Page 24 - the NOISE July 2014

AS THE DAY FALLS TO NIGHT
landscapes of the imagination
THE SCHOOLHOUSE ROCKS
of raw nodules & smoothed forms
BY SARAH
GIANELLI
Between being a member of the Jerome Artists’ Cooperative Gallery, the Arts Prescott Cooperative Gallery, and with an upcoming solo show at the Raven Cafe, painter Bernie Lopez is a busy man.
Fortunately, like many painters today, Mr. Lopez has been augmenting his supply of originals with high quality giclée prints to meet the demand for his work, and make it more accessible to the public. Accented with hand-painted touches to add depth and tex- ture, the prints are barely discernible from the originals and, in some cases, achieve a seamless cohesiveness, making them even more appealing.
Mr. Lopez has three distinct series of acryl- ic paintings: the moonlight series; the sunset series; and the landscape series, all inspired by visions of the American West.
The moonlight series focuses on night- time scenes of skies lit purple by crackling lightning; and gnarled trees, ravens, horses and antelope silhouetted by the light of a full moon. His sunset series, featuring iconic Sa- guaro cacti blackened out against the garish reds, yellows and oranges of Arizona’s flam- ing sunsets, showcases Mr. Lopez’s talent and originality less than his landscape pieces, in which he renders wintry aspen groves, wheat fields and cloud-laden horizons so realisti- cally they could be mistaken for a black and white photograph. In a particularly stunning piece called Windmill Prairie, inspired by a road trip through the Great Plains, the lines are so straight and exact, it is a marvel they were painted freehand.
Rather than “photorealism,” Mr. Lopez prefers to call his style “envisioned realism,” because he doesn’t work from photographs, but pulls his imagery out of his memory and imagination.
“It’s what I see in my head,” says Mr. Lopez. “A vision I see ... it’s not really realism because I didn’t paint something I saw, it’s something in my mind that comes out. I suppose it
looks semi-real, but I wasn’t consciously go- ing for that effect.”
Prior to becoming a fulltime artist, Mr. Lo- pez, a San Diego native, worked in sheet met- al fabrication, which might have something to do with the signature touch on his work. (Like many artists, he was told he should con- sistently incorporate a stylistic element to
render his work recognizable as his own.) So, with all his pieces, he paints a contemporary geometric border directly on the canvas — wide bands of neutral color to create a sense of contrast between his nature-oriented sub- ject matter and a modern frame.
Mr. Lopez travels extensively through the West, making regular trips to Colorado, find- ing his Prescott home to be a perfect jump- ing off point to many areas of interest. Still, Arizona is where he garners the bulk of his inspiration, and there is still more to explore.
“It can change within an hour,” he says. “From down in the desert with the Saguaros to an alpine lake with the leaves changing
color ... it’s pretty extreme.”
While the discipline required of a self-em-
ployed artist can be challenging, Mr. Lopez loves painting for the relaxation, solitude and freedom it provides. He enjoys the com- pany and cross-pollination that occurs in the co-op environment, and most of all, he loves eliciting a reaction from viewers of his work.
“I hope that it makes them feel good. That’s the bottom line. That they feel peaceful, in- spired to maybe try making art themselves, or that it reminds them of something or somewhere they’ve seen, done or been. That’s usually what I hear in response to my work ... that it reminds them of something. One time this woman was standing here, looking at Aspens in the Snow, crying. It turns out to be a really personal thing. It affects everyone in a different way.”
Mr. Lopez is currently hard at work on a large sunset over Granite Mountain he hopes to complete in time for his show at The Ra- ven, and continues to add to his existing se- ries, with ideas for new series percolating for the future.
“It’s a slow process,” he says. “You just gotta ride it and see where it goes. You never know. When I started I never would’ve imagined I would’ve gotten to where I am.”
A sampling of Mr. Lopez’s paintings and prints from each series are on display at the Jerome Artist Cooperative Gallery, 502 Main Street; Arts Prescott Cooperative Gallery, 134 South Montezuma Street; and through June 29 at Raven Cafe, 142 North Cortez Street in Prescott. Visit RavenCafe. com or BernieLopez.com for details.
