Land Art Pescadero
November 1, 2014

We had a great time at our annual land art day at Irma Velasquez' ranch in Pescadero! 
Participants: Judy Johnson-Williams, Judy Shintani, Victoria Cormack, Anne Ingraham, Cristina Velazquez, Irma Velasquez, Lauren Johnson-Williams, Juliet Mevi, Leslie Morgan, Mary Shisler, Priscilla Otani, Salma Arastu, Sue Bolton, Tomoe Nakamura.
Photos by Judy Shintani, Sherman Velasquez and Priscilla Otani

Anne Ingraham: Land Support-Spiral

Inspired by our recent rain, I felt compelled to create an art piece that would help to hold the precious water. The spiral shape was inspired by land artist Richard Smithson (the spiral jetty), and to stand for symbol of "growth" for plant life that might be sustained by captured water.
I created the spiral shape with a bucket and twine and completed the dig with a hand trowel. The process of digging in the earth literally "grounded" me. I was able to sit in the beautiful Pescadero landscape and take in the changing views with each turn of the spiral. It was also very meditative to have the path laid out that I would follow, not like life where the path is not always so clear. Rewarded at the end of construction by a gentle rain, it felt complete.

Victoria Cormack: Untitled

I love being out in nature and on this particular day, to be in concert with other women at a most spectacular and inspiring vista point made it all more sweet. the rain came and left behind soft, inviting earth for us to shape, breathe into and envison some of our land art dreams. after hulking river rocks of all shapes and sizes away from the existing labyrinth to make room for weed extraction, i found that some of the hand-sized rocks called to me. i lined them up, nestled in one another's shadow and weight and suddenly, i realized i was creating a smile for the earth, for this glorious day, for the opportunity to experience such a rarified treat as making art in the wide open spaces. thanks again for allowing me a chance to share this magical and mindful time.

Tomoe Nakamura: Untitled

I used the place called, "volcano" because I am inspired by Japanese volcanoes and also the Ontake san mountain disaster just happened a month ago.  I made a conceptual scene of eruption and mountain slides out of sheets of pink color tissue and connected them with shine blue beads that reflect with the sun. I scraped the dirt around the paper it to make lines. I happened to have an umbrella and bucket of the same pink color so I included them as symbols of the sun and its reflection. This piece means that human beings cannot fight against natural disaster that only the sun god foretell. It is like Shintoism: trusting in nature and doing what nature asks us to do...

Judy Shintani: Following the Cycles

I was taken by the expansive empty field on the undulating hillside and the marks left by the tractor upon it. The grooves were curved in rows and intersected in damp dark dirt dappled with strands of golden hay. I followed the marks by placing thin bamboo sticks evenly spaced along the lines. Every now and then I had to step back and sometimes bend down. The sun and clouds made the marks in the dirt disappear and I had to get a different perspective to find them again. The installation was a meditation in seeing and not seeing, and moving the body in a repetitive way that reminded me of when farmers would plant in big fields by hand, bending up and down to place the seeds. Even after completing the installation, the piece appeared and disappeared, like it was a mirage, like a dream.

Judy Johnson-Williams: Earth Beads

The idea was to honor nature and our mother Earth with beads for a necklace.  I also liked the idea of working with the dirt, itself, and the history of building with adobe in California.  3 years ago, I made a similar project but making flat pendants and then firing them in a pit fire.  They all broke, except the one unfired, cylindrical one that a friend hung in her garden. It has lasted, unprotected and unweathered, so I used that as my model.

This time, it had rained and the dirt was perfectly workable and made a nice clay body. Forming the clay into beads involved a lot of slapping the clay into shape, which people commented sounded like someone making tortillas, another homey and earthy association.  I bought the beads home to Oakland to dry and then, will string them on jute and return them to the land, probably hanging them on a tree.

Mary Shisler: Untitled

For sometime I have been concerned about the declining bee population.  Einstein concluded that we had only four more years should the pollinator populations completely collapse.  I felt a land art experience would allow me toI explore the possibilities of creating a work of art that contained and supported native pollinator populations.  I chose the native bees rather than the honey bee because they do not swarm and do not require a hive.  They nest either in the ground or in holes in wood.  I also wanted to support California native plant populations.  
I initially tried to create habitat by drilling holes in sticks of wood.  I found it tedious and unsuccessful.  I then found that the dry fennel stalks were hollow and just the right diameter for a nesting hole.  I collected many of the stalks and then broke them into 8-10 inch pieces.  From there I gathered them into bundles.  I tried to tie them with grass stems, but they proved too short and too delicate.  I borrowed some red thread from another artist and tied with this bright festive color.  I rested the bundles on the wire tree guards.  I scattered seeds around the area to provide nutrition for the bees and color for the installation. I hope that time will prove the stalks sturdy and secure enough to provide for the pollinators.

Priscilla Otani: Guardians of the Field

I built some jizos with the clay made by my shoes and the straw left behind by the harvest tractor. These unborn children will wait forlornly for their mothers during the cold winter months.  When spring comes, soft green grasses will grow and embrace them and put them to sleep in the warm earth. 

