 Good evening everybody. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. I'm Cecily Cullen I am the Director and Curator at the Center for Visual Art Metropolitan State University of Denver I'm assuming you can hear me Hope that's working out So anyway, thank you for joining us. This is our fourth and final event in our series of virtual artists talks So we're thrilled to have four more of the art not artists joining us tonight I just want to give a reminder that you keep your microphones and cameras muted to reduce distractions And tonight's discussion will center on four artists response to the idea of borders and walls This discussion must begin by acknowledging that we are meeting and live and thrive on the unceded territory of the Ute Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes We acknowledge this land to draw attention to the indigenous people of this place and their struggle So as I mentioned, we will hear from four artists this evening all who are members of the artists collective the art nots and They each are represented in our current exhibition the walls between us This exhibition features 38 art nots members responding to the theme of walls by exploring emotional barriers Political borders physical structures and implied boundaries that permeate our lives This exhibition will be on view at CBA through October 17th. So we hope you get a chance to come down and see it in person If you aren't familiar the Center for Visual Art is the off-campus gallery of Metropolitan State University of Denver We present exhibitions year-round that have both local significance and global reach Our goal is to promote dialogue with visitors Whether in person or online about the difficult issues of our day through the catalyzing lens of contemporary art We are supported by donations and memberships I hope you will consider becoming a member and we will put a link to our website in the chat The art nots is an artist collective that uses the visual arts as a tool for addressing global issues While connecting with artists from around the world the name derives from combining the words art and Astronaut as a way to describe the process of exploring uncharted territory in the world at large You can learn more about the art nots at their website art nots org which we will also put in the chat Speaking of which if you have any questions for the speakers tonight, please type your question into the conversation box And I will read them to the artists at the end of each of their 15 minute talks And then we could also address questions after all four speakers have concluded if there are unanswered questions So with that it is my pleasure to introduce our first speaker of the evening Sandy Lane Sandy serves as Associate Professor and Studio Program and Drawing Coordinator at Metropolitan State University of Denver She received her BFA in 1995 and an MFA in 1998 both from the University of Colorado at Boulder Sandy Lane is an interdisciplinary artist exploring both traditional and experimental media as well as two and three-dimensional works and installation Her artwork examines the power of the story and how it affects culture as well as the social mores it defines The concept dictates the direction of her process And the media is incorporated through its execution. She exhibits nationally as well as internationally So with that I would love to welcome sandy lane sandy you could turn on your camera and your microphone Hi, thank you so much. Hi. Great to see you. Good to see you too Are you ready for me Oops We are ready. So please take it away Okay, so Jenna if you could bring up my PowerPoint Okay, great. Thank you. So this is just an overview of The four images that are there I'm going to try to kind of speed through this because I've heard from a lot of people that They don't know who the people are and I was planning on including text but ran out of time So I do realize that that's an important part of this I just like to say a few things beforehand and that is how important art knots has been to me and I have traveled a few places with art knots and my last trip was to Palestine, which was um, a very important educational and emotional experience for me and it did Impact this work and also another presentation that I gave at CU Boulder with Susanne Mitchell who's also an art knots member So my main focus is going to be going through each one and kind of explaining the characters in this but To start off with I'll tell you a little bit just a little background that happens in the first piece in art of the deal and my experience in Palestine and Seeing the Occupation wall and at the time that I was there what was really dominating the space that I saw in Bethlehem was 14 gigantic murals each taking up at least four planks of cement slabs that are about nine feet wide um of Lush sucks. He is a western artist from Australia and um, I've done quite a bit of research about him and He tends to be he's provocative and tends to Uh Approach The alt-right and has been accused of that on the wall by palestinians. I've read several articles where they interviewed the youth of Palestine graffiti artists who one one was female and one was male who painted over his murals So that is happening in The the the first one. So jenna if you want to go to the Art of the deal the first one Okay, so from the left is Muhammad bin Solomon. He's the Saudi prince. He is behind Jared Kushner who and they're over on the left both of them and um, and then in front of Jared is Netanyahu and he is engaged in a conversation with Abdul Fattah El Sisi who is the egyptian prime minister Uh, trump once referred to him as his favorite dictator. However, these were all chosen because these are all of trump's favorite dictators and his daughter, um, and this the background happens to be at the durell resort Golf course and the background are two images that are On the left and the right are of lush sex's images and in the center is a picture of post of lush sex who he Does a lot of interaction with His viewers his audience on twitter and various other social media Where he is provoking Um alt right propaganda. So, um, this is called the t-post. It's actually originated from A video game which has to do with Uh, just a a glitch within a video game, but it's It's actually then been adopted by the alt right and it is a A racist symbol and he's posted it several times. I've read several of his posts Different different poses of this where he acts is this where he asks is this racist So then, um next to or behind lcc is kim jong-yoon engaged in a conversation with Uh, vladimir putin and then um is ivanka trump and And uh, donald trump All of my inspiration has come from a lot of research and a lot of articles However, I have also, um embellished slightly with my interpretation of it Then below, um trump is, um urtawan The president of turkey above him is president g of, um Of china and then on the very very right is, um, uh, president rodrigo, uh, de turte of the philippines So, um jenna, you can go on to the next one which is intelligence And this is uh, the the background is a view of, um, the inside of a ballroom at marlago um, uh, the top is, uh, An image from, um, pizza gate, which was a conspiracy theory that happened And and was a big meme. So all of this is also i'm playing off of memes And all the literature that i've read and so, uh, pizza gate was big in, um, 2000 the 2016 election it was a conspiracy theory about sexual abuse, um, uh, and, uh, human trafficking of, of youth And that has evolved into qanon the next image in the top is a marquita sod The next image is, um, epstein via epstein bar virus, which was, uh, alluded to or brought up in several articles that i read, um, about, uh, Bill bill bar and jeffrey epstein and their connections So bill bar and then the next one. Sorry. So the next image at the top