New Member: Veronica Hicks

A very warm welcome to new member, Veronica Hicks.  Veronica is an artist and educator.  We were thrilled to meet her at the TechKnowledge panel.  To see Veronica's art and education philosophy, click here.

veronicahicks.wordpress.com

Featured Member Artist: Megan Driscoll

Artist's Statement:

Megan Driscoll is a Philadelphia based artist that works with acrylic, watercolor, marker, and pencil to create atypical spaces and landscapes.  Her paintings intuitively evolve over time with layers of pattern, visible brush strokes, and a vibrant color palette.  She “builds” these curious landscapes by painting bricks or blocks or diamonds to build walls and then breaks through them with contrasting color and pattern.  Often her compositions hurl bricks into space.

Bio:

Megan received her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University and her BSN from Thomas Jefferson University’s School of Nursing.  She also received an Arts in Healthcare certificate from the Art and Quality of Life Research Center, Temple University.  Megan is an oncology nurse and a painter who finds connections between her worlds of art and science.

http://meganleedriscoll.blogspot.com/

Upcoming exhibits:

"Small Jawns Pt. II"

First Friday December 2, 2011

Part Time Studios, 2031 Frankford Ave, Phila PA

Image Featured:

Megan Driscoll

Flying Bricks 1

Acrylic on Canvas

24" x 24"

For Megan's Featured Artist Gallery click here.

Featured Member Artist: Simone Spicer

Industry and over population are the roots of my newest work as I see more, read more and feel more about where we are as a species. How can an artist work with anything but this incredible unfolding of our probable collapse? I love us, and I can't believe what we do, all of us, everyday. I ask myself, is our disregard for the natural world natural? Are we just running our course? I think we are.

My most recent works are made primarily from waste materials like corrugated cardboard, recyclables and various off falls of society. I approach these materials with reverence for the miracles that they are, and with an intention to give them a new and elevated life, thus turning the tide from waste to meaning while acknowledging the element of waste. I believe that the most relevant is found in the every day, and like an archeologist working with the discarded items of a culture, I value the materials I use for the information they hold. Corrugated cardboard for example tells the story of our lives as it references containers, machinery, packaging, travel, shipping, shopping, manufacturing, mass production, organic and inorganic matter, waste, re-cycling, paper, trees... and so on. All these ideas are important to my expression.

My cardboard figures are hollow containers. They are contradictory; being about what we deem most valuable, namely human life, and also about the valueless, cardboard. In my series of 'Street People' the valued and the valueless become interchangeable, and a spiritual quality arises because the base material is so transformed.

Non-precious, passed over and grotesque in volume, are plastic water bottles. They are a clue into our horrible relationship with this planet. They are also about incredible mastery over the planet and its resources. They are a masterpiece of design and ingenuity in wondrous transparency and variation of shape and size. They inspired me to make the piece titled 'Pumped', a kinetic work. This work was actually in progress when the gulf oil spill happened. I was thinking about this beautiful piece of blackish brown fleece fabric I had in my studio and how nice it was visually against my growing collection of shiny water bottles in my recycling bin. When I decided to add small mechanical pumps under each bottle, creating them to rise and fall giving movement to the piece and aliveness to the black 'water', the work instantly referenced human sexuality. I noticed the shapes of the bottles and how phallic they are and wonder if this is some marketing secret? I feel this piece introduces our animal nature as a force behind our destruction of the environment. We don't seem to be able to help it, and somehow in the muck, the water bottles are sparkling with reflectivity on the lush black fleece and there is a certain beauty in the face of the depletion and degradation.

There is a similar style of beauty and hideousness in the 'Cardboard Cornfield' I am building in my studio now. The cardboard is as flavorless and manufactured as the corn is in Iowa. Similarly hideous, cardboard which is my means to producing big work fast and economically, takes many resources to create. The beauty is that my purpose is the art form. The precision of the grid format and the machine made aspect of the cardboard excite me the way the grid format and the machine have excited so many artists in the past. The regularity and predictability of the rows of corrugation inspire me to press upon them my human imperfection' and affiliation with the natural world, and to speak of the corn's perspective. The stalks I am making have the flowing elegance of Chinese ink brush painting. The material suits the image. It is intrinsically strong when I roll it up into stalks, and very delicate when I separate the paper layers of the corrugated sheets. To make the ears of corn, I am using the inner corrugated layer as an expression of the organic kernels, and the outer layers for their papery husks. This Cardboard Cornfield is in the early stage of development. My intention is to make cornstalks until I am thoroughly sick of them and then to make a few more. I intend to have a small field in my studio of individual cornstalks grounded in cardboard 'dirt' mounds that can butt up against each other to form rows. My intention is to reflect on the domestication of corn from the early Mexican version of a staple food to the contemporary version of corn as an over produced raw material. I am seeking to find myself somewhere in the vastness of my own cornfield and in the vastness of our ever increasingly combined man made/natural environment.

