This page is intended to share accomplishments other than ‘Publications’, since not all of us are published authors. If you would like to share your talents with the class, this is your platform! You might even brag about children or grandchildren (perhaps great-grandchildren…). Please contact your web coordinator via email (currently Ann Kingman Williams, see contact information under ‘Class Officers’) to post. Thank you very much.
New News from Linda Conway Correll George!
Click HERE to read it!! Congratulations, Linda! This was included in a Christmas letter to me. Happy to know that we were in on the ground floor of this endeavor (see the posters below…).
Linda Conway Correll George and her associate Elaine Wagner, a friend from Linda’s days when both were teaching at the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Florida, have the honor of having their poster (below, L) chosen for inclusion in the Library of Congress’ permanent design archives. The poster on the R won numerous awards in advertising and communication for creativity. This particular award is from an international competition called ‘Creativity 33’. I am continually humbled to have known such creative individuals in my lifetime! Thanks for sharing, Linda!
Linda Conway Correll George and her associate recently designed two posters for the League of Women Voters. They are very timely—and timeless! Note that they are NOT partisan!
Linda Conway Correll George’s ‘Get Out The Vote’ poster designed for the 2023 Mid-Term Elections is striking!
Claudine Lang Bing was recently featured in a beautiful article posted by the Alumnae Association. I have received permission to insert this link to it on our web site. To enjoy it, click here: https://alumnae.mtholyoke.edu/blog/female-gaze-claudine-bing/
Anne Goldberg Straus is working hard getting ready for a show of her African-inspired artwork at the Joseph Clark Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. The opening reception is Friday, July 13, from 6-9 pm, where guests will be able to “meet the artist and get some perspectives on her varied works.” Below is the image for the invitation to her show: Tribal Retrospective: The Artwork of Anne Straus.
Illustration on Invitation to Anne’s Show
When Judy Olmer and I (AKW) asked about the inspiration that linked Anne to African-inspired tribal arts, she sent the following explanation: “The tribal world has always been an influence in my artwork. I came up through the craft movement and love working with my hands. I took a trip to West Africa as an ignorant tourist and fell head over heels in love with the painted villages and houses in Ghana and Burkina Faso. I even spent the night camped on a roof of a painted house in Tiebele. Check it out on line. I made a huge 8′ X 15′ painting of a building which is on my website (http://www.annestraus.com/). It was shown in the Springfield OH Museum of Art. Anyway, the patterns I saw there, which I call organic geometry, have been influencing my work ever since. Another influence from my unconscious is birds and perhaps that is why I chose the subject matter for my latest series which is hornbills from the Bwa tribe in Burkima. It’s hard to figure out where ideas come from. So with hindsight I can make a few guesses. This isn’t scientific, it’s artistic!” A long series of steps from English Literature, but that’s part of the value of a liberal arts education.
The pieces that the gallery curator and owner, Lowery Clark, and Anne chose for the show include works from many years ago to the latest series on hornbills, mentioned above. Here is a photo of the first wall they hung for the exhibit:
The First Wall Hung: Anne’s Exhibit
Congratulations, Anne! I hope this inspires you, the reader, to go to her website (again, http://www.annestraus.com/), where you will find beautiful jewelry inspired by Anne’s enduring love of tribal influences. They include some with millifiore Venetian glass African trade beads, vintage Ethiopian silver beads and others with new and antique beads strung together in pleasing patterns—really beautiful!
Helen Brill Broxmeyer made a personal pilgrimage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in 2003. While there, she visited the atomic bomb museum in each city, and the Ground Zero site in each and gained an understanding far more deep than anything she’d gained in reading in preparation for the trip. With the recent sword-rattling of President Trump and Kim Jong Un, she felt compelled to put pen to paper to express her feelings. At first she attempted an essay, but failed. She stated: “Ordinary language seemed incapable of encompassing our predicament and describing the eeriness of physical processes that are native to the stars, but not to Earth.” She resorted to poetry to express her innermost feelings. Thank you, Helen, for sharing this.
