Barbara Foster
Telltale Signs from the Endless Poplars series,
2016 two-block woodcut, walnut ink,
hand-printed on Okawara Paper
29" h x 52" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement
Over the past fifteen years my work has addressed the fragility of the landscape, whether it is the Nevada proving grounds, deep-sea terrain, corporate agriculture, Taiwan urban gardens, or the planting and harvesting of trees as a way of looking at the resurrection of the previously blighted or the implications of the unpredictable. The work has become more directly related to the history, environment, and event at specific sites by linking process and content in black and white relief prints, hybrid digital/relief prints, and carbon prints on Taiwanese and Japanese papers. Ink, paper, and photography, along with specific wood and active physical image development combine to elicit a response that is not immediately obvious, finding kinship among materials and subject.

My projects intend to reshape the visual dialogue on these topics by moving the conversation and physical practice to reflect the landscapes that have claimed new identities through process yet are still imbued with the patina of intention, history, and event.

Bobby Free
Vase, 2016
porcelain, sgraffito, high-fire
7.5” h x 5.5 w x 5 d”
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Bobby Free
Vase, 2016
porcelain, sgraffito, high-fire
7.5” h x 5.5 w x 5 d”
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Joan Gamberg
Scorched Earth l from the  Scorched Earth series, 2015
thrown, stoneware, silicate
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

I loved these things in painting and later in clay:
...the Line, later the Form, finally the Negative Form
...the Sumptuousness and Path of design on a surface
...the Connections, from emotional to conceptual and finally to the viewer
...the Connectedness to all our ancestors, what they made, used, loved. 

Then there is the simple bowl, the pot shape, the open but still somewhat enclosed. That is a very powerful form, for a female artist to make. For nearly 10,000 years, pots such as the ones I make, have stored, offered nourishment, held potions, poisons, trinkets and treasures. Clay has survived generations, and I believe handmade pieces offer solace and delight in their accessibility, beauty and endurance. What will my bowls and pots hold for you?

Joan Gamberg
Scorched Earth II from the Scorched Earth series, 2015
thrown, stoneware, silicate
Courtesy of the artist

I loved these things in painting and later in clay:
...the Line, later the Form, finally the Negative Form
...the Sumptuousness and Path of design on a surface
...the Connections, from emotional to conceptual and finally to the viewer
...the Connectedness to all our ancestors, what they made, used, loved. 

Then there is the simple bowl, the pot shape, the open but still somewhat enclosed. That is a very powerful form, for a female artist to make. For nearly 10,000 years, pots such as the ones I make, have stored, offered nourishment, held potions, poisons, trinkets and treasures. Clay has survived generations, and I believe handmade pieces offer solace and delight in their accessibility, beauty and endurance. What will my bowls and pots hold for you?

Gina M.
Family Circus, 2016
hand-built high-fired B-mix clay,  encaustic paint and found objects
40" h x 24" w x 30" d
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
Gina M. hails from a funky and creative family.  In the 70s her parents owned a puppet theater in California where weekends were spent developing shows, building puppets, and hosting birthday parties. Her anthropomorphic tendencies began early, raised by puppets and their puppeteers.

These unique life-events, and emotional observations, mix to inform her art, record the significance of memory and mortality, and self-reflect on the dread of the aging process and the image-altering effects of gravity.

Each piece in the series Lost Not Forgotten by Gina M., possesses innocence at its surface —a non-threatening nature and whimsy— to draw the viewer in, whereby a deeper or darker meaning or message emerges.

The collection consists of hand-built, high-fired ceramic teddy bears, toys, and puppets in different stages of decomposition. Iconic images from childhood become lost objects, misplaced opportunities, and distant memories.

Family Circus, a ceramic, wood, encaustic paint, and found objects sculpture demonstrates controlled chaos of family life with all the dramatic overtones.

Leonardo Greco
Resurrection of the Father, 2014
relief on paper
15" h x 12" w
Courtesy of the artist

My love of mythic narrative, particularly narratives that focus upon universal themes of creation, sacrifice, redemption and enlightenment —gnosis— inspires my work.  Although indebted to the western canon and frequently finding inspiration within the richness of its traditions, I have fallen under the spell of the Popol Vuh, the creation myth of the Maya people. Utilizing this ancient body of work, I am able to explore universal themes without the influence of recognizable western archetypes. Through exploration I may examine a culture, that, though foreign from my western perspective, provides endless fascination and possibility.

This fascination with Meso-American art and culture however is not translated in a Mock-Latino idiom. Given my western heritage, I would consider that not only disrespectful but inauthentic.  Instead of drawing upon the obvious source, I instead draw upon my own experiences and passions.  This includes a love of world mythology, Roman Catholic saints, the Italian Renaissance, classical painters such as Nicholas Poussin, low brow erotica, Symbolism, Surrealism, miscellaneous mystical traditions such as Gnosticism, and my own, often disturbing, fertile dreamscape.

By fusing such diverse elements, it is my intention to create an authentic vocabulary in which to express universal and yet deeply personal concerns: be they life and death, mortality, morality, and most importantly, inner knowledge —gnosis.

K. Ryan Henisey
Pulse from the #ArtToEndViolence series, 2016 ink on paper
42" h x 42" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
Social media is a pervasive aspect of contemporary life. From the status update, to the selfie, our ability to easily record, transmit, and edit our social surroundings has skewed perception.  My artwork, whether reacting to engendered hate, exploring the structures of man, or playfully reimagining traditions, is a curated, hand-crafted experience reacting to our shared, socially-constructed reality.

The work presented addresses contemporary issues faced by Queer Americans. Pulse is a reaction to the recent massacre of a queer nightclub in Orlando, using visceral images in a surreal context to explore homophobia in the United States.

The following is an excerpt from Pulse:

They called me faggot and queer and gay boy. Once, someone threw an open container of milk at me as I walked through the full cafeteria. I was soaked, my jacket ruined. The Principal told me that I had brought it on myself.

'What do you want me to do?' The good, Mormon, community member scowled at me from across his desk. More than half my life has passed since then, but I still remember.

There are no safe spaces.

John Hopkins
Wall Series #4, 2016
extruded, thrown and cast forms, epoxy paint 29" h x 68" w x 5" d
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
I tend to work in cycles of making sculptural pieces or functional pots. Recently I’ve returned to the type of work I did fifteen years ago using low fire and bright colors. I have once again become intrigued by the relationship of the sculptural form and textural surfaces.

