Artists in Their Studios: Catherine Nash - Interview by Artist/Curator Sergio Gomez

 https://www.amplifiedartnetwork.com/artists-in-their-studios-catherine-nash/

Chicago artist and curator Sergio Gomez, interviewed me and posted it today~ Exciting!! Not to mention his amazing artwork, Gomez is a career mentor and avid writer/blogger. I think he posted it in six places! I'm greatly honored! Here is one of them linked below. 
My new installation entitled "Botanical Reveries" just put up will open (no reception) on the 10th of August. Will post more details later. But you can see some images in the interview.

Artists in Their Studios: Catherine Nash

August 6, 2020Sergio GomezInterviews

One-on-One with Catherine Nash, Tucson, Arizona, USA

What is your work about?

Beauty. Serenity. Compassion. Nature. The poetics of landscape. A particular timelessness. The nature of Being. I create art that responds to the natural world, reflecting a spiritual and philosophical relationship with the environment. The terrain, aesthetics and cultures of Japan, memories of the rich gradations and spaciousness of Scandinavian summer night skies, my experiences with Native American friends and explorations of the southwestern desert wilderness: these are my influences and what informs my artwork.

Do you have a studio routine, strategy or ritual that helps you get in the creative zone?

I work best with a deadline. If I don’t have a show or a gallery deadline, I impose it upon myself. I always leave something to finish the next day.

How has the pandemic affected your art practice?

I have been 100% unemployed since mid March. My gallery closed. No teaching. My selling of period wardrobe to film/TV costume designers dead stopped. I had prepared for an emergency financially and have some backup resources, so I could “relax” into it. Once I got a bit more accustomed to the unknown, I eased into this new normal. In the studio every single day, I use deadlines to keep me focused and perhaps sane. A big shift is that I have more time to read, research…and dream. It is in the “dream state” that I receive new inspiration.

Catherine Nash An Inner Astronomy, 2018 Mixed Media Installation

What is your greatest reward, memory, accomplishment or proud moment as an artist?

I am still greatly honored to have received the “Lumies Artist 2015” award for southern Arizona, “Catherine Nash – Artist Award:  awarded to an individual artist that has demonstrated excellence, originality and ingenuity in the local arts and culture sector; arts ‘luminaries’ who have made a profound impact on the lives and communities of Southern Arizonans."

 Perhaps most meaningful is that I was nominated and then voted for by peers and major arts professionals in Southern Arizona. So grateful and honored!

What is one thing you MUST have in your studio?

Soft Music. Incense. No phone/no laptop. Solitude. Quietude. Whoops! That is more than one thing. So perhaps, “conducive environment” is the one thing.

Catherine Nash Breathing Under Water, 2020 Encaustic painting 12”w x 18”h x 1”d

What would you tell your future self about being an artist right now?

“You are right to remain true to yourself, continuing to create work from your core, your deepest reserves, your poetic self. You know it centers and grounds you. Embody peace. Who knows where the art world is going? You cannot care about how you fit in…it is most vital to listen to and honor creative muse….and then create!

After more than 4 decades of continuous, focused art making, TRUST. Trust the conversation that is without word: an intuitive conversation with paper, wax, branches, brush, pen, saw and twine. So, future self, trust thyself! Stay true!”

How has the Art NXT Level Academy improved your art career?

A new member with one month under my belt, I joined to gain a clearer understanding of the changes within the professional art world. I have completed the “Road Map for Established Artists”. I’m almost done with the “How to Sell Art Online Post Covid-19” section and more. I’ve gotten a lot of affirmations about my own marketing and have also learned a great deal – about the potential of social media as promotion for instance. I learned that some things I don’t want to pursue, yet for the most part, I am trying to integrate these innovative new ideas.

Catherine Nash Botanical Reveries, 2020 Mixed Media Installation

What is the best art career advice you’ve ever received?

Dutifully carrying my portfolio into Manhattan at age 18, both advertising artists separately advised me to “Make art that follows your heart and spirit.” Little did my well-meaning father anticipate that the two interviews he set up for me would both end up with such advice.

“What is the worst thing that can happen here? Will you die?” : my own bolstering mantra used numerous times, to combat fear. It got me onto a plane to Europe with a 1-way ticket and my portfolio at age 22. Lived in Paris for a year and a half.

