Artist's Presentations @ Tx Showdown

[Marcia Selsor]

I have put this under Aesthetics because these artists presented mature information regarding their personal aesthetics and where their artistic expression comes from. Just wanted to report back that the presentations from Paul Northway and Ovidio Gilberga were inspiring. I knew Ovidio from years ago when I was a dept. chairperson and Ovidio was a guest artist at Montana State University in Billings, MT. Paul Northway was Rudy Autio's last assistant in Missoula, Montana. We were all former residents at the Archie Bray Foundation.

 

We share a love for Montana even though we are all now living in Texas. The presentation by Paul Northway gave us background of his family of musicians and farmers and the familiarity of art and culture while growing up as well as learning to make things and use tools. His father was a musician but also made custom saxophone mouth pieces for many well-known musicians. As his life progressed and his own family grew, his work reflected much of his relationship with his children. I found his work to be insightful and humanizing. His incorporation of mixed media was an interesting blend with wood, wire and metal.

Ovidio's presentation reflected first on an experience of walking the continental divide in Colorado and the juxtaposed emotional transitions from his background of a big city person to one of facing the wilderness completely stripped of civilization's protection. His awareness of the emotional transition was developed and realized months after having the raw experience. It is something he has used to develop the imagery in his work for years afterwards. His sensitivity to the human condition, society and its influences on human behavior were extremely well communicated both visually and verbally.

 

Sometimes it is very isolated in the lower Rio Grande Valley speaking as a Ceramicist. I really enjoyed both talks. For seeing their work google them.

 

Marcia