Together We Will at RISE!

Karla Albright of the Los Gatos chapter of  TWW/Indivisible Los Gatos caught the Gutfreund Cornet Art show, RISE: Empower, Change and Action!, the day it opened and approached Whitney Modern for a special tour so the rest of her group could take it in! Though it is a national exhibition, a number of Bay Area artists were happy to get together again and share some of the inspiring motivations behind their social justice work in the gallery.

Please note that if you click on any of the names of artists and organizations, etc, in bold in this post, you will open a link to their website!

Suzanne Whitney Smedt, welcoming us all to her beautiful contemporary art gallery, Whitney Modern, located on the second floor of 24 N Santa Cruz Ave in downtown Los Gatos. The gallery typically represents twelve fine artists but has teamed up with Gutfreund Cornett Art for this specific summer show curated by Karen Gutfreund, Sherri Cornett, Marianne McGrath and Suzanne Whitney Smedt.

Karen Gutfreund reading Maya Angelou’s poem, Still I Rise from the exhibition catalogue, on which Ceciley Blanchard (Jackson Tennessee) had based her photographic series. I love hearing that read (or sung by Ben Harper)!

Irene Carvajal (Belmont, California) with her (what) do YOU think? desk with the positive  messages we’d wish we’d grown up with carved into the wood. You can even take rubbings with the graphite pencils and paper provided, if there is a resonating message you’d like to bring home with you.

Priscilla Otani (San Francisco) with her original braille art book, Political Action Group on democratic women in congress and democratic women running for congress – copies available at the gallery have all sold out but you can still order them through Amazon!

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro (Sunnyvale, California) with her monotype, oil, paper and string on panel piece, Bound and her mixed media installation, In a Constant State of Rising and Falling.

Winnie van der Rijn (San Carlos, California) with her photographic image transfer and embroidery on muslin pieces, One Size Fits All.

When it came time for me to speak about my painting, In the Pink, I shared how I believed that the Pussy Hat (originally co-created by Krista Suh) became such an immediate, global, viral icon of the Woman’s March because it employed such a feminine voice. It took knitting, a traditionally feminine craft, one that we do with our hands, and our hearts, in our homes or together in groups, using soft, warm, pretty and fuzzy fibers and often give as gifts to one another to wear with pride (a bit of kitty humor) saying in our sea of pink that, “We see you Pussy Grabber in Chief and we do not approve, we will not forget, and we will stand together and march for our rights.” Even the metaphor of knitting one stitch, connected to another, and another, collectively making something bigger than ourselves, is so perfect!

Rinat Goren (Woodside, California) with her beeswax, pigment and paper paintings, Finding Points of Agreement 1 and Finding Points of Agreement 2.

Irene Carvahla (Santa Cruz, California) with her acrylic, mixed media and image transfer, Ambient Thoughts.

Irene Carvajal (Belmont, California) with her screen print on paper, fan and plexiglass tank kinetic sculpture, Future Gains: the dollar is rising. She is selling individual bills to help fund her trip to the border to offer her language services to those families who are seeking asylum at the border and are too often being separated and denied their legal rights.

Chandrika Marla (Mountain View, California) with her acrylic on canvas painting, For Our Lives.

Karen Gutfreund standing with Jenny Reinhardt‘s mixed media on canvas painting, Split the Sack, shared the dismall figures, of the percentage that women artists earn in comparison to their male counterparts, as well as how poorly they are represented in museum shows and what an incredible value their work actually is! Sales continue a pace at Whitney Modern and RISE has been extended to September 9th, 2018 to be included with ForFreedoms a 50 state activist art initiative!

Shannon Edwards from TWW/Indivisible Los Gatos thanking the Whitney Modern and the artists for the evening. Together We Will as a grassroots civil engagement movement that helps to lobby for progressive initiatives, supports candidates and sponsors local events was the perfect audience for RISE! It’s so great to join together like this!

Artist, Winnie van der Rijn and author and speaker, Nilofer Merchant.

RISE! Pano Power

In my continuing documentation of RISE: Empower, Change and Action!, the Gutfreund Cornett Art exhibition at Whitney Modern, I’d like to explore the power of the pano and it’s potential to give the illusion of being in the gallery and experiencing the flow of the work….

RISE! Reception!

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Wow! This Show!

The Gutfrend Cornett Art exhibition, RISE! Empower, Change and Action Reception and Artist Talk and Walk at Whitney Modern in Los Gatos, California last Saturday was completely uplifting and inspiring with artists as far away as New York sharing the moving inspiration and fascinating stories behind their work.The exhibition is intended to create a dialogue between artist and community together over important issues feminist issues of out time. Click on artists names for links to their websites where available.

