Recent Residents

Resident work shines at Spring open house

The March open house at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology fell on a rainy weekend for the central Oregon coast, but inside, the exhibitions shone.   The event served as the culmination of the work for the group of spring artists–in-residence at Sitka Center.   Attendees enjoyed an ample spread of refreshments and an excellent program of 2D and 3D visual art, film and readings.  

Resident artist Christopher Headley mounted an exhibition of his photos that featured ceramic kangaroos in multiple sites near Sitka Center.   This entertaining series was accompanied by another work related to the site, the Three Rocks, which were comprised of three ceramic forms covered in layers of fish and wildlife in a whimsical reference to the three rocks in the mouth of the nearby Salmon River.   Also by Headley were a series of ceramic heads covered in imagery of fish and sea life that gave a very surreal impression to the viewer, and a looping slideshow featuring photographs of his work.  

Resident Patricia Wheeler was not able to be physically present at the open house, but her exhibition was exemplary of her passion and intensity.   Wheeler had to leave abruptly during the week of the event due to a family medical emergency.   In her absence, the other residents rallied to ready her work for the show.   The Edelman studio was hung as a gallery space to display many of her large format abstract paintings, which she completed while at Sitka.   The open house featured two screenings of her video piece, entitled, Hear My Song – Kathy Kelly: Peace Warrior.   This video was filmed using the paintings as a background and poetically conveyed the life and work of peace activist Kathy Kelly.   To add to the heroic nature of her exhibit, the screening of the film was made possible by a determined effort to burn the not-yet-completed file to disc while en route to the airport on the day of her sudden departure.  

Writer-in-residence Carol Gigliotti gave two readings from the book she has been working on while at Sitka, entitled Wildness and Technology: Creativity and Animal Life .   The first reading was from Chapter One, - Wildness .   Her second reading was from Chapter Three and entitled Code 1 Informatics 1 Animals.   Dr. Gigliotti took questions afterwards that led to passionate discussion.   She worked diligently during her residency on the Wildness and Technology chapters of her book.   Sitka's setting afforded ample opportunity to observe and relate with wildlife such as deer, elk, and seals, and such experiences richly informed her work while she was here.  

The open house is a unique opportunity to interact with our artists in residence, tour their studios and share in their work.   Our second group of spring residents is scheduled to arrive early next month.   The public will get the chance to celebrate their work in the second spring open house, scheduled for Saturday, May 17 th .   Please save the date!

 

Community outreach

Siletz Students Come to Sitka Center for Art and Ecology

 An enthusiastic group of 6 th graders from Siletz Valley School livened up the Sitka campus during a visit on March 14 th .   Sitka Artist in Residence Christopher Headley, and his partner, Irena Blonder, from Melbourne, Australia, played host to the group.   The students explored the campus and got an exclusive preview of the exhibition of ceramics, photography and paintings that that were set up for the open house the following day.   The students were eager to find out how the work had been made, and Chris welcomed them into his sculpture studio for a demonstration.   There he showed them the process of making a mold that he used to create the ceramic kangaroos featured in his series of photographs.   The students were very excited when resident Headley gave each of them a kangaroo to keep.   Irena provided a morning tea and snack, and then the group settled into the Edelman studio to view the film, “Rabbit-Proof Fence.”   The issues brought up in the film about aboriginal children in Australia will be incorporated into an upcoming unit on Indian boarding schools with the Siletz students.   Sitka Center would like to thank resident artist Patricia Wheeler and teacher Joe Scott and the rest of the people who collaborated to make this experience possible for the students and resident artists.

 

Carol Gigliotti Gives Public Lecture

Sitka resident writer Carol Gigliotti presented a talk at the Lincoln City Cultural Center on Thursday evening, March 20 th .   She spoke to an enthusiastic and engaged audience, though a rare spring snowstorm made attendance difficult.   Discussion ensued afterwards.   Sitka Center for Art and Ecology would like to thank Dr. Gigliotti and Elizabeth Black at the Lincoln City Cultural Center for coordinating this event.    

 

SPRING 2008 Resident Biographies & updates

 

Carol Gigliotti

Recipient of the John and Betty Gray Residency

Currently an associate professor at Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, B.C., Carol Gigliotti is an artist, writer, and educator. She received her Doctorate from Ohio State University and her Master of Fine Arts in printmaking at Southern Illinois University. The recipient of many grants, awards, and academic appointments, Carol Gigliotti gives lectures, exhibits and publishes her work extensively. Gigliotti will be working on a book project, Wildness and Technology:  Creativity and Animal Life while at the Sitka Center.

update from carol

I have been working on several things while here at Sitka. The larger project is my book, whose working title is “Wildness and Technology: creativity and animal life.” Specifically I have been working on the first chapter on wildness in which I am attempting to reexamine scientific and cultural concepts of wildness and wilderness for deeper understandings of the free, self-willed, self–replicating wild agency of which the world is made.

My time here at Sitka has offered me precious moments contributing to a deeper personal understanding of those same ideas. The following is a short description from the book of one of those moments:

"The seals pop their heads out of the water in syncopated interest and then disappear beneath the estuary tide in unison. Seven or so surround us at a safe distance as they glide, and we paddle, across the Salmon River estuary to the opposite sandy shore. Their eyes lock with ours as we push against the incoming tide, and so we pause, hoping to extend the time spent so close to the seals in their element, their home. Once on the beach, canoe docked far enough up the shore so as not to lose it in the outgoing tide, we turn to find the seals still there, still watching. Their large, black saucer eyes are magnetic. Unable to break away we continue to stare at each other across this wet divide.

