Jan Harrison / Other Voice on Green

1. “Cat With Raw Nose” / 2006
beeswax, damar resin and encaustic
6.25 x 6 x 8 inches
Exhibited as a sculpture, and also presented by the artist as
a mask being in Animal Tongues performance.

2. “Tendril Birdfish” / 1997
bisque-fired porcelain sculpture
19 x 15.5 x 9.25 inches
Exhibited separately, or included in
Animal Tongues Installation.

3. “Corridor Series #1, Primate” / 2009
charcoal, pastel, and ink on rag paper
30.25 x 22.50 inches
Series of endangered animals in ecological and
psychological corridors.

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JAN HARRISON — Animal Tongues and Vision
Statement 2009

My work has been a lifelong journey. As a child I was
closely connected with animals, and developed a deep kinship
with them. Identifying with animals has helped me to have
empathy with the life force, and to express the complex
experience of what it is to be here as a flesh and blood being.

Since the earliest drawings in the 1980’s I have been engaged
in a developing interaction between the animal nature
and the human psyche. Entities interrelate, one being becoming
another being. Mysterious and intimate characters act
within an inner landscape, similar to dreams.
I work to experience the mystery, purity and sacred/profane
spirit of the animal nature, something we often overlook as
humans, as we live in a technology driven, industrialized
society.

A myth which involves both knowledge and innocence,
darkness and light, has always been central to my work.
The myth is intuitively known in my body, and not based
on recorded mythology. Primitive animals are within us. The
eyes of animals invite us into their world.

Physicality is integral to my work's message and expression.
The use of pastels, wax, and clay enables me to caress the
surface with my hands. Beings emerge and evolve through
touching the surface of the paintings or working with the
wax or clay. Coming from the body's sensual/spiritual
desires, felt in the bones and cells, a metamorphosis
happens as I caress the surface.

The materials I use have always been important to the
content in my work. I recycle drawings, paintings, and
sculpture, working and reworking until they are the
way they need to be. I do not throw away materials.
I reuse and reuse materials. For instance, the beeswax
that was part of an earlier encaustic painting became a
wax sculpture. This is true of all of the materials I use,
including pastels on paper.

Recurring themes are both autobiographical and universal,
having to do with grief, joy, pain, sexuality, death, rebirth,
rejection, humor, brutality, sensitivity, anger, love, identity,
power and vulnerability. Sometimes the animals are self-portraits,
and sometimes they are the "Other." I identify with the
animals in my work, and feel as if their bodies are my own.

Since 1979, I have spoken and sung in Animal Tongues,
which I perform with the animal head sculptures. Animal
Tongues acts as a bridge to the world beneath the surface.
It expresses the emotions and the mystery of the animal
nature, and enables me to live and see clearly.

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JAN HARRISON — Ecotheology and the Animal
Bio 2009

Jan Harrison's paintings and sculptures involve empathy
with the animal nature as it relates to human existence
and the collective psyche. Her work is considered to
be an influence in the investigation of the animal/human
interface in art. Harrison’s subject matter relates to
ecotheology. Her painting is on the cover of ECOSPIRIT,
Religions and Philosophies for the Earth, edited by
Laurel Kearns and Catherine Keller, 2007, Fordham
University Press.

Harrison’s art has been shown in over one hundred and
twenty solo and group exhibitions, including
Animal.Anima.Animus, which opened in Finland, and
traveled to Holland, Canada, and PS1 in New York.
Arcana Mundi, a monograph, was published by Station
Hill Press. A chapter on her work is included in the book,
In The Making: Creative Options for Contemporary
Art, Linda Weintraub, published by d.a.p., Distributed
Art Publishers, Inc., New York, NY.

Harrison was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and
raised in the southern United States by a single mother.
Her childhood was spent primarily with animals, and
her early bestial companions became a spiritual source
of identity, as well as a guiding force in her life and work.
In 1989 she moved to Kingston, New York from Cincinnati,
Ohio, having lived in the Midwest for thirteen years
She has also lived in California and Georgia.

