Contemporary artist Ross Bleckner is interested in the human states of memory and loss. Through his use of 'soft-focus ambiguity', Bleckner's paintings often initiate a dialogue within the viewer. And his exhibitions are exceedingly worthwhile.

Bleckner's imagery leaves room for the viewer at the table of interpretation. In this way Bleckner invites the kind of collaboration with his audience that is essential for art to breath on its own. If Bleckner's paintings stand on their own outside his New York studio, it is because Bleckner bridges his abstraction with just the right amount of realism. He gives his audience opportunities to connect with their own experience and ideas. A student of Chuck Close, he has solo exhibited at Mary Boone Gallery NY, SF MoMA, the Milwaulkee Museum, the Carnegie Museum, and the Guggenheim, to name a few. Bleckner has also participated in numerous international shows both solo and group, including the Guild Hall Museum East Hampton NY and the Kunsthaus Zurish Switzerland.

“A spiritual search in art is looking for meaning outside of yourself”
- Ross Bleckner.

Bleckner is also interested in social justice. Earlier this year he brought art materials with him when he traveled to Uganda. Once there he worked with children from Uganda's war-torn Gulu region, introducing them to expression through color and brush. The New York Times tells the story here. Paintings from that trip will be auctioned at a benefit this spring in conjunction with the announcement of Bleckner's appointment as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

On View: Top: "Birdland", 2000, Oil on Linen, 96"x96", by Ross Bleckner. Courtesy of Ross Bleckner. Above: "Inheritance", 2003, Oil on linen, 72" x 72", by Ross Bleckner. Courtesy of Ross Bleckner.

Catherine Robles Shaw is an artist who learned about 'santera' as a child. She writes, "My first exposure to this art form came when, as a child, I visited the churches in the San Luis Valley. My family had been among the first settlers in the Conejos land grant and lived in Mogote and Las Mesitas, Colorado. After visiting old churches in Chimayo and northern New Mexico, as an adult, I came to realize the meaning of the little retablos that had been in our family. In 1991, I began making retablos for my family and friends. Then in 1995, when I was admitted into the Spanish Market, I became a full time artist."

Her award-winning work has been documented in a short film, viewable here.

Robles Shaw continues, "As a Santera (Saint Maker), I hope to preserve some of the unique traditions of my Hispanic culture. Retablos are the story tellers of my ancestors. They are the natural extension of the beauty and simplicity of our Spanish lives. My husband, Michael and I aspire to represent our work with as much historic accuracy as possible.

"My art process uses the same materials that were used in the 18th and 19th centuries. Retablos are flat hand carved wooden boards made from local woods, such as pine and aspen. Bultos are three dimensional carvings made of cottonwood root and local woods. Next I coat the piece with gesso, which is made from gypsum and rabbit skin glue. This is the foundation for the natural paints. I use plant and insect extracts as well as mineral colored earth’s for my paints. The painted piece is then coated with the Pinion Sap Varnish which is made by dissolving pitch nuggets in grain alcohol (mula). The finished pieces are waxed and prepared for display. Each piece is one of a kind."

On View: The Passion Altar Screen Installed in Grace Episcopal Church, Carlsbad, NM by Catherine Robles Shaw

See more of Catherine Robles Shaw's work In: Gifts 2009 An Open Studio Exhibition of The Artists Registry, a division of ECVA.

“I am interested in emulating the art of other epochs with which I feel an affinity, and without apology,” says Ruth Weisberg. Weisberg’s appreciation for the history of art is a particularly intimate one, as seen through the lens of her own experience as a painter-printmaker. Implicit in Weisberg’s work is the assertion that contemporary art is not separable from the art of earlier periods. She says: “Art history becomes part of the imaginative life of the artist; we are in what I call a ‘dialogue’ with the past.”

Weisberg’s dialogue with Cagnacci’s masterpiece began in 2006. Contemplating this painting, Weisberg created a series of more than 20 paintings, monumental-size drawings and monotypes. Cagnacci’s ambitious pictorial narrative weaves together a number of emotive themes, including repentance, anger and the triumph of virtue over vice—all of which were topical subjects during the Catholic Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. Weisberg explores and transforms these themes through the tradition of figurative art and the personal arena of memory and relationships. Indeed, she depicts herself and her family members as Cagnacci’s characters. In so doing, the artist reconfigures the emotional power of a specific reference by modifying it through her own beliefs and experiences.

~ from the press release for Ruth Weisberg: Guido Cagnacci and the Resonant Image , organized by Gloria Williams Sander, Curator, Norton Simon Museum. On view concurrently to Ruth Weisberg was Under the Influence: Art-Inspired Art, a complementary exhibition that explores the ways in which artists have been influenced by and responded to the works of others. More than 45 artworks from the Norton Simon collections were featured in the exhibition.

