*Star Sisters*
June 7–July 11, 2010
Mendy Newman, Iris Iris Pasic and Julia Rochholz explore ethereal spaces, grotesque beauty and higher paths through a cosmic dance of painting, drawing and assemblage.
June 15, 2010 Reception Photos >
Julia Rochholz | juliarochholz.com | Statement | I like to think of my recent works as portals: thresholds to a new wave of thought surrounding the beloved wall hanging. Negative spaces moving us through, beyond and back home again. I have found a great joy in the assemblage of these pieces. Sewing worn scraps of fabric and findings together makes a new, more dimensional surface, one with seams pulled taut and textures varying. Here the surfaces seem to feel anguish and joy simultaneously. All these pieces represent my realities, my struggles and epiphanies, doubts, truths and facades. Each piece is the result of a long process of thought, layering and experimentation. In this way they truly represent personal exploration on many levels. I like things a little grungy and disorderly. I think this adds to the complexity, balance & intrigue of each piece. My hope is to create a highly captivating body of work that shows care, complexity, mystery and a grotesque beauty, reflecting the varying facets of the world itself. | Bio | Julia Rocholz is a local artist who is also involved in organizing art events around the Logan Square neighborhood and beyond. She studied studio arts at UW-Madison and currently curates exhibitions at New Wave Coffee.
Iris Iris Pasic | myspace.com/irisirisis | Bio | Iris Iris Pasic born in Sarajevo, Bosnia, former Yugoslavia on June Second 1978. She began to draw shortly thereafter, as soon as she was able to functionally grip a pencil. | Statement | My childhood was filled with innumerable wonders and adventures and places and volumes of strange fairytales. I was privileged with lots of games of all sorts, sometimes with toys and sometimes with mud and rocks and my mother’s clothes, with lots of friends of course. I came to the United States in 1991 with my parents and brother for a visit. One day I saw my school on the news with grenade holes in its sides…so by grace we have resided in Glenview ever since. The American way was a shock to my being, everything about my new home was strange and not anything like what I saw on “The Goonies”. Junior high and high school were experiences of a very different kind of education, ones that drove me into the loving arms of punk rock and the like… Art school, on the other hand, was a very conducive and productive experience that opened me to worlds of possibilities and new ways of thinking and making art. I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received my BFA in 2002. While at SAIC, I studied printmaking, photography, and video among other media and subjects. I also became very interested in and involved with various social and political justice issues which greatly influenced the content of my art at that time. But some things cannot be learned in school so I hit the road via freight train in search of adventure and other creative and passionate folk with whom to change the world, making lots of art along the way and leaving it there. My travels took me along many paths and to many places where my mind was expanded in unimaginable ways and where I met some of those people. And then the winds of change blew me back home to Illinois where I’ve been inspired to seek my lessons along higher paths and by which I intend to find my way. So here I find myself constantly compelled to arrange and rearrange pieces of a puzzle that just keeps getting bigger in every possible direction, and to make lots of pictures.
Mendy Newman | mendynewman@yahoo.com | Bio | Mendy Newman, educator, painter and illustrator of Dallas, Texas origin, now resides in Chicago. She is collaborating together with artist Iris Iris Pasic on two summer community mural projects in Logan Square and Avondale. She graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 with a BFA emphasis in fiber and material studies and painting. She studied landscape painting and figure drawing with Graham Nickson at the New York Studio School in the summer of 2008. She uses line, pattern and color to describe rhythmic dance in wonder and awe of the greater cosmic dance. Mendy Newman is a high school field hockey and soccer coach, and elementary bilingual art educator.
Art@Coles is an AnySquared Project.
