Majority Rising: Inspired by Marsha Sweet

The third installment in my series of blogs leading up to the Majority Rising show which I’m curating and participating in at the Artist Archives of the Western Reserve for Women’s History Month.

Majority Rising, subtitled, Cleveland’s Female Gaze, opens March 12th and features work by legendary Cleveland figurative artists, Shirley Aley Campbell, Lee Heinen, Kathleen McKenna, Marsha Sweet, Marilyn Szalay…and me, Judy Takács.

My contribution to the show will be the portraits I am painting of the living artists in this stellar grouping.

Today, I’m inspired by Master Printmaker, Marsha Sweet.

Marsha Sweet, Colette

There is no forgiveness when you’re making a woodcut print.

It’s black or it’s white. It’s cut or it’s not cut.

And, while you’re cutting you never actually see what will be black and what will be white. You must instinctively know, and be able to predict from subtle shades of beige on the giant wood plank you’re carving into.

Also, your hands must be strong and precise; the hands of a master crafts-person and a master draftsperson.

Marsha told me that you eventually get into a Zen-like rhythm with your cutting tools, but that Nirvana goes hand in hand with hours of intense hard work.

Marsha says that “Great strength is needed is for ‘controlled cutting’ across the variegated density of the grain (in poplar or pine) and powerful force [is needed to cut into] a hardwood such as cherry. There are tight passages of fine detail that do not allow for a slip of the gouge or knife; it is an unforgiving process.”

The drawing and carving time from her initial drawing to bon a tirer (ready to print) often takes about 160 hours; some of her largest woodblocks are 36 x 20.

Once the woodblock is meticulously carved with an image, Marsha then creates a limited edition of prints from the large block by using a baren to burnish the ink onto paper by continually caressing archival paper for about 4 or 5 hours for each print. This is the second controlled and unforgiving process necessary for this master printmaker to create her monumental woodcuts prints

Marsha’s creation process is vastly different from my own; oil painting being eternally changeable with instant gratification at your fingertips. And the physical strength required only comes into play when framing and transporting. During creation, I don’t get much of a workout…besides stepping back for a look.

For each of the Cleveland art legends whom I’m painting for the Majority Rising show, I made a commitment to inhale deeply that which they were inspired by in order to make my painting. So, from Marsha I took inspiration from the monolithic dark shapes she uses as expressive pedestals for her intricately carved faces and hands.

Judy Takács, The Hands of the Woodcut Printmaker, Marsha Sweet

And, these intricate carvings…along with her own beautiful and expressive face…inspired my painting of Marsha Sweet.


When I visited her studio in November, we discussed art, feminism, raising kids and her participation in the Equal Right’s Amendment Marches in the 1970s (remember the ERA? It seemed like a slam-dunk back in the day before we all got comfy and complacent, but it never did pass…though that’s a discussion for another day).

We also discussed the almost exclusively female subjects of her woodcuts. Her work draws inspiration from strong, creative and iconic women from recent history; George Sand, Georgia O’Keeffe, Gertrude Stein, Clara Bow and more.

Marsha Sweet, Georgia O’Keeffe

As we talked about how she depicted ballsy chicks in her art, the discussion inevitably turned to my own Chicks with Balls project. In posing for my portrait of her, Marsha grabbed a naturally polished and perfectly round smooth stone she had picked up on the shores of Lake Erie. She held this round “ball” in her beautifully weathered and skillfully expressive hands.

I called her portrait, The Hands of the Woodcut Printmaker, Marsha Sweet

Judy Takács,
detail from The Hands of the Woodcut Printmaker, Marsha Sweet

Hope to see you at the opening reception…

Majority Rising
Cleveland’s Female Gaze

Public Opening Reception: Thursday March 12, 5:30 to 8:30

Show dates March 12 through May 2

Artist Archives of the Western Reserve
1834 East 123rd Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Or stop by during gallery hours:
Wednesday through Friday: 10:00 to 4:00
Saturday: 12:00 to 4:00



Private Studio tours in conjunction with the exhibit:

Lee Heinen Studio Tour, March 21, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Shirley Campbell Studio Tour, April 4, 2015 from 1:00 to 2:30

Judy Takács Studio Tour, April 11, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Kathleen McKenna Studio Tour, April 18, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Individual $20
AAWR Member $15

To reserve your spot and buy your ticket to any of the studio tours, email Katelyn Gainer, Gallery and Administrative Assistant at kgainer@artistsarchives.org or call 216.721.9020. 

