Rudolfo Salgado, jr. & Susanna Crum of Calliope Arts talk with us this week about a project called C19: Art Works for Kentucky. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream on Artxfm.com each Thursday to hear Keith Waits speak with artists on LVA's Artebella On The Radio
Print Making
Artebella On The Radio: December 5, 2019
"Extreme Prints: Printmaking at the Edge", an invitational exhibit curated by Debby Stratford & John Begley opens at Kore Gallery December 7. They joined us this week and brought two of the participating artists, Tatiana Ryckman & Susanna Crum and gallery owner Don Cartwright. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM, or stream at Artxfm.com Thursday at 10am to hear Keith Waits talk with artists on LVA's Artebella On The Radio.
Tatiana Ryckman was born in Cleveland, Ohio and lives in Austin, Texas. She is also the author of two chapbooks of short prose, Twenty-Something and VHS and Why It's Hard to Live. Tatiana's work has appeared on Tin House's The Open Bar, Barrelhouse, Opossum Lit, The Establishment, Nonbinary Review, Flavorwire, and many other publications. Tatiana has been an artist in residence at Yaddo and Arthub, and she is the editor of Awst Press and Assistant Editor at sunnyoutside press.
Susanna Crum’s work has been featured in several international and national exhibitions, she returned to her hometown of Louisville to start the city’s first shared printmaking workspace, Calliope Arts Printmaking Studio & Gallery, with fellow artist and partner Rodolfo Salgado. Since 2015, she has taught printmaking as an Assistant Professor at Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN. From 2018-2020, she is serving as President of the Mid America Print Council.
Debby Stratford is an artist and printmaker living in Louisville, KY. She spent many years teaching art to public school students in Louisville, and is now printing full-time in her studio in the Hope Mills Building.
John Begley is currently a Freelance art worker (artist, curator, art services provider). Previously he was Gallery Director and Assistant Professor of Art (Emeritus), Critical and Curatorial Studies graduate program coordinator at the Allen R. Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville, Director, Louisville Visual Art, Director, and was founding director New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, New Harmony, IN. He is now the co-founder with Peter Morrin of AFLOAT: AN OHIO RIVER WAY OF LIFE.
Since 2012 Don Cartwright has owned and managed KORE Gallery, which is now located at 942 East Kentucky. KORE hosts "invitational" shows along with solo and multiple artists shows. This new gallery location offers 4500 square feet of exhibit space.
Open Studio Weekend Spotlight: Debby Stratford
“Untitled” by Debby Stratford, printmaking, 16x30in, linoprint, $175.00
Debby Stratford is an artist and living in Louisville, KY. She spent many years teaching art to public school students in Louisville (as well as a stint with Louisville Visual Art in 1980s), and is now printing full-time.
The journey of any individual artist to find the medium that offers them the most satisfaction is not always easy. For some, once a brush is picked up, the search has ended, but for others, it can be trial and error over a period of years. Debby Stratford is a printmaker, but her first efforts frustrated her and she turned to clay for many years until she was reunited with linocut in graduate school at the University of Louisville.
“The cuts on the plate contain my tears of joy and sorrow as I have traveled through my life,” explains Stratford. “My subject matter is life as I see it, feel it, and remember it. My hope is that those looking will find a common ground with me.”
That relationship with medium and, in the case of printmakers, process, is a crucial aspect of the artist’s identity: “I work in the printmaking process because it affirms my place as an observer and participant in life. Through printmaking, I can turn an image around and get another view. It is like looking in a mirror to see who you are. My conception of an image happens on the sheet of linoleum. I draw directly on the linoleum block; revising my image as I cut into the linoleum using a one millimeter gouge. The gouge is like my pencil or brush. I develop my image as I create the print. Because life moves on, my style is constantly evolving, much like a painter. I don’t concentrate on developing a style and then repeating that look time after time.”
“Untitled” by Debby Stratford, printmaking, 16x30in, linoprint, $175.00
Stratford’s images have the feel of storybook illustrations from far back in time, framing snatches of narrative from tales full of darkness and foreboding. Her forests are dense, she uses formal framing devices, and animals appear in symbolic and metaphorical roles, characteristic not the sanitized fairy tales of today but more the traditional European stories in which authentic threat and peril taught children a healthy respect for fear.
Debby Stratford will be participating in the Louisville Visual Art/ University of Louisville Hite Art Institute 2019 Open Studio Weekend on November 2 & 3. She also is included in the Open Studio Weekend Juried Exhibit at The Cressman Center, which opens November 1, from 6:00-8:00pm.
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BS Art Education, Edinboro University (Edinboro, Pennsylvania); MAT with Emphasis in Printmaking, University of Louisville, Kentucky
Website: debbystratfordartist.com
“Untitled” by Debby Stratford, printmaking, 16x30in, linoprint, $175.00
“Untitled” by Debby Stratford, printmaking, 16x30in, linoprint, $175.00
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2019 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.
Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.
Print Making, Painting, Drawing, Digital
Spotlight: The Academy at LVA Graduating Seniors, Part One
“Bliss” by Madelynn Hicks, North Oldham High School
On May 10, Louisville Visual Art will open the 2019 Academy Exhibition for high school students. This is the first of a two-part look at the senior students included in that exhibit.
“LVA has made a major difference in my life” - Alexis Fromm
“Mushroom Bride” by Natalie Stastny, Atherton High School
In the work of these three graduating seniors we see a preoccupation with a deconstruction of the human form. Bodies are modified through dismemberment, the peeling of skin, or a grafting of mushrooms onto the epidermis, not for horrific effect but as metaphorical signposts for the adolescent introspection building a foundation for identity. Each of these artists is still finding themselves, searching for who they are by peeling themselves like an onion.
Whether or not the exact images are self-portraits is beside the point; all art expresses the aesthetic concerns of the individual. In “Moulting” Madelyn Hicks depicts a woman’s torso, bereft of hips, legs, or feet, stripping away skin. The piece may be inspired by a case of post-beach vacation sunburn, but it elicits feelings of discomfort in the viewer in part because the woman so casually changes her physical form without any preciousness or hesitation.
Natalie Stastny’s “Mushroom Bride” wears a garment made of the plants, or is the fungus a part of her skin? The ambiguity is compelling, but the choice of color, gesture, and expression do not suggest distress. Whatever the reality, the bride seems happy enough.
A print from Alexis Fromm is slightly more gruesome. It shows a naked female torso in which the skin has been pulled away to reveal an oversize eyeball surrounded by teardrops. The merging of vivisection and whimsy is pure surrealism. We want to turn away but we cannot.
These are arguably the more overt examples of a fascination with the physical self that might be claimed as a teenage stereotype, but the level of confident, even sardonic self-awareness and forensic examination is impressive. One of Fromm’s favorite subjects seems to be animal skulls, although she extends them into fantastical forms beyond the mundane farm inhabitants whose brains they once held. “Hellboy” imagines the horns and stretched earlobes of the comic book character.
And Hicks’ young person eating Tostitos from the bag while prone on their bed in violation of how many rules of civilized behavior is not quite “Ladylike”, but the image suggests that they could care less about outmoded nomenclature intended to restrict all natural impulses for comfort.
Meanwhile, Stastny is fond of entangling her figures in organic forms that seem to bind and blind them. We assume it is not because she doesn’t like drawing eyes that she inevitably shields them from view.
All three artists are fearless in exploring the plasticity of the body, lending it malleability that aligns them with Modern and Post-modern movements.
Alexis Fromm has been in LVA classes since 7th grade. She will be attending Spalding University with a $6,000 Merit Scholarship and a projected major of Studio Arts.
“After my first class with Rodolfo Salgado Jr., I fell in love with Printmaking and have taken every printmaking class with him that was available. Before LVA I did not know what printmaking was and I didn’t know the large variety of art that was in the world besides clothing, painting, and drawing. LVA has inspired me to go to college and pursue my love for art.”
Fromm has worked as a volunteer for Steam Exchange Community Arts Center over the past four years. With Steam Exchange she attended the Mayor’s Give A Day to help clean out their building and clean up around the Smoketown neighborhood.
Madelyn Hicks has taken LVA classes every semester for all four years of high school: Studio Art with Rudy Salgado, Drawing 1 and 2 with Wilma Bethel, Painting 1 with Dennis Whitehouse and Sunny Ra, and Painting 2 with Sunny Ra, Julie Leidner, and Tenille Novinger. She was accepted into several schools and will be attending The University of Cincinnati’s DAAP program in the fall and majoring in Industrial Design
Hicks was accepted into GATES (Gifted and Talented Educational Services) for art, and the Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA) 2018 program. She also won an LVA competition to have her work featured on the 2018-19 season poster for The Kentucky Opera.
“LVA truly taught me how to make art. My teachers all taught me different techniques and styles of creating that shaped me into the artist I am today. The classes I took with Sunny Ra in drawing and painting established the foundations I needed to discover my perspective as an artist and work not only technically but also conceptually. Sunny definitely went above and beyond for me and was extremely helpful in building a portfolio for both GSA and college auditions. The different perspectives and skills I learned through LVA have provided a strong base for me as a creator.”
Natalie Stastny has taken Academy at LVA classes for three years: 2 Digital Art classes with Lilly Higgs, one Drawing and Painting class with Sunny Ra, and one Drawing and Painting class with Julie Leidner. She has been accepted at and received scholarships and/or financial aid for the Art Academy of Cincinnati, the Columbus School of Art and Design, and Eastern Illinois University.