is, um, mylo yannopoulos He's already, um, kind of gone from the political spotlight for, uh, one of his transgressions and, um, and then the one on the right is of the, um, Of jeffrey epstein's, um Um, uh, getaway palace location and so on the left is, uh, bill bar who is the attorney general um, he's also had a long history in politics served in the, uh, um, bush administration next is kin star who also, um, represented jeffrey epstein But also he was the one in the 90s who was responsible for, um, The impeachment trials of clinton Uh, jeffrey epstein is next to bill bar or i mean next to kin star Behind him is mohammed bin salomon who also had a close relationship with jeffrey epstein jeffrey epstein flew His jet many times to visit, um, mohammed bin also, uh, salomon who, um, he actually did during the election of 2016 Next is alan dirshowitz who is the lawyer was was the lawyer for Um, oj simpson, but he was also the lawyer for jeffrey epstein And then also served as the law as one of the lawyers in the impeachment trial for trump behind trump um is, uh prince andrew who is in trouble for being connected with jeffrey epstein and um sexual abuse with uh, he's been accused by one of jeffrey epstein's young girls at the time under age of um sexual Misconduct sexual abuse next is lex wexner who is the the founder and the head of um Of victoria secrets the limited he had a very close relationship with jeffrey epstein and They he we don't know exactly what the situation is for sure with all of that but um He was his only client at one time the only record of business that jeffrey epstein had was working for lex wexner He also posed as an agent Epstein and With less wexner only less wexner didn't know it recruiting models supposedly for lux wexner below that Is the next one is glane Maxwell who's was supposed to be his girlfriend and connected with organizing The organization that epstein had behind him is ihud barak who In that I think it was early 2000s late 1990s who was the Prime minister of israel he also had a close relationship and is accused of sexual misconduct with epstein And was in business for multimillion dollars with um epstein Then is clinton who says he only took four trips With epstein on his jets, but uh, they have records of dozens of logs on the jet and then next is alexa costa who was um I'm blanking his his I'm blanking right now. Sorry what his um title was But he Had to resign he was secretary I can't remember sorry secretary of and in in the latest administration had to resign in In 2019 um Of because of his uh position and the trial how the trial ended with epstein in um, uh In I think it was like 2006 um, and he had a uh his sentence was was very Lineal So that is it for that one. Can we move on to the next one? Which jenna could you switch to intel? Uh Oh, you did. I'm sorry. So the next one is this is um, the emperor summoned his motley crew um, the background images have to do with the alt right Some of their uh code language And icons um fight club and the matrix are two of their idols The matrix uh for they they call it red pilling. It's similar to the liberals and saying woke And so red pilling means you're getting the truth The trolls in the background are just about trolling um, and then uh the figures are uh james o' keith to the left and um James o' keith is the founder of project uh Veritas and this was this this piece is in reaction to last summer 2019 and uh Trump called a social media summit at the at the white house and these were some of the characters that appeared um, and project veritas is a video production designed to punk liberals and Under call in mainstream media I'm sorry Oh, I missed that. Um Alex the next one is Alex uh, Ali, uh, Ali, um, alexander and alex alexander was suspended from twitter in 2019 And he was he's also known for accusing kamala harris last year of not being black enough Matt gets is next down towards the bottom and he's a congressman Appears frequently on conservative radio up above is ryan Forney ryan forney is a co-founder of students for trump, which was created in 2015 Establishing hundreds of chapters with the universities with universities across the u.s Next is joy villa and joy villa is known for her elaborate, uh, costumes, um that are all all about, um The the the trump campaign and um supporting trump and uh She is also a singer. Um and has made Uh recently made a single called make america great again Um Ben Shapiro is next to her He has been Shapiro show, which is a conservative political podcast and radio show Uh, and then bill mitchell is next to him Also a conservative radio host and conspiracy theorist and promotes, um q and on Jim hoft is below that jim hoft is founder of gateway pundit Which is a far-right opinion blog known for promoting conspiracy the, um blank person the the shadow person Is um, he went out for a long time considered himself anonymous posed himself as that His name is what he went by his his alias is carpe adunctum And his real name is logan cook and he lives in kansas. He's a stay-at-home father He's one of trump's very favorite, um meme and and video producers for trump and he's also recently been banned from twitter Benny johnson the creative director for turning point usa tps Usa launched professor watch list in november 2016 The website names professors. It claims advance a radical agenda In lecture halls and promote leftist propaganda in classrooms Then um sabastian gorka, which is up He is up here at the top pointing his finger And he serves uh, he served as the deputy sift assistant to the president from um 2017 to 20 to January 2017 to august 2017 It was reported that trump had plans to appoint him as the national security educational board in in july 2020 But it's not sure what i'm not sure what happened to that Um, we all know donald trump. So i'm not going into detail on him Um, charles kirk is the very last one. He's the founder of turning point usa during 2012 and which i had already mentioned that benny johnson is the creative director of that Um, he claims to maintain an on-campus presence of over a thousand colleges and universities Okay, jenna. Thank you. I'm ready to switch to the architect Okay, so this is called the architect because that's what um, many articles that I read refers to Steven smith as the architect behind The uh, the the our our immigration issue that is going on and um A separation of the families all of the little intricacies that are happening with that So the first person to the left is carla provost And This one I am going to have to look at a little bit more just I know their names But I have a hard time with their positions So she was the first woman to serve as the us border patrol agency chief and one of the longest to serve In the the trump administration She retired after admitting that she was a member of the secret facebook group for border patrol Officers that were using the site to to post tasteless and improper racist and sexist post concerning migrants Um below her is thomas holman He um was a former acting director of ice and retired from public services now Of a fox news contributor was considered abusive and carrying out ice policies with detainees and the keyword and all of all of these characters is acting Is that the end jenna? I it went away Sorry Okay, so then um, then above Um thomas holman is mark morgan He served as the head of border patrol and succeeded Roland Vitello as acting director for heading immigration and customs enforcement So trump wants to keep Everybody as acting according to all the articles that I read Because that gives him more freedom of control and can move people in and out That's why the image in the background of the musical chairs Because it's referencing Just moving people in and out so quickly And it's hard to keep control of congress doesn't have control of it senate doesn't have control. We're