Latest / Arizona Unscripted / Episode 9: 🌵 Arizona Unscripted - Let's talk about the Arizona Art Scene!
Transcript
- Arizona Unscripted: Welcome to Arizona Unscripted. I'm your host, Bart, alongside my wonderful co-host Diane, Jim and Catherine. Hello, Bart. Hey hey, Diane. Hi, Bart. Hi, Bart. I can hear it back there. ⁓ from time to time we we'll be joined by, of course, special pop-in guests, which Catherine today is going to introduce in a second here. But first of all, I want our audience to know about ⁓ who have haven't listened to us perhaps. We're all about Arizona. It's people, places, events, and the local issues that shape our everyday lives. You know, from small towns to big cities, from hidden gems. ⁓ we've been hearing a lot about hidden gems, which has been great. Great local food, the history, culture, and challenges facing our communities. We're here to have real conversation with real Arizonans and perhaps bring in some great suggestions to help the communities. Yeah, that's our goals is simply to celebrate what makes Arizona unique while bringing together voices from every corner of the state. So whether you're a lifelong resident, newcomer, or just someone who loves Arizona, we hope you'll feel right at home here. So grab a cup of coffee or something cool. Sit back and join us as we explore the people, places, and stories that make Arizona one the most fascinating states in America. Welcome to Arizona Unscripted. With that, I'm going to pass it over to you, Diane, Jim, and Catherine. Here you go. Hello. It's so great to be back here. Bart and yeah, I am going to turn it over to Catherine to introduce our guests today. Yes. Thank you, Diane. I'm so happy to be here today. I wanna first, we've got four wonderful guests today. The first one I want to introduce is Jan Clatt. I've known Jan for a long time. And ⁓ every time I go to an art event in Havasu, there's Jan. with her and so we get a chance to just kind of stay in touch ⁓ with that stuff. So she's gonna tell us about what's going on. She is the president of the Havasu Art Guild. So she's gonna talk to us about that. Then we have Carol Campbell who is involved with the art scene up in Kingman. So we're gonna ask her to talk to us about that. And then we have Connie and Daniel from Graham County. I think they're both from Graham County. And Gila. Heela, Gila. He Connie is Gila. Sorry about that. And Daniel's Graham. So we're gonna hear about what's going on down in those counties. Fantastic. I mean, I can't wait. I mean, art is such a I mean when I think of art in Arizona, I just think it's like this thing that Arizona just has to was the birthplace of, it feels like. It's got if you if you people have driven through Arizona and gone to all the different places, stores and and shops and such, I mean you see some of course southwestern, you know, art of course, but it's just a the variety. Amazing. So I am I am really excited about this. So please proceed. Well, welcome. Yes. I know as we're we've talked about our road trips and the different counties that we go to. And as I'm driving around, I just think there probably is not a more beautiful place in the entire world than Arizona. And what a great place to be an artist. So welcome, Jan and Carol. Tell us a little bit about yourselves and What is going on in the art world where you are? Okay, I'm Jan Clatt and ⁓ I've been the president of the Havasu Art Guild for the last two years, lived in Lake Havasu since ⁓ three. And ⁓ I wasn't a part of the Art Guild until much later ⁓ in my arrival here. In fact, I I joined the year that COVID clo closed us all down. That was an interesting experience in and of itself. ⁓ But what I really want to tell you about today is the ⁓ Art Guild. We ⁓ we provide several advantages to the artists here in town ⁓ and in the surrounding areas. We have four shows a year. ⁓ Two of them are one-day shows and two of them are two-day shows. The one-day shows are considered expos and they're mainly attended by ⁓ the locals. And the artists who ⁓ display at these, ⁓ currently our venue is the Mount Olive Lutheran Church in town. It allows us to have about 20 to 25 different artists displaying. And ⁓ the fall one ⁓ comes in October. We typic typically have had one in January or February, but our membership didn't like January because we have new events. coming in February that they had to get art ready and Christmas was just over. So ⁓ we moved it to February and now February is becoming a bit problematic because we have new art events. Okay. I don't I'm sure all of you have heard of the Habasu Art Trail. This will be ⁓ its fifth year. So ⁓ it's moving along too. And I don't want to spoil the thunder on that. I think ⁓ Talking to the person who created the Havasu Art Trail, Brenda Gibbs, would be ⁓ a great later session that we can do. Yeah. But ⁓ the two big shows that we have each year is the holiday shop. And it's always the second ⁓ the excuse me, the weekend after Thanksgiving, always. It's at the aquatic center and we decorate with Christmas decor and all of the artists that are there generally anywhere from forty-five to nearly sixty artists ⁓ can be displaying. Yes, it's a very full room. Everyone decorates for Christmas. So we have a huge, huge variety of goods. It's not just paintings and oils and acrylics. ⁓ we actually now have an artist who ⁓ does floor painting or as in P O U R. She's pouring acrylic behind to Canvas, yes. And ⁓ she is also printing it on clothing. Yeah. And