The girl blowing bubbles on the cover of the exhibition catalogue came to life welcoming quests to the reception.

Three of the four fabulous curators, Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, (Gallerist of Whitney Modern) Marianne McGrath (Independant Curator), Karen Gutfreund (Activist Curator at Gutfreund Cornett Art and Arist) that pulled together this fabulous exhibition, standing in front of Vanessa Filley‘s (Evanston, Illinois) archival pigment print on cotton rag paper pieces, #Me Too, Minerva Looking, #Me Too, Assata Toward, #Me Too, Gabriela, The Futrure and bedside Indira Cesarine‘s (New York, New York) neon piece, Equal Means Equal. The fourth fabulous curator, Sherri Cornett (Activist Curator at Gutfreund Cornett Art and Artist), was unable to make the reception, and was greatly missed!

Karen Gutfreund, engaging the audience, earlier she had read Maya Angelous’s poem, Still I Rise, in honor of Ceciley Blanchard (Jackson Tennessee) who had based her photographic series, (included in the catalogue) on this poem and was unable to make the reception where she had hoped to recite the poem herself.

Gathering to view the work of Carolyn Doucette (Tiburon, California) and Sarupa Sidaarth (Tiburon, California)

Love how the In a Constant State of Rising and Falling installation floats in the “atrium” between Whitney Modern above and Gallery 24 below.

Artist Walk and Talk around the gallery where each artist would speak briefly about their contribution to the show.

Me with my oil on panel painting, In the Pink.

Dana Richardson (Scotts Valley, California) with her oil paintings Burning Woman and Millennial Woman.

Irene Carvajal (Belmont, California) with her screen print on paper, fan and plexiglass tank kinetic sculpture, Future Gains: the dollar is rising. She is selling individual bills to help fund her trip to the border to offer her language services to those families who are seeking asylum at the border and are too often being separated and denied their legal rights.

Maeve Grogan (Bend, Oregon) with her Mixed Media and Flashe acrylic painting, Noise & Space Game.



Mague Calanche
(San Francisco, California) with her acrylic, oil  and wax on wood painting, Todas Trabajamos, Hasta Las Ninas.

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro (Sunnyvale, California) with her monotype, oil, paper and string on panel piece, Bound.

Penny McElroy (Redlands, California) with her graphite, colored pencil, digital composite, encaustic, metal thread with LED piece, sweet fragrant spring.

Jenny Reinhardt (Summit, New Jersey) with her mixed media on canvas painting Split the Sack and Karen Gutfruend.

Amy Pleasant (Mill Creek, Washington) with her acrylic painitngs, Something Worth Waiting For and On Her Shoulders.

Chandrika Marla (Mountain Vew, California) with her acrylic on canvas painting, For Our Lives.

Rinat Goren (Woodside, California) with her beeswax, pigment and paper paintings, Finding Points of Agreement 1 and Finding Points of Agreement 2.

Winnie van der Rijn (San Carlos, California) with her photographic image transfer and embroidery on muslin pieces, One Size Fits All.

Karuna Gutowski  (Santa Cruz, California) with her acrylic, mixed media and image transfer, Ambient Thoughts.

Paula Bullwinkel (Bend Oregon) with her oil on canvas painting, So The Darkness Shall Be The Light And The Stillness The Dancing.



Sally Edelstein
(South Huntington, New York) with a print of her monumental collage, Women’s Lib-A Storms Approaching.

Roberta Aherns (Petaluma, California) with her plaster embedded fiber and acrylic painting on box frame painting, Sepia Dahlia.

Sondra Schwetman (Arcata, California) with her silk, pigmented sewing pins and steel sculpture, Witness. This piece was a Special Award Winner by guest juror, Joan McLoughlin of Mcloughlin Gallery in San Francisco!

Brian Rothstein (Vallejo, California)  with his oil painting on canvas, Be Gentle 1.

On the far left of this photo is the monitor displaying even more amazing work that is included in the catalogue but for which gallery space would not accommodate. On the right is Marisa Govin‘s (Talent, Oregon) watercolor on paper painting, Ñust’as.

Pages from Gloria Matuszewski ( Novato, California) mixed media, Altered Book, Gray’s Anatomy.

Gina Herrera‘s (Bakersfield, California) assorted found materials sculpture, Jaunting for Restitution.

