Page 20 - the NOISE September 2013

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gan developing a drawing practice in high school. I started as an Art Education major in college at the University of Ne- braska and soon changed to an Art Major when I realized that I was most interested in making art.”
Ms. Furlong tells me of the progression of her art. “I think my work has developed and changed significantly over the years but there has always been a visible thread of what I am most interested in: representation of the natural world, a ten- sion between various ways of seeing and an interest in com- bining various media.”
“I studied drawing and painting in college and continued that study when working toward my MFA at Boise State Uni- versity,” Ms. Furlong says as she tells me how she began work- ing in her current medium. ”I had done traditional intaglio printmaking in Nebraska and was introduced to polyester plate lithography and other methods of printmaking at Boise State which I have continued to use in my work. I like to re- main flexible in my practice and utilize media which fit the content of my current work. The work in the exhibition at Coconino Center for the Arts are two-dimensional artworks on paper which began with monotype printmaking and also include ink drawing, painting, and pencil drawing. I have moved away from techniques and materials that are danger- ous to people and the environment. Many media used in traditional painting, drawing, and printmaking can be bad for artists and bad for the environment.”
“Several recent experiences have led to the ideas I am ex- ploring in my current work,” the artist tells me about pieces in the show. “In 2010 I was artist in residence at Denali Na- tional Park and Preserve in Alaska, I did the 2011 residency at Brush Creek, and a backpacking artist residency with the
places and to create images about the complexities of these responses. The images also refer to historical and cultural representations of animals that help us to understand them.”
I ask about the creative process. “I tend to work in series, creating a large body of work all at once rather than finishing one thing and starting on another,” Ms. Furlong tells me. “I feel this is a way of exploring a complex idea over a number of artworks rather than one, the entire body of work says things that one individual work may not be able to. Each work has a meaning and the meaning of all can build from looking at the group.”
“I am currently creating a body of work for an exhibition in Boise called ’Standing Still: The Trees’ as part of the city of Boise’s Sesquicentennial celebration. The work includes a large-scale installation created from trimmed and cut tree parts from within Boise city. The work is inspired in part by a prose poem by W.S. Merwin called, ‘Unchopping A Tree,’ which describes the impossibility of putting a tree back to- gether once it has been cut, a metaphor for the larger issue of human impacts on the natural environment that are difficult or impossible to undo.”
“Standing Still and Moving Through the Wilderness,” will be on display at Coconino Center for the Arts September 24 through October 30. CulturalPartners.org
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Joni Pevarnik has been involved in Art in the Park since it first began. “Art in the Park is a great venue because the com- munity comes out and supports its local artists,” Ms. Pevarnik says. “I look forward to seeing old friends and customers who have become friends. It is great to sit under the trees and be able to show my latest work while having a fine time with the Flagstaff community.”
This year, Ms. Pevarnik tells me, “I bring my experimental
group Signal Fire in Mount Hood National Forest in 2012. These experiences led me to consider the cultural response to the geographies of human and animal interactions in various
work, glazes that I am still working on and pieces that don’t necessarily fit into the gallery. I like seeing what the public thinks of my ‘one of a kind’ pieces. My husband Steve found
visiting artist Kirsten Furlong displays, “Standing Still and Moving through Nature” at Coconino Center for the Arts.
20 • september 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us