she is selling that as her art as well. You mean like she literally pours it on a surface and then she artistically pours it on a surface in a way. Yes. I mean artistically pouring it. There's ⁓ chemistry involved as well because the chemistry can help the ⁓ paints move and create shapes that you wouldn't ordinarily get. Because obviously you don't want the colors to come together and create mud. You want them to stay separate and ⁓ grow and kind of explode on the canvas in very different ways. So it's not just painting, it's actually artistic processing. It's it's the process that she wow and there's output of course that's that comes from that. And ⁓ that's that's stunning. Exactly. Is she is she ⁓ is one of the highlights of the show or is this ⁓ there's probably something there may be many of them, but she's she ⁓ what's her it's it's actually ⁓ still pretty new. Okay. ⁓ a lot of people are just seeing it. She goes to a lot of shows, Kingman, Bullhead City, ⁓ okay ⁓ all sorts of surrounding areas. and but I found it very interesting when she presented the first clothing. ⁓ because I thought, wow. clothing at an art show and then I realized that it was her designs that she has on a canvas. You can actually look at the canvas and then look at the clothing and see that same design on the piece of clothing. It's it's very cool. So ⁓ at the next holiday shop, I'm sure she will be there. ⁓ All of her glory things there. And ⁓ it should be a lot of fun. So the holiday shop is a is a main focal point at the end of the year. And ⁓ we do quite a bit of business. ⁓ again, it's a Saturday and Sunday show. We also ⁓ raise money for our scholarship at that show. We have a raffle and we have a bake sale that happens during those two days, and we raise money for our scholarships that we give to the local high school students. Yeah, wow. Yeah. That's neat. How how'd you get involved in this? I mean, so I mean being president takes time away from your art. If you're an art you sound you're an artist, obviously you must be an artist or l art lover at least. Well, to be perfectly honest, I have not created much art in the last two years. But it's been ⁓ it has been a challenge, but ⁓ I have taken several commissions from people because they were ⁓ they really wanted something ⁓ memorable. And ⁓ one of the things that I do in my resin work is I preserve flowers in resin. And the first major ⁓ work I did was ⁓ for the flowers that I got ⁓ when my husband passed. I wanted to preserve some. So I took flowers from everything I received and I put them in resin hearts. So the heart is pretty huge, it's about seven or eight inches. They're about two and a half inches deep. So it's enough to have the whole flower just floating in the resin. And so I've had a couple of commissions this year involving that. And so I just made the time because I know personally how special that is. And in fact, this weekend I just delivered two hearts and six coasters to a lady who ⁓ lost her father. And ⁓ it was ⁓ it was emotional ⁓ picking all of that up on some days involved for me. Well th there's also chemistry involved in that too. That's ca using resins and all that, there's chemistry, right? You gotta figure out what resin to use and how the flowers will react to it. And I mean, my gosh, it's gotta be Yes, even the drying process has an effect on how ⁓ the flowers look in the resin and ⁓ whether you're pouring deep. or pouring shallow because when resin cures, it heats up and it gets extremely hot. And that can actually burn the flowers and ripple the top of the ⁓ of the heart. So there's there is a lot of stuff in it. But ⁓ since I started all of that again at the beginning of COVID, I have plenty of time to sit and study all the nuances surrounding resin work. Can you make like jewelry and stuff with it? Can I mean is it is it is it such that you could make like a earrings and necklaces? I've made earrings and necklaces. You can make them transparent with colors, with flowers. ⁓ I've done a couple of scenes on trays, ⁓ you know like a serving tray okay I've done a scene and put ⁓ with flowers and different things that I've cut out and made and then put resin over it to preserve the whole thing. That's awesome. ⁓ I do cutting boards and and that sort of thing as well. But ⁓ for just a moment I want to get back to what the art guild is doing because ⁓ yeah deep dive into it. ⁓ I really want to say something about our art at the lake, which is our our ⁓ Second two-day show that we do. And it is ⁓ one of the few judged shows in the area. We actually get judges from outside of the ⁓ of our local area so that they are not known by the artists here in Lake Kavasu. Typically our shows are only for our members, but this particular show we invite artists that are non-members to participate as well. And each artist can present as many as six pieces. They can put them all in one category or disperse them among several categories, ⁓ depending on what it what it is they do. Some work in oils and watercolors. So we have an oil category, a watercolor category, all different sorts of categories. There's about 20 different categories that we have now. We're trying to pair that down a little bit. ⁓ but it's ⁓ it's a very popular show. This year we brought back the Friday night event, which is where we invite anybody who is ⁓ anybody in ⁓ Lake Havasoo to attend. It's an evening event. We cater it. We had music from a high school jazz group this year. ⁓ it was the first time