not appointing them He's appointing them Then um christin neilson One of several retired homeland security secretaries who served from 2017 to 2019 Before homeland security. She also worked for john kelly as an advisor guiding for the nominees for the senate confirmation But she she also worked in the bush administration And her most notable contribution to all this or she oversaw most of the trump administration's family separation efforts Then um above her is john kelly Previously served as secretary homeland security and chief staff of president trump Stephen miller who is what this is named for the architect is next trump's senior policy advisor and considered the architect of trump administration's immigration plan Previously was the aide to the abomb at alabama senator jeff sessions jeff sessions is right behind trump And he again is the alabama senator senator who became attorney general for the trump administration early in 2018 Sessions announced that the department of justice would institute a policy of zero tolerance tolerance for undocumented immigrants donald trump again in the center are not going to concentrate on him um ronald uh vitiello, which i'd already mentioned Um who someone else had replaced is behind trump in the uniform and he served as acting director For the head of immigration and customs informant enforcement Then he received a nomination to be submitted to the congress for a permanent head of immigration and customs informants Only to find out that trump trump receded his nomination because he decided that it was better to have People acting and not in permanent positions Then the person walking across towards the bottom is kevin mackle mackle mackle lenin um And he was the former head of cbc custom border patrol. Then he followed christin nielson Um as the acting secretary of homeland security trump preferred to maintain the musical chairs game of acting um, which i already mentioned and then Above him is john sanders. He served as the acting customs border patrol commissioner And quit after only two and a half months And the very last one is matt Ambulance who served as Deputy director of ice currently serving as actor acting director Uh of us immigration and customs enforcement since july 2005 2019 And That's that's what I have Thanks sandy. Wow. That is quite a list of people Um, so I have I have one question for you. Um I know that creating these collage works took a long time and you spent a lot of time um With the images of these people and i'm just wondering how that kind of invaded your psyche as you're working on this piece and Working with the paper dolls That's that's a really good question. It horribly it's affected me very bad. I'm still Actually very much struggling with it Yeah, and I well another thing that I did was A part of this investigation that I was doing and and research Was I had a twitter account, but I really wasn't using it. So I really started using that and On I fell into a black hole. It's bad I'm still in there So I take it you're not watching the debates tonight All right, well, I probably will but um, I don't know when they start Um, well, thank you so much for going through that because we have had lots of questions about who people are We need to have a map, but um Yeah, I'm sorry. I meant to have I meant to have tax that was going to happen But I ran into so many problems with making the work that I never got there I have it. I have it all written down. Just never got there Well, no problem. Just it's it is a really Fantastic piece. You did a really good job with the digital Collage and just making it making it so seamless It's fantastic. Um, thanks, although they're not my favorite people to look at Yeah, no, I know um, so I I'm again Today having trouble seeing the chat So I'm going to ask Jenna to just look in the chat and tell us if there are any questions or comments that we The audience would like to share Well, we have one comment from susan goldstein. Um Uh, let me see. I believe she says a costa the secretary of labor under trump And connected to the case against epstein if she remembers correctly Oh, yeah, he was the one you forgot. I blanked on his position And wasn't finding it in my notes So thanks susan Yeah, thank you. Well, um, we're running a little bit over So I'm just going to move on if if any questions come up for sandy Please put them in the chat and then we will we could revisit Any questions, but for now we'll move on. Thank you so much sandy. That was really informative. Thank you Hi Bye. I'm gonna be here. I'm just gonna Don't go away Okay, and so now I am happy to introduce our next speaker Um, we have summer ventis with us Summer's work uses the printed surface to address internal and external landscapes and their intersections The imprints we leave on each other and our surroundings and the imprints that our surroundings leave on us She received a ba in art from granale college and an mfa in printmaking from the university of colorado boulder Her work has appeared in national and international exhibitions and is held by collections including those of the denver art museum and proie tecto ace I'm sure I mispronounced that in bueno series argentina she is a member of The colorado based collectives hyperlink as well as the art knots and of sacramento based access gallery She is assistant professor of printmaking at california state university sacramento Summer, please join us. Turn on your camera and microphone Hi summer. Can you see me? We can see you. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you for having us today. Um So is jenna sharing my my powerpoint or should I share? There goes jenna right now. Great. Thank you, jenna Um, so first, thank you sessily for curating this exhibition Um, and for inviting us to speak here today and also thank you jenna for coordinating things um So as sessily said, um, I frame my work in terms of the idea of internal and external landscapes and their intersections Um, the imprints that we leave on each other and our surroundings and that our surroundings leave on us Um, and if you'll go to the next slide jenna Thank you. Um, so this is my piece in the wells between us exhibition. Um, and I'll talk more specifically about that piece a little later But I was really pleased to be invited to participate in this exhibition because increasingly I think about those intersections um those meeting points between us and each other between us and our surroundings in terms of boundaries and barriers Which are of course synonymous with walls um So how those barriers act as modes of separation? Yes, but also as points of connection And the tent form which you see here That reflective tent form and the photo piece that accompanies it on the wall across from it are my work In case that's not clear in this image Um, the tent form is really emblematic of this phenomenon for me because what is a tent? It's an object that allows us to get out into the landscape to connect with our surroundings by separating and protecting us from them So with that in mind, I'm going to focus today on that idea of the tent form and the different ways it has manifested itself in my work And just how it's intersected with other ways that we connect and interact with each other and with the landscape So if you'll go to that next slide jenna Thank you um So this piece is the first tent form that I made and it's entitled controlled burn enclosure It's part of a body of work called controlled burn Um, obviously referencing the burned landscape Um, and this is kind of the essence of a tent to me this This piece of paper Suspended from two points and then pulled out so that it forms a little kind of makeshift shelter um and and this um Again arose through my thinking about another medium through which we connect with the landscape Fire, but specifically the act of controlled burning