My designs evolve around a single image. It is important to me that this image is three dimensionally complete. Complete in the since that I see it as a sculptural form floating or sailing in open space. I use sand blasting techniques before and after firing to achieve my textures. I use under glazes for base color and lusters to achieve the pastel glass like quality. I complete the work with over glazes and additional sand blasting. The entire process takes five to

Stephen Horn
Start Anywhere #1 from the Start Anywhere series, 2014
stoneware clay, glazes, lithographic transfer and applied textures
24" h x 24" w
Courtesy of the Kellogg Gallery

Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face-to-face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight—or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher I always say to students: “Try it and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.

My aesthetic wanderings have been guided by the works of the ancient Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans; by Japanese ceramic traditions—Jomon, Haniwa, Iga, Bizen, and Oribe; by artists like Gauguin, Miró, Picasso, Motherwell, Pollock, and George Ohr; and by the ideas of Minimalism and other art movements. My modes of working in clay encompass drawing, painting, and printing as well as handbuilding, moldmaking, and throwing —if only, sometimes, to smash a pot on the wheel or to engineer its collapse.

What I hope unites my work, is a sense of the excitement I experienced in going off-road —and there’s still so much to explore out there.

Stephen Horn
Folded Walking Vessel, 2015
hand-built stoneware, cone 6 strike-fired  and black glaze
7" h x 5" w x 3" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Anyone who works in clay is confronted with a multitude of possibilities. Complexity and surprise are built into the medium, the process, the technology. Take one purposeful step down an artistic path, and you’re immediately face-to-face with a crossroads that wasn’t on your mental GPS. Should you keep going straight—or, what the hell, wouldn’t it be more fun to turn left or right and see what you run into? Exploring the unexpected side roads has always appealed to me. It’s like going on a walkabout. As a teacher I always say to students: “Try it and see what happens.” This is my own artistic mantra.

My aesthetic wanderings have been guided by the works of the ancient Minoans, Etruscans, Greeks, and Romans; by Japanese ceramic traditions—Jomon, Haniwa, Iga, Bizen, and Oribe; by artists like Gauguin, Miró, Picasso, Motherwell, Pollock, and George Ohr; and by the ideas of Minimalism and other art movements. My modes of working in clay encompass drawing, painting, and printing as well as handbuilding, moldmaking, and throwing —if only, sometimes, to smash a pot on the wheel or to engineer its collapse.

What I hope unites my work, is a sense of the excitement I experienced in going off-road —and there’s still so much to explore out there.

Mariko Ishii
Before Blooming, 2016
linocut reduction
24" h x 24" w
Courtesy of the artist

I am always attracted to the life of ordinary people, and what is ordinary is in my environment.

My work is inspired by a scene having a peaceful atmosphere, relaxing me and coming across the simple truth even if it is not peaceful or comfortable. Many of my images are derived from my daily life, traveling and literature.

My goal is to show what I see and enjoy while exploring the realities of life —moments of bittersweet reflection— and also to drawing attention to feeling a kind of warm, cheerful and encouraging contemplation of human emotions in the daily life around us.

Karen Karlsson
True North, 2015
silkscreen, encaustic and India ink on birch panel
8" h x 8" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
My work in this series explores the themes of suppression and oppression in Southern California. The main, underlying, silkscreen image in each piece is taken from a photograph of a neighbor’s front yard covered with flattened cardboard boxes to suppress weeds and grass in advance of installing a more drought-tolerant landscape.  Life suppressed in favor of “better” life.  Other incorporated images in works in this series speak the oppression of various peoples and neighborhoods by authority figures and policies again designed to suppress expressions of life in favor of something deemed more acceptable. 

The works in this series from late 2015 are mixed media pieces composed of silkscreen, encaustic and India ink on cradled birch wood panels.

Colleen M. Kelly
Wardrobe Malfunction from the Naked Under Her Clothes series, 2014
monoprint with chine-collé
24" h x 20" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
This body of work, Naked Under Her Clothes, is the felicitous outcome of my need to comply with a nudity ban at a civic art gallery. A long time advocate for public art and a community art activist, I found a subversive way to incorporate and defy the ban. I "dressed" my figures with clothing from the envelopes of vintage dress patterns, via a printmaking technique, chine collé. With this process, the image of the nude figure incised in the printing plate, is printed on top of the dress cut-out. The resulting printed image emerges as if the dress were transparent. While very delighted with the clever ‘work-around’ that solved the problem, I found more thematic implications as I continued with the series. Feminism, women's crafts, the tyranny of fashion, and puritanical notions of beauty, all inform my work.

Colleen M. Kelly
Party Hats from the Naked Under Her Clothes series, 2014
monoprint with chine-collé
24" h x 20" w
Courtesy of the artist

Collen M. Kelly
Cursive Study, 2014
photopolymer intaglio
16" h x 24" w
Courtesy of the artist

Lesley Krane
Nuance & Schizophrenia, 2016
acrylic, dismantled used teabags, graphite
hair and silver gelatin print
6" h x 6" w
Courtesy of the artist

The mixed media images on panel use a variety of processes, including collage, drawing, and photography, that infuse each element with a sense of palpable human presence. The photographs employ multiple exposures and emphasize negative space to establish an unlikely atmosphere.

Abstracted architectural compositions make up much of the imagery, and the obscure scrutiny of these spaces implicates the viewer’s, and especially the artist’s, presence. Bedding, electrical outlets, and window shades provide this content by conveying a sense of familiar intimacy, even though the viewer may be seeing these particular objects for the first time. These spaces contain the residue of human activity, and the compositional isolation and formal containment within the frame imbue ordinary settings with a mysterious significance, making them objects for contemplation rather than “windows” into reality.

Kerry Kugelman
Celestial 16, 2016
acrylic and ink on panel
12" h x 12" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
The unique qualities of ink and acrylic media have opened a new range of expressive possibilities for me. As an integral part of my process, ink continues to reveal its ability to suggest and convey worlds of intimate organic textures and majestic stellar expanses. In these enigmatic images I continue to discover new aspects of light and form.

Kerry Kugelman is a Los Angeles-based artist, and has an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. His paintings have been exhibited throughout Southern California, and are in numerous private collections. His writing has appeared in several local art publications, and he has also taught at universities and colleges throughout the Los Angeles area and the Inland Empire.

