Here’s the monthly wrap up of everything going on at the studio…
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Author: Jenni Ward
Open Studios 2016
SAVE THE DATE! So excited to launch the new studio space with my 12th year participating in the Santa Cruz County Open Studios Art Tour. Looking forward to seeing you all there!
Artist #228
October 8,9, 15 & 16 | 11 – 5
Join us at our NEW LOCATION:
2523 C Mission St Santa Cruz
For more information about the art tour visit:
Arts Council of Santa Cruz County
Studio is Closed for Moving!
August is our normal break time from classes and we usually plan an epic trip somewhere but this year, our epic trip will be to the other side of the county! We will be very busy moving the whole studio to our new westside location, so The Dirt will go on hiatus while we move but you can still keep in touch over the next few weeks:
Add yourself to the mailing list so you get updates on reopening of the studio & upcoming classes and events
Follow my Instagram account @JenniWardArt
BUY ART! The online shop is open 24/7 with discounts on the Specimen Series for just a few more days!
Join me August 5th for First Friday at the UCSC Arboretum
Visit my Bone Installation at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts
Thanks so much to all the students, visitors and art patrons for 12 years of creativity at Earth Art Studio in Aptos. See ya in September on the Westside!
Bone Installation Portfolio
A new portfolio page of my Bone Series Wall Installation at the Healdsburg Art Center has been posted to the website. Here’s a teaser, but check out more images here…
First ‘First Friday’ at the Arboretum
Mark Your Calendar: August 5 is ‘First Friday’ at the Arboretum!
The Arboretum will host its first ‘First Friday’ free event on August 5 from 2:00 pm–7:00 pm. Visitors can meander the paths of the Aroma Garden to view the beautiful, one-of-a-kind outdoor sculptures by nine local artists: Jamie Abbott, Jeff Arnett, Jennifer Henning, Coeleen Kiebert, Marilyn Kuksht, Anna Martin, Kirk McNeill, Cristie Thomas/Scott Lindberg, and Jenni Ward. Two of these artists will offer workshops or demonstrations.
WORKSHOP:
Jamie Abbott’s sculptures are inspired by biomorphic forms, which he encapsulates with organic elements. Using thin gauge wire and wire tools, Abbott will guide participants in the wrapping and connecting of branches, pods, leaves, and many other materials collected from the Arboretum gardens.
• Sessions at 2:00-3:15 pm and 3:45-5:00 pm;
• Limited to 20 persons per session; to sign up, call the Arboretum office at 831.502.2998;
• $10 for Arboretum members; $20 for non-members;
• Participants are welcome to take their sculpture home or have it installed in the Art in the Arboretum exhibition until it ends October 10.
DEMONSTRATION:
Kirk McNeill is the artist-blacksmith of Freedom Forge, located on Santa Cruz’s West Side; McNeill works with hot forged iron, bronze, and copper, creating unique sculptures, in both modern and historical designs, to enhance buildings and landscapes. He will bring his portable forge to give blacksmithing displays.
• Demonstrations from 3:00-5:00 pm; visitors will be able to watch how an artist uses his skills and tools to create pieces of art.
Susana Arias, the curator of the exhibit, will be on hand to answer questions about Art in the Arboretum, an on-going event showcasing local sculptors and their work.
Last Week of Classes at the Aptos Studio!
This is it! The last week of classes are really happening…
All summer I’ve been hanging out making sculptures with these goofballs. We’ve been working with clay, wire, metal, paper and anything else we can get our hands on to be creative. Every student will have one piece of art on display at the Santa Cruz County Fair in the Fine Arts Building this September, so be sure to keep an eye out for our sculptures!
Adults and Kids, want to join in when we reopen at the westside studio? Join the mailing list to find out when we will be restarting classes.
Transitions are Tough
Anyone who has moved homes, changed schools, left one phase of their life for the next knows, transitions are tough.
As I type this post, I’m thinking of the 500 other things that need to be done after hitting publish. I know that this is a temporary situation and I’m SO excited for what the future brings as we shake up our whole lives but in the meantime, I’m tired.
