 We are not following instructions as well Good evening everybody. It is so lovely to see you here tonight, and I am particularly excited because This is a stage full of friends that I haven't seen in a long time So it's really wonderful to see this. It's great Artists up here on this stage some luminaries Mike is the Moderator for the evening, but he's also an artist in his own right. So I I put them all into Really really fond memories and really fond of their art as well. So You guys are in for a delight tonight. I am Kim Manajae. I'm the director here at the Longmont Museum And again, I want to welcome all of you. I also want to thank the scientific and cultural facilities district The Stuart family foundation the friends of the Longmont Museum and many donors to the museum and the members of the museum as well And then special thanks tonight to our media sponsor KG and you community radio and the Longmont leader Tonight's program is being offered in conjunction with our washi transformed exhibition if you have yet to see it There's still some time left. It closes on May the 8th We'll be having a closing reception on Friday May the 6th, and I hope to see all of you there It's gonna be a fun event We weren't actually able to have an opening reception for this show because of the pandemic But we decided we would postpone that and then still put on a party at the end of the show So we hope to see it there it's gonna be May the 6th and we'll be having a conversation with the traditional Japanese handcrafts Specialists Claire Kuchiro She's an Asian art specialist and the museum's curator of exhibition Jared. Jared Thompson is going to be in Conversation with her So we're delighted to welcome both of them for that event The program is free and starts at five o'clock followed immediately by our closing reception at six o'clock If you need more information, you can go to our website Tonight's program pushing the envelope artist on tradition and innovation is moderated by Mike McClung seated here Mike McClung together with his partner Warren Campbell own Michael Warren contemporary in Denver having worked in both business and creative industries for the last 30 years The gallery has been the perfect blend of his professional experience over the years Mike's Mike has seen some 3,500 gallery exhibitions and nearly 2,000 museum exhibits around the world We were talking about some of those earlier that coupled with looking at books magazines websites television restaurants Offices and homes it adds up to a lot of artwork Michael Warren contemporary opened in the heart of Denver's arts district on Santa Fe in 2014 and In eight years has mounted over 120 exhibitions and welcomed over a hundred thousand visitors to the gallery I met Mike a long time ago and we were working on some stuff at the Denver Botanic Gardens And he introduced me to some really fantastic artists. So He is a good friend and knows a lot of really fantastic artists So welcome Mike and he's gonna introduce the artists for you tonight. Thank you As she said, I'm Mike I have the pleasure of introducing three artists that I've known for anywhere, I guess from about eight years to 16 years, I think And so I'm gonna start with introductions of all three and then we'll go Into learning a little bit about each each artists work will have the artists actually share the information about their own work and and share some some images some slides so that Everybody has a sense of where each artist is coming from and And then after they've introduced themselves And shown you their work will have a few questions about material and how it is that they're innovating with material and pushing the envelope So with that Anna Maria Hernando is originally from Argentina She's based here in Colorado. Although she spends her time kind of traveling the world She's a multidisciplinary artist devoted to exploring sacred feminine through history through daily lives the relationship to handworked textiles Her installations She winds up using textiles in abundance and includes the work of women from around Latin America embroideries of clustered nuns in Cloistered nuns clustered clustered embroidery flowers, but clustered nuns in Buenos Aires and Weavings and wares of Peruvian women from the mountains She went to school in California and also in Buenos Aires and Has a long list of accomplishments most recently she was awarded the 2020 pre Henry clues award Was a sculptural award he chose him by the La Napaul Foundation in the south of France She spent the year in residency and had a major show Solo show at the Foundation Chateau and gardens there in the Mediterranean She's had solo exhibitions at the Botanic Gardens the CU art museum Be Mocha, Seidel City, Robichon Gallery. She's represented by Robichon building bridges in in Los Angeles And I think more than that she can tell you herself So Andrew is originally from California. He He went to school in San Francisco at the Ard Institute and then received his MFA at University of Wisconsin in in Madison After that he wound up really kind of Furthering his skills as a senior exhibition technician at the Guggenheim Museum Which he did for 11 10 years 11 years his work often represents references Cultural traditions including science fiction the history of the painted landscape and the development of the thinking machine and then Margaret Casahara, she was born in New York City and grew up in Boulder She currently resides in Colorado Springs She went to school with the Kansas City Art Institute and her work is exhibited pretty extensively throughout the front range The Colorado she had a solo exhibition at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center the Botanic Gardens the Songray de Cristo Arts Center the Buell Children's Museum in Pueblo She's exhibited in group exhibitions around the country and in Canada and That introduces our three artists. I think Do I have to press something to To there we go Somebody else has to press it. So we're gonna start with Anna Maria You can see the slides And all Yeah, we'll have her talk about I think this first image is from the Chateau de Lanot pool And she'll begin talking about that experience So so many of the images that are here are Pieces I made when I was in France and This was the year of the pandemic I got there was an idea. I was going to be for most of the year was going to be coming back and And I had a whole show plan for the whole Chateau and the gardens the place is spectacular and But by the time that the lockdown in France began that was around the same time That happened here. All I had Was mostly tools many rolls of tools. So I Well first within the lockdown, I would