Kerry Kugelman
Plume II, 2015
acrylic, ink and charcoal on canvas over panel
12" h x 12" w
Courtesy of the artist

The unique qualities of ink and acrylic media have opened a new range of expressive possibilities for me. As an integral part of my process, ink continues to reveal its ability to suggest and convey worlds of intimate organic textures and majestic stellar expanses. In these enigmatic images I continue to discover new aspects of light and form.

Kerry Kugelman is a Los Angeles-based artist, and has an MFA from Claremont Graduate University. His paintings have been exhibited throughout Southern California, and are in numerous private collections. His writing has appeared in several local art publications, and he has also taught at universities and colleges throughout the Los Angeles area and the Inland Empire.

Esther Kwan Simon
Cholla, 2014
porcelain, cone 10
3 " h x 11" w x 3.5" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement;
As a young girl, I loved playing in the dirt.  Hiding away in my secret “cave” beneath an overgrown bush for hours, I would make places and objects for my dolls and toys. Anything I could find in my surroundings, usually twigs, leaves and especially mud, I would use to build the perfect setting. 

Nature has always been an inspiration.  But it wasn’t until a high school class in ceramics that I applied that inspiration to my newfound art medium, clay.  In my senior year of high school, I won a scholarship to Chouinard Art Institute (now Cal Arts).  During that year, I began to move from more functional and realistic pieces to more representational styles of making.

Working in clay is being with nature. Like hiking, swimming and gardening, it nurtures and energizes.  Watching what can become of a lump of mud, figuring out the process, and seeing the end results continue to drive me forward.  Like my “cave” of younger days, I still love the process of discovery for each new work.

Gina Lawson Egan
Fly Me to the Moon, 2015
hand-built ceramic, cone 2, colored slips and glaze 27" h x 23" w x 14.5" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement:
I am a ceramic sculptor, working primarily with a coarse, red clay body and muted colors from nature. I use the slow and steady coil and slab building techniques that allow my mind to simmer with full focus and my sculpting to slip into a timeless meditation.

My figurative work began with emphasis on the human head and facial features and has organically progressed to investigate the archetypal female figure — seated, lying down, kneeling, and to finally, standing. The sculptures deepen with narrative from the juxtaposed placement and scale of added autobiographical forms such as animals and objects from my surroundings.

These sculptures present the recurring theme of balance — metaphorically addressing the physical, emotional and intellectual realms of our lives.   For example, the universal challenge of balance is present in the sculpted positioning of the flying girl with arms out wide, balancing on a chair.  These works lead the viewer in, with a playful exploration of the narrative form. Then, upon a closer look, layers of meaning are revealed through these animated characters.

Gina Lawson Egan works in the Los Angeles area and lives with her family in Ontario, California. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan, and studied with the late Paul Soldner for her MFA in Ceramics from the Claremont Graduate University. Gina currently teaches Ceramics at California Polytechnic University, Pomona.  Her works are in prestigious collections throughout the United States.

Gina Lawson Egan
Sweet Ride, 2015
hand-built ceramic, cone 2, colored slips and glaze 20" h x 21" w x 10.5" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

I am a ceramic sculptor, working primarily with a coarse, red clay body and muted colors from nature. I use the slow and steady coil and slab building techniques that allow my mind to simmer with full focus and my sculpting to slip into a timeless meditation.

My figurative work began with emphasis on the human head and facial features and has organically progressed to investigate the archetypal female figure — seated, lying down, kneeling, and to finally, standing. The sculptures deepen with narrative from the juxtaposed placement and scale of added autobiographical forms such as animals and objects from my surroundings.

These sculptures present the recurring theme of balance — metaphorically addressing the physical, emotional and intellectual realms of our lives. These works lead the viewer in, with a playful exploration of the narrative form. Then, upon a closer look, layers of meaning are revealed through these animated characters.

Gina Lawson Egan works in the Los Angeles area and lives with her family in Ontario, California. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan, and studied with the late Paul Soldner for her MFA in Ceramics from the Claremont Graduate University. Gina currently teaches Ceramics at California Polytechnic University, Pomona.  Her works are in prestigious collections throughout the United States.

Anthony Lazorko & Edgar Ivan Rincon
Crossroads, 2013
color wood blocks print
13" h x 22" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
What it means to be an American has been a core question in my life and work. I livedmy first 10 years of life in Philadelphia, not far from Independence Hall, in an EasternEuropean melting pot neighborhood. I began my art education in Philadelphia at thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which greatly influenced my thinking about thecontent of my work. The school in many subtle ways encourages students to considerbecoming painters of America.

A teacher and my mentor at the academy, Morris Blackburn, encouraged me to makeprints. He obtained a scholarship for me to maintain the graphic studio through the weekand set up the studio for his once a week class on printmaking. He taught the principlesof printmaking, including the techniques of etching, engraving, lithography andwoodcuts. 

While I attended the Academy I worked as a staff commercial artist at night ata local newspaper, where I drew countless TV sets, refrigerators, cars, furniture, jewelry,etc. These were the days before clip art was so widespread. The combination of thisprintmaking and newspaper design influenced my work to become more graphic.

The focus of my work has always been to depict something about the Americanexperience, no matter how ordinary, and to say it in an aesthetic manner. Theenjoyment of color, composition and consideration of tactile surfaces all need to marrywith the content. That being said, I sometimes will create a piece for its pictorial qualitiesin, and of, itself, sometimes for the technical challenge a visual idea may pose. Elementsof the way things sound and smell are also meaningful to me. Visual images shouldbring about the "at onceness" experience that we all know and understand in an instance.

Our country is quite new compared to many other cultures in the world, and as a youngcountry I think we are still trying to find an American visual language. Or at least that'swhere I find myself in my work. American artists such as Edward Hopper, GeorgeBellows, Gustave Baumann, Reginald Marsh, the Ashcan school painters, just to name a few, all seem to talk to me. They have shown me some ways. I hope my exploration leads me to find a unique way, my own voice, that connects with a message. Thisconnection is important to me, because I believe that it's pointless not to communicatewith a viewing audience. Connection can, and should, happen in many ways. It is wherethe artist and viewer find common ground —when the art connects.

