ExhibitiT

Tell Me A Story:  Women In The Arts

This Thursday, January 19, is the opening of the exhibition, Tell Me A Story:  Women in the Arts. This promises to be an exciting exhibition, showcasing 95 females presenting themselves as artists, how and why.  Not only will each exhibit a work of art, but a statement about themselves and their work.  La Quinta Museum will house the show from January 19 to April 30. Put it on your calendars and make sure to spend time seeing and hearing the voices of these women.

Let Me Tell You A Story - With Book of  Faces

Mixed Media

18 x 24

My work, Let Me Tell You A Story - With Book of Faces is one of the 95 works.  Below is my statement that accompanies this mixed media piece of work.

This is a story of the responsibility to tell a story.  I was tapped on the shoulder and inspired by a mother who claimed a previous life as a tribal member, tapped on the shoulder when, as a basket weaver myself, I learned about Native weavers, tapped on the shoulder by the invisible hand of the tribal weavers , given the responsibility to tell the story.  The story that took place across the land, the story of an art form passed from mother to daughter, of cultural history, artistic vision, and innovation;  the story of women working with natural fibers producing utilitarian containers.   The story of women who honed their basket making skills from childhood, developing a close relationship with their natural environment, creating vessels designed to carry burdens.  But the story changed and the burden shifted with the influx of settlers who appropriated the land. It shifted as the basket makers became domestic employees in settlers’ homes. The art and skill of basket making came close to being sacrificed to the advance of the settlers’ alien civilization.   Eventually the settlers recognized the skill and artistry required to create these beautiful baskets, and tribal women began to create baskets for the Curio Trade.  This is the story of innovation as the basket weavers recognized how to have their designs appeal to a non-native consumer, utilizing traditional techniques, relying on what their mothers’ and culture taught while developing artistic expression within the baskets.  Their baskets became emblems of heritage, statements about cultural evolution, sought after by collectors, dealers, museums.  What started as an art created out of necessity evolved into a form of expression.  Today we see their spectacular basketry¸ but we do not see them.  This is the responsibility to tell their story.

Tell Me A Story:  Women in the Arts

Opening 

Thursday, January 19

5:30 -7:30

La Quinta Museum

Hope to See You There!

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Invitational Exhibition.

What is an Invitational Exhibition?

We will start with that.  Basically, a gallery or museum contacts artists and asks them to participate in an exhibition. Typically there is a theme or purpose of some sort.  An artist is invited to show a piece or pieces of work, frequently given guide lines and restrictions.  The altar I created for Day of the Dead at the Palm Springs Art Museum was actually an invitational exhibition, because along with a few others I was asked to participate.

Day of the Dead Altar of Guadalupe Arenas, Snake Weaver.

A couple months ago I received another invitation, from the La Quinta Museum, to participate in an exhibition this winter called 'Tell Me A Story: Women In Art'. I accepted, and so while working on the altar, I was also working on various parts of what I will show in this upcoming exhibition.  

One hundred female artists have been invited to join a 4 month exhibition celebrating women in the arts.  Each of us will show a piece of art created specifically for this exhibition which runs from January 2017 - April 2017. A showcase for each artist and her story, this is also an observation of International Women's Day on March 8, and part of Women's History Month.

My work on portraits of basket weavers fits perfectly into the theme and female emphasis.  I would like to spend the next month of blog posts taking you through my creative process, the inspiration, what I have been doing and working on to fulfill the requirements for the exhibition.

Dat so la Lee with Five Digikup

48 x 36

Madame Butterfly

40 x 40

Dat so la Lee with Eight Digikup

24 x 24

It all started with a 300 word document.  Now that may sound like a lot of words, but when you have a lot to say it's easy to blast through 300 words.  I spent days writing, editing, asking for help from friends who write ( I am a visual artist, not a verbal artist), writing and rewriting and finally ended up with a statement that I find perfect.  It is creative, unique and explains why I am painting these women.  It begins....  This is a story about the responsibility to tell a story.  And it goes on from there.

Next blog post will contain the statement in its entirety.  I think you will find it intriguing.   I will also talk more about the struggle to write such a statement.  Until then....

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Dat so la Lee, Queen of the Washoe Basket Makers

24 x 24

Mamie Gregory III.

Details

Get two artists together for conversation and you just don't know what might come up.  The other day over lunch I was asked, by a fellow artist, if I was using stencils on my current painting of Mamie Gregory.  She was looking at the lizards climbing up the canvas, the butterflies flitting around. Answer:  Yes.

Detail of lizards and butterflies.

I realized this might not occur to everyone, so I thought you might like to see the stencils I created.  Each was hand drawn, cut out of heavy paper, placed against the canvas, traced around with pencil.  After the outline was in place I painted around the image and then later filled in the image.

Paper cut outs used as stencils.

After painting around the outside of the stenciled image.

After the stenciled images of butterflies and lizards were painted in.

What the painting looks like today.

