Page 22 - the NOISE July 2015

COLLABORATION AND CREATION
THE ARTISTS’ GALLERY
FROM LEFT, A collaborative piece by Sondra Francis & Lynn Overend, the jewelry of Nancy Foo, and Wupatki Rainbow by April Saylor.
STORY BY NIKKI CHARNSTROM
The Artists’ Gallery features for the month of July the to work. “I don’t recycle old stock,” she says, “I feel it has to
the role of a photographer, she is simply following nature’s course. It hasn’t changed her perspective on life because it is through the camera that she watches the world.
Photographer Lawrence McFarland was Ms. Saylor’s first inspiration when he spoke at NAU several years ago. She remembers the landscape images he took and later that night she had a dream that she was standing in the same locations. “That was a big moment for me. I knew I could do something original and I knew I could communicate complex emotions through landscape,” she reflects.
From the path of an illustration major at ASU to studying jewelry at NAU, Nancy Foo is an advocate for art and expression.
For 30 years Ms. Foo has been making jewelry because of her passion for smaller-sized work, one thing everyone can take with them. As an artist she is constantly challenging herself to work with different techniques. “When I sit at my workbench and I don’t see it in my head, I can’t make it. It has to speak to me,” she says.
After living at the Grand Canyon for 22 years, Ms. Foo moved to Flagstaff in 2006 for a change of pace. Her time spent at the Canyon gave her an eye for color, texture and shadows. Nature is her greatest influence because of her appreciation for the clouds, the ground, and the many patterns the earth holds.
These values are seen throughout her work with stones, etching and drawing. The metals Ms. Foo mainly crafts with are copper, sterling and fine silver, bronze, and brass. Stones are a large part of her work. The majority of the stones she uses are found at the Gem Show in Tucson. “I like handpicking all my stones,” she says. Another way she collects stones is through her interest in hiking. The Weatherford Trail in Flagstaff is one of her favorites because of the obsidian she finds along the way.
One location Ms. Foo dreams of going to for the purpose of collecting stones is the Dominican Republic. There is a stone found there called “Larimar,” made of blues, greens and whites. She compares the stones to water, “They’re beautiful. I like that A+ quality.” On rare occasions they can be found at the rock shows, but once she makes them to sell, “It’s hard to part with.”
As a jewelry artist, she holds the motto, “Jewelry is a treasure that you can keep or give away.” Ms. Foo sees the importance of her work through the way it can be worn, easily transported, and treasured.
The creations Nancy Foo, Sondra Francis, Lynn Overend and Saylor will fill the window of The Artists Gallery, 17 N. San Francisco, throughout the entire month of July with an artists’ reception during the First Friday ArtWalk July 3. FlagstaffArtistsGallery.com
| Nikki Charnstrom knows her Flagstaff arts scene. arts@thenoise.us
art of photographer Saylor, painter Lynn Overend, glass artist Sondra Francis and jeweler Nancy Foo — along with collaborative pieces by Lynn Overend and Sondra Francis made specifically for this month’s show.
From a young artist at her father’s side, to selling her first Flagstaff scene watercolor, Lynn Overend continues to pursue her passion for painting. She describes her growth as an artist to be spotty over the years but in her eyes painting is simply a joy, not a money-maker.
Ms. Overend started with oil until she took a course in watercolor at Coconino Community College after moving to Flagstaff in 2000. “I fell in love with it. I love the freshness of it. Most of all I just like the spontaneity of it,” she says.
Since then the painter continues to watercolor scenes of the city. Her first teacher, Roberta Rogers (an artist well- known for Flagstaff art) moved away, leaving Ms. Overend the challenge of depicting Flagstaff through her paintings. She sold her first downtown scene, The Train is Delayed, in 2009 and has created several others since. She even sold a Flagstaff watercolor to a man in Australia, who asked for his red truck to be painted within the scene.
She says the greatest compliment an artist can receive is when someone purchases your work and hangs it in their home and is completely honored when she sells a painting.
As an artist, she describes herself to be detail-oriented and diverse. Not only does she create city scenes, but she also paints animals, children and still lifes. She says she loves to paint the different times of day, weather and shadows.
Ms. Overend’s favorite location in the world to paint is Italy. After traveling there three different times, once for a painting workshop, she says she would go back in a heartbeat. “It’s so incredibly beautiful. The light there is like nowhere else. It is golden,” she describes.
Beginning as a jewelry designer, Sondra Francis transformed those skills when she began her journey as a glass artist in 2002.
Between both of the mediums, Ms. Francis says the method of design is applicable from one technique to the other. “The thought process is similar, it’s all about color and texture,” she says. As an artist, she is always searching for new ideas, which she says is difficult but becomes easier with an open mind.
From her first glass course at CCC, she finds her inspiration through contemporary and abstract art, jewelry, hiking, and nature. She continues to nurture her artistic side because she believes a creative talent must be used and expressed.
“If I’m not in a creative space, I’m not happy.” She spends a great deal of time in her 200-square-foot home studio; and although it is a “chaotic mess” of glass pieces it is a “good workspace with good light.” The artist travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico about 3 to 4 times a year to purchase her glass, leaving little room for last minute projects.
Ms. Francis insists on bringing in new work to the shelves frequently. When she steps into the gallery and sees an empty space on her display she knows she has to get back
be constantly evolving.” She comprises her artwork of mostly blues and always bright colors. Floral, geometric and animal designs are pieces that she finds herself creating.
The journey to becoming an artist is something that Ms. Francis feels is a continuous process. She questions whether there is a clear, concise definition of the term ‘Artist’ and if she has reached that description.
As fellow colleagues and friends, Ms. Overend and Ms. Francis discussed working together on a piece last year. Once they heard they were to be featured artists’for July, they knew this was their chance and in spring of this year, they began preparations for two collaborative pieces. The two of them created the idea of a still-life display. Ms. Francis would design and create a fused plate and Ms. Overend would then paint a complimentary watercolor of the plate laden with fruits and flowers.
“Her painting and my pieces give a sense of unity of how the gallery works, somehow making it more well-rounded,” Ms. Francis says.
Landscape photographer, April Saylor received a Pentax K1000 film camera when she was 17 years old and throughout the years has continued to find herself behind the lens. To this day the photographer still questions why she was given a camera without even the slightest expression of interest in photography as a teenager. “I wouldn’t say I have an interest in photography now. I just don’t know how to stop doing it,” she confides. “It’s replaced every awful thing I’ve given up, and it’s one of the only things that makes me feel okay.”
Recalling memories of a curious young girl, wandering the “abandoned streets” of Anna, Ohio with camera in hand, she took her first image. “There’s a long shot down the main street of the bank sign,” Ms. Saylor recalls, “but all you can see in the frame are dots of light forming the kind of lines that they have students draw in art class to establish a vanishing point.” She compares this exercise to her images because she says most of her shots are not of that level of depth. Divided by a perfect horizon line, she refers to her photos as a symbol, a place she would “vanish if there were a point of reference to guide” her.
Ms. Saylor photographs landscapes because she lived through a natural disaster. From experiencing trauma and dealing with the internal effects, she believes, “Everything is a gift, everything. No matter how horrible, there are no exceptions to that rule in my life.”
She is in the process of working on a personal documentary that tells the story of why she takes photos and describes the answer in one word, ‘catharsis.’
An image that resonates with Ms. Saylor is her shot of a Wupatki monsoon, Spilled Sugar. This photo captured a moment of when the dust and rain collided, forming the backdrop for a rainbow. “It looked like someone was pouring sugar out of heaven,” she describes. The love she holds for photography is constantly pursued because she wants to show others what they may have missed. By taking on
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