The recipient of five fellowships in art, her work is in
over one hundred private and museum collections, and she has
also produced two house-as-art projects. In addition to painting
and sculpture, she speaks and sings in a language, Animal
Tongues, which she performs.

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To view the 2009 video performance of Jan Harrison
speaking/singing in Animal Tongues, with close-up views
of animal sculpture heads moving, click on:
http://www.janharrison.net/pages.php?content=downloads2.php&navGallID=Downloads2

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For information on Jan Harrison, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images and sounds © Jan Harrison 2009

Atticus Lanigan / Other Voice on Green

BIO

Atticus Lanigan is land use planner for Orange County. She

has lived in the Hudson Valley since 1993. She has a strong

devotion to the Hudson Valley that manifests itself through

art and love on a constant basis. She has a Master’s degree

in City & Regional Planning and is a wife and mother. She

recently created a newsletter called Hudson Valley Movement.

She can be reached at immensejoy@hotmail.com

HIVE WOMAN

Bill Mckibben states, “…a bee hive is a society, which we know

from own experience is infinitely more complex than an

individual. More robust in certain ways, but more delicate too.

These are incredibly balanced, lovely evolved little nations.”
Inter-connected is everything. To develop concern for the

natural environment is to uncover in oneself an understanding

of inter-connectness (one that your soul knows inherently).

You find your heart, mind and floodgates open. The connections

seem and are endless and often too much for one mind to contain.

An individual with genuine passion for the world, in human hearts

and the physical landscape, can become overwhelmed while being

intriqued and inspired and fulfilled. This can lead to madness,

or least a slight infection, a bulbous growth that catches

dust and gives rise to little demons.
This piece snapshots the moment before the bulbous growth is

dissolved or burned, hopefully by the individual’s natural cleansing

process, allowing for more growth and the onset of new

understanding of the inter-connectness. The snapshot resides

at the end of winter, when incubation is over and an individual

can grow again, thereby also demonstrating a devotion to

the earth’s life-cycle (seasons).

Materials: used honeycomb, recycled doll’s head,

Chinese newspaper, blue flowers ripped from a very old

tattered plastic stem found in an empty blue wedding

album circa 1890s, glue, dark red thread that pervades

my work, two recycled brooches altered, camphor used

for prayer at Spice Aroma restaurant in Poughkeepsie,

a wooden box acquired from a sad florist going out of

business, nails taken From the halfway dismantled

box from the sad florist.

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All 3 images © Atticus Lanigan

Imelda Cajipe Endaya / Other Voice on Green

Imelda Cajipe Endaya
Artworks
1. Forest in the Midst
mixed media on fabric & handmade paper
65 cm. x 52 cm.
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2. Forest of the South
mixed media on fabric & handmade paper
65 cm. x 52 cm.
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3. Forest of the East
mixed media on fabric & handmade paper
65 cm. x 55 cm.
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Artist’s Statement
I use materials from the Southeast Asian culture that
nurtured me. I collage, stitch and paint on textiles and
handmade paper: at times I combine them with plastics
and photographs. I want my work to admonish on the use
of appropriate technology to halt the degradation
of our forests, air and water. Often poor countries would
cut their trees fast without replanting, then export them
as raw materials to industrialized countries. Developing
countries are made dumping ground of technological waste
from their richer neighbors; and much of the global
pollution that reach them are produced by the world’s
wealthiest nations.
My work is a voice from Asia-Pacific where traditional
art and craft used to be sourced from indigenous grasses
and trees. More and more these are displaced by the lure
of “development”, and replaced by modernization’s plastics
and synthetic products. Weavers and dyers have lost
work too because forests are no longer there.
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Artist’s Bio Summary
b.1949 in Manila; lives and works in Newburgh, NY
Creating paintings, mixed media, prints, and installations from
womanly and homely materials, Endaya has consistently
tackled issues of cultural identity, peace, globalization,
displacement, and environment from a Filipina’s point of view.
Her work has made a strong presence in the contemporary
Asia-Pacific art world before she moved to live and work
in the USA in 2005.
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For information on Imelda Cajipe Endaya, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © Imelda Cajipe Endaya

