PUBLISHED BY THE MENDOCINO ART CENTER

ART AND CULTURE IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

MendocinoArtsSummer 2012COMPLIMENTARY

45052 Main Street, Mendocino, CA 707 937-3132 • www.thehighlightgallery.com

For the Art Collector and the Craft Lover

GALLERY OF DECORATIVE AND FINE ARTS

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The Mendocino Art Center Needs You!Support the Arts by becoming a Member,

and give yourself the gift of art…Become a Mendocino Art Center member – and a “MAC Insider” – with newly added benefits for joining, and please consider joining at the highest possible level. Your membership directly supports the Mendocino Art Center, bringing vital cultural programs to the community, including unique gallery shows, youth programs, low-cost open studios, art fairs and musical concerts, world-class art workshops taught by some of the country’s finest instructors, exhibition opportunities for local and national artists, and Mendocino Arts magazine.

Benefits at all levels:10% discount on each workshop registration. 15% discount for ❖Mendocino County MAC members.Artist exhibit opportunities in the gallery and gallery shop. ❖

Special artist invitations to participate in Members’ Juried Exhibits. ❖

Members only discounts at participating businesses — lodging, art supplies, ❖etc.Mailing of MAC publications and event information. ❖

Waiver of $25 per workshop non-refundable registration fee. ❖

Discounts at Suburban Propane, CALSTAR and ❖REACH.

For details: www.MendocinoArtCenter.org/membership.htmlIndividual $50 ❏

Household $90 ❏

Student $25 ❏

Senior $25 ❏

Supporter $150 ❏

Sustaining $250 ❏

Patron $500 ❏

Champion $750 ❏

Business Partner $100 ❏

Business Web Site ❏Sponsor $500Zacha Legacy Society ❏$1,000Zacha Legacy Society ❏$2,500

MeMBeRsHiP CateGORies:

Sign me up to be a Mendocino Art Center Member today!

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Address

City

State Zip Phone

E-mail___ Check (payable to Mendocino Art Center)___ Bill my q Visa q MasterCard

Billing Name

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Mail to: Mendocino Art CenterP.O. Box 765

Mendocino, CA 95460

individual MeMBeR: $50All of the above.

HOuseHOld MeMBeR (maximum two members): $90All of the above.

student (12+ with student ID): $25All of the above.

seniOR (70+): $25All of the above.

suPPORteR: $150All of the above and recogni-tion in a Mendocino Art Cen-ter publication.

sustaininG: $250All of the above and invitations to special gallery events.

PatROn: $500All of the above and your name on a gallery plaque.

CHaMPiOn: $750All of the above and a com-memorative tile with wording of your choice on the Zacha Tile Walkway.

Business PaRtneR: $100Listing on the Mendocino Art Center Web site.

Business WeB site sPOnsOR: $500Listing on the Mendocino Art Center Web site home page.

ZaCHa leGaCY sOCietY: $2,500 and $1,000 annual giftsAll of the above and name included on the annual Zacha Legacy Society wall; plus invi-tations to events with VIP privileges and invitations to enticing quarterly member evenings.

Summer 2012 3

Editorial: From Our Board President 5

Wendell Rickon: Treasure Rescuer 6

Jan Stussy and the Mendocino Art Center 8

Mendocino Art Center Workshops 11

Blagojce Stojanovski, Master Artist 14

Meet the Staff: Jewelry Coordinator Nancy Gardner 16

Mendocino Art Center’s Superstar Summer Instructors 19

Fabric of the Land: The Artistic Life of Laura Fogg 23

Julian Waterfall Pollack the music continues 26

Upcoming Mendocino Art Center Gallery Shows 28

Mendocino and Lake County Gallery Guide 30

Mendocino and Lake County Restaurant Guide 38

Gallery of Artists 42

Calendar of Events 46

Poetry: Devreaux Baker 48

Table of Contents Published by the Mendocino Art Center

Vol XLIII, No 2, July 2012

Mendocino Arts promotes the arts by offering space to artists, writers, craftspeople and performers and by providing information on arts and entertainment in Mendocino County. Submissions of unso-licited non-fiction articles, photographs or artwork for consideration in Mendocino Arts must include a SASE or we cannot be responsible for their return. We welcome announcements of upcoming events to be included as space permits.

