YUMA Symposium 2010

Every year I go to the Yuma Symposium in Yuma, Arizona. The symposium has been held for the last 31 years. This was my 7th year at Yuma, and possibly one of the best years so far!

Presenters this year were:
Jennifer D Anderson • printmaking
Sam Chung • clay
Arthur Ganson • sculpture
Zig Jackson • photography
Becky McDonah • metals
Bruce Metcalf • metals
Stephanie Metz • fiber
Pete Pinnell • clay
Betsy Schneider • photography
Lisa Slovis • metals
Patrick Stafford • wood/multi-media
Dale Wedig • metals

My favorites are below:
Arthur Ganson showed videos of his crazy, amazing, hilarious, kinetic sculptures.

Sam Chung demonstrated how he builds his forms from slabs of clay.

Becky McDonah did a demonstration on using the hydraulic press, and techniques for pushing the form farther.

Bruce Metcalf spoke about the writing of his book, "Makers: A History of American Studio Craft", which is scheduled to be released this summer. I am really looking forward to reading this book. I would love to teach a history of Craft class someday! Stephanie Metz is a fiber artist that does a lot of needle felting. This "Natural History of a Teddy Bear" series was strange and fascinating at the same time.Lisa Slovis did a pewtersmithing demonstration on how she constructs one of her vases.Patrick Stafford talked about his work. I really liked the furniture he did with etched metal elements like the tops of these two tables below.Dale Wedig did a demonstration on using indoor ceiling tiles for mold making and casting. He was able to get fairly complex forms in a very low tech way. Im excited to try this with my 3D Design students.

Besides the presenters, there was plenty of fun to be had at the pin swap

These were my pins this year, little glass tubes with red silk and pearls.
Every year the grad students at ASU make a group piece to donate to the auction. This year we made a planter and this happy young man was the winner. Ironically he purchased our piece last year and didn't even know it.

Oh yeah, and of course we all had a blast at the campfire.

Da Pin Swap

My absolute favorite part of the Yuma Symposium is the pin swap. The first day of the symposium people gather and run around meeting eachother and swapping pins. Its a great way to meet new people and bring home cool loot!

Here are some of my favorites from this year... Made by Patty Smith.Made by Danielle Embry.
Made by Michael Dale Bernard.

Made by Keith Lewis. Made by Becky McDonah. Made by Betsy Douglas.Can't remember who made this, but I really liked them!

Presenters at Yuma 30

As promised, here is my post on the Yuma Presenters this year... I am only posting on the presenters whose lectures I actually went to. Unfortunately they schedule them to overlap, so you have to pick and choose. These are the artists I chose to see...

James Thurman is currently a professor at Penn State University. He creates wearable and sculptural pieces out of laminated paper. He calls his technique "Mokume Kami" or wood grain paper, made to look like the traditional metalworking technique Mokume Gane.
His work "contains both actual and metaphoric relationships to ideas of recycling and sustainability. The paper involved has been directly recycled as new objects. What is created emphasizes its origins both literally and conceptually: vessels of recycled material that embody the principles of sustainability. The largest gain from this process is not the physical reduction of landfill, but the infiltration of these ideas through unconventional and unexpected channels."
Check out his flickr.
Or his website. Tedd McDonah is a metalsmith who lives in Tempe, AZ but would rather live in Wisconsin. He is currently a professor in the Metals Department at Arizona State University. Tedd says this about his work,
"Taking a cross-section of American culture and modifying it with my own hypocrisy, cynicism, and aesthetic is the best way to describe what goes into my work. As today's fishing tackle manufacturers crank out their "up-to-date, high-tech, fish-catching, signature-series," there is simultaneously a brand of people (myself included), who are snatching up and collecting antique fishing lures, and to them, the older and more rare, the better. It used to be these lures were meant to catch fish, but now they seem to be lures for people rather than lures for fish.
My approach to making lures has covered both aspects: people lures, and fishing lures. Bringing these two elements together has allowed me to make a seemingly utilitarian object.
The "jewelryesque" type lures have been inspired by both jewelry and spinner baits which have been cross-bred to produce this object which was not meant to be worn--or fished with.
The plugs, or top water lures, appear to be more straightforward. I chose to use traditional materials (wood and metal) and nontraditional materials (found objects).
While the majority of the pieces in the exhibition were formally influenced by actual lures, some are of my own invention.
And finally, to answer the most asked question......Yes, they do catch fish."

Check out his flickr.

And his blog.
Elliot Pujol is currently the metals professor at KSU. He creates forms, usually in copper, that are loaded with texture and folds. His wall pieces and vessels are a beautiful combination of texture, color and form.

