Jo Diane Kasper at Bright Rain Gallery

Last Friday’s ARTScrawl led me to Old Town where I met angel artist, Jo Diane Kasper at Bright Rain Gallery. As the featured artist of the month, Jo’s mystical combinations of oils, pastels and watercolors filled an entire wall at the gallery. Each of her paintings are beautifully framed to accentuate the haunting subtlety of spirituality that runs throughout all of her artwork.

Jo grew up in the mountains of Arizona, studied fine art and photographic art at Arizona State University and the University of Iowa.  She lived in New York City for many years working in fine art photography and exploring several fields including horticulture. Jo returned to the Southwest in 1997 and made New Mexico her home. 

Growing up in Arizona gave Jo a deep love and appreciation for the subtle and often mysterious beauty of the land and the ancient places of the Southwest. Her angel paintings, watercolors, sepias, and oil paintings of these ancient ruins and sacred places capture the divine and mystical connections between Spirit, Nature, and Humans. Her paintings reflect these connections in a transcendent impressionistic technique; evoking a sense of the precious and eternal oneness of the universe in which we live.

Along with being an angel artist, Jo is also an angel reader. Her gifts include dream interpretation, animal communication, situational assessments and counseling with extended personal sessions of guidance in ongoing life experiences as well as business. Her understanding is that we are all connected to each other, to our planet and to our universe. She believes that the divine energy of Spirit flows through all that is. Jo's specialty is her angel reading and pastel, in which she combines an Angelic psychic reading with a pastel drawing of the Guardian Angel she "sees" with the client.

Jo Diane Kasper’s art show will hang through April 30th, at Bright Rain Gallery located in Old Town’s Patio Market, 206 1/2 San Felipe NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104, (505) 843-9176, www.brightraingallery.com

Tamara Coatsworth "EYE-conic" glass art exhibition

Last Friday, I was in search of a new art experience. I had reviewed watercolors, oils, acrylics, lithographs, and metal art. I wanted to find an exhibit that would literally move my heart and dazzle my mind. I found so much more when I stepped inside Palette Contemporary Art & Craft gallery to see Tamara Coatsworth’s glass art show.

JOLLY TIME, FUSED GLASS, ENAMELS, TORCHWORKED, SANDBLASTED, ACID ETCHED

Primarily inspired by nostalgic pop culture, Tamara precisely explores the iconic nature of everyday items. Observers will be amazed at her attention-to-detail spent when it comes to skillfully utilizing a wide array of glass-making techniques including torch work, fusing, sandblasting, acid-etching, and elaborate enamels to create original artwork that lovingly replicates items such as movie-theater popcorn, a box of matches, or beautifully decorated cupcakes. Tamara’s artistry will appeal to your many senses while her familiar objects are assured to evoke fond memories as she brings them to life using the medium of glass.

ENDANGERED, FUSED GLASS, ENAMELS, TORCHWORKED, SANDBLASTED, ACID ETCHED

Palette Contemporary Art & Craft, located in Albuquerque, New Mexico features a variety of contemporary fine art glass, original paintings, limited edition signed prints, ceramics, marbles, and wearable art. It searches locally and abroad to bring a collection of contemporary art and craft with a colorful edge and clean lines by both emerging and renowned artists.

CUPCAKES, CAST GLASS, 3.5 X 3.5 INCHES

Tamara Coatsworth’s show, “EYE-conic,” will hang through May 3rd at Palette Contemporary Art & Craft gallery, 7400 Montgomery Blvd. NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109, (505) 855-7777, www.palettecontemporary.com

Edge of Color - Tamarind artists examine color as form, from 1960s to present

This week I ventured over to the University of New Mexico to view the group exhibition at the Tamarind Gallery featuring the works of Garo Antreasian, Valerie Arber, Frederick Hammersley, Robert Kelly, Nicholas Krushenick, John McLaughlin, Ruth Root, Leon Polk Smith and William Turnbull. The Edge of Color show includes a spectrum of lithographs, from the 1960s to the present, with geometric, hard edge color as a pure form in itself.

The Tamarind Lithography Workshop was established in Los Angeles in 1960 by artist June Wayne with funding from the Ford Foundation. Its goal was to bring attention to process of lithography—a method of printmaking invented in the late 18th century—and bolster its use among a new generation of artists. During its years in Los Angeles, the workshop was run by Wayne, Clinton Adams, and Garo Antreasian. In 1970, when funding had run out, Tamarind became affiliated with the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, where it remains today.

The Tamarind Institute opened in 2010 to celebrate Tamarind’s 50th anniversary. It’s gallery exhibits and sells original, limited edition lithographs and monotypes created at Tamarind by visiting artists working side-by-side with collaborative printers. Revenue from these sales partially supports the institutes’s educational and research programs, as does revenue from projects with artists who contract for pressroom service. 

After viewing this provocative and cutting edge exhibit, I started to wonder where are the artists today. According to Shelly Smith of the Tamarind Institute, “Valerie Arber currently lives and works as an artist in Marfa, Texas. Frederick Hammersley (January 5, 1919 – May 31, 2009) has a show now at Los Angeles Louver, and is one of the most important artists in evolution of abstraction in post-war Los Angeles. Robert Kelly, lives and works in New York City and Santa Fe (represented by Chiarscurro Gallery). Ruth Root also lives and works in New York City. Nicholas Krushenick (May 31, 1929 – February 5, 1999), John McLaughlin (May 21, 1898 – March 22, 1976), and Leon Polk Smith  (1906-1996) are all deceased. William Turnbull (born January 11, 1922, Dundee, Scotland) had a show back in 1997 at Waddington Custot Galleries in London.”

Edge of Color will run through May 25, 2012 at the Tamarind Gallery at UNM, 2500 Central Avenue SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, (505) 277-3901, http://tamarind.unm.edu