And I first learned about controlled burns in the prairie landscape of the midwestern united states when I was in undergrad at granel college um prairies need fire To exist as prairies, right if without fire prairie seeds don't germinate Also trees will take over that landscape and it will cease to be the grassland that makes it a prairie And before settler colonization A combination of fires started by lightning strikes and controlled burns by indigenous people Maintained the prairie in that state Now that we've broken up the prairie and fires are suppressed that landscape needs human intervention more than ever to maintain its natural state in the west Different but related relationships Exist between people fire and the landscape So in the midwest controlled burns are used primarily to protect the landscape from people to protect that that prairie ecosystem From our interventions in the west they also protect people from the landscape So as we see unfortunately with increasing frequency and right now As we speak those wildfires are burning Because because of many years of fire suppression A wildfire can devastate not only the forest itself But can threaten homes and lives in ways that prairie fires rarely do So in this piece I was thinking about those ways that we use fire to protect ourselves from the landscape But also to protect the landscape from our damaging interventions And if you go to the next slide that is just a detailed shot of the found stones That create the structure of this tent form And if you go to the next slide This work, um, which is called fire maps projection Looks at landscape also through the lens of fire But it also incorporates some other things that are important to my conception of landscape and our relationship to it So this piece consists of a similarly constructed tent form Those two suspended points and then the the found stones holding the shelter Open And then it also has a series of 85 hand printed slides that are projected onto it And you can see the projector in this slide and Jennifer you'll go to the next slide. You can see That projection onto the tent form So in the poetics of space, uh, Gaston Bachelard says Outside and inside are both intimate They are always ready to be reversed If there exists a borderline surface between such an inside and outside This surface is painful on both sides And that idea, um of that surface that's painful on both sides That idea of the boundary between self and other as that kind of borderline surface is really important throughout my bodies of work And projection I think is a really, um powerful kind of visceral manifestation of that borderline surface That's painful on both sides. So you can you can really see, um kind of the idea that, um That you are seeing something from one perspective either from the inside or from the outside But you're also very aware that there is that other perspective Um, and that also allows us to to really viscerally experience something that is inherent to most printmaking processes Which is reversal And and what I think of as kind of the essence of printmaking Is something touches something else and leaves a mark And the illumination of that projection Allows us to see both the difference and the sameness between inside and outside so that that reversal Um that that similarity and that difference between the perspectives that we have and the perspectives that others might have If you'll move to the next slide This is just another view of um of another one of those projected hand-printed slides on that tent surface And the next slide Is um fringe landscapes searching for a better grassland So in this piece the tent form is printed with a representation of the landscape Um, it's kind of an abstracted grassland that I think can read Alternately as a prairie or as one of the agricultural grasslands that have replaced much of that prairie So if you think about it, um, so much of of agricultural land Is actually grassland a cornfield is a grassland in rose A pasture is a manufactured grassland for livestock And and for me anyway, and and I imagine um if people have have gone And seen a tall grass prairie like in a prairie preserve Um, it's an overwhelming landscape. It's easy to imagine how settlers arriving in that landscape would be afraid of it would want to to domesticate that um that space into into a different grassland But now that's so much of that landscape is taken over by these agricultural grasslands We see the kind of terrors of That version of the grassland as well. So um the dangers of agricultural runoff the threat of monoculture and and so With these tent forms I'm thinking about that kind of changeable nature of our relationship to these landscapes how Either one of these grasslands always potentially contains our longing for the other grassland that it could be And then there are a few more slides of different views of This particular piece and you can just go through those This is um displayed that same piece displayed in a different space at the Turner print museum in Chico And I think it's nice to see kind of the the difference that that different Environment and that different lighting brings up to this piece in particular And if you keep going I think there are two more pictures of this install And then We're on to the next piece, which is the piece that is a part of this exhibition So wilderness reflections is a series that's um that's ongoing And um in this series the tent form is covered or in this case consists of Just reflective mylar, which is semi-transparent So if you were sitting inside of this tent form you could see the landscape that surrounded you But only vaguely So the primary thing that you would see is your own reflection And the whole idea of wilderness is of course a fallacy a failure to see completely that which surrounds us The idea that the natural world exists apart from people As we were talking about in talking about fire Is an erasure of the indigenous people who lived on this land before it was the united states And the reflective tent is for me a manifestation of that the way that we look at our surroundings and each other And often only succeed in seeing our own reflections so this is um a version of this work Installed at louis or mount st helens when I was there on an artist residency And if you go to the next slide you can see It installed in a gallery setting and I think in a gallery setting it becomes um more focused on our interactions with each other um As opposed to in the landscape where it's more about that kind of perception of Of wilderness and and the lie that that can be If you'll go on to the next slide so um I forgot to include an image of it, but I've been I've been making um some two-dimensional versions of Images of those three-dimensional tent forms and then also this is another sort of tent form If you look at it from this perspective that I've been working on recently And if you want to go to the next slide And then um if you press the arrow one more time that should start the video on this slide um So this this piece alternative greetings alternative meetings um I made this soon after quarantine started As a way of imagining how the barriers that we have necessarily put up in response to covet very correctly Might serve as points of connection with Rather than estrangement from each other So this zine is a series of alternative greetings arising from that imagining And that has been a really wonderful thing amidst the horrors of this time Um is finding those ways To connect across distance So I'm grateful to get to do that with you all today And I'll let that um the rest of that video Play But um once it finishes that's That's what I've got Thanks y'all So summer I have a question. This is christen. I work for the cva as well Um, I it's kind of a two-parter first. I want to say my favorite element Is that