WELCOME TO ARTISTS, COLLECTORS, AND ANYONE WHO LOVES ART!
Artist Spotlight will focus on interesting artists, notices about upcoming exhibitions I think you might enjoy, and articles about art and those who love it or create it.
Here's a blog where you can discover new ways to stretch your imagination, be introduced to new artists, their exhibits, and books to read about them. Expect to excite your mind. Comments are very welcome! -- Rosemary Carstens
Alice and Richard Matzkin, she a painter and he a sculptor, live and love in a rural area of Ojai, CA. Twenty-six years married, they now share a studio and are engaged in interpretive expressions of figures in the midst of their elder years.
Alice, after a 22-year hiatus while she raised their two children, returned with passion to her paints and canvas and began to focus on women as subjects, most recently aging women, some nude, at ease with their bodies.
Two of her paintings—one of the famous potter and sculptor Beatrice Wood at age 100, and feminist Betty Friedan—were purchased by the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and are in their permanent collection.
Richard was immersed in visual arts as a child, but pursued a long career in music and psychology before returning to art and falling in love with sculpture. He feels his life has now come full circle and, lately, he, too, has begun a dialogue through his work, focusing on elderly people as subjects, exploring and interpreting what it is to age in our society. One of his pieces was selected for the art book The Great Age, published by UNESCO during the United Nations International Year for Older Persons.
The couple has produced a book titled THE ART OF AGING: Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self (Sentient Publications), which “takes a penetrating look at aging through a series of projects that confront fear and curiosity about growing old. We explore physical changes, sensuality and relationships, aging parents, spirituality and death. Drawing on our personal experiences and the wisdom of older mentors, we conclude that our elder years can be a time of ripening and harvest. Look for the book at bookstores everywhere, as well as online.Additional images of Alice and Richard’s poignant and thought-provoking work may be seen on their website at http://www.matzkinstudio.comHere's a fantastic video where the couple describes their philosphy and process and you can get a glimpse of their warmth and commitment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOhx1qHyMNQ
(Photo above right: Richard in Bed with Cat, Alice Matzkin; photo above left: Untitle Lovers series, Richard Matzkin. Couple photo is by Donna Granata, Focus on the Masters, Series 2008)
Mixed media artist DARLENE OLIVIA MCELROY creates works of vision and imagination in her Santa Fe studio. She fashions her richly textured, sensuous paintings using an amazing array of found objects, photo transfer, gold leaf, paint, collage, and, as she puts it, “juicy thoughts.”
McElroy doesn’t just put a bunch of disparate objects on canvas or board, she excels at telling stories utilizing history, symbolism, and iconic images. Color and texture constantly inspire her and she’s something of a magician as she conjures up new techniques that add depth and interest to her exceptional work. 
“There’s something about the look people had in old photos, the life an object had before it landed in my hands, the honoring of what came before and how all of this can be reinterpreted . . . I think I am part magpie. There is something about a corroded piece of metal, an old button, keys, the odd things that make me want to take [them] to a new place.”
Darlene McElroy was born and raised in Southern California and is descended from an old New Mexico family of artists and storytellers. Visions of summers spent growing up on her family’s Santa Fe ranch, with its “rich tapestry of Hispanic life,” dance constantly in her head and influence her work.
This weekend, November 14-15, Saturday from 10-5 and Sunday 11-4, McElroy will be participating in the Santa Fe Studio Tour. She and artists MARY PARKER (acrylic and oil demented still lives) and LINDA FILHARDT (monoprints) invite you to stop by, enjoy treats and special studio pricing. Go to http://www.santafestudiotour.com for a list of participating artists. McElroy’s studio is #15—directions are on the website, or you can call 505-471-8300.
To see more of McElroy’s images, for technique tips and workshop dates, to read her blog or purchase books and videos, visit her website at http://darleneoliviamcelroy.com.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) opens its fall exhibitions today and all three sound fascinating! They will run from October 9, 2009-January 10, 2010. If you are in Washington DC during these dates, I strongly recommend you put this unique jewel of a museum on your schedule.
NMWA has a knack for mounting shows that are unique, that focus on fresh, innovative themes. The one that first caught my eye among the fall exhibits is Telling Secrets: Codes, Captions and Conundrums in Contemporary Art. Its theme was inspired by the variety of mediums and techniques used by many of today’s artists to convey layered meanings in their work. Collage, symbols, text, marks, and mixed media such as encaustic, oils, ink, and found objects are often combined, worked and reworked, in sophisticated additive and reductive processes that create a sense of depth and mystery. Compelling and intriguing even at first surface glance, the art in this exhibit draws the viewer back again and again as more is revealed.