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Mendocino County MuseumSPECIAL EXHIBIT:

“Veterans History: Personal”

Almost a century of personal memorabilia

Through October 2012

ROOTS OF MOTIVE POWER, Inc.See restored and working steam machines:

· Historic Logging Equipment · Steam Engines and Caboose

Browse in our Museum Shop 400 East Commercial Street, Willits, CACall 707-459-2736 for more informationEmail us at Museum@co.mendocino.ca.us

Open Wednesday through Sunday, 10:00am–4:30pm

www.MendocinoMuseum.org

Discover unique artifacts and exhibits that reflect our heritage: Frolic Shipwreck, Wine History, Stagecoaches and Wagons, Traveling Exhibits and much more.

SUMMER EXHIBITS: 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge and Bicentennial Stamps and Autographs of U.S. Leaders

Summer 2012 5

PUBLISHERMendocino Art Center

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERMike McDonald

EDITORPeggy Templer

ART DIRECTION / GRAPHIC PRODUCTIONElizabeth Petersen, RevUp Creative Media

SALESCOAST: Steven P. Worthen – 707 964-2480,

707 813-7669INLAND: Jill Schmuckley – 707 391-8057

GALLERy Of ARTISTS ADS: David Russell – 707 513-6015

SUMMER DISTRIBUTION – 15,000fALL 2012 DEADLINE – July 13, 2012

MENDOCINO ART CENTER STAffEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Lindsay ShieldsCOMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Mike McDonaldEDUCATION DIRECTOR: Karen BowersGALLERy DIRECTOR: Jessica JadeBOOKKEEPER: Virginia NeiraREGISTRAR/CASHIER: Marja KayHOUSING MANAGER: Kath Disney NilsonMASTER ARTIST STUDIO INSTRUCTOR: Blago StojanovskiPROGRAM COORDINATORS: Ceramics/Artists in Residence — Derek Hambly fiber Arts — Nancy Collins fine Art — Arlene Reiss Jewelry — Nancy GardnerfACILITIES: Gabe Arreguin

MENDOCINO ART CENTER BOARD Of DIRECTORSPRESIDENT: Liliana CunhaVICE PRESIDENT: Patrick KellerTREASURER: John CornacchiaSECRETARy: Dale Moyer

MENDOCINO ART CENTER45200 Little Lake Street • P.O. Box 765

Mendocino, CA 95460707 937-5818 • 800 653-3328

fAX: 707 937-4625register@mendocinoartcenter.org

www.MendocinoArtCenter.org

Mendocino Art Center Mission Statement:The mission of the Mendocino Art Center is to be a vital cultural resource, providing a broad range of the highest quality educational and exhibition opportunities in the arts to all people.

founded by Bill Zacha in 1959 as a nonprofit organization to support, foster, advance and promote artistic awareness and participation.

COVER IMAGE: Jan Stussy, Parachute fall, acrylic on masonite, 40" x 30".

MendocinoArtsART AND CULTURE IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

From Our Board President…

It’s hard to believe that summer is already upon us. Here in the north the days are long, staying light until 9:00pm – or later – in the evening. An opportunity to remain in the studio and create. Flowers are bloom-ing everywhere, making every garden a bouquet and inviting all to join them at the Mendocino Art Center’s 20th Anniversary Mendocino Coast Garden Tour on June 23. Students and instructors, staff and volunteers, and visitors from all over the world wander through the galleries, gardens and studios wearing summer smiles and hats. Everywhere is beauty.

The bounty of our coast’s natural beauty is only exceeded by the generosity of our members and friends. The Art Center was the recipient of a grant of $5,000 from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County for a new concrete floor and footings to be poured in the admin-istrative offices. Thank you for all you do in our community!