Read the first Majority Rising blog featuring Shirley Aley Campbell, and the second one which talks about Lee Heinen.

Majority Rising: Inspired by Lee Heinen

The second installment in my series of blogs leading up to the Majority Rising show which I’m curating and participating in at the Artist Archives of the Western Reserve for Women’s History Month. You can read the first installment here.

 

Majority Rising, subtitled, Cleveland’s Female Gaze, opens March 12th and features work by legendary Cleveland figurative artists, Shirley Aley Campbell, Lee Heinen, Kathleen McKenna, Marsha Sweet, Marilyn Szalay…and me, Judy Takács.

My contribution to the show will be the portraits I am painting of the living artists in this stellar grouping. 

Today I’m talking about the portrait I painted of artist, Lee Heinen.

Judy Takács, Lee Heinen: Bathed in Sunlight

Lee does the exact opposite of what I do as an artist.  She sees the forest, where I see trees (one of the many reasons landscapes scare me so). She simplifies and sees major shapes and colors where I complicate and also delight in specific details. She is able to distill a scene to its essence and express it unapologetically with sensitive silhouettes and bold color passages.

In assembling my dream team for the Majority Rising show, I chose each artist’s work as a unit with its own distinct voice.

In painting each artists portrait, I purposely immersed myself in that artist’s distinct voice…and drew inspiration from their work for their portrait. I was not trying to paint in their “style” (oh how I despise that word as applied to art.) I was attempting to breathe in what motivates their work and let myself be motivated by it too.

Lee Heinen, Sandman

In Lee’s work, I breathed in glowing sunny passages, sensitive contours, intimate human gestures and abstract compositions that accounted for every square inch of canvas.

Nothing more…and nothing less needs to be said about the reclining toddler that fell asleep on the corner of the couch in Sandman.

Naturally observed multi-figural groupings scare me. Lee Heinen’s paintings, however, pounce on delicious specifics like the boy with two Oreo cookies and the man scratching his belly in Day at the Beach below. Then she carefully massages large shapes and contours to their essential gestural core; never too much, never too little.

Lee Heinen, Day at the Beach

Fortunately for me, the day I met with Lee at her beautiful studio in the heart of Cleveland’s Little Italy Art District, it was sunny and bright. She’s hosting a studio tour on March 21st, so you can see it too…along with much of her amazing work.

I had her pose in front of her windows, which glowed with sunlight, creating warm halftones on her face, with almost no true darks. Lee glowed with sunlight like her paintings do.

Not venturing too far from my comfort zone, I kept the background minimal, but sunny, so as to focus on the cool fun lights on her face. After several hand positions were painted and repainted, I solved compositional problems with an eye to capturing essential shapes…the forest, not the trees. In her face, however, I climbed up into the trees and painted each and every leaf…with relish.

I call my portrait, “Lee Heinen, Bathed in Sunlight”

Detail from Lee Heinen, Bathed in Sunlight by Judy Takács

Hope to see you at the opening reception…

Majority Rising
Cleveland’s Female Gaze

Public Opening Reception: Thursday March 12, 5:30 to 8:30

Show dates March 12 through May 2

Artist Archives of the Western Reserve
1834 East 123rd Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44106

Or stop by during gallery hours:
Wednesday through Friday: 10:00 to 4:00
Saturday: 12:00 to 4:00



Private Studio tours in conjunction with the exhibit:

Lee Heinen Studio Tour, March 21, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Shirley Campbell Studio Tour, April 4, 2015 from 1:00 to 2:30

Judy Takács Studio Tour, April 11, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Kathleen McKenna Studio Tour, April 18, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Individual $20
AAWR Member $15

To reserve your spot and buy your ticket to any of the studio tours, email Katelyn Gainer, Gallery and Administrative Assistant at kgainer@artistsarchives.org or call 216.721.9020.  

