The Wild Side’s Juried Exhibition Artwork

Juried Artists

Mimi Abers In a Mellow Tone 18 x 12 x 8 inches ceramics

I work in both kiln cast glass and ceramics to express my inner demons and exhilaration. No matter how old I get, I’m still dancing. There is always some kind of self-portrait involved in my sculptures, a psychic/physical exploration of the self, reflecting personal demons. Here I am dancing softly in my dreams to a tune by Duke Ellington.

Elizabeth Addison Fearless: Smith River Reverie 3 25.5 x 25.5 x 2.5 inches original photography, acrylic paint, monotype, mixed media

Each summer, the emerald waters of California’s last wild river welcome my family. It’s a homecoming. The Smith River’s clarity is startling and she’s fiercely independent. The Reveries are created with original photography printed on 100% cotton paper at Kala Art Institute. I cut, paint, and construct, with imagery and memory guiding my process. These dimensional works are intentionally mandala-like, embodying the Smith River’s spiritual force… and that of all wild waters.

Smith River Reverie 3, detail

Salma Arastu Mother Earth Roaring 48 x 48 inches acrylics, paper collage, and pen and ink on canvas

When people do injustices to women, other humans, animals or to Mother Earth herself, I lose my normal quiet and calm self and I am furious. My artistic expression becomes wild and explodes out in a poem or a painting. I cry when I witness the consequences of war, extinction of species or the rising water levels threatening low-lying countries.

How long can Mother Earth sustain greedy and selfish human beings? I visualize her rising with fierce force, carrying all creatures in her womb, calling the stars, the sun, and the moon as witnesses, roaring like Kali, the Goddess of Destruction.

Karen Benioff Friedman Maine Woods on a Foggy Day 9 x 12 inches mixed media on canvas board

Untamed. Bold. Underneath. These words from the prompt for the NCWCA show resonate deeply with me. Because the more I try to harness my untamed fear, fury and wildness, the stronger these elements rage. I often feel I am tangled in my need to be outspoken and my fear of being heard; in my need to walk solo into the wilderness and the safety of community. These works represent the tension between my interior and exterior selves. When I set out to paint the woods, the fog rolled in and stole chroma away. So I imagined colors binding together the energies of the sky, trees and the ecosystem beneath the ground.

Susan Bercu Too Late for Superheroes 46 x 30 x 4 inches papier-mâché, recycled canvas, maps, toys, dolls, bullet cases, flora, tulle, wood, wire, paint

My assemblages broadcast global existential threats, celebrating the wildness in nature. When nature is in peril, my inner wildness is alerted. I hit hard against science denial, racism, sexism, and wealth inequity. My wall triptych depicts the annihilation of our planet propelled by greed and shunning scientific fact. My wild women warriors want the chance to save humans and our planet home. Magical thinking, symbolized by toy Superheroes, cannot save us from doom. The trio of faces, crowned with weapons, represents aggression by unlimited power. The world map, covered with ash, charred human remains and flora are evidence of global warming with escalation of natural disasters.

Cynthia Brannvall Crevice 37.5 x 37.5 inches oil on canvas

Crevice is an abstract painting full of connotations. Painted forms oscillate between the body and the landscape. Nebula, fissures, cracks, rivers, and crevices form micro and macro perspectives reminiscent of aerial, telescopic, and microscopic views.

Jean Cacicedo Behind the Veil 40 x14 inches paper, fabric, thread

I am both the object and subject of work depicting journeys of protest, love, and sexual desire. I identify with the alluring and mysterious quality of veils to reveal and conceal. Incorporating layers of cloth, cut and stitched paper, Behind the Veil uses the imagery of pattern and texture inspired by my travels to Istanbul. I placed focus on the uncovered face as a means to provoke and reveal the truth behind desire.

Behind the Veil, detail

Mague Calanche Doblando La Realidad, Despues De La Pandemia (Bending Reality After The Pandemic) 48 x 36 x 2 inches acrylic, collage and oil on canvas

When we put on a costume, we are transformed and transported into the unknown, unpredictable and magical instances of our undiscovered, wild, and untamed natures. Our imaginations take hold of our profound curiosities, taboos, and fears only to let them play and act out. This painting allowed my imagination to be adventurous by indulging and exaggerating what I experience in my Mexican heritage and cultural festivities.