The earth has experienced tremendous changes in its 4 billion years. If the atmosphere returns to methane again for a few hundred thousand years, earth will be okay. We are only doing ourselves in. We are a blink of an eye in geological time, and with that thought, I make images that celebrate us and confront us with ourselves.  

www.simonespicer.com

Link to Simone's WCA portfolio: here
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See all of our WCA Featured Member artists here.
See all of WCA Featured Member galleries here.

Featured Member Artist: Jeanne Lombardo

My name is Jeanne Lombardo and I’m a “medium explorer” and a total 80′s chick. I received my B.A. in English and Communication from Cabrini College, where I was the A&E and Features editor on the student newspaper, I revived the college’s literary magazine, and I was a DJ on Cabrini’s radio station.   

When I started a marketing job at a local interior design firm 10 years ago, I was immersed in the creativity of my co-workers and became inspired to experiment with anything and everything.  Since then, I’ve created a variety of funky housewares that are currently for sale at Square Peg Artery.
Wire art / beading, decoupage, mosaics, and mixed media became my favorite creative outlets.  Generally what fuels my inspiration is art and community involvement. I’m a member of Handmade Philly and just recently joined the Young Professionals Group for Covanent House, where I hope to help raise awareness and support for homeless teens in Philadelphia.      

Here's a link to my blog.  If you have any ideas, let me know....http://www.intuitionjeanne.blogspot.com/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/49052664@N02/

Permanent link to Jeanne's WCA featured photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51198862@N04/sets/72157627672542579/
Jeanne's Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/49052664@N02/

Featured Member Artist: Rosalind Bloom

We are pleased to announce that Rosalind Bloom is the Featured Member Artist for September.

Rosalind Bloom, Tumble, mixed media on paper, 14 inches x 11 inches, email

Rosalind Bloom attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and has an MA in Art History from Columbia University. She has been a teacher, writer, and resident at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Ucross Foundation. Her mixed media paintings are in many public and private collections.

Rosalind Bloom, Wasteland, mixed media, 32 inches x 40 inches, email

Assemblage: Into the Third Decade 

Stedman Gallery

Rutgers University Camden campus. 

Show runs Sept. 6 - Oct. 29. 

Gallery hours Mon.-Sat. 10-4. 

Call for reception date and time, and special Sunday hours. 856.225.6245

Re-New Work

June 2012

Da Vinci Art Alliance

704 Catharine Street

Philadelphia, PA  19147

Phone:  215-829-0466

http://rosalindbloom.net

http://web.me.com/assemblage

Click here for a direct link to her featured work.

Featured Member Artist: Alison Altergott

"In the course of playing with and appreciating line, texture, and color, I have become interested in relaying stories, especially fairy tales and folk tales, and in examining what the adults in the world leave for the children – emotionally, psychologically, and physically. Some of the motifs in my work are trees, houses, and birds, symbols of intent and also omens of destruction. As a human race, we are always balancing our desires with the inevitable damage we leave in our wake: making a safe home for our family while wreaking havoc on the environment, trying to break free and still feeling trapped. I haven't gotten to the end of the story yet, though......My exploration takes many forms, and may really lead nowhere."

Alison Altergott is the President of the Women's Caucus for Art Philadelphia Chapter.  She has been a member since 2003 and is now a member of the National Board as a Regional VP.  Alison has exhibited in member exhibitions at the Delaware Art Museum, International House Philadelphia, Holy Family University, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Philadelphia Free Library, B-Square Gallery, and Zonk Arts.  She has spoken at the WCA/DC Annual Networking Day.  Alison recently organized the UJIMA project which paired WCA members with students in Delaware.  Her solo show "Full Circle/Half-moon" opens August 12 from 6-9 at Gallery Twenty-Two, 236 S. 22nd St. Facebook invitation here.