Catherine Nash An Inner Astronomy, 2018 Mixed Media Installation

Links:

Blog at http://papermakingresources.blogspot.com

Represented by the Bowersock Gallery in Provincetown, MA https://bowersockgallery.com

www.catherinenash.com

www.authenticvisualvoices.com

www.papermakingresources.com

Sergio Gomez

Sergio Gomez is a Chicago-based artist entrepreneur, curator for the Zhou B Art Center, owner of 33 Contemporary Gallery, art career coach, and co-founder of the Art NXT Level Academy. Follow him on Instagram @sergiogomezart

A Collaboration: Pandey and Nash "Eclipse"

front and back cover of Hand Papermaking magazine/summer 2019 issue

(with Robert Rauschenberg and Ken Tyler collaborating in France in 1973  on the back cover)

Catherine Nash and Radha Pandey

Eclipse, 2016

10" x 8"

edition of 150 for

Hand Papermaking magazine portfolio 12

"Intergenerationality: Collaborations in Handmade Paper"

Exciting!  On the front cover of the summer 2019 issue of "Hand Papermaking" is the collaborative effort of myself and the talented Radha Pandey: we created an edition of over 150 for the "Intergenerational" portfolio for Hand Papermaking magazine in 2016. Fifteen teams of collaborators worked on the portfolio. 

15 teams of collaborators created editions for 

"Intergenerationality: Collaborations in handmade Paper" portfolio

Hand Papermaking magazine

Order Portfolio 12, Hand Papermaking magazine

Collaboration:  Aesthetic Considerations

As a starting point, we shared our personal art, studio practice, and philosophical interests with each other. 

Catherine 

space 

sky

air

spiritual/science in tandem

geometrical diagrams/sacred geometry superimposed on landscape

experiences of nature

the metaphysics of place and memory

Radha

natural processes of erosion, sedimentation how one affects the other.  
water to soil to water

ownership of land - borders/mapping - 
      how changed over time vs. physically as a natural landscape

depth 

under the surface

Discussing the possibilities for collaboration, we discovered common ground in our artistic content as it relates to earth, water, and air, both scientifically and poetically. Eclipse explores a blended interpretation of the concepts we are engaged with in our own work as individual artists and papermakers.

The tangible dialogues of the elements of space and sky, water and soil, together in tandem with human interactions with our planet conjured up ideas of:

• boundaries
• land ownership
• a human experience of nature and in nature
• the metaphysics of place and memory
• the natural processes of erosion, sedimentation
• the physical landscape and its relationship to the mental landscape.

These ideas became the focus of our collaborative piece. Whittling down these concepts to their essence, we utilized our materials as the way to carry metaphor. Our collaborative work unfolded in a unique way: as we spoke together about our individual interests in materials and processes, the piece evolved to embody our shared concerns, materializing differently from how we would create individually.  

Radha and Catherine hand pounding cooked/rinsed gampi bark fiber in prep for our edition. 

The Morgan Conservatory of Paper in Cleveland graciously let us use their facilities! Thank you, Morgan!

Collaboration:  Technical Details

We undertook our collaborative portfolio project at the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio in June of 2016, using hand and naginata beaten gampi bark as a paper fiber, internal colorants of filtered and ground earth samples from Sedona, AZ, as well as wax and a watercolor paint derived from earth minerals. Our processes included nagashizuki (Japanese-style) sheet-forming, pulp painting, external dyeing, paper cutting, and stitching to create a cohesive artwork that expresses our shared vision.

Our collaborative three days working together in Ohio came to an end and we divided up the remaining surface tasks between the two of us.  Back in my studio, I (Catherine) printed two wax circles on each sheet. With a very wide Oriental hake brush, I painted a bokashi [gradation] wash onto each sheet using a special watercolor paint made of dark blue sodalite. When all were dry, I carefully ironed out the excess wax out of the sheets leaving a wonderful resultant darker circle. I mailed the edition in process back to Radha in Cleveland. 

Edition of "Eclipse" in progress

The satisfaction of a complete edition!

Radha cut a smaller circle out from within the waxed circle below the horizon to bring part of the “earth” up into the “sky”. Painting them with several coats of the same blue sodalite paint, she brought forth a rich contrast so that the “earth moon” stood out in the “sky.” PVA glue was used to adhere the circles to the sheets using a template to help place the circles in the same spot on each sheet. 


 It was a great honor to work with my friend and colleague, the talented artist and papermaker Radha Pandey.  We are so grateful to Hand Papermaking magazine for this wonderful opportunity!  Thank you!

