Women in Conversation: Celebrate the Women in Your Life

Women in Conversation Make and Take

participant created a souvenir accordian-fold mini-

journal. The event took place before the amazing

play at Stocker Center, Ain't I a Woman.

Last night's Women in Conversation artist Make and Take event took place at the Stocker Center Studio Theater before the Diane Monroe play, Ain't I a Woman featuring the amazing Core Ensemble musicians and the actress Shinnerrie Jackson (an Oberlin Conservatory graduate.)

UPCOMING: If you missed out, you can join us in the gallery this coming Friday night (March 6) from 6 - 9 p.m. Jill Milenski, Gail Crum and Gayle Pritchard, the artists of Women in Conversation, will be onsite during the Stocker Center Film Series. The movie Station Agent screens at 7:30, so come to the gallery to see the show, do our Scavenger Hunt, and create a Make and Take, all before going to the screening. After the movie, come on back up to the gallery. We'll be there to welcome you, and to continue the conversation.

The Women in Conversation opening reception on Friday, February 28th was amazing, with fabulous food, live music, and a crowd of people eager to see what the three of us have been up to.

Jill Milenski, Gail Crum and Gayle Pritchard at the opening reception for

their exhibition, Women in Conversation. Photograph courtesy of Steve Sefchik.

As you can imagine, putting together artwork for an exhibition is labor intensive. The three of us, my  art group, meet every week, virtually without exception. For more than a year, we have worked with intensity and focus in preparation for Women in Conversation. The Beth K. Stocker gallery is a huge space, and we were all afraid we wouldn't have enough work finished. Not to fear! We delivered a ton of artwork to gallery director Beth Bryan, and she in turn did a magnificent job installing the show.

Four wonderful artworks by Gail Crum from
Women in Conversation, February 28 - April 2.

To showcase our assemblage work properly, dozens of pedestals were put into service. These were placed along the walls in the center of the gallery strategically, highlighting all the work around them. This was essential for Jill's Fairy Tale series, which is comprised of small but powerful, intimate pieces. There are several more unique installation discoveries in the gallery, but I won't spoil it for you! Come see for yourself.

If you can't make it during regular gallery hours during the day or this Friday, we'll be back on Friday, March 27, 6 - 9 p.m. and, of course, for the closing on April 2, 4 - 8 p.m. We hope to see you soon.

Fairy Tale Series and Red Series by Jill Milenski from Women in
Conversation, February 28 - April 2. 

Installation of Wounded: What You Can Do For Your Country
by Gayle Pritchard with Lady, Not Liberty and We Are
Better Than This by Gail Crum, a great pairing at
Women in Conversation, February 28 - April 2, 2020.

It's Here: Women in Conversation Opens This Friday

Detail, Spring Revisited by Gayle Pritchard

Such an exciting week lies ahead, culminating with the opening of our three-woman Women's History Month exhibition, Women in Conversation, on Friday night.

On Saturday, we unloaded six carloads of artwork into the gallery and carefully unwrapped all of the pieces for the gallery director. The space looks beautiful, and we cannot wait to see the show installed.

We all worked until the very end finishing work, wiring for hanging, adding titles to the artworks, sometimes the most difficult part. There is such a broad array of work from paintings and drawings to art quilts, assemblages, hybrid books and so much more. We created educational displays to illustrate our processes and highlight some of the materials we love to use. We even made a scavenger hunt game. Come to the opening at the Stocker Center Art Gallery Friday, February 28, 4 - 7 p.m. to play! Enjoy the art, live music and refreshments, as well. If you can't be there Friday, join us Saturday, February 29, 6 - 7 p.m. We'll be in the gallery then before the Mardi Gras concert with Terrance Simien begins.

One of the new pieces I created for this exhibition is called Target Family. Here are some images showing my process.

I wanted to create a diverse sense of  the
people who come to this country, so I
looked for eyes of all sorts. Detail, Target
Family by Gayle Pritchard

Here are some of the images I found. I really like how it adds
an edginess to the collage. Detail, Target Family by Gayle
Pritchard

Here is the final piece. My mixed media painting backs the
collage of an official NRA target, an old photograph
that has been altered as shown above. I mounted all on a
painted board, then added the assemblage elements.
Target Family by Gayle Pritchard. 

Women in Conversation: Two Weeks and Counting

Postcard Invitation for Women in Conversation, which opens
February 28, 2020 and features the artwork of Gail Crum,
Jill Milenski and Gayle Pritchard

In exactly two weeks, Gail, Jill and I will be delivering our artwork to the Beth K. Stocker Gallery for installation. Perhaps you can imagine, then, the frenzy of finishing we are all doing in final preparation for this major exhibition.

Yesterday, I created a "two weeks and counting" task list in my journal. It took up three pages! When I woke up this morning, I started in: I finished two house drawings from my ongoing series, which included framing them both and wiring them both for hanging, and that involved drilling holes with a very fine drill bit to insert hanging hardware on the tiny frames. Afterwards, I finished drawing a third house, which will be mounted. That's on the list for completion tomorrow. Ditto the "wire for hanging," always tricky when working with found objects. 

House Drawing #5 by Gayle Pritchard
Oil pastel on water color painting

Stay with me here. I found two large pieces of wood on bulk trash day, and they were beauties, old cupboard doors beautifully aged and unpainted. After removing the nice brass hinges (saved for another day), I used one entire door for a single piece, which is also on the task list for final assembly. The other door was just the right size to fit two of my mixed media collages, but it needed to be cut in two. I have a little miter saw in my garage, but nothing to cut this board. It sat behind my garage for about six months, even though the art was finished. Just this week, a friend with a portable saw stopped by, took ten minutes to measure and saw the wood, and hurrah!, I am in business. One of those pieces, called Bingo: Only in America Can Your Dreams Come True, is what I worked on finishing this afternoon. 

The beginning parts and pieces for Bingo. 
Yes, these are the things that inspire me: found
photos to be altered, an old box top, a bingo
game board and a drawing that is stamped
and ready to be stitched. 

The collage is done, but it needs to be mounted onto the cut wood. I decided I wanted to paint it first, so I grabbed my trusty Jacquard Neopaque fabric paints for the job. Why fabric paints? I wanted the wood grain to show through, but for that, I could have also used a wood stain. I use my fabric paints all the time because: a) I already have them, which saves me a trip to the hardware store and, b) they seal wood differently than stain, which needs to have a finish put onto it. This way, the paper on the attached collage will be more protected. Here's how the painting came out:

Look how pretty it looks!

 It adds the color I need, allows the wood grain
to show through, and seals the wood. 

After it dries, but before I attach the collage, I am adding framing strips which will be painted this black on the side and red on the edge. The collage has some dimension to it, and the framing strips will help protect it. 

Guess what I will be doing tomorrow?

Come to the show if you get a chance. With nearly 100 artworks, it is going to be fantastic. See the Events page on my blog for more information.