be making pieces that would last two hours or two weeks or a day and Then when everything began to reopen I began to put together a show that was very completely different from What I had originally planned but all those months of being in lockdown really change What I was doing and I think probably change all of us So this is one of the pieces this piece is called flat and The foundation is very generous. They were incredibly generous with me during the pandemic and I wanted to make a piece talking about on one hand this generosity and also the Impossibility of stopping life and I took the colors of the Chateau and I Those were the colors I used for these flat coming down the stairs This is a piece that now it's in their collection and this is a mountain. I I make a lot of mountains Dresses for mountains. I I'm from Argentina and I'm very touch and Inspired by the Andes and the philosophies of the Andes and in in the Quechua world Mountains are seen our big spirits and are seen as feminine and masculine and I have made a lot of dresses for mountains For the feminine spirit of the mountain. That's called the news that and this piece Well, you know all of these different political things were happening. It's It's a piece about the power of women and how we need to be loud and out there This is a piece I did at the same time, you know all the news of The pandemic and all the people that we We were all losing at such an incredible speed all over the world I Made this piece as an honoring for them, but also our grief and it's called We could only Hear the air and just to give a sense of scale. That's Actually about the size of it. It's on the screen. It's a it looks like it's about 10 feet high Yeah, maybe a little bigger than yeah It's hard for me to tell looking straight up Can we ask what it's made out of now? I'm just yeah So all of these pieces are made out of tool and I work with many materials. I love materials But as I said, you know all the months and I was going to say the of making the show with a lot of tool but I was going to have more pieces outside and There were I was going to work on the fountains, but then it's just changed and I made just pieces out of tool and then When this is a window on the courtyard of the Chateau and the Chateau is a museum that a lot of people visit and When things began to reopen The first part that the Chateau could open was only the gardens nothing in the inside and Everybody was so I mean we were all so Thirsty for life and for Coming together and being outside and this renewal of some kind. I began to make a piece a day from these windows where I Would it's just all different. I think I have another slide with another configuration, but I made every day I was Doing a piece and Also learning a lot about the materials if there was wind Where the pieces ended and also This is a Chateau by the sea so there are a lot of seagulls That were passing by and were living there. They are you know mark on the tool and So that and leaves and rain and the sun so I learned a lot by doing that But also it felt really good to have these Every morning going there and there being something different. So that was one this is another of the of the pieces I made and This was covering the door And it was fine because nobody could go into the Chateau, but so astounding looking And this is an older piece that I did that was shown at the mca in Denver and so when I I have been in Peru many many many times and The I go always to this region that it's outside of Cusco And to a small town of 500 people And these are the petticoats of the women and on top of these they We are gray or the traditional is black with a little part on the bottom Colorful, but they are in black and then they have colorful hats and other things but the These are their petticoats and through Different conversations. I ended up being able to buy their petticoats And this was my first mountain I made and I it was an homage to all of these women who are incredible Incredibly strong incredible multitaskers. They really hold society And so I made the mountain they used that made out of their petticoats. It's their connection to One of their connections to earth And then on the top The piece had sounds sounds of birds And also on the top there were all of these videos of the children and the people of the village dancing And this is another piece I I made with the petticoats this was at the Kemper art museum and So here you can see other materials. I have used there's I think there might be a close-up of this made out of resin And as I said before I love working with different materials. I make a lot of mistakes And then I begin to To be able to make what I want but Another group I work have worked and it's the the group that I have worked the longest with It's a group of women cloister nuns in Buenos Aires Cloister that they don't come out from the monastery. They are catholic. They are carmelite And they embroider to Make a living but their vocation is to pray and all of these groups of women have in common this spiritual side Of them. It's a devotional way of being in life So this is a piece also at the Kemper that the Kemper owns now And it's all made out of embroidered pieces so I when I go to Buenos Aires I buy fabric then I make the designs and then I bring it to them and through the years The families of the nuns began to work on them too And here you see a close-up Of the petticoats and each of them they have different things inside I have a lot of fun making these things This piece was at the CU art museum and this is again it was a piece for women and in this case grandmothers and I began using the tablecloth and The crocheted piece that my grandmothers Used to make or gift me And I grew up in a family of textiles And the women would come together in the afternoons My grandmothers my mom My mom would be sewing My grandmothers would be meeting or different things and talking And the children we would be doing homework and that coming together in this relax, but also Where each of them was not just them, but just this different group. I'm inspired by that and by Later I have seen circles of women and how The the intent of coming together is To think what's best for the community and what decisions to make That are best for the community and I think we all have a lot to learn from that so That's that piece was based on that And it's dressing and the tablecloth and and then the piece in the back Was a piece that made with the nuns And then you can see one of my paper pieces. I love working with paper I haven't put any paintings here, but I paint too And in this case I use The the sandals of the people in the mountain