you can't avoid your own reflection when you're looking at the tent in the gallery? Yeah, makes me think about that uh the correlation and separation also between self and perceived self Which I think is also like a sense of pain that we feel as well um But my question is your evolution of methods to erect the tent seems very intentional And or and based upon concept representation. Can you explain your evolution from cable to wooden crossbars? I started out just wanting to have this kind of essential tent form. Um, and In a lot of ways the wooden structure is a practical innovation Because I wanted it to be a little more mobile part of it arose from Installing that tent form um in the landscape at louis or mount st. Helens um and finding that i was constrained to A place where I could suspend that that freestanding bar um And so the the wooden structure allows the tent to stand on its own um Which I think um allows it to have kind of a different presence in whatever space it occupies That makes total sense. Thank you. Thank you So summer, thank you for that talk. It was really interesting and I loved the um your how you brought in your influences and that video that you shared um was a really cool Peak into another aspect of your practice Um, so one thing I just wanted to make a comment on is that one thing I love about this exhibition is the very different interpretations of the theme of walls You know 38 different very different interpretations and um, I love that you are Doing that by looking at this thin barrier between Between things separating us or connecting us the internal and external or interior exterior and using the tent as a wall and what's so interesting is that the tent also has missing walls You know the two ends that don't have walls on them and that really Plays to what you were saying about that disappearing that um The boundary between Our surroundings and us and I just wonder Have you spent time in these? structures that you've built. I mean they are kind of small but Right. Yeah, like have you have you experienced being in these tent forms that aren't fully tinted? Yeah, I mean I I definitely Thank you for noticing those those open ends and um, and they are there You point out that the tent forms are quite small. Um, and and that is um, at least partly on purpose because I want people to focus more on that idea of the inside and the outside and kind of the Imagined ability to be either inside or outside But not to really be able to spend time On on that inside space if that makes sense And also those open ends I think for me kind of point to The the fallacy of the idea that we can protect ourselves from our surroundings, right? It's just another way Of emphasizing the ways that that barrier Between what is us and what is not us is actually quite permeable Yeah, absolutely. I mean I keep imagining seeing a person laying down in that tent with like their feet sticking out one end To their heads sticking out the other end turning it into a performance Yeah, they they are um quite attractive to small children. I have found so Oh, I'm sure a little dangerous, but um, but yeah, it's mostly I see people stick their heads into them. Um, and um, maybe take a selfie Those reflective surfaces are very uh, very attractive for that Which is a whole other kind of funny aspect, but but yeah Yeah, we've seen a lot of selfie Taking with your tent in the cba space. It is really, um compelling though because of the reflective surfaces So when you're looking at it, you see all the surroundings reflected and you see yourself inside the tent And then you also see beyond the tent, which is It's really interesting Well, thank you so much for joining us tonight. It's really great to see your face and connect your face to your artwork Wonderful to have you. That's what's so great about having these online talks Yeah, I really appreciate you inviting us to do this. This is great. Thank you Wonderful. Well, thank you and um, I'm Again, I can't see the chat. So christin if you see other comments or questions, please let us know um But I will now introduce our next artist Pamela Beverly Quigley Um, Pamela started with the art knots in 1996 She developed her visual voice while earning a bfa in printmaking from the university of colorado boulder Her screen prints monoprints and experimental pieces involved layering of hand-drawn imagery On non-conventional substrates such as steel and fabric that resulted in large artwork panels and installations The body of work that developed during these early years led her to graduate studies Where she began layering photography and digital processes into her printmaking Her most recent body of work is a continuation of this journey as she works in mixed media incorporating oil painting Photography drawing and ephemera into her paintings Layers are intentionally revealed or obscured in order to convey the feeling of the abstracted quality of memory and time Beverly Quigley continues to exhibit her work both nationally and internationally She has taught art and design at the university of colorado boulder Weber state university, utah and has been an invited guest lecturer at academic institutions Including the american institute of graphic arts The institute of american indian arts and santa fe Her work has been featured in a variety of publications including the lure of the local by renowned writer and art critic lucy lapard So with that, I would love to Welcome Pamela. Pamela if you're here, please turn on your camera and microphone And you can take it away Thank you so much Can you hear me? We can hear you. Okay, awesome So thank you for all the hard work you guys have done to put together this show when I got the photos and saw The images on the website. I was just really impressed. It's a beautiful space and you guys Did such an amazing job curating the show and installing everything. So thank you um, okay, so my piece consists of five perch panels that um That are side by side on the wall if you haven't been to the gallery to see them and um, I don't need you know what can you take that slide down just for a minute because I'm going to talk about concept and then I'll talk about process Sorry Thank you. Um, okay. So when I started thinking about the work I wanted to create for this show I I was thrilled actually by the by the title and Because it was open-ended and allowed me to consider What aspect I wanted to talk about when it comes to walls and it led me to A robert frost poem called the mending wall that I won't read to you But you can look it up And it's two neighbors walking on each side of an exterior, you know stone wall I think and they're discussing repairing the wall although There's nothing on either side to keep in nor to keep out and I thought that was really sort of a timeless message right now with the with the discussion of A wall being built to the south of us and then a long history of walls not just physical But also psychological and I think we've seen a lot of that Come to a head over the last number of years So I wanted to create a piece that That would address that so So what I did was I worked on the psychological aspects in a very interpretive and visceral way on my piece and Combined that with Using metal from building supplies actually to create Uh the uh the bottom layer of these pieces and I'll talk about that in a second I wanted to read this quote. I have this really great book that I would recommend Everyone get it's called walls a history of civilization Can you guys see that a history of civilization in blood and brick and it's by david fry And it's a little dense But I have found so much so much interesting content in there and I wanted to share this one excerpt It says worldwide some 70 barriers of various sorts currently stand guard over borders Some exist to prevent terrorism Others as obstacles to mass migration