Shahin T. Massoudi
Sketch of Nature #1 from the Sketch of Nature series, 2014
clay hand-built
16" h x 6" w x 7" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement:
Nature contains all the elements of art: line, shape, pattern, texture, color, value, and most importantly, peace through balance. For my clay sculpture series, Sketches of Nature, I was moved to interpret these characteristics intrinsic in plants, animals and landscape. Through my interpretations, my ambition is for the viewer to appreciate nature with me piece by piece - not only as a source of traditional beauty, but as the complex, living, moving, intricate system that it is. Working with nature in this way, gives me the peace that I lacked for a long time.

Shahin T. Massoudi
#1 The Quiet Between… from the The Quiet Between… series, 2016
clay hand-building and acrylic painting on canvas installation
48" h x 36" w x 20" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Penny McElroy
La Danza de Estrellas from the Regalos del Fuego series, 2014
handmade saggar-fired ceramic plate with encaustic, gouache, photocopy, and vintage Swarovski crystals
12" h x 12" w x 5" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

One of the joys of looking at art is when something in the work sparks a fire of recognition just beneath my heart. This flash of personal understanding is powerful — it is like a shared memory. It makes me laugh for joy, sometimes it makes me cry, and always it makes me think. It is usually small and unexpected elements that evoke this reaction — a slight crack, patched and re-cracked at the edge of a sculpted wrist, a look of longing in the eyes of someone in a photographed crowd, a color subtly peeks through from underneath its complement…

These experiences are intimate and deep.  And they provide me with abiding goals for my own work. I want to tell the stories that exist under the surface — to make the unseen, seen. I want to re-experience the intimacy of shared secrets. I want to parse the truth that exists in façade. And when this magic works, it leads me —and I hope for viewers to come along with me — on an exploration of fleeting dreams and intimate logic, that opens a door to the place where sense and non-sense meet.

Leslie McQuaide
Of Love and Constancy, 2016
assemblage with clay and found objects
42" h x 42" w x 15" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

The universe continues to request many things of women.

Can the indigenous view of the divine feminine help us in understanding what contemporary Western society needs from women today?

Moreover, can an ancient view help women understand from where their true power comes, an allow them to be the most generous and loving presence in a world that has lost its way?

I am investigating women’s work as an expression of feminine power and healing grace.

Lee Middleman
Jade Cracked Globe, 2015
stoneware, slip and hand-textured 6.5" h x 6" w x 6" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

I throw classic forms and use surface textures to give them energy and vitality, resulting in art that is both pleasing and alive.  I seek to create patterns and textures that emphasize the organic interplay between order and randomness as found in nature.

The tactile feeling and visual look of surface textures are essential to my pieces.  I create textures by deeply impressing patterns into thrown cylinders.  Then, working from the inside only, I expand the cylinder to create the final form.  This technique allows the pattern to evolve as the clay twists and expands.  As the pattern adjusts to the shape and function of the vessel, it becomes reflective of nature’s adaptation to form.

My glazing process enhances the natural aesthetic of the order and randomness.  Thinly glazed surfaces highlight the macropatterns and reveal the stoneware clay’s micro-texture created during the expansion process.  I often use multiple glazes to intensify the dynamic tension of the surface.

My goal is to pursue the interplay of shape, surface texture, ordered patterns, and random effects so that work is created that intrigues the eye and demands to be touched.  Although my work is functional, it is often prized as decorative.

Lisa Nappa
Between, 2016
porcelain with colored slip inlay
4.5" h x 24" w x 2" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement:
There is permanence to ceramics that is undeniable. My current body of work plays with the impossibility of joining two powerful elements —the impermanence of water portrayed through the permanence of earth. The beauty of water was the initial inspiration, yet as I began to explore the formal possibilities, the politics of water came to the surface. Water can be controlled, contained and directed; yet the unpredictability of nature continues to challenge us. I try to convey the beauty of water, transforming it into careful constructions through form and surface.

It is often the things that we cannot hold onto that intrigue me, shadows on a wall, slight movement within leaves on a tree, reflecting light on a body of water. These moments of fleeting beauty hold a magic that is unattainable and bring forth the ultimate emotion of ephemerality. There is sadness or just the practical sense of knowing that this perfect moment cannot last, cannot be contained or kept, and yet, this is exactly what I try to do.

Mara Nasland
The Beating of My Heart, 2016
clay under-glaze and glaze
13" h x 10" w x 8" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

As a ceramic artist, my work is influenced by my connection with the earth, and my fascination with the continual changing of its formations due to the tremendous forces worked upon it. This deep connection comes from the combination of my Native American ancestral past, my present need as an empath for grounding me, and having the element of ‘earth’ as a Taurus in Western astrology. Native Americans and empaths are able to discern and take on the emotions, moods and pain of others to help them heal. Native Americans say that you have to become sick to understand sickness, before you can cleanse negative energies to heal others.

Empaths know that they must take on the pain of others to help them also, and it will overwhelm them and make them ill. By grounding themselves and releasing these energies, they can then heal themselves. For me, creating works from clay which re ect the earth’s forms, colors and textures is a way of grounding myself, along with hiking and diving to physically connect with the earth  firsthand. I have people constantly talk to me about the most personal things in their lives —even complete strangers will sit down and talk about what is hurting them. They just want someone to listen, but their emotions and pain stay with me, and drain me. I have to hide the pain until I can make something that connects me back to the earth where I can unload. I chose to make pieces that show the force of nature on the earth. The emotions I am trying to release determine the work I create. Anger and fear have me creating pieces that show cataclysmic forces, like volcanic or earthquake actions. Sadness and pain have me creating pieces that show the relentless forces of wind and water carving the earth. And sometimes I get lucky and people share happy emotions, and I am able to create peaceful, calm works of nature.

As a Taurean, I enjoy working with clay because of the sensual, tactile nature of the material. It is physically satisfying to have all of one’s senses engaged in the creation of the work. Because it is hard to express my feelings openly, it feels good to put those emotions into my work, creating pieces that combine my inner feelings with the world around me.

This year my work has been changing due to the tremendous changes in my own life. Death, ambiguity and uncertainty, and the impending changes of my life have made it harder to ground myself, and create. However, living is the greatest work of all, and I feel that out of that comes my best work. So, there is a lot to draw from at this point, and I am eagerly getting back into the act of creating. I want viewers of my work to feel the sense of time and energies worked upon the earth, to show a sense of connection for them, and to remind them to get out into the world and investigate for themselves the wonders they can feel..

