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Sat. Oct. 19th at 1 PM - my documentary BELLA BELLA is screening as part of Bella Feldman's 50 year retrospective at the Richmond Art Center. Q&A to follow. DVDs available at special discount price.
Sat. Oct. 26th at 4 PM - New Media Combinations Panel Discussion at Berkeley Art Center. Q&A after. Come with your questions about integrating digital tools into your studio practice - or just hear how we do it.
Elizabeth Sher - Evolutionary Processes at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts
April 4-May10, HOPE TO SEE YOU at the Reception April 4 6-7:30 PM,
OR drop by during Gallery Hours Tu-Fri 10-4, Sat. 1-4
OR come hear Sher in Conversations with Sonoma County Artist Brooke Holve Sat Apr 27 4:30-6 discussing the lasting power of residencies on their process and artwork.
3 Books featured in Lark Crafts Publication 500 Handmade Books Volume 2
I am pleased to announce the inclusion of 3 of my artist books in the upcoming Lark Crafts Publication, 500 Handmade Books Volume 2. The book will be released to the bookstores in September of 2013.
Blog, a daily record of my residency in Can Serrat in Spain housed in a handmade wooden box fabricated by Peter L'abbe.
Arbres Arrencats d'Amethles is based on images of upturned almond tree roots made at Can Serrat Residency, Barcelona, Spain with text by Maw Shein Win.
Tangled Dreams is one of several projects on which I collaborated with artist Brooke Holve
Berlin has changed so much since I was there for the Berlin Short Film Festival in 2004. Actually curator Megan Steinman told me it changes hugely each year! Lots of construction, lots of action and lots and lots of amazing art. Saw community gardens enlivening formerly drug infested plazas (including healthy yummy lunch counter), an old hospital building turned into a fabulous art center, a performance by one of the many American artists living there, a 5 story warehouse where temporary art exhibits make it worth climbing the stairs.
In addition to the permanent museum exhibits, there were 3 simultaneous shows of the succinct, elegant and profound Alfredo Jaar, the best retrospective of Diane Arbus I have ever seen, and 5 great shows at the Hamburger Banhoff including light sculptures by Anthony McCall, The White Field by Qui Shiuha, Cy Twombly and the School of Fontaineableu, indoor and outdoor neon works by Dan Flavin, a huge Architektonika 2 show of works inspired by architecture.
Lastly the very strange and elaborate Secret Universe III, dolls with hand sewn clothes and a variety of porcelain faces, ears and feet by Morton Bartlett. He photographed and drew each doll after which he placed all of these materials in individual boxes and never showed them!
Part of Berlin's ongoing healing process is replacing cobblestones with brass plaques in front of buildings where Jews lived. The plaques list their names, ages, dates of transport and where they were sent.
Days were hot and nights were perfect for eating outside by the Spree and watching all the boating and mobile beer parties. And watching the Olympics on German TV was much better than NBCs MTV-like montages of event - although not understanding the anchor patter might have helped.
Re-entering with it's obligatory jet lag has been a challenge but getting back to my studio feels good and I look forward to seeing what my Gullkistan residency and subsequent travels will generate in the coming months (and even years.)
Although it was strange not to be hiking over to the Gullkistan barn studios each day, there was so much more of Iceland to see. Our Friends Aegir and Linda knew just where to go and when. The Saga Museum in Reykjavik tells the violent history of the vikings arrival and subsequent conquerors, plagues, slavery and survival by this tough people. The models are so lifelike it's almost scary - famous actors and artists where used for the molds. Here is a woman being burned as a witch.
Iceland is a new land and steam comes up in various places. So the entire country is heated geo-thermally and no one pays for hot water! Note the gorgeous color of the water which is said to have healing powers even for psoriasis.
At the famous Blue Lagoon we tested out the healing mud masks available in big tubs for free (after you pay your entry fee). Everyone in the huge pool looked like ghosts but we all had smoother skin afterward.
Below are a few highlights - and again the photo ops were endless - Iceland is an amazingly visual country. This is probably why an early Norwegian king who wanted it for himself called it Iceland to deter people from coming. He called the neighboring island which is almost all covered in ice Greenland in hopes of allluring them there.
It was a great week, but....
Just funnin' - it really was a great week. Next stop Berlin...
Our last day at Gullkistan we went hiking near one of the oldest churches in Iceland. we walked by milky waterfalls and rapids lined with wild blueberry bushes ( albeit a month too early to gorge ourselves). Brooke went with Jon the Mountaineer husband of Alda, one of the 2 women who run the residency, and I took the "high" road back the way we came. When we saw Brooke stranded on a tall wall of shale I was glad I did. She crawled up Auke's body to get the plants to grab on to. Filthy footed but happy she made it and even tracked the challenge points on her GPS. An art piece will follow soon.
We showed our work in progress of Tangled Dreams through the temporary rust screen Brooke made and we got some great feedback for the final editing when we get back. Also have another video installation in the works. Very lucky to have met such an amazing and eclectic group of artists including Auke, a terrific young animator from Holland, Guttrun, a former East German artist living in Paris, Amy, a new media artist from N. Carolina, and Yu Jun, an incredible concert composer as well as every other kind of musical genre imaginable just to name a few.
As with my two other residencies I used my time at Gullkistan to get back to my "roots", drawing and painting what was around me and letting ideas that had been back burnered by the busy-ness of my "regular" life, bubble up to the front of my mind. I am sure these beginnings will lead to exciting work in the months and even years to come!
Did you know that golf was big in Iceland - short season but long days.
There are about 30 words for wind in Icelandic! this tells you a bit about the weather - medium hard wind, cold wind from the north, harder than medium breeze, etc. Why generalize? This wind causes a huge erosion problem, a sense that Iceland is literally blowing away. One anti-erosion strategy has been to import a North American blue lupin and plant it all over the sand and mountain sides where it has taken off like crazy.
It is beautiful but as with any imported ecological solution has also caused problems. The sheep don't like its bitter taste and it grows so tall that it wipes out the shorter native grasses as well as moss and lichen. But it has stabilized the soil.
A long day trip to the North led through a long expanse of nothing with barren heidis (heaths) on one side and shimmering fljõts (streams) on the other. And there would be a long camper parked in the middle of it all so the owner could fish. The fjördurs (fjords) are a gorgeous blue against the sky amd there are even fewer trees.
Back in my studio looking out at pairs of white plastic wrapped hay bales that look like sheep-mates as I think about this raw new land, Iceland. Was this what it all looked like in the beginning?
