For the past 16 years, Pajaro Valley Arts (PVA) has partnered with Sierra Azul Nursery and Gardens for an annual art exhibit. Artists install sculptures throughout Sierra Azul’s two-acre demonstration garden, creating an open-air gallery surrounded by native trees and plants.
For this year’s Sculpture IS: In the Garden, curators Susana Arias, Hedwig Heerschop, and Sierra Azul owner Jeff Rosendale selected more than 90 sculptures by 48 contributors to be displayed. Read more…
If you need a gift for the art lover in your life, a dad, a grad or you just want something creative for yourself, all three of my books are available in the online shop for just $60.
It can be embarrassing to look back at work you’ve made in the past, like really embarrassing sometimes…but it’s also a sign that your work has grown and evolved. These images are from my first solo exhibit in 2006 at a gallery that doesn’t even exist anymore, it was a space that had a lot of challenges – mainly ‘how do I put sculptures on a wall?’ since that was the only space available to place work in and I was building very three dimensionally at that time.
But, that challenge led me to designing floating pedestals that my husband made and I still use to this day. It also led me to working with high temperature wire not only as a design element but also as a structural element to attach the pieces to the wall, allowing me to go big (and secure) on the wall. Lots of things were learned in the process of putting this show together.
I still have a few of the vines in my studio and get to visit a number of the other pieces at friends and families homes, I still think about what I could do better or different with all of these works, but overall I’m still pretty pleased with these pieces and really not too embarrassed.
Yesterday, I installed my four largest Umbels at Sierra Azul Sculpture Garden in Watsonville CA as a part of Sculpture IS: 2022 exhibition. I love showing my work in this space, it’s truly one of my favorite annual local shows. Here’s a sneak peek of A Feast of Fennels, but you really need to get to see this show in person – it officially opens June 1st!
About A Feast of Fennels: The inspiration for these sculptures comes from my exploration of the natural world, and my curiosity about identifying plants, especially the edible ones. As an amateur forager, every hike in the woods has become like a trip to the grocery store for me. Fennels are one of the most recognized edibles that grow in California, available for the taking, yet there is a tendency to not trust the wild plants. This disconnect we humans have with nature, the loss of knowledge about native plants and how that relates to the global issue of food insecurity are all concepts explored with these pieces.
Sierra Azul Nursery & Gardens | 2660 E Lake Ave, Watsonville, CA 95076 | Open Daily 10 – 5
Sculpture IS: 2022 | June 1 – October 31 | pvarts.org
Marine Drifters has 237 porcelain parts attached across 3 deep blue panels. Each panel is 26″ x 72″ and now they are off to the framers to get their plexiglass boxes made and then they will be installed. Really loving this one and can’t wait to see it installed in it’s new home.
The forms of the porcelain are based on the intricate skeletal structures of a variety of planktons. Planktons play a huge role in the health of our planet as they release oxygen into the atmosphere while alive and when they die, they trap carbon sinking it into the deep ocean, as well as being a major source of food for ocean animals.
The studio has been taken over with the process of prepping three 26″x72″ panels for the public art piece that will be placed in a new health care building here in Santa Cruz. I have literally been watching paint dry for days on end, building up the layers to get a beautiful blue surface to place my porcelain pieces on. I’ve finally been able to start on the layout of the pieces and get a nice flow between all the panels that mimics the Santa Cruz County coastline.
Once I’m happy with the layout, every piece will get adhered to the panels. Some of pieces lay flat but some have rods attached to the backs so they will be drilled into the panel and float off the surface creating areas of depth in the piece. Excited to see these finished and send them off to the framers for protective plexi boxes and their mounting hardware.
My days in the studio right now have been bouncing between a few upcoming projects but the piece that is occupying most of the space is a wall mounted work for a new health care building in Santa Cruz. I’ve been making all the ceramic parts and playing with size, layout designs and balancing all of that with the clients needs. It’s a really fun puzzle to work on and it’s starting to come together. It’s also amazing just how much work goes into placing artwork into a public space, like, a gazillion emails, testing, testing and then testing materials some more, plus all the design changes, to make it all just right. In the end, it will be so worth it to see the work shine in it’s space.
back panel tests, the space & sample porcelain pieces
Below is the photoshopped version of what is to come, there will be hundreds of porcelain pieces placed on three separate panels mounted above this workstation that spans approximately 20 feet across. The final piece will get encased in a plexiglass frame to protect the pieces. The curve of the line is based on the shape of the Santa Cruz County coastline while the pieces are based on the skeletal forms of a variety planktons that live in all oceans. I’m pretty excited to start in on this endeavor, entitled ‘Marine Drifters’, and I hope that it makes for an enjoyable place who will work here and see the artwork on a daily basis.
Aerena Gallery has listed the cloches in their online shop! There are two smaller and two very tall glass cloches with wood bases, each with a unique composition of Bone Series Medusas and Urchins. Interested in collecting them? SHOP HERE
I went up to Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery this week with curator Tauna Coulson to see the gallery space and toss around ideas for my upcoming exhibition there this fall. It’s a beautiful space nestled into the redwoods that I hadn’t been to a million years. As a bonus, I got to see the current exhibition on display.
Warp & Weft is about how textiles are integral in our lives, yet often overlooked. The exhibit showcases nine artists work with themes of family, community and politics through weaving and the history of cloth. Here are a few images I took of the show…
I know the parking is awful, but they are open Thursday nights until 7 and on Saturdays 12-5, so if you get a chance get up there and check it out!
I’ve been spending a lot more time in the water these days…it’s freezing but also exhilarating, I always feel better after a swim, as if the whole day can be reset by a good dunking. Swimming has always been a place of meditation for me, and water has always been an inspiration. Lately, I’ve been diving deeper (pun not intended!) into the science of water; reading more, learning more and thinking more about all the ways we encounter water. How we take its resource for granted, how we live in the subtle balance of having too much or too little water, how our bodies literally 60% water and really paying attention to what’s below the surface.
These images below are of radiolarian skeletons under an electron microscope, radiolarians are single cell planktons that live in all oceans, they trap carbon from the atmosphere and make up the majority of siliceous ooze at the bottom of the deep oceans. I’ve been fascinated by their complex forms for a long time and have based many works of art around these forms.
Over the coming months, I’ll be working on a number of new pieces using these as inspiration working towards an exhibition at Smith Gallery on the UCSC campus. I’m most excited that through the university, I will be partnering up with professors and students who are studying these creatures, their impact on the larger animals of the ocean, climate change and how we are all connected. I can’t wait to geek out on the science side of all this and use my art as the vehicle to share that knowledge in the upcoming exhibition. I am inspired.
