Searching For Solid Ground Art Exhibit

Artists Rose Moon and Cathy Gazda

Sedona Arts Center

15 Art Barn Rd, Sedona, AZ 86336

Opening Reception April 3, 5:00 - 8:00 pm

Open 10:00 am - 5:00 pm everyday

Don’t miss “Searching for Solid Ground” – an art exhibition at Sedona Arts Center that features artists Cathy Gazda and Rose Moon. It is an artistic exploration of life, and the wondrous ways we seek equilibrium and peace along the way. Living on a precarious planet in constant motion and a world teaming with life, anything can happen and does.

Plants, humans and animals seek to find in each moment some place of stability in a reality where the only thing one can count on is change.

While primarily a painter, Cathy Gazda often combines traditional and experimental mediums to bring a 3-D or sculptural element to a 2-D painting. A viewer may be asked to actively participate. Lenticular works combine several paintings into one piece and require a person to move left to right to fully experience the image. Gazda says “While the mediums I’ve used over the years have changed, the essence of what I create is an attempt to capture a glimpse of divinity within all creatures.”

Cathy Gazda, a long-time resident of Sedona, has won many awards, been featured in posters, book covers and has been displayed in numerous national shows and museum venues including the internationally renowned Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s “Birds in Art”.  More of Gazda’s work can be seen at www.cathygazda.com 

Rose Moon is known for her quirky magical realistic paintings depicting an array of life’s circumstances. Having spent years as a hypnotherapist it is no wonder the sub-conscious mind is brought forward in her work. Lines become blurred between what lies inside and outside of the mind. Influenced by surrealists and Jungian psychology her art offers up metaphorical visions. Moon says “I like my viewers to find something personally meaningful that might inspire them to experience the world in a different way.”  She works primarily in acrylic paint, and occasionally in oils and watercolor.

Moon, graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in art and psychology, but dropped out of graduate school to start a family, which she claims is the best education available on earth.  She has won awards in local and international exhibitions and can be seen at The Manheim Gallery in Cottonwood.  More of Moon’s art can be viewed on her web site www.rosemoon.net

“Searching for Solid Ground" will be open to the public at Sedona Arts Center, 15 Art Barn Road in Sedona from April 2 through April 14, 10 am to 5 pm.  The Opening Reception will be April 3, 5 pm till 8 pm. It will be a gathering you won’t want to miss.  All are welcome!

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Radical Center - * You're Invited! *

Radical Center - Paul and Cathy Gazda and Rose Moon are holding a joint art exhibit called ‘Radical Center’ in the NEW Yavapai College Verde Art Gallery, Clarkdale from September 29 through October 23, 2014.  

The new gallery is located in Building F (to the right, as you turn in the driveway), 601 Black Hills Drive, Clarkdale AZ  86324.

The opening reception is Thursday October 2 from 5:00-7:00 – please come, bring friends – everyone is welcome!  If you can’t make it to the opening, hopefully you can swing by between September 29 and October 23rd.

 

For more information and gallery hours please click on the postcard image or call 928-649-5479.  

Dennis Burton, Canadian Artist and Art Educator Extraordinaire

One of my mentors, artist Dennis Burton, passed away on Monday…his memorial takes place tonight in Vancouver.  I wish I could be there.

Recently, after pulling out some old notebooks, I’d realized how much he’d impacted my life and was in the midst of writing him a thank-you letter when I got the news. 

In those art journals – next to notes I’d scribbled down on art history, reincarnation, golden-mean relationships, the ten commandments translated into geometry, colour perception wave lengths and why storms are named after women (all according to Dennis Burton), was this doodle I’d done of him. 

A larger-than-life character, intense, passionate, aggravating, playful, innovative and astute, Dennis was a natural story-teller and gifted jazz musician, in addition to being an incredible artist and true pioneer in the Canadian art scene. 

I send heartfelt blessings across the miles to Diane, Maihyet, Varyn and extended family members.

RIP Dennis, your lifelong contribution as artist and educator have forever secured your place in art history.  Your integrity and presence on the planet certainly made a difference in my life...thank you. 

‘Dennis Doodle’ © 2013 Cathy Gazda, sketch with pen (done over 40 years ago). ♥

Written in the side margins, next to this doodle:
"If you don't discipline yourself, someone else will." – Dennis Burton

Perigee Super-Moon

4:30 am.  A rural high-desert alarm clock…when you’re awakened by a herd of javelinas passing by the open window.  For those who’ve not had the pleasure, the uniquely ‘pungent’ odor of these wild collared peccaries could strip the paint off an old chair (*wink*). 

I went outside to see if these were our ‘regulars’, or a new bunch; however, it was the Perigee ‘Super-Moon’ setting in the west that kept me entranced. 

Reveling in the moment with a half-dozen bats who gracefully swooped and soared overhead, feasting on pre-dawn flying insects before bedding down for the day, I was reminded of how blessed we are to be in this peaceful place…sharing space with all of Nature.

Buddha Full Night

The first full moon in Taurus, known as the Wesak Moon, is considered sacred by many who believe the veil between Heaven and Earth becomes thinner at this time, bringing light, love and healing for all of humanity.  

So, when the pull of last night’s moon brought me to the window in morning’s wee hours -- immersed in the beauty of those potent rays -- I quietly gave thanks for blessings from all dimensions, known and unknown, believed and un-believed. 

It’s all a grand mystery; and, I can stay open to the possibility and joyously hold space for light, love and healing for all. 

“Buddha Full Night”, © 2011 Cathy Gazda. ♥

Mule Deer (Ink Study)

Various deer and elk, who are indigenous to the area, regularly drop by. 

This petite mule deer was very shy and tried to hide behind the trunk of the cottonwood tree, while munching on some broom snakeweed (also known as rabbitbush) outside the studio window. 

Her black-tipped tail and over-sized ears (which some think resemble those of a mule) distinguished her from her cousins, the white-tailed deer, who sometimes grace us with a visit. 

She was quite interested in our cat, Frida, who watched quietly from the open window. 

Mule deer ‘chew their cud’ much like a cow, and this doe had an exaggerated ‘chew’, which I tried to capture. 

“Mule Deer (Ink Study)”, © 2013 Cathy Gazda, 4” x 4”, Pen and ink. ♥