or the flow of illegal drugs Nearly all mark national borders by some cruel irony the mere concept of walls now divides people more thoroughly than any structure of brick or stone For every person who sees the wall as an act of repression There is always another urging the construction of newer higher and longer barriers the two sides hardly speak to each other So that line the two sides hardly speak to each other that really resonated with me because I wanted to create a piece That in itself is a wall. It's you know, 150 some inches wide when you add up all the panels and um and and within that I wanted people to kind of come close and then Step away and interact with this piece. That's was creating this very visceral manner So if you'd like you can go to the slideshow now and I'll talk to you a little bit about process Thank you so much. Okay. So that first slide you see a stack of papers and what I did what I do on some of these panels Is I apply different kinds of ephemera different types of paper Newspaper clippings that maybe have to do with the subject like I had some stuff about Some political things that were going on some economic Clippings and I put all those underneath the painting with these what I call rust prints So let's see maybe switch to the next slide Okay, so here you can see on the left That I've taken all these objects that are that are made of steel and I use a printmaking process Sort of to transfer rust From the metal objects on to paper and I use different kinds of paper and I had construction I had like nuts and bolts I had A heavy-duty construction staples nails All kinds of just metal objects that I turned my garage into my print the floor of my garage during The self-quarantining became my studio because I pulled everything out of my studio and brought it home And I had I made all these papers with these rust prints I then collaged them onto the panels and that's where I apply I applied some color and Let's you can see Kind of the the textured paper with the white lines in it There's certain papers that allow you to cease and reveal some and cover up some of the Imagery underneath so maybe go to the next slide So here you can see The five panels and how I began to work and the reason this is important to me And I wanted to show you this is conceptually. I really wanted to talk about the construction and how much uh energy and materials and even now you know, uh Down on the the border, but just how much energy and materials have been put into building walls And although the earliest walls that they can date are back To 2000 bc if that's crazy. That's the earliest That they've been able to date, but they believe there are walls much older than that They uh most of this most of the walls, of course The prehistoric walls were or not prehistoric, but the the ancient walls were Made of stone and so they act as timelines and this is sort of a timeline also where I have um imagery moving You from one panel to the next so that your eye moves from the left to the right. So go to the next Panel Or the next slide. Thank you. So the next aspect is to apply An encaustic wax on top and what this does for me is it seals everything below and allows me to Take all these different textures and sort of unify them And here you can see I have an encaustic studio. You can see the image on the left I'm starting to apply some of the encaustic wax Okay, next slide, please And then this is just close-up. So after I apply the encaustic I then start to paint on the panels and here you really start to see Where encaustic and the cold wax medium I use sort of come together and And the the lighter images are the lighter textures are primarily the The oil With cold wax medium and then the dark blue sections and some of the rusted sections are Encaustic So in this process, I'm really into with all my work Revealing some things and then often I'll scrape away To get to something that I've covered up and then I'll cover up things and and for me this discusses the Sort of the psychological underpinnings of how we put up walls against one another whether it's Or the other I should say and so as you get closer You'll see that I've incised really thin lines and you pull back and there's thicker lines They could act as borders or boundaries and then there's little sections where the metal materials are coming through Next slide, please This is an installation shot just to show how it looks in the gallery and here you can see that That I've worked to have one line Lead to the next and formally move you through The five panels I if I if transportation would not have been an issue I really envisioned this feeling an entire wall, but maybe these things can be a little bit challenging And is there one more maybe in there? And this is just one of the installation shots and I love the way it looks on this large wall and It actually looks small compared to how it looked in my studio, but But yeah, I think that's pretty much all I wanted to say. I think that That the opportunity to Show work that it showed my work and have people interact with it and read what I had to say about it and all of that was just a really nice Sort of a nice gift during 2020 when I was spending a lot of time in my studio, but not really getting out much So thank you very much Thank you so much Pamela. That was really fascinating to see the different steps in the process um, I didn't realize the All the steps you took the rust prints were just so stunning and then to see each step along the way is really really cool Thank you Yeah, so I I mean, I know artists and myself when I've Made art a lot of times I feel like How do you know when to stop when those rust prints look so gorgeous? And then as you layer it I love the the end product as well But when there are so many different processes involved It can be hard to know When to stop or how how much farther to go on so how do you navigate that? That's a really actually a really good question. I think a lot of artists ask themselves that every day, right? I think in this particular case It was it was hard to cover up some of the rust prints and but I wanted the conceptually I wanted the underpinning of these five panels to be about the construction of Walls the construction, you know that kind of physical tangible aspect And then there's this piece that that I can't tell you what it looks like That I wanted to put on top of those Rust prints that has to do with psychology and like how do we how do you talk to people on both sides of the fence? Which is something that's always really fascinated me and interested me so You know, how do you talk to people about? The wall in the south or the 70 walls that have gone up around the world, you know and And what it does to the people on the inside what it does to the people on the outside So I just kept layering this kind of you know soft palette that really was intended to be kind of my my psychological color palette of right of You know, just what I feel and what I think and how do I how do I get somebody who Absolutely believes there needs to be walls, right? How do I get someone to interact with my piece and think differently? So I wanted to so I kept standing back across the garage. Oh, my husband was so mad because I took over the whole garage But it was in the end he was fine But I um, I kept going, you know back to the back of the garage looking across the room And then I wanted it every step For there to be something that caught your eye So as you moved away, you would see the larger pieces. I had the larger rectangles or lines I had a couple people come by the studio the garage studio and say that they felt That some of those darker Geometric forms seemed like windows or doors and I really liked that analysis of it I wasn't thinking that when I put them in but I really liked that idea Creating a window or a door for someone