Member News: Fiber, Fabric, and Textiles (The Plastic Club, Reception April 6 from 2-5)

This exhibition features work by member Bonnie MacAllister.

There will be a reception on Sunday, April 6 from 2-5 at the historic Plastic Club, 247 South Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107.

Read about the history of the Plastic Club here.  The club was founded by women artists, all of whom claimed their place in history on their own artist merits and initiative.

Have member news?  Let us know!  Email us at wcaphiladelphia@gmail.com.

Member Exhibition: 10 x 10 (Fall 2014, Holy Family University)

What do these objects have in common? Stay tuned for news on our exhibition, 10 x 10,  featuring 10 of our members! The challenge is on!

Cathy DeMarco
Linda Lou Horn
Kristin Osgood Lamelas
Jude Lang
C.W. Clara Lewis
Bonnie MacAllister
Virginia Maksymowicz
Toni Nash
Eva Aanya Preston
Emily Schnellbacher

Each member brought 10 of an item essential to their studio practice, many of which were recycled materials, including salvage and materials that support a formerly trafficked community in India. Exhibitors will use the ten items to create a new piece, a collaboration in multiples, an experiment in expanding their current methods, and an exercise in the mathematics of art making.

The ten items are olive oil bottles, handmade paper "mistakes," high school student photographic work, fishing lure, plexiglass ornaments, aluminum paper, iridescent fabric, zippers, colorful fabric, and sari remnants from a formerly trafficked community in India.

Exhibition: Fall 2014, Holy Family University

Member News: Bonnie MacAllister :: SPECTACLE (Opens 4/6, iMPeRFeCT Gallery)

Member News: Two last chances to see Simone Spicer & Bonnie MacAllister's work in this group show (iMPeRFeCT Gallery, Germantown)

Press: "TechKnowledge at Holy Family University Gallery" (The Examiner)

Aja Beech at the Examiner covered Techknowledge in today's edition:
www.examiner.com/article/techknowlegde-at-holy-family-university-gallery

Slideshow here.

"The technology in the work ranges from printmaking to metal manipulations, infusing images from x-rays and creating sound installments. The unique format of the show allows for a history of technology within its display, as the viewer is shown items so entrenched in every day life that the elegance of its technology and its affect on our every day lives has almost been forgotten. Almost, but thanks to these women, not yet." --Aja Beech

Meet the 2012-2013 Executive Board

Congratulations! Thank you everyone who voted. Here's the 

2012-13  board for WCA Philadelphia Chapter. 

Ellen K. Bonett - Co-President

I want to engage my audience. My art is not just a reflection of myself; it is a culmination of universal ideas and perceptions translated into different media. The community plays a necessary role in the translation, because my work is mainly abstract. If the public can assimilate a personal reflection in the work, then I have achieved my objective of inspiring interaction. I am gradually combining all of the elements that excite me in my work – recognizable 3D objects, abstract forms and color into larger installations. More information about Ellen and her work can be found http://ekb-art.org/home.html. 

Bonnie MacAllister- Co-President

Bonnie MacAllister renders moments in a variety of media.  She has recently exhibited cross-genre work in NY at Et Al Projects (film and still photography printed on metal) and at Raandesk Gallery (film and performance), in MD at Sandy Spring Museum (film, photography, performance, and fiber art), and in Pennsylvania at the Ellen Powell Tiberino Museum (film and performance), and in Virginia at Artomatic (computer generated imagery).  MacAllister is a recipient (with Jeanne Lombardo) of the 2012 Artlines Fellowship to design a national zine, and she has represented the Philadelphia Chapter and the Young Women's Caucus at National Conference twice.  She edits the cross-genre collaborative site and publication, www.certaincircuits.org.   She consults on marketing and development for nonprofits and individuals, and she is a writer for Flying Kite and Tom Tom, among others. For more information, please visit bonniemacallister.com.

Virginia Maksymowicz- Treasurer

Virginia Maksymowicz was born in 1952 in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Philadelphia. PA. She received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York  (1973) and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego (1977). She has exhibited her work at the Franklin Furnace, Alternative Museum, the Elizabeth Foundation and Grey Gallery in New York City, as well as in college, university and nonprofit galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad. 

