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Gwendolyn with Zermatt in front of the falls, February 2001
1985-1987: The Fisherville Studio of Fine Arts, Fisherville, TN, Owner/Instructor
1965-1967: Benton Harbor Schools, Benton Harbor, Michigan, High School and Junior High Art Teacher Established a branch church where there was none Episcopal Church (1990-2000) Lay leader, Rector's 15-week "Journey Course" at Calvary Church, 5 years CASA volunteer (Court Appointed Special Advocate working with abused children)
Everyone is capable of artistic expression and it is my joy to find this creativity in each student. The "talent myth" that claims some people are born with talent and some are not needs to be dispelled by an understanding of what Harvard's Rudolf Arnheim calls visual thinking: intelligence expressed visually. Art can be taught and learned. A student can learn to draw and paint just as he can be taught to read, write or compute mathematical equations. The creative process is intelligent activity as much as it is intuitive. In the process of igniting imaginations and digging into identities, the inspired art teacher helps students discover who they are, stretching them to excellence in the techniques of drawing, painting, designing and problem-solving. When new art students are given the assignments to create both realistic and psychological self-portraits they probe into selfhood, as well as media, style, and craftsmanship. Another project of portraying a global topic in mixed media takes students beyond self and into a larger sphere that may involve issues concerning politics, the environment, gender, race, community. My process of teaching art begins with creating an open, honest, and energetic atmosphere. I begin by encouraging students to read Emerson's Self-reliance and Rilke’s To A Young Poet, by giving them exercises in how to see and having them draw successfully the first day. Valuable in its own right, drawing is essential to all other art making. Through drawing—gesture, contour, detailed modeling and more—students experience a variety of approaches. Once thinking on paper is accomplished to some degree, exploration of painting begins. Pastel, watercolor, acrylic, oil, and mixed media are means to learning about color, composition, and specific media traits. When students are taught the basic elements and principles of design, they have the language of art-making. Experimentation with materials and media—both 2-d and 3-d—is essential. References to famous and contemporary artists, to art history and its influences, enable students to place their work and the work of others in the long continuous heritage of art production and its impact on culture. Weekly critique of student work by class peers and teacher through group discussion, instructs students in how to articulate the art process and how to analyze artwork, not only in evaluating one's own pieces but the work of others. Individual attention from a teacher who is also a professional artist further aids students' development. Making art is a matter of overcoming limitations, of problem-solving, of stretching oneself. When students discover this, they are excited by their own—often unexpected—creativity. Quality and high standards become goals because making art has become part of one's very being, has become fun, challenging, satisfying. What is learned in the studio has ramifications throughout a student's entire academic career as well as throughout his or her life. From the beginning of time, art manifested the sacred—the treasured beliefs of a people or culture. It still has that power. It goes to the core of what is lasting and valuable. It mimics creation, reveals truth, deals with mystery, attempts to answer the unanswerable, reflects one’s individuality, changes being, and demands risk-taking as well as self-discipline. The art student grows to see more deeply, to alter old perspectives and find a fresh view. Perfecting an idea and reflecting insights about one’s interior and exterior worlds becomes part of the art student’s goal. Prolific and intense, Gwendolyn’s art has encompassed many media and styles over the past four decades, including figure, watercolor landscape, portraiture, drawing, large oil abstracts, mixed media, and the artist's book. Her work has been in nearly 80 exhibitions, most of them juried competitions, garnering numerous awards. Over many years, Gwendolyn’s themes and interests have reflected her spiritual curiosity and wide intellectual interests from woman's quilt-like fragmentation and struggle in a patriarchal world to the redemptive hope shown in diverse cultures such as the Native American Ghost Dance Religion, ancient Celtic Christianity, Hasidic Judaism of the 17th century, Tibetan Buddhism—all of which share the universal human longing for restoration, renewal, healing, and home. Gwendolyn’s life-long search for truth stems from an inner integrity that has guided her since childhood and that she now finds in spiritual intuition. Gwendolyn views art-making as incarnational; her master’s thesis at RISD was the creative process as incarnational activity. A dynamic idea comes in contemplation, through inspired reading, by observation, from insightful connections, or simply as a surprising gift. Then art work is born, claiming its identity as an abstract, or demanding to be a detailed pencil drawing, or to bounce in the vitality of watercolor, or to rage in dark thick oil impasto on canvas. It is the artist’s job to listen and be art’s servant. Many artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers have influenced Gwendolyn’s art: Carl Jung, Thomas Merton, Joseph Campbell, Madeliene L’Engle, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (and numerous other women writers), Ibsen, Kierkegaard, Kandinsky, Gorky, de Kooning, Rauschenberg, Rilke, Pollack, Bonnard, Rouault, Frankenthaler, and music by many—to mention but a few.
