Page 10 to Page 19 - Mendocino Art Center

A wave of vibrant color will greet visitors to
Streetcolor photos.
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the town of Mendocino this summer. The columns of businesses all over town will be wrapped
in solid sheets of brilliant, colored, handmade felt; trees will be adorned in knitted
and crocheted fabric; electric light poles will be “feltbombed.” The resulting decorative assortment will resemble a box of crayons.
This art installation, “Mendocino Crayon Box,” designed by “yarnbomber” and
installation artist Streetcolor, transforms Mendocino into a town-wide interactive
sculpture. The Mendocino Art Center is sponsoring this event as an offsite exhibit,
which will be installed June 8–13, and will remain up through August 13. An opening art stroll is scheduled for Friday, June 13, 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The installation is part of a worldwide trend of large, community-based, urban
textile installations called yarnbombings, in which knitting and crocheting are used
briefly and dramatically to change a stable, predictable street into a sudden, surprising art space. Town-wide installations have been made in Genova and Firenze,
Italy, among other locations, but have not been done on this scale before in the
United States. More than 20 Mendocino businesses will participate.
“Mendocino is famous for being preserved as a lively, yet peaceful, retreat for
arts and art making,” explains Streetcolor. “It is a wonderful setting in which to do
a large site-specific sculpture that uses many buildings of the town as temporary
elements in the art piece. The special nature of Mendocino attracts a range of visitors who become the attendees at this outdoor exhibition.”
The Mendocino Art Center will sponsor a series of open
studios, inviting the community to learn to felt, knit, crochet,
and make tags to be used as part of the installation. This will
include programs with the Mendocino Yarn Shop and local
school children. Streetcolor will also teach “Felting the Town
of Mendocino,” June 6–8, as part of the project.
Streetcolor, who will be an artist in residence at the de
Young Museum in December 2014, approached the Mendocino
Art Center in 2013 with the idea of yarnbombing the entire
town. Known all over California for her knitted graffiti, she had
worked with the Oakland Museum of California, the Sonoma
Valley Museum of Art and the Crocker Art Museum doing
installations and was interested in working on a much larger
scale. MAC sponsored a small felt installation on its buildings
and trees last July and is delighted to support the large-scale
“Mendocino Crayon Box.”
Mendocino Arts Magazine
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JOHN HANES
FINE ART GALLERY
Art for
the World
Spring Irises, oil, Graydon Foulger
14051 Highway 128, Boonville CA · 707-489-0981
6th Annual
Studio Tour
TWO DAYS! September 27–28
10:00am to 5:00pm
Enjoy a behind the scenes peek at private art studios of inland Mendocino
County’s finest artists. A self-guided
tour to see and buy original artwork.
Tour Maps at the Grace Hudson Museum,
ukiahvalleyartists@yahoo.com, or
Jim Colling, 707 463-0610
Spring/Summer 2014
6th Annual
Ukiah Valley Artists
ART FAIR
Friday May 30, 3:00–7:00pm
Saturday, May 31 and
Sunday, June 1, 12noon–7:00pm
Seventy artists and artisans.
Artist demonstrations.
Carl Purdy Hall
Redwood Empire Fairgrounds
1055 N State Street, Ukiah
11
Dorr Bothwell:
Fierce Delicacy
By Michael Potts
“Dainty Dorr Bothwell—in person and a moving picture at the same time. She told Radio
listeners over KPO, San Francisco, that she had been initiated into a Samoan tribe by having her body converted into a moving picture through the tattoo process. She is a distinguished artist of Samoan life.”
One of the first teachers at the Mendocino Art Center, and one of the most
renowned artists to teach here, Dorr Bothwell also stands out as one of
California’s all-time best artists. An innovator in serigraphy (silk screen),
Dorr’s works adorn walls around the world and are treasured by their
owners.
When Bill Zacha recruited Dorr to teach at the Art Center in 1961, she had
been a working artist for 35 years, had mounted solo shows at San Francisco’s
de Young and the San Diego Fine Arts Museums, and was regularly teaching
at Parsons in New York and the San Francisco Art Institute, where her formal
training began. She came to Mendocino as a respected teacher and established
artist . . . and she fell in love with the place.
