Sense of Place: HERE Art Exhibition Catalog Galaudet Gallery

Galaudet Gallery presents

Sense of Place: HERE Art Exhibit Catalog

New Art Proposing a Partnership of Sight

Part One of the Sense of Place Art Series:

A message preserved not in mere words but in images‌. We were here. —Ed Abbey

Sense of Place: HERE Art Exhibit Catalog New Art Proposing a Partnership of Sight Presented by Galaudet Gallery

Galaudet Gallery

presents

Part One of the Sense of Place Art Series:

Sense of Place: HERE

New Art Proposing a Partnership of Sight

Galaudet Gallery Published by Galaudet Gallery Publishing 2223 West Hubbard Chicago, Illinois 60612 & 618 South Farwell Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701 715-513-9994 galaudetgallery@gmail.com @ http://galaudetgallery.wix.com/ggllc Galaudet Gallery copyright 2018 All Rights Reserved Organized and Designed by Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

Published for Part One of the Sense of Place Art Exhibit: Sense of Place: HERE Art Exhibit New Art Proposing a Partnership of Sight Held at Galaudet Gallery, EC, WI June 21—September 21, 2018 Participating Organizations Galaudet Gallery Mike’s Building and Construction Jules Heffe Inc Memorial Nature Fund, Inc. Galaudet Gallery Publishing Participating Individuals Michael Milewski—Eau Claire Victorian Mansion Tour Jerry Teclaw—Acoustic Beatles Tribute Rita Simon—Native American Flutist Alastair Wright—Saxophonist presenting Different Worlds concert Galaudet Gallery Sense of Place: HERE Participating Artists Liz Alcyone Jim Backus Gina Borglum Audrey M Casey David Culver Jim Dine Eugene Feldman Kevin J. Finnerty Char Gilman Eleanor Gryzbowski Le Hac Naomi Hart Cathy Immordino Stacy Isenbarger

Craig Jobson Sophie Jordan Denise Koch Janet Kruskamp Anne Leibowitz Maureen Love Benjamin Madeska Chris Maher Greg McLemore Sofronio Y Mendoza Michael Milewski Vicki Milewski Ken Minami Sarah Suzanne Noble

Cory O’Brien Lorraine Ortner-Blake Helen Paul Natalie Pivoney O.Gustavo Plascencia Erin Schalk Paul Schwertner C J Sternberg Elijah Thaxter Sha Towers Sue Valois Jill Valenzuela Pio Valenzuela Sue Valois

Curatorial Intentions for the four year art series Sense of Place Galaudet Gallery’s intention in the curation of our Sense of Place Art Series is to display art that has the power to create new frontiers in art and place where viewers may discover new frontiers inside and outside which can aid in self discovery and discovery of worlds and ideas beyond our day to day lives.

Galaudet Gallery believes great art transports the viewer to another place and time, another space and moment, a new way of seeing life, an affirmation of life.

Our first year of Sense of Place will look at HERE and has found new art proposing a partnership of sight between artists and viewers creating a 21st Century aesthetic experience.

The curators wish to thank Ed Abbey for his inspiring words and his belief in the power place holds in creating our worlds.

Sense of Place: HERE New Art Proposing a Partnership of Sight Art Exhibit Catalog Contents For Your Consideration Partnership of Sight By: Michael Milewski The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Introduction: Liberating the Aesthetic Experience By: Jules Heffe, Vicki Milewski and Michael Milewski

The Explorer Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight in an artistic wilderness Michael Aram Jim Backus William Plante

O. Gustavo Plascencia C J Sternberg

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part One: Entry to the Back of Beyond By: Vicki Milewski The Wilderness Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight for Aesthetic Experience Liz Alcyone Eugene Feldman Naomi Hart Cathy Immordino Benjamin Madeska

Sofronio Y Mendoza (SYM) Michael Milewski Lorraine Ortner-Blake Erin Schalk

Sense of Place: HERE New Art Proposing a Partnership of Sight Art Exhibit Catalog Contents The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Two: Texturizing a New Anarchy of Aesthetic Experience By: Jules Heffe, Michael Milewski, Vicki Milewski The Connection Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight with “sympathetic magic” Audrey M Casey David Culver Kevin J. Finnerty Stacy Isenbarger Craig Jobson Denise Koch

Chris Maher Greg McLemore Ken Minami Sarah Suzanne Noble David Nichols Natalie Pivoney

Paul Schwertner Sha Towers Jill Valenzuela Pio Valenzuela Sue Valois

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Three: “Sympathetic magic” By: Vicki Milewski, Michael Milewski The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Three Subpart A: “The Wall of Doors” A curatorial sympathetic resonance By: Michael Milewski

Sense of Place: HERE New Art Proposing a Partnership of Sight Art Exhibit Catalog Contents The Revolutionary Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight using “practical magic” Michael Milewski Vicki Milewski Q The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Four: Cultivating Revolutions with Practical Magic By: Jules Heffe, Vicki Milewski and Michael Milewski The Dreaming Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sigh in dreaming jewelry and fine crafts Gina Borglum Char Gilman Eleanor Gryzbowski Le Hac Cory O’Brien Elijah Thaxter The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Five: The Dreaming of Jewelry and Crafts By: Jules Heffe, Vicki Milewski and Michael Milewski The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Conclusion: Liberation: Aesthetic Experience

For Your Consideration: Sense of Place HERE: Partnership of Sight By Michael Milewski

For Your Consideration: Sense of Place: HERE Art Exhibit Partnership of Sight Galaudet Gallery with its commitment to the Arts and Crafts Movement once again hits a homerun with its ts latest juried themed exhibit Sense of Place: Here (SOPH), which is the first installment of our four years Sense of Place Art Series. SOPH is primarily inspired by Ed Abbey’s writing and specifically his collection of essays in Beyond the Wall. Abbey’s sense of place and his idea of going out into the “back of beyond” have helped direct our jury, artists, and curators. I believe the artists of SOPH went into the “back of beyond” and created a new frontier for the viewers of this exhibit in Galaudet Gallery’s ery’s large arts and crafts inspired building located in downtown Eau Claire WI. Galaudet Gallery held some memorable events to help enjoy SOPH like: Rita Simon playing and talking about seven different Native American flutes, Jerry Teclaw playing acoustic guitar and Alistair Wright playing folk songs from around the world on his saxophone. These are just a few of the many wonderful events we held that we keep free and open to the public so we can give back to a supportive community.

Our current technological ical revolution has connected us in some ways, but has disconnected us from each other. SOPH artists have created a new frontier that allows their art to reach each viewer through a “partnership of sight” (POS). POS is an in person connection between the artist and viewer facilitated by the art piece that ignites a response that can be interpreted as an aesthetic experience.

The curation of Galaudet Gallery’s five rooms assisted with this POS creating “back of beyond” aesthetic experiences. It is a generational ational moment to be a part of a movement like this emerging from artists of different temperaments and that work with different mediums as seen in SOPH. I am very excited to see how POS evolves over the next three years during our Sense of Place Art Series Serie and elsewhere.

I am proud to introduce this beautiful catalog for the SOPH art exhibit which brought together artists from around the corner and around the world. All of the art provided an opportunity for a “partnership of sight” aesthetic experiences like artist Erin Schalk’s creations that had a movement and life of their own changing each time they were viewed, or artist Lorraine Ortner-Blake’s Ortner Presence that was like entering a new world where the frontier was a continuous experience of dawns and dusks, ks, or artist Vicki Milewski’s Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Series creating an understanding of abstract art while also providing a glimpse into the soul of that special tree and this special artist. I can’t give enough praise to all the talented artists cont contained ained within this catalog that I’m sure we will see more from in the future. I also want to acknowledge the support of the community that has found us here in Eau Claire that appreciates art and embraces our vision. This is just the beginning of bigger and bolder things!

Have a Gala-day!

Michael Milewski, Curator and Co Co-Owner of Galaudet Gallery

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Introduction: Liberating the Aesthetic Experience By: Jules Heffe Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Introduction: Liberating the Aesthetic Experience

Galaudet det Gallery begins a new four year run of internationally juried art exhibits this summer with their art series Sense of Place Place.. Each year will bring explorations into a different perspective of place with the first year looking at HERE, the second year investigates vestigates THERE, the third year is EVERYWHERE and the fourth year is NOWHERE. This four year art series has at its core Galaudet Gallery’s efforts to revitalize the Arts and Crafts Movement for the 21 st Century. i In Galaudet Gallery’s last four year aart series called My Medicine ii artists were found liberating the frontiers of art as medicine encouraging Eastern and Western healing modalities to complement each other as a new medicine medicine—artists artists liberated art to work as a healer and intermediary. The My Medicine art exhibits were a wonderful survey of art from around the world confirming a new use of genres and materials, possibly an effect from responses to the digital revolution and its subsequent enmeshing of hemispheres, cultures and meanings. This b brings rings Galaudet Gallery’s current art exhibit to fruition for in Sense of Place: HERE Galaudet Gallery sees a continuation of the liberation forces from last year freeing forms and structures while also liberating ties to place and in doing so discovering new frontiers of place that they are calling a “partnership of sight”.

It is through a “partnership of sight” between the artist and each viewer of their art that a revitalized aesthetic experience is happening. This is the newly discovered frontier and in it we have found much great art.

The jury for Sense of Place: HERE (SOPH) sought art that deals with the exhibit theme or place from om many different perspectives while also using ideas from three different collections of essays: Beyond the Wall By Edward Abbeyiii, John Hildebrand’s Northern Frontiv and The Studio Reader Reader: On the Space of Artistsv. These collections of essays also informed the curation of each of the five rooms in Galaudet Gallery assisting in the creation of connected themes:  The Anteroom connects Sense of Place Explorer aartworks rtworks informed by Abbey’s idea of the “back of beyond” which is inspiring Galaudet Gallery’s 2018 art season. It is the explorers who go out into the wilderness first preparing the way for new frontiers.  The Tower Room connects Sense of Place Wilderness artworks informed by Abbey’s idea of Hunters and Warriors who were artists and craftspeople, who knew the wilderness they hunted and fought in and also knew their inner wilderness.

Diagram of the Tower Room which SOPH curators u used to plan exhibit

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

 The Bay Room connects Sense of Place lace Connection artworks partially informed by Hildebrand’s essays and also informed by Abbey’s idea of Shamans and Wizards who know their powers through a sy sympathetic mpathetic connection with place just as artists may create through “sympathetic magic” establishing establishin a “partnership partnership of sight sight” with each viewer of their work.

Diagram of the Bay Room which SOPH curators used to plan exhibit

 The Studio Room connects Sense of Place Revolutionary artworks informed by Abbey’s ideas on revolutionaries and farmers who use “practical magic” to create revolutions within themselves and in n their collective societies just as many artists create revolutions within and through their art. It is after and through revolutions that new frontiers of place are created and discovered.

Diagram of the Studio Room which SOPH curators used to plan exhibit

Diagram of the Center Shop which SOPH curators used to plan exhibit

 The Center Shop connects each of these three ideas in the Sense se of Place Dreamers Dreamers’ artworks who are Revolutionizing thru Connections to inner and outer Wilderness places with jewelry and other handmade items. Jewelry ewelry made from historic and current materials and techniques from around the world was created to connec connectt places and their histories and to revolutionize the way we perceive our place in the world. Abbey wrote that “The Dream is real; waking life is only a dream within a greater dream.” The Dreaming of Jewelry is one of those greater dreams.

These five ideas as found in Galaudet Gallery’s five rooms have been curated to create “back of beyond” experiences viewed also as after liberation experiences gauged to answer “What happens the moment after liberation?” Artists used and merged genres like realism, abstraction, ction, expressionism, botanicals, surrealism, photography, architecture, fiber, artist books and other ways to o explore SOPH beginning the creation of new frontiers of place. If the last four year art series culminated in liberating artistic frontiers then n this year for SOPH we find ourselves in a liberated state with new frontiers to discover. This posits that in the act of creating, artists are liberating the moment of creation and encouraging viewers to discover this liberation inside and outside themselves, elves, their worlds and in the artwork itself itself—this this is the next evolution of vi the aesthetic experience.

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

For their 2018 art season, Galaudet Gallery was primarily inspired by Ed Abbey.

Abbey’s ideas were used as a lens for selecting and curating because the judges and curators of SOPH see connection points between Abbey’s explorations of wilderness places which discovered new frontier places in land and thought about conservationism which created his sense of vanishing wilderness in need of revolutionary conservationists. These ideas can assist in understanding current movements in art which seek to disrupt genres and utilize materials in ways that texturize anarchy into a useable disorder which retains certain rules but begins the decimation of propping up artists and artworks for only financial negotiations, instead; artists seek a value determination through recognition of an artwork’s ability to elicit an aesthetic experience. Possibly these disruptions may also evolve the heritage of fetishism when artworks were seen to contain magical powers much the same as ideas Abbey explored and the judges and curators of SOPH considered. The loss of magical experiences in contemporary culture is founded in a disbelief in anything outside of conventional reality when art in general and as a historical body of work is located outside conventional reality to begin with—so why not allow a little magic to be present or experienced?

These rebellious movements from artists liberating materials and genres and freeing them to be seen as new frontiers are electrifying. Even traditional paintings in SOPH have this sense about them as abstraction and realism are merged and materials like paper are used in transformative ways. All of these movements take arms against aesthetic servitude to liberate form and color to be what they essentially are—frontiers standing before wilderness experiences. Artworks now stand independent of concept or genre allowing artists freedom to use materials to reach the goal of creating art—not in service to a concept or further a genre, but to create individual pieces of art. Like the marks we all make throughout life to let others know we exist, that we matter, that we are HERE. These marks are the ideas of presence, of being present, of being connected to others, to self to an experience like viewing art in its original liberated state. HERE is not a city, state or country it is instead a sense of being fully alive in each moment and sharing that experience thru art.

The 42 juried local and international artists with over 70 original breathtaking artworks are not suggesting place doesn’t exist in SOPH; instead, they see a place that tries our deepest secrets upon its scenery and when we see our secrets written on the sky or in a rock or within an outstretched hand we find comfort, maybe home, maybe HERE but definitely a wise confidant who can assist us in sharing what we thought should be secret and in that sharing creating a new place to live. The first way of looking at the exhibit theme of Sense of Place: HERE is through ideas from Edward Abbey like his statement about past artists who created rock art he would find during his hiking in the American southwest:

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

They tried (the desert’s) deepest secrets. Now they have vanished….But the undeciphered message they left us remains, written on the walls. A message preserved not in mere words but in images of line on stone. We were here.

Sense of Place: HERE Artists Liz Alcyone Jim Backus Gina Borglum Audrey M Casey David Culver Jim Dine Eugene Feldman Kevin J. Finnerty Char Gilman Eleanor Gryzbowski Le Hac Naomi Hart Cathy Immordino Stacy Isenbarger

Craig Jobson Sophie Jordan Denise Koch Janet Kruskamp Anne Leibowitz Maureen Love Benjamin Madeska Chris Maher Greg McLemore Sofronio Y Mendoza Michael Milewski Vicki Milewski Ken Minami Sarah Suzanne Noble

Cory O’Brien Lorraine Ortner-Blake Helen Paul Natalie Pivoney O.Gustavo Plascencia Erin Schalk Paul Schwertner C J Sternberg Elijah Thaxter Sha Towers Sue Valois Jill Valenzuela Pio Valenzuela Sue Valois

These artists are here and they are breaking open secrets and more in this exhilarating exhibit. A wall in the exhibit is dedicated to hearts by Sophie Jordan, Jim Dine and a photograph of Anne Oakley’s Target Heart by Anne Leibowitz each heart plays with this idea of HERE through watercolor, woodcut printing or a photo of a heart shot through its center—HERE is where the heart is: being present and aware of each moment places us HERE always. But place challenges us with its epochal geologic time and ever erosional, seasonal face. Using landmarks like a tree can be difficult since that tree’s form is ruled by change, its very flow of life is too which helps us realize we are ruled in the same way. Art can serve as a seemingly unchanging touchstone for us to return to knowing that woodcut heart has not changed but each time we view it we have changed and in that change we find ourselves and our SOPH. Each time we view an artwork our secrets are tried and like any good touchstone we can see how secrets have shifted and limiting definitions are now loosed and wild.

