Beyond the BFA

When giving your thesis talk the question is invariably asked, "what are you going to do now that you’re graduated?"

grad show, Dec 2011

Like many, I do plan on applying to a Masters program... like many, it may be in a year or two.

I did and do want to keep momentum and find work within the art community.

One of the last classes an art student from SNC will take is Advanced Studio. Among other things we delved into, we explored and developed the tools for practicing as an artist outside of academia.  It can be daunting. It is daunting! Today you have to be diverse and innovative to create and find your niche.

Several years ago, prior to starting my degree, I would not have equated my ski town with having and supporting an art community. I have come to find that the artistic community is surprisingly large, diverse, tenacious, and in places thriving!

I have begun working with  Riverside Studios in Truckee, CA. They are a co-op of women artists and artisans who have created a business from the necessity of needing an outlet for their work.

The co-op was started in 2002 with three people, in a dilapidated house on the Truckee River. Due to zoning restrictions, it was essentially a studio. The space could not be a ‘store’ but could have shows, which they had up to four times a year. Alanna, one of the original members, commented,  “you made a lot of product”, but lacked sales.

In order to have more of a commercial presence, the co-op moved to Brickeltown, a historic area of downtown Truckee, hoping to create a more fiscal outlet. While they still were not able to generate the commerce they had hoped for they did develop a presence and community happenings such as First Fridays. First Fridays was a community gathering for artists to promote themselves and their work. Any artist was encouraged to turn up, bring work and network.

In the summer of 2010, five artists joined together and moved to commercial row in Truckee, again trying to find a better commercial location.


Commercial row storefront



commercial row, Truckee

The studio is presently a co-op of four women who have created a store that showcases their work and that of mainly local artists. The work is primarily handmade and hand crafted. There are two bench jewelers, Sondrea Larson and Mary Guerra, a self described ‘leather lady’, Kahlil Johnson, and a potter, Alanna Hughes. Various 2D artists (painters, printmakers, photographers) sculptors, woodworkers, fabric artists and cottage industry products are sold under consignment.

Heather River, who was a student at SNC, was with the co-op when they moved down town but has recently departed the co-op to open her own store called Bespoke. She hopes to open in early May. She has described herself as a curator, finding ‘one of a kind goods from independent artisans’.

First Fridays is now an established event that is hosted by the Truckee Downtown Merchants Association with multiple business involved.

Riverside Studios now takes the opportunity with First Fridays to showcase an ‘Artist of the Month’. Established and/ or emerging artists are given space to exhibit work. Mary Kenny has participated (and will be ‘artist of the month’ this May!) as well as graduate student Jonah Harjer. Jessica Hayworth will be showing work in early 2013.

Mary Kenny

Jonah Harjer

Jessica Hayworth

I have joined Riverside as shop manager and a contributing artist. I get to delve into the operation of a small business and interact  with a diverse group of artists. I am also learning to create and maintain a studio practice routine and balance new work and production.

I am also this month’s artist. Come down!

CCAI: Grad Night

I can't hope to do a better job of summarizing the Capital City Art Initiative's current show, "Grad Night," than Brett M. Van Hoesen did. Hoesen is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at UNR, and her essay on the show is here. The show itself features work by recent graduates of the Art Departments of both Sierra Nevada College and UNR, and runs at the CCAI Courthouse Gallery through September 2. The exhibiting artists are Bryan Christiansen, Aimee Doran, Jeff Erickson, Jonathan Farber, Jonah Harjer, Ahren Hertel, Christina Lee, Jocelyn Meggait, James Nagel, Dominique Palladino and Melissa Swanson. Here are a few pics I snapped at the reception:

"The issues are in the tissues"

Jonah gave his artists' talk last night. He partly talked about how his training as a massage therapist prepared him as a painter. As part of his training, he had to assemble muscles onto a skeletal model, giving him an understanding of their relations, insertions, etc. Part of his interest in the subject of his paintings, Mary, was an interest in the way the body posture in older people seems more transparent and revelatory -- the body seems to express itself more plainly, with less self-consciousness, as it ages.


He said the bust portraits were more about Mary as a person -- the full-body paintings were more about "using" Mary as a model to express some of his own ideas and obsessions.


The image of Mary in the trunk is an interesting re-visiting of an image in a painting Jonah had done before. The previous painting was of a young woman either emerging from, or being closed into, a suitcase. That image was lusciously painted, but I found something almost callow about it. Having Mary in the trunk struck me as being a far more interesting confluence of figure and luggage. There's a lot more empathy to the image of Mary in the trunk, even as if retains a somewhat jaundiced, absurdist vantage point on the efficacy of prayer. The trunk seems like a minimalist ark, set out on a sea of matte black infinity.

Jonah Harjer's BFA show

There's a preview showing tonight, and then Jonah will give his talk tomorrow evening. Here are a few images. There was that Burning Man show for a few days in between, but I'm kinda happy my "woman of a certain age" show is being followed up by another woman of a certain age show. Long live the septugenarians!