Kim Cardoso Items Will Be Marked With Bullets 24 x 24 inches encaustic, oil, and schoolwork on cradled wood panel

These paintings from the “Schoolwork” series celebrate women in male-dominated fields and comment on notions of safety. When I select words to preserve in luminous wax—in this case from my daughter’s math and science papers—I look for themes of our times. Arranged to approximate landforms and maps, I guide the viewer to question what we are taught, pushing habits and undercurrents onto our radar. I want this series to feel familiar, uncomfortable, and to evoke thoughtful connectedness.

Items Will Be Marked With Bullets, detail

Belinda Chlouber Wild II 18 x 24 inches acrylic, pencil, charcoal on cradled panel

Wild II was inspired by a poem by my mother, Carla Chlouber, called The Wild Animal Trainer, which begins; “A woman is never prepared for the slashing claws, the bared teeth, but I have never been seriously hurt. A few scratches, perhaps a bruise or two, certainly nothing to worry about. I admit there were times when I shut my eyes, twisted inside, almost screamed, but I never turned away.”

It is one of my favorite poems of hers. For me, it is a glimpse of a woman coming to terms with both the joy and pain of being in love. After my mother passed away in 2011 we discovered her writings and they have inspired my work for years.

Abigail Lee Goldberger The Wedding on Top of the World 36 x 32 oil on canvas

There is a powerful and otherworldly aspect to my two paintings in THE WILD SIDE. There is a sense of life and danger, but also a sense of strength and understanding. I like that the main characters all have the feeling of belonging amidst the wildness of their circumstances. I am a narrative artist and my work draws out the stories of a world that lies just at the edge of our understanding. In my paintings, humans are just animals, and the personalities of everything depicted shape the story.

Abigail Lee Goldberger The Moonlight Girls 34 x 30 oil on canvas

There is a powerful and otherworldly aspect to my two paintings in THE WILD SIDE. There is a sense of life and danger, but also a sense of strength and understanding. I like that the main characters all have the feeling of belonging amidst the wildness of their circumstances. I am a narrative artist and my work draws out the stories of a world that lies just at the edge of our understanding. In my paintings, humans are just animals, and the personalities of everything depicted shape the story.

Stacey Gregory The Penny Test - Ledbetter v Goodyear 30 inches diameter used Goodyear tire, Swarovski crystals, pennies, mirror

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent in Ledbetter v Goodyear paved the way for equal pay for equal work. A used Goodyear tire with a convex mirror ‘hubcap’ challenges the viewer to confront the power of ‘dissent.’ Swarovski crystals recreate RBG’s dissent collar and the red on the Goodyear logo is her favorite lipstick shade. The tire balances on pennies in the tread to represent the backs of the underpaid women who built this company. Fiery pennies creep up the side treads.

The sly and ingenious RBG showed her wild side by circumventing the court’s majority opinion and in her dissent, urged Congress to pass a law for equal pay for equal work. She considered the law’s passage as one of her greatest achievements. Wild side well played.

Vicki Gunter It’s Okay To Be A Wild Flower! New Era Series 37 x 25 x 4 inches porcelain, recycled clay, underglaze, glaze, rhinestones, brass, gilding

THE WILD SIDE call inspired this piece. It is defiant! A healing affirmation: Wild joy as Woman! My Body, My Choice! Out with a system, capitalism, causing breast/ uterine cancer! We are Nature! I’m going to be Okay!

While creating this work, I learned about a serious health complication (still being evaluated) and my kiln malfunctioned mid-fire, exploding one breast and navel. I rebuilt the kiln and mended the sculpture.

This wild woman’s uterus holds our California native Iris, a lightning bolt, an OK gesture, the stars, and the moon. Seeing everything in the universe as one makes up her wildly joyous bouquet. Her watery bodice, breasts, and womb embody the ebb and flow of the feminine, home, and sexual freedom. In this revolutionary time we must not accept limitations on the rights, health, and joy of all women or nature.

Jennifer Huber Floating 24 x 18 inches acrylic painting on gallery-wrapped canvas

I imagined a perfect moment of tranquility, happiness, and healing. The subject is a child, but it could be anyone of any age and ability floating on their back in clear, clean water with the gentle swells lifting and settling, sounds muffled, and the vast sky above.

Linda Joy Kattwinkel mustfly 12 x 12 inches oil on canvas

Linda Joy Kattwinkel willdie 12 x 12 inches oil on canvas

These paintings declare my intention as an older feminist female artist, in the time I have left, to create work outside the cultural boundaries of being a women and a female artist.

