PEWTER: not just for tableware

I was really excited to be invited to participate in a Wearable Pewter exhibition. It is a material I have always wanted to work with but, as with so many things, I needed a purpose and a deadline to make it happen. Enter Teresa Faris and James Thurman and the Wearable Pewter exhibition. Its going to be at City Soles in Chicago during the 2019 SNAG conference, then it will travel to Ayse Taki Galerisi in Istanbul, Turkey and Alliages in Lille, France. In addition to myself, it includes work by David Clemmons, Umut Demirgüç Thurman, Dan DiCaprio, Teresa Faris, Frankie Flood, Kyle Patnaude, Juan, Riusech, Michael Rybicki, Donna Sweigart, James Thurman and Jennifer Wells. I hope you will join us for the reception on Thursday during SNAG’s Gallery Crawl from 5-8.

WEARABLE PEWTER EXHIBITION POSTCARD

Pendulous (necklace)

Pendulous (necklace) detail

Circling Back: An Exhibition

The event of a move often brings re-discoveries. When the Metalsmithing and Jewelry program at the University of North Texas moved into new facilities last summer, we found all kinds of things hiding in obscure storage areas. Among them was a box of my work from my years as an undergraduate student. I was simultaneously delighted by the find, confounded by what now seems like poor craftsmanship, and led to compare that work to what I have been doing lately. While my skills have changed, much of of the imagery and formal language that I am drawn to has not.

This prompted my interest in inviting a group of mid-career makers to exhibit one newer work paired with something they had made more than ten years previously. I hoped to provide them with an opportunity for the same moment of  reflection that I had in being reunited with a box of dubious treasures from the past.

I would like to thank all the artists who agreed to participate in the exhibition. Mounting of the physical exhibition was supported with a UNT Small Grant and my travel to the conference received assistance from the College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas. I would particularly like to thank my Chair, Lauren Lake, for looking under all the couch cushions.

Circling Back was organized in response to the Society of North American Goldsmith's call for proposals for the Adorned Spaces segment of the 2019 conference. It will be taking place in Chicago, Illinois from May 23rd through the 24th at the Palmer House Hilton with a reception from 5-8pm on Friday the 24th. The theme of the conference is "The Loop: Coming Full Circle. 50 Years of SNAG."

The website for this exhibition will remain active through April 2020.

Best of 2019

Two of my bollard necklaces will be touring with the Ohio Designer Craftsman’s Best of 2019 exhibition this summer. London Bollard and Viennese Hydrant and Bollards will be in the exhibition that is opening this Sunday May 5th at the Ohio Craft Museum and then moving to the Springfield Museum of Art on September 20th.

London Bollard

Viennese Hydrant and Bollards

Fewer Better Things review is out

I am pleased to announce that my review of Glenn Adamson’s Fewer Better Things is out in the newest edition of Metalsmith Magazine!

College Art Association Talk

I am so excited to be going to New York next week to speak at the College Art Association conference! I will take part in the session, Wish You Were Here: The Souvenir as Emblem of Regional Identity. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop by! My panel was put together by Christopher J. Moore of Concordia University and Isabel Prochner of Syracuse University. It will take place Wednesday the 13th at 10:30 am at the New York Hilton Midtown - 2nd Floor - Nassau East. I will be presenting my body of work, You Are (the) Here and its relationship to cultural geography, personal identity, and the souvenir.

Photo by Chenli Ye

Looking Forward

I am very pleased to announce that I will be a speaker at Looking Forward: a contemporary blacksmithing and metal design symposium at Bryn Athyn College this coming summer. The organizers have put together a great lineup of artists/blacksmiths/designers and those who study their works. The symposium will take place from June 14 to 16, 2019. Its a great opportunity to have a conversation about the futures of metalworking. Please spread the word!

You Are (the) Here at Brookline Arts Center

I have a little solo show going up next week at the Brookline Arts Center in Brookline, Massachusetts, from November 9-December 21. If you are in the area I hope you will stop by. I am really excited about the cast resin replicas of my own torso that I made to “wear” the work in the exhibition.

Houston Goes to Nacogdoches

The wall piece, Louver: Houston, has made its was to Nacogdoches for the biennial Refined Exhibition at Stephen F. Austin State University. This year’s Juror was Perry A. Price, executive director of Houston Center for Contemporary Craft. I feel very fortunate to have had a piece selected. I will not be able to make it to the reception but perhaps you will! Its Friday the 26th at 6pm at the Reavley Gallery in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House. Price will give a talk at 5:15. The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.

Not-So-Lone Star Studios: A Gathering of Texas Makers

Natalie Macellaio and Kathleen Janvier have put together a beautiful exhibition of works by Texas Metalsmiths. I count myself quite lucky to be among them and am looking forward to the reception on Friday, September 14th from 6-8. Hope to see you there!