There is more work to be done to bring this painting to completion, but Mamie Gregory aka Madame Butterfly is almost ready to join the gallery of Indian Women Portraits on my web site.

To contact me click HERE

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Mamie Gregory - Madame Butterfly.

The Results Of A Museum Visit.

Blank canvas just waiting for inspiration to hit.

Inspiration, inspiration, inspiration.  Just one word to describe what happens when you visit a museum. Remember my last post about getting yourself to a museum?  For an artist, there is overwhelming inspiration to be had.  And I am inspired.

Basket from the Nevada State Museum collection.

It was the visit to the Nevada Museum of Art which led to visiting the Nevada State Museum, a subsequent visit to the Palm Springs Art Museum and now another scheduled visit to the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, all to research basket makers, that has me inspired.  So it's into the studio, new big canvas on the easel, and the resolution of how I want to present Guadalupe Arenas who was a member of the Agaua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians and an extraordinary basket weaver.  I also have a friend who believes she owns two of her baskets and just talking about Arenas and her work has encouraged me to paint this woman.  HOWEVER, I cannot find images of her...arrrgggg. Next week I visit the archives of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum where I am sure to find what I want, but in the mean time, all that inspiration is bubbling up and over leading me to work with Mamie Gregory.  

Mamie Gregory aka Madam Butterfly.

Also known as Madame Butterfly, Mamie Gregory was another extraordinary basket weaver, a Panamint Shoshone living from 1880's to 1951.  She fits right into the outline for : my Indian Women Portraits, the time period, basket weaver, lived in the area where I live....  and with an alias of Madame Butterfly she is just too delicious to ignore.  This moniker derives from her recurring designs of butterflies, butterflies, butterflies with a few lizards, squirrels and what is described as a whirlwind.  I stumbled across her when visiting the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum a couple years ago and she has floated in and out of my creative conscious since, so here we go.  Inspiration from museum visits moving me into the studio to work on a new creation.

Beginning of new portrait painting.

Check back to see how this painting progresses.

To contact me click HERE

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Visit A Museum

Just Go

Jump on your bike, get in your car, or let your feet walk you over to a museum.  Any museum, but I do recommend an Art Museum.  Specifically, if you are in close proximity to Reno, NV get yourself over to The Nevada Museum of Art to explore and take in Tahoe: A Visual History

Over 400 items that portray a visual history of Tahoe have filled the entire museum allowing the visitor to wander through time, artfully.  Paintings, Native baskets, photography, architecture, and contemporary art representing over two centuries of cultural and creative production are being shown.  If you live in the area you will realize a closer connection to your home and it's history.

The museum is also offering lectures and classes as a spin off of this exhibition.  Last month Gene Hattori, Curator of Anthropology at the Nevada State Museum, discussed their extensive collection of baskets and works by Washoe weaver, Louisa Keyser, aka Dat So La Lee, some of which are currently being shown in the exhibition Tahoe: A Visual History.  During his presentation he invited all in the audience to contact him for a private tour of the basket vault at the Nevada State Museum in Carson City.  Did I?  You bet!  Immediately!

Entering the basket vault, which at one time was a bank vault.

Shelves of baskets woven by Louisa Keyser

Louisa Keyser's hand print.

Behind more locked doors: Burden Basket and Covered Bottle created for the Curio Trade 

by Louisa Keyser

Feather covered basket.

Feather Decorated Basket.

What an amazing experience to stand among baskets that are a part of the local history, at least one dating back 2500 years.  If you follow my blog and my art work, you know about my Indian Woman Portraits based on basket weavers who lived in the areas where I live, who lived in the late 1800's into the early 1900's.  Visiting this collection was especially intriguing to me and to the continuing work on this series.  Thank you to Gene Hattori for hosting this opportunity.  Would it have happened if I had not visited the Nevada Museum of Art and attended a lecture?  Probably not.  So get yourself out to a museum today, and if not today go tomorrow.  There are great things to see and experience in a museum, knowledge to gain, and fun to be had.

To contact me click HERE

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Delores Patencio

Completed!!!!

Looking West: Delores Patencio

48 x 30

Mixed Media on Canvas

3000.

Final touches were applied to the painting this morning. It's coming off the easel this afternoon to be added to the other completed painting inspired by Delores Patencio, who is considered one of the finest basket weavers of the Cahuilla Indian Tribe.

Delores Patencio

12 x 12

Acrylic on Canvas

500.

Looking West:  Delores Patencio

48 x 30

Mixed Media on Canvas

3000.

To contact me click HERE

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Delores Patencio Again, Still, Another.

Started a New Larger Canvas.

Yes, a portrait of Delores Patencio and it is giving me fits.  Into every artist's life a bit of doubt, frustration, anxiety and anger will fall. And here it is.  Arrrgggg.  I am ready to paint over the entire thing, or take it off the easel and go back to the cactus triptych I started and have not completed.  Ok, yes, this is incomplete, lots more painting to do. There will be details, high lights, low lights, etc.  However I am not sure about this beginning.  