Majority Rising: Cleveland’s Female Gaze

While all the other art bloggers out there were writing their New Year’s blogs, I was holed up in my studio painting (with a few stops at the computer to bang out another installment of my self-portrait blog for the Portrait Society of America.)

So, I shall retrace my steps. 

Last time we spoke in October, I was running out the door to take my Chicks paintings to Pennsylvania for a Chicks with Balls show at the Schulman Gallery of the Luzerne County Community College. 

The show was wildly successful and beautifully hung, thanks to the efforts of gallery director extraordinaire, Allison Schmidt Carson (check out the pix on facebook). The gala opening was well-attended and the gallery talk was well-received. The two-day weekend workshop inspired me no end, I’m incredibly proud of my students…and our model was terrific! My painting of her below, is called, Air.

Judy Takács, Air

What excited most were all the volunteers in Pennsylvania, who offered to pose for future Chicks paintings…I had 6 of them on opening night! I promised each one that on my return trip to pick up the art in mid-December, I’d stage the photo shoots necessary for me to create their paintings, so they should start thinking about their balls.

Do you think anyone will notice my CWB sticker when I return my U-Haul?

Between school closings and winter weather advisories in PA, staging these encounters added to the complexity of my return trip in December to pick up the art, but I’ll talk more about that in later blogs. Happy to report, I made it home safe and sound and ready to hunker down for the holidays and get cooking and take a little detour from the Chicks  before their next show at the Tri-C Gallery East in Ocober 2015!

Majority Rising

If you’ve been following my #workinprogress and #majorityrising painting details that I’ve been posting on instagram…and my showing for the facebook 7 day artists challenge… you may already have some clues.

Late in 2014, I was asked by Mindy Tousley, the new Executive Director of the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, to curate and participate in, Majority Rising, a figurative show for Women’s History Month in March 2015.

I was to choose figurative artists from the legendary female Cleveland artists whose work is archived at the AAWR. The Archives is a non-profit dedicated to preserving the Art History of Cleveland. Many famed artists, including some of my professors from the Cleveland Institute of Art, have their art legacy housed at the Archives. A few years back, the Archives invited me to be an archived artist as well.

So, I set forth immediately choosing my dream team for Majority Rising and planned studio visits too. This was a golden opportunity to meet some of the grand dames of Cleveland Art and see their work in person. 

I also decided to paint each of these legendary artists as my contribution to the show. 

In the words of Tina Turner, I never do anything “nice and easy”…I do it “nice and rough!” Four completed portraits…plus a self portrait finished, framed and dry by the March 12th opening…am I crazy?

The Majority Rising figurative artists whose portraits I am painting are…Shirley Aley Campbell, Lee Heinen, Kathleen McKenna, and Marsha Sweet. The fifth artist, whose work is included in the show, is the amazing Marilyn Szalay, who, sadly I have never met.  She passed away in 2012. Because I thought it would be the best way to honor her memory, her own self-portrait will be included in the show.

Proceeding alphabetically, I’ll begin with Shirley Aley Campbell. 

I hope she won’t mind me saying this, and I’d take it as a huge compliment myself…she’s Cleveland’s own artistic blend of Alice Neel and Lucien Freud.

Shirley Campbell’s gigantic cast of characters spoke to my own artistic soul. I marveled at her bravery in rising to the challenge of painting Hell’s Angels on Harleys, prostitutes in back seats of police cars, transgender individuals and any number of fascinating folks who live beneath the radar of conventional society…for the past 70 years or so!

Shirley Aley Campbell, The Secret

It was her lesser-shown nudes that I chose for the Majority Rising show though. When she told me that one of her multi-figure nudes had been overlooked for years because of its controversial nature, I jumped at the chance to turn some heads and include the piece in the show I was curating.

Below is another of Shirley’s paintings, Red Tulips, which was featured in a Cleveland Plain Dealer review of her show at the Maria Neil Art Project, in November 2014. I love how Shirley paints, I love who she paints…and I love all that red too. Before I even met the her, Red Tulips inspired my vision of the portrait I would paint of Shirley.

Shirley Aley Campbell, Red Tulips

Chatting all afternoon with Shirley, I asked her to hold her paintbrush like the cigarette in her painting…and we laughed and laughed! 

I call my painting below, When I grow up, I want to be Shirley Campbell.

