A silent auction of exhibits produced by the 2015 artists in residence at Petrified Forest National Park will be held on Saturday, Dec. 10, at La Posada Hotel in Winslow. Live entertainment will accompany the event and bidding will begin at 8 a.m. and close at 6 p.m. that evening.
The artist in residence program began in 2006, and creates opportunities for artists to reside at a national park for a period of time while creating works inspired by their surroundings. Historically, artists have impacted the formation, expansion and direction of national parks through glimpses of the American landscape that many may never visit.
Upon completion of the artists’ residency, they are asked to donate at least one piece of their art. The donated artwork may become property of the National Park Service, the park’s Friends Group or the Petrified Forest Museum Association, and may be accessioned into the park’s permanent museum collection, used in exhibits, used for educational purposes or auctioned. Some of the artists’ works have been on public display in the area throughout the past year.
2015 works to be auctioned include pieces created by the following artists.
Mark Kemp Bayles
The Cave Creek resident creates original works of art in stained glass, paint, and sculpting in wood and stone. He studied art at Arizona State University and the University of Utah. In his 25 years working as an environmental consultant, architectural designer and homebuilder, he also maintained a business creating stained glass windows and installing them for clients.
Mollie Doctrow
The internationally renowned artist is the developer and artist of the Wildflower Wayside Shrine Trail, and curator at the South Florida State College Museum of Florida Art and Culture in Avon Park, Fla.
Mary Dorrell
This multi-talented woman brings her art to life through sketching, painting, and native Lakota and Cherokee crafts. She is drawn to explore and creatively document wild places. She noted, “I am continuously captivated by the endurance, power and magic that lies in all of nature, from the sublime single leaf to the majesty of a panoramic horizon.”
Jerry Ginsberg
The award winning landscape and nature photographer has photographed every one of America’s 59 national parks. His works have graced the covers and pages of many well-known magazines and catalogs. Ginsberg stated, “When I am fortunate to experience the joy of a special moment in nature, I am moved to preserve it, to not let it go, to record it so that I can share it with others who are not there to see it in person.”
Jaini Hadley
Using twigs as framework, this weaver creates large-scale wall hangings and smaller woven pieces. A native of England, she attended art school in London and worked as a teacher prior to becoming an art psychotherapist. Visual notebooks or work journals may be included in conjunction with the woven pieces or as stand-alone pieces. She continues to write, teach and run workshops. “Travels and sojourns in special places provide the inspiration and motivation to create pieces that I hope get to the heart of the landscape,” she noted.
Larry Hughes
This former geophysicist turned award-winning artist from Memphis, Tenn., creates stunning images of the Southwest wilderness through the use of watercolors, drawing mediums and oil paints. Larger pieces he may produce in the studio, but many of his watercolors are created trailside as he is enveloped in the natural beauty around him. He stated, “The process celebrates my Creator and provides an opportunity to advocate for the preservation of His creation in its pristine, natural state.”
Shing Yin Khor
Trained as a theatrical scenic designer, this artist has transitioned to cartooning and sculpting awkwardly charming creatures trapped in a world of human fallibility. Drawing on her previous training, she builds tiny, charming and complex universes for her anxious little creatures to exist in. Her themes find inspiration in historical hoaxes, old museums, curiosities, cryptozoology, early scientific illustration, medieval monsters and pre-Linnean taxonomy.
Robert Langham III
This teacher and photographer lives in Tyler, Texas. Langham brings images of flora, fauna, and the intersection of human culture and the earth to the viewer through his use of a digital camera. For exhibition pieces he uses film with the magic touch of darkroom techniques. His stunning works are widely collected and featured in museums, and he is acclaimed for his series Blackfork Bestiary.
Lisa McShane
The inspirations of this painter from Bellingham, Wash., come from light and its interaction with the natural world. She uses layers of oil paints and glazes to capture the radiance of reflected light. Her paintings often involve scraping and sanding layers to convey depth. At times, she experiments with historic paints and techniques. Often revisiting the same location repeatedly, her works are inspired by reality and memories of the changing skies, fast moving rivers and ever shifting landscape sculpted through time by erosion.
Bill Meek
Denny Peterson
These quilters draw on the geometric patterns of the Southwest in creating some of their unique quilts. Meek, formerly a biochemist and laboratory researcher, found his true passion in quilting in 2007, and enjoys geometry and symmetry in the patterning of his quilts. Once a lawyer, court mediator and judge pro tempore, Peterson now prefers to explore various challenges in quilt making, including optical illusions and animal “portrait” quilts. Her quilts range from the traditional to the experimental and abstract.
Melany Sarafis
After retiring from the U.S. Air Force, this artist enrolled as an art student at Texas Tech University, pursuing a degree in Studio Arts. Her focus has been photography, and her newest love is for jewelry making and metal smithing.
Benjamin Schedler
This artist is a nature photographer from northern California. Schedler is passionate about the outdoors and the forces at work carving out the natural landscape. His pieces often emphasize geometry in nature through strong lines, contrast, shape and texture. Schedler strives to create compelling images that make viewers appreciate the world around them.
Brent A. Schoenfeld
After 35 years in filmmaking, this artist is devoted exclusively to creating awe inspiring nature photography. Schoenfeld is drawn to the structure and rhythms of nature evident in the landscapes, cloudscapes, “bio-scapes,” geological formations, microscopic images and views from beyond the planet. He hopes through his medium to inspire viewers to align themselves in congruence with, and not in opposition to, the creative energies of Nature.
