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Click here for a PDF file of our February - July 2008 Newsletter

Art Explorations

Tuesday, February 26, 2008, 5:30 p.m.

“a visitinG artist’s PersPective”
by Christy Gast

Sponsored by the University of West Florida Department of Art
New York artist, Christy Gast, earned her MFA in Visual Studies from
Columbia University in 2004 and studied Fine Art Video at Salzburg Summer Art Academy.
She also holds a BFA (Sculpture) and BA (Women’s Studies) from Ohio State.
Ms. Gast uses contemporary video and film screenings, radio and cable TV broadcasts,
as well as performance art, as her means of expression. Her projects explore cultural histories of
places and people, both in conflict and accord. Ms. Gast is interested in overlooked areas where
history and identity politics intersect as metaphors for the landscape or the body.
Her “Female Soldier Ballads” was selected for a June group show at Brooklyn Fire Proof,
a creative environment for artists to develop experimental exhibitions.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008, 5:30 p.m.

“richard haley, earth, and air
and/or the dreaM is over (aGain)”
Richard Haley

Sponsored by the University of West Florida Department of Art
Mr. Haley received his MFA from University of California, Davis, in June 2007.
His work is currently on view in a group show at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery
and at Johansson Projects in Oakland, CA. He will have a solo exhibition this fall at Another
Year in Los Angeles, CA. He is currently the Visiting Artist of Foundations at the
University of West Florida. Richard Haley’s work focuses on mapping the body,
attempting to locate it in its current cultural location. This research has manifested itself in
various practices such as sculpture, video and photography. In a recent review, Los Angeles
Times critic Christopher Knight said of Haley’s art: “For this spiritually minded work, the
body is but a husk - less germane in itself than in the imprint it leaves on the world, “
and goes on to state, “These works neatly locate authentic power in metaphysical space.”

Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 5:30 p.m.

trees, Quilts and flaGs: Journeys of a Mathartist
John Sims

In Partnership with the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition
John Sims, a native of Detroit, is a multi-media interdisciplinary conceptual artist interested in the intersecting worlds of mathematics, art and political activism. He has lectured/exhibited nationally and internationally including Hungary, Spain, Israel and Argentina. He has worked with array of artists including DJ Spooky, Sol LeWitt, and Karen Finley. His work is a corpus of art projects that generates from a matrix of essential spaces:The Mathematical, The Political, and The Public. His research mission is to develop a collection of projects that will lead to a Visual Philosophy of transformative activism.

MathArt Projects (MAP) presents the foundational relationship between Mathematics and Art in the context ofphilosophy, studio praxis, curatorial engagement, and innovative mathematics education. The work, Mathematical Art Philosophy 101, based on a Tree-Root metaphor sets the stage by examining the conceptual combinatorialexchange between mathematics, art and nature. The work here includes work in the areas of visual number theory, sonic mathematics, Pythagorean mathematics and knot theory. The current project is called 13 Quilts, which is collection of mathematical quilts based on the visualization of the number Pi. These quilts (6 of the 13 are completed) are being done in collaboration with the Amish Quilting community of Sarasota. TimeSculpture is a collection of twenty-three objects: vases, chess sets, clocks and chairs that tell stories aboutspace, conflict, time and relationships. These objects are codes that employ concepts of order, symmetry, connectivity and cycles to investigate a range of ideas from spatial order to human development. Twelve of the objects form the basis of TimeSculptureNYC, which will be placed in a circular path in publicly accessible venues in New York City. Each object will be webcammed into a motion graph poetry piece that will be broadcast over the internet. The complete installation of twenty-three objects will be extended across the United States, where they will be linked by a specially tailored communication system. TimeSculpture in situ becomes a collection of transformations that allows one to travel across abstract spaces, time zones, cultural stratifications and diverse geographies witnessing the richness of variations and the density of connections that characterize the evolving power and presence of globalization and the seductive search for the universal.Recoloration Proclamation deals with the politics of sacred symbols, social identity and visual terrorism. This body of work started with the simple recoloring of the confederate flag in black, red and green, the colors for the black liberation movement. From that it has grown into a fully developed exhibition, featuring Afro-Rebel Flags, Gettysburg Redress, The Bondage Flag, The Drag Flag, The Dixie Remixes and the emerging iconic installation,“The Proper Way to Hang a Confederate Flag”, a confederate flag hanging from a 13 foot gallows. This work caused a national controversy in Gettysburg and Tallahassee, FL, attracting critical protest from The Sons of Confederate Veterans and the KKK. This has also attracted the attention of the blogging community elevating the work to a topic of national discussion. This work has been expanded to the Israeli, Palestinian, Chinese and Iraqi flags. Sims spoke on this topic at Artel in 2002. Sims’ work has been covered by CNN, NPR, ABC, New York Times, Washington Post, Science News, Sculpture, NY Arts, and AOL.com. See www.JohnSimsProjects.com

Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 5:30 pm

“creativity & creative tyPes”
Dr. William A. Silhan

Dr. Silhan holds a Doctorate in Education from Ball State University and a BA, BFA and MA from the University of Illinois.
He recently retired from 35 years as professor of art at the University of West Florida. Find out what creative type you are,
and what the implications of that are, with respect to lifestyle and the creative process. Bill will share ideas and results
from significant studies about creativity and creative topology. He will demonstrate simple ways to determine your most
advantageous approach to creative problem solving.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 5:30 pm

“artsPeaK: the conteMPorary artist Meets Web 3.0”
Margaret Warren and Pat Hayes

Margaret Warren is founder/owner CARMA (Cyber Arts, Research Music and Audio) Productions and Pat Hayes is Senior Research Scientist with the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola. Margaret and Pat, local artists as well as technologists, will describe their on-going project to build ontologies for the Semantic Web from the language of artists. Their goal is to help improve internet image searches. Their work has been presented during recent conferences in Costa Rica and at Duke University. They will also give more thorough guidance and specific examples for “The Rest of the Story”, the Artel show they will jury on July 26.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008, 5:30 p.m.

PaintinG froM real life in real tiMe
McKenzie Oerting

Artist/designer known around town as “The Purple Haired Chick”, McKenzie Oerting was the inaugural recipient of the Visual Artist Association’s Working Artist Award. She holds a BFA in Graphic Design and Illustration from the University of Houston and has
followed art studies at PJC and California College of Art. She recently received a grant for her “Hurricane Expressionism” exhibit of expressionist paintings and photographs at Surface Gallery. McKenzie is well known for her people portraits, which will be shown at T. T. Wentworth Museum on Gallery Night, March 7. During this Artel Art Exploration, McKenzie will demonstrate her techniques of painting “in real time” with a model picked from the audience.

Artel Past Events

Artel continued its Art Explorations series on Wednesday, August 22, 2007, at 5:30 pm with a presentation by Suzette Doyon, Ph. D., entitled "How did Frank Lloyd Wright’s 'Mayan Temples' land in Japan?"

Frank Lloyd Wright always claimed that his architectural designs were “absolute originals.”
To his contemporaries, Wright would vehemently
deny the presence of any outside influence in his architecture, other than that which came from Nature herself! The architect even dismissed the possibility that his close knowledge of Japanese construction might have contributed to his mature style.

Suzette Doyon, who has recently spent 6 weeks teaching in Japan, will confirm the connection that Wright tried to deny. She will first demonstrate through images how Wright’s central ideas about the “Natural House” or the “Great Room,” ultimately derive from his familiarity with Japanese architectural traditions. Doyon will then examine some of Wright key commissions in Japan, such as the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, built between 1915 and 1925. During that decade, Wright had become fascinated with the possibilities of the “decorative block,” whose origins can be traced to Wright’s study of Mayan temples. —And that is how the “decorative block,” and other features of Mayan construction, found their way to Japan.

Dr. Suzette Doyon, Chairperson of the UWF Art Department, recently presented a variation of this lecture at the Osaka Communication Arts College, a member of the Jikei Group of Colleges in Japan.

Artel visiting artist Xavier Cortada entertains N. B. Cook Elementary fourth-graders.

Adam Anthony Perez, an N.B. Cook 4th Grade student is shown here with Xavier Cortada.	Artel visiting artist Xavier Cortada entertains N. B. Cook Elementary fourth-graders with his "Mangroves" presentation on February 17, 2006. The children were asked to create their own mangrove seedling drawings, some of which will be shown later on this website.

Foam Art Workshops for Kids!

A Fearless Fireman - by Robert Sanders

Art Makes you Smile!
Derek Travis, Salena Washington, Raven McAroy, Dereka Travis are pictured here with Artel's Bob Kennedy learning the art of making prints with styrofoam.

