I am excited to return to this project after a three-year break. In that time, I worked as the Executive Director of the Grand Foundation, the non-profit that helps support the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts in Tracy. I had hoped that I would still have some time for this project and make even more connections to artists in my community. Unfortunately, the work took up more time than I expected and this project fell by the side. Then, I moved to a wonderful new home - still in Tracy - but I was pretty absorbed in getting the family settled for awhile.
Now, I'm back and very happy to be here! In reviewing the site, I found some posts that I had worked on years ago but never published. It may seem weird to post some of them now, but they are important to me. I hope they make sense and I'll try to add a little context where needed. Thanks for your patience and hope you enjoy the coming posts!
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Note: I wrote this short post two years ago, before Pat Sanchez passed away. Pat worked with my son, Jason, to teach him how to attach the various parts to a gourd to make it into a thunder drum - it makes a sound like thunder when you give the metal spring at the bottom a pat. She also showed him how to paint and stain the gourd so that it had a beautiful luster. I know it was hard for her since she was really sick by this time, but it was special for Jason, who does not consider himself particularly artistic. He still has the thunder drum, and it gives us a chance to remember Pat. Original draft: Last week Pat Sanchez agreed to teach my son how to make a thunder drum. She had to compress the time she had to teach into something manageable given her situation, so she and her family prepared the gourd (cutting and sanding) before we joined her. Jason was excited to learn about the thunder drum, which he had seen at Tracy Art League shows in the past. However, he is very quiet, and Pat was fine with that. I always thought it was interesting that colors Jason chose to stain his gourd were the colors of Pat's dress and sweater that day.
NOTE: This post is originally from 2016. I think I intended to add more details about Pat Sanchez's life. I'm sorry that I didn't get a chance to work with her more. She passed away shortly after I took photos of her and her work. I think my lasting impression of Pat was that she was a generous spirit. She was a talented artist who was more than happy to share her enthusiasm and her wisdom with others. Original draft of post: Today I met with Pat Sanchez. Pat is the "gourd lady." She is known for carving gourds and adorning them with pine needle weaving and natural materials to create beautiful sculptures. I had Pat on my list of Tracy artists who I wanted to photograph, but when I went back to paid work, I put the whole project on hold. The reason that I met with Pat today is that she is dying. Pat was recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and given six months to live. With the encouragement of some of her artist friends, I decided to ask her if she would be willing to allow me to photograph her in her studio now. When she agreed, I was truly honored. When Pat was sixty-one years old, her son, Michael Anthony, died. At the time, Pat was a nurse at Camp Sacramento. Someone was teaching pine needle weaving at the camp, and Pat decided to try. As she worked the needles, she found that she forgot her pain just for a moment. Each time she tried weaving again, Pat found that she could get a little bit more relief. As the time grew longer that she could absorb herself in her art, she had found her passion. Lino Giovacchini LOVES his wood. Wood is everywhere in his studio - categorized, and measured and labelled. Lino can tell you the types of wood he has, its best uses, and stories about where it came from. I was told that I needed to visit Lino's studio to see his wood as well as the incredible organization of the studio itself. I wasn't disappointed. While first photographing his massive workshop, I saw the wood Lino had arranged along one wall. He also showed me boxes of wood scraps and small pieces that were leftovers from projects that may be used in something new down the road. I thought to myself, "This is a lot of wood, but is it really an unusual amount?"
