitors who come by.

Life is Hard, Clay is Soft - picture of clay wall art with this saying on it by Wendy Gell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Life is Hard, Clay is Soft – New Chapter! appeared first on Wendy Gell Jewelry and Art.

New Member ~ New Medium

New Member ~ New Medium

Jan van Ek Brings Bronze to Art Presence

Art Presence extends a warm welcome to our newest member, sculptor Jan van Ek, and a new medium—bronze sculpture. If you haven’t yet seen Jan’s stunning bronze sculptures, come in to the gallery for a real treat in fine art!

A Medford native, Jan began sculpting while studying fine art at Oregon State University. Once she earned her BFA, she moved to Denver to perfect her technical skills, working at a bronze casting foundry and creating original bronze sculptures of horses. 22 years later, having established herself as a nationally recognized equine sculptor and married Jay Warren (also a bronze sculptor), she returned to Oregon in 2004.

In the gallery you can see “Lightning, Thunder, Rain”—from a limited edition of seven pieces—a sculpture of three spirited horses running atop carved marble thunderclouds with a bronze base in the form of lightning.

While most of Jan’s pieces are free standing, others can hang on a wall. In addition to sculpting horses, she enjoys creating statues and sculptures of angels. Be sure to seek out Jan’s work the next time you visit Art Presence! And be sure to check our sidebar links and click her name to visit her website, too!

The post New Member ~ New Medium appeared first on Art Presence Art Center.

New Member ~ New Medium

New Member ~ New Medium

Jan van Ek Brings Bronze to Art Presence

Art Presence extends a warm welcome to our newest member, sculptor Jan van Ek, and a new medium—bronze sculpture. If you haven’t yet seen Jan’s stunning bronze sculptures, come in to the gallery for a real treat in fine art!

A Medford native, Jan began sculpting while studying fine art at Oregon State University. Once she earned her BFA, she moved to Denver to perfect her technical skills, working at a bronze casting foundry and creating original bronze sculptures of horses. 22 years later, having established herself as a nationally recognized equine sculptor and married Jay Warren (also a bronze sculptor), she returned to Oregon in 2004.

In the gallery you can see “Lightning, Thunder, Rain”—from a limited edition of seven pieces—a sculpture of three spirited horses running atop carved marble thunderclouds with a bronze base in the form of lightning.

While most of Jan’s pieces are free standing, others can hang on a wall. In addition to sculpting horses, she enjoys creating statues and sculptures of angels. Be sure to seek out Jan’s work the next time you visit Art Presence! And be sure to check our sidebar links and click her name to visit her website, too!

The post New Member ~ New Medium appeared first on Art Presence Art Center.