to see something differently Yeah, I would agree. I thought I thought about the architectural elements Of the work and then it also Could function as somewhat of a topographical map So you see like the boundary lines crossing from one panel to the next So there's boundaries within the boundaries, which is is really interesting. It makes for a very compelling piece Thank you so much. Thank you Yeah, I really love having that work in the gallery And I love that you showed an installation shot. I hope that Everyone in the audience will get a chance to see the exhibition, but if not, you will be posting more images as well Um, so chris and I would just ask if you could check the chat for me since for some reason I cannot see the chat again Yep, we do have um a couple of questions and one is from uh dinmas nunas What was the robert frost poem that you mentioned? It's called the mending wall and it's um It's a great poem that just highlights This belief that good fences make great neighbors or great fences make good neighbors And you know that's such an antiquated belief system, especially in a world where the population is growing people are living in higher density communities and You know, I think that it's a great poem to bring out of the uh You know the old books old poetry books Absolutely, and then just one more question. Um, it's actually my question This was a stretch from the typical art knots format How did you feel about the switch and the opportunity to go big? Well, I love to work big and I would work even bigger if somebody would let me but um Yeah, I I really enjoyed working large and I felt like I was able to Satisfy How I Thought about what I wanted the piece to do and then actually what I felt it's doing but you know by having this large format You know the same thing on an eight by ten would not really You know, it's hard to work small really. I think it's hard to work small Yeah Well, thank you so much again. It's um great to hear from you and hear about your process and Um all about your work. So thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for everything Okay, so on to our last speaker of the evening um Doris Arajo Arajo's love for art started at the early age of six when she discovered the incredible joy of drawing and painting She started by immersing herself into many children's workshops in her hometown in columbia where she experimented with oil pastels colored pencils and watercolors Moving into other mediums until finally deciding for pastels and printmaking which are now her favorites After graduating from high school She moved to florida and continued her artistic career enrolling in the art institute the fort lauderdale graduating in 1993 with an associates degree in advertising design She continued her studies at lin university where she earned her bachelors of science degree in graphic arts And in 2015 her artistic passion led her to acquire a masters of fine arts in visual arts from the miami international university of art and design Doris Arajo is an active artist professor and studio resident in the pembroke pines florida And she has been an art not since 2018. So I welcome Doris. It's wonderful to meet you Thank you for joining us So good so good to see you so I will let you take over and looking forward to hearing all about your work Thank you. Um, well, I I wanted to share A power point that I have but this is my first time in google meet and I and and and I don't know how to share Can you tell me how can I share? Um, uh-huh So, um at the bottom of your screen, there should be a bar that has like the red dot It's a timer. There's a video mute and then the next button is a Rectangle with an arrow. It says open share tray. Yes So if you click that you should be able to select the power point or however you have your presentation Oh, I see it, but it's completely blank Is uh, it's completely black Oh when you click it, it just shows a black. Yes, it's a black bar. Is there any other way to share something? Well, let's see if you That's odd. I don't know what that means. Um, yeah, if you want to Shoot it in an email really quick. We can put it up Uh, okay. Let me let me send it to Jenna. Yes Okay, I'm sending it to Jenna right now I'm sorry about this is my first time here and I I did send something But I don't think uh, I don't think he's uh, okay There you go Miles jennifer There she goes. I sent I just sent it to her So she should be she should be having it like right now Okay It may just take a minute for that to yes get delivered Yes, it's probably gonna take a second. Um, it's actually on a keynote Yeah, and is there any way I can share my screen as well? Maybe Well, that's the only way I know how to do it is through that open share tray Unless jenna, you have any other suggestions Yeah, because I'm doing it and I keep on doing it and I just get a black Uh, I just get a black one, but it just went to jenna. So hopefully she'll get it right away Hi doors. This is jenna. I am still waiting on that to arrive Okay, do you have the presentation open on your computer? Yeah, I do I do I have the keynote But it's not showing in your tray. Okay Yeah, it's not showing at all And all I see is a a black Bottom and I don't know Do you see when you open the tray and the black um bar comes up? Do you see um a word the word browse? No, I don't see anything. It's just opening close the tray Huh Yeah, but hopefully jenna will get it will get the the keynote right now And she'll be able to open it up I just found it in my junk box. Give me just Just found it in the junk is okay That's fine Well, are you in florida right now? Yes, I am I am i'm in florida right now How are things down there? Were were you in the path of the hurricane? Uh, no, not really like well There's always there's always going on in florida. I gotta tell you that there's not a minute of boredom Isn't uh So yeah, but no no hurricanes. We've been dodging everything Which is awesome because Uh, we need to dodge something this year Yes, we do Many things we need to dodge Everything yes, I know I know so are you teaching right now? Yes, I am teaching. I am currently teaching in rower college I I have a one class online in the rest of the other classes are face-to-face Um with all the protocols that go in I I think we should be fine Uh, so far so good. Uh, this is week number four um, I haven't gotten any any people getting sick then got for that and um So that's pretty much. Yeah, that's pretty much How is it going and you know trying to continue to produce work and do stuff? Oh, yeah, jenna got it. Thank you so much Yay, thank you Okay, so I included the work uh for the I included the work for the show the walls between us and um, I actually um, you can go into the second slide so that everybody can see it My work is um is very uh, I would say it's very bright. Um I usually work in what I call multiples and because I have been doing pre-making um for some time now I Uh because and I work with uh women's issues I pretty much assign a color to a To a different piece of artwork as you're going to see in a second For the wall between us though, I created one single print And it's an emboss print Uh, jenna if there you go, uh, uh, it's an emboss print in gouache Um, I love these emboss prints because it shows it usually shows The female figure which is one of the things that I do on my work all the time um I've been doing, uh, the female nude ever since I was Probably 15 years old. So that was about three years ago That was a joke So, um for the walls between us, um, I am going to um read The the the concept behind it and why I did it So I wrote um the sea that surrounds me is an emotional representation of a woman that is submerged in all kinds of waters However, she manages to create boundaries and redirect all circumstances and emotions Creating beautiful invisible patterns in her reality The