they all throughout the mountains in the Andes they wear these rubber sandals And they are beautiful in the souls each of the souls they have a different design I think they make it so they know the pairs, but they it's fantastic and and they use these And throughout the year no matter the weather And I began to bring these Sandals by them from them used. I have many stories going through customs with these sandals, but But I you know for me these were a gift that Gives that sometimes we cannot see from other cultures and the These people they have such an ancient knowledge An ancient relationship to earth and the sandals are truly What touches the earth and is their relationship to the earth? So I had presented this in different configurations and this was a big pond I made And here you can see it on a wall And well, I included this because Well, there is the residence there is a painting in the back But also all the accidents that happen when you are working Sometimes they are happy Accidents so when I was working and this was a piece I had at Robby's and gallery And And we I was installing it and they were taking apart they had before me a video The room was full of It was an enormous video they were going to remove the they were in the process of taking out the projector And I saw how the light of the projector What it did to the residence and and it gave I used these circles. I love how Watery they look and I that's References to water is a lot in my work And I love what happened with their reflection and these green things that began to show So it became part of the piece And that's why I included it And here you have a Close-up of the resin pieces Thank you, Anna Maria Let's Find out about Yeah, thank you Let's find out about Andrew Roberts Gray I wanted to start by talking a little bit about My youth because of this exhibition About washi about traditions of japan I grew up in the bay area And my mother was an artist and an art educator And she started taking me to the d young museum in san francisco When I was very young probably eight I went there first or maybe even younger And the d young had a significant significant collection Of japanese and chinese work. It also had a japanese garden Outside a formal japanese garden with a tea house And I remember that very well from an early age and I think I think I really think that I related more to chinese and japanese painting and aesthetics than Western things. I was not but I wasn't The kind of kid that drew or painted or I really didn't get into art until I was a young adult But this was formative this this introduction also at the same time in california There was a real movement of japanese garden philosophy In california many gardens were influenced by that tradition And my mother and father had built a small house and she the architecture she made around it Had reflections of japanese garden architecture And the plants and just just her approach Was there and so when mike asked me to be on this panel You know that was formed around this show I was so excited because When I got interested in art when I was in college Some of my first experiences were with japanese Especially aesthetics and I had been interested in them in literature when I was in high school and Japanese film earlier So that's a little bit about why I'm connected to this place here The other thing is I have a social solo show up that just arrived at michael warn gallery This work will be on display tomorrow night The opening is from five to eight And it's a new body of work. It was begun Um Just at the kind of high point of the pandemic about a year and a half ago I had been working on some work before that That had black work that was reflected like painted black work that was reflective of chinese and japanese painting I was working with mirrored plexiglass as a material in a base I was starting to print a variety of cultural references on the things and sandblasting the Plexiglass also so that's sort of where I was coming from before I started this But I I had a Visionary change Through the pandemic. I had this This urge that I had to change my vision that I had to Respond to what I saw or felt That was this dystopian Environment or context that we were in So as I tend to do I I put that work aside that I had done and Just dove into These new urges I had one was to work with a full palette to work Uh with many colors. So many of the works now are brightly colored another was to Before I was using landscape Representative landscape and documents from the history of the computer that were representative of the history of the computer printed on these things and then The materiality would abstract those things in a way and blend them In this new body work. I wanted to like totally change that and let the documents from the history of the computer and references To formal qualities of japanese painting and chinese painting that I'd been studying Let those be representative and let the overall effect be wholly abstract So there was no Image that could pin it to an actual scene. It would be an environment It would be something I felt about this context of the pandemic. It would be this response to Where we are as humans at this point So this painting here is called Yamato a I through my study of japanese and chinese history I found out that the first Really indigenous japanese painting form That wasn't wholly kind of taken from the chinese Was this form called Yamato a which arose about 1000 ad and it was a a form where You would have these abstracted clouds and you would look through the clouds as if from heaven And you would see scenes of landscapes or you would see scenes of architecture some quotations from literature and You can see now in this image. This is a 15th century Japanese painting the clouds are gold. They're they're strangely geometric And they have in the whole image to me is so abstract and Formal and and yet it has these bits of humanity in them. So My work has sort of come to this point where it's this blend of cultural references from really disparate points in our human evolution So I took just took these formal Cloud shapes right out of these paintings and I shoved them against the the kind of textures of the computer textures of code textures of Machine code textures of actual schematics of computers I use the 1981 intel processor diagram Pattern that I print on the work So I I shoved that against this reference To japanese painting from 1000 ad and so that's sort of become my work in a way So it's it's almost become a kind of history painting. This is a shot installation shot Of the show at michael warren. You can see it tomorrow Mike from five to eight mike just