The other day someone mentioned to me they do not like to see my work until it is finished because they don't understand where I am going and hesitate to make a judgement.  Oh boy, I am constantly making a judgement about my own work, and that is where the doubt and frustration come in, not all the time, but certainly with this painting. 

I could procrastinate and keep myself away from the easel, but in all there is to do is return to the easel and continue.  

To contact me click HERE

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To read more about Delores Patencio click HERE

Delores Patencio.

The Small Study

Another busy week, filled with painting, travel, exercise, golf, mah jongg, working with my Northern California and Nevada galleries.  Truly there are just not enough hours in the day. Who ever said that first, knew what they were talking about! I keep getting up earlier and earlier to get into the studio to paint and because I have done this, the small 12x12 painting of Delores Patencio, Cahuilla Indian Basket Maker, is complete.  Read more about her by going back to my last blog post:  http://www.pamelahuntlee.blogspot.com/

My goal was to capture her intensity and beauty as well as giving me the opportunity to know how I wish to portray her in additional paintings.

This is a study for a larger work and the canvas for that painting is sitting on the easel.  So it is off to the easel for me.  This is one of those completely full days so bye for now.  Have a great day!

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American Indian Women Portraits, Coachella Valley.

It's Been A Great Few Weeks.

Yes it has!  Besides working on a triptych of Fence Post Cactus, I have continued research of Indian Women who lived in the late 1800's - early 1900's.  Because I am spending a few months in the Southern California Desert, my current focus is on the women who lived and worked in this area, specifically the Coachella Valley.  These were Cahuilla Indian Women, and I have been 'introduced' to two women who were part of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Women.

My 'introduction' came about during a visit to the Palm Springs Art Museum where several spectacular baskets, created by Guadalupe Arenas and Delores Patencio,  are currently displayed.  

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Guadalupe Arenas, Basket, Rattlesnake, Cahuilla, circa 1910, natural and dyed juncus and sumac on a deer grass foundation, gift of J. Smeaton Chase

But finding photos of these women, who lived in the time period of my interest, was difficult, and I need these images to create portraits of the women.  However this past week I was invited into the archives of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum where I spent hours going through photographic records and was able to find several images that are wonderful inspiration for my paintings.  Many of the images are proprietary and so I am unable to show them here, but I am able to have the images and work from them.  

You will recall I have painted five portraits of Dat so la lee and one of Sally Snooks, both Washoe Indian Women who lived and worked in the Lake Tahoe and Great Basin areas, where I also live.  

Five Portraits of Dat so la lee, Queen of the Washoe Basket Makers

Pamela Hunt Lee

Here is a link back to my blog post about the Dat so la lee portraits:  Indian Women Portraits

Today I will begin work on a new portrait, a painting of Delores Patencio.  I started sketches a couple months ago after first seeing her baskets and now that I have wonderful images of her, I am able to get to work.

Check back to see how this starts out...

To contact me click HERE

To visit my web site click HERE

It's Good To Be Conflicted,

Or is it?

Do you remember earlier this week I posted about sketching for a new painting and having indecision about exactly what to begin next because I had two very different ideas swimming in my head?  After completing the last Desert Plant painting I planned to move forward with another, however I made a trip to the Palm Springs Art Museum to see the Diebenkorn exhibit (click HERE to visit PS Art Museum site with info)

                 Woman on a Porch
                  Richard Diebenkorn

and while there wandered into the Western/Indian exhibition section to see if there were new items being shown.  Sure enough, there was a great, yet small, basket display and I was introduced to Guadalupe Arenas, a Cahuilla, who lived and created in the Coachella Valley during the late 1800's into the early 1900's.  

Basket woven by Guadalupe Arenas

This woman fits perfectly into my Indian Women Portrait Series, so of course I was captivated and began to research her life and work and sketching for a painting which would represent her.

I settled on a composition but I am having problems finding photographs of her and since I want to know what she looked like to make a more accurate representation, and since I want to begin a new painting immediately, my decision was made.  The easel will hold a Desert Plant painting for now while I continue research on Guadalupe Arenas.  That conflict resolved.

Back into the sketch book to face more conflicting situations. Which plant and which composition?

 Barrel Cactus with side or top view?

 Fence Post Cactus?

Some composition of Prickly Pear?

I found myself drawing one and another and another Prickly Pear composition adding in large, flamboyant flowers much like that in the previous painting, shown below.

Prickly Pear Blossom

40x30

I believe these conflicted feelings were resolving themselves. Next step was to 'live' with the sketches for a few hours and after selecting one, paint a small canvas board.

Sketches with small canvas board painting.

These canvas board paintings allow me to work out color, movement, high and low lights as well as my satisfaction with the composition.  OK.  All conflict resolved.  Was it good to be conflicted?  Not sure, but I do know it is good to have a canvas on the easel and pigments in the palette, all ready to go.

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