Born in San Francisco in 1902 and interested in the making of art from Peonies from Ethel’s Garden, serigraph,
an early age, Dorr began her work at a time when women, at least in the West, 17” x 13”, 1986.
were beginning to seek lives of adventure and freedom as intense as their brothers. Dorr never seemed to doubt for
a minute her own powers and resilience. Dorr’s earliest teachers were Albert Valentien, a painter on pottery, and his
wife Anna, who threw the pots and taught evening crafts classes, and dancer Jessie Ratliff.
Returning to The City for formal art classes, Dorr studied with Paris-trained Gottardo Piazzoni, whose
muted pastels and gentle landscapes were much influenced by his
study of natural light. Later, her bold colors were liberated by her
studies at the art school run by long-time San Franciscan Rudolph
Schaeffer. “My greatest influence: he encouraged me to befriend color and taught me how to ‘see.’ He not only made you see color, but
made you . . . see that there is design and order in everything around
you.”
Dorr was fearless. Traveling at a time (1928) when “nice women didn’t travel alone,” she explained, “I learned a very determined
sort of way. I never flirted. I was all business.” Inspired by a documentary, Moana, Dorr set sail for Samoa, over her family’s protests,
Twin Mola Cats, serigraph, 12.5” x 18”, 1976.
on the first of her many expeditions to study the theories of art
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Mendocino Arts Magazine
embedded in indigenous cultures. After a 13-day voyage, she arrived in Pago
Pago, then a U.S. naval outpost. Unwelcome on the navy base, she lodged with locals
who advised her to travel to an outer island “where things were traditional.” There,
she immersed herself in the life, was tattooed, learned to beat and dye tapa, sketched,
carved linoleum blocks and painted.
Two years later, out of money, she returned to San Francisco, where, as “Dainty
Dorr Bothwell,” she told a radio audience that she had “converted her body into a
moving picture” with her tattoos. She is quoted as saying, “I was in Samoa two years
after Margaret Meade, but I was better. I danced with Samoans.”
Dorr traveled to England, France, and Germany (1930–31), France again (1949),
Nigeria and Tunisia (1966–67), back to Europe (1970), Indonesia (1974), China,
and Japan (1982). At age 83, she returned to the Far East, always seeking different
ways of looking. Her book Notan: the Dark-Light Principle of Design, published in
1968, has been translated into dozens of languages. Quoting Lao Tse, “We turn clay to make
a vessel / But it is on the space where there is
nothing that the utility of the vessel depends.”
Co-author Marlys Mayfield makes it clear that
Dorr was a teacher, and a teacher’s teacher, for
most of her life.
Yoruba Dancer, serigraph, 22” x 14.5”,
Dorr insisted that her teaching was simply a 1969.
continuation of Schaeffer’s influence. Of Notan
she said, “I didn’t invent any of this. I’m teaching what Rudolph taught. I expected
him to write the book, but he wouldn’t so I told him that I would.”
Until the last years of her life, Dorr traveled to teach, but the North Coast was
her home. Hearty and direct right to the end, she was a powerful voice for clean,
elegant simplicity in design. Like her best friends, the cats that peer out from so
many of her works, Dorr was the exemplar of the strong, independent artist.
Dorr’s works will be on exhibit at the Mendocino Art Center, May 2 through June 2.
Island Lap Cat, serigraph, 18.5” x 12.5”,
1980.
Dorr Bothwell: Straws in the Wind
Published at the end of 2013, this book is a welcome
collection of Dorr Bothwell’s unique voice and striking
works. Gracefully assembled by oral historian Bruce
Levene from interviews granted by Dorr over the years,
it is a colorful account of an artist’s
quest to understand the principles
of beauty. The richest trove is in the
first chapters, where Dorr recalls the
early travels that became the aesthetic foundation for all her artistic
ventures.