just beautifully installed you can see yamato way on the right With this textured worm fabric when you get up close to yamato way you see these details Of these documents from the history of the computer, but then when you get back it looks like an abstract painting in the tradition of Abstract painting over the last hundred years on the left you say you see a six foot diameter disc That floats on the wall. It's mirrored plexiglass With painting on top of it and it's sandblasted And it's become this sort of form. I felt when I was making it. I wanted to make something that Uh, maybe arrived from pluto I wanted to make something from the future something from science fiction And it again has these qualities when you get up close to it. You can read Documents from the history of the computer the first computer program by add a lovelace You can read parts of The schematic the charles babbage made of this thing called the first computer Okay, so To go on this is another painting in the same yamato way series now You can see the geometric cloud forms floating over this sort of Atmospheric Maybe you're looking up in the sky It's the beginning of a science fiction movie or something In the lower left. You can see this an illustration of William Thompson's tide predictor So this piece is called tide predictor William Thompson is a british inventor He's also known as lord kelvin the word kelvin associated with look. That's him Made many inventions the british navy at one point asked him to create a machine That could accurately predict the tides up until then they had tables But they didn't really super accurately do that so he made this machine That worked like a mechanical algorithm So it's a very important in the history of the computer So here it is. This is his machine that he made in about 1879 So in this case, I'm taking again yamato a this tradition. I'm putting it up against the history of science Smooshing him together in some weird andrew version of reality And sort of what I like to do. Here's the intel processor diagram from 1981. It's the 81 86 It's the actual diagram. So this is sort of become this thing Where I'm referencing actual periods in history with these documents Which makes it sort of fun for me to research And also gives the works a Different kinds of reads you can read them from very close and you can read them from across the room This is another disk Made of one inch clear plexiglass It's been sandblasted and printed essentially With three documents. It's been printed with oh, this is a 47 inch round by the way. So it's it's heavy It's very heavy. It floats on the wall It's print screen printed And it's printed with three documents. It's printed with the jacquard loom Sort of the beginning of the industrial revolution the jacquard loom was also a digital computer in a way It's also printed with a schematic of charles babbage analytical engine Which is essentially contemporary. He started that Building that computer about 1820 And then so those are printed on the back of this one inch disk So as the light goes through it, it projects onto the wall and you get another whole layer And as the light changes during the day or if it's in someone's house The morning light and the evening light are different in a darkened room. It has a sort of life to itself So this sort of came out of my process I didn't really think about it ahead of time and it was sort of a Lucky thing on the front of this piece Is printed and you can't it's hard to see it It's printed in silver is printed the first computer program by Ada Lovelace, which she made in 1842 And was later run on a computer. It was an algorithm So in that case that piece has the jacquard loom. Here's an image that I It's an illustration that I printed right on the piece You want to go the next one? This is a schematic of charles babbage analytical engine And this is Ada Lovelace first computer program So those are together in this piece that's titled 19th century And it's materials. It's documents. It's sort of What I'm thinking is sort of a Abstract history painting is how I'm thinking about it. So maybe I've become an abstract history painter now and The show At michael warren is titled aquarium It includes many pieces like that that you saw It has many different kinds of supports in the show the support for the work the one inch clear plexiglass is there There are pieces on wood panels. There's a piece that's a Woven piece and a painting together There are some paintings on linen the tradition of painting Western paintings. So those are all together in the show and Please come see for yourself Thank you, Andrew Margaret's cassahara. Yes So this is an image from my solo show at the colorado springs fine art center in 2014 And the reason I started with this is because it was at this point with the show that my approach to materials changed and It was one of those situations where I had very short notice to put the show together. I only had 16 weeks So and it was a very big space And the paintings that I have been doing up to that point and it was oil and oil stick on canvas Were fairly large, but they also took a lot of time to make Maybe two three months per painting So I knew in 16 weeks. I wouldn't have The time to fill this space to put that into context many museums Museum shows take anywhere from two to six years to prepare for And so 16 weeks is is basically like can you do it tomorrow? Yeah, and it was because they had somebody drop out and they said could you do it? And I said, I will do my best, you know, I wanted to take that opportunity But because I had to come up with things very quickly I had to go back Into my head of these ideas that I had been holding for a long time and Never did because as we were talking about earlier If you have a reputation or a known for a certain kind of work You kind of Are afraid to do it and I was afraid to change and then this kind of forced that Opportunity like you have to make this change And gave me the permission to change. So then I started playing with Okay, I can't paint parasols But I can actually use the parasols. So I created this The previous slide was of a parasol installation that I did with 50 different parasols and then this Enzo that I created out of chinese takeout boxes now the The approach to all of my work is identity based So I was really Exploring my asian-american identity at this time And here is a piece that's fairly recent but is on a panel Of nori it's the background and disposable chopsticks And the little tips are dipped in soy sauce And this is called variation on a theme of chopsticks Now After that show in 2014 I started focusing on what I call notations and there are