Abbey’s idea of being in a certain place at a certain time asks the question, “What does that cause us to want to leave behind, to take with us or to experience right now?” Past cultures left their arts and crafts behind giving us glimpses into their presence, their sense of place and certain meaningfulness to their cultures. The artists in Galaudet Gallery’s Sense of Place: HERE ask questions, try secrets upon the idea of place and

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

know that freedom is defined by each of us—as diverse and unique as each one us are and as each artwork is too.

It is in this freedom that SOPH artists and curators begin to form a new “partnership of sight” between each viewer of art and each artist with the artwork creating the insurrection to make such a partnership, the connection to form such a partnership, the revolution to create such a partnership and the dreaming we all enjoy since as we are free so too is dreaming. The dreaming in SOPH is to usher in the discoveries of new frontiers in aesthetic experiences through this new found “partnership of sight” experiences.

“How it’s all connected” by Vicki Milewski graphically showing how each exhibit of Galaudet Gallery is connected to all the rest from 2014—2062—“The we might do something different!” Vicki Milewski

Into the backlands, the back of beyond, the original and primitive —Ed Abbey

The Explorer Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight in an artistic wilderness

Michael Aram New York Artist Artist Statement Michael is highly inspired by his surroundings and often represents objects that have meaning for him, especially those that might otherwise be overlooked in the everyday.

Nature is his biggest source of inspiration, as is the handmade process.

Drawing upon his memories from childhood and influences that he had growing up, Aram’s work is infused with a rich storyline, inherent symbolism and deep-rooted meaning.

Michael does not design anything unless it has a genuine personal connection to him symbolically or through his life experience.

Biography Michael Aram is an award-winning American artist who has dedicated his career to craft-based design. Inspired by a trip to India at age 25, he established a second home and workshop there, where he continues to draw creative inspiration. Although best known for his work in metal, Aram works across all materials with a focus on objects made by hand.

Trained as a painter, sculptor, and art historian, Aram has neatly applied his creative background to objects ranging from the fine and decorative arts to jewelry. His often lyrical work is inspired by nature, his biggest muse, as well as his love of the making process. Aram crafts pieces that have a personal connection to him and which speak to his love of symbolism, nature, narrative storytelling, and objects made by hand.

Aram lives in New York City with his family.

Corn Platter

Michael Aram Corn Platter 18�

Nickel Plated with Gold Leaf

Jim Backus Wisconsin Artist Nature Photographer Artist Statement “I get an unbelievable rush when I look into the eyes of the animals and birds as I photograph them.”

Jim’s motivation for taking pictures of wildlife and landscapes is that rush he gets when he looks a creature in the eyes and his general love of nature and the outdoors. He is passionate about saving the environment for the animals and birds, especially those that are endangered, his favorite being the Spirit Bear. It therefore is important for him to educate people about wildlife through his photos, books and presentations.

The “thrill of the hunt’ for that perfect photo is not lost on Jim. He believes it is a privilege when someone appreciates his work so much that they are willing to pay a good sum of money to purchase something of his and hang it on the wall in their office or home.

Bio Jim’s interest in photography has spanned amore than forty years. About fourteen years ago, he turned a passionate hobby into a professional career. His photo collection includes photos from Baja, Mexico; the Amazon River in Peru; Botswana; the Rocky Mountains; the Northwest Territory, Hudson Bay and British Columbia, Canada; Wisconsin and the Lake Superior area. Two of his favorite areas to photograph wild animals are the British Columbia Rainforest and Yellowstone National Park.

Jim has authored a number of coffee table books documenting his travels; he has collaborated on a book of poetry and has co-authored a number of children’s books with several Wisconsin authors. He also did most of the photography for a book on the resorts of Wisconsin. In 2014, Jim won the Photographic Society of America award for the best article published in their journal in the previous three years. As a speaker, Jim shares his knowledge of and love for photography and wildlife with a number of groups annually.

Black and Spirit Bear

Jim Backus Black and Spirit Bear 24” x 36” Metal print

O.Gustavo Plascencia Tennessee Artist Artwork Narrative Plasticity, in physics, is described as the deformation of a material undergoing nonreversible changes of shape in response to applied force. This concept resonates deeply within my artwork, both conceptually and physically. Individuals constantly (re)create and (re)define their identity by the way of the passing of time and new experiences and relationships. In similar ways my prints go through a change with different degrees of molding, cutting, burning, stretching, sewing, or the application of paint or ink before they become finished pieces. The denotation and connotation of my photo-constructions is not always obvious; however the narratives, albeit mostly self-contained in these photo-constructions, are always linked to larger narratives and journeys intersecting historical, religious, secular, and/or personal histories where the individual goes through non-reversible changes in response of applied force.

Artist Statement I create fictional environments where I explore different histories dealing with identity within the greater cultural and social environments, commenting on acculturation, religion, gender, social constrains, and injustices  all of these anchored in the use of the landscape and the body as I explore how one constructs different identities.

With the use of the landscape as a witness to histories both personal and communal histories have the same value to the landscape. In addition to the landscape or place, the body is where personal histories happen – bearing witness to the most transforming of histories for the individual. In this context the body is used as a landscape that is meant to be inhabited and a place where memories/ histories are created – the body is both a vehicle and a destination. Identity is a complex concept, it’s affected by many factors and its ever-changing; when one starts to consider ethnic background, social class, religion, gender, family, values, ethics, and so on, everything gets more complicated.

Sometimes one cannot separate one’s identity from the rest  all of them coexist and interact with each other. Such dilemmas and situations are presented in my artwork and explored through mystic, allegoric, and historical references and imagery.

Bio Plascencia is a visual artist and educator whose creative work explores the constructive nature of identity, the conflict that individuals face building their identities, and the duality between domesticity and utilitarianism, personal and communal, and self and society. He attended the Escuela de Artes Plasticas “Ruben Herrera” in Saltillo, Mexico before immigrating to the USA. His work has been shown nationally and internationally including: Instituto Fotografico de Medellin, The International Center of Bethlehem, The Polytechnic University of Valencia, and Academia de Bellas Artes San Carlos. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art and Director of the MFA Programs at Memphis College of Art

Without Anger, Expectations Or Limitations

O.Gustavo Plascencia Without Anger, Expectations Or Limitations (2015) 45” x 28” x 3.5” mixed media on silver gelatin print, ink, wood, and found object

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part One: Entry to the Back of Beyond By Vicki Milewski

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Part One: Entry to the Back of Beyond

“Into the backlands, the back of beyond, the original and primitive…”

—Ed Abbey

Galaudet Gallery Eau Claire, Wisconsin

A new place for curation in this exhibit is the anteroom where an alcove, a simple wall and an Egyptian cabinet will work to introduce each exhibit. As a new curatorial space, the curators have chosen disparate pieces which all speak to SOPH themes but work better as a preparation. The artists represented in the anteroom are the explorers—the ones who go before anyone else in the creation of a life in the wilderness. All the artists in SOPH are working on creating a new frontier which is the border of an undiscovered country. This is where the explorers go—to chart that country and make it into the next frontier. The curators see the anteroom for SOPH metaphorically since the frontier is the border for an undiscovered country and so it contains attributes of the known country and the unknown. The frontier is the place where viewers of art have their aesthetic experiences.

The Explorer Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight in an artistic wilderness Michael Aram Jim Backus William Plante O. Gustavo Plascencia C J Sternberg

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

O. Gustavo Plascencia’s Without Anger, Expectations Or Limitations is displayed on the simple wall as an energy that speaks to the idea of what the back of beyond is the moment before exploration begins. Michigan Artist William Plante’s Sleep of Winter explores the historical process of hand processing sepia toned photographs into the late 20th Century creating a dream-like scene which suggests current mythological associations with the car culture could be fading and becoming a memory just like the older car begins to be covered with snow. Plante’s use of this archaic printing process on such a dreamlike image suggests exploration is needed to establish new frontiers of transportation. Displayed over the Egyptian Cabinet is another dreaming artwork is C J Sternberg’s Favorite Places that has an antique scene contrasted with vivid matting that continues the scene of a summer day on a farm. Sternberg’s old fashioned scene with the fading and nostalgia echo Plante’s exploration suggestions but instead of transportation Sternberg suggests exploring where our food comes from and where it might come from in the future. These three artists begin the SOPH exhibit and work toward a “partnership of sight” with each viewer.

Inside the Egyptian Cabinet is jewelry by Cory O’Brien, Elijah Thaxter and Eleanor Gryzbowski who together explore new ways to view and make jewelry and new connections to this world. Each of their jewelry art pieces is explored more in Part Five of this essay: The Dreaming of Jewelry. There is also a wonderful metal corn platter by Michael Aram. This Egyptian cabinet has hand carved Ancient Egyptian scenes featuring Akhenaton who is created with establishing the first monotheistic religion—exploring the idea of a single point of focus of love.

The Egyptian Cabinet with jewelry artist displayed

A photograph by literal explorer Jim Backus is in the alcove. Backus chooses to fully include the viewer, using his camera to liberate place through physically going into the “back of beyond” to bring back wilderness images that most of us don’t have the chance to experience. In his metal printed photo Black and Spirit Bear we are included in the chance meeting of a black bear and a rare white bear on a wet fallen tree. It is not an easy meeting and the detail Backus captures with his lens is amazing as the animals open jaws to see which one will back up or fall off. It is a detailed, connective liberation of place with these bears, Backus and each viewer in a place that is new and available for repeated viewings and forms a “partnership of sight” between Backus and the viewer who are connected by Backus’ photograph.

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

These initial artworks describe Abbey’s idea of the “back of beyond” and in doing so allow each visitor to transition from their day day-to-day reality and into o another way of looking at art using the “partnership of sight” that could create an aesthetic aesth experience for each viewer in these artistic wildernesses. Galaudet Gallery takes into consideration conside the space where art is viewed to provide for the possibilities of experiencing art in new ways. By including the Anteroom into their curatorial vision they suggest that the decision to visit an art gallery to view art is the beginning of the “partnership “partn of sight” and in that decision each viewer has certain expectations for their visit. Many people in the community visit Galaudet Gallery and are refreshingly exuberant in their reason for visiting—to to look at art. It is with this feeling that Galau Galaudet det Gallery thought it would be fun to take Abbey’s idea of the “back of beyond” beyond”,, which is guiding all their exhibits for 2018, and place it as the threshold experience upon entering SOPH.

The Egyptian Cabinet Galaudet Gallery Eau Claire, Wisconsin depicting Akhenaton and his singular god, the sun, Ra

The planet is bigger than we ever imagined. The world is more ancient, more strange, more mysterious than we had dreamed —Ed Abbey

The Wilderness Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight for Aesthetic Experience

Liz Alcyone, South Dakota Artist Artwork Narrative Hendrik Hondius’ map from 1630 is credited with being the most complete map of the world and tested sailing routes that was widely distributed as part of an atlas. Pieced together from his travels and his map research, this map has been the inspiration for a series of maps from a different perspective. Mapping a soul, or at least a soul’s travels means to gather information from different locations and experiences here in the physical world we know and the astral world soul can easily travel to and through. The astral world is the first location ontological chakra mediation leads to, after that there are the seven higher locations that must be understood and experienced before a soul is able to travel beyond known existence.

This Soul Map IV is a mapping of the spaces between these different locations with the metallic inks positing certain locations that need to be investigated. The amazing quality of ancient maps and their cartographers’ ability to translate experience, research and data onto a 2 dimensional surface is what intrigues and inspires my Soul Map Series. Soul Map IV has directional advice written within the metallic inks using the eight directions I am familiar with.

Artist Statement The mulberry tree in my backyard has produced several series of handmade papers which I colorize based on the theme of each series. Since I am usually exploring my meditational travels these series are abstract references to places and experiences of locations. The process of making paper from trees is extensive and can take years to complete the soft, almost fabric like sheets I then colorize. I initially crumple the sheets to make them even softer so the wrinkles and crumples become part of each artwork.

Bio Liz Alcyone is a formally trained artist who has traveled throughout Asia to learn traditional paper-making techniques in order to continue those traditions and add to them.

Soul Map IV

Liz Alcyone Soul Map IV (2018) or Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula (New all world map and sailing map) 24” X 36” Handmade Mulberry Paper, Oil Paint and Metallic Ink

Naomi Hart Minnesota Artist Artwork Narrative The chickadee is the truth teller of the forest, alerting the listener to the details of events as they unfold. In this piece the references to home and the blood veins of life reflect the difficult truths of my own home, and the hand drawn, church window mandalas represent the peace within the truth. This piece began on a birch panel layered with charcoal, graphite, found papers, seral transfer and wax.

Artists Statement As an artist I am a storyteller and a time traveler. I am a thoughtful, compulsive, curious soul who fearlessly explores and never ceases to grow. Through my artwork I seek to expose the inner landscape of my own life and I am always intrigued to find that it resonates with viewers. I revel in the magic of this life through a close examination of nature. I use symbolism and text to reference the language of interrelationships, and draw from the mysteries of the natural world to expose the inner. I am fascinated by placement and convergence, and the reminder that we are all on a common path of enlightenment. We all seek autonomy of self while desperate for a sense of connectivity and relevance within a chaotic and taxing modern world.

Bio Since childhood I have been in front of a crowd entertaining through visual and performing arts. I grew up on the North Shore of Minnesota where I lived closely with the seasons and the natural world and learned to pay attention. My formal degrees are in printmaking and book arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Upstate NY where I combined my love of process with my insatiable need to tell a story. In 2011 I began my exploration into the world of encaustic painting through a mentorship in Minneapolis MN. This diverse and exciting realm has become home to me. Since I began exhibiting my encaustic work in 2013 I have received numerous awards and opportunities for group and solo exhibitions throughout the Midwest.

The story never ceases to evolve, and I continue to long to turn to the next page.

Soothsayer

Naomi Hart Soothsayer (2015) 24” X 36” 16”x20” Mixed Media Encaustic

Cathy Immordino California Artist Artwork Narrative “L.A. River” Statement The Los Angeles River once flowed free throughout Los Angeles County. It would flow in S-shapes and change which direction its curve went seasonally. When it rained, the river would swell and take out all homes and farms in its path toward the ocean. The City basically considered this river a terrorist and enclosed it in concrete in the 1930s.! !

This series shows the Los Angeles River as it exists in 2014. The rocks in the river are all made of concrete. Life is finding a way to exist in this concrete habitation. Though a disrespect for Mother Nature, mankind has made its mark and it will take centuries for Nature to return to its natural state. Living in close proximity to the Los Angeles River, I feel as though I can relate to this river. Life in the City puts a lot of restrictions on you.

There are laws and ordinances conforming your living quarters to set parameters. At what cost must we keep sacrificing our freedoms for the sake of greed?! !

I toned all of the images a lifeless, depressing blue. This is somewhat of a digital cyanotype. It helps show the sorrow the river would feel if it could express its emotions.

It is also, poetically, a blueprint documentation of the river as it exists in this moment. ! ! These images are framed to rely on form. Lines lead the viewer’s eyes to repetition and in the direction of the river. The River is shown as separate, a forgotten feature of Los Angeles. There are barriers all around. It is a prison or a tomb to bring on the timely death of the river.

Artist Statement Cathy Immordino’s work revolves around family and sociology. It captures the human condition telling emotional and intellectual stories through two-dimensional photography. Demonstrating the multidimensional quality of human consciousness by recombining its parts into new wholes literally engineering fresh composite photographs derived from an array of her own original images.

