Page 15 - the NOISE November 2012

Gene Balzer’s Hovenweep collection is at Wil McNabb’s the month of November.
documenting this historical place by Doctor of Philosophy Gene Balzer will be on display.
“All my pieces will be of Hovenweep National Monument,” he tells me. “The interesting thing about this monument is there are a lot of tow- ers the Ancestral Pueblo people built. Their ar- chitecture is amazing because they built upon the rocks.”
Hovenweep means “Deserted Valley,” in the Paiute/Ute language. One of Mr. Balzer’s favor- ite photographers, William Henry Jackson, ad- opted the name in 1874 and the site became a National Monument in 1923. Between AD 500 and AD 1300 the Ancestral Pueblo people built the towers that still remain.
“These Ancestral Pueblo sites are what I have been working on for a little over 20 years,” he explains. “That’s been my main concentration. The Southwest is just wonderful; I really enjoy it and particularly, finding and photograph- ing these ancestral sites. The show at Will McNabb’s will really be a documentary of the entire park. I tried to photograph every one of the sites that are there and I’ll have a writ- ten description of each of the sites. I did a lot of work at first with a large format 4x5 camera. This will be the first show where all the images are taken with digital cameras.”
Mr. Balzer taught at Northern Arizona Uni- versity for 38 years, is a book photographer, and now in addition to his own photography career, also leads workshops throughout the year.
“Sometimes I’ve been accused that photogra- phy is all that I think about,” he says. “I correct- ed someone and I said, ‘No, I also think about ice cream and coffee.’”
During the First Friday ArtWalk Will McNabb Fine Jewelry Studio will be open from 6PM to 9PM. The public is invited to come see the pho- tographs of Dr. Gene Balzer and to learn about this historic site.
ARTIST TRIO
Janet Alvillar, Sharon McGinnis, and Dawn Sutherland return to the window of The Art- ists’ Gallery, located at 17 N. San Francisco, this November.
“I was in the window last November and since then I have tried out a lot of fun stuff,” glass art- ist Janet Alvillar tells me. “I have been play- ing with a lot of new materials including some polymer clay, which is very versatile. While the primary medium is always glass, it’s fun to add beads, rocks, gems, or anything I can find that will make the piece more interesting.”
“I have picked out two pieces so far for the window,” Ms. Alvillar says. “The first one is a 12x24 piece called Wild Flowers, which is a funky rendition of sunflowers with tons of color and bling on a dark background. The second piece is titled La Flor, which is Spanish for the flower. This is a 24-inch round mandala with some awesome glass I purchased from Europe. It’s a Spanish design with a hint of Moroccan flair.”
Ms. Alvillar gives me a preview into her thoughts on future pieces. “Future projects include glass on glass pieces and large, more intricate designs. Some of my ideas include a jungle scene, an autumn landscape and defi- nitely more mandalas, as they are rapidly be- coming a favorite of mine. I look at what I do as painting with glass and I have a lot of fun
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thenoise.us • the NOISE arts & news • NOVEMBER 2012 • 15