Gray Works / Other Voice on Green

For information on Gray Works Interpretive Furniture Design,

contact: Andrew Gray and Elizabeth Bryant at

info@grayworksdesign.com

A link to the web site is on this blog on the right

under "Other Voices on Green"

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All 3 images © Gray Works

Jane Dell / Other Voice on Green

ARTIST STATEMENT
Environmental Chaos Series
My inspiration is nature, which increasingly finds itselfin a losing

battle for survival. The balance that once existed between people

and the planet is being replaced by confusion and concerns about

the future. Things are spinning out of control.

Using the artistic tools I’ve developed over a lifetime my paintings

create tension and meaning through contrast. Seductive and

pleasant images are played off against images that are

unexpected and uncomfortable. Lyrical forms contrast with

geometric shapes. Lush, rich colors bump up against

monochromatic fields. The result is a whirlwind surface

in which shapes and forms race across the picture frame

and dart in and out in 3-dimensions providing a

visual equivalent of the disconnect between human beings

and the natural world.

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BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE
Jane Dell was born in New York City and began her study of art

at the High School of Music and Art, Art Students League and

Pratt Institute. Many people have influenced her recent work,

but her painting/printmaking teacher from Pratt Institute,

Jack Sonnenberg, instilled a love and respect for art history

and the creative process that has remained with her to this day.
Her work has been selected for many group and solo shows in

New Jersey and New York, including City Without Walls

Gallery, Montclair State University Gallery, George Segal Gallery,

1978 Gallery in Maplewood, Kling Gallery in Montclair, New Jersey,

the Creative Center Gallery located at 147 West 26th St., NYC

and recently the White Space Gallery in New Haven, CN. She

has also sold works to private collectors and designers.

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For information on Jane Dell, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © Jane Dell

Barbara Bachner / Other Voice on Green

For information on Barbara Bachner, click on her web site

listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"

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All 3 images © Barbara Bachner

Susan Knight / Other Voice on Green

ARTIST STATEMENT
My sustained interest in water compels me to create visual
perceptions of water and water ecology. I cut, fold, stretch and
tie paper, Mylar, tape and plastic to express ecological issues
ranging from the dramatic ecosystem breakdown in the Great
Lakes, to the modest, almost overlooked ecological problems
in Papillion Creek in Eastern Nebraska.

1. Breakout II, uses layered, overlapping, cut Mylar, and
acrylic ink, to celebrate water’s ability to replenish itself.
It ultimately finds its own path regardless of human
impositions and restrictions. The 2008 piece is thirteen by nine feet.

2. Chaos Flow, cut and folded paper, suspended over an acrylic
tube, refers to a researcher’s theory that the almost microscopic
Spiny Tail Water Flea is destroying Lake Michigan’s food web.
Seventy-eight by forty-eight inches, it was cut in 2008.

3. Water Lines II, cut paper over cut Mylar with acrylic
ink, makes visible multiple, complicated, webs of ecological
connection under water’s surface. It measures forty-six by
eighty-six inches and was created in 2008.

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BIOGRAPHY
Susan Knight, an Omaha, Nebraska-based painter and paper
artist, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has exhibited
widely on a regional, national, and international basis.

Susan studied at the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s
College, Notre Dame, Indiana, from which she received a BFA in
art. She also studied at The Glassell School of Art, Houston,
Texas, and The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois.

She was awarded residencies at Ragdale, Lake Forest, Illinois,
and at the International School of Art, Montecastello di Vibio, Italy.

In 2004 she traveled to the People’s Republic of China to present
her art at colleges and universities in Beijing, Xian and Shanghai
with other US artists including Flo Oy Wong and Roger Shimomura.
In 2008 she returned to China to present her work in Kunming and
Chungdu.
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For information on Susan Knight, click on her web site
listed on this blog on the right, under "Other Voices on Green"
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All 3 images © Susan Knight