"Starry Starry Night" reborn! by Tatyanna Smith

Robert Kennedy, artist and one of Artel's founding members, conducted four children's printmaking workshops in July 2005, with assistance from Artel members: Jean Harris, Janice Coleman and Margaret Warren .
The workshops were held at the Gathering Awareness Book Center and the Fricker Neighborhood Center, with about ten children ranging in age from 5 to 12 years in each session. They learned a simple printmaking technique using foam trays and water-based ink. Each workshop lasted about three hours, with Artel providing lunches and all supplies, and some quite amazing art was produced by the enthusiastic participants.

Art Explorations

Past Programs at Artel

August & September, 2006
Duncan Stewart
Professor of Art Emeritus,
University of West Florida
“Investigations in Romantic
Music and Art” Parts One & Two

Tuesday, October 3, 2006
5:30 pm
H.C. Porter, Visiting Artist
“Backyards and Beyond:
Mississippians and their Stories”
The first 12 months after Hurricane Katrina as
documented by nationally known Mississippi
artist H.C. Porter.

a presentation by photographer
Stephen Savage on October 6, 2005
entitled
“Making Photographs:
From Holga to Hasselblad.”
Mr. Savage is an adjunct professor
at Spring Hill College .

'Mi Mano Izquierdo'
(My Left Hand)
Tactile Drawing,
Left, Right and In-Between
by Mel Shanks
Associate Professor of
Art & Design at Troy University
on August 25, 2005
.

On May 26, 2005, Acclaimed local artist Susan Myers presented
"Constantly Seeking Balance: Treading the Thin Line Between the
Representational and the Abstract."

On July 19, 2005 The Art of Acculturation, a presentation by
Cuban-American artist Xavier Cortada

Xavier Cortada has exhibited his works in museums, galleries, and cultural venues
around the world and has traveled to four continents to create pro-social community
murals and participant-driven art projects. The Miami-based Cuban-American artist,
attorney, and activist has created art for The White House, The World Bank,
The Florida Capitol, The Florida Supreme Court, Nike, International AIDS Conferences,
Miami-Dade County Juvenile Courthouse, Miami-Dade Art in Public Places and the
Miami Art Museum. For more information, please visit www.cortada.com

Renowned Cuban-American Artist Exhibited
at Artel in February

Xavier Cortada, who has shown his works in museums, galleries and cultural venues around the world and has pioneered the use of the internet in collaborative art making, will have a one-man show at Artel February 14 –March 24, 2006. Cortada will exhibit his “Mangroves” collection, which was previously on display at the Florida State Capitol.

Cortada sees the mangrove as a symbol of the journey and interconnectedness of Floridians. His mangrove metaphor represents the way in which immigrants to this country set down roots and become part of the culture.

“I hope my art helps people think about what was here before, what immigrant groups came here, what kinds of struggles the people had to go through to get us to where we are. Context is what allows us to go forward in a sensitive and proactive way. To grow and not take a look back is what is problematic.”

He adds, “When you walk by a new building today you can’t imagine that in 1914 there was a wooden shack there. And much less, that 20 years before there was a mangrove forest.”

The Miami-based Cuban-American artist, attorney and activist has collaborated with diverse groups across the United States, Europe, Latin America and Africa to create pro-social community murals and participant-driven art projects and has been commissioned to create art for The White House, World Bank, Nike and HBO.

Cortada is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious “Millennium International Volunteer Award” from the US Department of State and USA Today. In February 2000, invited by the Holy See, Cortada traveled to the Vatican to participate in the Jubilee Day for Artists and meet Pope John Paul II.

Cortada has painted murals with community groups and lectured on the use of art as an agent of social change in places as diverse as Northern Ireland, Bolivia, Panama, Pennsylvania and South Africa. In 1998 he was commissioned to paint a mural for the 12th International AIDS Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

Among the topics he has explored through his work are community development, racism, violence, poverty, political freedom, AIDS and Cuba.

In probing the confines of the rawest human conditions, Cortada manages an evolving body of work that jars us through its modern relevance. A historian wielding color on canvas, the artist forces us to confront a disturbing mirror that, in the end, reflects the dark side of a society of our own construction.