Lino has collected this wood from a variety of sources, including dumpsters. I think it kind of shocked his conscience that people were sending perfectly good wood to landfills. Often people give him wood or call him when a tree falls down in the area. Friends and family sometimes give him a hard time about all the wood he has. Lino recounts a story where his neighbor teased him about why he needed so much wood. Not too much later, the neighbor sheepishly returned to Lino, asking for a very specific type and size of wood to repair a cabinet. Knowing Lino would never let him forget his earlier criticism, he asked, "How much is this going to cost me?" Given that I've heard this story several times from Lino and one or twice from Lino's friends, I think Lino's gotten his payback. After watching Mark Knize doing wood turnings, Lino bought a lathe and started making his beautiful bowls and vases. The preparations for these bowls is incredibly time-consuming, but it allows Lino to use a variety of his woods. His "Italian Vase" was purchased by the City of Tracy as part of the 2015 Expressions show. From my post in April, you know that Lino makes small-scale tractors. He's made about thirty of these tractors in the past forty years. He only makes replicas of tractors "with history" - meaning no rubber tires. Lino's won a number of awards and one of his tractors was purchased by the City of Tracy. The detail in these tractors is amazing. It takes time to see appreciate all of the little pieces and thought that went into their making. And, of course, now I know that Lino only uses spruce for the tractors because it holds its color. I've now had the chance to visit several studios of local artists in Tracy. Each of these studios was unique. Seeing the different qualities of these studios has raised questions in my mind about how studios reflect the personalities of their "owners." Susan Richardson's studio was welcoming and cozy with carpeting on the floor, scented candles, and natural light. It was the kind of place I would want to go to cuddle up with a book and my tea. It seemed to fit Susan's gracious manner. (see post from April 17th) Gayle Knize's studio was organized with an efficient design for different types of projects. Her books - all kinds of art books and manuals - are arranged by subject and alphabetically. It is not a surprise that Gayle worked for the library for many years. She has separate workspaces for card-making and painting, with her supplies right where she needs them. The Knize home was originally built in the fifties by local builder, Franklyn Cole, for his own family and business. Gayle's studio is what used to be an office area. As a result, she has these amazing flat files and shelves built into a closet along one wall. And, since Mark is the kind of guy who just builds whatever he needs, he added a giant "easel" that rests in front of the closet storage. When Gayle needs to access the storage, she props up the easel to get it out of the way. Otherwise, in it's down position, it provides a large workspace for painting. You might think that this focus on organization would make Gayle's studio a little on the impersonal side. However, her personality is reflected in many ways around the room. She has several bulletin boards full of family photos and mementos. And, she has works featuring her family on the walls. Her display of paint brushes is beautiful - almost like a flower arrangement - while still being functional. Gayle's husband, Mark, has his studio on the same property but is separated by a courtyard area filled with plants. Mark's studio was a shock to me. It seemed pretty much like chaos - in a good way. It struck me as the kind of place kids (and those who still believe in finding buried treasure) would love. Pieces of things were everywhere. Who knows what you might find behind those boxes or hiding in that pile of wood? A foot, for example. I believe Mark said it was a cast of his own foot, made for a project whose time has passed and thrown randomly on a top shelf. The reason all of this surprised me is that Mark strikes me as such a calm person. He is so serious in his work - studying the bones and muscles in the human face so that his sculptures will be accurate, for example. I assumed that his studio would reflect this careful and considered approach. Mark's do-it-yourself ingenuity is reflected in his studio. When he needed a stand that would allow him to raise and lower his sculptures, he built one himself that includes a pneumatic lift. When he found that too much dust was collecting in his wood-working area, he designed a vacuum system to suck out the sawdust through a series of ducts as he worked. Gayle's studio was a model of organization with plenty of personal items and family photos. From talking with her and seeing her studio, I've come to understand more about the importance of her family as an inspiration for her work. Mark's studio was pretty much the opposite, and I don't really know what it says about his work. It was wonderful, nevertheless, and made me smile to think how he creates meticulous likenesses of people among the random tools and sawdust. It's even more fun to think that these two are married. Although their studios are so different, the two of them share a love of learning about art, take art classes together, and support each other's growth as artists.
Special thanks to Gayle and Mark for opening up their studios. This won't be a long post since I'm not ready to put up a lot of pictures about Lino Giovacchini yet. However, I had such a funny experience with him this weekend that I wanted to share it while it was fresh in my mind. Many of you know Lino as the "tractor guy." He makes these detailed model tractors out of spruce. (If you know him, then you know that the tractor being made out of spruce is significant. He's crazy about wood and can tell you why spruce is the best wood for his tractors.) Lino's workshop is so organized and has every woodworking tool imaginable. I certainly can't name all the tools: lathe, sanders, drill press, etc. - and everything is expertly arranged. I'll tell you about the expert arrangement in another post. Lino is very gracious and always feeds me and makes sure I have tea when I visit him to take pictures. During my last visit, he gave me some cookies his wife had made. The next day, he called and told me that he got in trouble with Linda because he didn't give me the rest of the cookies to take home. When I came by to pick them up, I called to him in his workshop. He came out, and I asked him what he was working on. He said, "I'm just sewing....I'll show you in a minute." I thought, "Sewing? Is that a woodworking term?"
