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Visual Art: Gardening:
Passionate
Women Five artists are exhibiting "Works on Paper" at the Springfield Museum through June 19. The group formed by Kacey Joyce, Lynn Wiley, Connie Mueller, Amy Beller and Janice LaVerne is an offshoot of Benchmark Printmakers. Theirs is not only a story of individual passion for art but also one that speaks for the value of cooperation and mutual support among artists.
"Five of us decided we wanted to meet as a group of friends," Mueller explained. The smaller group is flexible; it allows them to respond quickly to each other's needs. "We know where each other's work comes from," Wiley said. "We remind ourselves that what matters is the process. We support each other personally, not just in our art." LaVerne noted they enjoy how different they are from one another. The group has a hearty — and heartening — approach to art and life. "When we get together, we have a darn good time," Mueller said. As Wiley summed it up, "What holds us together is our passion for each other, our passion for art, and our passion for food and wine." Joyce and Wiley were already long-time professional artists and instructors with established reputations. Others came to art later, after learning or practicing another profession. Their paths converged and quickly became intertwined, primarily through Joyce's and Wiley's LCC classes. In this exhibit, Joyce's well-framed, small paintings feature a similar cast of daily objects (hat, pear, chair) and design patterns (frames within frames, margins) as her linocuts. Her tight compositions have been further simplified to striking effect. Within a black rectangle framed in gold leaf, one single object such as a red chair takes center stage, while one or two smaller ones (leaf, house) stand above or in the margin, laid-out like text. In Joyce's previous works objects interacted spatially, but now they exist in stark aloneness and separation, acquiring the status of symbols whose presence refers to something else, something absent. In David's Hat, the yellow hat is allowed to stand in for its owner, celebrated photographer David Joyce, the artist's late husband. Kacey Joyce successfully conveys absence through such spare means and matter-of-factness, while eschewing sentimentality. She expresses both the poignancy of being-no-more and its near-incomprehensibility for those who remain. In both her etchings and acrylic inks, Wiley plays with colors, shape alignment and spatial layering, most obviously in the way she handles and combines different plates for her small abstract etchings. She turns them around, superposes them in different way, and alters colors from one print to another. She formally explores color transparency and space in her acrylic-ink series, Oregon Rain. "Acrylic inks and etching inks have a similar look, that thin transparency that I really love," Wiley said. Although the paintings have an abstract quality, they contain representational elements such as bridges and roads that serve as personal metaphors for Wiley, who uses painting to process and elucidate life events and emotions. "I don't know what the allegory is yet," she said. "That's why I'm not done with this series. I'm very emotionally involved." Mueller, who discovered her predilection for linocuts in Joyce's L.C.C. class, has been printing only four years. But her linocut reductions — printmakers call the method "suicide prints" — show her mastery of this complex, risky technique. The display of a calla-lily print's 11 color-printing stages and resulting linoleum block evidences the labor-intensive progression of colors and cuts. Mueller predetermines the number of her color prints per edition. A single edition of 12 prints, each run through 12 color-printing stages, requires the linoleum block to be cleaned and re-inked 144 times! Areas of solid color result from multiple layers of different colors to which Mueller adds a transparency medium, hence the complexity of that solid color when looked at closely. Much thought and decision-making goes into each stage, yet there is always an element of unpredictability and surprise, which Mueller says she loves. Mueller's landscapes are inspired by places she knows. Visitors may recognize the Peoria Road area, bucolic and stately yet dynamic in "Moonlight," a little melancholy and muted but peaceful in "Early Spring," with its delicate play of light and shadow on bare tree branches. In "Mendocino Highway," a great sense of movement and rhythm results from the undulating branches, grass and road lines. In her black-and-white linocuts, Mueller exquisitely conveys the earthiness and plasticity of adobe architecture in New Mexico. You wouldn't know it from her work, but Amy Beller, who started with a degree in design, once thought she could never draw. Joyce taught her that learning is about experimenting. "Until then, in all these years in school, I had not learned how to learn," she said. Check in particular Beller's small, bold, acrylic-glaze landscapes and her minimalist, ink line-drawing of a cat. Janice LaVerne was a journalism photographer until 11 years ago, when she started painting and printmaking. I particularly enjoyed her Lightbulb Man series of small, witty, color-monoprints. What is Important combines two printing techniques, collagraph and etching. Don't miss this tribute to art and friendship at the Springfield Museum.