Featured Member Artist: Veronica Gledhill

Veronica Gledhill was born in Philadelphia. From Chestnut Hill to Greysferry, the childhood city neighborhoods of her youth were rich in various cultures and economic diversity. She spent many weekends in “the country” on her architect-grandfather’s farm in Bucks County, PA. Gledhill’s art reflects that range of experience as her choice of painting subjects can be the still beauty of a person, place, object, abstract expression, or, a sometimes stark allegorical image. Veronica’s teachers have been the Philadelphia area museums, libraries and art galleries as well as private lessons, adult classes and the long closed Lewis Institute of Art in Lansdowne, PA.

Her work has been viewed in juried exhibits and other art exhibits:

• “Women & Water” – March 2011 – WCA, International House Philadelphia
• White Horse Village Gallery – Newtown Square - February 2011
• 2010 Women’s Day Celebration – International House, Philadelphia
• “Stitch by Stitch” - WCA & Rubia Project: Collaboration with American and Afghan Women artists – see www.marycrowley.com/rubia
• Penn State Library 40^th Anniversary Exhibit – Brandywine Delaware County Campus
• “The Dress Project” – Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA) Highwire Gallery - Philadelphia
• “Making History - Here and Now” - WCA - Highwire Gallery, Philadelphia
• WCA – “Women’s Artist Conference” – Washington, DC
• “Well Fed Artists Gallery” Member – Third Street, Old Philadelphia

• The Tim Mark Endowment at Penn State - Brandywine Delaware County
• The Creese Gallery at Drexel University
• Delaware County Community College - Media

Veronica’s work is published in local poetry chap books and has been featured in the international publication, “The Global Village”.

Gledhill teaches “Painting with Pastel” - Adult Night Classes for the Rose Tree Media School District and produces a line of hand-painted note cards locally sold in the following fine art galleries:

• “Tyme Gallery” on Eagle Road in Havertown
• “SOTA: Spirit of the Artist” at 1022 Pine Street, Philadelphia
• “Seven Stones” Gallery on State Street in Media
• “BeaDazzle Artisan Boutique” in Wallingford, at the Community Art Center

Veronica is a registered artist with Media Arts Council and a member of the Women’s Caucus for Art in Philadelphia, www.mediaartscouncil.org

Gledhill co-produced and directed two Philadelphia Fringe Festival events at

“The Ethical Society” in Philadelphia and was the Art Director, writer and performer

in a collaborative creative project, the short film titled, “This Way Out”. www.artsyvideo.com/thiswayout

Featured Member Artist: Marcelle Harwell Pachnowski

Marcelle Harwell Pachnowski holds her MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Maryland and her BA in painting and drawing from the American University in Washington, DC. She has exhibited on national and international levels and her work is in numerous collections which include the Malt Beach Art Center in Tampere, Finland, the College of Charleston, the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center in Brooklyn, NY, University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television Department and many private collections. She has taught at the University of Maryland, Western Carolina University, Columbus College, Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Gibbes Museum School in Charleston, SC to name a few.

When Marcelle lived in the mountains of North Carolina she negotiated with county and state officials to start an arts council. She successfully organized many fundraisers, art festivals and regularly brought artists-in-residence to their public schools. When she lived in Atlanta, Georgia she was an artist-in-residence on the city, county and state levels that were funded by local arts councils, the Georgia Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

While living in Atlanta, Marcelle was the first visual artist to be involved in an artist-in-residence in a homeless shelter for women and children. She also lobbied for art advocacy in Atlanta. She left the Atlanta area and lived in rural Appalachia continuing as a working painter and also taught art education, art history and studio classes at Cumberland Community College in Middlesboro, KY. Following living in east Tennessee, Marcelle moved to Brooklyn, NY and became active in the American Society of Contemporary Artists, the Salmagundi Club and the National Association of Women Artists. Marcelle served as President, vice President, and Governing Board member of the National Association of Women Artists. Marcelle then moved to Marlton, New Jersey and continued to actively exhibit her artwork in and around New York City in addition to the Philadelphia area and with the Tri-State Artists Equity.

Marcelle, a working artist, has lived the past four years in the Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. She is remains active in the Women’s Caucus for Art and in particular the DC and Philadelphia chapters. Marcelle often paints locally in “live” music jam session.