Emily Keyishian Debrief 48 x 48 inches oil on canvas

Debrief deals with the struggle to find roots in a land that does not belong to you, with no country to return to. Through patterning, movement and texture I try to recreate the turmoil and beauty in the everyday struggle of belonging. I work with natural forms and the language of abstraction to connect to my own loss of roots through my family’s survival of the Armenian Genocide on one side and the Jewish pogroms in Galicia on the other, and how that has affected us in the diaspora.

Anna Kirsch Disposable Labor 36 x 42 inches acrylic on wood panel

A working class woman slumped on her BART seat after a long day of mundane, mind-numbing work, looking at the sky and daydreaming about an existence free from toil and drudgery. Capitalism depends on a reserve army of labor, a permanent underclass with no hope for an escape from a futile existence.

Kayla Kirsch Wild Heart 82 x 35 inches mixed media print on bond paper

This work is one of a series investigating the “wild heart”—both its huge capacity for feeling and compassion and its vulnerability. The giraffe has the largest heart on the planet, with height to see a bigger picture. What would it be like to embody the giraffe into human experience–its wildness, its view, its heart?

I researched giraffe hearts and animal blood systems, then I replaced a human head with a giraffe heart and integrated a human aorta in a giraffe’s head. Our lives and our planet depend on an explosion of compassion, perspective, and gentle strength.

Susan Kitazawa Do You See What I See? 40 x 30 inches acrylic on canvas, textile materials, embroidery hoops, ophthalmology test results on paper

I enjoy making playful art to uplift and encourage others. This work reflects the precarious balance and sense of humor many of us hope to maintain as we move through lives lived outside of mainstream experience. My diminishing eyesight and advancing age have nudged me to unleash my playful creativity.

Mido Lee The Wild One 24 x 36 inches digital archival print on aluminum

Everyone has a wild side, yet we can not seem to find it in this modern life. After I moved to the USA, I started to go solo backpacking in the wilderness. I found myself warm and comfortable in the snow in Montana. Nature awakened my senses, and for the first time I felt at home when I was alone in the moor. It is hard for a woman to travel alone in a foreign country, especially in the wilderness. The power that I felt after I finished my first journey alone overcame my fear. Women are stronger than they tell us and we all have the right to travel safely.

Janet Lipkin Raining Babies 50 x 29 inches raw canvas, paint, fabric,trims, hand stitching

I work with paint and fabric from around the world to create my images. As I mix different fabrics, paint, and trims, my images come alive. I work on raw canvas to honor the textile as a surface. The Guatemalan folk doll in this painting holds her newborn. My daughter and daughter-in-law were both pregnant when I painted this piece so babies were on my mind. The joy of birth and new beginnings, tie all women together. Abortion is also being threatened and this takes women’s lives out of their own hands. This painting celebrates life, yet reveals the struggle of choice.

Yunan Ma Love 5 33 x 33 inches Corriedale wool, Merino wool, Alpaca wool, copper hoop

This hand-woven fiber art is created with intricate textures blooming from the center to the edge. There is a complex universe inside of any life; big or small, quiet or loud. Although the vision may be little, there is room for unlimited enthusiasm to shine through. Though I have a fine arts and knitwear design background, I believe art is more than beautiful texture and exquisite craftsmanship. Every piece depicts a storytelling experience by cheerfully interpreting energy and emotion.

Linda R. MacDonald Heating Up, Hendy Woods 60 x 48 inches oil on canvas

Walking in the redwood forests and enjoying the stately beauty of the immense trees, I can see the dangers from fire immediately. Fire is a normal occurrence, but it has greatly intensified in strength, breadth, and area. I want to record these amazing trees in their struggle for life. This painted redwood tree has been burned many times yet still lives. It gives us hope. These incredible living trees have been ravished by environmental events yet still adapt, change, and transform themselves to continue living.

Anna Mathai Wild Woman 13 | Swishbone 36 x 24 x 7 inches spray paint, acrylic paint, oil pastel, microsuede, wire

My Wild Woman sculptural paintings balance chaos and control, using spray paint, plaster, resin, oil pastel and other materials to create dynamic texture and movement. This ocean abstract is imbued with an energy that reflects the radical, transformative, brave, confident, and independent strength (the inner ‘wild woman’) needed to meet life’s challenges. It rejects social biases and reclaim the label “wild woman” as a positive. She is wild and beautiful and sometimes fierce; ever changing like the ocean.