we've had it since COVID and it went over extremely well. So I think we'll be able to do that every year as we move forward. And amazingly enough, that was the 47th year of the Art Guild. We actually formed in 1978. And during that initial formation, I have kind of a funny story here. I think all of you heard about the time capsules that were opened up, the twenty-five year time capsule. Okay. One thing they found out is that cement doesn't keep the water out that's in the soil. So all of these containers that were put by different businesses, individual people, there were there were dozens and dozens of these containers put in there. And the Havasu Art Guild was one. And ⁓ I actually got a call from one of the people on the city council. To come and do the opening in the mayor's office or the city council's office upstairs. And ⁓ it was interesting, but also a little soggy because everything had gotten so all of the containers, they were plastic, the containers were plastic, but the lids were not airtight. So water got into everything. So for a lot of the stuff. It ⁓ didn't work out quite as well. ⁓ we did have some ⁓ smart artists on our end that actually laminated their art piece in the time capsule. So that one was per preserved beautifully. We had another artist ⁓ who did a cloth item, ⁓ like a doily, okay, and that came out fine. ⁓ the artist who put in a little mechanical creature. Okay, I can't even tell you what it was because there was so much rust built up on it that you couldn't actually distinguish what it was. So it was kind of interesting, all of us in the city council office opening the various time capsules and pulling out the soggy papers and the things that just kind of literally fell apart in your hand. ⁓ it was it was very interesting. So that's awesome. ⁓ thank you. We have to look forward to there's a 50th ⁓ time capsule, which will be opened in another 25 years. And I understand that there's also a 75 year time capsule. ⁓ so ⁓ I don't know how well the 50 is going to do now that we all know that cement doesn't keep the water out, but Well, I was gonna say that art is one of those unifiers, right? It stretches across the state into different communities and obviously time. I'm also an artist, and so I really love this episode because also for me I've been super busy, so my art was put on hold. But Carol is here because Carol and I came together through art and I had donated some art to a fundraiser and Carol had purchased it and it was an experience so they could come and do art with me. And so Carol came in with a fellow artist. And Carol, hello. Thank you for being here. And you're very involved in the art community in Kingman. Tell us a little bit about the gallery. Okay. ⁓ so I started with the gallery, I think 2017 or 18. ⁓ And just as an artist for a while, I'm a photographer mainly, ⁓ and I do some digital art, but then I got asked to step up and become the submissions coordinator for the gallery side. So that that's kind of involved, but ⁓ we actually have a building. ⁓ we have a gallery that's open all year, and it has a gift shop on the other side. Which is also all local artists. ⁓ and we range everything from on the gift shop side from like cards and magnets and small paintings, ⁓ couple t-shirts, ⁓ mug, ⁓ even felted wizards. So here you go. And so that's really interesting. ⁓ And they have we're kind of have a little section of Route 66 stuff since we're right there on Route 66. ⁓ so in the gallery side, we change our ⁓ displays about every seven weeks or so. ⁓ and we have general gallery shows where there's multiple artists, like up to probably 30 different artists. ⁓ and then in between we have a sh a little bit shorter six week show where we pick four to five artists that ⁓ have been showing and so we kind of highlight them. So ⁓ that's really fun. Mostly because they get to hang their own stuff and I don't have to do it. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work having a gallery. It is. And I've I've watched that and I love how it's so unifying and it's so different. I will say going in the gallery is one of my stress busters. ⁓ I love to go in there and see how different people show up in spaces and how they view that differently. And I know we've got Daniel from Graham and Connie from Gila who also have art going on. Obviously it's in all of our communities, but I love what you all are doing in in this world and we actually had changed the graphic for our podcast and we went with a Navajo artist. ⁓ we had hoped she'd be able to be here today ⁓ but we'll have her on a future episode to come and talk about that because we really wanted to honor local artists in in the things in the spaces that we are showing up. So Carol, we're going to come back to you. Connie, I want to hop over to you real quick. ⁓ you got some fun things coming up in Gila County. Yeah, we do. ⁓ Globe and Miami have the ⁓ Cobra Valley Center for the Arts and they don't have anything scheduled on their website yet, but Globe and Miami are kind of like twin cities at the southern end of the county. And ⁓ they have multiple galleries. And one of the things I really love is one is the one of the galleries focuses on copper. which of course is mined in Hila County. And I I just like the way that that the two sides of what's happening in the county come together in this one gallery where they they focus on copper. And in Payson we have the Rim Country Artists and we they don't have their own building