text: Desert Exposure August 2012 Arts Scene
  This month brings the inaugural Silver City Clay Festival, August 3-5, as previewed in our July issue. The festival will feature two juried art shows:
  Art Tile Show, juried by Alfredo Ratinoff, faculty member of the ceramics department at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The 130-plus tiles entered, from more than 50 artists, will be on display at six Silver City art galleries from August 3 until Sept. 3: Seedboat, Art & Conversation, Leyba & Ingalls, Lois Duffy Art, Blue Dome and Silver Spirit.
  Neo-Mimbreño Exhibition, juried by Harry Shafer, who holds a PhD in anthropology and is professor emeritus at Texas A & M University. The exhibition will feature works in all media influenced by the painted pottery of the prehistoric Mimbres culture, and will be on display at the Western New Mexico University Museum from August 5 through Sept. 5. A WNMU Black-On-White Gala Opening Reception is planned for August 4, 7-9:30 p.m., $50 per person.
  Lectures, all held at the Seedboat Center for the Arts, include:
  "Taos Pueblo Pottery" by Pam Lujan-Hauer, August 3 and 4, 9:30-10:30 a.m. each day.
  "Why, Me? The Unexpected Saga of Mata Ortiz" by Spencer MacCallum, August 3, 11:30 a.m.-noon. MacCallum, noted author and social anthropologist, played a pivotal role in the economic development of the art-pottery village of Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico.
  "Contrast Within Traditions, New Mexico's Pueblo Potters" by Claude W. Smith III, August 3, 1-2 p.m. Smith is a retired Western New Mexico University professor who led the ceramics program.
  "Classic Mimbres Pottery: Technology, Function and Symbolism" by Harry J. Shafer, August 4, 11 a.m.-noon and again 1-2 p.m.
  "Brick by Brick: How Silver City Was Built to Last" by Susan Berry, August 3, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Barry is the co-author of Built to Last: An Architectural History of Silver City, New Mexico, and longtime director of the Silver City Museum.
  "Using Clay in Construction" by Catherine Wanek, August 4, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Wanek has written numerous books on natural and straw bale building, and is developing the Black Range Lodge in Kingston, NM, as a center for healthy living and summer workshops on natural building.
  "Tiles Out of the Blue" by Joseph A. Taylor, August 3 and 4, 4-5:30 p.m. each day. A writer and educator, Brown is the co-founder and current president of the Tile Heritage Foundation.
  The festival will also feature hands-on clay workshops and demonstrations; see the listing in our July issue or on the festival's website, www.ClayFestival.com. Claymation shorts and documentary films will celebrate the art (and fun) of clay.
  There will even be food, in the form of a Mud Pie Contest on Saturday, August 4, at 10 a.m. at the Silver City Farmers Market. Cooks are invited to find a favorite mud pie recipe, make it, bake it or freeze it, and enter it in the competition. Entries will be judged and three prizes awarded.
  For more information on the festival and complete events schedules, see the advertisement in this issue and www.ClayFestival.com. You can also email info@clayfestival.com or call 538-5560.
  In addition to hosting art tiles from the clay festival's juried show, Lois Duffy Art will feature new works by Duffy. An opening reception will be held August 3, 4-7 p.m. 211C N. Texas, 313-9631, www.loisduffy.com.
  Works by Kate Brown will be on display at the Murray Hotel during the clay festival, August 3-5. Brown will be teaching a tile class at her Mimbres studio August 8, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 536-9935, www.katebrownpottery.com.
  Raven's Nest Boutique will be featuring pottery by Lucinda Pittman, "Leaf Impressions." 106 W. Yankie St.
  Seedboat Gallery will be featuring "Light and Texture," works by Mimi Peterson and Dave Roberts, opening with a reception August 3, 5-8 p.m., and continuing through Sept. 27. 214 W. Yankie St., 534-1136, www.seedboatgallery.com.
  Ginny Wolf is closing her studio and gallery at 108 W. Yankie St.
  The Las Cruces Museum of Art opens three new exhibitions with a reception on Friday, August 3, during the monthly Ramble from 5-7 p.m.; the exhibitions close on Sept. 8. "What I See, What I Saw" is an installation piece by artist Marianne McGrath of Austin, Texas, composed of 3,000 hand-formed ceramic roses made from raw clay and preserved in wax. "Indra's Net" is an installation piece by the Praxis Collective, incorporating more than 300 miniature paintings. "Draw: Unseen Marks," the works of Carol Meine, are drawings in charcoal on paper. 491 N. Main St., 541-2137, www.las-cruces.org/museums.
  The Museum of Art is also seeking proposals for solo and group exhibitions to be presented in 2013. Artists living and working in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas are eligible to submit by Oct. 19.
  The Mesilla Valley Fine Arts Gallery will feature two local artists this month: Roxana Quinnell is a mixed-media artist showing portrait personalities of animals in a combination of pencil and acrylic glazes. Kurt Van Wagner transforms his personal photographs into art creations. 2470-A Calle de Guadalupe, 522-2933, www.mesillavalleyfinearts.com.
  The Tombaugh Gallery will presents "Retro: The Works of Jeanne Rundell," a retrospective that begins with a reception on Sunday, August 5, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and runs through August 31. Rundell moved to Las Cruces in 1975, where she co-founded the Mesilla Valley Pottery and was also one of the founders of the Potters Guild of Las Cruces in 1981. In 1986, Rundell and Janice Cook opened The Potteries in Mesilla, where they have created fine art since. The art at the Tombaugh Gallery will include 40 to 50 works done over the last 14 years. Unitarian Universalist Church, 2000 S. Solano St., 522-7281.
  Mesquite Art Gallery features "Wanda Fuselier's Recycled Zoo Art" this month, with a reception August 11 at 4 p.m. This light-hearted series of collages and sculptures, made entirely of found objects, takes the shape of various animal forms. 340 N. Mesquite St., 640-3502, www.mesquiteartgallery.com.
  The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum opens a new exhibit, "Storm Sermay: The Art of the Cotton Gin," with a reception on Aug. 16, 6-8 p.m. Las Cruces photographer Sermay's exhibit gives a fresh, new look to some old structures in the Mesilla Valley. Cotton gins are the subjects of her photography and the viewer is provided a closer view of these tall, metal buildings that are decorated with light, shadows, angles and shapes. The exhibit includes 20 black-and-white photographs. 4100 Dripping Springs Road, www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org.