Thursday, September 30, 2010

Jewelry guest artist: Laura Dawson Rosenblit


Laura Dawson Rosenblit:

I live in Salem. I am the mother of two grown daughters. My husband and I like to travel, hike locally, and read.

In my early career I was a Montessori teacher. During that time my artistic projects were block printing and collage. Currently I am a reading and math teacher of middle students. Today, my artistic project has become designing and creating wearable art.


See more of Laura's work at the MJCC, October 24th from 10-4 free admission!


Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Celebration of Art 2010!



Meet guest artist:

JANE LEVY CAMPBELL

My paintings are combinations of the unexpected. I grew up in the heart of southern Appalachia and studied at Phillips Exeter Academy, and Princeton and Yale Universities in the early days of co-education there. I live and paint in Portland, Oregon, working primarily in watercolor.

I am an avid gardener and hiker. I often paint botanically detailed paintings on an unexpectedly monumental scale, or sweeping landscapes on a tiny handful of paper. I find particular challenge in creating an illusion of solid form and distinct time and place using the ethereally insubstantial materials of watercolor.

One of the things I most often hear during a studio open house is, “ I can’t believe the same artist painted all these different kinds of paintings.”

I do tackle a variety of subjects: landscapes, still-lifes, botanical studies, skyscapes, architecture, the occasional figure or face. Sometimes I blur the traditional distinctions between these subjects and paint large landscapes with finely detailed botanical foregrounds, or still-lifes with highly rendered botanical elements and more abstracted man-made objects.

I have a deep and abiding love and respect for the individual and the particular. In my painting there is an element of conservation of the passing moment, the ephemeral bloom, and the open space that may disappear in development in the future. I do not impose a style on my subjects. My response to the subject in that particular moment in that particular light dictates what degree of rendering, of impression, of abstraction and of expression tips the balance of choices I make. In thirty-five years of watercolor painting and experimenting one assembles a large toolbox of skills. Yet there is a unity of a recognizable hand.

My hand has been shaped by many things: A gluttonous love of color balanced by a love of subtlety. The discliplined training of Chinese brush painting . A broad education in cultural history. Travel. A love of nature dating back to earliest years in my mother’s garden and along my grandfather’s creek. My father’s photography dark room and the “ah-ha” moment of an image emerging from a white paper void. And yes, maybe a little bit of rebellion against the abstraction that was the art establishment of the 1960’s and 70’s of my formative years.

http://www.janelevycampbell.com

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Meet our guest artist: Maralynn Maltz!

Maralynn Maltz is a mosaic artist. About 10 years ago, Maralynn and her young daughter took a “mommy and me” clay class through the Salem Art Association and that is when mosaics entered her life. Determined to make a 7’ x 5’ broken china mosaic mirror frame, even though the class had been cancelled, Maralynn spent 6 months researching in the library and talking to other mosaic and tile artists. She embarked upon her first piece titled “Aunty Mayo’s China Closet.”

Hooked on mosaics, Maralynn incorporates her love for quilts into many of her designs and each mosaic is unique in materials and methodology. Each piece, be it a fireplace surround, mirror frame, table top, floating balls, or a simple pot tells it own story about the materials, color, and purpose.

Maralynn does commissioned projects and loves the personal interaction with clients. Maralynn has shown her work in many art shows in the Northwest. She is a consignment artist with Currents Gallery in McMinnville, and she teaches mosaic classes in her home studio and gallery studios. She will be a guest artist at ORA's Celebration of Art on October 24, 2010.

Maralynn has a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and a M.B.A. from the University of Southern California. Her private sector work is in research, banking, marketing, funds development, and project management. Maralynn, her husband, and daughter reside in Salem, Oregon.

www.maltzdesigns.com



Thursday, September 23, 2010

Meet Laura!



Laura Berman will be a featured guest artist at our Celebration of Art on October 24th @ the MJCC. The hours are 10-4...Come see us...come meet Laura!

Here's her bio: Creating something with my hands is “what gets me up in the morning”. And, it so happens that I’ve been creating with fibers and textiles since I was child.

I’m a third generation Portlander and fondly remember going to the old Jewish Community Center after Sunday School classes. I now live in the small town of Philomath outside of Corvallis with my husband who is also an artist. I believe my passionate interest in textiles and apparel must be genetic because I can’t explain my early infatuation with it, otherwise. I earned both my Bachelors and Masters degrees in those majors from Oregon State University and now have my own fiber studio on our property adjoining my husband’s ceramic studio.