Mara Nasland
Canyons of My Life, 2015
porcelain, clay, stains
13" h x 30" w x 4" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

As a ceramic artist, my work is influenced by my connection with the earth, and my fascination with the continual changing of its formations due to the tremendous forces worked upon it. This deep connection comes from the combination of my Native American ancestral past, my present need as an empath for grounding me, and having the element of ‘earth’ as a Taurus in Western astrology. Native Americans and empaths are able to discern and take on the emotions, moods and pain of others to help them heal. Native Americans say that you have to become sick to understand sickness, before you can cleanse negative energies to heal others.

Empaths know that they must take on the pain of others to help them also, and it will overwhelm them and make them ill. By grounding themselves and releasing these energies, they can then heal themselves. For me, creating works from clay which re ect the earth’s forms, colors and textures is a way of grounding myself, along with hiking and diving to physically connect with the earth  firsthand. I have people constantly talk to me about the most personal things in their lives —even complete strangers will sit down and talk about what is hurting them. They just want someone to listen, but their emotions and pain stay with me, and drain me. I have to hide the pain until I can make something that connects me back to the earth where I can unload. I chose to make pieces that show the force of nature on the earth. The emotions I am trying to release determine the work I create. Anger and fear have me creating pieces that show cataclysmic forces, like volcanic or earthquake actions. Sadness and pain have me creating pieces that show the relentless forces of wind and water carving the earth. And sometimes I get lucky and people share happy emotions, and I am able to create peaceful, calm works of nature.

As a Taurean, I enjoy working with clay because of the sensual, tactile nature of the material. It is physically satisfying to have all of one’s senses engaged in the creation of the work. Because it is hard to express my feelings openly, it feels good to put those emotions into my work, creating pieces that combine my inner feelings with the world around me.

This year my work has been changing due to the tremendous changes in my own life. Death, ambiguity and uncertainty, and the impending changes of my life have made it harder to ground myself, and create. However, living is the greatest work of all, and I feel that out of that comes my best work. So, there is a lot to draw from at this point, and I am eagerly getting back into the act of creating. I want viewers of my work to feel the sense of time and energies worked upon the earth, to show a sense of connection for them, and to remind them to get out into the world and investigate for themselves the wonders they can feel..

Annie Nguyen
S-S-Sinner from the Juxtaposer series, 2015
ceramic
22" h x 13.5" w x 21" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

My sculptures are self-portraits.  They mirror my life.  These sculptures show stages in my life when I had conflicts with my culture and the Western society in relation to my identity and trying to fit in both worlds.  My conflicts deal with body image, self-esteem, sexuality, peer influences, school, occupation and religion.  I choose to use animals in my sculptures because I feel that sometimes people can connect more to animals than to other human beings.  The animals that I choose have references through culture, general or American society, and/or religion.  The postures, outfits, and expressions all have these references as well.  They document moments where I struggle to make decisions about who and what I should be.  These decisions are sometimes made for my own self, my parents, or social norms.  Through this journey of decision-making, I question my own identity.  Am I who I really want to be?  Or am I a fraud —being what others want me to be?  Overall, the purpose of my work is to build a connection with people, and in turn, hope that they can relate to me.

Annie Nguyen
Staying in Shape from the Juxtaposer series, 2015
ceramic
36" h x 13.5" w x 14" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement:
My sculptures are self-portraits.  They mirror my life.  These sculptures show stages in my life when I had conflicts with my culture and the Western society in relation to my identity and trying to fit in both worlds.  My conflicts deal with body image, self-esteem, sexuality, peer influences, school, occupation and religion.  I choose to use animals in my sculptures because I feel that sometimes people can connect more to animals than to other human beings.  The animals that I choose have references through culture, general or American society, and/or religion.  The postures, outfits, and expressions all have these references as well.  They document moments where I struggle to make decisions about who and what I should be.  These decisions are sometimes made for my own self, my parents, or social norms.  Through this journey of decision-making, I question my own identity.  Am I who I really want to be?  Or am I a fraud —being what others want me to be?  Overall, the purpose of my work is to build a connection with people, and in turn, hope that they can relate to me.

Annie Nyugen
Doctor Art from the Juxtaposer series, 2015
ceramic
32" h x 13" w x 11" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement:
My sculptures are self-portraits.  They mirror my life.  These sculptures show stages in my life when I had conflicts with my culture and the Western society in relation to my identity and trying to fit in both worlds.  My conflicts deal with body image, self-esteem, sexuality, peer influences, school, occupation and religion.  I choose to use animals in my sculptures because I feel that sometimes people can connect more to animals than to other human beings.  The animals that I choose have references through culture, general or American society, and/or religion.  The postures, outfits, and expressions all have these references as well.  They document moments where I struggle to make decisions about who and what I should be.  These decisions are sometimes made for my own self, my parents, or social norms.  Through this journey of decision-making, I question my own identity.  Am I who I really want to be?  Or am I a fraud —being what others want me to be?  Overall, the purpose of my work is to build a connection with people, and in turn, hope that they can relate to me.

Dakota Noot
Kristy, 2016
ballpoint pen drawing
18" h x 15" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
My work weaves together experiences, specifically using my family as subjects. I’m fascinated by activities such as daydreaming and doodling because anyone can engage with them regardless if they consider themselves an artist or not. Even the ballpoint pen, which I have used to create my work, is an everyday tool more commonly used for writing than art. All of these activities can be brought together to create Surrealist portraits reflecting their subjects.

There is something innately personal about the pen and how people use it. Not only does handwriting vary between people, but also the way they hold and use the pen. They can take notes, write journals, and doodle with the pen. My portraits become reflections of their subjects: their bodies become decorated with doodles and undecipherable scribbles and patterns. Their personality and interests dissolve into symbols growing or manifesting out of them. The pen’s ink reveals a person.

Dakota Noot
Paul, 2016
ballpoint pen drawing
18" h x 15" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
My work weaves together experiences, specifically using my family as subjects. I’m fascinated by activities such as daydreaming and doodling because anyone can engage with them regardless if they consider themselves an artist or not. Even the ballpoint pen, which I have used to create my work, is an everyday tool more commonly used for writing than art. All of these activities can be brought together to create Surrealist portraits reflecting their subjects. 

