"Dangerous Passage" by CJ Pressma, quilt - photographic collage printed on cotton and quilted on a long arm machine $1800 | BUY NOW
It is the hope of the individual artist to make work that speaks to their time, to influence the world around them. C.J. Pressma has done that – maybe enough for several artists, through his personal work, certainly, but also by operating the Center for Photographic Studies - an alternative school of creative photography, in Louisville in the early 1970’s.
When he founded the Center for Photographic Studies in 1970, Pressma’s initiative was part of what can now be seen halcyon period in Louisville’s creative life. Although open only eight years, the Center’s influence is still felt nearly forty years later. Nearly every photographer above a certain age working in this town seems to have spent time studying there, connecting local commercial and artist photographers with national names in the field such as Henry Horenstein, currently a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
"Nightmare in the City" by CJ Pressma, quilt - photographic collage printed on cotton and quilted on a long arm machine, $1800 | BUY NOW
On his website, Pressma explains: “The Center provided a learning experience for those seeking to explore photography as creative expression. During its existence the center attracted students from over 35 states and foreign countries to its full-time resident program and provided part-time instruction and darkroom access for hundreds of students in the Louisville metropolitan area. Its two galleries provided monthly photographic exhibits featuring the works of local, regional, and internationally acclaimed photographic artists including Ansel Adams and Minor White.”
Pressma’s work can be currently be seen in Altered Perceptions, an LVA Photo-Biennial Exhibit at Metro Hall, which runs July 17 through January 12, 2018. Some of the images we see here are featured in that show, which also includes work from Mitch Eckert and Jenny Zeller. There are certainly many facets to this artist’s work, but here we view pieces from a period when he printed photographic images and digital graphics onto fabric, allowing him to incorporate them into quilts; a non-traditional photographic presentation tied to a form steeped in tradition.
Pressma enjoyed a highly successful career as a multimedia producer and marketing communications specialist. In 1984, his seven part series Witness to the Holocaust, was released in the U.S. and Canada where it remains in distribution today. Witness to the Holocaust is one of the first productions to use survivor interviews as the exclusive content to tell the story of the Holocaust, and has received numerous national awards.
1978 - National Endowment Fellowship in Photography.
1997 - American Advertising Federation’s prestigious Silver Medal Award for “outstanding contributions to advertising and furthering the industry’s standards, creative excellence, and responsibility in areas of social concern.”
2001 - Fellowship by the Kentucky Arts Council.
C.J. Pressma is a graduate of Antioch College and holds an MFA. in Photography from Indiana University. He studied as a special graduate student with Minor White at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and with Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana University.
"Cartoon Weave" by CJ Pressma, 74x76.5in, quilt - photographic collage printed on cotton and quilted on a long arm machine (2008), $1800 | BUY NOW
"Cumberland Burial Site" by CJ Pressma, 79x81in, quilt - photographic collage printed on cotton and quilted on a long arm machine (2006), $1800 | BUY NOW
"Bull & Friends" by CJ Pressma, 72x78in (2008), $1800 | BUY NOW
"Secrets" by CJ Pressma, 94x68in, quilt - photographic collage printed on cotton and quilted on a long arm machine (2011), $1800 | BUY NOW
"Great Snakes Alive" by CJ Pressma, 88x77.5in, quilt - photographic collage printed on cotton and quilted on a long arm machine (2008), $1800 | BUY NOW
“After 38 years of nursing people back to health, I now apply that care and tender touch to my paintings” — Carol Jones
Painter, Carol Jones
There is a phrase – the healing arts, that applies specifically to the practice of medicine, but we might as easily use it as a descriptive for the therapeutic value of making art. Beginning in the early 20th century, art sought to challenge, provoke, and even agitate, but the contemplative aspect of painting has stood the test of time.
