|
|
|
|
|
|
June 17 through July 8, 2005
|
|
|
Art Access Gallery
Holly Mae Pendergast's "An Artist¹s Shift in Perspective: Portraits of Contemporary Native Americans in Utah" |
|
|
|
|
|
 In reference to her unusual title, Pendergast shares this story, "A few years ago an acquaintance and I went to see the Native American group, The Spirit Riders, come into Park City on horseback. It was an amazing and romanticized moment to witness as the snow followed them into town. My friend turned to me during the drumming ceremony and said, 'Wow, this is really great, but I think it would be a lot better if they wore Gortex outfits that really looked like Indian clothes.¹ I tried to hide my profound amazement and explain to him that they were wearing 'Indian clothes.' The Miami Dolphin Starter jackets, sneakers and jeans some of the kids wore, were Native American clothes, but I¹m not sure that he understood and I felt a seed of shame in my chest".
The above experience, along with others, led to the artist working on a series of Utah Native American portraits in her contemporary fragmented style for the Art Access show. Pendergast¹s experiences have been interesting. She describes a good friend who is both Lakota and Sioux. This friend has beautiful blonde hair and green eyes from her Irish side of the family. Pendergast says that when she first asked if she could paint her friend along with her daughter, her friend Susan seemed nervous about their physical traits she said that they did not look convincing as Native Americans. The artist told her the point of the project and then she became very excited to participate.
Pendergast says that she looks upon her subjects in the portraits as her teachers and that she has a lot to learn. "If people that come to see the exhibit get something out of it and learn something about their own stereotyping, then that is all the better, but that is not my intention. The show is actually more about change and my learning process."
Holly Mae Pendergast received her BFA in 1993 from the Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio as a fine arts major. She has shown her work at the Thomas Gilcrease Invitational in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2002 & 2004, as well as in the 2004 Art in the Parks Top Two Hundred Show, in Jackson, Wyoming.
|
|
|
Access II Gallery
Changing Faces: A GroupMaskmaking Project |
|
|
|
|
|
The artists in Changing Faces are from Easter Seals SHARE Program, based at the Heritage Center. SHARE serves adults who are senior citizens with mental and physical disabilities. Under the guidance of program director Maureen Gallagher, participants have become a tightly knit group who consider themselves to be family. In many cases, this group is the only family that they will ever have. Several in the group had lived for most of their lives in the Utah State Training School in American Fork, until Utah state law mandated that persons with mental disabilities were entitled to live in less restrictive surroundings. Currently, participants live in area nursing homes, assisted living apartments or in group homes. The SHARE Program provides a multitude of activities and support for participants in their quest to become more involved in the mainstream community.
As one of its many programs which serve persons with disabilities through the arts, Art Access/VSA arts of Utah provides artists-in-residencies to organizations such as the Easter Seals SHARE Program. In this particular artist residency, Art Access artist, Wayne Geary, explored maskmaking with the SHARE group. Participants enjoyed themselves so much and created such colorful and appealing masks, that Art Access decided to display them in the Art Access II Gallery.
Maureen Gallagher say about the program, "Without Art Access support, these masks would never have been created. Participating in art brings so much joy to our clients and encourages them to see the world in different ways."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