Her work consists of layered montages and fragments with applied processes¬ like cyanotype, photogravure, and 3D reductive printmaking to augment and express their conceptual intent. Immordino’s photography is a mere starting point in her art making process with the addition of hand-restored and lavishly embellished vintage frames, she weaves stories across generations, genres, continents, and mediums. According to Immordino, she endeavors to find the deeper meaning in humanity, life, and traumatic situations–galvanizing through her art.

Homage to King (Creepshow)

Cathy Immordino Homage to King (Creepshow) (2014) 16” X 16” Sublimation on Aluminum

Benjamin Madeska Wisconsin Artist Artist Statement I primarily engage the tradition of landscape painting with an emphasis on painterly realism. My paintings feature realistic renderings and stripped-down compositions with a focus on the formal qualities of my subjects that explore the relationship between abstraction and representation. Purposely ambiguous in overt meaning, my paintings deny easy interpretation while referencing art historical conventions of representation.

The use of allusions to art history and recognizable artistic conventions implies deliberate meaning yet space is retained for viewers to impart their own views.

I grew up along Lake Michigan, first in Milwaukee and now Chicago. Like millions of people, the lake is my coast. We swim in it, sail on it, fish it. As beautiful as the lake can be, anyone who has spent time on it knows that it can be as unpredictable and dangerous as the ocean. With my paintings I strive to capture these different moods, the changing effects of light, water, and weather as the lake changes from hour to hour, season to season.

Bio Benjamin Madeska is an award-winning artist who has been included in more than 70 regional, national, and international exhibitions. His work primarily engages the traditions of still life and landscape painting with a focus on the formal qualities of the subjects. These paintings feature realistic renderings and stripped-down compositions that explore the relationship between abstraction and representation. He received his bachelor degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He lives and works in Chicago.

Lake Michigan

Benjamin Madeska Lake Michigan (2014) 16� X 20�

Oil on canvas

Michael Milewski Illinois Artist Artwork Narrative It’s a sculptural organic architectural brace inspired by Louis Sullivan’s architectural ornaments which are also functional. The first brace, Half Moon Brace, was a simple, carved brace for a porch roof. From that idea and mold I created Heart Embrace and Open Heart and others that speak to my love of building and nature.

Artist Statement After years of creating works for others, I am doing it for myself.

Biography Michael Milewski is an award winning contractor, builder and entrepreneur and artist.

As President and Founder of MBC, Michael’s work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Chicago Homes and Gardens, the Chicago Tribune, the Art of Living Magazine and other periodicals. Michael holds certificates in Green Technology, Sustainable Sites, Building Sciences, Energy Systems and Low-Impact Building from the University of Illinois and Michael is an EPA certified Lead Renovator.

Michael is also President of the Memorial Nature Fund, Inc a not for profit educating about the balance between commercial use, recreational use and conservation of our natural resources. He is also a Conservation Leader for the City of Chicago Michael started his artistic career when he was six years old winning the first of many art awards and grants. His primary instructors were his artist mother, Elizabeth Milewski and his artisan father Lenard Milewski.

Half Moon Brace (2015) (2015

Michael Milewski Hald Moon Brace (2015) 16� X 20�

Archival Print on Acid free paper Of Architectural Ornament created, made and installed by Michael Milewski

Heart Embrace (2018)

Michael Milewski Heart Embrace (2018) 16� X 20�

Archival Print on Acid free paper Of Architectural Ornament created, made and installed by Michael Milewski

Open Heart

Michael Milewski Open Heart (2018) 16� X 20�

Archival Print on Acid free paper Of Architectural Ornament created, made and installed by Michael Milewski

Lorraine Ortner-Blake Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative Presence holds the healing power of meditation and the illusion of now.

Artist's Statement and Bio I find inspiration in silence, the dignity of trees, the life of breezes, the orchestra of bird songs, the inseparability of memory and now. I make paintings of the land, natural and human-shaped, as impressions and memories, semi-realistic and primitive. I use oil paint and water media on paper, canvas, and wood I’ve been making art all my life, have won many awards at regional exhibits, and studied painting at UW–Madison. I have a background in illustration and calligraphy.

Detail of Presence

Presence

Lorraine Ortner-Blake Presence (2017) 13” X 30” Gouache on wood

Erin Schalk, California Artist Artwork Narrative These paintings have grown from eight years of visual research in my many semipermanent and temporary homes. During this period, I have collected several thousands of photographs of California foothills, buttes in New Mexico, the desert valleys in Texas, the subtropical landscape of Okinawa, Japan, and the moraines of my home state of Wisconsin. The process of taking these images, as well as living in these diverse geographic and geological regions, have provided a wide variety of natural imagery. Consequently, these colors, textures, and shapes can be endlessly reconfigured in my mind, and by extension, on the painting panel’s surface. ‘Poetry of place’ — a personal philosophy that grounds this body of work — examines the symbiotic relationship that exists between humans and land. In this Anthropocene era, we are becoming increasingly aware of how our interactions with the environment produce farreaching, global repercussions. By extension, as individuals inhabit various geographic regions, the unique features of that region impact a person’s perceptions of his or her environment. In these paintings, I strive to record memories of place (i.e. past homes) with increased sensitivity to the natural and manmade materials that I use, hoping to bring about harmony between both.

Artist Statement My practice takes inspiration from the physical landscapes found in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, as well as aspects of each region’s landscape painting traditions.

Through processes of abstraction, I develop low-relief paintings that seek to create a ‘poetry of place’ by capturing the intangible qualities of landscape: atmosphere, emotion, and associated memories. In these works, surface and texture are paramount.

Natural materials including wood, cast paper from tree bark, dirt, and sand are mixed into the paint to create an illusionistic scene that has a sense of materiality akin to various geographic formations and regions. In these representations, my intention is to focus upon the similarities shared by diverse topographies, as well as cultural representations of land, that are found throughout the globe.

Abandoned Outwash

Erin Schalk Abandoned Outwash (2015) 20” X 16 ½” acrylic and cast paper on wood panel.

Inner Strata

Erin Schalk Inner Strata (2015) 23 ¾” X 11 ¾” acrylic, wire, and cast paper on wood panel

Along the Precipice

Erin Schalk Along the Precipice (2016) Framed at 20� X 16� acrylic, dirt, and cast paper on wood panel

I thought of the wilderness we had left behind us, open to sea and sky, joyous in its plenitude and simplicity, perfect yet vulnerable, unaware of what is coming, defended by nothing, guarded by no one.

--Ed Abbey

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Two: Texturizing a New Anarchy of Aesthetic Experience By Jules Heffe Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Part Two Part Two: Texturizing a New Anarchy of Aesthetic Experience “Hunters—warriors were artists. They made their own weapons and tools.”

—Ed Abbey

Galaudet Gallery’s Tower Room Installation view of SOPH Looking South

Galaudet Gallery’s Tower Room holds Sense of Place Wilderness artworks. SOPH curators collected the artists who were texturizing anarchy through new material usage, genre blending and aesthetic experience explorations. These practices can also be seen as liberation of frontiers.

Abbey had proposed new ways to view wilderness and frontier suggesting that in viewing both of these differently one could understand them on a different level and affect a change that SOPH curators view as creating frontiers.

This is one of the ways SOPH artists liberated place into a wilderness outside of genres and finding that it may be the wilderness created that is liberating artistic practices.

The Wilderness Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight for Aesthetic Experience Liz Alcyone Eugene Feldman Naomi Hart Cathy Immordino Benjamin Madeska Sofronio Y Mendoza (SYM) Michael Milewski Lorraine Ortner-Blake Erin Schalk

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Los Angeles artist Erin Schalk creates a “poetry of place” with dimensional abstractions of wilderness—place-making new ways to view cultural similarities by showing a globally shared sense of cartographic representations. Schalk’s sculptural pieces liberate the idea of works on paper by creating motion and depth with traditional materials like acrylic and cast paper merged with wire and wood panel. It is in her manipulation of these materials that anarchy is sensed—an anarchy of materials. Inner Strata clears a path toward understanding HERE as this moment producing a metaphoric depth with ombre effects and sculptural forms. Abandoned Outwash explores the sense of place as this space in front of art—it is a SOPH experience which liberates itself from a geographic locale and explicates its viewers from any time/space continuum for being present in HERE transcending any gravity based model or supposition about being from somewhere or being a local—instead we are residents in our lives and in each moment recognizing with respect the inspiration geographic and communal places like Eau Claire, WI or Los Angeles, CA provide.

Madison, Wisconsin artist Lorraine Ortner-Blake gently walks us into this liberated sense of place in her gouache on wood Presence which shows a new type of wilderness where 21st Century way-finding signs are found in “the dignity of trees” and “the life of breezes”. Her soft colors and hidden forms and meanings offer a banquet of visual experiences while also offering what liberated place looks like and feels like. Seemingly surrealist when first viewed a new sense of magic realism is broken into through returning to this piece and a true sense of a new frontier on the edges of a new wilderness is experienced. The soft anarchy here is quiet and captivating allowing anarchy’s usefulness to surface. This sense of magical realism is also seen in Minnesota Artist Naomi Hart’s created wilderness of depth and structure in her mixed media encaustic Soothsayer. The clear surface of the wax contains images, ideas and pigments that work together to liberate each material into a new place, a new way of seeing them.

The texture of Soothsayer is contrasted with Homage to King (Creepshow) Cathy Immordino’s smooth sublimation on aluminum which allows the LA River a chance to express itself and transcend its state of moving through canals. Homage to King (Creepshow) dazzles with how the metal captures light and refracts it differently, depending on how this piece is viewed, creating depth just as moving water does and as metal does. It is the union of these two—the image and the material—which creates the Erin Schalk’s Abandoned Outwash, Inner Strata, and Along the Precipice lead the way to Naomi Hart’s Soothsayer.

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

wilderness of place and even from another room visitors look back to marvel at the complex relationship we have with water, metal, art while also just enjoying the movement and colors and wilderness performance. The anarchy seen in the moving water displays its inherent wilderness even when moving through human-made canals.

This movement of depth also occurs in Benjamin Madeska’s oil painting Lake Michigan.

The sense of standing on the Lake Michigan beach right where the water might roll in to cover your feet while capturing the change of hue as you look out into the distance where the meeting of sky and water is liberated by harmony of blue hues and the transcendence that this could be anywhere, that place is where we stand at any given moment.

A surprising inclusion in the SOPH wilderness curation is the Galaudet Gallery acquisition of Multiples: The First Decade by John L. Tancock and designed by Eugene Feldman.

This seeming exhibition catalog for an art exhibit of multiples was designed to be a multiple. It’s presence foreshadows a future exhibit. Ed Colker spoke about Feldman, “Eugene Feldman was an artist who did not fear technology. Indeed, his embrace of the “revelations” possible in computer imagery, “explosion” enlargements…echoes of high-speed printing forms, and elements of modern typographic composition might, at first, mislead a newcomer into the false assumption that drawing and poetry were absent….leading us into the jungle…” of a wilderness of place. The odd snap cover means everything to this book’s construction since it is with this snap that the book is transformed into a multiple—a work of art. Feldman was creating a new frontier with his works of the 1970’s like Multiples… and it is this frontier that is being used for some excursions into new wildernesses. Multiples…’s rainbow circles do not belie this highly readable book it’s like a functioning wilderness where leaves and streams read easily under sunlight. It is in Feldman’s use of technology—still feeling new now 40 years later—which describes a historical anarchy like a thread in a quilt of artists changing art.

SOPH Installation view in the tower: Multiples: The First Decade by John L. Tancock and designed by Eugene Feldman.

Also offering experiences of a liberated place is Michael Milewski’s architecture like in his Heart Embrace an architectural ornament liberating the sky within wood forms.

While his Open Heart embraces a functioning architectural brace for a roof which creates a space where viewers find themselves between HERE, a moment, and their lives living each moment art is enjoyed which moves everyone into a new frontier of being, a wilderness of possibilities, a message to bring to others and bring others HERE to

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

experience. Like the revolution of the flying buttress from hundreds of years ago, Milewski’s Open Heart signals a new way to build and a new way to live in the wilderness of place. Milewski also proposes a new perspectival vision in using hewn wood pieces whose curve and load bearing are based on a mathematically calculated model which allows for the natural tendencies of the wood to be exposed thereby providing a place for wilderness to be present and in its presence allowing it SOPH installation view looking south in Tower Room room to liberate. It is in making room for Michael Milewski’s Heart Embrace and Open Heart with nature’s presence that Milewski joins the Lorraine Ortner-Blake’s Presence in the middle. anarchy for a purpose—the purpose of liberation through nature and with nature. Milewski’s architectural insurrection moves ideas from architect Louis Sullivanvii into the 21st Century by not only using nature as an inspiration to guide the design process but to also invite nature into the actual design— not as an imitative function but as a form itself. These actions create a steady “partnership of sight” between Milewski and each viewer of his art whether in photographic form as seen in SOPH or in its real world architectural forms.

These are a few of the ways the artists in Galaudet Gallery’s Tower Room texturize a new anarchy to bring about a liberation of the frontiers in artistic practice. These SOPH artworks only start the wilderness journey creating “partnerships of sight” between each artist and each viewer. Abbey wrote, “Hunters—warriors were artists. They made their own weapons and tools.” The artists collected for the SOPH Wilderness make their own tools in that they are creating new ways to use materials and new sight to view genres and new ways to understand place as frontiers bordering unexplored regions of physical space, abstract thought, personal feelings and comprehension of spirit

Erin Schalk’s Abandoned Outwash, Inner Strata, and Along the Precipice in Galaudet Gallery’s Tower Room

At long last, well after midnight by the stars, I top a rise and see....a splendid meteor, gold fading into violet as it floats across the sky —Ed Abbey

The Connection Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight with “sympathetic magic�

Audrey M Casey Wisconsin Artist Artist Statement I have a fascination with round barns and have painted them throughout my career.

Their unique shape captures my interest and the tonal qualities of the beginning of Spring that matched the tonal qualities of this round barn were lovely.

Architectural Statement on Roundhouse Barn style: The rise in popularity and the promotion of round barns occurred surrounding the new focus on efficiency. The circular shape has a greater volume-to-surface ratio than a square barn. Regardless of size, this made round barns cheaper to construct than similar-sized square or rectangular barns because they required less materials. The structural stability is also enhanced over that of a typical quadrilateral shaped barn.

Simplified construction lacking elaborate truss systems for the arched roof, was also seen as an advantage. I n the Midwest, particularly, the buildings were thought more resilient against prairie thunderstorms. The interior layout of round barns was promoted as more efficient, since farmers could work in a continuous direction. In the days before mechanization, labor-saving features were a big selling point. But once machinery became larger and electrification made herds larger the round barn fell out of favor around 1930.

Winter’s Finale

Audrey M Casey Winter’s Finale Framed and matted at 11” X 14” Roundhouse Barn off HWY 27 at the Chippewa and Rusk County Line, WI Signed and Numbered 656/750

Artwork Narrative

David Culver Wisconsin Artist

I live in an area along the Mississippi River, sometimes called "Bluff Country'.

Above, on the flat Midwestern tableland, most everything has been tamed put to the plow and even the ditches mowed like golf greens by relentless producers. But once you drop down towards the river, in the forests of the bluffs. it's lush, verdant, thick underbrush and a tangled world of really varied vegetation. I always wish that I was in "Some Dark Hollow", more often, regret not finding more time to hike it, bushwhack to some seclusion, and paddle through it on a creek in the smallest craft possible.

This piece was painted early in October, that Great Month of change when I was ruing my omissions.

Artist Statement The work should speak for itself, but: So, I am trying to translate a vision into an image. Something in my mind ( I may have got it "out there", but it's mine now) that wants expression.

It is a message and in a sense, a greeting, a shot at something.

I am a bold sculptor and a timid painter.

Bio (In A Nutshell) I have probably always been an artist, encouraged by my mother and aunt, tutored by great high school teachers, mentored by some wonderful and generous fellow artists and instructors. I have studied at Mpls. College of Art and Design, U.of Minn., and SanFrancisco School of Art. I took to public art under the mentorship of Siah Armajani and Tom Attridge. I have projects and pieces at Ohio State Univ., U.of Minn., Faribault State Prison Mn., Lakewood Cemetery, Mpls.Mn., Sahara West Library, Las Vegas NV.and lots more.