Judy Takács, When I grow up I want to be Shirley Campbell

Hope to see you at my curatorial debut and opening reception…

Majority Rising
Cleveland’s Female Gaze

Public Opening Reception: Thursday March 12, 5:30 to 8:30

Show dates March 12 through May 2

Artist Archives of the Western Reserve
1834 East 123rd Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44106



Private Studio tours in conjuction with the exhibit:

Lee Heinen Studio Tour, March 21, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Shirley Aley Campbell Studio Tour, April 4, 2015 1:00 to 2:00

Judy Takács Studio Tour, April 11, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Kathleen McKenna Studio Tour, April 18, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30

Individual $20
AAWR Member $15

To reserve your spot and buy your ticket to any of the studio tours, email Katelyn Gainer, Gallery and Administrative Assistant at kgainer@artistsarchives.org or call 216.721.9020.  

 













 

Nicole helps me out as I’m loading up the U-Haul to Pennsylvania

Nicole’s children

For the past few months I've been frantically working to finish the portraits for the next Chicks with Balls show in Pennsylvania at the Luzerne County Community College. Nicole's was particularly complex with her tangled yarn analogy of motherhood, featuring her children.

Between painting and waiting for layers to dry…which was taking forever…and getting the blogs written, I was down to the wire and getting overwhelmed. I didn't moan and groan about this on facebook, or even in private to Nicole though. I just flip out at my family occasionally, and then go back to doing the work, because it's actually all good.

A week or so ago, however, Nicole, who is a very perceptive soul, sent me the following message.

Nicole said:
 
Hi Judy! I just wanted to reach out to tell you "you're off the hook" as far as I'm concerned with writing a blog about me. Honestly, I can only imagine how much pressure it is on you to try to summarize someone's entire essence of being in a blog post. Especially because you are already doing it so beautifully and exactly through paint... I can also tell you that a part (and sometimes a lot more) of me identifies with the things you've already written about your other chicks. If you insist on putting something in writing for me, just go back and take excerpts from the others' post and mash it all together to create one for me! Cut and paste is a beautiful thing... That pretty much sums me up anyway.. Lots of little pieces and experiences and desires and personalities and faults and talents and mistakes and dumb luck adventures and, and, and,... that have somehow ended up gelling (and sometimes not) together in one living being who's just trying to get through this life enjoying it as much as possible and sharing as much positive energy with others as possible. Maybe I could even be different and you could have me be your first "non blog" hahaha. Really, though, your very generous gift to me in all this is the painting, which, although you are just as talented with your pen as you are your brush, I know is your true love and how you, at your core, desire to connect with people. Consider us connected and cross my blog off your very long list of things to do right now! Can't wait to see it! And you xoxoxox

a detail from Nicole’s children

Here's how I responded… 

Judy said:

Thank you Nicole! You've just written my blog for me! I'm serious…totally serious! I'm working on your painting as we speak, hoping the white will dry in time for the shadows under the yarn to dry in time for me to varnish it and then dry so it won't stick to the other paintings when I stick it into the Uhaul! Actually, your painting is lying in the "drying room"

AND, I think your "don't bother writing a blog about me" message soo OOOOO perfectly exemplifies the whole Chick with balls thing, it's perfect! So, if you don't mind, I shall quote your message more or less verbatim…no changes, no proofing, no paragraph returns, just a mad rush of very considerate thoughts. It will be the last one I post before loading the truck I think.

No better gift actually! Thank you!

The title of your painting, is "Nicole's tale of motherhood told in yarn" or something like that. I still have to polish the title a bit.

This is awesome and so perfect!

Judy

a detail from Nicole’s children

And this is what Nicole thought…

Nicole said:
This is so wonderful. Amazing how things just organically become what they are supposed to, right? xxoo

a detail from Nicole’s children

Yes indeed…life unfolding around the art!

And now it's off to pack the U-haul and take the Chicks on the road to Pennsylvania for its showing at the Luzerne County Community College at the Schulman Gallery on October 24th!

P.S. The titanium white is dry…phew!

Mark your calendars
and if you can swing it, make your plans…
Chicks with Balls is traveling to Pennsylvania!