She is a past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in sculpture (1984), and over the years has been honored with numerous other grants and awards. Her artwork has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, The New York Times, New York Newsday, The New Art Examiner and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her series, The History of Art, appears on the cover of The Female Body, published by the University of Michigan Press.

She has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome, an artist-in-residence at the Powel House Museum in Philadelphia, and a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center.

Maksymowicz is currently Associate Professor of Art at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her website is http://tandm.us/.

Laura Petrovich-Cheney-Secretary

Laura Petrovich-Cheney graduated with a BA from Dickinson College, MS from Drexel University and an MFA from Moore College of Art & Design.  Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues including the George Segall Gallery, Monmouth Museum, Delaware Art Museum and the Shore Institute of Contemporary Art. She has received a grant from The Dodge Foundation and awards from the National Art Education Association, the Council for Art Education, National Academy of Art and the New Jersey State Department of Education. In the fall of 2013, she will participate in a residency to the Arctic Circle.

Petrovich-Cheney’s work focuses on resurrecting debris found in the natural environment. She upcycles and repurposes washed up boats, hollowed tree trunks, abandoned wasps’ nests and her honeybees’ wax to create sculptures and mixed media work. Her autobiography and the environment inform her work as she documents place and experience.

In addition, she is a National Board Certified Art Educator working with children from kindergarten to middle school. She presents lectures on art education nationally.  Petrovich-Cheney is also an active member several not-for-profit art organizations and was selected to write the art education curriculum for New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art. She maintains a blog on her art practice and writes reviews of art exhibits in the tri-state area.

Laura Petrovich-Cheney is full-time practicing, professional artist who lives and works in Asbury Park, NJ, who also maintains several organic vegetable gardens, flower gardens, a small orchard and several colonies of honeybees.

Thank you for taking the time to vote. Please remember that this is a volunteer organization, not a newsletter. 

Exhibition: TechKnowledge (Holy Family University, September 4-26)

For Immediate Release

contact: pflynn@holyfamily.edu

TechKnowledge: Karen Love Cooler,  Nicole Dul, Elaine M. Erne, Danielle Ferrell, Bonnie MacAllister, Laura Petrovich-Cheney

Running Dates:  9/4/12-9/26/12

Reception: Thursday, September 20, 2012

6: 30- 9:30 p.m.

Panel discussion: 6:30-7:30 p.m.  (featuring Bonnie MacAllister, Laura Petrovich-Cheney, Janice Showler)

Location:

Holy Family University Gallery

Lower Level

Education and Technology Center

9801 Frankford Avenue

Philadelphia, PA 19114

215-637-7700

TechKnowledge:

"Technology is the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a preexisting solution to a problem, achieve a goal or perform a specific function. This show calls for artwork that addresses the full range of that knowledge.

In this exhibition, six women artists, all members of the Women’s Caucus for Art Philadelphia Chapter (founded in 1972 in Philadelphia, celebrating 40 years as an organization), exhibit innovative work that answer this definition of technology.  Work from these artists from Philadelphia and New Jersey incorporates x-rays, copper wire, dye infused digital metal prints, printmaking, sound, gif painting mounted in digital frames, and computer generated material alongside work in traditional painting techniques that employ technology in surprising ways.

Karen Love Cooler’s work offers a distinct perspective on technology through the evolution on time: “Early peoples arranged large standing stones to help explain their world.  Evidence suggests that these stones were placed to view predictable and unpredictable events. The “Menhirs of Alentejo“ (large standing stones in Alentejo, Portugal) are of a human scale. They are in an isolated area in Eastern Portugal. It is usual, unlike at Stonehenge, to view these stones with no one else around.”   Cooler uses references from her edited digital photos of these sites to create her paintings.   Cooler who also curated the show.  has exhibited professionally since 1995.  She is a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and mixed media artist. 