Book Review

Check out this month's Metalsmith Magazine for my review of Ezra Shale's "The Shape of Craft"

There is no party like a DMA Late Night!

I am super-excited to have been invited back to the Dallas Museum of Art for a gallery talk and show-and-tell! You will find me at 6:30 on Friday July 20th in the Power of Gold exhibition talking about some of the processes used. Then join me on the main concourse from 8-10 while I do a little chasing and answer questions from aspiring silversmiths!

In Flux: A Metalsmith's Journey

Friends Brian Jacoby and Betsy Davison were kind enough to invite me to speak at NOVA Labs in Reston, VA, at the end of the month. Come on by if you are in the neighborhood! 

You can learn more about NOVA Labs Makerspace  here.

Recent Works at the Delaplaine and a talk at Towson University

Tomorrow I am heading to Maryland for two very exciting opportunities!

Leslie D. Boyd of the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Area at Towson University is being so gracious as to host met for a talk excerpted from my History of Crafts Class, entitled "Foundations of the Studio Craft Movement." It will take place Thursday May 3rd at 6:30 in the Art Lecture Hall at the Center for the Arts.

I am pleased to be exhibiting at the Delaplaine Arts Center in Frederick, Maryland, from May 5 through June 24. If you are in the area, stop by and say 'hi' on the 5th. The reception is from 3-5pm.

UNT Metalsmithing Lineages

Big thanks to Umut and James Thurman for organizing a multi-generational exhibition of mentors and students affiliated with our the University of North Texas Metalsmithing and Jewelry Program now on view at UNT on the Square. The Lineages exhibition will be up through March 19th and is documented in a print-on-demand catalog available here.

New work at Ombre Gallery

I am sending these yummy little vent brooches to the Midwest for the winter along with some of the larger one-of-a-kind wearables. They are less than 2" square with laser-etched powder coating and some hand painting. You can check them out at Ombré Gallery in Cincinnati.

Fulbright Specialist

I am exceedingly pleased to announce that my application to be included in the Fulbright Specialist Roster has been approved! I am now now eligible to be matched with projects designed by host institutions in over 150 countries globally. My Roster tenure officially begins on December 1, 2017 and will end on December 1, 2020. Now I need to find (or be found by) a project that requires a candidate with my professional and academic credentials. The program works with the following kinds of host institutions: 

• Institutions of Higher Education
• Government Institutions (ministries or agencies, courts, parliamentary or congressional bodies)
• Cultural Institutions (conservatories, museums, etc.)
• Medical Institutions (public health organizations, teaching hospitals, etc.)
• Non-Governmental Organizations including non-partisan, issue-centered institutions and think tanks

If you know someone in an institution of this type who might be interested in utilizing my skills please spread the word.

Thanks,

Ana

SHELTER

The Jodee Harris Gallery at Seton Hill is currently hosting the "Shelter" exhibition, a sibling exhibition to the "Shelter: Crafting a Safe Home" exhibition at the Contemporary Craft Center in Pittsburgh. My piece, aptly named Shelter, is one of many in the exhibition. If you are in the Greensburg, Pennsylvania area I hope you will check it out!

Shelter is based on the form of a plumb bob - a device for finding a true vertical line. Similarly, the need for dependable shelter is a significant element in decision-making.

Industrial Arts: Exhibition and Public Talk

I will be exhibiting a wide variety of work at the University of Texas at San Antonio's Terminal 136 Gallery from August 31st through September 16th with a public "lunch and lecture" at the Southwest School of Art on Saturday September 16th at 12:30.

For more information about the exhibition please contact Laura Crist 210.458.4391

For more information about the talk please contact Jillian Sortore 210.200.8254

California dreaming

I had the most wonderful time in California! I was honored to be invited to be a "Radical Enameling" Workshop provider by the visionary Center for Enamel Arts. I taught a class on making kilns out of trash cans and the creation of vessels with sewn copper foil. The workshop was entitled "Quick and Dirty." My class happened at the same time as the delightful Kristina Glick's flux oxidation class at the Crucible Studio in Oakland. The Crucible is a temple to all things fire related, from jewelry and blacksmithing to hot glass and fire dancing. (Crucible Photos by Gail Reid)

Following the three day class and with the benevolent guidance of Judy Stone I had access to the large enameling kilns at KVO Industries. Steve Vandyke was wonderful about granting access and myself and another artist had the place almost to ourselves for three days. This made it possible to work larger than I had ever done in enamel and with new materials such as their oil-based liquids, typically used for silkscreening, but with which I painted. This opportunity was also made possible by a UNT Scholarly and Creative Activity Award. I already cannot wait to go back!

Go Metals!

It was a true honor to speak at the Society of North American Goldsmiths conference in New Orleans with Cappy Counard and Jaydan Moore. I have enjoyed meeting new people at the conference and seeing a lot of great work. Perhaps the best part of all was getting to share this remarkable experience with so many UNT students, friends and alumni.