Said Artel president Eloise de Varona, “We are thrilled to have an artist of Mr. Cortada’s stature exhibit at Artel. He is a brilliant man, but also a very warm, approachable person with a great sense of humor. I think people will really enjoy meeting him.”

“Digital Photography for Artists” Part One
“Using Photoshop to Optimize Your Digital Images” Part Two
Basic digital imaging techniques for capturing artwork,
everyday shooting and travel.
How to get the most out of your Point & Shoot or Digital-SLR.

Jim McDade, Photographer
June 12, 2007 & July 10, 2007

"Paper Constructions"
Charlie Smith
Wednesday, March 9, 2005, 5:30 pm

"Madman, Fool or Prophet"
Thursday, September 9 at 5:30
The creation of an expressive head in clay.
Lecture and demonstration by sculptor Sam Nettles

"Seeing Without Conceptions"
Thursday, July 8, 2004; 5:30 pm
Pat Hayes, Ph. D.
Institute for Human and Machine Cognition

Why is it so hard to see things as they really are?
This talk brought ideas from recent cognitive science,
ancient traditions and contemporary art to bear on this question.

“Foam Is Where The Art Is - New Ways To Print”

Thursday, May 13, 2004 at 5:30 p.m.

Annette W. Mitchell, Professor of Art
at Plymouth State University,
Plymouth, New Hampshire,
Presented new printmaking
methods using polystyrene foam
as a block printing method.

"Presentation: How Framing Can Make or Break a Work of Art"

Thursday March 4, 2004 6:00 pm
Free to the Public

Kay Barlow of the Frame Game Gallery presented a lecture and discussion on
framing techniques.

Our jurors often remark that a piece would be a nice addition to one of our
juried shows, but for a slightly flawed presentation.
Kay Barlow showed concrete examples of frames that make a piece better
and ones that detract from the same piece. She also discussed floater frames
(a framing alternative for the gallery wrapped canvas) and shadow boxes.

Artel Officers and Directors

President
Eloise Lautier de Varona

Vice President
Jean Harris

Secretary
Frances Hanson-Grow

Treasurer
Rita Weaner

Exhibitions Director
Lee Courtney

Membership
J. O. Zachow

Operations
Jay Gazani

Publicity
Rick Otoupalik

Public Relations
Janice Coleman Johnson

Special Projects
McKenzie Oerting

Outreach Coordinator
April Matteis

Volunteers
Position Open

Advisors
Kathi Gordon
Bob Kennedy

***

Member Benefits

* Reduced entry fees for all Artel juried shows (excluding Cinco Banderas)
* Reduced commission to Artel on work sold
* Invitation to exhibit in annual Members' Show at no charge
* Invitation to annual Members' Meeting
* And, most importantly, the knowledge that you are supporting the
only non-profit, all-volunteer, experimental art gallery in Northwest Florida

Join us today!

***

FYI

A count of gallery visitors who signed our guest book in the past two years shows the
extent to which Artel attracts tourists. Of a total of 1,428 guests who took the time to sign
while they were visiting the gallery, 696 (49%) were from Escambia County; 286 (20%) were
from various other locations throughout Florida; 413 (29%) were from other states; and 33 (2%)
were from foreign countries. In other words, slightly more than 50% were tourists!

Presentation Is Important

What a shame to have your piece rejected by a juror because of the frame! But it happens.
Artists who spend so many hours perfecting a work of art sometimes give little thought to the framing.
If you want your work to look professional, it must be presented in a professional way.
Here are a few tips to increase your chances of having your piece accepted:

1. Select a frame which complements your piece, instead of detracting from it.
Consider width, color, design, texture and quality. When in doubt, go with a
simple frame of high quality.

2. Avoid frames which overpower your work. You want the viewer to focus on the piece, not the frame.

3. Choose a frame which has sturdy hardware and use wire to hang. String breaks easily and
may cause your piece to fall from the wall and be damaged. Avoid cheap ready-made frames
if at all possible. Make sure all hardware is secure. Hardware which requires more than one
nail makes a piece very difficult to hang.

4. Other tips: no wet paint; no business cards on the front of your work; no chipped,
scratched or cracked glass; no chipped frames or frames separated at the seams.

***

Artel programs funded, in part, by the Escambia County Tourist Development Council
and by donors to the United Arts Funds of the Arts Council of Northwest Florida and
by the Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts
Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.