The handsome paperback
is illustrated throughout with the
largest and most conscientious
Spring/Summer 2014
collection of Dorr’s work ever assembled – an amazing
array that shows Dorr’s range, and traces her evolution
as an artist. The book’s clarity and flow owe a great
debt to book designer Marge Stewart. The pictures
of Dorr, scattered through the book,
are an inspiring gallery of an artist’s
path through a long and fascinating
life, but it is the innumerable images
from her oeuvre that make this book
invaluable.
Dorr Bothwell: Straws in the
Wind is available at the Mendocino
Art Center and at local bookstores.
13
MAY–AUGUST classes
For a complete list of classes,
descriptions, and to register,
visit MendocinoArtCenter.org,
or call 707 937-5818, ext. 10.
at Mendocino Art Center
c e ra m ic s
8/11–16
Robbie Lobell
Kitchen to Table Pots –
An Introduction to Working
with Flameware
7/28–31
Deborah Fell
Paint, Stitch, Create Quilts
8/18–22
Alix Knipe
Unique Shapes: Flat Patterns to
Three-Dimensional Forms
5/16–18
Ted Okell
Heads and Faces:
Sculpting the Portrait Bust
5/24
Lynne Meade
Carved Porcelain:
Tiles and Vessels
5/30–6/1
Nancy Barbour
Ink Spilled on Clay
6/6–8
Ben Carter
Design for the Soft Surface
6/16–20
Janice Jakielski
Flower Fabrication in
Paper and Porcelain
8/25–29
Rebecca Hutchinson
Paper Clay –
A Sculptural Approach
fiber arts
5/3–4
April Sproule
Contemporary Wholecloth
5/16–19
Terry Waldron
Love and Landscapes –
Quilting Techniques
6/6–8
Streetcolor
Felting the Town of Mendocino
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5/30–6/1
John McCormick
Oil Painting for Beginners
6/2–5
Dale Laitinen
The Language of Landscape
6/6–9
Kath Macaulay
Pocket Sketching:
Totally Portable
6/7–9
Dale Laitinen
From Line to Design
(watermedia)
8/22–25
Susan Else
Let’s Make a Village
6/9–12
Tom Soltesz
Mendocino Plein Air (oil)
5/2–4
Miriam Davis
Painting Without a Brush
6/27–30
Mickie McCormic
Inkjet Transfers on
Fabric and Paper
8/4–8
Steven Colby
Beginner’s Mind
8/15–17
Mickie McCormic
Creating Dolls from Pieces of
the Past
5/30–6/1
Jeannie Vodden
Finding Focus and Fulfillment
(watercolor)
fine art
6/30–7/4
Jan Edwards
Handbuilding Pots for the Table
7/21–25
Lisa Orr
Luscious Luminous Art
for the Table
8/8–10
Vicki Fraser
Non-Toxic Natural Dye
5/31–6/1
Mickie McCormic
Image Transfer on Fabric
6/25–29
Vince Pitelka
Ancient Clay
7/7–18
Jack Troy
Wood Firing – Courting the
Inferno
8/1–3
Tricia Goldberg
Tapestry: From Image to Loom
7/11–13
Barbara Shapiro
Let Baskets Inspire You!