these tiny Like three and five eighths inch square Images and I call the notations because I'm taking note of thoughts and feelings and different events that are going on and I'm I'm creating a visual poem out of them so This is using that sushi grass and a little ad I saw in a the yellow pages This one is does use washi paper. That's origami paper in the background And this is when I started using hair And I'm thinking about hair as identity too It is where your dna is So it's a direct expression of identity and I'm using it here as an enzo as well This is using hair as well This is homage to a friend of mine who uses pantyhose So I cut little pieces with pantyhose And and sewed those down And the black lines you see are all hair I generally use Just ordinary objects that you find at home Or on yourself But in this case I I found a true found object That was in a parking lot and when I picked it up it said ninja On this little firecracker. So I just had a little fun with it And had my hair just totally exploding With this firecracker that said ninja This piece Was in memoriam to a friend of mine who passed away She was one of the very few prospectors in colorado and this is a blue topaz and Just some of the pike's peak rock That are in the area Again, this is just very small Yeah, so so I'm just trying to show how many different kind of materials I use This is a doily Again, it's something I found This pre-pandemic I was invited to a bridal shower and this little doily Was under the water glass and I just Took it home with me because it was so beautiful and I I thought It was such a beautiful moment that I wanted to have a reminder of it And I also thought well, maybe that I'll have a chance to use this at some point in time Well fast forward a couple years and it was the pandemic and So this is a is a pandemic piece where I was thinking about the doily as as Of dreams and hopes that that were kind of dashed and with this mysterious darkness inside These are toothpicks and here I was thinking about Breaking and healing at this point in time. There was a lot of unrest Going on in the world These are little grains of rice That I glued down And I'm thinking about rice If you look at each little individual grain of rice, they really are very unique and It's a metaphor for the uniqueness of each individual human Of people and I'm also thinking of a Something that the buddhist zen monk tik nakhan said about the world being in a grain of rice that In a grain of rice the earth the sun water and humankind Can be found in that grain of rice Here again, I'm playing with the grain of rice sorry But I gold leaf them and this is An homage I guess or not an homage but I was thinking about the shootings of the asian-american Women in Atlanta and around the same time this the king super shooting also happened. So I gold leafed These grains of rice thinking about the preciousness of each of those lives and this is the Closest to being the most current work I did this this year And here I'm thinking about the japanese art form of kinsuji where you Um It's a surround it's an actually in ceramics where when a bull breaks you can mend it Using a gold resin and so you're showing off the the damage, but in in that it becomes a beautiful thing on its own Maybe even better than it was before In its flaws And so I was thinking about kinsuji and breaking Again and healing Thank you margaret We're going to take a few minutes to ask A series of questions and i'm going to let the artist just kind of jump into their answers about that And and then we'll make sure that we leave Of a few minutes for any of you to be able to ask questions of the artists as well The things that came to mind with Generally speaking about the ideas of materiality Really led me to to kind of question like where did where did you start like I I I know that um anna maria has this History of a family that works with textiles and and that that's always been very much a part of of Her life and um and that's reflected in in her work today, but um For any of the three of you or all of the three of you, um can um, can you talk to Where you started With your artistic career was it uh with Traditional kind of like because of schooling perhaps was it painting was it drawing was it sculpting Um, does anybody want to just jump in and answer that? I start Go ahead and When I get into college and dropped out the first year I dropped out after taking a sculpture class Probably after two two or three quarters my first freshman year Because I didn't know what I wanted to do and But I think that that class planted a seed so eventually I found myself back at Junior college and I I took a printmaking class And some drawing classes, but the printmaking class There was something about the process the creativity and How you had to lose use your mind Through that process And you almost lost The vision of what you're trying to do through the complications of what you're doing and um The rigors of it And something about that stuck with me the layering of printmaking the planar aspect of printmaking The idea that these different materials and processes come together um, I started uh I think you know studying art and I quickly Got to Japanese printmaking where you have Uh the artist painting an image You have a cutter with the technique of cutting the wood the materiality of that the papers made by hand the materiality of the paper Then there's a printer with his whole system and that Learning about that had a big effect on me. So this whole layering thing now You can see all over my work on the clear disc. I showed It has two surfaces and the walls another surface. It's layers The layers of history the documents the references. So it's become really the methodology of what I do great so for me So I grew up in Buenos Aires And I was the third My mom loved to paint and I would She would she loved art But I had two older sisters and And we had an English teacher who would come to the house to teach us English And it was maybe I don't know once twice a week. I don't know how Often but I was four and I didn't know how to write Really in any language So she could the teacher She would write a word and I had to copy it and she would be teaching really my sisters and And then if I would do all of the lines I I had to do I could draw that And so I would do that and drawing I loved it and I remember You know trying to solve some of the problems like A table where I would put the legs, you know at that time you don't have a sense of Of a perspective or anything like that or wanting to make water and how to make it Transparent but the more color I would put it would get darker so But during all of this