After he got the cookies, Lino took me in the workshop and showed me this huge industrial sewing machine. I hadn't seen it before because it had been neatly tucked away in it's proper spot, just like everything else in Lino's studio. And, in fact, Lino was sewing. He was making straps with handles out of heavy duty fabric so that he could turn his mattresses more easily. It wasn't art but it still seemed pretty creative to me. Yesterday, I had a chance to photo- graph a class for seniors taught by Susan Richardson at the Grand Theatre. While I didn't know some of the people in the class, I was intrigued by the way different people approached their project, which was to create several journal pages using watercolors as a starting point. Some people seemed tentative and slow to start, while others jumped right in and started throwing down paint. I wondered how much of that slowness to start came from being afraid to mess up. "I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do." One of the participants came to the journaling class thinking that it was about writing (which was under- standable). However, she stayed, even when she found out she would be painting and using collage techniques. Brave woman! Being creative and making art is hard enough when you do it in private. Trying to do it in front of other people? Intimidating. (Being a photographer of people means I'm always working in front of others. But, I can't tell you how glad I am that the people around me can't see what's in my camera. Thank goodness for the delete button.) When I wrote the first post for this blog about Susan and the challenges she's faced as an artist, Susan was hesitant to reveal so much personal information in such a public space. However, she changed her mind and told me that part of being an artist is making yourself vulnerable and taking risks. Watching Susan's mother, who is in her nineties, work on her journal and interact with other people in the class was a reminder that so many things in life require taking risks - not just making art. My own grandma is 95. She still lives in her home but is too afraid to go anywhere, even the senior center. She's afraid that she will forget someone's name or get confused or that she will look silly because her balance is off. While I admire my grandma for so much, I am sad for her that she is so cut off, especially from people her own age. Making connections in life - like in art - means overcoming our fear and letting ourselves be vulnerable. Congratulations to the seniors in Susan's class for sharing of themselves and their creativity. I'm sure some of you have been interested in seeing photos of Susan's gracious studio. The studio is in a granny flat with plenty of natural light at the back of her house. It's beautiful and welcoming. (Reminds me of Susan!) While we talked about her work and inspirations, we ended up sitting on the carpeted floor with our legs crossed, her dog supervising from a chair. Susan's work table speaks to Susan's history. The top is from a basic corporate office table, but, as you can see, it has taken on a look that is one-of-a-kind. It's almost a work of art on its own. Susan keeps plenty of resource material in her studio. Her books range from how-to manuals to poetry to her own journals and past works. I wonder how many artists go back and look at their older work for inspiration? Susan hangs her current work from a "clothesline" strung across the side of her studio. It allows her to work on multiple pieces while giving her a different perspective on each piece. I am grateful to Susan for letting me see her studio space. It was the perfect place to start this project.
Several months ago, as I sat watching Mark Knize sculpting at a Tracy Art League meeting, I wanted to jump up and start taking photos of him as he worked. I was amazed to watch a human face being created from a lump of clay. Taking photos wasn't possible, of course, but the impression that event left with me has led to this project...photographing Tracy-area artists as a way of exploring the creative process. Mark works with wood, with clay, with metal...he seems to be willing to try anything. When he finds that he needs a tool to accomplish something specific, he makes it himself. After retiring from his work as a scientist at Lawrence Livermore Lab, Mark turned to art and has made a name for himself with his wooden designs and his sculptures of well-known Tracyites. As I got to know Mark and his wife, Gayle, whose current paintings focus on intimate scenes from her family life, I commented that Mark's work seems to be more about the public while Gayle's was more about the personal. Mark corrected me, pointing out that the process involved in sculpting a live person was very personal. He takes a number of precise photos of the person he's sculpting and spends hours with the model. Mark talked about the process of shaping someone's face. While his goal is to create a good likeness of the person and he works from photos, he has to make decisions about the final look. How much is the person smiling, how old does the person appear? It is still within his hands to convey a tone, establish a mood, create a feeling by the way he shapes the sculpture. All of this creates an intimate connection with his work. It's a weighty task and reminds me of my power and responsibility as a photographer. I took several photos of Mark with the bust of Sam Matthews, but I chose one to display in black and white. The viewer may make assumptions about Mark based on his expression or the tone of the photo, but that is only one view of him. Certainly makes me nervous at times to present portraits of people - am I conveying them accurately? As they want to be seen? Does it matter? |
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April 2022
AuthorTiffanie Heben is a photographer who has been inspired by the artists in her community |