7/17–20
Carin Engen
Hollow Felted Shapes and
3D Effects
7/25–27
April Sproule
Fabric Painting with Stencils
5/3–4
Michael Reardon
Watercolor and Light
5/17–18
Victoria Brooks
Mendocino Plein Air (oil)
6/12–15
Susan Gross
Reinventing Collage
with Mixed Media
5/17–19
Mira M. White
Stunning Abstracts
in Soft Pastels
6/16–20
John Hewitt
Plein Air Watercolor
5/23–25
Rosemary Allen
A Brush with Color: Mix and
Match (acrylic and gouache)
6/20–22
Jonathan Palmer
Relief Printmaking:
Bold and Beautiful
5/24–25
Patricia Martin Osborne
Painting Loose Juicy Watercolors
Mendocino Arts Magazine
MAY–AUGUST classes
at Mendocino Art Center
6/27–30
Mickie McCormic
Inkjet Transfers on
Fabric and Paper
6/28–29
Larry Wagner
Digital Magic:
Camera and Composition
8/4–7
Nancy Collins
Glass Made Easy (watercolor)
8/8–10
Susan Stover
Encaustic Intensive
8/8–10
Bryan Hewitt
Landscape Photography
8/11–14
Birgit O’Connor
Rocks, Sand, and Sea Glass
8/16–17
Sandy Oppenheimer
Painting with Paper
5/30–6/1
Alison B. Antelman
Tubing Technical:
An Exploration in Fabrication
6/6–8
Duke Williams
Filigree Fineness as Metal Art
6/20–22
Suzanne Pugh
Steel and Gold
6/25–29
Sarah Doremus
Jewelry that Moves
7/7–10
Sandra Enterline
Sculptural Jewelry:
Hollow Form Techniques
7/10–13
Rogene Manas
Paint, Paper and Paper Clay
8/16–18
Erin Dertner
Palette Knife Painting
7/11–13
Sandy Delehanty
Abstract Adventures
8/18–22
Jacqueline Sullivan
Driven to Abstraction
7/18–20
Ada B. Fine
Explorations in Collage
8/22–24
Clark Mitchell
Vibrant Plein Air Pastels
7/18–20
M Kathryn Massey
Capturing Light and
Atmosphere in Pastels
8/29–31
Jeannie Vodden
Glazing with Rainbows
(watercolor)
7/11–13
Jack da Silva
Chasing and Repousse:
Oh What a Relief It Is!
7/21–24
Charles Becker
Still Life Painting
Like the Masters (oil)
j ewe l r y
7/15
Frances Casey
Button Jewels
7/26–29
Mira M. White
Mixed Media Meets Melted Wax
5/3–4
Penny Nisenbaum, Ling-Yen
Jones, and Devon Billings
Finely Strung
5/9–11
Arlene Mornick
Metal Clay Bracelets:
Three Days – Three Ways
5/16–18
Lynette Cederquist
Granulation with Argentium,
24-Karat Overlay
8/4–7
John McCormick
The Luminous Landscape
Spring/Summer 2014
8/21–24
Jeff Georgantes
Stone Setting Sampler
8/25–29
Marne Ryan
Vessels – How to Raise Wrong
and Come Up Right
sc u l pt u r e
5/2–4
Walt Padgett
Sand-Cast Aluminum Sculpture
5/9–11
Chris Shook
Forge Welding & Damascus
Steel Welding
6/6–8
Mary T. Anderson­
Recycled Glass Fusion
6/9–14
Alan Osborne
Hot & Heavy
6/21–22
Robert Rhoades
Recology
7/9–13
Paulo Ferreira
Bronze Casting for Beginners
7/19
Sue Brown
Cement and Mosaic Day Camp
7/18–20
Andrea Kennington
Interpretive Raising
7/25–27
Arlene Mornick
Metal Clay Intensive:
Three Days – Many Ways
8/1–3
Beth Changstrom
Mixed Media with Mixed Styles
8/1–3
Patricia Martin Osborne
Watercolor Fun and Free
For a complete list of classes,
descriptions, and to register,
visit MendocinoArtCenter.org,
or call 707 937-5818, ext. 10.
5/22–25
Marne Ryan
Not Your Mother’s Beads
7/31–8/3
Erin Fagen & John Cornacchia
Fire+Laser+Glass: Transform
Custom Laser Etched Metal
Designs Into Enameled
Masterpieces
8/7–10
Harlan Simon
Fascinating Flame Work! –
Glass Bead Making & More
8/15–17
Julie Brooks
Make Your Mark –
Enameling Techniques
8/1–3
Paul Reiber
Beginning Woodcarving
8/15–17
Ellen Sachtschale
Garden Vessels and
Expressive Totems
8/21–24
Walt Padgett
Fabricated Mold/Plaster
Cast Sculpture
8/23
Sue Brown
Cement and Mosaic Day Camp
15
– Meet the Staff –
Nancy Barbour
A Peaceful Potter
By Debbie L. Holmer
Nancy Barbour is currently Coordinator of the
Ceramics Program for the Mendocino Art Center.
