I have been so pleased at the reception of this exhibition which I co-curated with Brian Fleetwood and Hannah Toussaint. Ashley Callahan wrote a lovely article about the Everybody’s Bolos exhibition that made the cover of Ornament magazine. I also had the pleasure of working with Veronika Muráriková who created a colorful overview of the show for Current Obsession. We even got picked as ‘Required Reading’ for Hyperallergic! The show is up through May 10th at UNT. After that, you will have to wait until January 2025 to see it at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts or July 2025 where the work will be for sale at Hecho a Mano in Santa Fe, New Mexico..
Everybody's Bolos
In the fall of 2021, post-baccalaureate student Hannah Reynoso Toussaint approached me about making a series of bolo ties. They were the objects that her non-binary partner most enjoyed wearing. I suggested she do some research and when she was unable to locate much information, I went looking myself. I was surprised to find very little information on the subject. The best resource by far is an exhibition catalog by the Heard Museum written by Diana Pardue and Norman Sandfield entitled “Native American Bolo Ties: Vintage and Contemporary Artistry.”
But there was nothing out there about its adoption by the queer and non-binary communities. Respected museums with established fashion and jewelry collections had few bolo ties if they were located outside the southwestern United States. The field of art jewelry has put out books on chatelaines and tiaras, but no bolo ties.
This bothered me and bothered me until I decided that this gap needed to be addressed. I reached back out to Hannah and asked if she would be interested in working on a bolo tie project. She said she would. Then I reached out to Brian Fleetwood who teaches at the Institute for American Indian Arts and with whom I served on a committee for SNAG. He was interested. So the three of us got together on a video conference and formulated a plan to have an exhibition of bolo ties with accompanying catalog. We each invited ten artists and contributed bolo ties as well. The three of us provided essays on different aspects of the bolo tie.
I was fortunate to receive a University of North Texas (UNT) Institute for the Advancement of the Arts Fellowship which gave me a semester to focus on this project as well as funds for professional photography of the bolos and publication of a catalog. Additional funding has been supplied through the generosity of the UNT Libraries, The Bohlin Company and Deedie Rose. The UNT Art Gallery had an unanticipated availability this spring, which we were able to secure. We wanted the show to leave the Southwest and were able to make an agreement with the Fuller Craft Museum to have the show travel there in 2025. To help the participants sell their work, the final exhibtion will be at a commercial gallery, Hecho a Mano, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the summer of 2025.
With an exhibition and catalog, the next step in my mind was a symposium. This would provide an opportunity to bring in more voices and perspectives. I was able to secure a College of Visual Arts and Design Flagship Grant to support a one day symposium. Brian, Hannah and I brainstormed about speakers and put together a very diverse and interesting lineup. Eventually, the recordings will be loaded into the UNT Library Digital Collection.
This is the speaker lineup:
Ana M. Lopez: Welcome and Introduction
Norman Sandfield: Bola to Bolo
Brian Fleetwood: Meaning Making
Hannah Toussaint: Reimagining the Bolo
Jessica Metcalfe: More than Just a Trend
Sulo Bee: Coloring Outside the Lines: Queer Fashion and the Genderless Bolo
Annette Becker: West Dressed - Fashion Inspired by the American Frontier
You can register for the symposium here.
A little SMITTEN
Over the New Year transition from 2019 to 2020, about two months before the world shut down for COVID, I had a lovely adventure. I was invited by Marissa Saneholtz and Sara Brown to participate in the Smitten Forum at Pocosin. I had a great time, got a lot of work made and got to hang out with some very cool people. It was a magical week made more so in hindsight due to the separation from the maker community which necessarily followed.
Recently, these two purveyors of opportunity reached out with an invitation to get our work together for an exhibition at the ECU Symposium. While I would rather be there in person, sending my brain children to hang out with theirs seems good too. So if you find yourself in Greenville, North Carolina in the coming month, please have a look.
Metal Museum Exhibition: Reimagining the Real
The show is OPEN through July 9th!
Reimagining the Real
April 23 - July 9, 2023 at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis Tennessee.
Texas National 2023
The Cole Art Center @ the Old Opera House in Nacogdoches, Texas, will look extra ventilated this spring! Two of my pieces, Louver Suite: Houston and Rooftop Garniture: Shanty Caps, were both accepted to this competition. This is a great annual exhibition put on by the Stephen F. Austin School of Art. This year’s juror is William Underwood Eiland, director of the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia. The exhibition opens on April 13th and will be up through June 30th, 2023. Please check it out if you find yourself in Nacogdoches!
43RD ANNUAL CONTEMPORARY CRAFTS at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum
The juror for this esteemed and established annual event was Beth C. McLaughlin, Artistic Director and Chief Curator of Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, MA. I was so pleased to have Grow Build Climb Fly selected for inclusion. Imposed upon the form of a pneumatic dry haul trailer, the imagery of kernels, bricks, ladders and feathers are meant to represent what I wish for my children as they move through the stages of their life. The dry haul trailer is a conveyor of grain that I often see on the highways, but is also reminiscent of mammary glands. The rope that it hangs from is made of casein fiber, derived from milk, which I spun myself.
Materials Hard and Soft
One of the best things about living in North Texas is getting to see the Materials Hard and Soft show in person every year. Now in its 36th year, the Greater Denton Arts Council does an excellent job of putting this together and the opening reception is always a big night in the local craft community. According to the website, “This year’s call for artists drew over 800 submissions from 16 countries worldwide and 45 states. Our Jurors selected 80 works for exhibition at the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center, including works from 18 states and 4 countries including Canada, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”
I am so grateful to have had a piece selected. If you go to see the show, look near the floor - my Louver with Face Mask is installed in a slightly sneaky way. The show is up until May 6 at the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center.
