Page 21 - the NOISE March 2014

Renate Lichter’s Chinle Formations on the Navajo Rez is part of “The View” at the ACF Gallery this March.
it’s apparent in the clean, timeless quality of his stoneware.
“We’re so inundated with images now, we don’t know what we’re seeing,” he says. “If you look at the history of ceramics, a lot of it is so timeless, it looks so modern. Even though they’re 2,000 years old, that aesthet- ic — often inspired by nature — is as strong now as it was then. There’s a quietness to it, but it’s not without its presence.”
Mr. Carpenter’s high-fired stoneware is food, microwave and dishwasher safe. Meet the artist and check out his functional wares during First Friday ArtWalk on March 7 at Gallery One13, 111 E. Aspen Street, GalleryOne13.com.
THE SKY’S NO LIMIT AT ACF
The featured artist in the Artists’ Coali- tion of Flagstaff Gallery’s March show, “The View from Flagstaff and Northern Arizona,” is painter Renate Lichter. Ms. Lichter, a regu- lar artist at ACF, will have four paintings on exhibit, including The San Francisco Peaks at Golden Hour, a brand new piece whose paint will just barely be dry by the opening. The three other pieces, in rectangular format, emphasize the vastness of the Northern Ari- zona horizon.
“Each are quite different,” says the artist. “Yet each one boasts a beautiful sky.” Sage and Sky depicts traveling down a remote road on the Navajo Reservation; Stairway to Heaven captures ascending step-like clouds; while Chinle Formations on the Navajo Rez shows rollicking clouds over stately geologic formations. Ms. Lichter lives in Los Angeles but clearly Arizona has worked its way into
her soul.
“I spend as much time here as I can,” she
says. “I love the outdoors, the forests, moun- tains, extreme weather ... it reminds me of Europe, where I spent many summers as a kid. I also love the canyons, red rocks, the Rez and the big skies ... they are irresistible!”
When time and weather permits, Ms. Lich-
ter loves to paint plein air, but she is also an avid photographer, always on the lookout for subjects that stir her heart. “My photos are a huge source of inspiration,” she says. “They allow me to bring the outdoors into my stu- dio.”
From the time she was a little girl, Ms. Li- chter remembers being enamored with the sky. She often had recurring dreams of fly- ing, and would lay on her lawn watching the clouds move and change overhead. “I’ve come to the joyful realization that the skies give me an infinite number of possibilities to create an incredible painting, because never will a sky (so long as it includes a cloud) look the same. I hope that my paintings will help people feel their connection with the beauty of nature, and the feeling of heaven. As es- sayist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau said, ‘Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.’ If I ever put a bumper sticker on the back of my car, it would have to say, ‘I brake for beautiful skies.’”
Also featured at ACF this month are the wildlife paintings of Michelle Wolfe Moen; scenic photography by Phil Goldblatt; paintings by Dolores Ziegler and Nancy Robertson; and jewelry, glass and ceramics by other ACF members.
Ms. Lichter can be reached at renatelich- ter@msn.com and will be at ACF during first Friday ArtWalk during the gallery’s first an- niversary celebration at their new location, 111 E. Aspen Street from 6-9PM. Regular gal- lery hours are 11AM-4 PM Thursday-Monday. Flagstaff-Arts.org
PURE PHANTASMAGORIA BY JOEY BONO
Between crushing other teams in Ultimate Frisbee tournaments up and down the west coast, and traveling to see family, surrealist painter Sky Black has managed to maintain his work ethic by working on several new pieces simultaneously. But first, he’s invit-
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thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • MARCH 2014 • 21