2005 January, Stroudsmoor Country Inn juried exhibition 2004 October, Womens’ Works Theatre Gallery, 42nd St. NYC 2003, January, Stroudsmoor Country Inn 2002 May, “Best of Show” Monroe County Arts Council Members Annual Exhibition 1998 June, Allentown Museum of Art National Juried Competition, Allentown, PA 1997-98 Wilson Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho, exhibition of watercolors 1997 Fogelman Center, University of Memphis, three month one-woman exhibition of 10 watercolors done in Taos, New Mexico 1996 Juror for Madison Avenue Gallery's first international show, Memphis, Tennessee 1995 Exhibiting artist at Madison Avenue Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee 1994 October Three-Person Show, Madison Avenue Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee 1994 Annual Spring Tour of selected Memphis Artists' homes 1993 February-April, The Memphis Brooks Museum Juried Teachers Exhibition 1992 September, The Mid-South Fair Juried Exhibition, Memphis, Tennessee 1992 Spring, The Memphis/Germantown Art League Annual Juried Show 1991 January-March, Radford Gallery, Principia College, Elsah, Illinois; Twenty-two Women Artists Show 1991 Spring, The Memphis/Germantown Art League Annual, Juried Show, "Best of Show" award; Grumbacher Gold Medal Award; Second Place, Oil; Second Place, Mixed Media; eight pieces juried in. 1991 Southern Exposure Regional Juried Show 1991 6th Annual Watercolor Juried Exhibition, Helena, Arkansas 1990 The Clifton Gallery, One-woman Show, December 1990 Theater Memphis Show, October-November, One-woman Show 1990 Mid-South Fair Juried Exhibition, First Place in oil 1990 Rhode Island School of Design Art Show, Providence, Rhode Island; Abstract Juried Art Show 1990 Sol Kofler Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island 1990 Junior League, One-woman Show 1990 Arkansas Juried Show 1990 Memphis Germantown Art League Annual Juried Show; three juried in. 1990 Tennessee Watercolor Society Annual Juried Show, the Parthenon, Nashville; one of top forty chosen to be in traveling show exhibited throughout the state during the year 1990 Germantown Art League Schering-Plough Show 1990 Sol Kofler Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island 1989 Alabama (nationally open) Juried Watercolor Annual 1989 Germantown Art League Annual Juried Show, First Place in oil, Third Place in Oil, Honorable Mention for Pastel Drawing, Purchase Prize, and four others juried in in watercolor, oil, and drawing 1989 Wiener Theatre, one-woman show 1989 Bell Ross Gallery 1988 Sol Kofler Gallery, Providence, Rhode Island 1988 Arts on the Square, Collierville, Tennessee 1987 Germantown Art League Juried Annual Show, First Prize in Watercolor 1987 Germantown Fall Festival Art Exhibition, Germantown, Tennessee. 1987 Arts on the Square, Collierville, Tennessee 1987 One-woman show, English Country Antiques Shop, Collierville, Tennessee 1986 Mid-South Fair Juried Exhibition 1986 Germantown Art League Annual Juried Show, First Prize in Watercolor 1986 St. Louis Artists' Guild Annual Watercolor Juried Competition, St.Louis, Missouri 1986 St. Louis Artist's Guild Annual Drawing Juried Competition, St.Louis, Missouri 1985 A Classic Afternoon in the Country Arts Festival, invitational show 1985 Germantown Art League, Third Prize 1984 Germantown Art League Juried Annual 1983 New York City, Gertrude Fogeson Art Award for Mothers Association, Second Place 1983 Germantown Art League Juried Annual 1983 St. Louis Artists' Guild Juried Watercolor Show 1981 St. Louis Artists' Guild Juried Membership Show 1981 Germantown Art League Juried Annual 1980 Germantown Art League Juried Annual, Special Award 1977-78 St. Louis Artists' Guild Membership Juried Show 1977-78 St. Louis Artists' Guild Drawing Juried Show 1976-77 St. Louis Artists' Guild Portraiture Juried Show, Honorable Mention 1976-77 St. Louis artists' Guild Watercolor Juried Show, Second Prize 1976-77 St. Louis Artists' Guild Juried Drawing Show 1976-77 Thirteen Top Watercolorists Mansion House Show, St. Louis, Missouri 1976-77 Tilles Park, St. Louis County Art Fair, Third Prize 1975-76 Tilles Park, St. Louis County Art Fair 1975-76 River Roads Juried Show, St. Louis 1975-76 Two-man Pioneer Bank of Maplewood Exhibition, St. Louis, Missouri 1975-76 St. Louis Artists' Guild Juried Portraiture Show 1975-76 St. Louis Artists' Guild Juried Watercolor Show 1974-75 West County Art Show, St. Louis 1974-75 Frontenac Plaza Art Show, Selected Artists Invitational 1974-75 Northwest Plaza Juried Exhibition, St. Louis, Honorable Mention 1973-74 Jewish Community Center Art Show, Third Prize 1973-74 Village Square Art Show, St. Louis, Second Prize 1973-74 Greentrees Art Show, St. Louis, Missouri Second Prize 1973-74 Tilles Park, St. Louis County Art Fair, Fourth Prize 1972-73 Tilles Park, St. Louis County Art Fair, First Prize 1970-71 The Adair Gallery, St. Louis, 5-man Watercolor Exhibition 1968 The Adair Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri 1968 Tri-State Lake Bluff Show 1968 The James Lee Gallery, St. Joseph, Michigan 1968 The Downtown Gallery, Beloit, Wisconsin 1968 First one-woman show of 70 works following four-month painting trip abroad at Maud Preston Pelenske Memorial Library Gallery, St. Joseph, Michigan 1967 Exhibited in own studio in Chicago area 1967 Tri-state Lake Bluff Art Show 1967 The James Lee Gallery, St. Joseph, Michigan 1966 American Association of University Women Juried Competition, St. Joseph, Michigan, First Prize 1966 Tri-State Lake Bluff Art Show, St. Joseph, Michigan
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