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro (Sunnyvale, California) upstaged by her clear umbrellas, fishing line, silkscreen or laser cut plexi installation, In a Constant State of Rising and Falling.

Viewing Nayda Cuevas (Arlington Massachusetts), oil and panel paintings #latina:Reclaimingthelatinatag.

Anitra Frasier (Dolton, Illinois) was a Special Award Winner chosen by guest juror Jessica Porter (Arts Bussiness Strategest, New York, New York) for her oil on wood painitng, I Think It’s Going To Rain Today, on the left. On the right is Kelsey McDonnell’s (Buffalo, Wyoming) acrylic on canvas painting, Learning to be a Phenomenal Woman, #6 Balancing Time and Energy who was also chosen as a Special Award Winner by guest juror, David Weinberg, (Executive Director of Weinberg Newton Gallery, Chicago Illinois) for her acrylic on canvas painting, No Turning Back.

Sally Edelstein speaking on her work.

Maeve Grogan describing the meaning behind her work. A glimpse of Beth Lakamp’s (Fenton Missouri) watercolor on clayboard panel, that’s the idea and she told them so.

And my favorite photo from the reception, my muse for my oil painting, Feathers hanging with my favorite bubble girl!

A distant peek at Sarupa Sidaarth‘s (Tiburon, California) acrylic, googly eyes, eyelets on canvas painting, Shh.

The League of Women Voters, a non partisan group, had volunteers available at the gallery to register people to vote. Make your voice heard and Vote! 46.9% of those eligible did not vote in 2016 and look where that got us! in the background you can catch a glimpse of Blond Jenny‘s ( Edison New Jersey) c-print, Womanhood, Lindsey Carrell‘s ( Billings, Montana) oil and egg tempera on panel painting, Translate, and Shelly Floyd‘s (Round Rock, Texas) acrylic on paper painting, Struggle to Rise.

RISE! – Going Up!

Spent the day with Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, Karen Gutfreund, Marianne McGrath and Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro, because it’s more fun to unload a U-Haul together!

Many hands make for light work!

Unwrapping Jenny Reinhardt‘s huge painting Split the Sack.

Looking good together! Jenny Reinhardt‘s Split the Sack and Gina Herrera‘s sculpture, Jaunting for Restitution.

Rozanne Hermelyn Di Silvestro installing her installation, In a Constant State of Rising and Falling.

The installation can seen from Gallery 24 down below as well.

Laying out the pieces of the puzzle, Nayda Cuevas paintings #latina:Reclaimingthelatinatag.

RISE! – Incoming!

I brought in my painting, In the Pink, to Whitney Modern on Friday, for the upcoming Gutfreund Cornett Art show RISE: Empower, Change and Action! and was delighted to find the exhibition catalogues hot of the press! It tells us about Gutfreund Cornett Art with its vision of “Changing the World Through Art” and Whitney Modern a much needed Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in the heart of the Silicon Valley,  the curators of the show, Gutfreund Cornett Art, Marianne McGrath and Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, the guest jurors: Jessica Porter, Kelsey McDonnel and Joan McLoughlin (and all the special award winners) and documents all of the art in the show with artists comments about their pieces.  There are also two important essays on the importance of social activist art and engaging with community by Sherri Cornett and Karen Gutfreund.

Gallerist, Suzanne Whitney-Smedt and Curator / Artist, Karen Gutfreund, (curators for the exhibition along with Sherri Cornett and Marianne McGrath), graciously modeling the new catalogue for me. Catalogues are available at Whitney Modern while supplies last or through Amazon.

165 pages of gorgeous images and inspiring content!

See?

Santa Cruz artist, Karuna Gutowski was bringing in her Ambient Thoughts painting just as I was leaving. It’s in the bottom right corner, just below Scotts Valley artist, Dana Richardson‘s painting Burning Woman. Can’t wait to see the rest!

The exhibition runs July 18 – August 31 with an opening reception and artist talk Saturday July 21 12:30 – 3:30pm. 24N Santa Cruz Ave, Los Gatos, California.

Save the Date for Rise!

Whitney Modern, in collaboration with Gutfreund Cornett Art, and guest juror Joan McLoughlin of McLoughlin Gallery, San Francisco, are pleased to present Rise: Empower, Change, Action! This juried exhibition features selected works in the gallery by thirty-six artists from locations around the country and additional twenty-five artists on a looping slideshow on a monitor in the gallery. If you are in the area, please join us for the reception and artist talk for Rise, Saturday, July 21, 12:30 – 3:30 pm (talk at 2:30).