In July, the Art Center hosts the Jan Stussy and Maxine Stussy Frankel exhibit, “Significant Content,” in the Main Gallery. Representative works of Jan Stussy are made available from the archives of the Stussy Foundation at Woodbury University and Maxine Stussy Frankel’s work is provided by the artist. We are thrilled to bring these works to Mendocino, and I am sure you will find this a very visually exciting and stimulating exhibit.

And what summer would be complete without the Art Center’s 53rd Annual Summer Arts & Crafts Fair? Art and artists abound on the lawns, under the trees and in the courtyard, July 14 and 15. Music and more music, food, and more fun than I can make happen on this page, will all be there, too. Please, join us.

August will bring a new music series and in September, the Art Center is partnering with the Mendocino Rotary Club in the annual instructor art auction on Bidding for Good. Stay tuned to the Web site for more information on these events, and wherever you are, have a wonderful summer!

~ Liliana CunhaBoard President

SUMMER 2012

Chuck BushJanis PorterEileen RobbleeNick Schwartz

Marge StewartBob TreasterLucia Zacha

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Several chairS-in-the-making sit beside the garden at the Mendocino ridgetop land Wendell Rickon shares with his wife, Sammie, and youngest son, Tim. These chairs are getting ready for the Marin County Fair, where, for two years, Wendell has taken home cash prizes in the chair and craft divisions. A pair of quirky chairs echo Wendell’s second career as a handyman and jack-of-all-trades. On the left, carpentry; on the right, plumbing and electricity, complete with a working switch and light.

“God wires us all in unique ways,” Wendell explains matter-of-factly. “I’m a lifelong recycler, starting as a child, before it was fashionable.” He began scrounging nails and boards around his Southgate home in southern California, where his father was an industrial mechanic.

Sammie remembers Wendell taking her home while courting, always along different routes, with the request “Keep your eyes open, it’s trash day!”

“Do-it-yourself was in my genes, and I took shop classes when I could,” Wendell recounts. “We were a camping family, and I always thought I’d live in the country and be with nature.” The family’s usual destinations were a cabin in the Santa Cruz moun-tains and Bass Lake in the southern Sierra foothills for water skiing behind one of the ski boats Wendell helped his dad build. Sammie reminds Wendell that Bass Lake was where Wendell started carving. “Yes, and drawing, too,” Wendell adds.

Craft classes in high school and at Long Beach State, where Wendell was studying teaching, natural history, and recreation management, provided ideas and a ground-ing in arts and crafts. “I’m self-taught. I appreciate wall art and fine woodworking, but I don’t aspire to it. I’m a rustic, and I want to make something functional you can put things in or sit on.”

Wendell started his first career as a park ranger on Angel Island, but soon trans-ferred to Hendy Woods, then MacKerricher and Van Damme. Many locals remember him as “Ranger Rick” who visited classrooms as the unofficial State Parks naturalist. Preferring interpretation to police work, he resigned after a dozen years and became a handyman. “I’m semi-retired now, and that gives me time to do other things. A theme that runs all through my work is that I like to be of service: as a ranger I made the natu-ral experience available, and as a handyman I like to help people with their household maintenance and repairs.”

By Michael Potts

Top: Lamp. Bottom: Bedside Table. Salvaged and recycled materials. Photos: Larry Wagner.

Photo: Larry Wagner.

Summer 2012 7

Wendell’s palette is composed of “free for the find-ing materials” that begin a serviceable second life in his furniture. He fondly remembers when the Caspar dump was “the Exchange.” He still manages to amass a library of inspirations through his fix-it work and local contacts: discarded boards, tools, parts, furniture, branches bound for the burn pile. “I think, ‘maybe I’ll use this sometime.’ Someone says, ‘can you dismantle this shed and take it to the dump?’ and I say ‘Sure,’ and, to myself, ‘via my yard!’”

“Wendell always finds creative solutions,” prompts Sammie, and Wendell, who describes himself as a man of few words, picks up the thread: “Repairing is harder than building from scratch, and I seem to have a talent for finding unorthodox ways to fix things.” This ability informs his furniture with natural elements – rhodo-dendron stems are a favorite (“an amazingly hard wood”) – attached to barnwood. (“I love the weathered grey.”)

