Iowa Arts Council launches new “Meet the Artist” series
Artist Fellowship recipients lead workshops, artist talks across the state
Ames, Cedar Rapids, Greenfield and Orange City
ORANGE CITY — Rachel Buse hand-sews her sculptures, her way of drawing a sculpture in space. “Fabric is lightweight and has a warmth embedded in it. It’s very skin-like…. it scars like skin the more you cut it and sew it back together,” she said. Recently she did an interactive sculpture for the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
Larassa Kabel’s works — oils, lithographs and colored pencil drawings— are about compassion, “sometimes… the compassion you need to sit with someone when they are experiencing the worse moments of their lives.” Her newest work focuses on violent crimes against women.
Rob Stephens creates large woodcut prints, paintings and comics. “I think the reason I
respond so viscerally to carving wood blocks is that the wood really does not want to be cut — it hates it and is frankly pissed off about the whole process.”
Buse, Kabel and Stephens are three of this year’s Iowa Arts Council’s “Artist Fellows.” They — along with Matthew Drissell and Lisa Schlesinger — will be featured at the Meet the Iowa Artist event in Orange City Saturday, April 2.
These award-winning artists will each talk and show slides of their work at 4:00pm at the Barn at Blue Mountain. Following the talk, a reception will be held — with appetizers, beverages and a cash bar. Prior to the talk—at 2:00pm—Buse and Stephens will teach a workshop in Zine-making—how to create a self-published photocopied magaZine. All events are free.
——————————————————-CLICK on name to read more about each artist: Rachel Buse, Matthew Drissell, Larassa Kabel, Lisa Schlesinger and Robert Stephens. AND hear an interview with Matt Drissell on KWIT-FM radio: here.
Sponsors are Orange City Arts and Iowa Arts Council, with support from the Korver-Huisman Charitable Foundation.
Lisa Schlesinger writes plays — about people, characters and social justice… currently a commissioned play about the 2014 West Virginia chemical spill. “It’s about the many unseen toxins in the environment and on the internet and what we do when they leak into our lives.”
And Matt Drissell paints with highly processed food products: popsicles, lemonades, ice creams. He deals with colors and smells… and his works change over time. “They are science experiments in some ways,” he said. His works — including the barn quilts he creates from food products — are comments on agriculture and sustainability. They are complex — both celebrating the beauty of colors and patterns but also critiquing our land use.
The five artists, from Des Moines, Iowa City and Sioux Center, were selected from over 40 applicants, and each awarded a $5000 grant. Artists may apply for next year’s Artist Fellowship now; see iowaculture.gov/arts.
The Saturday, April 2 event will be held at the Barn at Blue Mountain, 814 Lincoln Place. The Barn is directly south of Blue Mountain Culinary Emporium in Orange City. For more information, contact ocArts@orangecityiowa.com or 712.707.4885.
WORKSHOP · Zine making, a self-publishing art form printed on photocopy machines and born out of punk rock. Zines were a form of culture jamming used by the punk rock community to reclaim mass media from the elite. REGISTER.
Artist talks, workshop and reception are free and open to the public. REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE.
Orange City – April 2, 2016
Orange City Arts Council
The Barn at Blue Mountain, 814 Lincoln Place, Orange City (The Barn is directly south of Blue Mountain Culinary Emporium)
· 2 p.m. – Zine Making Workshop with Rachel Buse and Rob Stephens
· 4 p.m. – Pop Up Exhibit & Artists’ Talk with short slideshow
· 5 p.m. – Reception
Presented by the Iowa Arts Council in partnership with the Orange City Arts Council
Corporate sponsor of the Orange City event is the Korver – Huisman Charitable Foundation.
The Iowa Arts Council created the multi-discipline Artist Fellowship Program in 2014 to support professional, active Iowa artists who are at a pivotal point in their careers, and who demonstrate exceptional creativity and capacity to contribute to excellence and innovation of the arts in Iowa. Visit www.iowaartscouncil.org or call 515-281-5111 for more information about the Iowa Arts Council.