Wild Woman 13 | Swishbone, detail

Juliet Mevi At the Overlook 30 x 24 inches. acrylic and oil on canvas

Here we are, the travelers, observing the wild side of Yosemite National Park from a very safe spot.

Juliet Mevi We Demand 28 x 20 inches acrylic on paper

I wish I could have been one of the brave women who put their positions, their dignity, and their lives in danger in order to secure the vote for women. I will forever be grateful for their sacrifices and their willingness to step into the wild side.

Priscilla Otani Amaterasu and Califia 48 x 24 inches papier mâché, silicone, artificial plants, snake sheddings, acrylics, fabric, fake hair on wood panels

This work brings together two mythic female figures that form the origin myths of Japan and California: Sun Goddess Amaterasu and Califia, the warrior queen of California. Born and raised in Japan and living my adult life in California, I embrace the duality of my cultures and belief systems through these two wild, powerful figures.

Amaterasu and Califia, detail

Laura Paladini Little Grandma 24 x 18 inches oil paint on wood panel

This theme was exciting for me because I’m inspired by people who, when presented with challenges and obstacles, overcome and live their authentic lives. My intent is to non-judgmentally get into someone’s soul and attempt to paint their energy. Living vicariously through my paintings is the first step for me personally to be more bold and less inhibited.

Little Grandma has put up with everything and everyone far too long. She now wears what she wants, whenever she wants, which usually includes flowers in her hair and 1950’s red lipstick. The edit button on her thoughts has been disarmed and, without prompting, she will share exactly what she is thinking whether you want to hear it or not.

Francesca Pera Pandemic Days 2 36 x 36 inches gouache on paper on panel with molding paste and encaustic

Unpigmented encaustic (bleached beeswax and damar resin) cover the painting, along with small encaustic dots applied with a heated pen. Limited by the size of watercolor paper, the red bumps (molding paste) cover the seams. I enjoy their corporeal quality.

I generally keep my wild side under wraps, but this is what I like to explore in my work. Recent paintings, completed during the pandemic, touch on the environment, fear and mortality, the unknown and wild.

Pandemic Days 2, detail

Jude Pittman Sounds of the Wild 20 x 20 inches original digital painting, archival pigment print

The world is wild and technology is a wilderness. Style and elegance are not immune to the “sounds of the wild.”

Barbara Pollak-Lewis Anjeli 24 x 24 inches oil on canvas

I started my Scream series shortly after the 2016 election as a reaction to the political and social nightmare that was unfolding in the United States and globally. Through my painting, I am seeking to express our collective anger and frustration as a society by showing humans of all races and ages screaming. I have focused mainly on women and girls for this series, as they are being directly affected by attacks on their reproductive rights. Anjeli is a portrait of a young girl screaming.

Barbara Pollak-Lewis Hazel 24 x 24 inches oil on canvas

I started my Scream series shortly after the 2016 election as a reaction to the political and social nightmare that was unfolding in the United States and globally. Through my painting, I am seeking to express our collective anger and frustration as a society by showing humans of all races and ages screaming. I have focused mainly on women and girls for this series, as they are being directly affected by attacks on their reproductive rights. Hazel is a portrait of a young girl screaming.

Wo Schiffman Gazing Inward 25 x 25 inches acrylic and ink on clayboard

Gazing Inward is a visualization of journeying to the center of self and gazing at the indescribable self— wild and without boundaries–stardust and fire on ice.

I get glimpses of my wild core when I play in water. Some call me a water sprite, but through selfreflection I feel the core of my being aligns more with the concept of Stardust. I imagine traveling to a place deep in my center and gazing at pure spirit: an aurora borealis of stardust. Ice and fire! From this place my kinship with water is born.

I paint with oil, encaustic, and acrylic mediums on wood and canvas. Using a range of brush techniques and scraping tools, I strive to expand the familiar by blending vibrant color and abstract perspectives.

Wo Schiffman Wild Child 26 x 20 inches encaustic and ink on wood panel

Wild Child explores a water spirit untamed by life. My Immortal Self, an ancient immortal creature of the natural world, and my Untamed Core.