There is something innately personal about the pen and how people use it. Not only does handwriting vary between people, but also the way they hold and use the pen. They can take notes, write journals, and doodle with the pen. My portraits become reflections of their subjects: their bodies become decorated with doodles and undecipherable scribbles and patterns. Their personality and interests dissolve into symbols growing or manifesting out of them. The pen’s ink reveals a person.

Varsha Patel
Humboldt County, 2016
linocut reduction
18" h x 24" w
Courtesy of the artist

Patricia Post
Breaking Through, 2015
collagraph, woodcut
48" h x 36" w
Courtesy of the artist

I have always held a deep emotional relationship with the human story.

I have an endless fascination for the human figure: the beauty and grace of its form and the power of its gesture to evoke response. I draw upon literature, poetry, personal experience, current events, myth, and narrative from which to consider the human condition in its strengths and frailties.

I am interested in the provocation of gesture as it relates to the paradox and contradictions of what it means to be human and the challenge of finding visual forms to hold emotion and the narrative of experience.

I am interested in creating image where beauty and bravery meet, and to tell the truth of what is haunting me...like a black hole that absorbs energy and then releases it as something new and alive.

I often work from an unconscious, intuitive place, surprising myself over what comes out of that. Ultimately, I am fascinated by the distinguishing qualities of human nature: our relationships, our passions, our fears, how we choose to exist, believe, or interact. Everything refers back to that, no matter the object that I am discovering.

I have great empathy for human vulnerability.

Marsha Schweitzer
Steam and Smoke, 2016
monotype
11.5" h x 18" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
“Let the work speak for itself” has always been part of my artist’s statement. I usually find my inspiration in the visual experience – in the excitement of color and the extremes of light and dark.  However, this image was directly influenced by the ubiquitous, disturbing world news.  The devaluation of human life, the sacrifices that are made to survive, leading to the displacement of masses of people, have become some of my subjects.  Could they be expressed in the monotype medium in anything but black and white?  Color seems to me too seductive.  These themes are very close to my own history, so not surprisingly, they are now part of my art as well.

Roxanne Sexauer
Black Pool/The Bardo, 2015
linoleum cut and stencils diptych
18" h x 20" w ea.
Courtesy of the artist

Much of my work is based on a practice of observational drawing. For notions of complexity, uniqueness, resonance, malevolence and the grotesque, an object will call out to me to render it through my own filters. I am always searching for extraordinary natural forms that extend the metaphorical correlations to structures within the human body.

Other prints are recombinant in nature, made up of sundry observed forms sketched initially from my travels. Travel is incredibly important to my production. I find that venturing away from comfort is adaptive to fresh artistic insights.

Almost all the works have relief printmaking as the dominant voice, with backup “singing” done in lithography, screenprint, monotype, stencil or etching. There is a fetishism of the organic in my prints, and I attempt to find the rhythms of my own language in my marks.

Among my influences are early prints made to depict various branches of the animal and plant kingdoms. This would include the work of Conrad Gessner and Ernst Haeckel, as well as other early graphics of microscopic animals. Other influences include my more-or-less Germanic ancestors - Albrecht Dürer, Martin Schongauer, Pieter Brughel the Elder, Max Beckman, Edvard Munch, Erich Heckel, and Egon Schiele.

Roxanne Sexauer
Susurrus, 2014
woodcut
41" h x 33" w
Courtesy of the artist

Much of my work is based on a practice of observational drawing. For notions of complexity, uniqueness, resonance, malevolence and the grotesque, an object will call out to me to render it through my own filters. I am always searching for extraordinary natural forms that extend the metaphorical correlations to structures within the human body.

Other prints are recombinant in nature, made up of sundry observed forms sketched initially from my travels. Travel is incredibly important to my production. I find that venturing away from comfort is adaptive to fresh artistic insights.

Almost all the works have relief printmaking as the dominant voice, with backup “singing” done in lithography, screenprint, monotype, stencil or etching. There is a fetishism of the organic in my prints, and I attempt to find the rhythms of my own language in my marks.

Among my influences are early prints made to depict various branches of the animal and plant kingdoms. This would include the work of Conrad Gessner and Ernst Haeckel, as well as other early graphics of microscopic animals. Other influences include my more-or-less Germanic ancestors - Albrecht Dürer, Martin Schongauer, Pieter Brughel the Elder, Max Beckman, Edvard Munch, Erich Heckel, and Egon Schiele.

Ethan Snow
Future Devotion, 2015
porcelain
20" h x 4" w x 4" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement:
The pervasion of technology into every aspect of our lives interests me. The use of cell phones and computers are ubiquitous, and to be tech-illiterate is to be invisible both in the social sphere, and any job above manual labor. These undoubtedly influence our behavior and how we now form our world views. I believe that religion is a social construct and, if so, that means our increased integration with technology should manifest itself in various ways in the religions of the world. One interesting incarnation is the emergence of transhumanism. Transhumanism is a loosely-defined, multifaceted philosophy and movement based on the belief in the power of technology. In essence, technology will prolong and enhance our lives through genetic engineering, human implantation, mind/computer interfacing, and to eventually allow us to possess the capability to transcend our bodies in an ascension to immortality.  What a religion following this progression of ideas would produce artistically is what interests me, and I seek to capture that essence in my work.

Ethan Snow
Cold Revelation, 2015
porcelain
24" h x 6" w x 6" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Howard Steenwyk
Heroes Andy Warhol/Jean-Michel Basquiat
from the Seeing Red series, 2016
silkscreen print on canvas mounted to board
23" h x 17" w x 1.25" d
Courtesy of the artist

Seeing Red is a series of work that uniquely combines two divergent images to create a new image with content each individual image does not possess on its own.

Seeing Red is about the elusive and illusive quality of reality and how our personal conceptions contribute to what we comprehend as truth.

Subject matter portraits are combined to allow the viewer to create a personal meaning of the image that lies not in the image itself, but rather, in their perception of it.  When viewed through the red or blue filter, the image is deconstructed and the source images are revealed.  The composed image is then viewed with a new knowledge that can’t be unlearned presenting a conflict between perception and reality.

Howard Steenwyk
Give Peace a Chance Mahatma Gandhi/John Lennon
from the Seeing Red series, 2016
silkscreen print on canvas mounted to board
23" h x 17" w
Courtesy of the artist

Artist Statement:
Seeing Red is a series of work that uniquely combines two divergent images to create a new image with content each individual image does not possess on its own.

