Animus Photography

I hope everyone is enjoying the new design - it is still a work in progress though!

Some good news!   A few pieces of my work will be included as part of an exhibition to take place in Massachusetts, USA during July.  Two of the pieces will be available for purchase.

Below is the press release and the chosen images.

PRESS RELEASE:

“Animals and their Belief Systems?”

This exhibition, which opens July 1, 2009 at the Oxbow Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts, is a group show featuring very diverse and ground-breaking works by ten artists from across the United States and abroad. The theme of the exhibition, animals and their inner worlds, was selected by the show’s curator, Susan White, one of the newer members of The Oxbow Gallery. The gallery hours are Thurs-Sun from 12pm-5pm and the Opening Reception is scheduled for Friday June 10, 5pm-9pm in order to segue with Northampton’s traditional Arts Night Out! For more information on the gallery, visit www.oxbowgallery.com.

Ms. White’s motivation for putting together a thematic group show was grounded in her desire to bring a broader range of artistic experiences to the Pioneer Valley, an area particularly rich with creative energy, but always welcoming of new and fresh ideas. Two of the participating artists live in New York, two in Boston, one is from Easthampton, another from Seattle and still another from Australia. There are three gallery members whose work is also represented in the show.

“Animals and Their Belief Systems?” is a question, not a description, for a reason. We can’t know what animals believe or if they are even capable of belief. We can only speculate. However, the process of speculation forces creative exploration and this is what humans do best. The show seeks to address certain mysterious behaviors of animals which defy Darwinian dogma. We know that animals emote, some have the capacity to heal their own as well as other species (slugs and dolphins both do this). Numerous species employ language, some use tools, others can sing and dance. They are capable of empathy and can form deep and meaningful relationships with their own and other species. Many mourn their dead and still others engage in ritual behaviors explicable only with the context of belief, possibly even self-consciousness and creativity.  The works in this exhibition have been carefully selected by the curator to expose or cause us to question our assumptions of human emotive and intellectual superiority, and its often too violent results:  the mindless cruelty and brutal misuse of our fellow sentients.

SUE COE– Sue Coe is one of the most important politically oriented artists living in the U.S. today. From the outset of her career working as an illustrator for such publications as the New York Times and Time Magazine, Coe was committed to reaching a broad audience through the print media. Later, she began creating extended visual discourses on subjects (such as racial discrimination or animal rights) that she felt were not being adequately addressed by conventional news organizations. Widely written about and exhibited, Coe has appeared on the cover of Art News and been the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Her work is in the collections of many major museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (This biography was taken from the Galerie St. Etienne’s website, where Sue Coe is currently represented).

NATALIE MANUEL—Natalie Manuel lives and works in Australia. She is a photographer of the animal spirit with an extraordinary gift of capturing her subjects in startling poses of pensiveness and deep feeling , the result of which is to undermine the viewers assumptions about the limits of animal cognition and emotion. One cannot look at a photograph by Natalie, without a pang of recognition and awe. They are us, and we are they.

CHARLES JONES– The work of Charles Jones is primarily concept based, with subjects derived from history and, in the case of the Accord Group / ‘Kyoto’, specific pressing environmental issues facing the globe. He is currently working on a series of proposals for “remote” monuments to historic figures that address the elastic and unreliable nature of history. Mr. Jones just completed his second solo show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery last November and is now collaborating with sculptor David Phillips on a group of sculptural shelter forms for Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor.

KAREN MOSS—Karen Moss is an exceptionally talented artist who has been working in the Boston area for many years. She received her degree in 1966 from the Rhode Island School of Design and then went on to receive her MFA in Painting from Tufts University and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1974. Since then, she has exhibited widely, with one person shows throughout New England, as well as in New York City and San Francisco. Her pieces are in a number of major museum collections, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Moss’s work poses questions about what the future might hold in a world increasing enthralled with genetic manipulation of animals using human DNA. Sue Coe’s work, particularly “Xenotransplanton” ,also in the show, deals directly with this disturbing trend as well.

SUSAN McDONALD WHITE—Susan White is an artist, writer and fine arts conservator. She received her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and art history at Duke University and then went on to receive her M.S. degree in fine art conservation, doing internships at the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian and then moving on to do research as a Frolich Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC. At 27, Susan had a radical change of heart, putting her conservation career on hold and deciding to go to art school at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Soon after, she received her MFA in Sculpture from Mass College of Art. After teaching for a of year, Susan decided to move back to NYC where she made art and taught at the Henry Street Settlement. Susan has exhibited widely in New England, but also internationally. She now lives in Holyoke MA, where she makes her art, writes, and oversees her private art conservation business.

NANCY HOWARD SMITH—Nancy Howard Smith is primarily an accomplished landscape painter who lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts and has been a member of the Oxbow Gallery for many years. Nancy also creates provocative sculpture, one which is being made for this exhibition and promises to be a most fascinating work about the social life of crows.

BARBARA HADDEN—Barbara Hadden was born in 1955 in Hamburg, Germany, and spent her childhood in Europe and the Middle East. She studied painting, photography and filmakking at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she received a diploma in 1977. She was awarded an Alumni Traveling Fellowship from the school in 1995 for her photographic work. She is also known for her beautiful and nearly abstract landscape paintings which blow color and movement from the canvas with remarkable skill and confidence.

SARAH DILLON–Sarah Dillon grew up in Yakima, WA where, as a teenager, she dreamed of being a professional artist.  She received her BA from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. Dillon currently operates a freelance teaching artist business in Seattle, teaching privately as well as contracting on projects with organizations such as Seniors Making Art, a non-profit organization started by Dale Chihuly, and Art With Heart, using art as a means for self expression and healing amongst disabled or terminally ill children.  Dillon is the acting director and a current board member for Gallery 110 and teaches drawing and design as an adjunct faculty member at Green River Community College.

TESIA VOLKER–Tesia Volker is honored to be a part of this show. She just accidentally took some good photos of a brilliant turtle, and also happened to witness a couple of extraordinary events involving animals. She hopes that large reptiles will not take over the planet. If they do, she will just keep making art and hope they leave her alone.