“I never draw a plan, but I begin with an idea, ‘maybe I’ll make a bench.’ Sometimes I build in my mind all night

long. It’s a cliché, but materials talk to me. The bench always comes out looking different than what I first imag-ined. It’s fun to see projects morph, because ideas grow as you go. The question is always, particularly with natural forms, ‘How do you hook these together?’ How can I adapt my idea to get to an end result that someone can use?”

Artistry came into Wendell’s life inadvertently when he walked past a store in Mendocino named “Sticks” where Bob Keller was eager to show locally made crafts along-side his own. Wendell started with fashioning walking sticks, but with Keller’s encouragement graduated to rustic furniture, window mirrors, and doorknob coat-racks. Sammie notes that some of the best, most functional pieces never left home and are proudly serving in the family kitchen and living room. When Sticks moved to Oregon, Wendell’s work was eagerly adopted by Sallie Mac and the Mendocino Art Center, where his sculpture will cover the gallery floor during August, 2012, accompanying the Plein Air Painters of Mendocino’s exhibit, “Seeing the Light.”

Asked what influences his work, Wendell promptly produces the books of well-known, rustic furniture maker Daniel Mack. “I never copy anything, but some of the ideas are inevitable. Of course I have to build a chair from broken and retired carpenter’s tools.” When he cobbled a stack of golf clubs into a chair and brought it to Sallie Mac, they weren’t sure, “but the next day they called and said ‘your chair is the talk of the town,’ and when it sold, they

asked if I could build another one.” Wendell feels a kinship with scrap metal artist Tom Macomber (Mendocino Arts, Spring 2012): “Tom collects metal, and I collect wood.”

The word “artist” makes Wendell uneasy. “I’m a crafts-person, not an art-ist, specializing in rescuing and repurposing wood.” He smiles, then admits, “but if someone mistakes what I do for art, I guess that’s okay.”

Chairs: Work & Play, salvaged materials.

Farm to Table, salvaged and recycled materials. Above right: Hutch. Photos: Larry Wagner.

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If you Google “Stussy” (pro-nounced stoo’-see), you will be directed to a popular clothing line whose stylized logo originated in the 1980s as a mark of distinc-tion on surfboards handcrafted by a young Southern Californian, Shawn Stussy. Ironically, that unique calligraph is as iconic in the art world as it is among skate-boarders, surfers and urban sub-cultures worldwide, because it was derived from the signature of artist Jan Stussy, Shawn’s uncle. You can see the original by visit-ing the Stussy retrospective exhi-bition, “Significant Content,” at the Mendocino Art Center, July 6–28. Representative painting, drawing and graphic artworks from the archives of the Jan Stussy Foundation of Woodbury University will be accompanied by bronze, wooden and ceram-ic sculptures created by Maxine Kim Stussy.

JAN STUSSY and the

MENDOCINO ART CENTER

SIGNIFICANT COntent

By Donald E. Paglia, M.D.

From God’s Acrobat series, Jan Stussy, c.1980. Acrylic, spray enamel and char-coal on masonite (84” x 36”).

The Watcher, Maxine Kim Stussy, c.1980. Wood assemblage (89”).

Logo of Stussy, Inc., apparel.

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Jan and Maxine were products of Los Angeles art schools and university programs (Art Center, UCLA, USC), and exhibited nationally and abroad and often together. They were married from 1949 to 1982, and their strong mutual influences are palpably apparent in this exhibition. Both of these singular artists were pivotal fig-ures in the transformation of post-World War II Southern California art, a period that has been largely neglected by historians in deference to more celebrated West Coast artists of the 1960s and beyond. That oversight was partially redressed by “L.A. Raw: Abject Expressionism in Los Angeles, 1945–1980, from Rico Lebrun to Paul McCarthy,” recently at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. This land-mark exhibition appropri-ately reconnected Jan Stussy and Rico Lebrun who, along with UCLA’s Stanton Macdonald-Wright, most profoundly influenced Jan’s evolution into master art-ist. Both Stussy and Lebrun were meticulous draftsmen and disciplined anatomists who favored the disquieting imagery of existential anguish over more benign, pleasurable decorative art.