RISE: Empower, Change and Action! brings artists into dialogue and brings forth what is important to self, community, our nation and the world at large through art that reflects on, addresses and seeks solutions for a more positive, empowering future, particularly for self-identified women and girls as well as their families. It is underpinned by the feminist principle that believes in political, economic and social equality for all. RISE emphasizes the commonalities of our human experience.

Join the conversation and see paintings, sculpture, printmaking, photography, collage and installations that speak for equality, independence and human rights while offering insight, healing and transformation.

Exhibition runs July 19 – August 31, 2018 hours Wednesday – Saturday: 11:00 – 5:30, Tuesday by appointment.
Whitney Modern Gallery 24 N. Santa Cruz Avenue, 2nd floor (no elevator), Los Gatos, CA

In the Pink and Feathers in Rise

 

I have some very exciting news to share, both of my paintings, In the Pink and Feathers have been selected for Rise, a nationally juried show organized by Gutfreund Cornett Art in conjunction with Whitney Modern that will run July 18 – August 31, 2018 in Los Gatos California. For a preview of the inspiring and powerful work included in this exhibition, curated by Suzanne Whitney-Smedt, Marianne McGrath and Gutfreund Cornett Art, visit GutfreundCornettArt.com where you can also see who won the Special Recognition Awards, selected by Jessica Porter, David Weinberg and Joan McLoughlin!

“RISE: Empower, Change and Action! seeks to bring artists into dialogue and to bring forth what is important to self, community, our nation and the world at large through art that reflects and addresses complex socio-cultural issues and focuses on a vision for a more positive, empowering future, particularly for self-identified women and girls as well as their families. It is underpinned by the feminist principle that believes in political, economic and social equality for all.” – from the show’s prospectus.

Such an honor to be exhibiting with this great array of artists working for empowerment, equality and social justice!  Mark you calendar, the reception will be held at the Whitney Modern, 24 N Santa Cruz Ave (on the second floor) Saturday, July 21, I’ll post the exact time closer to the date.

 

In the Pink – 2017 – oil on cradled panel

 

Feathers – 2013 – oil on canvas

In Conversation – La Niña and Social Justice

In conjunction with the opening of Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All on at Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art (September 18 – December 1, 2016), Gutfreund Cornett Art arranged for the exhibiting artists to come and speak, In Conversation! 19 of the 46 artists were able to come, some traveling as far away as San Diego, LA. Utah, Mexico and New Zealand! We were all share it there was a single event that had tipped the scale for us, why were were creating the socially engaged work we exhibiting. In this photo above, taken by Sherri Cornett, we are all nervously waiting to begin, the quiet before the sharing. I was struck by how heart-felt and deeply human and absolutely inspiring all the artist’s stories were! I thought I would share with you here what I shared with the crowd last Sunday about my piece.

The image for my painting, La Niña, came to me in a flash and it haunted me, calling me to paint it. I had been following the coverage of the tide of unaccompanied minors from Central America flooding across the border between the United States and Mexico and I was driven to try and understand the circumstances in their homelands that must be so horrible as to drive them to make this dangerous journey alone. What I found was an environment of rampant gang violence, gangs like Mara 13 and 18 that began in LA and were deported to El Salvador where they had flourished, fueled by poverty and civil unrest. So pervasive and endemic was this culture of the Maras, many minors felt they had no choice but to flee from forced recruitment and rape. There was this one photograph I came across that made such an impression on me, it was of a young woman with a giant 18 tattooed across her face which she had received in punishment for refusing to execute a gang murder, it was a family portrait with her baby and her husband, who was the gang’s tattoo artist . She seemed so sad and worried – branded in this very obvious way, an admonishment, a possession, a target. The photo was taken by Christian Poveda, a Hispanic-French photo-journalist and filmmaker of La Vida Loca who was later killed by the gang for his work. In this photograph, I saw the impossibility of the situation where your very skin is indelibly marked with violence. I imagined  the image of an innocent baby floating buddha-like in a sea of tattoos, those of one gang etched on to her body, and those of the rival gang floating around her. In searching for a more universal statement, these very specific gang symbols later morphed into more generalized symbols for danger and entrenchment that are marking the lives of our children.

La Niña – Oil on canvas

Here I am interpreting symbols I had morphed in this photograph by Ann Dubois at the reception.