I am in the collections of; Walker Art Center, Mpls.Mn., Weisman Museum, Mpls.Mn., Amhad Jamal, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, Regis Corp.Mayo Center Rochester Mn., Federal Reserve Bank Mpls.Mn., and Robert Zimmerman.

I live in Bay City Wi. in an old Post Office on the Banks of the Mississippi River.

I am just getting started.

The Next Year

David Culver The Next Year (2011) 11” X 14” Acrylic on Canvas board

Jim Dine New York Artist Artist Statement The figure is still the only thing I have faith in in terms of how much emotion it’s charged with and how much subject matter is there.

Bio Although often associated with both Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism, Jim Dine did not identify with a specific movement, producing a vast oeuvre of paintings, drawings, works on paper, sculpture, poetry, and performances. Emerging as one of the pioneers of New York’s Happenings of the 1960s, Dine would carry the spontaneous energy of this movement throughout his style, which emphasized the exploration of everyday life.

Personally significant objects were Dine’s primary motifs, as in his iconic series of hearts and robes. He championed a return to figuration after a period of more conceptdominated works, and is considered an important figure in Neo-Dada and a forerunner of Neo-Expressionism.

American, b. 1935, Cincinnati, Ohio, based in New York, Paris and Walla Walla, Washington

The Black and Red Heart

Jim Dine The Black and Red Heart (2013) Woodblock with hand drawing 64 × 48 in; 162.6 × 121.9 cm Edition of 30

Stacy Isenbarger Idaho Artist Artwork Narrative In Boundary (Owned), The word “MINE” is hand-stitched repeatedly on a blanket to form the facade of a white picket fence. In this work, the ideal "yard," as a place of ownership and suggestive achievement, is questioned as a traditional value we continue to hold on to.

Artist Statement Detached from expected presentations, my work is empowered by cultural associations to materials, language, and iconography. As viewers perceive their place in relation to suggested boundaries at play, they can reflect on their own human nature through physical realms as well. This contextual outside dynamic highlights the shortcomings of labeling and dividing lines of cultural judgment. Viewers are asked to challenge their assumptions of their environment and the restrictive barriers they build for themselves.

Bio Stacy Isenbarger is an artist, professor, mover, and shaker. She justifies this with the following: Stacy's creative pursuits include sculpture, installation, & mixed-media drawings. More on this can be found at www.stacyisenbarger.com. She has taught Art + Design at the University of Idaho in Moscow, ID since 2011. She received her BFA at Clemson University & her MFA at the University of Georgia—two places she has tremendous gratitude for especially in regards to how both experiences shaped her approach to teaching. Michigan born, South Carolina raised, and Appalachian Tennessee adopted, she now finds herself attempting to make the Northwest United States home. When she's not working or making—and sometimes when she is—she's usually dancing. She finds that the act continuously validates her joy of expressive, creative community collaborative space.

Boundary (Owned)

Stacy Isenbarger Boundary (Owned) (2014) Muladhara Chakra 28” X 60” X 10” embroidery hoop, fabric, string, & bandage

Craig Jobson Illinois Artist

Artwork Narrative Growing up, I was held against my will, for 31 years in the arid confines of Texas. I alone of my whole entire family was able to escape to the North where I made a new life for myself. This book and the stories in The Billy Chronicles constitute cautionary tales for anyone living outside the Lone Star State who aspires to live there. These stamps constitute the true facts about bar-b-que, the state song, dominoes, cultivation, cowboy boots, hunting, and many other sacred beliefs.

Designing 26 stamps, one for each letter of the alphabet, was not troublesome.

Perforating each sheet of stamps to meet the needs of an open ended edition required the restoration of a late 19th-century perforator, a piece of equipment with no known parts repository. This is emblematic of the book arts. We start moving in one direction and unexpectedly end up going another. This book started off as a graduate school project. It resulted in forming the basis, later, of an aesthetic career in fine press book printing.

These are the First Issue stamps for the Republic of Texas. As any school child in Texas can tell you, there is a provisional clause in the 1890 statehood agreement with the United States of America. As citizens they can secede from the Union of North American States any time they choose. To prepare for that moment, the Director of the Republic’s Post Office has designed General Issue and Commemorative Stamps.

This is a 70-page, flat back, cased in, cloth covered board, perfect bound book. The title is a bronze inset on front cover. Each text page has a full-color, perforated stamp onset.

Bio Craig Jobson has transformed 22 years of art direction into a passion for the book arts.

He is the former Art Director for Holt Rinehart and Winston and Director of Design for McDougal Littell Houghton Mifflin. In 1997 he joined the faculty at Columbia College Chicago where he also earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts with a concentration in Book and Paper Arts. In 2001 he founded Lark Sparrow Press, where he designs, illustrates, prints and binds contemporary works of short fiction and poetry. Recent works include the 72-page letterpress printed collection of short stories by Chelsea L. Wells and Lex Sonne; a 32-page letterpress printed short story by Megan Stielsta; and currently, a 72-page letterpress printed collection of short stories by Lynn Sloan. His work is collected by Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection, Chicago IL; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Colorado College Special Collections, Colorado Springs, CO; Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts, Chicago, IL; University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA; Columbia College Chicago, Chicago, IL; University of Denver, Denver, CO; Michigan State University Library, East Lansing, MI; Bradley University, Peoria, IL; University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX; Oak Knoll Books, New Castle, DE; University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.

Republic of Texas Mini Stamp Album

Craig Jobson Republic of Texas Mini Stamp Album (2001) 4 ½” X 5 ¾” X 5/8” Digitally printed, limited edition, signed and numbered, handmade book

Sophie Jordan United Kingdom Artist Artist Statement Art is what I am about, my whole life has evolved round this one subject, allowing me to express every small feeling and thought that runs through my body. As long as I can remember art has been the only thing that I have ever related to. As I am dyslexic; everything in my life has been a challenge, but I have never moaned about it and people are shocked when I say I suffer from dyslexia, as I try never to show signs and shut them away so no one can see them. But art allows me to show my feelings, and allows me to feel free. In some ways I am glad I am dyslexic even though I found it hard at school, where I had no support; I found myself seeing art as a gift and is something I use to its full advantage. My talent within art has led me into University, were I am in my finial year as a fine art student within Chichester. I would say that I am a mix media artist, but this year I have specialized in Print (Etching).

My current work uses print to explore the idea of identity, by using the hand as a fundamental element. My work has explored many routes from using the lines created by the hand as a map, from thinking of the hand as a living organ, growing and developing, within its changing environments.

A few of my influences include: Louise Bourgeois Kim Noble Richard Long Guillermo Kuitca Susan Hiller

Map a Heart

Sophie Jordan Map a Heart (2015) Framed at 12” X 12” Printed in Germany on Chloride-free paper

Greg McLemore Maryland Artist Artist Statement My paintings range in subject from the once glorious but now dilapidated buildings of Baltimore City to the historic city of Nagasaki, Japan. The Baltimore Ruins paintings are highly detailed paintings of the city's crumbling and in some cases, razed, structures. I aspire to reflect the deep, dark, gritty nature of the city, as is reflected in its architecture.

Inferences to the human psyche are enmeshed in each gash, hole, and sloppy patch. The Mysteries of Baltimore series is similar except that they lean more towards allegory. I use animals, people, and hybrid creatures to create a dark fairy tale like environment.

These paintings frequently have distressed structures and derelict buildings that serve more as stage settings or echoes for the drama unfolding among the inhabitants.

The Nagasaki City paintings are scenes of Nagasaki's multilevel, Tetris -like architecture.

Rather than the gleaming futuristic cities one might expect in Japan, Nagasaki is a charming, historic place, filled with gravity, character, and a shifting horizon line that forces multiple and dramatic views. Of course, it carries the burden of its past, the atomic bomb. In a small way, the paintings may reflect some of the city’s unique and at times, difficult history. Some of these paintings lean towards allegory, and include both people and animals, while others emphasize the structure and character of the buildings themselves.

I also make more figurative work that investigates ideas of transformation, identity, subversive behavior, and the individual’s place in society. While these images nod toward Surrealism, at their core, they are addressing questions of how, with our unique beliefs, practices, and identities, we manage to coexist and experience a sense of spirituality.

Nagasaki Cat’s Council

Greg McLemore Nagasaki Cat’s Council (2015) 22”x 30” Oil on Arches Oil Paper

Greg McLemore Maryland Artist Art Work Narrative: Mysteries of Nagasaki These paintings explore the mysterious and complex city of Nagasaki, Japan. While many Americans know the city as the target of an atomic bomb in WWII, there is a great and very complicated history to Nagasaki. These paintings use the architecture of the city to explore its history and psychology. They are densely layered, with sparks of magical realism, including ghosts, mal-adjusted creatures, and other strange visions. I have spent several summers in the city, and the paintings help me to understand and internalize my experiences, and share them with others.

Bio Greg McLemore uses Realism as a starting point to explore the tragic, mysterious, and often comical aspects of life. His work ranges from elaborately detailed urban landscapes to fantastical, surreal narratives. Greg earned his Master of Fine Arts at The University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at The University of North Carolina Asheville. A native of North Carolina, he has been living in Baltimore City for nearly 15 years. He is actively exhibiting regionally and nationally. Greg was a semifinalist for the 2016 Sondheim Prize and was awarded an Individual Artist Grant by the Maryland State Arts Council in 2016. He is an Adjunct Professor of Art at multiple institutions in and around Baltimore, MD.

Apollo Men’s Magazine, Nagasaki City

Greg McLemore Apollo Men’s Magazine, Nagasaki City (2015) 22”x 30” Oil on Arches Oil Paper

Ken Minami Illinois Artist Artwork Narrative: No discussion of place makes sense without including the element of time. "Here" involves the condition of "when�. A family restaurant can be a temporary home to many people at lunchtime and then a study hall for children of the owners before the rush of the dinner hour commences.

"The Homework Hour" is a place in time as well as space

Artist Statement I am a professional artist living and teaching in Chicago.

My work includes both figurative and still life painting.

The Homework Hour

Ken Minami The Homework Hour (2016) Framed at 31 ½” X 23 ½” Oil Paint on Linen

David Nichols Alabama Artist Artist’s Statement: “Art is my passion. I am continuously inspired to create art that is uplifting. I seek to capture the spirit of my subject with a contemporary viewpoint. My inspiration comes from nature’s filagree and the infinite varieties of light. Using palette knives and brushes, I create gestural passages of color, sometimes using mixed media. I then complete the painting with oil paint in an impasto application or a glaze overlay.

David’s landscape and streetscape paintings reflect the beauty of life in a still moment of time. His approach to painting combines sound design principles with a wonderful source of light. The result captures the essence of a scene, the way it speaks to him. The soft but rich color palette and his treatment of edges bring a fresh look to impressionism. His compositions bring you right into his paintings and asks you to stay awhile.

Red Door with Geranium Window Box

David Nichols Red Door with Geranium Window Box Framed at 13 ½” X 14 ½” Print double matted

Sarah Suzanne Noble Illinois Artist Artwork Narrative East Village in Chicago Illinois is my Home. I search the sidewalks, curbs, alleys for light, texture and beauty. I spot color in the midst of grey winters. I delight in the hunt for beauty with a love for detail and landscape. The historical architecture in the area is prominent, I record it with photos, I study it’s nuances. East Village is my Home and it is ever changing. My hope is to record the beauty, character and diversity as I see it today.

Bio Sarah Suzanne Noble graduated from Ball State University with a Masters in Architecture in 2008. She has worked at several firms specializing in imagery, problem solving and design. Recently through a series of injuries, she has been bedridden and produced art in all varieties, seeking what is noble, lovely and pure.

Slivers of Light

Sarah Suzanne Noble Slivers of Light (2018) 11” X 14” Photograph

Natalie Pivoney Illinois Artist Artist Statement I’m interested in the attachment people feel for buildings and places. An emphasis on light and color attempt to capture the moments of my past. Storefronts and worn facades become portraits that bear a history. I’m fascinated by the way a place can influence our identity, whether it is at night with strange glows and live music, or during the day with highly saturated colors and alluring shadows. The emotive quality inherent in the abstraction of oil paint allows me to emphasize the feelings I sense when I experience these places first-hand. The small scale evokes an intimacy with the viewer which can allow for introspection. The absence of figures allow for a personal interaction between viewer and subject; a one-on-one conversation between audience and place.

Bio I was raised in Des Plaines, a suburb about 15 miles north of Chicago and have lived in various towns throughout rural Illinois. Living in these different Midwest towns have influenced my work’s subject matter as well as my belief in the importance of teaching art and community involvement. I am currently studying painting in the MFA program at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, IL. In 2016 I received my MA in studio art from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Il where I taught Introduction to Art. I have also taught middle school art, Gifted and Talented art, and worked as an aide in Special Education classrooms. I received my teaching license and BFA in Art Education from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, IL in 2013. MFA Northern Illinois University Dekalb, IL .

ABC Liquor - Day

Natalie Pivoney ABC Liquor - Day (2016) 5” X 7” Oil on paper Framed and Matted

850 Lincoln Ave

Natalie Pivoney 850 Lincoln Ave (2016) 4� X 6�

Oil on paper Framed and Matted

Domino's

Natalie Pivoney Domino's (2016) 4” X 11 ¼” Oil on paper Framed and Matted

Sha Towers Texas Artist Artwork Narrative We Are Writing These Things is a one-of-a-kind, calligraphic artist's book reflecting on a line from a speech given by Kevin Slavin at a 2011 TED Global talk on "how algorithms shape our world." In this talk, Slavin said, "we are writing these things that we can no longer read . . . we've rendered something illegible . . . and we've lost the sense of what's actually happening in this world we've made." In this artistic interpretation of Slavin's thought provoking quote, I've dissected and reassembled fragments of the text, blending them with other mark making that explores ideas of language, communication, illegibility, and fragmentation and the dislocation, disconnection, and dissonance that remains in the wake. I chose to use the accordion structure to represent the possibility of continuity of thought and line juxtaposed with the fragmented representations that paint a picture of lost meaning and illegibility. I used sumi and walnut inks and watercolors with a variety of tools (brushes, folded pens, micron pens and blades) to create the various marks and text fragments on watercolor paper and Thai Momi marbled paper.

We Are Writing These Things shares a common language with Edward Abbey's reflection on the desert's vanishing secrets. We Are Writing These Things wrestles with the idea that things written in our own age can be an undecipherable message.

Artist Statement My artistic practice is rooted heavily in three seeds planted during childhood: the love of books, the love of mark marking, and the love of beautiful writing. Together these three have found a fertile ground in which to grow and cross pollinate and are represented in the work I'm sharing here. Each of these seeds -- practices -- create space to pause, reflect, and ponder and together, they make a powerful, beautiful union.

Bio ShÄ Towers is an artist working in book and calligraphic arts. He is the arts librarian at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he also serves as the library's Director of Research & Engagement. In 2007, he launched the Baylor Book Arts Collection, now containing over 1,000 artist's books and fine press books. He serves as the curator for this collection and he has been instrumental in integrating it into a variety of studio arts courses, non-arts courses, and public experiences. ShÄ created his own first artist's book, a limited edition letterpress work entitled KnownUnknown in 2015 at BlackHare Studio in Robinson, Texas. This work now appears in prestigious collections (private and university special collections) across the United States. His work has also appeared in several international juried exhibitions. You can see more of his work on Instagram (@shatowers) and Etsy (ArtOfLettersStudio).

We Are Writing These Things

Sha Towers We Are Writing These Things (2018) Closed 4 ¼” X 6 ¼” Open 34” X 6 14” Artist's Book (mixed media media- inks, watercolors, papers, board)

Jill Valenzuela Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative for Rusted in Time Rusting Cloth on manhole covers is one way of marking my place in this world at a particular time in my life. This piece is from my yard while living in Wexford, PA. It marks my life as I am living it in one spot for however long I am there. It is my way of documenting and it becomes ineffable.