Seeing Red is about the elusive and illusive quality of reality and how our personal conceptions contribute to what we comprehend as truth.

Subject matter portraits are combined to allow the viewer to create a personal meaning of the image that lies not in the image itself, but rather, in their perception of it.  When viewed through the red or blue filter, the image is deconstructed and the source images are revealed.  The composed image is then viewed with a new knowledge that can’t be unlearned presenting a conflict between perception and reality.

Meriel Stern
Domestic Flow 3 from the Reef series, 2016
site-specific installation: cone 5-fired porcelain, mason stain and acrylic paint
dimensions variable
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Reliquaries and Lachrymatories is a series of porcelain sculptures and installation.

This work is concerned with the growth and form of living things.

I am interested in the morphological processes of composition, transformation and eventual decomposition of all living things, and the aesthetic similarities of these processes in Nature.

I use a single line of cotton yarn to crochet dimensional shapes derived not only from material and technique, but also from the close study of natural, fertile forms including seeds, fruits and pods, diatoms, sea creatures, animal organs and body parts. Our bodies: skin, fat, and bone, sex, food, and fetishistic attachments, these are in my thoughts while working…

These forms are basically created from one strand and that one string can become a shape that has many different associations. With crochet, as with many other systems, changes are simply a matter of an increase or decrease in the number of units, in this case loops. There is contraction or expansion, continued mathematically within a certain range. This process connotes and embodies the many repetitive activities that are ubiquitous in the maintenance of our daily lives.

This soft crocheted sculpture is further transformed into a rigid structure after soaking in porcelain casting slip and then firing. This leaves a vitreous “relic” of its past, much like coral that we collect on beaches is a skeleton of the living creature that once grew under the sea. The process of creation, transformation and eventual destruction of these forms is temporarily captured for a moment in time, which allows us to reflect upon not only upon narrative connections, but upon our collective domestic condition, and creates a kind of index of previous

Judith Jaye Tanzman
Mudpots #2, 2015
pronto-plate lithography
10" h x 15.5" w
Courtesy of the artist

Cecilia Torres
Ampersand Cursive, 2014
low-fire clay, low-fire gold/bronze metal coating 21" h x 20" w x 3.5" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Artist Statement:
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.

-Picasso

This is a favorite quote of mine, which also defines my journey as a ceramicist —the yearning for the sun— the visual solution in clay.

As I am deeply aware of my Pacific Islander background from the island of Guahan (Guam), I explore the history, myths, legends, and traditions of the island. I remember watching a segment on TV about Oceania where it was mentioned that there is no word for ‘art’. I realize that my particular island is often hit by typhoons and much can be destroyed, but Guam is known for its weaving and carving. Is there not art in these pursuits? Then I read recently that there is no word for ‘artifact’ in Oceania (Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia) because an ‘artifact’ is a Western concept. Painting, sculpture, carving, weaving, even tattoos, are actually an integral part of social and religious aspects of daily island life. 

That’s why I like to create in clay: not working in a medium as a special project, but because the imagery is part of my personal story, something I see every day. Maybe, the clay journey incorporates function and form and selects from my past and present. I make what’s in my head because I don’t see the same experience elsewhere.

The great designer Massimo Vignelli was quoted as saying, “if you do it right, it will last forever.” Maybe the clay piece I make may not last, but the thought that it once emanated existed will last forever.

Chris Tyllia
Coronal Discharge, 2016
ballpoint pen on paper
14.5" h x 11" w
Courtesy of the artist

Chris Tyllia
Oyster Range, 2016
ballpoint pen on paper
15" h x 22" w
Courtesy of the artist

Noriho Uriu
Net Walk from the Signal & Noise series, 2015
color reduction relief print
22" h x 18" w
Courtesy of the artist

She would like to be connected with things happening in the world through her artwork. Her art is an imprint of her life’s daily observations, feelings, and thoughts.

She creates her abstract work by using color reduction relief —woodcut and linocut— and monotype printmaking methods.  Her content is inspired by sound, music, diagrams, nature and news in the digital world.

Julia Vansell
Shades, 2014
monotype
20.5" h x 18" w
Courtesy of the artist

The development of a visual idea is the challenge for every artist. What do I want to say?  Strong images that reflect emotional feeling, reference to a thought or time, a glimmer of hope. These are my inspirations. With each print an idea begins. As it develops the tenor or mood evolves to suggest and reveal something. Facial representation, mood reflection, language, layers, color tension, serenity. Sometimes it is the moment, or the moment in between. Hard to know. Transition, truth, contradiction, blending and integrating. I strive for all of this.

I find today’s world in a similar context. Coincidence? My art is very intuitive but always seeking strength of emotion and identity. Technique and personal editing, how best to capture. Find the right balance, composition, color, materials and emotion. This is what lands me back into my studio every day.

Creativity is a form of freedom that all artists feel and, are challenged by. It is both liberating and exhilarating, but comes with self-induced personal boundaries. “Where is my balance? What do I want to say”?

Sylvia Walters
Dearest Daughter (Lost Lessons), 2014
reductive woodcut with stencils
16.75" h x 12.75" w
Courtesy of the artist

Over two decades, I’ve often used my prints to examine the subjects of memory, place, and family exploring a range of very personal narratives including rites of passage, loss, ritual, aging and healing. Most of these pieces have been developed using images pulled from nature, from material culture —including family albums, and from art history. Dearest Daughter (Lost Lessons) falls into this body of work. The piece was inspired first by my father —by his memorable letters and his love of literature and poetry, as well as stories from the Old Testament— which he often read to us as children. Another source of inspiration for some of my prints, including this one, lies in the work of the great Japanese Ukiyo-e artists. Between the two, Hokusai’s awesome and perilous Great Wave, a reflection on loss, is linked in this piece to Tennyson’s poem, Break, Break, Break (“on thy cold gray stones, O Sea!”), a favorite of my dad’s.

My principal medium is color woodcut. Each impression is hand-printed from a single block using a combination of acetate stencils and reductive cutting. Each edition often takes over a year to execute. Although this results in something of a poor commercial practice, I enjoy the process and feel the results express my ideas well.