Social Justice Reception

The powerfully engaging internationally juried exhibition, Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All, organized by Gutfreund Cornett Art opened Sunday at Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art with an inspiring Artist Talk in which 19 of the 46 exhibiting artists participated, some who traveled from as far away as San Diego and Los Angeles, Utah, Mexico and New Zealand!  It was very moving to learn what had compelled each artist to create their work and to listen to the types of reactions their work has received. Typically working with controversial, challenging and even disturbing subject matter, I found all these artists to be particularly brave, passionate, thoughtful, smart and deeply human. I can’t tell you how honored I am to have my work included with this company. This exhibition runs until December 11, 2016 in Moraga, California. Print and online catalogues are available at Gutfreund Cornet Art.

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Dream team curators, Sherri Cornett and Karen Gutfreund in front of Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art.

Detail from Joseph Tipay‘s – Prison Letters – Woodcut and Monotype handprinted on kozo paper.

Me, with my oil painting, La Niña.

Miholyn Soon and Ellie Jones – The Sculpted – Video.

Sara Friedlander – Stonewalled in Jerusalem – MDF panels, digital collages, original and archival photos, paint.

Beth Krensky – The Bridge III  – Bronze

Veronica Cordoso – The Girl Who Fell From The Sky – Digitally modified digital photo on aluminum

Gerardo Castro – Haiti and Dominican Republic: One Island – Two Worlds – Fire-burning on Arches oil paper

Sibylle Peretti – Making Birds – Carved, engraved, silvered and painted plexiglass, feathers, paper

Rhonda Brown  – JustUs is not 4all –  Lenticular print, mixed media

Dan Tague – Justice Will Prevail – Ultrachrome print on photo luster paper

Jane Venis – Shiner – Vblack wet-look vinyl, 400 spikes, chrome chain

Jaime Shafer – 1 in 3 – Stonehenge paper, Epson paper, ink, photographs

Vicki Gunter – It’s Not One Thing…It’s Everything – Clay photographs, slips, stains, lusters, wood mount decoupaged with altered copies of $1 bills

Maru Hoeber – Flight – Porcelain and wood veneer

Priscilla Otani – Pleasure Quarter – Wax paper, photo, paper covered cages, ink drawings

Andrew Seaton – The Wall series (Reagan)  – Digital art

Justyne Fischer – The Sunshine State – Ink, voile, stretcher bars,  floater frame

Remedios Rapoport  – Power to the People II – Oil alkyd painted sculpture in wood with gilding, mirror and collage behind antique slumped glass

Xian Mei Qiu – The Birdcage – Photograph on plexiglass

Finally, I’m always grateful for my supportive friends – you’re just the best!

For more information on the exhibit, please click on this link to Gutfreund Cornett Art: http://www.gutfreundcornettart.com/info-social-justice.html

 

HuffLove for Social Justice

Hey, a blog post about a blog post!

I wanted to share this wonderful article Amy Pleasant wrote for the Huffington Post on the exhibit, Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All called Artists as Activists.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-pleasant/artists-as-activists-purs_b_11783614.html

This is the show that my painting La Niña is in, and I must say she’s hanging in some awfully fine company!

Social Justice in Moraga

Long time no see – but just because it was summer vacation and I was far to busy for blogging, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot happening behind the scenes that I’d love to share and I’m going to see if I can catch up! As usual, the post is loaded with easy links to click on where text is bold.

Yesterday, for instance, I took in my painting, La Niña to Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art in Moraga, California for Social Justice: It Happens to One It Happens to All, an exhibition curated by Gutfreund Cornett Art.  I’m standing in front of the exhibition banner featuring one of my favorite pieces from the show, Xian Mei Qiu’s  The Bird Cage (I can’t wait to see the original photograph on plexiglass in person!) The show opens Sunday, September 18 with a 1:15 pm  Artist Talk at the Soda Activity Center and runs through to December 18.

The art in the exhibition is extremely moving and powerful (as can be seen in their online catalogue), juried from artists across the country and beyond!

The exhibition catalogue can also be ordered through Amazon (I’m on pages 34 & 35).

Saint Mary’s College mission styled campus is stunningly beautiful, its white stuccoed architecture gleaming through its green and flowering landscape, nestled into the golden hillside east of Oakland – a gorgeous setting to look at some of the darker themes we need to pay attention to in our world.

This the the Soda Activity Center (up behind the church) where I’m told the Artist Talk will be held. There is free public parking directly in front of this entrance and the Museum is just across the way where a reception will be held in the pretty courtyard. I hope you’ll consider making the trip to experience the work first hand and to hear the artists tell their sure to be fascinating stories!