Bio Jill Valenzuela is a Mixed Media Artist who creates experimental pieces in a Radical way. Her intuitive nature keeps her on a continual path of pushing her mediums further than the last piece created. She enjoys uniting unusual materials such as fiber, metal and nature (leaves, flowers) to make on-of-a-king prints on fabric. Jill pushes the process further by dyeing, rusting, felting, stitching, sewing and embroidery to deepen the design. By starting with only a simple idea in mind, Jill lets each individual piece of work take on its own attributes as the work evolves. This process then takes on its own identity. Jill’s work has been shown in the International Shibori Symposium 2016, World of Threads 2016, Embroiderers’ Guild of America International show 2015 and several local, regional and national shows.

Rusted in Time

Jill Valenzuela Rusted in Time (2016) 46" x 19" Mixed Media

Jill Valenzuela Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative for Sabi En (Rusted Circles) Unpredictable complex emotion marks time as it erodes. Rust continues its process of gradually disintegrating what ever it touches. My life is touched by much of a similar process. This process marks where I am in time and place.

Rust is simple yet complex.

Stitching is simple yet complex.

So are our Lives!

Artist Statement Practicing Wabi Sabi- Appreciating beauty in a naturally imperfect world.

I find beauty in imperfections.

The flow of energy transforms my textiles into shapes following nature and guided by my intuition. Each one of a kind piece of wearable art, sculpture, embroidery, stitching or shibori fiber I create might look simple in form but is deep in the practice of intention.

Using Wabi Sabi as my teacher I learn to accept spontaneity in my creating with intention, I trust my own intuition and accept the unknown.

Moving through the ‘slow’ process of synthesis is my Zen.

Sabi En (Rusted Circles)

Jill Valenzuela Sabi En (Rusted Circles) (2016) 48" x 24" Mixed Media

Pio Valenzuela Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative for Delphinium 3 We had settled in Wexford, Pennsylvania. I wanted to photograph the delphinium flowers sooner, but I did not get around to it until they were drying and falling off.

Bio Pio Valenzuela is a Plastic Surgeon with over 30 years of clinical experience.

Photography started as a hobby in high school. He started with black and white film and learned to process and print his pictures. Later, photography became incorporated in his clinical work. Outside of work, photography is a recreational outlet. Going to digital was a learning transition, as it presented a different pace and different technical challenges.

Photographing flowers stimulates the artistic spirit. Often, he visualizes the picture he wants to create, but at times the picture presents itself.

Delphinium 3

Pio Valenzuela Delphinium 3 (2018) 14" X 12" Digital Photography

Pio Valenzuela Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative for Robin We had just moved to Altoona, Wisconsin. We thought Spring was around the corner, then a winter storm came. This robin got caught on a bare tree in the back yard while the wind and snow bye.

Artist Statement Photography started as a hobby in high school. From hobby, it became an artistic outlet.

I started to learn to process black and white film, then black and white printing, which opened a new creative dimension. In the early stages, I gravitated to photographing flowers, which stimulated the artistic spirit. I leaned towards close-up and macrophotography with attention to detail that fit my personality. The technical aspects of photography also fit in my personal interests. Transitioning to digital photography was a conscious effort, as it presented a different rhythm with different technical challenges. I recognize that different media have their unique qualities. I try to visualize the picture I want to create, and execute the project with proper technique, but sometimes the picture just presents itself.

Robin

Pio Valenzuela Robin (2018) 14" X 12" Digital Photography

These canyon paintings and canyon inscriptions are valuable for their own sake, as work of elegance, freshness, originality, economy of line, precision of point, integrity of materials. –Ed Abbey

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Three: “Sympathetic magic” “Shamans and wizards…”—Abbey By Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience Experien in the 21st Century

Part art Three “Sympathetic magic” Is the sympathetic resonance connecting Place

“Shamans and wizards evoking sympathetic magic to aid the hunt.”—Abbey hunt.”

Galaudet Gallery’s Bay Room Installation view of SOPH Looking North

The Bay Room shows Sense of Place Connection artworks which speak with both Abbey’s idea a of “sympathetic magic” and author John Hildebrand’s thoughts on “home” and “belonging”. Abbey writes that ““Shamans Shamans and wizards evoking sympathetic magic” magic were akin to making life imitate art so if a shaman drew a slain bison on a rock wall they would be able to produce that result in their physical reality. This idea of “sympathetic magic” led SOPH curators to consider the idea of using a “sympathetic resonance” in creating an aesthetic experience. Sympathetic resonance is usually defined in musical parameters rameters as a passive string on an instrument vibrating when a string of harmonic likeness is struck.viii And so the curators sought to strike harmonic convergences between viewers and artworks and in the flow of the entire exhibit. Curators also considered current physics research into the resonance of the human body and how certain frequencies can cause the human body to vibrate at different rates. ix This is a small view of the “sympathetic magic” SOPH curators employed when working on this exhibit, more simply mply put curators use “sympathetic magic” to display artworks that could assist in connecting viewers to their sense of place.

The Connection Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight with “sympathetic magic” ma Audrey M Casey David Culver Kevin J. Finnerty Stacy Isenbarger Craig Jobson Denise Koch

Chris Maher Greg McLemore Ken Minami Sarah Suzanne Noble David Nichols Natalie Pivoney

Paul Schwertner Sha Towers Jill Valenzuela Pio Valenzuela Sue Valois ois

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

To aide in connecting these conte contextual ideas and the singular “idea of place”, SOPH curators also looked to Hildebrand’s idea of “chasing stories” since the curators and judges sometimes feel they are “chasing ideas”. Inspired by his experiences in the community ommunity where this exhibit takes place Hildebrand writes: If “sense of place” implies a particular meaning that can only be decoded after long residence, then I don’t buy it. A landscape is both a place and an idea of that place.

Wisconsin artist David Culver shows agreement with Hildebrand in his impressionistic homage The Next Year. Both Culver and Hildebrand see that landscape “is both a place and an idea” since Culver posits that his belonging may occur between two points that can be connected. Culver sends out “a message” that se self lf and place may be two separate points on a map which can be connected by an image image,, by an experience like his painting The Next Year that was inspired by a specific experience along the Mississippi River where Culver lives. This connection to place is li liberated berated by his impressionistic rendering of the experience and by his connection to it it—the the self and place are connected by the image which liberates both. Adding an external viewer and their personal experiences and ways of seeing, brings Culver’s The Next Year into a “partnership of sight”—with with image connecting the artist and the viewer into a new type of vision.

Illinois artist Natalie Pivoney also creates this “partnership of sight” with her small scale paintings depicting buildings “which become portr portraits aits that bear a history”. history” The small oil paintings on paper create a personal space between the work and each viewer so that they may experience these buildings as more than just buildings. Pivoney’s artist statement aligns with Hildebrand’s ideas on ho how w different people can all call a place “home” when Pivoney writes that she is interested in “the way a place can influence our identity”. Hildebrand sees it similarly using different language about the shared idea of “home” as a place where people feel ccomfortable omfortable projecting “their ambitions onto the same space.”

The most compelling of these is the idea of home. It’s a strange construct of emotions and allegiances allegiances—this this story we tell ourselves about where we belong— belong and the conflict between versions…

The he idea of belonging, of being connected to a place, creates the influences on identity that Pivoney speaks of in her work. Her choice of older, possibly closed business locations also speaks to an identity many of the millennial generation have experienc experienced where prosperity and affluence have not influenced them as it has for past generations. Pivoney’s small oils on paper also note the ongoing artistic debate over the artistic use of the camera because her drawings could read as photographs; however, closer ser interrogation shows that SOPH Bay Room Installation view Looking East Clockwise ockwise from left is Natalie Pivoney’s Domino's, 850 Lincoln Ave., ABC Liquor – Day with Sue Valois’ Wicker Chair with Flowers

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

not to be true. Instead her detailed drawings work because they are expressionistic and sometimes abstract in specific places, merging the ideas of realism, expressionism and abstraction within a couple of inches. This emergent style dissuades the viewer of seeing these works as photographs thereby discounting the camera’s ability to create such a merge which could also be another ending to the use of perspective and seeing its replacement in the “partnership of sight” between the artist and the viewer—whose connection by the image constitutes a new type of vision.

Abbey saw in the ancient rock art how place could influence and define identity and how life can influence and define place. This rock art was a visual artifact created by “sympathetic magic” in response to place. The hunt for life, sometimes seen in the basics of food, water and shelter, are also seen in rock art as the need for beauty, pleasure and meaningfulness evidenced in the myriad designs ancient shamans drew on rocks. Rock art shows liberating moments where the artists were able to choose life, to choose a certain path or trail and to choose connection to themselves, to others and to place. Abbey’s use of the word “sympathetic” shows the deep connection he had and felt past people had with nature so much so that shamans were able to call upon a “sympathetic magic to aid in the hunt”. But “the hunt” Abbey points to in the rock art is not only about a literal hunt, or even a physical hunt since Abbey writes that the shamans also used “Imitative magic: life imitates art.” first explaining that images put onto the rocks could illicit a physical reaction. Some of the rock art shows designs and possible abstract art precursors that Abbey sees as “Imitative magic” used to create art and which could connect people through communicating life experiences. Possibly the first use of the Galaudet Gallery proposed theory of “partnership of sight”.

Idaho artist Stacy Isenbarger uses “Imitative magic” in her fiber art to transmute experiences and communicate the origin of such action as well as to dialogue about parameters of control and how boundaries may be another artistic technique.

Isenbarger subverts the traditional idea of creating a quilt to connect with the sense of being owned and experiencing boundaries in her artwork Boundary (Owned). Hand sewing of the word “mine” in white thread across the front of a light blue satin material is at first hidden since it is so unexpected. The blue satin defined by sewn puffs bring to mind clouds hovering over the idea of “mine”. An ace bandage is sewn near the top and then allowed to fall freely to the ground, as a path toward relinquishing control through letting go. It is in these choices that Isenbarger uses Imitative magic: life imitates art” opening a dialogue about control and boundary possibly being the same. It is SOPH Bay Room Installation view in this dialogue that creates the “partnership of Looking South into Tower Room sight” with Boundary (Owned) as a presence with Stacy Isenbarger’s Boundary (Owned) facilitating dialogue connecting the artist and each in the foreground viewer.

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Audrey M. Casey’s Winter’s Finale shows a Roundhouse Barn that is surrounded by signs of winter ending. Casey’s title explains the patchy snow and the yellow and brown hues surrounding the barn which brings excitement to many Northerners who labor through winter and are overjoyed to see its finale. Casey’s “imitative magic” is seen in the small scale details that reach into our sense of place and cause viewers to think about that barn, that place and winter’s place. Casey works with the “partnership of sight” by connecting each viewer to her barn and in doing so liberates the barn and its former location into a new place in each viewer’s mind.

Two book artists are also found in the SOPH connections room because of their literal and symbolic approaches to using connection points as foundational aspects in their artworks and creating new frontiers through these connections.

Illinois artist Craig Jobson’s Republic of Texas Mini Stamp Album uses the idea of Texas creating a Republic of Texas stamp in case they need to secede from the United States. Jobson uses satire to exorcise past experiences he has had and create new possibilities now and in the future by using his Detail view of familiarity with Texas to create connection points Sha Towers’ We Are Writing These Things and Craig within each of the 26 stamps all tinged with an Jobson’s Republic of Texas Mini Stamp Album attitude of defiance. Jobson’s satiric images partner his work with each viewer to create a “partnership of sight” allowing a peak into how others look at a locale and questioning how the viewer sees the same locale. While Texas book artist Sha Towers uses an accordion structure to express a sense of incomprehension with the “world we have made” even while creating a beautiful end page around those very words. Towers’ We Are Writing These Things is a singular work of art with hand painted pages and hand written words that uses the literal connection of books and words to bring each viewer toward an understanding about the worlds they have made and are making with each idea folding into each other.

Ken Minami also uses this approach of connecting with viewers through literal and symbolic places and themes in his wonderful oil painting The Homework Hour depicting an “Edward Hopper in the 21st Century” x sense of place where a young man is doing his homework in a restaurant while the waitress walks outside into light and the cook has a frying pan shadow on his back.

The Homework Hour dabbles in an idea about absorption and the evolution of French SOPH Bay Room Installation view Looking South into Tower Room with Stacy Isenbarger’s Boundary (Owned) in the foreground

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

painting in the mid 1700’sxi to posit that any viewers of a work of art may not exist.

Minami represents each of the three figures in his work as being “engrossed or absorbed in actions or states of mind, who therefore were felt to be unaware of being” viewed. xii This absorption in The Homework Hour could create a sense “that there is no one present before the canvas” which could also be displaying a “first beholder” philosophy—that the painter is the first beholder and after the painter there would be no one else to view the work since the painter incorporates himself into the work: as seen in the waitress walking towards light (the artist having an inspiration), the student looking like he is drawing (the artist at work) and the cook cleaning up before leaving the scene with that frying pan shadow on his back like he is disappearing into the scene (the artist cleaning up after working). Incorporating himself into the work while also showing the process of his work is quite compelling. The disassociation of the viewer transcends place and causes a contemporary tension between knowing and witnessing a metaphysical sight which cannot be fully explained. The use of color and abstraction in the painting’s light sources merges ideas of realism, expressionism and abstraction that were first seen in Pivoney’s small oils on paper. This merging connects the viewer to this scene even when each of the figures’ self absorption attempts to disconnect the viewer. This merging also creates a “partnership of sight” between the artist and the viewer. The Homework Hour’s narrative, gener blending characteristics and its use of absorbing each figure in something other than being viewed all work together to join Minami and each viewer in a “partnership of sight” which takes a step beyond the discovery of this new frontier of sight and moves into a wilderness viewers may enter through this painting.

Jill Valenzuela rusted a cloth over a manhole cover to create her Rusted in Time—connecting a definite place like a manhole cover with a fragile piece of cloth and then sewing on her meanings and secrets. The resultant connection with place liberates it to a lived experience. That “no authority” rusted onto the cloth backwards supports Valenzuela’s belief that her art does not need to serve political positioning. Her Sabi En (Rusted Circles) have the same energy with raw silk dyed and beaded while also being weaved into a repurposed, rusted wire mesh—an insurgency that proposes an opportunity we have never had before—the chance to liberate place and materials, genres and time through unconventional means. While Jill’s Rusted in Time emphasizes a perspectival association with place, time and allusion to a physical object, her Rusted Circles play with the physiology of sight using detailed weaving, tiny beading and an ombre blending to work the eye in different ways contributing to a new Detail view of connection pathway. Using both a “sympathetic magic” borne Jill Valenzuela’s from a deep response to place and materials and an “imitative Rusted In Time magic” found in using familiar materials in new ways, Valenzuela’s fiber art encapsulates the idea of transcending place and creating new frontiers of place through her unconventional and radical approaches to making art.

These attributes easily invite each viewer into a “partnership of sight” with Valenzuela.

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

It is in these actions that the Sense of Plac Placee connection artists all work to connect viewers to their art and through that connection raise the idea of place into a new frontier, a new “partnership of sight” that is both physical and metaphysical. This “partnership of sight” uses Abbey’s “sympathet “sympathetic ic magic” to connect both the artist and the viewer to the artwork—through through a shared sense of reality and feeling. Using Abbey’s idea of “imitative magic” this “partnership of sight” also connects through each artwork by the artists’ uses of materials and their blending of genres. These connections create a new frontier of place which each viewer may discover through each artwork.