Michael Hosaluk is a wood sculptor and turner living and working in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

(This image taken from functionart.com)

Michael says about his work,
"My love of woodworking is not only for the beauty and mystery of the material, but in the inventing of new techniques and processes to create objects.The materials I use relate to the objects I make. At times, a piece of salvaged wood will become a starting point of design. Other times, a design will call for a piece of wood with incredible grain. Using plain wood, like birch allows me to approach the object as a three dimensional canvas. Here, I can apply a variety of surface design techniques to express an idea.My work tells stories from my life, places I’ve been, people I’ve met, architecture, our environment. These stories are interwoven into the objects I create. Craft goes beyond the pleasure of our senses and deals not only with aesthetics, but our social and ideological lives.Fascination with how turned forms can be manipulated keeps me excited about future possibilities related to woodturning."

(These images taken from Del Mano Gallery)
Dana Moore is currently Director of Programs at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Her work focuses on historic processes and she often takes found photographs and alters them to narrate her own personal life experiences. Unfortunately I could not find any of of her work online, and the only image I have of her work is terrible quality. I absolutely LOVED Danas work. She was probably my favorite presenter this year...her talk was very honest and eloquent and her work was so beautiful and personal. If you ever get the chance to see it...I highly recommend taking that chance!

James Viste is a blacksmith living and working in Detroit. Sorry for the poor quality images, this was all I could find online, but his work is really beautifully textured containers.

Other presenters that I wasn't able to see were the following:

Jim Romberg-Ceramics

Greg MacGregor-Photography

Nancy Worden- Metals

Mardis Nenno- Ceramics

James Todd- Printmaking

Sarah Whorf- Printmaking

Stephani Stephenson- Ceramics

Matthew Herbet- Furniture

Allen Dutton- Photography

Daniella Woolf- Painting/Sculpture

The Yuma Symposium is AWESOME. I love going every year and the presenters are always amazing. It is such a good time and I highly recommend it to anyone!

30th Annual Yuma Symposium Overview

Two weeks ago I attended the 30th Annual Yuma Art Symposium, in Yuma, AZ. Here is where it all starts...at Lutes Casino (not a casino at all, actually more like a bar/restraunt), in historic downtown Yuma. At Lutes we spend many hours socializing and swapping trade pins with other Symposium go-ers. The pin swap will be a whole post of its' own because I have too many awesome trade pins to show you!Anyway, here you see us all decked out in our pins. I know I look scary in this picture, but it illustrates how much fun the pin swap is, and this wasn't even all the pins I traded for! After the pin swap, we all head over to the old theater to hear the presenters give their sales pitches as to why we should attend their lectures or demos for the rest of the weekend.

This year I attended the lectures/demos of...Elliot Pujol

James VisteAnd (my asu professor) Tedd McDonah. I also saw James Thurman, Dana Moore, and Michael Hosaluk.

I will be doing another post that shows the work of the presenters this year because they were all so awesome, it needs a post of its own!

After all the presentations, we have the National Saw File and Solder Sprints! Its a relay race to make a band ring. The first person has to saw out the ring blank, the second person has to file and form it, and the third person has to solder it. Our team was named "Two grads and a spaz."

It is super fun and really competitive and the three winning teams take home some killer trophies. Unfortunatley ASU didnt bring home any trophies this year, but we are already gearing up for next years competition!

There is also an exhibition of student work, and the work of presenters (which I totally forgot to take pictures of this year!). Oops.

Also, Betsy Douglas brought her pin collections from all 30 years of yuma symposiums for the show. She has been going since year 1 and makes sure she trades with every single person at Yuma every single year. That woman is amazing! Check out my flickr for more photos of some of the old pins. She has a wall panel covered in pins for each year.There is also a pin auction the last night, which benefits the Yuma Symposium. It gets a bit crazy, but it is always fun and I like to come home with something every year. This year I bought a bracelet (a lot like this one) made by James Thurman. (This photo is from his flickr). It is made of mokume kami (laminated paper made to look like wood grain).
And you probably remember me showing you this already, but this is the wall vase that I made with the other ASU Metals grads as our contribution to the auction.

After the auction and show, there is a great barbque/dance party. These ladies come every year and make the best tortillas (over a trash can fire) that you have ever had in your life!
The yuma symposium is SO much fun. Every year I meet people that change my life and I am so grateful to be able to have those experiences! I hope someday I will be one of the crazy oldtimers at Yuma...wearing my crazy silver pants and dancing the night away...laughing at all the silly young kids:)

Check back soon for my posts on the presenters and the pin swap!