Alison Saar (see image above left), Leonora Carrington, Jane 
Hammond, Robin Kahn (see image right), Hung Liu, Shirin Neshat, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Adriana Varejão are among the 23 featured artists in this show. This is an evocative, culturally diverse presentation that represents a wide range of complex themes. And yet, there is a sense of unity among them. These artists are not only skilled at their craft, they are storytellers, weaving plot and subplot, passion and mystique, with masterful literary genius.
The other two fall exhibits on display through January 10, 2010, are:
Elements of Nature: Equines and Still Lifes by Clarice Smith, featuring 20 paintings that portray the artist’s elegant vision of nature’s abundance rendered in her inimitable classic European style.
Lands of Enchantment: Australian Aboriginal Painting, presenting 26 works by Australian painters who explore aboriginal dreamtime traditions through the use of elaborate symbols and signs that translate and interpret generations of layered meanings. These paintings have never been exhibited publicly before.
For more about the NMWA, its history and mission: http://www.nmwa.org/THE WOMEN'S MUSEUM ®
1250 New York Ave., NW Washington, DC 20005-3970
202-783-5000, 1-800-222-7270
Two blocks north of Metro Center
NOTE: There is a wonderful new book, A Museum of Their Own, written by founder Wilhelmina Cole Halladay, that delightfully reviews the conception and history of the NMWA. It’s available in an autographed copy through the museum shop, or at bookstores nationwide. (Above left: Alison Saar, Snake Man, 1994. Woodcut and lithograph on paper, 33 1/2 x 42 1/2 in. – Above right: Robin Kahn, Victoria’s Secret, 1995. Mixed media on canvas, 68 1/8 x 28 1/8 in.)
The Jane Sauer Gallery is one of my favorites in Santa Fe and I never fail to visit them when I’m in town. They feature high-quality, innovative, and exceptional work by carefully hand-picked artists. I always find something that delights me!
This month, mixed media artist MARY O’SHAUGHNESSY is featured and her show, “Daughters of Memory,” opens this Friday, October 2, with a reception for the artist from 5-7 p.m. The show runs through October 27th.
O’Shaughnessy’s work grounds itself in the curvaceous female form and makes fresh use of such materials as handmade abaca paper, neon, wood, doll furniture, beeswax, metal and text. Each is a narrative work, often related to the ironic aspects of being a woman, and frequently revealing the artist’s wry sense of humor.
Mary recently spoke with Jane Sauer about her work:
The figures look like torsos, the iconic headless, armless torsos that we associate with classic art, but I see them as the external manifestation of these internal dialogues. As a woman, I have struggled to overcome these internal dialogues, and see myself for who I am, not through the critical eye that was created by me as a reaction to words or events that have happened. . . . I know that we all have these demons, and by creating sculpture that addresses some of these universal concerns, in a humorous way, I hope to let others know they are not alone, and that they can move beyond the circular thinking that keeps them from moving forward.
If you are in Santa Fe, drop in and see these poignant, skillfully crafted "herstory" creations for yourself. You may find you can’t live without at least one!
Winter Gallery Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday 10-5; closed Sundays & MondaysTo see more images: http://www.jsauergallery.com
-- Rosemary CarstensCarstens Communications(Images: Left, "You Can Never Be Too Rich or Too Thin," 31" x 17" x 13"; right, "Bingo! Life Is a Game of Chance," 33" x 17" x 18")
Slender and fit, with silver-white hair and beard, Jim Atherton often appears from the outside to be deep in thoughtful repose. But if you had the super hero gift of reading minds, of “seeing” what is going on inside his head, you might rear back in surprise. Jim’s brain is on steroids—he’s seeing line and form, light and shadow, pattern and design as only a fine art photographer can. You can almost hear the click and whir of digital ASA settings and shutter speeds crackling through his brain as he calculates frame, angle, and negative space.Atherton works in a private studio in Boulder, Colorado, which he says 
“becomes a stage where intimate performances play out under lights and in front of backdrops.” Because he does not want to simply report what he sees, but to penetrate the emotion and essence behind his subject matter, Jim loves photographing people. He works directorially, with a light hand, coaxing his subjects to forget he is there and to drop any self-consciousness or inhibition. He seeks revelation, something in the eyes, the line of a belly, the electric connection between people. Although Atherton says his passion is photographing people, the elegant shot to the right speaks volumes about his skillfully rendered still lifes.