Chicks with Balls:
Judy Takács Paints Unsung Female Heroes

Schulman Gallery
Luzerne County Community College

Gallery Talk: Friday Night October 24th at 5:30

Opening Reception Immediately Follows until 8:30

And, I’m teaching a workshop at the college on
Saturday and Sunday October 25th and 26th.

Oil Painting the Figure and Face
with Personality and Grace…
two day painting workshop with instructor Judy Takács.

Luzerne County Community College
Schulman Gallery 

1333 South Prospect Street

Nanticoke, PA

Show Dates October 24th through December 9th

 

Cathy’s Home

Cathy’s Home

When I first made friends with the artist, Cathy Rogers, a few years ago, her adult daughter sent me a thank you note.

This may seem odd…or sweet…depending on whether you have a suspicious or appreciative personality. I’m a little of both, and I was exceedingly touched; especially so because I could never imagine my own (seemingly oblivious teenage) boys reaching out like this on my behalf.

This Facebook thank you note was even more special because I knew that Cathy’s daughter, Patty, has very limited mobility since birth because of cerebral palsy.

Of superior intelligence, insight and intuition, Patty is a college-educated author, and requires full time physical care…provided by Cathy.

It is to both their credit that Patty gratefully realizes that her mom’s artistic identity needs to be nurtured in order for her to also be the effective and loving caregiver she is to Patty. This was the crux of her thank you note; she was happy that her mom was making some “art friends.” In her previous life, Cathy had been a machinist…thus the work boots in her Chicks painting. 

Her daughter had sent me the note after Cathy and I had gotten together with another art friend Susie (she posed for Chicks early on) to go to the Butler Institute of American Art to analyze, criticize and feast on some sour grapes about their legendary Annual Midyear Juried show. None of us had been accepted that year, so it was fair game. 

Cathy told us about her life over lunch. On paper, the details are dizzying. She is full-time caregiver for her adult daughter with cerebral palsy. She is also full-time caregiver for her elderly mother, who survived a stroke with multiple impairments. She has another daughter, whose health problems and surgeries often bring her home to Cathy’s house for extended recovery stays. And, though Cathy didn’t know it at the time, her third daughter was soon to be embarking on divorce proceedings. Add to that Cathy’s own health issues that have left her deaf in one ear, with chronic migraines and vertigo since her brain surgery years before and it really is dizzying!

But her lunchtime delivery of this CWB-worthy laundry list was told with humor, pride and a twinkle in her eye. The way she talked about her home life, I pictured an ensemble cast, quirky family movie, where adversity is entertaining, diverse family members are loved and there’s no need for a laugh track because we’re all already having fun. “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Moonstruck,” and every John Irving novel came to mind.

Early in our friendship I asked Cathy to pose. She clearly possessed the quintessential CWB qualities…strength, courage, strong work ethic, joy, passion and a very full plate.

When she finally did come to pose, she had just finished taping an interview for “Artists at Work”, a cable show with host, Carol Medhurst, to spotlight Northeast Ohio’s Artists.

Cathy chose beach balls because her home, though not a lake house, is close to Lake Erie.

The balls are all partially deflated, I saw them as symbolic of all the people in Cathy’s life who, with their many needs, rely on her like the air they breathe. I added the extra balls around her to further symbolize the heavy load she carries…a load she bears, however, with joy, levity…air.

The firmly squished ball she sits on symbolizes her husband, Frank, who, as Cathy will readily tell you, is like gold. He married her with many of the complexities of her life already in place and is a loving rock of continuing support for the family, and for her identity as an artist.

Cathy creates this welcoming home of love so that all the people in her charge can thrive. And, in three years, when her husband retires, Cathy will move her family to a new home in Georgia, so that her patient, insightful and caring daughter, Patty can finally marry the love of HER life. 

Patty met Chris, a gifted photographer, online 14 years ago. They Skype every day, write books together, are engaged and have written a blog about their epic relationship. When they move down south, they will all live near each other and Cathy will continue to be there for her daughter and her husband, and this fairy tale romance will become real as they all make their new home in Georgia.

Home is where the love is, and I call this painting, “Cathy’s Home.”

Cathy’s Home…detail

Mark your calendars
and if you can swing it, make your plans…
Chicks with Balls is traveling to Pennsylvania!

