Artist Statement

Biography

Joe Grenn is a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, received his education in Boston and concluding as a Harvard postdoctoral fellow. He moved to Marin County, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, in1972 and retired in June of 2015. Joe maintained a private practice in endodontics in San Francisco, lectured internationally and was a clinical professor at the University of California School of Dentistry form 1972 until his retirement. He has since dedicated his time to his long time love of oil painting, which started with “painting by the numbers” at age seven.

Joe maintains a studio at 39 Liberty Ship Way on the Liberty Ship Dock in Sausalito and is a board member of the Marin Society of Artists.

His paintings include landscapes, portraits and figures, all of which he hopes evoke a special place in time.

Biography/Artist Statement:

Push is a triptych of stills from a body interactive performance. It deals with the transient nature of identity, and explores the moments, both uncomfortable but necessary, where growth and change occur. During the performance, a body walks into the frame and encases itself with a cocoonesque pod, made of silicone and reflective glass beads, that sits wrinkled on the floor. The body moves and manipulates inside the pod until it has ripped itself free. The body exits the opposite way it approached, leaving the shed pod behind. 

Through glass, the body, mixed media, and alternative processes, I examine the transient natures of identity. I create flexible sheets of glass and glass textiles through a process of fusing and the addition of silicones, to explore glass as sheets, skins, and screens. I reconcile with material and memory to convey stories about identity, perception, and comfort.  The objects I create become body interactive to directly explore ipseity – a sense of self-ness, how others perceive me, and how society perceives others. 

Gracia Nash is a glass and multi-media artist from western New York. She received her BFA from Alfred University, and is currently a Glass Masters of Fine Arts candidate at Rochester Institute of Technology School of American Crafts. Her work explores the body, identity, and perception. 

Resume

EDUCATION

Rochester Institute of Technology School of American Crafts, Rochester N.Y.  Aug 2017 – May 2019 (current)

• Glass Masters of Fine Arts
• Full Scholarship

New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred N.Y.  2009 – 2014

• Bachelor of Fine Arts, Education Minor, with Honors
• Alfred University’s President’s Scholarship, Honor’s Program, Dean’s List

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Master’s Class – GLASSPOINT Studio, Riga, Latvia “Illuminated Frit and Flame”

March 2019

Graduate Assistant, RIT, Rochester N.Y.

“Glass Processes” Fall 2018

“Glass Processes” Fall/Spring 2017-2019

Teacher’s Assistant, Alfred University, Alfred N.Y.

“Public Art”, Spring 2014

“Glass and Metal Casting”, Fall 2013

AWARDS/SCHOLARSHIPS/RESIDENCIES

Artist in Residence – Aichi University of Education in Nagoya, Japan. June – July 2018

RIT/Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass Partnership Scholarship July 2018

Windgate Fellowship Nominee  February 2014

EXHIBITIONS

• “Congressional Art Show”, Larking at Exchange Building, Buffalo, N.Y. April-May 2008
• “Post Present”, Hornell, N.Y. December 2013
• “MISE-En-Scene”, Robert C. Turner Gallery, Alfred, N.Y. February 2013
• “Senior Show Exhibition”, Alfred University, Alfred, N.Y. May 2014
• “Young and Loving”, S12, Bergen, Norway August-September 2014
• “No Man’s Land”, Politits Art Coalition, The Yards, Rochester, N.Y. March 2018
• “Drawing from the Same Well”, Davison Gallery at Roberts Wesleyan College, Rochester  N.Y. May 2018
• “RIT x AICHI Collaboration”, Library Gallery at Aichi University of Education, Nagoya, Japan  July 2018
• “LinGLASStics”, The Yards, Rochester, N.Y. December 2018
• “Open a New Year 2019”, Bauhaus Prairie Art Gallery, Juried Exhibition, 1st place.

January 2019

Artist’s Statement

This painting is one in a series of “animated” still lifes utilizing staged arrangements as scenes in which origami birds can playfully interact. I try to instill character into each and imagine the two smaller birds in this arrangement being fascinated with the beauty of the lights while the others pass by without seeing. I am currently exploring how light, shadows and reflections can be used to add liveliness to an arrangement and how they work with the many directional draped and folded lines, leading and connecting viewers to the small scenes.

Artist Bio

Oklahoma native, Tamara Sigler, studied art at Kansas City Art Institute and earned her BFA from Oklahoma City University.

She has spent many years exploring areas of beauty in Oklahoma and in the desert Southwest and Rocky Mountain States.

Her still life “scenes” reflect the strong colors and patterns inspired by her home and travels, and showcase a contemporary approach to composition along with a love and respect for traditional painting technique.

Tamara is the recipient of the Native Star Award and has shown by invitation in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Small Works, Great Wonders Show. She has had work displayed in the Butler Museum of American Art and participated in numerous galleries and juried shows, including NOAPS Best of America Small Painting National Juried Exhibition, Bosque Art Classic, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s 12×12, Heroes and Outlaws: 100 Oklahomans by 100 Oklahoma Artists, and the Rusty Gables Spring Stampede. Her painting “Trails End” received Best in Show at the Bauhaus Prairie Gallery’s Open a New Year 2018, with “Gifts from the Garden” receiving an award for the 2018 Still Life show.

Tamara was a Spirit of the Buffalo artist, with two of her proposed designs accepted for the successful project sponsored by the Nature Conservancy in Oklahoma City. Her designs are included in The Spirit of the Buffalo, Oklahoma’s Past and Future by Linda Millier Bosteels.

Biography

My name is Elite Shaier and I’m a self-taught artist.

I sculpt in clay and use other materials such as paper, rocks, pine cones.

I’m an author of short stories (two of which were published), a poet (one of which is being published), and a teacher of social studies (MA) and Hebrew.

Researched the Native American’s Sun Dance in the University of Bar Ilan.

I live in GA with one husband and two Great Pyrenees dogs (from shelters, of course).

I love desserts, art, animals and good people, not necessarily in that order.