chosen colors comprise the emotions that flow around her as she is capable of not only changing Their connotation but also organizing and dividing them as represented by defined white lines left in the embossed paper This embossing effect leaves the body clear As well as part of the background symbolizing the calmness and tranquility of her of her true soul Araujo's continuous body of work touches social cultural and emotional Women's topics based on the perception of many female models in today's society And you can see my work on my website I updated my website recently so you can see all my 2020 Work, um, so this is what I tried to encompass in this piece um, I just wanted to um, I felt that we were I was so bombarded with politics and covet and these and that and It's just it was it just got to me. It was a little bit too much. It was so much that I had to turn off my tv for a week to kind of recap and and actually say, okay, what What all these means to me? And uh, that makes with my personal life and how I felt Um and and seeing other females around me. It just I decided to create something like this and this is why I have um, it's so my so this is a different kind of walls these are walls that we put um, you know between us and between You know, whatever surrounds us So that was the piece that I put in for the show Now jenna if you go to the second slide to the third one, sorry now this one is um This is a print that I did on lock the paper and like I said before To me in my work. I want to represent the um message of every single woman because we are so different Um, but at the same time we are a force In my work when I create multiples. I usually assign different colors to everything Signify the voice of a different woman So, you know the personality of different woman is a different color and together We are a stronger voice and that is the reason why I create multiples Because to me sometimes saying one Thing is not enough you can say, you know as a stronger voice many of us we can actually make You know We can actually send a message better This one is called misunderstood and um, it is a woman as you can see she is misunderstood She is looking towards the other side. It's uh, it's another nude And um, and you cannot really tell what she's saying But she's saying something Um, and um, it is a letter press on lock the paper Uh lock the paper is from nepal and he's one of the my favorite papers in all my work because um The lock the paper is a paper that is um done by woman in nepal Um, and they produce this paper and he sold everywhere Um, and they sustain themselves Producing this paper It comes in all colors. So it is perfect for me because not only this paper is done by woman But the message of my work is also sent, you know, to everybody from a woman's perspective Uh, now let me see the other one the That one is a self screen Um, and this one is called open It's another nude as you can see and um, and this one has the flower on the side It is also the representation of a woman. Uh, that to me needs to be a little bit more open Sometimes we feel that we are as open as we can be um, and that we are You know getting things from our lives and releasing things from our lives Uh, when in reality sometimes I feel that we still need to be more open Uh to give and receive And uh, again, it is different colors, uh, different slightly different layouts And um, this is one of the reasons I love premaking because it allows me to create multiples Um in any different positions different layouts different colors Um is the expression of every single female that I want to portray in each piece um And the last piece that I have number five This one is a silver point on wood panel and um, I love silver point I think the tarnishing with the with the time produces these You know beautiful tonalities We don't see it in the photo so much but you know up close. We could probably see it This one is called golden silver. Um, and it's just a representation of how much we can shine Um, so I created these set of nudes again just different positions Um, just to see, you know, how beautiful we can be Uh, so as you can see my work Is it's just a little different as far as Um that it comes out of of of the soul pretty much. I want to say that Um That's pretty much it so I'm open to any questions at this point Thank you so much for that Uh explanation of your work Um, so we do have questions. I can't see them. So I'm going to ask Kristen to read them Um, actually I had a question. Um When I'm looking at your um, the sea that surrounds me There's this big push and pull between positive and negative Um, the the directionality of your waves and the colors Um, I almost feel like you're submerging as well as like rising above and I love that about it Was there some symbolism behind the colors that you chose Um, I chose mainly warm colors Because of the fire with it Because of the power of the warm tonalities Um, I actually wanted to create another embossed print with cool colors, but I said to myself no Uh this coming and going and this ambiguity between Like you said submerging and emerging Um To me is is more of a warm tonality So that's why I I use those Fabulous, thank you You're welcome I also noticed with that same work the sea that surrounds me that That the waves emanating out the waves of color that emanate from the figure are like energy waves or You know sending the spirit out from the figure And so it's interesting that you spoke of the figure being clear or blank and I wonder if that's like An energy field flowing out or something to that effect or if you would speak about that a little bit When I do the nude embossed I usually like to keep it neutral um And then the whatever surrounds that That embossing Usually stays, uh, usually is the colorful part Because at that point I feel the body is neutral So that's why I didn't do any color on that It's just what what comes in It's just one solid person. It doesn't have that feel Uh, hopefully I answer your question Yeah, yeah, it's very striking to see the difference between the embossing and then the the paint Which is so bold coming out from it Um, okay, christin. Do we have any other questions? We do Trina asked, um, it's our says it's great to see your work And you, um, how does the idea of the multiple work in your prints? Yes, well, um, the idea of the multiples came, um I would say a couple of years ago because I was creating This concept of how can In my work so many different women Um can be How can we have a voice if we're so different? So I began with one piece Um in in in my in my work all I see I see color color represents so much to me So I I created this piece of our work and I'm like every single woman should be represented by a color And that's the reason why I ended up doing different colors The different colors is the representation of a different woman in my work Uh, it just it just came in one piece that I did and uh when I saw it. I'm like, oh my god I I it's every single woman has a color and we are different personalities and that's how it came about and From there. I just began, you know Exploding that idea That's a beautiful concept. I love that. Thank you Yeah well, um, thank you so much for joining us this evening again It's so fun to have these online lectures where we can bring artists from florida and california on the same night Um, and I'm sure we have some people in the audience who are far afield as well So I'm just so thrilled to have all of you join us and hear about this Wonderful exhibition that's up for a few more weeks And I hope that everyone will get a chance to see it. We um, we are producing a video and we have some great photos That will be on our website soon So if you can't see it, you have the opportunity to do that, but Thank you all so much for being here Thanks for inviting us Absolutely good night