process it was really what I realized what I wanted to do And when I was five I said I wanted to be an artist But then you know, then society tells you No, no really and you can't Yes, and also there's no practicality on it and So I did several things but always the arts I loved as a teenager I try and I really wanted to do that and I did theater that I loved too But theater was worse than the visual arts in my family But also I grew up during dictatorships and it was a time that Being an artist of being a creative person was dangerous So I can understand, you know afterwards I could understand also the worries of my parents, but That's what you know, I'm an artist and so but but At the beginning it was for me Being an artist it was painting because Sculpture growing up and at the time it was Not mostly was metal or stone and I could not relate to those materials. They felt so foreign to me And painting it was so straightforward. So that's what I did for many many years and Some 20 some years ago well actually before when I was in college I began to do Installations even though I didn't know that's what I was doing and I was Painting and drawing a lot, but so that's the story And now, you know, English is very useful Turned out it was a good it was a good path Margaret, where did you start? Well, I started as a kid as everybody does I think every artist As a child drawing, but I loved loved loved coloring books There's just something about that meditative Coloring in and I realized I still Kind of do that and it's always been this gesture gesture of moving The pencil or crayon or even when I was doing larger paintings I was still using this gesture And I think ultimately that's comes down to just loving that feel The movement You know being able to draw that line and just having that color follow it. There's something magical in that so drawing So Do Any of you want to speak to kind of the most unconventional material you've ever used I mean you've already had like firecrackers and hair so That's pretty unconventional tool we have Plexi, I mean we think of a lot of you know a lot of traditions we think of like painting and we wind up You know having oil and linen or we think about sculpting with stone with The bronze or or or blowing glass or or casting We think about kind of the Drawing I think of paper you know and so Now all three of you are using materials that don't necessarily neatly fit into that expected kind of formula of Sculpture with tool or with petticoats or Or sandblasting mirrors So Is there anything that we've missed that was even more unusual at one point I For some reason well, I understand now why I did it but There's a certain point I came to about 2014 or 2013 where I I felt like I had to give up the image totally And I didn't see it as that then at that point. I thought I wanted to make these abstract things out of materials that were not traditional art materials and So I started to do that. I gave up what I was doing. I was a landscape Kind of an abstract landscape painter at that point and I had just this I just felt like I had to explore this world that I knew nothing about which was materiality and Artwork that did not have an image And so I jumped into that and one of the materials I started working with was cardboard Because it's organic It's friable. It's part of our everyday lives And it's not traditionally. I mean it's been used in history to paint on and things, but it's not I used it sculpturally and It's just untreated. It's even though it's been used now. It still has a Untritional quality and it's ephemeral It it has this quality Of breaking down over time no matter what you do And it's not gonna last and I think that was Something I had to embrace somehow and I see now that I I I needed to give up the image And I needed to use this ephemeral material in order to Train myself to have a sensitivity to materiality that I didn't have before and a sensitivity to the image And what it means to use it that I didn't have before giving it up So I'd have to say you have At least one more unconventional material than that Yeah, a certain acidic greenish yellow colored material weed wacker line Oh, yes Yeah, I forgot about that one. Yeah, there were some sculptures that Involved some weed wacker neon green line. They did You know, I was thinking how I mean going to an arts, uh, the supply store is fascinating. It's great and but uh, but You know, it seems we get our materials for many other places like a supermarket and The hardware store yeah the hardware store the garden store Yeah, I think it's interesting that all three of us have embraced um These materials from the outside of the art practice It's it seems really important to me. I don't know how we use it in different ways Really different ways, but it seems the materiality the phenomenon of those material Is important and it leavens the work somehow I don't know I also find that Culture comes very strongly through these other materials art materials are Wonderful, but they are very distilled And when you go to a supermarket you feel the culture when I moved to the united states and I Went to a supermarket. I think I spent there three hours because you don't recognize the labels you don't and it was this Being thrown into this culture and when I when I went to france and I was going to be there the year I asked to be taken to a hardware store because also I wanted I wanted to see how In that culture they could solve problems and Take care of fixing things and I wanted to find new materials different than what you would find at mcdackings or home depot But but you you can get the culture strongly This kind of leads me to to my last question of the evening before we open it up to the to the audience, but um I think about you know in my own Artwork or my own practice I tend to Keep kind of a running list of ideas of things that I might want to explore someday or Or you know, I'm working on something You know today and it uh spawns an idea and and um I don't always write it down the first time But if I've I've if it comes to my mind like repeatedly I'll jot it down And then I have this running list of like materials that I've worked with or that have intrigued me or that I've found kind of interesting in some way and And I think I'm almost kind of waiting for those Two lists to marry each other like the the idea and the material or the process But Is it does the egg come first or you know the chicken? So, you know for you and your practice annamaria Is it the concept that's uh the driving force and then you find the materials to support your concept or Or is it the material you're in love with kind of the fabric or the tool or the Resin