A water spirit is untamed and unafraid. She is the source of my earliest memories: learning to swim, sail and be in the sea surrounding Barbados. She pushes me forward and maintains my connection to water. She provided the courage and impetus to build a 52’ sailboat and race the Pacific Cup (from SF to Hawaii). She is unbounded by the shore of humanity and reminds me I am a drop in the vast sea.

I paint with oil, encaustic, and acrylic mediums on wood and canvas. Using a range of brush techniques and scraping tools, I strive to expand the familiar by blending vibrant color and abstract perspectives.

Sondra Schwetman Boobies 19 x 9 x 6 inches hand-dyed silk organza and dyed embroidery hoops

My current body of work addresses issues surrounding the female body myth and reality. This work celebrates the breast: “boobies,” “ta’s,” “titties,” “the girls.” It also reflects the male gaze that is particular to our culture. Through these playful works I am reclaiming imagery from that gaze. It is my hope to continue a dialogue about women’s bodies, both past and present.

Durba Sen Dramatically Defiant 24 x 30 inches acrylic on canvas

The defiance and rebellion from the chains of societal control is seen through abstract representation of women in bold colors, lines, and shapes. My painting defies the constraints of art verbiage and norms to break out from the glass cage bestowed by society and men. Well-defined geometry contrasts with vivid, curving colors representing the untamed defiance of bondage.

Dobee Snowber Mabel Was Distracted By The Full Moon 7 x 11 inches acrylic, tissue paper, ink, pencil, pastel on board

Within each of us there is a wild side. Sometimes blatantly apparent, at other times lurking just beneath the surface, visible only to those paying attention. It can be that point slightly left of control and comfort, or the one that loudly announces itself in quiet bedlam. It is the gaze that stares unapologetically at the viewer and simply says, “I am here.”

Christina Spiegel One of These Things 50 x 15 inches acrylic, ink, paper, egg shells on board

We decide if we are birds in water, fish in trees, genuine or imposter. Plague doctors with bird feet beg the question.

Nancy Tabeling A Woman Scorned! 14 x 22 inches archival print on Arches paper

My work germinates and sprouts from a visceral seed. A Woman Scorned is meant to be entertaining and thought-provoking. I believe the female “collective psyche” is universal. Some have had to push harder to break through to the other side to visit their authentic wild side. By turning my “feminine gaze” onto the subject of “female emotions,” I explore the female psyche from my own lived experience as an artist, woman, worker, mother, and yoga instructor. Strong emotions—anger, rage, passion, ambition—are often considered undesirable and discouraged when expressed by women. The penalty is to be chastised, shamed, or suppressed.

Judy Threadgill Untitled 1 8.5 x 11 inches paper, glue, tape

Judy Threadgill Untitled 2 8.5 x 11 inches paper, glue, tape

I have developed my own style of collage, featuring the juxtaposition of mundane articles with whimsical objects. Sometimes my creations are intentional, and other times they are more like a puzzle, with combined backgrounds and other elements. My “Wild Women” images are bold free-spirited mavericks. They constantly evolve and embrace the cycles of life.

Rachel Tirosh Treasure Map II 52 x 18 inches mixed media, acrylic paint

Last year I decided to go wild (for me) and paint big and colorful. This was an unstretched canvas that I stretched myself. Painting on larger canvases felt like making my voice heard, announcing my presence. This was quite a journey and an experience, both physically and mentally. It is my treasure map to my wild side.

Treasure Map II, detail

Victoria Veedell Winter Shadows In Finland 10 x 10 inches oil on paper on wood

Traveling to international artist residency programs is integral to my art practice. This is one of a series of paintings recording my adventure and experience in the winter landscape of Finland. I was in awe of the crisp light, colors and bold long shadows falling across the ice. This was my first experience of walking about and spending time exploring a frozen river.

Lorraine Woodruff-Long I Wish My Uterus Shot Bullets 36 x 36 inches pieced and appliqued cotton with discarded vintage doilies and lace

This work is made of hand-cut letters, sewn onto a pieced fabric top, then backed and quilted using a “matchstick” pattern. Vintage lace and doilies, collected from waste bins and estate sales across the country, were sewn onto the quilt to embellish and frame the harsh words.

The U.S. is denying women fundamental rights over our own bodies and lives yet allowing innocent people to be murdered with gun violence. Harsh words float on a stereotypically feminine pink banner, embellished with the beauty of discarded lace from the hands of women. Women’s privacy, health, and futures are being discarded and carelessly thrown away with the loss of reproductive freedom.