Whether photographing individuals, mothers and their babies, a ruby-red cluster of tulips patterned against a stark black background, or the clasping of time-weathered hands, Jim Atherton (to the left) brings sophistication and an empathetic eye to the finished product, bridging the gap between subject and ultimate viewer with a message beyond the surface.
To see more of this fine art photographer’s work or to contact him: http://www.jamesatherton.com
Tomorrow, September 14, an exhibition of NEW WORK BY DAVID PEARSON will open at the Patricia Carlisle Fine Art gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, NM. It will run through September 23, with an opening reception this coming Friday, 9/18.
Pearson's work is about beauty, litheness, and eternal grace. He brings an element of emotion to each piece that must be seen personally to be fully engaged. To him, creation is a circle of connectivity between the artist, the gallery, and the collector. Pearson feels it is that circular energy that “completes the communication,” and there is no doubt that his figurative work inspires communication, creating a silent dialogue between viewer and sculpture that is fresh and exciting.
Through his imaginative use of proportion, abstraction, exaggeration, and minimalism Pearson 
captures a classic, renaissance aesthetic in his pieces. He sculpts ethereal figures that unfailingly portray a range of quiet emotions, figures caught unawares, in repose, in a moment of contemplation or unselfconscious pleasure.
Pearson’s mastery of his craft and his in-depth explorations of art history have led to his continually growing international reputation as a master craftsman. He built his studio on acreage outside Santa Fe that he and his wife purchased in the 1990s, and his work ethic is legendary. It is not unusual for him to work from sunup to sundown.
While his ability to bring his visions to fruition is a testament to his skill, he has said in interviews that his signature elongated, elegant figures “flow” out of him, inspired by mythology and history, the Etruscans, and by such artists as Modigliana and Giacometti. But, in the end, they are all Pearson, the stunning product of a rich mind and impressive talent.More images can be seen at Carlisle Fine Art & on
David Pearson's website.
(Top left: mirothea, 28”; right, misceo, 40”; bottom left, the artist; right, his studio)
Wandering around Canyon Road during my last trip to Santa Fe, I stopped in at Darnell Fine Art at 640 Canyon and discovered the intriguing work of Shawna Moore. If you haven’t seen her paintings, you have a treat in store! The more you gaze, the more their depth and intricacy reveals itself in her skillfully crafted encaustic work. About her present show “MOSAIC,” the artist says the work “deals with bringing together individual parts that when viewed in isolation have a less recognizable value, but when combined in the montage of a multilayered painting, the separate parts unite to make a whole.”Moore has been including elements of cursive handwriting and rando
m marks in her recent work, layering, obscuring, revealing them to create mysterious, almost spiritual elements in her paintings. At times they seem to emerge from some deep geography of the mind, a blending of nature and literature. She continues to draw from a deep well of daily experiences and discoveries both in her home state of Montana and in her international travels. These images and memories are as essential to the final product as the long hours she spends melting, coloring, and manipulating wax. As she puts it, “Mosaic describes the constant evolution I desire in my work and is based on the change and buildup of all the influences that have come before.”
Educated in fine art, architecture, and drawing, Shawna Moore’s paintings are at first glance large and bold, totally abstract. But if you take a moment to sit quietly in front of them and look deeply you will be drawn into their mystery, their swirling colors, text, and markings that blend together in textured layers to create something entirely fresh. If you are in the area, stop by and take a look for yourself! To view more images, go to the Darnell Fine Art website, or
visit the artist's website at http://www.shawnamoore.com
or her blog: http://www.shawnamoore.blogspot.com/
(Top left, “Whisper,” 40 x 20; Right, “Token,” 40 x 40; Lower left, “Prayer Flag Yellow,” 20 x 20. All paintings are encaustic on panel)
Alice, after a 22-year hiatus while she raised their two children, returned with passion to her paints and canvas and began to focus on women as subjects, most recently aging women, some nude, at ease with their bodies.
Richard was immersed in visual arts as a child, but pursued a long career in music and psychology before returning to art and falling in love with sculpture. He feels his life has now come full circle and, lately, he, too, has begun a dialogue through his work, focusing on elderly people as subjects, exploring and interpreting what it is to age in our society. One of his pieces was selected for the art book The Great Age, published by UNESCO during the United Nations International Year for Older Persons.
The couple has produced a book titled THE ART OF AGING: Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self (Sentient Publications), which “takes a penetrating look at aging through a series of projects that confront fear and curiosity about growing old. We explore physical changes, sensuality and relationships, aging parents, spirituality and death. Drawing on our personal experiences and the wisdom of older mentors, we conclude that our elder years can be a time of ripening and harvest. Look for the book at bookstores everywhere, as well as online.
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