and what can you do with it next? When when I'm painting I begin and And I do I don't know what the result will be I I do one layer then I respond to that and that's how I move with it But when I'm doing more of the installation work and working with these other materials Sometimes well many times I have an image that I don't know how I'm going to get to it But then I try to figure out how I'm making it and I just I have faith that I'm going to meet the material and all the different meanings that are underneath that I still cannot see But in all of that process I fall in love with the materials I I have to I develop a relationship with each of the materials Making mistakes, but also learning about them and how my body adjusts to them and and it It really it opens like a whole community, but I I have to be in love with the material and I don't know if I answered your question. I think so. Absolutely. I think uh Andrew as you're answering that and I'm struck with an image of kind of uh, um You revisiting your skill set and that as artists we all develop our skill sets Over a period of time that that doesn't you know, it doesn't happen immediately, you know, and so Last summer when you were doing a A week-long artist in residency at the gallery you We're revisiting some of the printing techniques and specifically the idea of resists, but And I see that that has been incorporated into your current body of work And so can you talk about sure how how that impacts the direction of your work? Yeah, so When you learn printmaking traditional western printmaking a lot of the techniques lithography etching And screen printing Resists where you're making masks that resist the ink that you're going to print or attract The ink you're going to print or there's surfaces that you're using that you're blocking off Or leaving open There's this negative positive thing that you're working with all the time So all of those sort of ideas and tricks and Methodologies, you know of just percolated back into my layering in ways that just sort of happened in front of me occasionally like What mike's talking about is I was working on some Work last summer and I was printing white First And then I poured some just thin Watercoloury acrylic paint on it And the image that I had printed with the screen seemed to almost develop like a photograph And it was like a phenomena happened in front of me And so I didn't expect it. So it was one of those experiences as an artist where you're You're just like surprised and amazed that this thing happened in front of you And you just stare at it in wonder and like you're in glee I mean, you're like Man, that's happening. You can see it happen. You can see it visually active in front of you as a material, you know, and it it It enlivens the ideas That are always sort of lurking behind your practice You know and when you find these things that you do That activate those ideas, then you're happy Margaret you you tend to have a body of work that Is Highlights and Displays kind of this attention to a repetitive motion And I've seen that in your Larger oil paintings. I've seen it in Your daily Notations your meditations And then even in some of the installation work this kind of idea of repetitive motion Can you Briefly speak to that I'm not very conscious Of it, you know, it's it is this motion that I'm doing and it Is almost a marker of time. I think It's this idea of spending time Marking time Is that what they mean when they say the work of the hand? Maybe maybe Yeah, it is very meditative. Yeah Do you find yourself Your mind wandering to other things? No, not often. I tend to be thinking about what is going on around me While I'm making those so they become a kind of a capsule of that moment of time for me Each of those pieces really mark a part of my life So each one is so unique. We were talking earlier how you can't repeat yourself Because you're never going to be in that same spot again So the work becomes almost Journal it does in a way Yeah Thank you I think we have just a couple minutes for anyone that that might still have questions for any of the artists Justin I think Tells me that there is a microphone that he'll be able to pass around or If anyone does have a question for Anna Maria for Andrew or Margaret Raise your hand. We do have a question over here No Ever met before or is this the first time? The four of um, I don't think the four of us have all met each other before but I've known all of the artists for a number of years It's just a beautiful combination of people and the brilliance that that you have is amazing It's a appreciated And I had a very nice background when I was growing up The war had started. This is not the korean. This is world war two And my mother was a working lady But she had no place to put me except in the art institute of chicago And it was a wonderful experience And I don't know why it was such a wonderful experience But uh, because I was only about eight years old then And uh, it was I had somewhat of the same relationship I would have to imagine it was eye-opening Thank you. I had a question from Margaret. Um You were um explaining some of the uh objects in your work But there was a technique that you were using around them of uh, sort of very finely graduated marks I I couldn't see them that distinctly But I was wondering how those were made. That's just pencil Yeah, um, I use Generally just a regular pencil that I sharpen to a point Um, I I sometimes also use what they call lead pointer. So it's this it holds just a stick of lead And those and I think those are more Used in architecture Yeah, it's just graphite. It's kind of an amazing surface to look at up close the um, the um, the Motion that she has been speaking of with this kind of repetitive Kind of almost a deckling Effect it it's not exactly a dot but more of like a A really minuscule stroke that you that you wind up seeing the kind of just not quite a hatch cross hatching But it's a continuous line I'm curious. Um, how you might each want to respond if you if you'd like to um It seems like you have an approach for individual creations that you make and You know, you've talked a lot about your processes and your emotions and things for for that But it seems like it's got to be different somehow as you Put on a show As you organize and collect and decide Do you want to talk about how that aspect of your Creativity might be different from creating individual pieces Are you asking How a show comes together as opposed to an individual piece? Yes For me, I if if I have a show That i'm working I think of the whole And And I and of course you are working also with a curator And you have the conversations with