ARt of tHE stAtE

Take everyday prevenTive acTions:

Clean your hands often.

Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing—or having been in a public place.

Avoid touching your face, nose, eyes, etc.

Clean and disinfect your home to remove germs. Practice routine cleaning of frequently touched surfaces (for example: tables, doorknobs, light switches, handles, desks, toilets, faucets, sinks and cell phones).

Avoid crowds, especially in poorly ventilated spaces. Your risk of exposure to respiratory viruses like COVID-19 may increase in crowded, closed-in settings with little air circulation if there are people in the crowd who are sick.

Avoid all non-essential travel, including plane trips—and especially avoid embarking on cruise ships.

If soap and water are not available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60 percent alcohol.

To the extent that it’s possible, avoid touching high-touch surfaces in public places—elevator buttons, door handles, handrails, handshaking with people, etc. Use a tissue or your sleeve to cover your hand or finger if you must touch something.

Don’t forget to support small business during this difficult time by purchasing gift cards or donating if you have the means. ♥

Female forms

I Am A Woman’s Rights: Exploring Modernity and Womanhood

Natalie Combs, a gallery assistant at Sierra Arts, got the idea for her first curated show from a class at the University of Nevada, Reno about gender and art.

“It really got the cogs turning a lot, thinking of the dynamics of why this is something we don’t talk a whole lot about, and why the canon of art is male-based and very Eurocentric,” said Combs, a student in the art history program at UNR.

Combs’ curated exhibition, I Am A Woman’s Rights: Exploring Modernity and Womanhood, is still scheduled through March at the Sierra Arts Gallery Annex, once it re-opens to the public.

“Even though we have this politically greater level of equality in the United States for women, we’ve still got a lot of work to do within the art industry,” Combs said. “It’s changing, but it’s still a long process.”

The show, named for a line in former slave Sojourner Truth’s famous speech, features artists across different disciplines offering their views on modern women. Combs, who ran an open call for artists to participate, said each artist brought their own flair to the theme, making for a diverse show both in concepts and styles.

“Some of the pieces I kind of envisioned would look a certain way, but there were also some nice surprises,” Combs said. “Like Vivian’s [Olds] work had more of a Great Basin, tribal women aspect to them, and that was something I hadn’t really considered.”

Olds is a retired school teacher who also has a gallery in Wadsworth called Desert Light Arts. She works in photography, and for her Woman’s Rights pieces, she used photographs of rock formations all over Nevada, many of which suggest the outlines of a woman’s body.

“There are so many beautiful forms in nature that women can relate to,” Olds said. “Rock art, to me, is just one of the things in nature that says ‘mother’ to me.”

OIds has been involved as a volunteer for Sierra Arts as well as Arts for All Nevada for many years, and she believes that women are given a place in the Reno arts community and encouraged to showcase their work.

“I’m always telling women artists, especially younger women, to get in touch with Sierra Arts, as there are some grants available to women artists as well,” Olds said.

Artist Lynn Bell Hurley agreed with Olds, saying that there is “abundant space in Reno for women artists. I’ve never felt that being a female has closed any doors for me. Everyone is open and embracing with artists, and that’s one of the beautiful things about this area.”

She starting making art as a child but had stopped making art until 2014, when she began to create and display her work around the Truckee Meadows. “I had a series of painful losses, and realized that I needed to bring art back into my life and find my inner artist again,” Bell Hurley said.

Her work in the gallery is a series of six pieces that both comment on and celebrate women’s bodies. They include collages using newspaper and magazine cut-outs.

“I’m interested in celebrating and honoring the female form as a sacred space, even though society still pushes against that,” she said. Ω

“No Apologies” is one of Lynn Bell Hurley’s works that is part of “I Am A Women’s Rights” exhibit at the Sierra Arts Gallery.

Photo courtesy Lynn BeLL hurLey

as of press time, sierra arts Gallery was closed to the public through March 25, while its site states that the March 19 artists’ reception for “I am a Women’s rights” is postponed. the exhibit was slated to run through March 31. Get updates on the gallery and its events at sierraarts.org or call 329-2787.