AVA’s ArtReach program invites you to join artists LIVE via Zoom each week.
Get a glimpse into the creative minds of experienced artists as they take you through the art-making process – from beginning with a blank canvas or raw materials, through decisions about themes, materials, media, colors, techniques, and other aspects of their practice. Flyers for new ArtReach sessions are emailed every Monday. To get on the e-mail list for current and future ArtReach sessions, or have any questions about the program, please email mike@avagallery.org.
ArtReach airs live via Zoom every Friday at 10:00AM. Click the Zoom Link below to connect:
https://avagallery-org.zoom.us/j/87682672902?pwd=djJ4TmVpMEkwQWczT3FraVVGZDlOZz09
Meeting ID: 876 8267 2902 Passcode: 628249
UPCOMING: August 5. Teresa Taylor: Daily Rituals
Teresa Taylor is a NH-based ceramicist. Her work is inspired by natural and botanical forms, and she works both sculpturally and functionally. Often including pattern and drawn elements, the pieces are painterly with lively surfaces.
The artist exhibits across NH and the Northeast and has participated in a number of public art projects. Taylor is a juried member of the NH League of Craftsmen, the NH Potter’s Guild and a participating Artist-in-Education though the NH State Council for the Arts. She is also president of the planning committee for North Country Studio works. Her studio and shop, Salty Dog Pottery, was established in 1973 in Barnstead, NH in the Lakes Region. The demo will be live from her studio and she will be showing her process for wheel throwing and incorporating hand-built elements.
Nature influences the forms and surfaces of my work. Clay is a material that encourages me to create sculptural and functional pieces. As a studio potter, I attempt to create beautiful, function pottery for everyday use. I hope to maintain an energetic human spirit within my handmade pottery, along with providing pleasure, while using these objects during daily rituals.
-The Artist
July 29. Yasamin Safarzadeh: Light & Dark
Yasamin Safarzadeh is an Iranian-American artist, poet and activist. She is a native Angelino with an MFA and BFA in multimedia art representation and is currently working on her MBA.
Yasamin is actively engaged in the community and has taught in inner city programs throughout Los Angeles and Manchester. She has a handful of publications through her poetry and examinations of traumatic lived experiences of impoverished bipoc and queer youth. She has developed art programs and uplifting events for underserved populations for almost a decade out of Los Angeles, Manchester and now Concord.
Her visceral mixed media works pull from a range of subjects and abstractions, often including figures in collaged spaces with allusions to history. The works explore a wide range of charged subjects in both abstract and literal ways, from trauma to self image, gender and inequality. The artist will be doing a demonstration in mixed media and discussing some of the ideas behind the works.
July 22. Bob Dorr: Sculptural Embroidery
Bob Dorr is a NH-based embroidery and mixed media artist. He creates intricate fiber-art brooches, garments and sculptures. The artist also works with mixed media, with an emphasis on layering similar to his fiber works. He is a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen and has won numerous awards for his work. He shows his work regionally. Dorr is also an educator and teaches at Kimball Jenkins School of Art. The artist will be demonstrating techniques in create three-dimensional elements in embroidery.
Dorr works with a variety of embroidery techniques to create sculptural pieces. The artist pulls from a number of historic and esoteric methods and is one of a handful of people working with certain embroidery techniques, namely off-fabric trailing, and has demonstrated the technique to aid conservators at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
July 8. Tyler Morrison: Craft & Utility in Ceramics
Tyler Morrison is a NH-based ceramicist and educator. His focus is on functional work, emphasizing simplicity, sustainability, self-reliance, and humility. A lot of the work is made from recycled material, processed from studio waste. Primarily focusing on wheel throwing, Morrison also mixes his own glazes and prepares his clay. He is also an educator and teaches ceramic classes at AVA Gallery.
Morrison’s work pulls from historic ceramic processes and potters, wabi-sabi and traditional ceramic techniques. His wheel throwing techniques are adapted from industrial pottery techniques of Southeast Asia, and his aesthetic is heavily influenced by folk potters of Japan and England. Morrison will be demonstrating his process for throwing, and discussing firing and glazing. The demo will include a tour of the AVA ceramic studio.
“I see pottery making as a vehicle for social well-being, and the studio as a temple of civic virtue. Local production of pottery is one method of teaching our society about labor, a way to introduce important behaviors like cooperation, and a means to create community self-sufficiency. -The Artist
July 1. Mary Mead:Experimental Printmaking
Mary Mead will be demonstrating her processes for printmaking. Mead moves freely from sculpture, printmaking and work on paper in a variety of media. The artist often combines printmaking methods to produce engaging works that toggle between abstraction and depicting of nature. She earned her BS Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin/Madison, with a concentration in sculpture. Mead teaches at Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, Chases Garage, Kimball Jenkins School of Art, and AVA Gallery and Art Center.
As a surfer, Mead’s recent work explores the movement and currents of the sea. More broadly her work explores the changing climate, and natural forms and landscapes explored in abstract ways.
June 24. Victoria Elbroch: Drafting Trees
Victoria Elbroch is a Maine-based artist. She creates meticulous drawings and etchings of ancient trees. Elbroch studied etching in Florida and at the University of Oklahoma, also spending three years working with master printmaker, Loraine Moore. She has continued to take every opportunity to learn and evolve in the 42 years she has made her living from her art. The artist was born in England, and has also lived in India and Pakistan. In 2020, she spent 6 weeks in the UK meticulously drawing ancients trees. Elbroch exhibits nationally, and has won numerous awards for her prints and drawings.