“Painting is my passion. The act of painting--the movement, the gesture, the process of selecting brushes, palette knives, paints and colors, textured mediums, the music underlying and reinforcing the process— is an exuberant ritual. All five senses are part of this painting / ritual process that has been the essence of my adult artistic life.
My concern for not “being” identified from a specific region of the country or identified with a specified style of painting has at times been isolating, but it is central to my creative process, and to my quest for recognition, validation and acceptance. My place as a woman artist - wife, mother, and grandmother - raised and educated in a male-dominated society is also at the heart of my process. Heartache, grief, loss, pain, joy, love, bliss, lust, excitement… look at my paintings as a mirror of my life. This is who I am, a colorist in a digital age.”

http://www.marcelleharwellpachnowski.com/

Featured Member Artist: Pamela Flynn

Pamela is a mixed media artist. She received her MFA from New Jersey City University and has her studio in NJ. She is a Professor of Art at Holy Family University, Philadelphia. Her work is fueled by cultural and social issues. This body of work is titled Demarcation Exclusion/Exclusive. This work bids the viewer to consider structure and placement and one’s relationship to a wall or fence-physically/conceptually/politically. A barrier to one person may be a means of protection to another. The purpose of this work is to bring attention to the barriers that persons must climb (figuratively and actually) everyday in order to share in the American dream.

http://www.pamelaflynnart.com/

See Pam's featured images here.

Featured Member Artist: Virginia Maksymowicz

VIRGINIA MAKSYMOWICZ
3719 Lancaster Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Home: 215/387-9706
Work: 717-358-4574
vam@tandm.us
http://tandm.us

Artist’s Biography

Virginia Maksymowicz (b. 1952, New York City) is a sculptor currently living in Philadelphia. PA. In 1973, she received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego. She has exhibited her work at the Franklin Furnace, Alternative Museum, the Elizabeth Foundation and Grey Gallery in New York City; the Michener and Woodmere museums in Philadelphia; and 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
in 1991.

She has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome (2006), an artist-in-residence at the Powel House Museum in Philadelphia (2006- 2007), and a fellow at the Vermont Studio Center (2007).

Maksymowicz has been a visiting professor of art at a variety of colleges and universities throughout the United States including Oberlin College in Ohio, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia. She is currently Associate Professor of Art at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

For nearly 35 years, Maksymowicz has been developing a type of imagery that addresses cultural and political issues in a nontraditional, but understandable, form. A hybrid of sculpture and painting, the work is usually displayed as wall relief, with figures or objects sometimes juxtaposed with narrative texts. Maksymowicz has a particular interest in feminist issues and she often focuses on the particular circumstances of a range of women, both in past history and in current times.

January 2011

Featured Member Artist: Ruth Schanbacher

My main goal, whether I'm working on production or community building, is to breath life into concepts and ideas...


Production and Performance:

I'm very drawn to fantasy costuming and sets, and to finding appropriate locations and getting people involved. The events I produce have a strong participatory community component. So much so, that frequently there is no "audience," because everyone is involved at some point. Aesthetically, I see costuming as an extension of my love of soft sculpture and art dolls.

I'm a member of Horsey, a sound art/ performance project...the audio component lies somewhere in the crossover of music and noise...we sometimes perform live...we have a ton of recorded material...though only a small portion of this has been released at this time.

Artist Promotion:

In 2007, I founded Manufactured Dissent, and since then I've been interviewing artists / writers / performers for this site.

Community Coordination:

This is probably the most visible thing I'm involved with. Since 2007 I've been involved w/ a group of artists. They started out as the Philly Etsy Team. At some point we decided to start our own, independent art collective, which has since morphed into Handmade Philly. I strive to motivate people to make things...and to build strong local economies and communities.

Visual & Collaborative Art

Most of my 2D work focuses on spatial relationships of both real and imagined landscapes: map illustration on a macro and micro level. I enjoy working with a variety of materials and, of course, love working on collaborative projects. I enjoy making objects with a strong individual character. I like objects that look personal...like a person made them...I would categorize my style as contemporary primitive folk art. Though it can be dangerous and potentially limiting to throw such labels around.

This year I joined the Women's Caucus for Art. Through this organization, not only have I met super talented and charming artists, I was also given the opportunity to meet a few really sweet students from a local high school. We worked together on one of the collaborative projects, and I was really grateful for the opportunity. I've really been wanting to get more involved with community outreach...you know it's so easy as an adult to live a self contained (ie isolated) life...and I feel it's really important to reach past the circle of friends/ family / co-workers and into the community at large...