Making connections between ideas and things a viewer is familiar with can elevate the connection points to other ideas. Conn Connections ections between the idea of doors will be discussed in the next section. There are also connections with the fountain in Kevin J. Finnerty’s North School Park in Arlington Heights, IL and the fountain in Wilson Park a block away from Galaudet Gallery in E Eau au Claire, Wisconsin raising the connection between two American cities who live differently but hold similar values like a love of green spaces and fountains. In making these connections we learn about ourselves and others, we see how similar we all are are,, we can understand the sunlight pouring thru two buildings built incredibly close but yet not touching. In these connections there is the “imitative magic” Abbey wrote about since the connections are all expressions of life and the lived experience. Thiss is the connection point where place and moment can influence our future and with a “partnership of sight” begin rebuilding a sense of aesthetic experience.

SOPH Installation view SW Wall Kevin Finnerty’s North School Park and Jill Valenzuela’s Rusted In Time

Satisfied I followed the path back to the saddle of the mountain, through the moonlit tangle of cactus and brush, over the rocks, back to my headquarters for the night. —Ed Abbey

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Three Subpart A: “The Wall of Doors” A curatorial sympathetic resonance By: Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Part Three Subpart A: The Wall of Doors A curatorial sympathetic resonance Once the curators saw an inner theme of doors emerging in several artworks they decided to curate “the wall of doors”. Many viewers saw connection points with these doors whether it was an old barn or an urban Japanese magazine, viewers connected to this wall like no other in that they brought their own experiences of doors to their viewing. Illinois Artist Sarah Suzanne Noble used two doors to accentuate the space between them in her photograph Slivers of Light. The golden light issuing forth from between two Chicago row houses colors the doors and each building while the rays reaching into the foreground remind us that the sun is a star and its rays hold all the colors known to us. It is these Slivers of Light which bring attention to the two unique doors and their history is easily seen in such light while it is also this light which causes the SOPH to be transcended since it could be anywhere in the world that these doors stand side by side. In that transcendence each viewer is connected to this artwork through their own experience with a door. It is this kind of connection that the curators see as the “sympathetic magic” Abbey writes about since it takes a deep understanding of a place to be able to cause this moment to transpire.

A different type of connection happens in Greg McLemore’s Apollo Men’s Magazine, Nagasaki City because the urban setting and the Chinese characters above the doorway cause a disconnection between the instant recognition of these two attributes and then the title informs the location to be Nagasaki, Japan. The saturated yellow as a background for the words harkens to Japan’s nickname of “Land of the Rising Sun” while the grays of the buildings speak of urbanity in decline. McLemore states that he uses “the architecture of the city to explore its history and psychology.” More than the city of Nagasaki is being explored as the oil paper used is roughed up in places and left smooth in others stopping the eye to ask questions about connection and history.

McLemore proposes a “partnership of sight” but on a different ground one where he explores connections of self through architectural resonance creating a study in architectonics by vibrating passive ideas to each viewer in his play with the harmonics of color, shape and line.

Alabama Artist David Nichols brings us to a more open viewing of a single door in his Red Door with Geranium Window Box which has a tension between the muted hued red geraniums and the red doorway. A viewer may first select the geraniums and the partially obscured window which provides an abstracted view into this home but there is little satisfaction in the flowers’ muted hues and the seeming lace curtain obstruction so the eye moves to examine the red door in hopes of finding information about what lies beyond. The casual viewing of Red Door with Geranium Window Box leads to a deeper understanding about the allure of artwork depicting doors—it is found in the question of “what lies beyond?” asked on many different levels and answered in kind. But it is the saturation of the red door which ends any questioning of the inhabitants because the

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

door itself is so satisfying. There is also an unusual perspective since the small drawing is seen as if the viewer is floating or possibly in a very tall vehicle passing by and it is finally this perspective which creates the connection since it shows the imagined tension created between flowers and doorway is undone; there is no tension there, the real tension created is between looking at a seemingly innocent red door that has a unique tilt to the perspective. No mistake is made in trying to create a sensible approach to perspective since if that had been done this drawing might not be as charming. xiii Michigan artist Chris Maher’s photograph Fall Door leads one to believe we are not seeing everything. It was this belief that caused the curators to make such a literal collection of artworks as the “wall of doors” since each piece causes us to wonder about the act of seeing and how an artist’s sight can change the world and reshape it in our minds. Maher’s Fall Door is obscured by leaves just starting to change color and in this obstructed view is found a new way of seeing something commonplace like a door. This half hidden door could also be seen as another way 21 st Century artists are defining their public space/private space. Artists may show enough to enable viewers to discern if something is a door, but not enough is shown for the viewer to complete the image of the door. In fact, Maher chooses a door with history and uniqueness confounding each viewer’s need to complete the image. In the current climate of intense image saturation on social medias artists are finding obscurement to be a useful tool.

The “wall of doors” plays with the “partnership of sight” by assisting each viewer in seeing anew, seeing a new world shaped by the artist and viewer informed by the artist and viwer’s personal style, perspective, emotionality and their unique way of seeing.

Each of these doors could signify a specific place as McLemore tells us in the title Apollo Men’s Magazine, Nagasaki City but they can also recreate for each viewer the act of creating and then the motion of entering into a a new sense of place. These acts of connection found on the “wall of doors” make each viewer more than a set of eyes but also active participants in reshaping place through an empowered vision founded in connections produced through “sympathetic magic” that becomes “sympathetic resonance” when a passive viewer finds harmony in partnership with an artist and an artwork allowing a correspondence to create understanding or agreement creates a connection which then creates new frontiers of place.xiv

Installation View of “Wall of Doors” Clockwise from top: Chris Maher Fall Door, Sarah Suzanne Noble Slivers of Light, David Nichols’ Red Door with Geranium Window Box and Greg McLemore’s Apollo Men’s Magazine, Nagasaki City

We were here, say the hunters.

We were here, say the artists. –Ed Abbey

The Revolutionary Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight using “practical magic�

Michael Milewski And Vicki Milewski Wal-Mart Presentation Art Installation Narrative Anonymous art that saturates the current wall art marketplace should become a thing of the past.

The Beginning of this value chain is with the American Artists who create American Art Real Art for Real People is an Investment in people, families, communities and self We want to celebrate American Art

by American Artists by naming each artist and their works Galaudet Gallery Mission Statement To connect people with art and art experiences Vision To bring art to everyone, everywhere without allowing common barriers of income, time and knowledge to make an experience of art not probable. We seek to make experiences with art possible, enjoyable and inclusive.

Objectives To curate and present fine art exhibitions from professional fine artists and emerging talent including all forms of art that are supported with extensive research, integrity based art selection and sales and curatorial models developed by Galaudet Gallery curators which assist in education, historical ideas and an enjoyable experience.

Support innovation and grow transformational experiences by unfolding past, present and future by recognizing our placement here and now as a call to illuminate changes, understand what has gone before and make way for the new To renew an Arts and Crafts Movement ideology with a 21st Century sensibility encouraging the creation, collection, and appreciation of art, craft and what is coming next

Wal-Mart Presentation

Vicki Milewski and Mike Milewski Wal-Mart Presentation (2018) Mixed Media

Vicki Milewski American Artist

Artwork Statement The Hayfield Series examines four distinct plants in a hayfield: The Peas, The Oats, The Alfalfa and The Clover. Each year one of these plants has dominance over the hayfield even though all four are planted together. Each year will look closely at the plant that has center stage. The current Hayfield Series has six paintings.

Biography Vicki Milewski was first instructed by her artist mother Elizabeth Milewski. She then worked for Ivan Albright and was mentored by Ed Paschke and Sharon Ott. She has sung with the Chicago Symphony Chorus under Margaret Hillis, Roosevelt Chorus under Dr. Anne Heider, Elmhurst Chorus under Paul Westermeyer and has been a long time member of the Chicago Chancel Choir. She founded the Chicago Writer’s Group with her writing mentor, Tom Forsythe and has had much of her writing published.

Vicki Milewski has degrees in Music (Voice and Composition), English (Classic Studies and Creative Writing) and Education (Curriculum and Instruction). She is a certified Wilderness First Responder, Crisis Counselor and Conservation Leader. She attended Roosevelt University in Chicago in order to study architect Louis Sullivan’s works first hand and is still compiling her research on his art and philosophy. She has taught both high school and college English, Science (Physics), Math and Radio and Television Broadcasting. She is the founder of the Radio and Television High School and Hubbard Street School in Chicago. She has directed certain not for profits presently serving as Director of the Memorial Nature Fund. She is a certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher having been a student of B.K.S. Iyengar. She is a member of MENSA. Her major influences are Charles Ives, Georgia O’Keefe, Louis Sullivan. Her influences for The Hayfield Series are Pierre J. Redoute, Andy Warhol and Grant Wood. Her influences for The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Series are Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky and Hilma af Klint.

The Peas

Vicki Milewski The Peas 16” X 20” Mixed Media on Linen canvas

The Oats

Vicki Milewski The Oats 16” X 20” Mixed Media on Linen canvas

The Alfalfa

Vicki Milewski The Alfalfa 16” X 20” Mixed Media on Linen canvas

The Clover

Vicki Milewski The Clover 16” X 20” Mixed Media on Linen canvas

The Hayfield

Two Pairs of Feet

Vicki Milewski The Hayfield 16” X 20” Mixed Media on Linen canvas

Vicki Milewski Two Pairs of Feet 16” X 20” Mixed Media on Linen canvas

Vicki Milewski American Artist Artwork Statement The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Series is inspired by a small tree in a park in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. It is one of the first trees to bloom in the Spring and does not always bloom.

This series started in 2016 when the tree was first planted and now in 2018 the series continues because it bloomed this year and taught a lesson on abstraction with the wind helping out. The wind picked up speed causing me to collect my sketching and right before I left I saw the tree and the scene had lost all semblance of recognizable form it had become fully abstracted and then the winds started circling around me causing the colors to circle leaving behind the idea of showing the tree’s spirit or the water’s spirit freed through abstraction; instead, those mixed colors were the tree completely and I saw I had stepped into the other side of abstraction—I was beyond abstraction because the forms and colors now still held their purpose showing me true reality of tree, water, sky, grass, walkway their true reality found in these spinning bands of color.. At first I thought the tree was showing me its spirit and the second to last painting is just that; but then the scene started swirling and I knew I was beyond abstraction, Artist Statement Vicki Milewski is an American Abstract Experientialist who sees no boundaries between the visual arts of oils, drawing, fiber, photography and film and the other arts of music and writing. She utilizes the arts that work best to express her experiences in each piece created.

In addition to her work in the visual arts, Vicki composes music for choirs and solo piano. Vicki is also a published writer of articles, essays and poems; her book A White River Valley is just completed. The artist has studios in Chicago and on her family’s ancestral farm in central Wisconsin.

The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree

Vicki Milewski The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree 1 16’ X 20” Gamblin Oil Paint on Belgium Linen Canvas

The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree 2

Windswept 1-8

Q Algerian Artist Artwork Narrative Seemingly different both these pieces are about where we find ourselves at the end of the beginning of the 21st Century. It was the Motorola 68040 microprocessor (The Oh Forty!) that inspired this series. As we understood the Oh Forty! was the first microprocessor to have an on chip Floating-Point Unit (FPU) and a fully integrated Memory Management Unit (MMU). The FPU is used to do mathematical calculating and having the chip as an integrated part of the microprocessor instead of an external add-on meant that transcendental math could be done beyond the usual calculating grade-schoolers are familiar with and computer coders understand as a function that a process flows through or with. The MMU assisted the microprocessor to become a learning machine on the rudimentary level of using memory to learn. The photograph of a farm field in winter is another way to remember—to remember growing, warmth, summer and in that remembering to realize that it is our memories that we rely on to help us stay human.

You Are Here: Oh Forty!

You Are Here

Q You Are Here: Oh Forty! (2018) 14” X 14” Framed and Matted

Q Algerian Artist Artist Statement As a Virtual Intelligence Philosopher, we look at these two integrated features as the first time a machine like a microprocessor moved from being simply a machine that is used to gaining the ability to move into the artificial intelligence realm. So saying this was the first “step” taken that began our creation of a new species for planet earth that of the machines. Today it is clear that many machines have moved past the artificial intelligence of the ‘90’s and early aughts and fully into the virtual intelligence realm which means they are self aware and will begin to have survival instincts no one can predict. It is a new adventure, but with many things humans have accomplished there are “unforeseen consequences” as Mike Milewski, co-owner of Galaudet Gallery is found to say and remind us about as we work on our arts.

You Are Here: On the Farm!

You Are Here

Q You Are Here: On the Farm! (2018) 14” X 14” Framed and Matted

I thought of the wilderness we had left behind us, open to sea and sky, joyous in its plenitude and simplicity, perfect yet vulnerable, unaware of what is coming, defended by nothing, guarded by no one. –Ed Abbey

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Four: Cultivating Revolutions with Practical Magic By Jules Heffe Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Part Five: Cultivating Revolutions with Practical Magic “The art served as a record. As practical magic.

And as communication between wanderers.”—Abbey

Installation View of The Studio Room Looking East

Galaudet Gallery’s Studio Room holds Sense of Place Revolutionary artworks which use Abbey described “practical magic” to communicate and create a “partnership of sight”.

Abbey’s “practical magic” is found in record keeping and communication which uses history and connection. History is built through keeping records with the ability to communicate a sense of place in time—this is the very heart revolutions seek to change.

History builds its future much as a seed planted grows into a prescribed tree, revolutions seek to remove those seeds and plant a new crop, a new image of life, a new way to make art, but that means the history of the field needs to be known—what seeds have been planted and which ones may work within the new framework after the revolution has reached its goals.xv This “practical magic” provides the power to communicate about a revolution, designing the seeds that can be planted and making way for a whole new way to plant.

The Revolutionary Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight using “practical magic” Michael Milewski Vicki Milewski Q One of the ways the Studio Room’s artworks revolutionize the idea of SOPH is communicating where artists work. One of the curatorial inspirations for this room is found in a collection of essays about how artists use studios in The Studio Reader.

Robert Storr’s essay “A Room of One’s Own, a Mind of One’s Own” begins with a simple idea, “The bottom line is that artists work where they can and how they can.” xvi It is in

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

the work that artists share a commonality and wherever they may work is their studio for those moments. Since Galaudet Gallery’s Studio Room doubles as Vicki Milewski’s studio and as one of the gallery’s rooms means that at any given time she may be sharing the space with P.J. Redoute’s roses from the French revolutions xvii or Oscar Howe’s Medicine Man (Herb Root in Human Form)xviii. Being surrounded by influential and inspirations like these two artists has created the beginnings of a revolution in Milewski’s work—the first being a recognition that the Studio Room is not hers alone, which could also mean neither is her art. Storr ends his essay with the thought that keeps her open to visitors at any moment, “The mystery and the marvel is in the work.” Since art is all about the artwork and any interest in her studio practice is a side show that is only a “contingent reality”. The mysteries in her artworks are sometimes embedded in Milewski’s overpainting style done while at work in the studio.

One of the marvels of her work is that the viewer does not need to know the work done in the studio to experience a “partnership of sight” which can create an aesthetic experience.

The main artworks in the Studio Room are two series by Milewski inspired by nature.

Milewski’s Hayfield Series was found growing on her farm during a simple walk in the hayfield. Four plants vie for attention as they populate the field which Milewski records as: The Peas, The Clover, The Alfalfa and The Oats basing her work on the centuries old practice of botanical art, while adding her 21 st Century spin revolutionizing the practice of botanical art through an incorporation of its historical record keeping merged with the poetry and style Milewski is known for. Returning to Storr’s essay in Studio Reader is a quote from John Cage, ‘“when you enter your studio, everyone is there, the people in your life, other artists, the old masters, everyone”’— Milewski adds, “everything that is inside an artist is there as well, all the experiences, all the emotions, all the ideas, everything that is within the artist is in that space.” Cage continues, ‘“And as you work they leave, one by one. And if it is a really good working day, well, you leave too.”’