Celestial Navigation
A Poem by Helen Brill Broxmeyer
(02-03-2018)
When traveling from one place to another, even locally,
I prefer a map, though verbal instructions are useful.
A map shows me where I’m going, and when I’m lost,
It helps me find the way back to the right road.
But what map can we follow that will guide us away
From nuclear self-destruction? We’ve ventured into unknown
Waters, and a navigator’s chart would serve us best—
Shining a light down through the unfamiliar depths
Of our own nature; marking out the hidden
Reefs and shoals that could send our ship to the bottom.
For this trip we’ll need Freud and Jung, Einstein
And the wisdom of the ages. And we’ll have to call upon God,
Which could be a problem; but divine guidance is essential
For those who would sail out among the stars
To seize the celestial fire and carry it home.
(December 2016) Lynn Newcomb writes from her home in Worcester, VT:
2017 promises to be a very creative year for me and an opportunity to work and exhibit outside of my rural Vermont surroundings. I have been awarded two residencies, one a fully funded 6 week residency at Scuola Grafica in Venice, Italy (Feb-March), the second a partially funded two month residency from the Marpha Foundation in Marpha, Nepal. (August-September)
Scuola Grafica is an international print studio. The Marpha Foundation supports intercultural arts activities between the resident artist and the community of Marpha. I will be exhibiting and teaching in each of these venues.
In Venice I plan to make a series of etchings from objects in the Correr and Maritime museums as well as continuing to design plates for my ongoing project of referencing Homer’s Iliad. I will also have the opportunity to learn technically from other print makers.
In Nepal I will concentrate on drawing the muscular forms of mountains, rivers, stones, as well as making drawings based on Nepali mythology. I may make some linoleum cuts. My studio will be on the top floor of a school attended by local children. I will teach drawing as well as help with English learning.
Lynn has been working as a graphic and sculptural artist in Worcester, Vermont. You can view her work on her website HERE. Good luck, Lynn, and please let us know more about your adventures when you’re back home!
UPDATE FROM LYNN (April 7, 2017)
Here is recent news of my life….
I am just back from a six weeks stay in Venice, Italy where I had a full fellowship offered by The Boston Printmakers. I worked at the Scuola Grafica Internationale, a premier international printshop. This was truly a great experience in making prints and viewing beautiful art everyday. You can see some of the Venetian prints on my website and read more about my current activities. While in Venice, a recent graduate of MHC, Maxanna Weiss, looked me up and we spent a good two hours eating pizza, sitting in sunshine, and discussing art and science at a vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal.
(June 28, 2016) Kathie Wilson Ratcliffe has turned a hobby into an exceptional success. A long-time quilter and collector of antique quilts, she started initially constructing full-size quilts, and then gradually down-sized. Many of us today can relate to ‘down-sizing’, but Kathie has taken it to a whole new level, as she gradually miniaturized traditional designs and succeeded in creating a whole new art form. The full-size quilts are reduced to as small as 8″ X 8″. In so doing, she finds herself relating to the women who initially created the original patterns to construct an object of both utilitarian function and joyful artwork using bold colors, shapes and, of course, fine needlework.
As Kathie says, “With miniatures, I focus on the design elements of an early quilt-its form, line, and color, and refine them with a 21st century perspective.” This takes substantially more time to complete, ironically, than a full-size quilt. She frames them in lovely hand-burnished woods that complement the color and design of the miniature. You can take a virtual tour through her studio in historic Waterford, Virginia HERE.
Kathie has created a website to share the beauty of her creations with others, has a FaceBook page, and participates in juried quilt shows. Her website lists her upcoming shows—perhaps there is one in your area! Below is a photograph of Kathie at a recent show, taken by Joan Rosenthal (MHC ’62), who discovered Kathie through reading Judy Sayler Olmer‘s class notes!
Kathie Wilson Ratcliffe Displaying her Miniature Historic Quilts (photo by Joan Rosenthal, MHC ’62)