She received her MFA from the University of Florida in
Nancy in Beijing, China.
Gainesville and holds a BA from Humboldt State University in Arcata.
Nancy coordinated the Ceramics Program at Colorado Mountain College from 2001 to 2010. She has been an Artist in
Residence at the Mendocino Art Center and at the Carbondale Clay Center in Colorado.
Her work has been exhibited all over the world.
Nancy is a well-traveled artist and has recently returned
from Tianjin, China, where she lived and taught for three years.
In fact, two days after marrying Adam Thompson, they headed
to China, where he “taught music of the world to children of the
world,” and Nancy did some after-school teaching. In addition to the
Orient, Nancy lived in the montane tropical rain forest of Monteverde,
Costa Rica, for two years.
The pieces that Nancy brought to the interview to show me
were made in Jingdezhen, China, where she did a residency at
The Pottery Workshop, the birthplace of porcelain in China.
The romantic beauty of Chinese gardens is reflected in the pieces
that she shared with me. “Nature-inspired and welcoming,” Nancy
comments, “these gardens offer solace in crowded cities. A water
park near my home in Tianjin provided walks along a lake with
pagodas and bridges. Looking across the lake brought me peace;
the sound of waves lapped gently, the wind stirred the water’s surface. The scenery unfolded like a screen as I passed through it.”
What does she most enjoy working on? She answers, “I always
come back to the cup. It can be the most challenging. It’s something
that I find endless pleasure in.”
Her work is “a happy place to be. I wake up, I meditate, go to the studio.
I’m usually inspired by the seasons. Right now, it’s the season of winter – the
time of rest. I’m really enjoying multiples at the moment, thinking of how pots relate
to each other. And I’m also working on roof ornaments, the fanciful, fantasy-like
Pedestal Ice
protectors you see on Chinese buildings.”
Cream Servers,
Nancy’s body of work has been about personal and historical exploration.
porcelain,
soda fired to
Ancient history is very important to her: “My work is mostly about peace. I’d like
cone 10.
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Mendocino Arts Magazine
to be like the ancient Chinese poet who wanders the
hillside noticing every subtle variation and recording it. My social message would be about the purity
of water, the need for water, access to water.”
How does she begin a piece? “It begins with
a sense of place. I take walks; notice the shadows,
the way the wind blows amongst trees, watching
the waves as they crash across the rocks. I love the
milky jade/celadon colors as they come in with
the dirt and soil and sand. And the sounds.
I try to let all that play upon me for a while.
I enjoy using the soda kiln, which introduces
atmospheres that influence my work, much like
a storm coming across a mountain range, with rain
on one side and desert on the other.”
What drew Nancy to the Mendocino Art Center?
“There’s a friendliness of the human here that drew me.
Once I was here, I felt the magic and beauty of the area,
and it was just an unfolding of my work in a new way.”
How has formal training helped Nancy? “It’s very important
for the artistic process to be both encouraged and challenged by
Stacking Porcelain
people that we respect and trust.
Floral Bowls, soda
fired to cone 10.
“Mendocino Art Center’s nine-month residency program is a wonderful thing. Here you really get to land. It’s a time for the residents to concentrate
on themselves, their work. The supportive atmosphere and access to the world of clay is so important to fire artists.”
What other ceramic artists does Nancy most admire? “I kind of think of populations of people. However, I really
like the work of Japanese potter and painter Ogata Kenzan (1663–1743). His pieces were noted for their perfect relation between design and shape.”
I asked Nancy what her goals were for MAC’s Ceramics Department: “I love the sense of retreat that our studio
offers people. At the same time, I’d like to build up the
vibrancy of the local community and their presence here
while also building up the national program by bringing
in teachers of renown. I feel like I have a strong program
planned for the summer and am excited about that and
looking forward to teaching ‘Ink Spilled on Clay,’ May
30–June 1.”