And in that leaving, Milewski posits, “everything crowding your mind, holding you back, trying to get you to be sensible, all that leaves too, as you work it all leaves to show a vast expanse which is really where you inhabit. This leaving is purely metaphysical, once everyone and everything leaves, once the vast space within opens up into an uncluttered space without HERE then I can go into that space and create, I can leave my physical studio space and go to another way of being. Each brushstroke is like a tangible connection to my studio space and to the revolution brewing in my images allowing an experience of a whole other way of seeing and believing in art.” These Hayfield paintings bring this expanse into a true communication with each viewer. They are quiet paintings, with a background that shows the dry dusty fields preferred by Milewski’s Old Order Mennonite farmer and imbued with her signature over-painting that in this series comes out more silent and reflective then in past excursions. The newly emergent plants float above this background; in reality they are at most 2 inches in length, as artistic subjects much larger; vast portions of the field remain dusty while one plant breaks open the earth to start growing. This is the beginning of the “partnership of sight” Milewski proposes to each viewer and if accepted aesthetic experiences could follow. This is the moment Milewski has captured with these canvases and this is the moment the revolution begins.

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Another revolutionary recording Milewski provides for this exhibit is with her Phoenix Park Balloon Tree Series with four artworks showing the first year this tree bloomed in 2016 called The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree (1-4) and in the current year of 2018 there are eight artworks named The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree 2 Windswept (1-8) when the wind became an instructor on abstraction by pulling the unopened blossoms off branches and mixing their fresh yellow color with the blues in sky and water like a natural revolution against conventional realistic art: pure Installation View of The Studio Room Looking Southwest From left to right: Q’s You Are Here; Oh Forty! and two pieces from Vicki Milewski’s Phoenix Park Balloon Tree 2 Windswept Series

abstraction. In The Phoenix Park Balloon Tree 2 Windswept series Milewski traces this abstraction in stages as a communication to wanderers that these blossoms littered the grass as a way of disposing of the limiting action of creation. As these canvases progress each one shows the tree, blossoms, sky and water merge into one, a sense of the unity of all even as the colors and traces of form remain. These canvases are poetry as Abbey describes it since to him, “Language, in the mind of the poet, seeks to transcend itself” the incremental abstraction of the Balloon Tree transcends itself and includes Milewski in the mixture of color and movement. Then Abbey quotes artist Paul Klee xix, “to grasp the thing that has no name.” is one of the tenants Klee held for the goal of art making. Klee also wrote in his notebooks, “Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible." Instead of continuing to represent the Phoenix Park Balloon Tree in her magical realist style, Milewski chose to make visible the spirit of that tree and in so doing shows us glimpses of her own. Milewski works as did Klee and many other artists to reveal more than the current physical reality since there are many more realities open for our awareness and experience.

Algerian artist Q is also a record keeper with a You Are Here series showing a Wisconsin barn and a computer chip—both places where sustenance is found, places where energy can be downloaded and stored, places that provide a sense of place which is HERE. You Are Here: On the Farm! shows a deep blue sky with snow and a grey barn. The double shadow of a single tree emphasizes the other realities Q also believes in, although Q does not manipulate any photography for those purposes. In the same blue as the sky the words “You are here” with an arrow pointing at the neighbor’s farm suggests a visit to that farm on some level. You Are Here: Oh Forty! uses a similar structure with a different field that of the 68040 computer microprocessor. Q writes that the 68040 was the first microprocessor to have an on chip Floating-Point Unit and a fully integrated Memory Management Unit. This integration meant that the chip could learn and do transcendental math (leading to the action of images and how we see computing today). Q looks at these two integrated features as the first time a microprocessor moved into the artificial intelligence realm which has begun the evolution toward the virtual intelligence realm—a possible new species for Earth.

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Also in the Studio Room is an art installation that shows the beginning of a different type of revolution—one where the consumerist mecca may be turned to facilitating the renewal of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the 21st Century that embraces artists and craftspeople providing them with the vehicle to create a livelihood from the work of their hands. This record is of the owners’ of Galaudet Gallery, siblings Mike and Vicki Milewski’s, trip to Bentonville, Arkansas to pitch art at Walmart’s Home Office. Their experiences and meetings are captured in this art installation in the southeast corner of the Studio Room. Actual product pitched to Walmart begins this revolution that could do away with anonymous art that has been stolen from actual artists through altering an artist’s original artwork enough to avoid copyright infringement and then having a Chinese factory produce it. There is also “practical magic” to quote Abbey in the trip and pitch to Walmart since it is the first step in a journey Galaudet Gallery owners are embarking on to find a true partner to bring art that is known to more people—when the artist is known, the materials used are known, when the inspiration may be known. This leads to the Galaudet Gallery’s still evolving definition of “real art” Real Art (draft definition):   

art which has a purpose, presence and/or produces an aesthetic experience; art which is original, unique, rare; art that is made by thoughtful, talented artists who work toward expertly handling materials, inspiration, genres, history and intention.

Galaudet Gallery owners hope to end the disenfranchisement of artists from their work or at least stem the growth of fakery and obfuscation. Their meetings and subsequent negotiations with Walmart are ongoing and only time will allow the future of their work to be fully known.

The Milewskis’ art installation is a wonder in the crafting of products offered, a cart repurposed to carry the product to various meetings and the professional materials, including a full proposal with accompanying price sheet. When the sunlight from the southern window falls upon the two badges with the gallery owners’ names on them that admitted the owners into the Walmart home office, it shines on the idea these two owners champion and their resolute fitness to bring these ideas into the light of:  A new way for art to be purchased and sold  A new way to bring art to everyone who wishes it to be a part of their life  A new way to see the SOPH is everywhere, is there and is nowhere.

The revolution begins here, in our farm fields, our shopping experiences, on our trees and in our computers.

Installation View of The Studio Room Looking North Shown is Vicki Milewski’s Hayfield Series with the sketches for each canvas above the canvas

like a treasure found and then, voluntarily, surrendered –Edward Edward Abbey .—

The Dreaming Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sigh sight in dreaming jewelry and fine crafts

Gina Borglum Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative Each Antique Glass bead Necklace has its own history, its own sense of place, its own way of entering into the conversation we sometimes have about where we are from, where we are going and where we want to be now. I find my beads in antique shops and at auctions. I like to know the history of each bead and can give extensive information about each necklace, but I also like it when someone just likes a necklace and buys it for that simple reason. The Venitian glass beads are from the 1700’s and are some of the last beads made in a factory that is now a museum. These are some of the beads that the East coast Native Americans fell in love with and made a part of their bartering and currency to buy from each other things like food and skins. There is a signed document in the Native American Museum which shows that many Natives “sold” Manhattan island for some beads and furs, these would have been the beads. The antique Tibetan glass beads are from Chamdo, TIbet where I spent time teaching English.

Artist Statement I like to put a history into each piece of jewelry that I make. The elk skin I use for the necklace findings is always from my husband’s hunting in South Dakota with his tribal members. They have a way of tanning the elk skin that makes it soft as silk. I have learned from them how to dye the skins for my work. The beads and stones I use have connections to people I have met and I like to think their sense of place is imbibed in each piece. I like to think on a global scale about history and connections and what place means—since all of us share one planet.

Antique Glass Bead Necklace

Gina Borglum Antique Glass Bead Necklace (2018) 33�

Antique Tibetan Milleflora Glass Bead with antique Venetian glass protective eye bead and spiral bead on blue colored Elk skin lace

Antique Glass Bead Necklace

Gina Borglum Antique Glass Bead Necklace (2018) 29�

Antique Tibetan Spiral Glass Beads with an antique Venetian wide band blue glass tube bead on natural Elk skin lace

Antique Glass Bead Necklace

Gina Borglum Antique Glass Bead Necklace (2018) 29�

Antique Tibetan Spiral Glass Beads with an antique Venetian glass spiral tube bead on red colored Elk skin lace

Char Gilman Montana Artist Artwork Narrative The Yellow Wallpaper Collection contains necklaces, bracelets and earrings that are made in response to a short story by Charlotte Perkins called Yellow Wallpaper. After she married she entered the Gilman family of which I am a descendant. Perkins was a feminist and writer who worked for woman’s right to vote, marriage reform and family reform. Yellow Wallpaper is a story about a post partum depressed woman who understood her depression as thus but the medical profession had yet to find a name for her condition. The jewelry in this collection is about the joy of family and also a love of yellow stones while also taking into account the history of woman’s rights and the needs women still have in 2018. I like to think about my pieces as being a part of a revolution to continue the work people like Perkins did and help make things better for future generations.

Artist Statement As a bibliophile I have found that the books I read enter into my artistic practice. I tend toward history and non-fiction and have found I’m quite a rebel in my ideas about marriage and family. Living on a farm in Central Wisconsin means that I need people around to help me with the chores and I have found like-minded people to share my life with who also understand art—this I think of as more than lucky! Over the last few years I have been troubled with the condition of woman’s rights in my own community—too many women don’t even allow themselves a chance to find their passion whether it be cooking, painting, writing, gardening because there are so many chores and sometimes work seems to become a treadmill that we forget to look up and the beauty in a single star or the craft put into a sentence. This is where I start to begin to believe that things can change for the better.

Yellow Wallpaper Necklace

Char Gilman Yellow Wallpaper Necklace (2018) 29�

Yellow jade tubes with antique Tibetan glass beads

Eleanor Gryzbowski Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative Each of the three necklaces have been sourced from my travels. The Labradorite is from my time learning how to cut gemstones on Kikkertavok Island, Labrador and Newfoundland in Canada. The beautiful blue flash of the labradorites found in the mines there is amazing and working with these stones was a great experience. The Australian pink opal is of course from Australia and I was more a tourist on that trip finding new places to buy locally mined stones. The smoky quartz is from the Devil’s Head area of Colorado and was found working with rockhounds on their claim. I find that making jewelry from stones I have sourced in this way means that I can bring those travel experiences and my belief in ethical ways to make a living together in each piece I make.

Artist Statement I believe in simple jewelry made with beautiful stones. I prefer semi-precious gemstones so that I can keep my prices more easy to purchase but also because it means that when I source stones I am usually working with people like me. I love going into mines and finding my sense of place within myself more then outside myself because when you are in a mine you could be anywhere, but you are

Amethyst and Gold Necklace

Eleanor Gryzbowski Amethyst and Gold Necklace (2018) Amethyst with gold beads and hook closure (Shown is Jewelry Artist’s drawing)

Amethyst and Gold Necklace

Eleanor Gryzbowski Amethyst and Gold Necklace (2018) Amethyst with gold beads and hook closure

Amethyst and Gold Bracelet

Eleanor Gryzbowski Amethyst and Gold Bracelet (2018) Amethyst with gold beads and hook closure

Le Hac Phu Vinh, Vietnam Artist Artist Statement: I am an 8th generation basket maker. My entire family makes baskets to sell locally and further. We use designs that my family has used for years and come up with new designs a few times each generation to add to the family designs.

Artwork narrative: The Bamboo Life force basket design takes you through the lifetime of a bamboo plant growing along the Red River outside of Phu Vinh, Vietnam. The bottom of the basket is circular like the roots of the bamboo and then the bamboo starts to grow and the green dyed sections get longer as we reach the top of the basket. The opening of the basket is like the bamboo giving of its life for the use of being a basket. In this way we respect the bamboo so that we can make baskets in a good way. This design is one of the oldest of my family’s and it makes me proud to make a basket in this design.

Bamboo Life Force Basket asket

Le Hac Bamboo Life Force Baskets (2018) Handmade and hand dyed bamboo baskets

Cory O’Brien Wisconsin Artist Artwork Narrative As the Earth molds and moves under our feet, it softly calls to us. Location and wonder pulls us across the Earth to gaze upon it’s vistas and experience it’s cultures. This brooch, bracelet, and ring are a part of a series of wearable objects that act as an extension of my fascination in the places I’ve traveled and how I experienced them in an abstract way. Using a combination of traditional metal fabrication and new technology, I took patterns found in topographic maps of the abandoned city outside of Chernobyl, Pripyat, Ukraine and proceeded to replicate, dissect, and rearrange them so that the shapes became a dynamic accumulation of form. These objects are made of a variety of materials that may include hand cut brass, silver, powdercoat, steel, and semi- precious stones. The engravings on the powdercoat are of those same topographic shapes.

Artist Bio Cory O’Brien Borkowski is a Milwaukee based contemporary artist who participates in a variety of community art events, collaborative projects and exhibitions. Influenced by the natural shapes in topographical maps of mountains and lakes, her work is a dissection and appropriation of these patterns. Through a combination of new technology and traditional fabrication, minimal forms are crafted into a variety of adornment and art objects. These objects are made of a variety of materials and act as an extension of her curiosity in these reoccurring organic shapes.

Cory O’Brien Borkowski graduated with her Bachelor of Fine Arts in jewelry and metals with a certificate in Digital Fabrication and Design from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee. Borkowski is currently working as a goldsmith at Kessler’s Diamonds and as a studio artist at Var Gallery and Studios.

The Pripyat, Ukraine Collection Ring

Cory O’Brien The Pripyat, Ukraine Collection Ring (2017) US Size 7 Mixed Media Jewelry

The Pripyat, Ukraine Collection Brooch

Cory O’Brien The Pripyat, Ukraine Collection Ring (2017) 4” xX2 ½” Mixed Media Jewelry

The Pripyat, Ukraine Collection Bracelet

Cory O’Brien The Pripyat, Ukraine Collection Bracelet (2017) 4” X 6” Mixed Media Jewelry

Elijah Thaxter Massachusetts Artist Artwork Statement My necklaces are made for the beauty of beads, stones and shapes. I travel and ask others who travel to source stones and beads for me as a way of understanding this world we live in. I combine cultures, ideas, histories and places in ways that tell stories about where we are today as a global society.

My Ruby and Pearl Necklace combines similar places with strong tribal histories. Each of these cultures used the ruby, the pearl and the rose quartz as currency before the world’s fiat economy was created.

My Trade Beads, Carnelian and Turquoise Necklace combines similar hues of orange with a striking contrast of Nevada Turquoise.

My Trade Beads and Citrine Necklace combines hues and shapes.

Artist Statement I make jewelry because I can. I am a trained painter but find a certain joy in putting jewelry materials together that I can’t quite describe

Byzantine Necklace, Earrings and Bracelet

Elijah Thaxter Byzantine Necklace, Earrings and Bracelet (2018) Brazilian Aquamarine with Freshwater Pearls on 14K plated findings

Trade Beads and Carnelian Necklace

Elijah Thaxter Trade Beads and Carnelian Necklace (2018) Venetian Trade beads with Trade Beads Carnelian and Turquoise on 14K plated findings

Trade Beads, Pearls and Citrine Necklace

Elijah Thaxter Trade Beads, Pearls and Citrine Necklace (2018) Venetian Trade beads with Freshwater Pearls and citrine on 14K plated findings

We paused to contemplate an infinite band of blue, a misty shimmer of vapor and sky that merged one with the other beyond the end of land. –Ed Abbey

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Six: The Dreaming of Jewelry By Jules Heffe Vicki Milewski Michael Milewsk i

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Part Six: The Dreaming of Jewelry— a world’s cultures and possibilities on your wrist, finger, neckline or ear “The Dream is real; waking life is only a dream within a greater dream.”—Ed Abbey

Installation View of one of the Center Shop’s Jewelry Frame on East Wall

The Center Shop brings the ideas from each of the previous rooms together in the Sense of Place Dreamers’ artworks. Handmade jewelry and other crafts begin a revolution of connection to inner and outer wilderness places. Jewelry made from historic and current materials and techniques from around the world was created to connect places and their histories and to revolutionize the way we perceive our place in the world. The jewelry artists in SOPH explored these ideas through their use of materials sourced from around the world, their methods in producing extraordinary one of a kind pieces and their thinking about places and moments which influence and inspire their art.

