Monday, December 20, 2010

Curators' Statement

0 comments Posted by Candace Garlock at 5:45 PM


Geographical Divides:  Finding Common Ground examines Nevada’s unique visual culture.  In this exhibit, Nevada artists have organized a print exchange that would bring two separate groups together to share dialogue, ideas and purposes of Nevada culture in the hopes of understanding and fostering new levels of communication. Such as in any “peace-making” venture, the concept started with dialog that thought to juxtapose pop culture myths like “Area 51”, “The Biggest Little City in the World” and “Sin City” with the harsh reality that Nevada is a state comprised of two major metropolitan communities that is divided by 300 miles of vast desert and pockets of small rural towns.  There are notable differences in the style and content of art throughout the state and Nevada’s art communities are not separated by distance of travel alone. 

What better venue than to ask artists to start this level of communication through a project?  Historically, printmakers are artists who enjoy the sense of community that a printshop creates, and share their images, ideas and techniques with all.  They are also able to produce multiples, thus increasing their reach to individuals outside their immediate community in “exchanging” their work.  This assembly of printmakers—eight from the north, eight from the south— have produced two prints from each collaboration. Each artist produced an initial plate that was sent to their collaborating partner for further surface and conceptual additions, and then returned for completion. The particular processes and techniques were of the artists own choosing. Through their conversations, they were left free to interpret the idea of “Geographical Divides” as they wished.

Traditionally, artists are isolated creatures, working in private in their studios and workspaces, thinking their own thoughts, contemplating their own images.  No one else touches or alters that work.  Thus, in this collaboration, the chosen artists are asked to step out of their comfort zone, allowing little known individuals to alter, change, and mar their work.  Not an easy task.  On the flip note, this idea of changing someone else’s work, creates new possibilities and new resolutions to images, moving their artwork and concept beyond their traditional limits.  The collaborating artists receive dual benefit, flexing their own artistic minds, and reaching out to new members of the art community - starting a dialogue in the struggle to understand and create bridges where there had recently been chasms.

Collaborating artists include:  Maria Arango, Las Vegas/Lynn Schmidt, Reno; Erik Beehn, Las Vegas/Nolan Preece, Reno; Bobbie Ann Howell, Las Vegas/Galen Brown, Carson City; Daryl DePry, Las Vegas/Sharon Tetly, Carson City; Keith Conley, Las Vegas/Sidne Teske, Tuscarora; Anne Hoff, Las Vegas/Vicki LoSasso, Reno; Jeanne Voltura, Las Vegas/Candace Nicol, Reno; and Juan D. Varela, Las Vegas/Ashlea Clark, Reno

Geographical Divides: Finding Common Ground is curated by Anne Hoff, Professor of Art, College Southern Nevada and Candace Nicol, Director of Oxbow Press and Instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College. This exhibit is part of the Nevada Arts Council’s Nevada Touring Initiative–Traveling Exhibition Program, and is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nevada State Legislature. The Nevada Arts Council is a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs.

 

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Friday, October 16, 2009

Lynn's Artist Statement regarding Geographical Divides

0 comments Posted by Lynn Schmidt at 9:57 AM

Since moving to Reno some years ago from a softer, greener place, I have used art to grapple with my environment. I found that making art about the place is my way to claim it and feel at home. In the beginning I was intimidated by the desert landscape and started with still life paintings. Soon the still life objects were perched before windows with a glimpse of the hills beyond. Later I found a group of plein air painters who introduced me to the many facets of my new home state which I have come to appreciate, and maybe even love.
I also find that living in town is convenient in all sorts of ways, though the quiet, empty, wild places of Nevada are the ones that nourish my spirit. Luckily, I have a taste of both, living as I do at the urban edge of northern Nevada’s largest metropolitan center. From the front of my house I overlook a sea of tract houses and hear the hum of the distant freeway. From the back of the house, I see hill beyond hill of pinion-dotted rocky land which so far is only lightly tamed by human development. This urban interface is an interesting place of contrast and conflict. The wild horses in their quest for food often make themselves unwelcome on the suburban lawns. The rabbits and ground squirrels make gardening a frustrating business. This place of dichotomy, this tension between untamed and over regimented is the inspiration for the work I am doing for the Geographical Divides project.

 

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