CraftForms 2022
I was so SO pleased to have one of my sculptures selected by Jeannine Falino for this annual, international, fine craft exhibition! Night Air Garniture will be on view at the Wayne Art Center from December 3, 2022, to January 21, 2023. It is always an outstanding show and I can’t wait to see installation pictures of the whole thing.
RTU1: Fort Worth heads to Dimensions XLIX
There is something sweet about the first time a piece leaves the studio for an exhibition. Go forth little artwork, make your momma proud! My first Rooftop Unit (RTU) has gone to Corpus Christi where it was accepted into the national exhibition. I am grateful to juror Ernesto Perez for choosing to include this work in the Art Center’s annual Dimensions exhibition. It will be on display from November 4th through the 26th.
Here comes the Fall exhibition season...
Jury results are starting to come in for some of the competitive exhibitions to which I applied. The shows don’t all take place in the fall, but there is definitely a cluster of application deadlines this time of year.
I am please to share that two of my works, Rooftop Garniture: Fume Duo and Rooftop Garniture: Stitches, were accepted to Under Fire 4, the Enamel Guild North East International Juried Exhibition. This is an online exhibition, so geography is no excuse for not checking it out!
The show will be available for view on Friday October 22rd, 2022 via the enamelguildnortheast.org website. The Enamel Guild North East invites you to join them Sunday, October 23rd at 6 pm EDT for their panel discussion by the three jurors: Harlan Butt, Patti Bleicher, and Jessica Calderwood with Amy Roper Lyons moderating.
“The use of enamel in today’s art and jewelry world exemplifies a broad and diverse approach. From the beautiful and elegant use of color and traditional methods, to the pushing of boundaries of form, content and application, makers are creating innovative works that speak to the times we live in. In this panel, the three jurors for the exhibition will share their observations on contemporary enamels, while reflecting on the works submitted for review for Under Fire 4. The three recipients of the Jurors' Awards will be announced. Tune in via zoom, Sunday, October 23rd at 6 pm US EDT.”
Form-ative at the Bascom
I am grateful to co-curators Frankie Flood and Elizabeth Walton for including five of my pieces in the Form-ative exhibition at the Bascom Center for Visual Arts. All the metalwork included in the show was influenced by ideas of location, in keeping with the center’s annual theme of Place. Other participants are Thomas Campbell, Seth Gould, Rachel Kedinger, Natalie Macellaio, Erica A. Meier, Erica Moody and Dan Neville. The exhibition runs through July 16 and the reception will be held on Thursday June 16 at 5pm.
Craft Nouveau
There are many great competitive craft exhibitions one can count on each year, such as The Octagonal, Materials Hard and Soft, and CraftForms. But its always a pleasure to find a new one pop up; and even better when one has work accepted! I was very pleased to find the call for Craft Nouveau at the Blue Line Arts Gallery. Juror Ariel Zaccheo has a great reflective statement here. If you find yourself near Roseville, California, please check it out. Images of included work and an exhibition catalog are also available on their website.
Air Currency Opens
I am very pleased to announce the opening of my solo show at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Mesa, Arizona. The space is lovely and the staff have been wonderful to work with. Stop by if you get the chance!
When your work goes more places than you do...
Some of my pieces recently went to Mesa, Arizona, and won the Juror’s Choice Award at the 42nd Annual Contemporary Craft Show at the Mesa Contemporary Art Museum. Many thanks to Juror Gail Brown. The full catalog is online here.
Invisible Metal: Virtual Tour Now Available
Thanks to the hard-working folks at the Appalachian Center for Craft, you can get a sense of the exhibition!
Invisible Metal
My show at the Appalachian Center for craft, Invisible Metal, is being installed right now. Through the perseverance of Director Debra Ruzinsky and Artist in Residence of Exhibitions Glenna Dame Baker, my long hoped-for installation is being realized. The show will be in the Front Gallery of the Appalachian Center for Craft from July 1 through August 15, 2020. They plan to create a video tour of the show, which I look forward to sharing as well when the time comes. Visiting hours are Monday to Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday 12 to 5. For now, be well, be safe, make art.
Materials Hard and Soft
I love this show and I am so grateful that it happens in Denton every year. Not only do my students get to see some excellent work from an international selection of makers but some years I even get to participate! One of my newer pieces, Fort Worth Trash Chute, was selected for inclusion this year. The show runs from February 7 - May 9 with a reception on the 7th from 6-9. The juror this year was Beth C. McLaughlin, Chief Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts. She will be giving a gallery talk on Thursday the 6th at 2:30.
Metal Complexions
Louver: Houston is on its way to….Houston, fittingly. It was selected for inclusion in the Houston Metal Arts Guild’s Metal Complexions Exhibition. The exhibition juror was Anna Walker, Assistant Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The show takes place from February 2nd through the 28th at the Jung Center in Houston. In addition to an opening reception on Friday the 7th of February, from 6-9pm, there will be an exhibition Walk-through with Anna Walker on February 19, from 6:00-7:00 PM. If you are in the area I hope you will check it out!
Cityscape 2020
One of my louvers has traveled to South Korea! Louver: Las Vegas was accepted into the Cityscape 2020 exhibition at the CICA Museum in Gyeonggi-do. You can see more information about the exhibition here. I must say, I get a little jealous when my work gets to go places to which I have never been.