Nicole Patrice Dul holds a B.F.A. in painting and drawing from Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, PA, and an M.F.A. in printmaking from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Holy Family University, an instructor at Fleisher Art Memorial and an Administrator at the Gershman Y, a Jewish Arts and Culture Organization in Philadelphia, PA. Nicole is an exhibiting artist and is an ongoing member of Orchard Artworks, a Fine Art and Craft Cooperative Gallery in Bryn Athyn, PA. Printmaking affords Nicole a way to combine process and medium, search out new methods, and experiment with mixed media. It allows her to integrate creativity with her interest in cultural history and social consciousness. npdprints.com/index.html

Elaine M. Erne received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University and her MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University.  She is on the faculty of Moore College of Art and Design and the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial.  She is a member of Nexus, Foundation for Today’s Art and a former fellow of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.  She has been working on the Lives and Traumas of Stuffed Animals, a series of prints and drawings of Mr. Bunny and his friends.  She finds that using humor, however dark, is a way of dealing with past and present dilemmas.  The prints in the series are done in the process of lithography.  She uses some traditional lithographic materials but also new methods not associated with the medium including emulsion processes, polyester plates on which non-water soluble material such as floor wax may be used for drawing.   “Technology has taken lithography outside the print shop,” Elaine quips. “It is hard to tote a 50 lb. stone out of a studio, but one can easily roll up a polyester plate, grab a ball point pen and go outside to work.”

Danielle Ferrell has a BA in Studio Art from Holy Family University.  She currently runs a photography company working out of Philadelphia and the surrounding areas.  Her current work focuses on 'preserving moments' of nightmares and dreams.  Danielle is exhibiting multimedia works including those made from chine collé, a special technique in printmaking, in which the image is transferred to a surface that is bonded to a heavier support in the printing process.  Her piece, “No Flash Please” confronts themes of memory, advertisement, awareness, brainstorming, and process.  She insists that the camera has become an essential part of social functioning.

Bonnie MacAllister renders moments in a variety of media.  She has recently exhibited cross-genre work in NY at Et Al Projects (film and still photography printed on metal) and at Raandesk Gallery (film and performance), in MD at Sandy Spring Museum (film, photography, performance, and fiber art), and in Pennsylvania at the Ellen Powell Tiberino Museum (film and performance), and in Virginia at Artomatic (computer generated imagery).   MacAllister employs various animation techniques including stop action and has trained in Super 8, non-linear editing, linear editing, and non-commercial broadcasting. She composes the soundtracks to her films using her original texts (culled from poems, plays, film scripts), real instruments (Wurlitzer organ, synthesizer, melodeon, tambourine, and drum), and computer generated audio software and beat-making software. bonniemacallister.com

Laura Petrovich-Cheney, a multimedia artist and beekeeper who lives and creates in North Jersey, describes her interaction with technology through photography,  “Photography isn’t about capturing beauty in the world, rather it is learning to be aware of where I am and who is around me. Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and my website allow my visual narrative to been seen all around the world; I tell them what I witness, what it means to be human, living in this place and time.  The results are always spontaneous and the act is never static. Inspired by patterns found in nature- the bark of a black walnut tree, swishing waves, buzzing honeybees, and birds in migratory flight, I look for moments that preserve a sense of touch with nature. Walking quiets my mind from constantly being in motion. When I am walking, my imagination can answer the looming question - “what do you see?” 

A panel discussion will occur in conjunction with the opening on Thursday, September 20 featuring  MacAllister, Petrovich-Cheney, and Janice Showler.  Refreshments will be served.  The exhibition is located in the Holy Family University Gallery located in the Education Technology Building.

Janice Showler (panelist) is an associate professor of English and serves as writing coordinator at Holy Family University. A technology novice by her own admission, she is at once intimidated and also intrigued by it. Specifically, she is fascinated by the present race to build computers (such as Watson) that can think like humans. Her preliminary research on the topic suggests that computers are changing not only how we live in the 21st century but also what makes us human.  

Rubia Project on Art Cast

This week WCA/DC and WCA-Phila member Sharon Burton interviewed Bonnie MacAllister of the Philadelphia Chapter of WCA about the Rubia Project on her blog podcast. Sharon says, "It was an excellent interview...check it out at
http://authenticart.blogspot.com/2008/04/authentic-art-visions-artcast-second.html (click and paste to your browser)."