Unrepentantly dedicated to figurative work, Jan and Maxine Kim Stussy (now Frankel) and their contempo-raries provided liberating alternatives to the then-domi-nant influence of abstract expressionism. In the process, they contributed to artistic and educational environments that shifted the art establishment’s center of gravity from East Coast to West. None contributed more to this tectonic

transformation than Jan Stussy, who founded the UCLA Art Extension Program with a Visual Arts component that “attained unprecedented levels of achievement under his tutelage” (Art historian Albert Boime). He became the University’s first artist to reach the academic level of full professor, serving for over forty years before his untimely

death in 1990 from a malig-nant brain tumor.

Stussy became progres-sively more disenchanted with perceived machina-tions and crass commercial-ism in the art market, and he was equally uncomfort-able with the anti-figurative aesthetic of contemporary trends such as minimal-ism and conceptual art. Eventually, he disengaged from the exhibition circuit and devoted the last decades of his life intensively to teaching and to a prodi-gious personal output. The latter is estimated to include over 12,000 drawings and 5,000 paintings, along with serigraphs, lithographs, etchings, and sculptures.

Stussy’s prolific and diverse inventiveness extended to film, highlighted by his 1978 Academy Award Oscar-winner, Gravity is My Enemy, documenting one of his students who was quadriplegic but drew and painted adeptly with instruments held between his teeth.

As an accomplished poet, Jan was equally master-ful in command of language as he was of diverse visual art media. This made him an extraordinarily effective teacher who could eloquently critique our student art-work, invariably focusing on positive features and deftly

SIGNIFICANT COntent

Transformation/A-Trance-For-Information, Jan Stussy, 1980. UCLA Extension Course Catalog cover, originally acrylic and charcoal on masonite (48” x 48”).

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identifying potential pathways to encourage us beyond our comfort zones. His master classes contrasted dramatically with the cathedral solemnity of many traditional figure-drawing groups, and we were encouraged to observe, learn, interact, and overtly steal ideas, approaches and techniques from one another, which not only amplified our learning experience but also engendered an endur-ing camaraderie.

Regardless of the medi-um, Jan remained commit-ted to the fundamental importance of drawing skills in the visual arts. In his own words: “I am only interested in drawing and painting with content. More specifically, signifi-cant content! (But not lit-erary, descriptive, narrative or illustrative content.) … Good painting and good poetry (because they are twins?) appear to exist on much the same protein. Leonardo said: ‘Painting is poetry – made visible.’ I think ‘poetry’ in painting is the most important thing, but I cannot define what that ‘poetry’ is … except to say it exists (for me) as significant content in a few pictures, by a few artists – and it is wonderful to come upon it, if only now and then.” That holy grail of artistic endeavor is clearly present in exemplary works by both artists in the current exhibition.

Jan Stussy’s influence as an educator now extends to the Mendocino Art Center. Some of us who were direct beneficiaries of his friendship and tutelage have inaugu-rated an endowment for a Jan Stussy Memorial Studio/Building, a facility that will project his teaching legacy far into the future. Additionally, an affiliation has been ini-

tiated between MAC and Woodbury University, an institution with compre-hensive programs in arts, architecture and design. This will provide opportuni-ties for mutual interchange of students and faculty and, more importantly, stu-dents in MAC workshops will have the potential to receive academic accredita-tion toward BFA and MFA degrees. A trial program is already in place for this summer. Profits from sales of Stussy artworks in the MAC Gallery will directly support this collaborative program.

Such formal academic affiliations also enhance MAC applications for grant support from arts and edu-cational organizations. This has long been a major goal for those of us who aspire

to see MAC build on the foundation of the Zacha legacy by evolving from a community art center into an inde-pendent, self-sustaining Mendocino Art Institute, fully accredited to inspire, train and certify our artists of the future.

SIGNIFICANT COntent

Self-Portrait in Anatomical Sweatshirt, Jan Stussy, 1965. Acrylic, charcoal and photo-collage on masonite (40” x 30”).