These past 20 years I’ve created clothing and experimented with textile design. About 10 years ago I learned to felt and since then have been nuno felting wool with silk for scarves and also making 3-dimensional whimsical lidded vessels. I’ve developed most of the 3-D techniques I use.

I love being outdoors and am inspired by Mother Nature’s colors, shapes, and textures. I’m also inspired by the colors and patterns of period and ethnic textiles. Through play and experimentation in the studio, an idea often develops its own whimsical persona and charm. The unplanned pieces usually end up as my favorite work.

My medium is primarily Australian merino wool for its fine texture. The wool top is already dyed but I have the freedom of blending fiber colors for shading, variegation, or hue changes as if I were mixing paints.

Wet felting by hand is very physical. I begin a project by laying out several layers of wool colors that I coax into shapes with dry hands. I add soap, water, friction by rolling, and then hot water. The hairy fibers lock together through shrinkage to become a finished piece--without being sewn. The woolly fibers might look delicate but they “bond” together to form a very strong fabric when felted.

www.lauraberman.com


Monday, September 20, 2010

Meet Marcie Stone



MARCIE STONE will be a featured guest artists at our Celebration of Art 2010. Look for her booth in the MJCC Ballroom, October 24th from 10am-4pm.

HERE IS HER BIO!
Born and raised in New York City I spent my early years haunting some of the world’s finest museums. The American Museum of Natural History in particular has had a great influence on my art. In the early 1970's I moved to Oakland, California to study textiles at The California College of Arts and Crafts. I graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts.
In 1978 I moved to San Diego, CA. I spent the next several years focusing on exploring the use of beadwork on pine needle baskets. Through the years sculptural seed beadwork has become central to my work. The following years were spent exploring sculptural peyote stitch over armatures and as jewelry pieces.
In 1979 I opened the Shepherdess in San Diego, CA. The Shepherdess began as a fiber and weaving store but quickly evolved into a gallery style bead store. The Shepherdess was one of the first bead stores in the country to offer classes taught by national and international instructors drawing students from throughout the US. I sold the Shepherdess in August of 2006.
Since 2004, Greg (my husband) and I have been combining our creative energies. Our skill sets and creative visions intertwine beautifully allowing pieces to develop as one idea seamlessly merges into another.
Working with Greg’s glass, a palette of seed beads, semiprecious and antique beads in assorted sizes and shapes I begin to make spontaneous choices that evolve into a biomorphic synthesis of colors and textures. I am fascinated with the way the different beads play against each other, allowing me to create jeweled encrustations influenced by primitive art and organic forms mainly found in the ocean. The pieces are very organic and seem to have a life of their own.
My work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Among the venues my work has been exhibited at are: the Museum of Art and Design, New York City; the Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, Ohio; the Musée National des Arts et Tradition Populaires, Paris, France; and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.

www.hanson-stone.com/



Thursday, September 9, 2010

Shana Tova!


Shana Tova wishes to everyone from the artists in ORA! Here's wishing you a happy, healthy year, filled with beauty, fulfillment and peace.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Art From The Heart













Come see our artists

Featured in a Special Exhibit:

"Hearts and Vessels"

Emerald Art Center
500 Main Street
Springfield, Oregon 97477
541.726.8595

Sharon and Laura Joy are founding members of ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists.

Sharon, who works in bright acrylics, loves to experiment with color. She watches the way two colors vibrate against each other to create passion in her pictures of hearts, animals and places.

Laura Joy creates 3-D vessels out of fabrics. She will present contemporary fiber art vessels, and sculptures showing numerous types of expression through fabric. "Discovering new techniques and applications is the excitement that thrills me," she says.

Sharon and Laura Joy have been close friends for 25 years. They met when Sharon asked Laura to teach her how to make hallah. Well, they had plenty of opportunity to develop a friendship while the hallah was rising.

How did they find the Emerald Art Center in Springfield? Sharon took a class at this charming Art School. The director noticed her ORA website on her e-mail and checked out her work. One thing led to another, and they're showing their work in September.

The exhibit is called "Hearts and Vessels" and it runs from August 31st to September 24th. The reception will be Friday, September 10th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.

www.EmeraldArtCenter.org

Art Classes, workshops, outreach programs, gallery and gift shop.
Regular hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 11 am to 4 pm

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