Helen Werner Cox
Warehoused, 2016
quill pen, ink, colored pencil
18" h x 24" w
Courtesy of the artist

Using the antique carousel as a visual metaphor of society, I exploited its diverse images through different vantage points and media.

Antique carousels —having been originally constructed for adults, not children— are anything but benign, allowing me to express anxieties we experience regarding things beyond our control.  The horses emerge out of darkness, mouths open in silent screams, moving ever forward but going nowhere.  This paradox symbolizes the circles we spin, both individually and collectively.  The horse, which dominates the antique carousel, has been instrumental in human development:  in farming, transportation, and war.  What is significant is that we are in an age when horses are obsolete in these regards, as we find ourselves on the brink of extinction.

My interest in the wholeness of an image was explored by analyzing compositional elements in the works of Goya and Paula Rego and considering how these components contribute to the power and emotional expression of their images.  I applied elements of these compositional frameworks and value relationships to my own work.

Inspiration for the images comes from antique carousels in Southern California and the Running Horse Studio Collection in Irwindale.  In my most recent work, randomness begins to replace the circular motion of the carousel.

Peter Wolf
Rebirth 2016 
ceramic sculpture with lighting effect
20" h x 20" w x 9" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

Peter Wolf
Last Call from the Lava Series series, 2016
ceramic
9" h x 7.25" w x 9" d
Courtesy Kellogg Gallery

The Lava series seeks to explore our culture from the viewpoint of an archeologist examining the remains of a civilization long since gone. What story does it tell? It's a question I often ask myself when I view the ruins of previous cultures, or even each time I empty the trash. I often wonder, "What would they find, and how would these artifacts be interpreted?"

As a ceramic artist, I strive to push the edge of clays possibilities as a medium. Much of my inspiration comes from nature, and this series was the result of exploring Hawaii’s lava fields. I experimented with a variety of clays and texturing techniques, as well as unusual glaze materials, to achieve the effects you see here. Hopefully, viewing these pieces will allow you to reflect on your own lives, your own art, and the haunting beauty of objects suspended in time.

I hope with these pieces to start a conversation about who were are, what we value, and what we leave behind.

Zengo Yoshida
Cups from the Cups series, 2015
earthenware under-glaze painting dimensions variable
5 h x 7 w x 2.25 d";
3.5 h x 6 w x 2.875 d";
4.5 h x 5.375 w x 2.5 d"
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

My inspirations are many —from traditional forms to modern techniques.  I appreciate the variety of ceramic works done by the artists from all over the world. However, I appreciate the work that has intentional message, a statement or story behind it, as well as visually well thought-out piece.  I believe these pieces have more value as a whole.

I enjoy making playful and visually interesting objects with a variety of surface decorations using underglaze and engobe, hoping to give viewers a chance to have fun looking at it.  Some of my recent artwork has sharp-edged shapes, but I try to soften the whole image with freehand brush-painting, or colorful and playful graphics.  I have fun in the creation process, and I hope the viewer enjoys the outcome.

Zengo Yoshida
The Bird from the Vase series, 2014
cone 10, slab-built, underglaze and engobe painting
9.5" h x 5.125" w x 3.375" d
Courtesy of Kellogg Gallery

My inspirations are many —from traditional forms to modern techniques.  I appreciate the variety of ceramic works done by the artists from all over the world. However, I appreciate the work that has intentional message, a statement or story behind it, as well as visually well thought-out piece.  I believe these pieces have more value as a whole.

I enjoy making playful and visually interesting objects with a variety of surface decorations using underglaze and engobe, hoping to give viewers a chance to have fun looking at it.  Some of my recent artwork has sharp-edged shapes, but I try to soften the whole image with freehand brush-painting, or colorful and playful graphics.  I have fun in the creation process, and I hope the viewer enjoys the outcome.

Nancy Young
Untitled Raven, 2016
lithograph
20.5" h x 20.5" w
Courtesy of the artist

Untitled Raven is a part of a body of work developed in my last year as an undergraduate printmaker at CSU Long Beach.  Seeking crow and raven imagery, lead to observations of ‘the discarded’ and ‘kept’ throughout the Southern California landscape.

Having a specific plan affords the artist a heightened attention to detail and a unique perspective. Traveling the areas surrounding the university, “as the crow flies”, led me to a heightened awareness of my own personal perspective: an awareness that perspective can vary greatly for each of our ‘untitled souls’, at the same place, or at different times.

My practice draws on personal experience to explore the nonlinear nature of grief, and its effect on memory and loss.

Nancy Young
Beginning and End :: The Beginning of the End
from the Letting Go… series, 2015
"tradigital" print, digital and silkscreen
27.75" h x 22.75" w
Courtesy of the artist

The Beginning of the End began with a 35mm photograph I took of my late husband in 1988. The image was scanned and digitally reworked and combined with screen print to reflect the shifting layers of memory and reality.

Combining various printmaking processes allows me to bring layers from the past, forward, and present on the same plane as current observations. Experience has shown that the past is often clearer and often a more preferred place, than the present.

Zenka
Markerless Facial Capture: Lucas, 2015
raku
19" h x 13" w x 7" d
Courtesy of the artist

Zenka
Coco and the River Dragon (with Augmented Reality), 2016
linoprint with augmented reality overlay using a smart phone technology app.
19.25" h x 16" w
Courtesy of the artist

Jim Zver
After Madrid #1 from the After Madrid Series, 2014
acrylic paint, India ink and charcoal on paper
10.875" h x 10.75" w
Courtesy of the artist

Jim Zver
After Madrid #2 from the After Madrid Series, 2014
acrylic paint, India ink and charcoal on paper
11.5" h x 7.5" w
Courtesy of the artist

The After Madrid Series of collages was begun after several extended visits to Spain, primarily in Madrid, in 2012 and 2013.  The way into this series for me —the “hook”— was through the colors I observed in Spain, particularly the colors of the Spanish landscape and the Spanish flag.  The red in the flag was also the red used in the protest posters, ubiquitous throughout Spain, of the Indignados, protesting against the far right government. In the country, red is a leitmotif —a recurrent theme throughout a work of art associated with a particular idea or situation— and I wanted to emphasize and reference that in these collages.

Jim Zver
After Madrid #3 from the After Madrid Series, 2014
acrylic paint, India ink and charcoal on paper
11.25" h x 7.75" w
Courtesy of the artist