Ruth Schanbacher
Community Coordinator
www.handmadephilly.com
www.mandismag.com
www.volklibre.org
http://horsey75.tumblr.com

To find out more, check the Upcoming Exhibits and Performances page at www.ruthschanbacher.com

December Featured Member Artist: Bonnie MacAllister

Bonnie MacAllister is a past President of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art and has been a member since 2003. She currently serves on the International Committee and the Young Women's Caucus (an internal caucus) of the National Women's Caucus for Art. Bonnie is Performance Chair for the LIVE SPACE: women + art + activism Conference to be held in New York from February 10-14, 2011 where she has curated performances and film for an event at Raandesk Gallery in Manhattan on February 10.

Bonnie renders moments through a variety of media. Often pieces are multi-genre, fusing painting, photography, slide installations, spoken word, video, and performance. She is currently exhibiting documentary photography from her Fulbright-Hays to Ethiopia in the Jennifer Bates Memorial Gallery at GERM Bookstore. The exhibit "Coptic: Ethiopian Mysticism" examines the history, culture, and migration of the Ethiopian people, all themes that she studied at the University of Addis Ababa. She is also exhibiting in "Art for the Urban Collector" at Highwire Gallery and with the Women's Caucus for Art DC Chapter at the Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick, MD. She recently closed "Many Entendres" at the Midwives Collective and an installation at VWVOFFKA in "Soundoffka Vol. 2", a sound art exhibition for which she received a City Paper Arts Pick.

http://bonnie-macallister.blogspot.com/
http://web.me.com/bonniemacallister/Bonnie_MacAllister

November Featured Member Artist: Martha Knox

The Women's Caucus for Art Philadelphia Chapter proudly announces Martha Knox as our November Featured Member Artist. Please click on Martha's images to the right for more information.

Martha Knox received her BFA in studio arts from the Ohio State University in 2001. While living in Columbus for five years she widely exhibited at independent art spaces, cafes, and hair salons, and received the Simson Award for work in the Ohio Art League's 2003 Fall Juried Exhibition. After teaching and traveling in South Korea for a year, she moved to Philadelphia to earn her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (class of '06). She fast fell in love with the city and has settled in Germantown. She has most recently shown in City Hall and the Thomas Eakins House, and in 2008 fullfilled a month-long residency to create new work at the Artcroft Creative Center in Carlise, Kentucky.

Martha has often utilized her teaching and art-making skills to address issues of social concern. She has been a teaching artist with the Mural Arts Advocates and the Multicultural Youth Exchange, and twice instructed students at Congreso de Latinos Unidos in the creation of community-based murals. She also contributed to a collaborative quilt made by members of the Women's Caucus for Art Philadelphia chapter to help promote the embroidery work of women in Afghanistan. Martha will be participating in POST this year with Five Pack in Mount Airy: www.fivepackphilly.com.

CONTACT INFO:
website: www.marthaknox.com
phone: 330-242-4741
blog: wordsonwoodcuts.blogspot.com

Featured Member Artist: Joanna Fulginiti

Joanna Fulginiti is a fiber artist who paints and stitches on canvas and found fabrics. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Tyler School of Art of Temple University with a B.F.A in Fibers and Fabric Design. She holds a certificate in Patternmaking and Clothing Construction from Marangoni Institute in Milan, Italy. She studied Textile Design at Philadelphia University.

For more on Joanna:
www.joannafulginiti.blogspot.com

Featured Member Artist: Rachel Udell

The Philadelphia Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art proudly announces that Rachel Udell is the featured member artist through the month of September 2010. Please visit the links to her work on our toolbar.

Her official website is found here.



Rachel's Artist Statement:
I am drawn to using soft, comforting, highly textured materials because of their capacity for suggesting forms that feel alive; I think of them as plant-like forms and spirit beings that secretly “know” what I can’t, though they’ve come from inside of me. The resulting organ-like structures are metaphors for a connectedness specifically related to how human beings exist in the world: that a human being is not a self-contained biological organism, but part of an interacting, breathing membrane, transmitting and receiving the stuff of life between social and psychological systems, ecosystems, solar and cosmic systems, etc. We are all made of the same stuff: we are distinct entities and yet we flow, physically and emotionally into our surroundings. My sculptures are sentient extensions of myself, a delicate attempt to extinguish the unnaturalness of human isolation. In the face of unspeakable horrors and miraculous wonders, my art is both an attempt to create a channel through which I am able to come to terms with the often polarizing experience of existence, and the plane upon which I attempt to strike a balance between extremes.