Herbal
Learning There are not many places where you can learn to grow, harvest and process your own medicinal herbs. This is a void that Sharol Tilgner seeks to fill. A licensed naturopathic physician in Pleasant Hill, Tilgner has been an avid herbalist since 1979 and has a long, interesting vita. Among her accomplishments she lists "molding an old cattle ranch into an organic herb farm that is now called Shalimar Gardens." Now she's at it again, turning a smaller parcel of former cow pasture near Pleasant Hill into a full-service herbal educational center called Wise Acres.
With 61.2 percent of the population reportedly using herbs, Tilgner believes herbal medicine is a topic that needs more attention. Most herbal products are safe when used properly, she says, but people need to learn which herbs to use, and how to use them correctly. Herbal companies are not allowed to provide educational material on the medicinal uses of the herbs they sell, so people often end up getting their information from a well-intentioned store clerk who may know little more than the consumer. So Tilgner decided to sell her 14-year-old herbal manufacturing company, Wise Woman Herbals, and devote herself to educating the public about herbs. Most of Tilgner's perfectly bucolic 25 acres are in pasture, though there is a big new swath of creek-side planting, mostly of native trees and shrubs. The garden itself lies between two houses painted, like the mailbox, the color of lavender. Wide grass paths meander between a variety of herb beds, and a cascade emerges from a silver pile of enormous cardoon leaves. Tilgner points out that the previous owner planted rhododendrons, Japanese maples and other things at the perimeter, providing a mature backdrop and the irreplaceable look of an established garden. To begin my tour I enter on a path of flagstones and thyme, bordered by a young blueberry hedge under-planted with strawberries. ("Blueberry flavinoids are very good for you," says Tilgner.) Nearby is a large herb bed containing oregano, winter savory and several kinds of lavender, along with a variety of medicinal herbs. Some plants are here mainly for their decorative qualities: balloon flower is used by the Chinese, and Culver's root was once used in liver disorders but has now fallen out of use. Figwort is here mainly for the bees and hummingbirds, who visit all day long. Other plants have more solid therapeutic credentials. Tilgner showed me arnica, well-known for easing sprains, bruises and sore muscles, and meadowsweet, the original source of aspirin. Conspicuous, large-leafed elecampane (Inula helenium) is a great tonic with antiseptic properties, Tilgner says, and supports the immune system. Tall stems of valerian are in full, sweet-swelling bloom. The flowers (which, I learned, smell like dirty socks when they get old and dry!) are used in Biodynamic gardening. Tilgner's interest in useful plants extends to Biodynamics and permaculture, as well as medicinals and ornamentals. I learn about medicinal applications for several familiar ornamental plants. The orange flowers of calendula (pot marigold) are edible, and the leaves and calyces are sticky. The resins that make plants sticky, Tilgner explained, have anti-microbial qualities, and can be used externally or in the form of a tea to decrease inflammation. Hardy geraniums, it seems, have astringent properties, and are useful for diarrhea. Rue is used externally for tendonitis, sprains and bruising. Black elder has anti-inflammatory and expectorant properties, so it is good for respiratory infections. Use flowers and berries only, though: The bark and leaves can be toxic. Help abounds for female function and disorders. Raspberry leaves make the number one tonic for a woman's urinogenital tract. Viburnum opulus can lower blood pressure, but the common name cramp bark comes from its anti-spasmodic properties, which make it helpful for menstrual cramps. Goat's rue (Galega officinalis) promotes lactation. The dry brown "berries" of chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) are used for menstrual problems and for hot flashes associated with menopause. Beyond the second lavender colored house, two blonde-coated cows have the run of a roomy chunk of luxuriant meadow: "More grass than they can possibly eat," as Tilgner says. I wonder when I last saw cattle grazing in knee high grass. Just watching them seems therapeutic. Wise Acres offers everything from half-day classes to long-term apprenticeships. Instruction is tailored to fit the needs of the participants. For a free introduction to the place, join a Grand Opening and Summer Solstice Celebration from 11 am to 4 pm June 19. Tilgner's impressive book, Herbal Medicine from the Heart of the Earth, will be available, along with class schedules and two herbal videos she has produced. Bring your lunch — you won't find a nicer place to eat it. The address for Wise Acres is 84537 Proden Lane, Pleasant Hill 97455. For directions or for more information, contact Sharol Tilgner at 736-0164 or visit www.herbaltransitions.com
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