WCA Djerassi Day 
September 7, 2014

DISCONNECT 2014 CHAPTER MEMBERS' SHOW

NCWCA ARTISTS
Elizabeth Addison­, MGP Andersen, Salma Arastu, Gretchen Blais, Yvette Brown, Amanda Chaudhary, Belinda Chlouber, Lisa Chu, Marsha Connell, Sherri Cornett, Jennifer Ewing, Miriam Fabbri, Katrin Geng, Karen Gutfreund, Kelly Hammargren, Stephanie V. Hogen, Bernadette Howard, Elaine Jason, Judy Johnson-Williams, Joanna Katz, Jeannette Kiel, Mido Lee, Juliet Mevi, Barbara Milman,  Jane Neilson, Miwako Nishizawa, Priscilla Otani, Jacqueline Rubinstein, Irene Schlesinger, Sondra Schwetman, Ariella Seidenberg, Pallavi Sharma, Judy Shintani,  Mary Shisler, Ruth Petersen Shorer, Sally Stewart, Zoe Thiele-Seidenberg, Michelle Waters, Vera Ximenes,  Marian Yap, and Veronica Yazmin. 

GALLERY
Transmission Gallery 770 W Grand, Oakland, CA

EXHIBITION
June 6 - July 19, 2014

EXHIBITION DIRECTOR
Kelly Hammargren

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DISCONNECT EXHIBITION PHOTOS

Photos by Judy Shintani, Kelly Hammargren, Priscilla Otani and Pallavi Sharma

CHOICE NATIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION

In observance of the 40th anniversary of Roe vs Wade and in support of women’s reproductive rights in the United States, the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art (NCWCA) is sponsoring the national juried exhibition Choice. 

GALLERY
Arc Gallery, 1246 Folsom, San Francisco, CA 94103 

EXHIBITION  
December 12, 2013 - January 12, 2014, 

JUROR: CATHARINE CLARK
Catharine Clark is the owner and director of Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, established in 1991. 

EXHIBITION DIRECTOR
Kelly Hammargren

 CATALOG
Catalogs with all 61 pieces can be purchased for $27 (includes shipping and sales tax) by sending a check written to NCWCA for $27.00 and mailed to 4Choice2013, P.O. Box 728, Berkeley, CA 94701-0728.  Include your mailing address for the catalogue and email for communication. 

GALLERY ARTISTS, ARTWORK TITLE
(All Artists and Artwork in the gallery exhibit will be in the catalogue)
Lennell Allen: Ocean Beach Meditation
Jung Ran Bae: Project CU
Yvette Brown: Maria
Jessica Burke: It Was Only One Night, Pregnant Paula as Spock of the USS Enterprise
Francine Dailey: Radiant Sky
Jessica Damsky: Bella Donna
Amanda Dandeneau: Sabrina, Spayed
Stephanie Eley: Brown Paper Bag
Meryl Feigenberg: If and When
Alexa Garbarino: Helena at Mickey's Beach, Johanna & Reggi
Guerrilla Girls on Tour!: It's Not Just About Choice Anymore
Jennifer Hawk: Reproduction
Jo Anna Hickman: Control, enough
Bernadette Howard: Conversations With One's Self, no 6
Tonia Klein: Sofia
Christine Knox: To Reach
Liza KaBarge: The Annunciation
Suzanne Lacke: In The Garden
Rahshia: Linendoll-Sawyer: Injected Forms
Katrina Majkut: In Control 2, Plan B
Stela Mandel: Women's Health for Dummies
Juliet Mevi: Post-War and Pre-Choice
Miwako Nishizawa: Uteri
Priscilla Otani: You Are Not Forgotten
Judi Parks: Choice
Amy Puccio: IUD-NO STRINGS ATTACHED
Tamra Seal: Bindi, Chemistry, Fulcrum
Cindy Shih: Waiting
Jackie Skrzynski: Woman Growing Beets, Woman Growing Rasberries
Priscilla Smith: Four and Twenty
Diana Unterspan: Rejection
Deborah Wheeler:  Introspection
Vera Ximenes: Out of the Desert in Red
Jennifer Zona: Death

CATALOG ARTISTS, ARTWORK TITLE
Chambers Austelle: His
Ulla Barr: Candle Light Vigil, Pro-Choice, Anti-Choice
Laurie Edison: High Stakes
Alyssa Eustaquio: Swiss Army Classic Design, The Marie Stopes Edition
Maria Kazanskaya: Mask #1, Mask #2, Mask #3
Keri Rosebraugh: Pro Choice
Elizabeth Sowell-Zak: Choice/Schleeping the Troops, Gathering Sustenance, Tough Love
Simone Spicer: The Women's Section
Deborah Wheeler: Catharsis 
Jennifer Zona: Purity, Energy of Life

CHOICE ONLINE GALLERY

These are works that were selected for exhibition at Arc Gallery and for the Choice online Gallery. 

Choice Installation at Arc Gallery
December 10-11, 2013

Photos by Priscilla Otani

Choice Opening Reception
December 12, 2013

Photos by Priscilla Otani, Flo Oy Wong and Judy Shintani

Choice Artists' Talk 
January 12, 2014

Photos by Sandra Yagi

Choice Press Release

SF Weekly Dec 11-17, 2013 Review

Michael Singman Asti, writer for SF Weekly wrote, Choice is not "just about abortion" and neither is it intended for just a female audience. For full preview, go to http://www.voiceplaces.com/san-francisco-bay-area/choice-3656180-e

Choice Website

For more details about Choice, go to the Choice website: www.4choice2013.com.