Page 20 - the NOISE August 2013

20 • AUGUST 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
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Artist Sky Black with his newest at the Orpheum, When the Curtain Falls.
fine art photographer tells me about herself and her photography.
“I can remember pretending to have a camera when I was ten or twelve years old, traveling with my family from the Midwest to Montana, and the Pacific Coast,” Ms. Michal- icek tells me about her beginning interest in her art. “I would put my hands up to my face, and as we passed a scene where antelope were jumping the fences alongside the road, for instance, I would click the imaginary shut- ter with my index finger. Finally, at the age of sixteen, my mother gave me my first Kodak camera.”
In college Ms. Michalicek was able to use her art as the campus photographer. She lat- er went back to school where she earned an AAS degree in Microcomputer Support and Network Administration. “I chose to move to Arizona from Minnesota where I had owned my own graphic arts business and published a small monthly newspaper,” she says.
“It is with my camera that I share what’s in my heart with the world; the beauty and peace inherent in nature,” she says. “Noth- ing is more inspiring to me than a sunset that sings, nothing more peaceful than the sound of a stream cascading over rocks that are rounded and smoothed by the flow. My imagination is fired up by the shadows I see reflected on the walls of a canyon, and life feels balanced when clouds shift and shape themselves against a cobalt blue sky.”
“When I find myself in a new location, or any location where I will be taking photographs, I first take the time to become very aware of my surroundings — tuning into the energy of the place and space, so to speak. Nature cannot be created by the human being. Therefore, it is sacred, and many of the trees and rocks, the mountains and streams, the
canyons and great expansive spaces speak to me through the feelings I experience while standing there.”
The photographs that will be on display at Z House Gallery were taken in Arizona, in places like Antelope Canyon, West Fork and Havasu Falls. “Hiking 10 miles to get to one of those sacred places, or seeing the blue-green waters of Havasu Creek flow over into that turquoise pool for the very first time, brought tears of joy to my eyes and fulfillment to my heart,” Ms. Michalicek tells me.
Z House gallery displays the art of many talented local artists and offers workshops in different art mediums, and more information can be found on their website, where you can subscribe to receive their newsletter. This fall, Catherine Sickafoose will be offering anoth- er round of watercolor classes at the Z House Gallery, call 602/918-0234 for more informa- tion. ZHouseGallery.com
aSpen memoRieS
August brings the paintings of Lyn Mat- thew to the walls of Mountain Oasis Inter- national Restaurant. “Imagine That” is a new show featuring new Aspen landscape paintings of scenes from Ms. Matthew’s fa- vorite trails and many other new works.
Ms. Matthew tells me of her Aspen Cer- emony memory, “Years ago when I was living in Munds Park, I kept hearing that our Flag- staff Aspens are approaching the end of their life cycle and we will be loosing them in the near future,” she says. “I bought four small aspen and planted them in my yard. Years later when I moved to Flagstaff my grove had grown to almost twenty strong aspen in my yard. I gathered together a group of friends to do a ceremony for the longevity of the Aspen. We each brought several yards of earth colored fabric and wove the fabric in a