On View: Top, Martha Rebuking Mary for her Vanity by Guido Cagnacci, after 1660, Oil, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA; bottom, “The Blessing,” 2008, Ruth Weisberg, Oil and mixed media painting on canvas 80" x 96".

If we are not careful, when we use the word 'war' we unconsciously depersonalize a complex set of events, humanly made and humanly lived. War is composed of acts of bravery and courage, senseless destruction and depravity, physical and mental injury, costly and at times unachievable rehabilitation, loss of life, civilization and history, the reclaiming of justice, small victories, monumental defeats, un-rightable wrongs and ungrateful beneficiaries.

Photographer Suzanne Opton removes the whitewashing from the some of the tidiness of the word 'war.' She photographed American soldiers returning to Fort Drum between tours of duty in Afganistan and Iraq. She then traveled to Amman, Jordan, where she photographed Iraqis who fled their homes since the US-led invasion.

Ms. Opton's 'Soldier + Citizen' project was been featured in Witness: Casualties of War at Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles. Her Soldier Billboard Project was blogged here at Episcopal Cafe.

The Art Blog joins with the staff of Episcopal Cafe in remembering with deep gratitude and abiding thanksgiving those who have given their lives so that "the freedom of the human spirit shall go on."

An Interview with Ms. Kaze Gadway
Lay Diocesan Youth Minister
Episcopal Church of St. George
Holbrook to Winslow, AZ

by Sue Reynolds

Ms. Kaze Gadway works with at-risk Native youth ages 12-18 from several parishes in Arizona’s Northeastern high plateau country. It’s an area of dying towns. The economy’s railroad lifeblood has drained away, leaving an already-challenged Native population struggling with deepening poverty, domestic violence, addiction and continuing racism.

She observes, “Native ceremonies give an important spiritual connection to the whole community.”

The youth Gadway works with are in Probation Court, or Juvenile Detention, or they’re calling her for a ride home from the hospital after a severe beating from a relative, because their parents are drunk, broke or both.

The youth are mainly Navajo, Hopi, Kiowa. They are from St. Paul's in Winslow and St.George's in Holbrook.

50 are in a recovery addiction program Gadway runs. About 40 come to events – hikes, retreats and music jams – she organizes.

In charge of the only Native American program in the Diocese of Arizona, Gadway believes meeting Native people’s challenges begins with programs, not donations.

Reservation retreats connect youth separated from their Native identity with traditions that rebuild it. Kids visiting the all-Navajo Church of the Good Shepherd see Native culture everywhere in parish life there, and they’re impressed.

Gadway has integrated storytelling – a skill at the heart of Native life – with today’s video and computer technology that teens love.

The result: a grant-funded program put video tools and training in the hands of Native youth who need to discover – and tell – their tribal and personal stories. The movie they made of Native, Hispanic and White “tribes” may not be ready for Sundance, but it’s made a world of difference in how these young Native filmmakers see themselves.

Their new sense of self and growing confidence is powerful medicine. They hope to tell more video stories to heal, about what they know too well: addiction and suicide.

A recent trip sent Native youth to serve the homeless in Southern California soup kitchens. It changed how they see themselves, for the good.

“We’re Native Americans and we’re giving something to someone else,” is how Gadway puts it. They’ve gained dignity from realizing that homelessness isn’t a disease, and that, for some, it’s not a disaster either.

Racism in this region, Gadway says, is unbelievable.

Even today, a high school graduation rite of passage – 30-plus years after the American Indian Movement held Alcatraz and Wounded Knee and got America’s collective attention – is white teens beating up drunken Natives in alleys.

But Gadway looks ahead, gathering music and sound equipment so her kids can jam in the new Drop In center when it’s finished. It will have crafts – like tagging (graffiti) in a safe place – and maybe the tutoring parents want for their kids.

She says, “We take lots of trips. We go to Diocesan Convention, National Convention, so the kids can see alternatives to their own lives.”

About the Author: Sue Reynolds is a documentary photographer based in the San Francisco Bay area. Since 2005, she has photographed and interviewed Native people across the West. Her "Proud People: Nations within a Nation" book, "On the Powwow Trail" article, and slide lectures have touched many and received enthusiastic reviews.

On View: Blurring Drum Beats, Montana, photograph by Sue Reynolds. This image and two dozen others, are on view at Gallery 1055 through July 24, 2009. Gallery 1055, 1055 Taylor Steret, San Francisco.