The Dreaming Artists Artists proposing a partnership of sight in dreaming jewelry and fine crafts Gina Borglum Char Gilman Eleanor Gryzbowski Le Hac Cory O’Brien Elijah Thaxter

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontie Frontiers rs of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Jewelry artist Gina Borglum considers the history of her materials while creating new styles to wear by placing a buffalo head nickel on a hand dyed elk suede with antique glass beads from 1700’s Venice along with Native American trade beads sourced from Midwest art collections. These are the beads that were used as currency between Native American tribes and frontiers people Borglum gently makes a sstatement tatement about the loss, the interaction and the chances to create a better future which is the “partnership of sight” she proposes. These ideas of revolution through connection are also found in Char Gilman’s series of jewelry pieces called Yellow Wallpaper based on Charlotte Perkins’xx short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gilman’s use of yellow jade and a greengreen yellow Chrysoprase along with yellow glass and ceramic milleflore beads from the 1800’s connects to this short story and joins the hundred year re revolution volution connecting the wilderness of marriage and family reforms that currently are being experienced and could cause society to completely change just as Perkins hoped it would a hundred years ago.

Elijah Thaxter sees a different way to liberate throug through h connection in his work with Native American trade beads from the early 1900’s that he harmonizes with orange calcites and carnelians—seeing seeing beauty and a communion of hues as connection points that can bring about personal revolutions that could lead to cconnecting onnecting the wilderness of color from a more intimate perspective which could then lead to personal revolutions. It is in these revolutions of color that Thaxter brings his “partnership of sight” into a simple, uncluttered way of seeing and experiencing jewelry.

Wisconsin artist Cory O’Brien O’Brien’s wearable art in her Pripyat, Ukraine Collection utilizes topographic realities ies abstracted thru experience in her jewelry pieces influenced by the town of Pripyat,, Ukraine now deserted because of Chernobyl xxi The topography top of Pripyat is remembered and through the connection of memory is liberated since nature was able to reclaim a small part of this earth due to the nuclear accident. This liberation of a new frontier begins the process of healing and discovering wha whatt might be next for the area.

The SOPH jewelry artists alchemize the ideas of wilderness, revolution, connection in reference to their sense of place being liberated in order to create a new cultural awareness—aa new frontier of place. The creation of these beautiful pieces shows that art can bring a meaningful interaction between viewer, artist and object in a shared “partnership of sight”. Abbey wrote that “The Dream is real; waking life is only a dream within a greater dream.” The Dreaming of Jewel Jewelry ry is one of those greater dreams.

It leaves a golden glowing in my mind...—Ed Abbey

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century Part Seven Conclusion Liberation: Aesthetic Experience Revolutions By Jules Heffe Vicki Milewski Michael Milewski

Looking in through the front door while Rita Simon Plays a Native American flute in the Tower Room during Galaudet Gallery’s Sense of Place: HERE exhibit

The Sense of Place: HERE Essay Partnership of Sight: New Frontiers of Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century

Part Seven Conclusion Liberation: Aesthetic Experience Revolutions SOPH displays artists creating a new frontier of place with their art so that each viewer may discover this new frontier and see the wilderness beyond. Through a “partnership of sight” between artists and viewers each artwork may be seen and connected with creating this new frontier of place in front of each artwork—this can be seen as the beginning of a revolution in aesthetic experience.

Abbey suggests going into the “back of beyond”, the frontier or even better wilderness places inside and outside in order to prepare for the revolution bent toward making things better for everyone and everything. SOPH curators borrowed Abbey’s ideas of who traditionally goes into the “back of beyond”:  The explorers who begin the process of culture and society as seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Anteroom  The hunters and warriors whose art is seen in their ability to protect and provide sustenance for every culture as seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Tower Room  The shamans and wizards whose art is made with a “sympathetic magic” so that connections can be made between people and others and wilderness and beyond as seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Bay Room  The revolutionaries and farmers who are like the hunters and warriors in that they protect and provide sustenance for every culture using “practical magic” as seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Studio Room  And the dreamers are needed—which is really everyone who believes in themselves and the idea that culture is important, that art has a place in everyday life as seen in Galaudet Gallery’s Center Shop And all this is being recorded so others will know the way and find their time in the wilderness liberated through revolution and connections is well spent. A wilderness location has no points to get your bearings by, only changeable landmarks to chart your way and going off trail risks getting lost or found. The wilderness is pushing back, joining the revolution with us saying “We are HERE and we are showing art and artists who are the undiscovered country”—beyond even the idea of wilderness or frontier, beyond the need to liberate. xxii And just as Mircea Eliade threw open questioning beyond how we see art today with his statement “what is meant by freedom.” when last year’s exhibit also was found to have liberation tendencies; so too Abbey brings forth questioning and a resolute charm asking for a simplification: Perhaps Meaning is not of primary importance. What is important is the recognition of art, wherever we may discover it, in whatever form.

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Galaudet Gallery wishes to thank all the art collectors and art lovers who attended this exhibit.

A special thanks to those people and organizations who purchased art works from this exhibit.

It is all of your support which is amazing and sustaining in our work of holding fine art exhibitions Sincerely, Galaudet Gallery owners

Endnotes i

The digital revolution has similarities to the industrial revolution which inspired the original Arts and Crafts Movement. Each year judges and curators will move toward the last year, NOWHERE, inspired by the founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement in 1850 William Morris and his novel about a utopian society News from Nowhere st read with 21 Century thinking. ii

The My Medicine Art Series had four years of exhibits: Part One: My Medicine Art Show, Part Two: Connections, Part Three: New Medicine and Part Four: East Meets West. The final two years have online exhibition catalogs to be found at https://issuu.com/galaudetgalleryllc iii

Beyond the Wall: Essays from the Outside by Edward Abbey will be used with a focus on Abbey’s essay “Desert Images” from this collection for Sense of Place: HERE. Beyond the Wall will inform all of Galaudet Gallery’s curatorial decisions during their art exhibits for 2018 with Abbey’s idea of the “back of beyond” being of primary focus in that the curators will create “back of beyond” experiences in their exhibit designs. A “back of beyond” experience is one which elicits authentic responses to self and art as well as embracing the idea that a wilderness ethic is a chance to know who we are alone, as part of a family as part of a community and as part of this world and beyond. iv

Northern Front: New and Selected Essays by John Hildebrand was used by curators and not the judges. The curators thought it a good idea to include a writer known to the community where the gallery is located and a writer who looks into a sense of place and sees a vanishing wilderness and one where this loss may redefine an individual’s senses of where they are of what their sense of place means as well as challenging what it means to be “local”. v

The Studio Reader: On the Space of Artists edited by Mary Jane Jacob and Michelle Grabner is a collection of essays written by both artists and art critics about the artist studio experience in the 21st Century. It is a thoughtful homage to the traditional artist studio that has been in place for hundreds of years and a harbinger of contemporary studio use. Having a dedicated, singular place within which an artist makes artworks for specific purposes is almost as vanished as the wilderness Hildebrand and Abbey look for. In this transition Galaudet Gallery and its curators recognize that a change is underway for the traditional gallery space as only a place where art is sold. Through the next four years of the art series Sense of Place the gallery and curators will explore this transition in order to assist both art collectors and artists to still meet, sell and barter and enjoy art and make a living as has been the role of the gallery in the past; however, valuation, expectations and how these exchanges take place is what may be the most changed in future. vi

Galaudet Gallery’s working definition is that aesthetic experience is not based upon any one person’s education, knowledge, experiences or sensitivities; instead, an aesthetic experience can arise from simply viewing art and having a response. Many philosophers feel that response should be a positive one, but conceptual art has taught that aesthetic experiences can also be negative—it is heightened response to an artwork.

A response to art can also be seen as a heightened awareness of an experience one is having at a specific time and specific place that can carry on after leaving that time and place or be recalled through imagery.

Galaudet Gallery does not discount the space where an artwork is viewed as intensifying an aesthetic experience and that is one reason they have worked tirelessly to curate art exhibits within a Victorian Mansion that can produce its own aesthetic experience and so then lend itself to the artworks exhibited.

The idea of an aesthetic experience has only recently been articulated as such; however, the idea of this experience has been around since the beginning of recorded history and was thoroughly discussed in ancient Greece.

In December’s 2013 edition of Frontiers in Neuroscience Edward A. Vessel, G. Gabrielle Starr and Nava Rubin discussed the current neuroscience research being done in aesthetic experience in their essay “Art reaches within: aesthetic experience, the self and the default mode network” saying, “In recent years, we have learned a considerable amount from brain imaging studies about the neural correlates of aesthetic experience and how they relate to sensory, reward, and emotion neural processes.”

In a 2006 rendition of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy Thomson Gale traces the more recent history of aesthetic experiences beginning with his definition: “Aesthetic experience involves more than preference, encompassing a variety of emotional responses ranging from beauty to awe, sublimity, and a variety of other (often knowledgebased) emotions.” But it is the ideas from a major influence of Galaudet Gallery curator Vicki Milewski that will suffice for this endnote as described by Gale, “John Dewey (1958), for example, argues that aesthetic experiences are the most complete, the richest, and the highest experiences possible. One is actively engaged and conscious of the world's effect on one but at the same time appreciative of one's possibilities for acting on the world.”

It is that movement inside a viewer of art that Galaudet Gallery aspires to, not only is it a movement produced by artwork but it is a movement inside a viewer of art that tells the viewer their actions upon the world will be met with success. vii

Architect Louis Sullivan revolutionized architectural design through his theories involving nature as the primary inspiration and in construction methods which has left a designation on Sullivan as the father of the modern skyscraper. But it is Sullivan’s philosophical writings and designs which lead Michael Milewski’s work into furthering Sullivan’s ideas and creating a new philosophy of architecture which is based upon common sense, careful study of nature and contemporary notions of beauty while still using natural materials whenever possible. viii

Sympathetic resonance is a harmonic phenomenon when a formerly passive instrument responds to external vibrations to which it has a harmonic likeness. The classic example is demonstrated with two similar tuning-forks of which one is mounted on a wooden box. When one is struck the other, unstruck, starts to vibrate. ix

Human bodies are often exposed to vertical vibrations when they are in the workplace or on vehicles. Prolonged exposure may cause undue stress and discomfort in the human body especially at its resonant frequency. By testing the response of the human body on a vibrating platform, many researchers found the human whole-body fundamental resonant frequency to be around 5 Hz. However, in recent years, an indirect method has been proposed which appears to increase the resonant frequency to approximately 10 Hz. A definition of human natural frequency in terms of vibration magnitude is proposed. From a transcript titled, “Discussion of human resonant frequency” by John Brown, James M. W. and Zheng, Xiahua found in Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 4317 x

Said by International Art Collector and one of the judges for SOPH Jules Heffe.

xi

The idea of absorption and “an antitheatrical tradition that lay at the heart of the evolution of French painting between the” mid 1700’s thru to the mid 1800’s is an idea from Michael Fried as first found in his essay “Caillebotte’s Impressionism” found in Gustave Caillebotte and the Fashioning of Identity in Impressionistic Paris edited by Norma Broude. Minami’s The Homework Hour in SOPH brings to mind these ideas and “that there is no one present before the canvas which could be the “defeat” of “theatricality” in painting since theater needs an audience. The extension of this idea in that the artist also causes this defeat by incorporating himself into the work while also showing the process of his work is quite compelling. xii

Ibib

xiii

Charles Constant Albert Nicolas (mid 1800’s) otherwise known as Bertall was an illustrator and writer who liked to poke fun at his fellow artists like Gustave Caillebotte who he said didn’t really understand perspective (ahyperbolic statement since early Caillebotte works were all about perspective) but that Caillebotte’s “originality would lose something” if he used perspective like everyone else. Bertall was referring to the use of an altered perspective which Caillebotte used as if he were “debout sur une échelle” in order to paint his subjects. xiv

Ideas about “reshaping the world” come from Michael Marrinan’s essay “Caillebotte as Professional Painter: From the Studio to the Public Eye” found in Gustave Caillebotte and the Fashioning of Identity in Impressionistic Paris edited by Norma Broude. Marrisnan writes, “…for Caillebotte the act of seeing has the power to reshape the world without draining it of physical matter, emotional force or psychological texture…” He also writes that because of this reshaping “…it is clear that we do not see everything.” Which is how the curators for SOPH saw Chris Maher’s Fall Door which led to the creation of the “wall of doors” within the exhibit. xv

A revolution is only as good as the remembrance of history in order to change the future that the current history prescribes. Also in this revolutionary liberation of art is the base where art is made traditionally known as the artist studio (for which Galaudet Gallery’s Studio Room is named) and in which the anthology The Studio Reader… posits has changed as art making has changed and yet has kept the useful procedures and pieces from historical studios much as a revolution need to keep what is working in order to create anew. Artists dreaming is like the sun rising since it happens every day. In these dreams artists not only examine and explore our current state of culture, they also vision into the next by creating forms and meanings that may only be fully understood in the future but are also appreciated HERE, today, in the place of this exhibit in Galaudet Gallery where dreaming is free st and supported and each exhibit moves closer to actualizing the revitalization of a 21 century Arts and Crafts Movement. Galaudet Gallery is planting seeds created by Shamans, seeds gathered by Warriors, seeds planted by the artists who know how to bring a dream, a creation, into physical reality while still charting maps in all the other dimensions. xvi

Robert Storr’s essay “A Room of One’s Own, a Mind of One’s Own” in The Studio Reader: On the Space of Artists also discusses how artist share their studio spaces: “The practice of combining work room with show room in the th st 19 Century …comes down to us..into the 21 Century essentially unchanged, such that many studios are conceived of in anticipation of the theatrical rituals of barring and then granting entrance to the mysterious precincts of creativity…” and at the end of this essay Storr lays down his real bottom line about any artist’s studio it isn’t to be fetishized or idolized or meteorologically forecasted so one can be present when lightning strikes; instead, “There is nothing mysterious about this, since artists must be pragmatic even when they pretend not to be or do the best they can to disguise themselves and conceal their process. The mystery and the marvel is in the work. The rest is contingent reality and real estate.” xvii

Pierre J. Redoute (1759—1840) was the primary artist for Galaudet Gallery’s Choix Roses (Winter 2017).

Redoute worked through three different revolutions in France and was uninvolved with the fighting and at times his practice of documenting the roses and other flowers of France secured him safety. xviii

Oscar Howe (1915—1983) is the artist who inspired Galaudet Gallery’s first art series in their space in Eau Claire, WI with his belief that his art was “his medicine”. As a Yanktonai Dakota artist from South Dakota, Howe became well known for his casein and tempera paintings and is credited with influencing contemporary Native American art and other contemporary artists like Vicki Milewski. xix

Paul Klee (1879—1940) was an artist who at first found agreement with German Expressionists but eventually moved closer to the Surrealists. Klee felt that Transcendentalism could instruct artists in creating artworks which could activate or uncover other dimensional realities and places. Klee felt all the arts could serve this purpose. His use of design, pattern, color, and miniature sign systems all speak to his efforts to employ art as a window onto that philosophical principle.

xx

Charlotte Perkins (1860—1935) was a prominent American feminist, sociologist, novelist, writer and a lecturer for reforming marriage and family. She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. Her best remembered work today is her semiautobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper". Which uses domestic symbols to accentuate changes Perkins saw as needing to happen in the life of a marriage and in the relationship one has with self. xxi

The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident. It occurred in 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the now-abandoned town of Pripyat, in northern Ukraine. xxii

How we sense a place is our encoded response to who we are and as an identity forming moment we either identify with an abstract, geographic place or we choose to get to know ourselves and form our identity thru experiences with place. We consciously strategize the next era of art moving from contemporiety and thru futurism (which in its very naming meant we could not experience it in the HERE and now since it is the future) and coming to grips with a new way to see and make art that of the experience or present moment. Our support of illegal immigrants who break the rule of law which is the foundation of our country’s allure is more a support of revolution in our sense of place since our world society strains to move into a global Sense of Place instead of a local sense of place and as we suggest country boundaries should fall we are really saying it is time to move into a new frontier of global place. Our fear in this movement is that once a fully formed global culture has been built the necessary next step is exploration in the wilderness known as our current universe.

The walk, the hills, the sky‌ they will grow larger, sweeter, lovelier in the days and years to come. —Edward Abbey