Carol Jones was a medical professional who occupies her time now painting, and, for her, making art is a process that echoes her work as a nurse: “As a retired registered nurse, I paint for fun and relaxation. Going into my studio and putting on my uniform, now a painter's smock, I smile as I look at the blank piece of board from my local hardware store. I visualize what the finished product will look like after being massaged with brushes and oils. After 38 years of nursing people back to health, I now apply that care and tender touch to my paintings. Each painting is special, just like my patients were, with its own special needs. I have to step back to study and diagnose what would bring more beauty to the piece - a little stroke of color here or a bold push of texture there. And when it's finally ‘well’, I take joy in sending it out into the world.”
"Drapes" by Carol Jones, 24x30in, oil on board (2012), $600 | BUY NOW
"Reflections in a Pinwheel" by Carol Jones, 18x24in, oil on board (2015), $500 | BUY NOW
Like so many artists, Jones pursues a personal course of study, continually taking workshops and studying under nationally known artists such as Charles Gruppe, Caroline Jasper, Robert Hoffman, Cindy Overall, Lori Putnam, Roger Dale Brown, and Dominic Vignola. “Just as with the continuing education courses I took in nursing, each class gives me wonderful new ideas and techniques.”
Jones enjoys painting landscapes, but it is in the near-abstract imagery of her fabric studies that we see qualities of care and nurturing that seems to express her process and aesthetic. They are quiet, but filled with compassion.
“I believe in a primordial sisterhood of women that links them beyond social and territorial boundaries." — Dorothy Kavka
Dorothy Kavka sees herself as an artist who is a chronicler of women: “…both in the roles they are made to assume within their societies and their historical reality. I believe in a primordial sisterhood of women that links them beyond social and territorial boundaries. The ‘other,’ or cultural diversity becomes the guise they assume that is demanded by their fathers, husbands, religious leaders, and lawmakers. My work explores the tension created by the existence of these forces on every woman.”
Kavka was accepted into a prestigious Women's Gallery Show in Chicago and in exhibits at the Kaviar Gallery and the Gallery Janjobe in Louisville. Recently, she won first place at the Jewish Community Center's 12th Annual Mazin Art Exhibition, juried by Joey Yates from the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft.
"Mood" by Dorothy Kavka
When did you first think you would be an artist?
I always knew I would be an artist. Even as a young child, I was always drawing, I took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago (giving up ballet because my parents could not afford both classes), and saved a few of the drawings from those classes; it still amazes me that I could do such detailed work at that age.
Who or what inspires you now?
Knowing that people like what I do inspires me. I just won first place at the Mazin Juried Art Exhibit, and that was a real thrill.
You describe yourself as a “chronicler of women” as regards how they are viewed by society. How do you feel your representation of the human figure captures that?
I find that although I have a number of studies of men, my focus has always been on women. That may be because in the workshops I took, we usually had women models. Then again, I guess I just find women more interesting.
Among the images here are nude studies of women. How does your work avoid some of the objectification of the female form that is still so common?
I don't know. I just draw and paint what I feel at the time I do the work.
"Nude X" by Dorothy Kavka
What are you reading right now?
I am reading a book about George Washington and about to read “The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell, who also wrote “Cloud Atlas”. I was an English teacher, and I do enjoy a good book.
Tell us about an important moment of transition for you as an artist?
I think that it happened as an adult, when I was able to start taking workshops with well-known Chicago artists, such as Ed Paschke and Lillian Desow Fishbein. They never tried to "fix" my work by drawing or painting over them, but would offer suggestions that allowed me to discover for myself what I need to do.
"Garden Party" by Dorothy Kavka
If you could do anything else but make art, what would it be?
I need to do art; it is a calling that I cannot ignore.
Has your style changed or evolved over the years? If so what do you think influenced this?
Yes, my art has changed over the years. Remember that I started art classes when I was a teenager. However, I did not begin to really take my art seriously until I started workshops with Chicago artists. At first I was doing realistic drawings and paintings - which were good, but somehow not fulfilling. Then, I began to work into them, changing the focus, and suddenly I found my stride.
Does art have a purpose? If so what is it?
This may sound trite, but I feel that art is the one thing that makes life enjoyable.
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Age: 76 Education: BA in English Language & Literature, University of Chicago; MA in English; University of Wisconsin; studied at Art Institute of Chicago and in private workshops with Ed Paschke and Lillian Desow Fishbein