Chicks with Balls:
Judy Takács Paints Unsung Female Heroes

Schulman Gallery
Luzerne County Community College

Gallery Talk: Friday Night October 24th at 5:30

Opening Reception Immediately Follows until 8:30

And, I’m teaching a workshop at the college on
Saturday and Sunday October 25th and 26th.

Oil Painting the Figure and Face
with Personality and Grace…
two day painting workshop with instructor Judy Takács.

Luzerne County Community College
Schulman Gallery

1333 South Prospect Street

Nanticoke, PA

Show Dates October 24th through December 9th

 

Kim, the reliquarian and keeper of time

Kim, the keeper of time
by Judy Takács

Kim Mettee’s home, her art and her life are reliquaries. She collects artifacts and concepts from nature, history, artisans, and the world, and incorporates them into individually and exquisitely crafted jewelry. She is also an expert photographer, and elegantly shows us the details and intimate qualities of her wearable art through her blog, Colour Stories, and facebook page.

Kim delights in the tactile design qualities of a Job’s tear seed, a sliver ornament long separated from ancient tribalwear, or a skein of handcrafted exotic fiber.

When I asked her to pose for Chicks, I had artistically selfish motivations.

First, I love the way Kim looks. She is lean, tanned and at that perfect age where her face is just beginning to become truly fascinating . I had painted her once before, and called that portrait, “The Reliquarian.” For that painting she wore a mauve and maroon Afghani wedding dress, along with her beloved selection of antique silver jewelry. 

The Reliquarian
by Judy Takács

When I showed the painting, several people commented that Kim looked like one of the ancient women in the Bible (Sarah, Rebekkah, Esther…women with names like that). Though, I wasn’t thinking “Bible”, I was happy that these viewers felt Kim’s timeless presence. And, given that our vision of what these biblical characters “looked like” was from images painted by artists like Rembrandt, Artemesia Gentileschi and Michelangelo, I felt especially complimented.

I also knew that since Kim is an artist herself, she’d come up with something fascinating and visually compelling for her ball concept. She did.

detail from Kim, the keeper of time

She had me at Alpaca Yarn Balls.

Kim took her ball choice to heart and went to the Alpaca Fiber Studio. This shop is right next to the Valley Art Center in Chagrin Falls, where Kim has taught jewelry design for the past 15 years. She shows and sell her work at the Bell Street Gallery shop within the art center. Kim often incorporates this sumptuously designed yarn into the wearable art she creates.

detail from Kim, the keeper of time

detail from Kim, the keeper of time

The yarns she chose comes in skeins which she then had to roll into balls.

I’ve had to roll yarn into balls only a very few times in my life. When I do, though, I sit down, pull the end out of the skein and start rolling. 10 minutes later…or by the next commercial if I’m doing it in front of the TV…I have a yarn ball, and I’m on to other business.

Kim, on the other hand, because she luxuriates in the sensuous quality of all aspects of life, found herself mesmerized by the process and put herself into what I imagine was a Zenlike trance. The regular movements of her arms as she pulled and rolled became symbolic and heavy with meaning, memories and the passage of time; all of which she contemplated while she rolled.

She told me about this process using many repeated graceful arm movements. For the painting I knew two arms weren’t nearly enough to truly convey the complexity of Kim’s experience in time and space as she actually created her own balls.

I fell in love with every aspect of this portrait, the skin, the pose, the hair…and the yarn. The ordered organic quality of this handmade yarn was a joy to paint, as was Kim and her creative and timeless presence.

I call this painting, Kim, the keeper of time.

Mark your calendars
and if you can swing it, make your plans…
Chicks with Balls is traveling to Pennsylvania!

Chicks with Balls:
Judy Takács Paints Unsung Female Heroes

Schulman Gallery
Luzerne County Community College

Gallery Talk: Friday Night October 24th at 5:30

Opening Reception Immediately Follows until 8:30

And, I’m teaching a workshop at the college on
Saturday and Sunday October 25th and 26th.

Oil Painting the Figure and Face
with Personality and Grace…
two day painting workshop with instructor Judy Takács.

Luzerne County Community College
Schulman Gallery

1333 South Prospect Street

Nanticoke, PA

Show Dates October 24th through December 9th