them, but I'm very conscious of how Do I take The visitor the viewer the the person who is interacting with the pieces from one to the other and what is What curve and What are the different elements and how the pieces can talk to together? So Right now i'm working i'm working on two different shows that the opening june and And i'm at the moment i'm i'm a resource artist at redline So I began a couple in january to end of december I got this empty studio Of a snow history that is a fantastic thing And I divided you know part of the studio I have the work that i'm doing for one show and on the other I have for the other show And I go back and forth and I like in my way of working I work well Way better when I can work on many pieces at the same time And i'm i'm working on one and thinking on the next But one of the shows will be at rubbish on gallery and I'm relating one piece to the other and Creating inside of me conversations and Yeah, I think there is a difference between the normal studio practice of of Creating and creating day in and day out Um sometimes eight ten twelve hours in a day But just creating and then Preparing for an exhibit or a show Sometimes you can have it have an exhibit in an art center and it you wind up having the benefit of a curator that can Select and kind of hone in or point to the things that are of interest either for Their specific need or that they would like to explore with the artist um, I think that oftentimes when it's uh In a commercial gallery such as like mine The artist as they prepare for a show We wind up really looking for them to identify A body of work or a direction A line of thought that they Are interested in exploring um I always wind up giving a lot of latitude to the artists. Uh I joke sometimes with with andrew because As he as he mentioned When we first started working together I thought of him as as more or less. I thought of him as as an artist who Did landscapes and uh that they were abstracted landscapes, but they he was still kind of in that pocket Of landscape painting and then he came in one day with powder coated steel and cord gave a Cardboard and I was like, where's the landscape? What was I thinking? And At that at that point, I think he wasn't like both feet in And so he was like it's still there the landscape. I see it and so As a gallery manager and owner It was important for me to make sure that I allowed him The opportunity to explore the things that he needed to explore and see that through At some point in a relationship with with an artist in a gallery that that Could be diverging, you know that Are you started and you're no longer, you know kind of in that same Kind of relationship and so I have to say that this is not standard this latitude and I have been the beneficiary of this Commitment to me as an artist Beyond the product that I make I agree there a commitment to me is as an artist Not my product That is just There's so many artists who have lived And and fought against the other side of this And it's really difficult and Mike and Warren from the beginning You know, they they just let me have my say I think that it's so important. Thank you for saying that but you know, it is so important for an artist to be able to to Push their work, you know, if they wind up if I keep going back to Andrew or or to Margaret and and saying Can't you just go back to doing what you did that worked for the gallery and You know, ultimately at some point it becomes kind of contrived and less Authentic, you know the you kind of sense that it was Manufactured and and so we don't want any of the artists to to be just kind of producing machines We want them to have something to say and normally that means something new to say Um, and that's how we innovate That might be a good place to stop We do have a question over here one last question. Please wait for the microphone because we're recording In light of what you just said and maybe none of my business, but um Um, does the business model work for you in this environment in this culture? You know, because typically, you know Quantification of an artist is central to a gallery environment because that's successfully I mean, it's viable. It's more viable theoretically, right? It is a good question. I think that um, you know when We allow the the artists to um to push themselves it um invites our audiences to um to kind of Push themselves as well. So I think that you know audiences typically have um We don't always give them enough credit. And so I think that the one thing that is important for me as a gallery owner and As as a person who supports a number of artists is really To make sure that I recognize the voice of the artist and if I am able to articulate um, the the thread that runs through the work um that You know the work that andrew might have been doing 10 or 15 years ago and how It connects to the things that he was doing Eight years ago and how that connects to the things he did three years ago And he's doing now. I think that that makes my job easier if an artist um becomes an artist who's Without focus, I guess um Where it's really hard to tell who made the work um That's a little harder for me as a gallery owner to sell that work. Um, I like to see that it's Anna Maria doing A new body of work, but know that it's Anna Maria's work and not Some other artists entirely And so as long as I I can articulate that thread. I think audiences are are interested to see um, especially collectors to see that the work is progressing or evolving in some way I think as an artist you're always up against what you know and what you don't know And you always want to push into what you don't know if if you're singing Yeah, I think it's more authentic Your life keeps on changing. You can't be the same person That you were doing 20 years ago 10 years ago, maybe even three years ago. Yeah, so that's uh Galleries, you know anyone that's in the art business. I think Recognizes that they're in it for the love of the art and not necessarily for the payoff because Whether people think that you know Someone who owns a gallery it must be rich because they're around all of this expensive art It's generally not the case I'm the chief mapper and the window washer and the you know installer it's uh a labor of love Let's let's thank our panelists marga kasahara Uh Andrew roberts Gray god Anna maria hanando and mike mclung for joining us And thank you all for joining us just a reminder that we have a Closing reception for our washii exhibition on may 6th. That's friday may 6th and right before the reception We have another great conversation On washii and beyond Traditional japanese handicrafts Thanks for coming. Good night