yet. That's something they're working on. But Noli's Books Art and Whatnot, which is a relatively new business in town. ⁓ they do both books, which I I'm I'm an author, and they do art and it's all kinds of art from paintings, oil and watercolor to ⁓ little things people craft out of wire or felt or whatever is really cool. And then ⁓ photography, of course, and my husband's a photographer too, so that's that's really I think ⁓ a a a good point for the for the community for b for all the community of the whole county. And then of course the community college has several classes running all year long. Theater arts, pottery, photography, painting. I mean the in the in the community colleges both in the northern part of the county and the southern part, which makes it very easy for people to come to the college, whether they're in the southern half or the northern half of the county, and and just get involved. It's a lot of these are are not ⁓ they're ⁓ community building ⁓ type classes, not necessarily for for credit, you know. And I think it's a good support for the entire community ⁓ countywide. That is awesome. I I'm really excited about this. I was just thinking about how does somebody get into art? How does what classes can people take? I'm thinking we need to do another episode. ⁓ and I do want to come back to Carol because they've had an artist there that does art with animal bones. And they also, I'm not kidding. and they also do a really fun show where they have students or kids and then adults that ⁓ partner up with that. So I am hoping that you all will join us for another episode so we can continue this conversation and let's talk about that. And let's talk about how people can plug into classes and whatnot. So everybody starts somewhere, right? Everybody starts somewhere. And there's a lot of people that are I think they're hesitant, right? It's like I know my mom, my mom She is now ninety-two and she started doing watercolors a few years ago. Wow. And you know what? She always said, ⁓ I'm not very good, you know, I'm just my friend asked me to do it. And and and she's doing great. I mean, I I looked at it and I go, man, that is really good. So she is one of the people that decided to take a little little stab at it, right? And I'm sure our a lot of our listeners, people out there right now just thinking about it. Because Arizona, there's just so much to do over there with art in in all form, whether it's you know, using resin or pouring ⁓ all the way to regular paintings and sculptures and I mean everything. So gosh, it's what a and having yeah, we have to come back and talk about the classes because one of the one of our goals on the podcast here is to get our listeners out there to tr maybe try something different, have some fun, really go out through their dreams a little bit, see if they can do it. And we can help them with little tips and tricks and things. Obviously we can help them out. Absolutely. So some of the features Go ahead. Jan. One of the features when you're talking about education, one of the features we have during our meeting is we try to make our business side of our general ⁓ membership meeting as short as possible. Then we take a quick break, and then we have an artist that we've invited, one of the members typically, ⁓ to come in and give us a presentation on how they got started, maybe what is their unique. feature of their particular ⁓ creations and how they got started. And that has been extremely informative and very entertaining for ⁓ to learn about ⁓ all of these different things in photography. I didn't know that there were all these different cameras with different special lenses that add light, take light away and all sorts of other things. And ⁓ it's just been amazing to me. So we try to bring to our meetings a little bit of that education scene on all sorts of topics. I mean, and is there like it must be really accessible for people? I mean, they can get on get involved. I mean, does it is it do they have to have experience to start? Or is it one of those things where they can kind of like just come to listen? No, we we invite everyone to our meetings. it's not just a member. ⁓ we have guests that come back. I get it. Some people non-members can come too, right? They could actually check it out. Okay. All right. Yes. Non-members are are welcome. ⁓ like I said, we try to keep the business side of it short and ⁓ then get into the presentation that the artists we've asked to come in and and talk to us. So yes. Wonderful. And in bullhead. The River Valley Artist Guild got involved with the community by painting all the utility boxes in books. And they are gorgeous. They are wonderful. Yeah, they did a great job. Yes, you can find them on Facebook and it's absolutely beautiful. I saw that it was in several newspapers recently. And what an improvement in the community. That is so incredible. Thank you for bringing that up, Carol. I had forgotten about that. So art are I mean, Mart, I know we need to wrap up here, but let's definitely do another conversation together about art. We have so many wonderful things we can talk about. Probably more than one. Probably more than one conversation. We have a lot we have there's all kinds of I mean, now that I have my my I get my resin kit out now. Sure. Yeah. I love resin. Resin art is awesome. Alright, well thank you everybody for being here with us today. We look forward to having you on another episode. Thanks so much everybody. Have a good day.