I am pleased to announce the opening reception for my new exhibit with my dear friend, sculptress Michelle MacKenzie, at the Adamson Gallery in Sacramento. I hope you can join us for Sacramento’s Second Saturday Artwalk on October 12, 2013, from 6 to 9 p.m. The Adamson Gallery features uplifting contemporary paintings and scultures and is located at 1021 R Street, Suite 15, Sacramento, CA 95811. Our Emerson inspired show runs from October 10 through November 2, 2013.
Ceramic sculptor Michelle MacKenzie uses clay to express her “celebration of life through art”, with an emphasis on the horse and other animals with spiritual significance. Michelle concentrates on The Connection, the things we all share as humans, passage of time, family, spirituality. Inspired by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, she has recently created a collection of animal sculptures that depict the simple truth, beauty and spirit of the wild. Michelle enjoys sculpting with a mixed media approach, using reclaimed wood panels, branches, wire, nails, and metal to compliment the clay. A grey wolf stands atop a wood stump, a red tailed hawk’s legs and talons are nails and wire, an old shutter door becomes the backdrop for a woodland scene of a grove of Aspen trees that become a white tail deer. A herd of colorful horses adorned with leaf designs toss their patinaed copper wire manes. Michelle finds renewal by hiking in the Auburn foothills, the Sierras, or Point Reyes.
“When my friend Judith Monroe and I decided to make “In the Woods” our theme for our 2 woman show at Colleen Adamson’s Gallery, I was sculpting primarily horses. I was excited to commit to a project like this that would force me to stretch and expand my scope. I decided to concentrate on wolves, birds, deer, and tree horses! If you’ve read Emerson then a tree horse shouldn’t be a surprise! I enlisted the help of my friend Phil Myers to construct reclaimed wood panels for my wall sculptures. These are made from wood salvaged from an old water tower, complete with bee tunnels. He was also my source for the wood stumps. Kristen Hoard made the rusty metal platforms for my bird sculptures from old scrap metal. My intention is to capture some of the wild spirit of the woods, as well as the endearing charm of the creatures who inhabit them.”
Michelle MacKenzie
Mixed media artist Judith Monroe is always “fascinated with nature and encouraged by faith” while creating her photo based artworks. Taking a cue from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous quote, “In the woods, we return to reason and faith,” she has created a body of images that blend her inclinations toward recording the visual literally through photographs with translating her spiritual inclinations through paint and collage. The result are artworks that appear realistic, yet otherworldly. Though many of her photographs were taken locally, some were captured from farther away, like Yosemite and Sedona, Arizona. When Judith isn’t in her art studio or teaching photography at Sierra College, she can often be found wandering trails in Northern California or farther away.
“One of my favorite things is to wander along trails through woodlands, just breathing in my surroundings, listening to whatever birdsong I can hear, looking for what creature just made that rustling sound in the bushes, or finding little fish hiding in the shadows in a creek. Whether it’s a place I’ve never been to before, or a path I’ve wandered many times, I am always eager to see how the light falls through the leaves, what bird I might be able to identify or what animal I might catch a glimpse of. These are the places where I feel most alive, most in tune with God and with nature, and most at peace, regardless of what is happening in my life elsewhere. This body of work is a documentation of those places, memories and emotions. Every photograph is attempt to capture a moment in time and preserve it, like a dried flower or leaf. Not content to only take photos, I collect fallen leaves, make sketches and pull them together with maps or papers, my own journal entries or collected words that resonate with me. Each piece I create embodies a part of my hopes and dreams, memories and faith, an overflowing of all the things I hold dear, poured out as a blessing for whoever would be willing to take it on.” Judith Monroe