Stastny is also involved in National Art Honors Society and the Atherton High School Art Club and earned a varsity letter in Swimming. She has represented Atherton on WLKY and the PBS News Hour talking about the school’s transgender bathroom policy.
“My favorite class with LVA has been the Digital drawing class. I’ve taken it twice mostly because the program itself helped me understand digital media but also because my teacher (Lilly Higgs) was very encouraging and helped me practice digital drawing with tablets, which at the time was a resource I did not have access to at home.”
“I loved all of my classes and think they have helped me a lot in both my personal and school related art projects. Lilly Higgs and Julie Leidner especially seemed to want to talk to me and get to know me better. I won’t forget the kindness that those teachers offered me. It also allowed me more practice time during the day and a space where I can just be creative and also learn the basics of art at the same time.”
Scroll down for more images
“Frida Kahlo” by Alexis Fromm
“Moulting” by Madelynn Hicks, North Oldham High School
“Siren Queen” by Natalie Stastny, Atherton High School
“Lady” by Alexis Fromm
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.
Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.
In Memory of Susan Moffett (1950-2018)
The picture is blurry, probably a "caught image" from a cell phone in the hand of a fellow contra dancer - there are many "better" pictures of her, in focus and more formally composed photographs, but it is Susan Moffett's last choice for the profile picture on her Facebook page, and we include it here because it seems to speak volumes about her energy and enthusiasm for life. Today we remember this artist who meant so much to the community, beginning with words from just a few of her many friends:
"Susan was a wonderful printmaker, a fine arts educator, a musician, a world traveler and a great friend. She sought and found the experiences that make life vivid and meaningful. The lives she touched are a beautiful ripple expanding into the world. I will miss her for the rest of my life." - Wendi Smith, artist
"Susan was a creative force. In the visual art community we knew her work mainly as beautiful, spiritual reflections on the natural world which are greatly admired. But the depth of her creative energy was vast and not limited by media. She was a loving and nurturing mother, a devoted teacher, a poet (especially of haiku), a musician and dancer. Susan was surrounded by loyal, loving friends who all knew her in one or more of her creative manifestations. As we are gathering and sharing our grief we are still learning from each other about her many talents." -Kay Grubola, artist and curator
"Susan was one of the building blocks of our program (at IU Southeast). Our fabulous print shop was built from scratch by Susan and Brian Jones – resulting in one of the best equipped shops in the region. Susan was a dedicated printmaker, who created beautiful prints throughout her career at IUS and after her retirement. She was active in regional and national printmaking organizations, a member of FACET, and a former Dean. For more than 30 years at IUS, she taught and inspired countless numbers of our students." - Debra Clem, Painting Professor at IU Southeast
"Moonlight in the Forest" by Susan Moffett, Relief Monoprint, 19x14in, 2016
The following is from our last Artebella post on Susan, in November 2016:
Music is so often, if not always, an integral part of the life of a visual artist. Besides being a highly respected printmaker and teacher, Susan Moffett is also a “Caller” for contra and square dances, and now is playing the fiddle. If we might characterize such pursuits as folk music crossed with precision of execution, it would be perhaps be a fair description of the work we see here.
"Seasonal Rhythms" by Susan Moffett, Relief Monoprint Installation, 42x54in, 2016
The tradition and protocol of printmaking includes labored technique, process, and the notion of limited editions of prints pulled by the artist to their exacting standards, but we find Moffett abandoning those for what she calls the, “the freedom and spontaneity of woodcut monoprints. Instead of a traditional series of perfected prints with a consistent image, I opt to use the block prints in an intuitive exploration of organic forms, creating rhythm within and relationships between the prints. Small prints are repurposed in relationships of color, density and repetition, to make a larger installation.”
Although Moffett is too educated and sophisticated in her sensibilities to be labeled a folk artist, there is an elemental quality in these latest images. Yet, because they are densely textured and highly detailed, they are also complex. We often find such tension at the heart of art that is compelling, a balance of contrasting themes and aesthetic that seems the honest, organic result of genuine discovery.
With daughter Audrey at the Women's March in Washington, D.C., January 2017
Moffett was a founding member of PYRO Gallery in Louisville. She has exhibited throughout the United States as well as abroad in Ireland, Poland and Australia. Her work is in numerous public and private collections including:
Selected Collections
• Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, IN
• Hyatt Regency, Louisville, KY
• Brown-Forman Distillers Corp., Louisville, KY
• The Kentucky Foundation for Women, Louisville, KY
• Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, Louisville, KY
• University of Dallas, Irving, TX
• The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN
• Owensboro Museum of Art, Owensboro, KY
• The University of South Florida, Tampa, FL
Scroll down for more images
"Cool Flow, Fall" by Susan Moffett, Relief Monoprint Collage, 14x20in, 2016
"Approaching Symmetry" by Susan Moffett, Relief Monoprint, 16x6in, 2016
Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.