What does Nancy want others to feel when they pick
up one of her pieces? “I want them to feel the relationship
between the curves in the work and the way that it feels in
your hand, to slow down in the moment.” Nancy’s work
evokes just that – peace, quiet, contemplative moments.
Holding one of her cups in my hand, I could feel the
story coming out.
Fuchsia Plate, porcelain, soda fired to cone 10.
Spring/Summer 2014
17
Mendocino Art Center’s
Mendocino Coast Garden Tour
X
Saturday, MAY 10
X
By Liliana Cunha
For 22 years, the Mendocino Art Center has been bringing
you the best of Mendocino’s coastal gardens – and we are
not the only ones who think so. We are very proud that
one of our favorite gardens received remarkable recognition from the Smithsonian Institute. In 2013, Bob and
Judy Mathey’s Garden at Harmony Woods was designated
a Smithsonian Heritage Garden. Congratulations to the
Matheys on this special honor. We are very grateful to Bob
and Judy for their continuous support of the Mendocino
Coast Garden Tour in which they have participated on
three occasions, most recently in 2012. It has been a
privilege to see the changes and development of one of
this country’s most unique and inviting gardens.
This year we will be making a change in the date of
the tour. Mark your calendars for May 10, the Saturday
before Mother’s Day. Our coastal gardens will be dressed
in their most colorful floral garb following the winter drab.
Bring Mom – she’ll love it.
The always-delicious gourmet luncheon at the Ravens
Restaurant is not to be missed. Our hosts, Jeff and Joan
Stanford and the beautiful Stanford Inn by the Sea, are
long time supporters of the Mendocino Art Center and
the Coast Garden Tour lunch. Take time to view the inn’s
historic China Gardens, established by Chinese workers
brought in to support the lumber industry in the early
1900s. The gardens are a source of much of the organic
produce used at this award-winning vegan restaurant.
Gardeners will be on hand to explain gardening methods
and philosophy employed here as you wind your way up
to the restaurant, which enjoys a beautiful ocean view.
The Garden Tour committee has been working diligently to bring you five glorious new gardens, including
a beautiful woodland garden in the sunbelt traversed by
meandering pathways with interesting plants around every
turn; a hillside garden with dry river rock “streams” and
ocean view; a large woodland meadow garden protected
by unique fencing; and a village garden with an ocean view.
And, don’t forget to take a turn around the Mendocino Art
Center’s gardens when you visit the Garden Shop, open
both May 9 and 10. Special thanks to Geraldine Pember
and Fort Bragg Garden Club members for the many hours
they have donated beautifying the Art Center’s grounds.
The Garden Shop will feature garden art from local
artists. Marty Roderick is also rounding up many fabulous plants, including a stunning array of maples from
Mendocino Maples. I’m sure you will find some surprising
and beautiful additions for your own garden.
Please join us for a fun-filled day on the Mendocino
Coast. We look forward to seeing many old friends and
new friends, too. If you plan to stay overnight, book
early. The New York Times travel section just named the
Mendocino Coast one of the top three destinations in the
United States.
Garden Tour tickets ($40) and lunch tickets ($20) may be purchased by calling the Mendocino Art Center at 707-937-5818 ext.
10, or by visiting MendocinoArtCenter.org/Garden.html
Leona Walden photos.
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Mendocino Arts Magazine
M e n d o c i n o A r t C e n t e r ’ s 2 2 ND A n n u a l
Mendocino Coast Garden Tour
Saturday, MAY 10 X 10:00am–5:00pm
Enjoy a behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of the
Mendocino Coast’s most beautiful private gardens on
this self-guided tour.
Visit the Garden Shop and Plant Sale
at the Mendocino Art Center, May 9 and 10
©Dorr Bothwell. Used with permission of
Marlys Mayfield, Dorr Bothwell estate.
Gourmet Vegetarian Lunch
Ravens Restaurant, Stanford Inn by the Sea
Rain or Shine! • Tickets: Tour, $40; Lunch, $20
707 937-5818 • 800 653-3328 ext. 10
45200 Little Lake Street, Mendocino
www.MendocinoArtCenter.org/Garden.html
Spring/Summer 2014
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