“Who are you?" we ask.

“And you, who are you?” they ask back.

 

 

Christopher Headley

Recipient of the Randall and Lainie Koch Residency

Christopher Headley's ceramic artworks and installations explore the relationships between human beings and the environment. Headley received his PhD at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and is currently a lecturer in the Fine Arts Department. During his residency, Headley will work on a site-specific project, ‘Recycling Image & Material.'

 

update from chris

It is so nice to have the time and space to focus on some new work which is one of the great things a residency like this provides. During my time at Sitka I have decided to work on three projects, each of which, in one way or another, engages with the natural environment of this very special place. I am keen to maintain a significant level of spontaneity in the work. There are some clay objects emerging out of plaster moulds, some hand-built ceramic forms responding to the surrounding landscape and an on-going photography of sited works. It's early days yet and the ideas are a work in progress. We'll have to see what degrees of resolution emerge by the Open House.

 

Patricia Wheeler

Recipient of the Helene Van Buren Residency

Patricia Wheeler lives and works in Deer Isle, Maine, with her husband, metal-smith and sculptor, J. Fred Woell. She holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and has exhibited her work nationally in New York, Massachusetts, New Mexico and internationally in Turkey. In Oregon she teaches workshops at Oregon College of Arts & Crafts and Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. During her residency, Wheeler will work towards completing an ongoing multi-media piece, which combines painting and videography, and will gather video samples for future projects.

 

update from patricia

Excerpts from my journal:

Day 3

"watching sky change out over the Pacific... beautiful puffy clouds
slightly pink...listening to rain on the roof of the McKee house,
moments ago it was sleeting, yet out over the sea, blue
sky ...Cascade Head to the right."

"Yesterday I unpacked the studio. I am arranging my walls, next my
books and reading. I am learning to work the wood stove. Pot luck at
the River House last night, very fine, wonderful people."

Day 12

"I am trying to get a hold on what direction to go with Kathy Kelly's
video portrait and song. it is about the song of life, balance
brought to war by the feminine... use the strongest visuals of Kathy
in Baghdad with the Iraqi People.. some slow motion action of
soldiers and tanks."

"This precious time in such sacred land is so valuable to me as an
artist... to get to my core beliefs... art & Nature... so healing but
also release! of all that is stored, in the head granary "(term from
Alice Walker's Temple of my familiar)

 

Fall 2007 artists in residence at Sitka center

Last fall the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology hosted a rich and varied cast of creative individuals for its Fall 2007 Residency Program. Painter Thomas Riesing, writer and visual artist Sarah Rabkin, and ceramicists Skuja Braden conducted creative work in the inspirational coastal environment of Cascade Head. Glenn Goldberg, painter, and ceramist Richard Notkin were the 2007 Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency Program guest artists, who worked intensively at the Sitka Center in October 2007 with printmaker Julia D’Amario, formerly of Pace Editions.

Skuja Braden: "Serene Reflection," coil built stoneware and porcelain, 2003.

Painter Thomas Riesing, currently resides and teaches in Tennessee. He has been a guest artist and visiting professor in China for the last twelve years. During his residency, Riesing will create work for several international exhibitions, including a one-person show at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing. Thomas Riesing is the 2007 Randall and Lainie Koch Resident artist at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.

Award-winning writing instructor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Sarah Rabkin is widely published and has led scores of workshops. Rabkin will be working on two projects during her residency; creating a collection of essays in book form and building a body of visual artwork. In January 2008, Sarah Rabkin will be teaching a workshop at the Sitka Center on exploring the power of colors to evoke aesthetic and emotion responses. Sarah Rabkin is the 2007 Norman and Dolores Winningstad resident.

Skuja Braden forms the pseudonym of collaborative artists Inguna Skuja, of Latvia, and Melissa Braden, of Sacramento, California. They are known internationally for their ceramic sculptures. Their focus while in residence will include the illumination of Buddhist Sutra’s through the joining of video documentation of nature’s rhythms and porcelain forms. Inguna Skuja and Melissa Braden are the 2007 Vladimir Tsivin Resident artists.

Based in New York, Glenn Goldberg is an internationally recognized visual artist. His paintings can be characterized by an almost psychedelic use of color and a vocabulary of marks that includes dots, dashes and lines. Goldberg received a 2007 Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency Program, and will be working with master printer, Julia D’Amario. Work from his residency will be shown in Print Arts Northwest in Portland, OR in January 2008.

Ceramist Richard Notkin was recently featured in the PBS series ‘Craft in America’ which coincided with the 2007 re-opening of the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR. Notkin is the second Jordan Schnitzer Printmaking Residency Program guest artist at the Sitka Center this fall. Notkin will be giving a slide presentation at the Sitka Center on October 29, 2007.

Skuja Braden: "Double Artists Portraits," porcelain painting, 2005.

The Residency Program, since its inception in the 1980’s, has provided more than 150 artists, writers and natural science scholars the opportunity to conduct their work on the central Oregon coast. Sitka Center hosts 12-15 residents each year. Some residents are emerging voices while others are internationally recognized in their disciplines.

The involvement, investigations, and creative work of resident artists help Sitka Center for Art and Ecology to fulfill its mission to expand the relationships between art, nature and humanity through workshops, presentations and individual research projects.

Significant support for Sitka Center’s Residency Program has come from The Collins Foundation and the donors to the named residency funds. An Institutional member of the Alliance for Artist Communities, Sitka Center also receives support from the James F. & Marion l. Miller Foundation, Oregon Arts Commission, and hundreds of donors and members.