Shuffling between two studio spaces, while still running a business out of one of them and fixing up the other has become exhausting. We’ve been in this mode for a few months now and I can feel my body responding to it. Waking up sore and exhausted from carrying boxes at the same time feeling weak from a lack of exercise. My daily 2 hour dog hikes have turned into 30 minute dog walks, my weekly visits to the climbing gym have turned into a once a month event. I find myself dreaming of time for yoga classes and long backpacking trips.
At the same time, we are also getting our home ready to sell. A place that we’ve lived for over 12 years, a place where we built our marriage, and a place that I built my business. That’s a lot to leave behind. We’ve spent weeks touching up cracks and painting over stains that we’ve lived with forever but now seem like eyesores. Throughout this process, we’ve also realized that the heart of our home has not been so much about the living space as much as the creative space. It’s the art on the walls, the well used work tables in the studio and the plants thriving in the garden that hold the highest value in our hearts.
All of this packing, planning, organizing and sorting has left little time for making new art, traveling or adventuring. Last year we left the country 3 times and made multiple trips to the east coast, not to mention dozens of camping and backpacking trips around California. This year, not so much. We’ve been on a self imposed travel ban so we could focus on making this big life transition. Now we have itchy feet and adventures piling up on the to-do list. We hope that letting go of the responsibilities of home ownership and being a little more nomadic about where we sleep while using our new studio (aka: Base Camp) as a touchstone will give us the freedoms for more art making, traveling and adventuring.
I’m normally not a very nostalgic person, but as I head into the final week of classes at my home studio, say goodbye to students and sign the papers to officially put our house on the market, I’m flooded with memories. The physical and emotional exhaustion of all of this change happening at the same time is very, very real. So yeah, transitions are tough but the knowledge that we have purposefully chosen this path tells me that it will all be worth it and that we are very ready for the adventures that lie ahead.
Looking forward to sharing those adventures with you…
REPOST: Specimen Series ON SALE!
The specimen series are small wall mounted sculptures inspired by biological specimen collections often seen in museums. They are abstracted version of seeds, fungi, shells and bones made entirely of clay and arranged in an intriguing compositions. Reminiscent of beautifully arranged sushi in bento boxes, these pieces are designed to intrigue. The ceramic boxes create frames which both restrict and enhance the pieces that they contain. The forms in each box have been fused into place through the kiln firing process.
Each box has a simple wire loop on the back and is ready to hang. These pieces are small enough to fit anywhere and bold enough to make a statement in your space. Originally priced at $225, these pieces are now available for $195 through the end of July, browse the available pieces from this series in the online shop.
Saving Sharks with Art
Local Santa Cruz artist Kirk McNeill along with his team of designers and fabricators have created a forged metal sculpture of hammerhead sharks dubbed the Sharky-Go-Round to bring awareness to the cruel act of shark finning. 100 million sharks are killed each year for soup. Their fins are cut off and they are thrown back in the ocean to die slowly. Sharks are at the top of the food chain in virtually every part of every ocean. In that role, they keep populations of other fish healthy and in proper proportion for their ecosystem. Where sharks are eliminated, the marine ecosystem loses its balance. This sculpture hopes to raise awareness of this issue at Burning Man 2016, and places beyond! The concept includes ten sharks turning slowly and majestically above the playa, in stark contrast to a single shark, finless and dead on the base.
On a personal note, I have slowly seen the sculpture come to life right around the corner from my own new studio space and it is impressive! The skill in the fabrication of this piece is incredible, the sharks swimming against the blue sky is beautiful and the message behind the work is dear to my heart too. #missionblue
Support this project via the Indiegogo campaign HERE…
Save the Date: Reflections | Shadows
My Bone Series Wall Installation will be included in the upcoming Reflections | Shadows exhibit at the Healdsburg Center for the Arts in downtown Healdsburg California.
About the show:
The physical aesthetics and conceptual connotations evoked by reflective material or projected dark shapes of shadows may create intriguing design, trick the eye, or distort our view. The exhibit presents artists’ interpretations using these phenomena as design, metaphor, layers of reality, a state of mind or mythology to evoke images of truth and poetry.