STEP UP GALLERY News:
Step Up Gallery’s newest exhibit runs Jan. 26 to Feb. 22. The public is invited to view the art and meet the artists at an opening reception 2:30-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, in Step Up Gallery at Mesa Public Library.
Two artists – sculptor Darla Graff Thompson and painter Trish Foschi – met during a week-long writing retreat at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico. This exhibit, Beneath and Beyond the Night Sky, evolved from their continuing friendship and combines Foschi’s mystical moonscapes with Graff Thompson’s curious grotesques to wonderful effect. Both artists are retired from successful careers in science and both will tell you that their scientific background has greatly influenced their creative processes and expressions.
Graff Thompson was a government scientist in the field of explosives and has been showing and selling her ceramic heads part-time for many years. Her gargoyle-like sculptures are tormented but thoughtful, often looking heavenward as if seeking some inspiration or a higher goal.
Graff Thompson immediately took to sculpting in clay during her first high school ceramics class in 1981, but her clay sculpting style is essentially self-learned and motivated. Her subject matter largely focuses on derivatives of the human head that, she states, provides her with direct and infinite possibilities of emotion and expression.
In Graff Thompson’s early creative years, she took to the unconventional practice of hand painting the ceramic sculptures with acrylics because the color palette was much broader and easier to control than kiln-fired glazes. However, during the past 10-15 years, she has successfully explored the bright and well-controlled spectrum of low-fire glazes, often using multiple glaze applications and kiln firings on a given piece to achieve the desired effect.
Graff Thompson is a wife, mother of twin sons, plays the fiddle/violin and writes poetry as well. She has published two books: Erratic, Ecstatic, et cetera in 2009 and Viscous Drag in 2014, where photos of her sculptures are presented with her rhyming poems (available on Amazon).
Foschi, resides in Santa Fe, although most of her career took place in California. Although her paintings in this exhibit are done in encaustic, acrylic, and oil, she has not always been a painter. Laminated wood sculpture and conceptual art were her focus when attending the University of California at Irvine where she got her BA in Studio Art. Later, Foschi got her MA in Art History at California State University, Long Beach, which still informs her conceptual approach to art.
When nearing retirement, Foschi started attending workshops in printmaking (solar etchings, linocuts, monotypes, and etchings) as well as courses specifically focused on encaustics, acrylics, and oils and their particular properties. Her paintings frequently include mixed media like drawing materials or various found objects. Some of her work in this exhibit employ subtle icons, influenced by American Indian petroglyphs and pictographs, which have enchanted her for more than 40 years.
Foschi was a research scientist funded by NASA, NSF, CALFED, and other government agencies while employed as a professor at San Francisco State University. She worked there for more than 20 years as a remote sensing specialist, interpreting satellite imagery for environmental management applications where she found that subjects for her paintings were visible everywhere!
The artwork in Beneath and Beyond the Night Sky will be available for purchase during the show’s run online at https://stepupgallerymarket.artspan.com.
Step Up Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday – Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. Step Up Gallery is on the upper level of Mesa Public Library, 2400 Central Ave. Visit Step Up Gallery’s website at www.stepupgallery.org for additional information.