Page 17 - the NOISE February 2013

Typewriter by C. Tanner Jensen is among the multitude of works by Coconino Community College faculty members at West of the Moon.
StEEL FORGED VALEntinES
Sarah Harms and her line of hand-forged jewelry is featured for the month of February at Arizona Handmade/ Fire on the Moun- tain Gallery.
“I will be featuring Valentine’s Day themed work, with hearts being the predominant feature on many of the pieces,” Ms. Harms tells me about her show. “I grew up in the Chicago area, and moved to the Verde Valley in the summer of 2007. I have been making jewelry since 1979, when I was a sophomore in high school. I have a husband, two boys, two dogs, and two cats.”
Speaking about her jewelry, Ms. Harms says: “I hand forge steel and fabricate sterling silver, copper, bronze and 14k gold. I also use Verde River rocks in my work, setting them in silver bezels, and I use glass beads for color. I love the combination of steel, rocks, and all the other metals. Metal is an amazing mate- rial to work with. When red hot, steel is trans- formed into a pliable, almost fluid substance. I am fascinated with blacksmithing, and love the fact that I am using an ancient technique to create contemporary work. I am very in- spired by the Arizona landscape, the cosmos, and various symbolism, both ancient and contemporary.
“I absolutely love what I do, and create all my work with positive energy, hoping it can be felt by the wearer,” she says. “I invite peo- ple to use their jewelry as a talisman, making personal adornment a spiritual experience if they so desire.”
Arizona Handmade/ Fire on the Moun- tain Gallery is located at 13 N. San Francisco and holds an opening reception during the First Friday ArtWalk on February 1, from 6 to 9PM, with music by Jazz Dimension III.
Sarahzonadesigns.com AZhandmade.com
CCC FACuLtY At WESt OF tHE MOOn
The Faculty at Coconino Community Col- lege not only create a positive and thorough learning environment, but many of them are also talented artists, and will be featured this February in a show at West of the Moon.
For Elaine Dillingham, 2013 is her tenth year teaching art at CCC. “For a long time I have painted textural acrylic paintings on board, so I’m enjoying something new; the free-flowing spontaneity of ink on paper,” she says. “I do brush drawings with black ink and cobalt teal watercolor. I like the power struggle between black and white, with the teal mediating.”
C. Tanner Jensen, who incorporates her love of horses into her works of art, tells me, “I realized some years ago that while most horse people can recognize a quality horse, we each carry our own idealized im- age in our heads: the horse we are looking for. The perfect fit. I first came on to the Tao- ist folktale In Search of the Superlative Horse in
J.D.Salinger’s work. This story fits.
“What I am searching for in horses, and in
everything, is something elusive that is more spiritual in nature than physical; that thing that is below the surface.” Mr. Jensen con- tinues, “In my artwork I am always striving to make that inner connection, to reveal in a very physical way that inner essence, to map that inner space, or at least to point the way to something more.”
Ms. Jensen tells me about her piece en- titled Temper. “This painting is from the ‘In Search of the Superlative Horse’ series and is a work about a mare I owned. She was very correct and polite. However, on a few occa- sions she would throw her head to the side and slap the ground with a front foot, then carry on as asked. It was her version of a full- blown temper tantrum.”
>> COntinuED On PAGE 20
thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • FEBRUARY 2013 • 17