New to the Old Jerome High School artist studios (but not to the Verde Valley) is rock buff and jewelry maker Kathleen Cook. Her company name, Rockaju, is a conglom- erate she made out of her love of stones, art and jewelry; and is symbolic of combining her passions into a single art form.
In her studio, separated into a workshop and gallery, are close to 100 varieties of stones, some still in their raw form, some cut into slabs; and others, smoothed, shaped and polished into pendants wrapped in dec- orative silver wire with a contemporary edge.
Ms. Cook’s fascination with the treasures of the earth dates back to her childhood.
“When I was a little girl my dad used to take me hiking in the Superstition Mountains, and we’d collect Apache Tears,” she says. (Apache Tears are obsidian nodules deriving their name from a tribal legend about 75 Apache warriors who road their horses off the mountain to their deaths rather than face defeat in battle).
“I’m pretty sure that’s how the rock thing started,” she says. “Then, when I was 7 & 8 years old, I started going to the local bead store and beading jewelry. So I think it makes sense the two finally came together.”
Ms. Cook acquires the stone centerpieces for her jewelry in a variety of ways. Some she digs out of the earth herself, for others she works with private dealers in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Nevada; or directly with mine own- ers in Australia; and, of course, she scours the Tucson Gem and Mineral show every year.
The result is a collection that spans the globe, and while she doesn’t exclude more widely known stones such as Labradorite, they are far outnumbered by the exotic, whose names and properties Ms. Cook rattles off like an expert: shimmery hunks of Ethiopian Opal, Dinosaur Bone, Opalized Sandstone, petrified wood, transparent Montana agate, Stone Can- yon Jasper, Larimar, and a newly discovered stone called Bumble Bee Agate. Bumble Bee Agate is a sulfur-based stone, lending it black and yellow striations, and that Ms. Cook sus- pects is actually Rhyolite based on its softness when put to the grinding wheel.
“I’ve been cutting stones for about eight years now,” says Ms. Cook. “I’m fascinated by the geological process, and how it takes thousands and millions of years for some- thing to become this hard, beautiful thing
you can cut with diamonds. And it’s really fun to dig something up and turn this raw, rough thing into something really beautiful. I think people really appreciate Mother Earth and what comes from her, and having a little piece of beauty is always nice.”
In her adjacent workshop, Ms. Cook dons a heavy black vinyl apron and fills the tray beneath the grinding wheel with water. She takes a rough-edged slab of Chrysocolla — a copper ore material that gives it its bright red and blue interior — and holds it to the wheel, grinding off the stone until it is reduced into her desired shape featuring the most inter- esting part of its design, in this case, a river- like formation branching out like tributaries into a red canyon.
“Often the rocks will have something going on already,” she says. “If you have any sort of imagination, you can start to see formations and scenes, and if you take the time to look for them, you’ll find amazing pieces hidden within that slab,” she says. For this piece, she will shape her wire work to compliment the watery design inherent in the stone.
In addition to pendants, earrings and bracelets, Ms. Cook also makes business card and candle holders; and sells unmounted stones, and large ornamental spheres. One of her most unique offerings is a gemstone solitaire kit that comes with 45 stone marbles (which you handpick), and a hand carved cherry wood board.
“I enjoy every step of my art-making pro- cess,” she says. “It’s so much fun rock hunting, it’s so much fun when you cut the stone and see what kind of slabs you’re getting ... really the whole thing, from start to finish, is great.
“And it’s absolutely inspiring to be here at the old school. There are so many great artists here, and everyone is helpful and encouraging
— I smile every day I drive up here. I always joke they’re going to have to kick me out, because I’m never leaving.”
Visit Rockaju Rock Art & Jewelry during First Saturday ArtWalk, June 1 from 6-8PM in Building A of The Old Jerome High School #304. You can also find Ms. Cook at her stu- dio most days, and on Facebook.
| Sarah Gianelli minces garlic nearly as well as she minces words. sarahgianelli@hotmail.com
24 • JUNE 2014 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us