Catherine Nash and Radha Pandey

Eclipse, 2016

10" x 8"

edition of 150 for

Hand Papermaking magazine portfolio 12

"Intergenerationality: Collaborations in Handmade Paper" 

Bios

Radha Pandey is a papermaker and letterpress printer. She earned her MFA in Book Arts from the University of Iowa Center for the Book where she was a recipient of the Iowa Arts Fellowship. She has Western, Eastern and Islamic-world Papermaking techniques with Timothy Barrett and teaches book arts classes in India, Europe and the US.

Her graduate thesis work- a hand-printed book of botanical anatomies titled Anatomia Botanica won the MICA Book Award at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Fair in 2014, and received an Honorable Mention at the 15th Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design.

In 2018, her book Deep Time won the Joshua Heller Memorial Award at the Pyramid Atlantic Book Fair.  Her artists books are held in over 40 public and private collections internationally, including the Library of Congress and Yale University.

Currently, Radha is working on an artist book inspired by Mughal miniature paintings of botanicals from the 17th century, for which all the paper will be hand made in the traditional Indo-Islamic style.

Radha will be leading an exciting arts tour in India of "behind the scenes of various working artists and craftspeople" from Dec. 19, 2020 - Jan. 2nd, 2021.   Please visit her blog at  Rice - Paper - Tree  for more information and to get on her mailing list.
View her art at https://www.radhapandey.com.

Catherine Nash is an artist who freely mixes media in her work to express her ideas.  Specializing in Japanese and Western hand papermaking, encaustic painting and mixed media drawing, Nash is a teaching artist who balances her studio work with artist-in-resident teaching, lectures and workshops across the United States, as well as in professional studios and universities in eight European countries, Canada, Australia and Japan.  She has published 4 educational DVDs on the art of papermaking and has just self published a book that surveys international artists entitled “Authentic Visual Voices” that includes her interviews with 28 international artists about their creative ideas.   Her work has been included by invitation into numerous national and international exhibitions, most recently in Brazil, Chile, Tasmania, England, and France.  Her love of travel and different cultures has inspired her to live, exhibit, research and teach on four continents.

After receiving a B.F.A. in Printmaking and Drawing from the University of New Hampshire in 1980, Nash spent a year and a half creating prints and drawings in Paris.  In 1987, she graduated from the University of Arizona with a Masters of Fine Arts in Mixed Media. Two independently designed research trips to Japan enabled Nash to study the techniques of Japanese woodblock printing and papermaking in depth. From 1996-2002, her extensive research in Italy and Scandinavia increased her knowledge of historical and contemporary Western papermaking and paper arts.  Nash has combined encaustic waxes and filtered earth pigments with her handmade paper works since 1994.

The landscape, aesthetics and cultures of Japan, the rich gradations and spaciousness of Scandinavian summer night skies, experiences with Native American friends and her explorations into the wilderness of the southwestern deserts have deeply influenced and informed her work.

www.catherinenash.com

Now Downloadable! "Authentic Visual Voices" and more

Now Downloadable or Streaming!  Authentic Visual Voices

I can't tell you how excited I am to announce that Authentic Visual Voices 

is now available as a download now for your ipad, iphone or laptop!!  

You can download it and/or keep it in the cloud for streaming any time.

Authentic Visual Voices: Contemporary Paper & Encaustic 

380+ color images 

29 video interviews with international artists 

who integrate the two media - 

for 2D and 3D inspiration!
Please visit www.authenticvisualvoices.com 

In fact all of our videos and books and research is available this way 

through our new Purple Platform shop...

For our educational Papermaking Workshop videos and the unique Beater Finesse, 

please visit www.papermakingresources.com

Entering the new digital world!

12//11 It's a countdown!! 0 days left! Thanks so much for helping support USA Project Contemporary Paper and Encaustic

Contemporary Paper and Encaustic: A Fundraiser!

Fundraiser
*
Contemporary Paper
and Encaustic
an e-book
by Catherine Nash
*
Fundraiser

I am seeking funding 

to help me travel across the U.S. 

to conduct studio visits with 28 international visual artists: 

one-on-one taped interviews with inspiring and dynamic artists 

that will be incorporated into the portfolio section 

of my e-book Contemporary Paper & Encaustic.

For over 30 years, I've been enamored with paper and artist books and for the last 17 have avidly explored encaustic (painting with molten wax).  Contemporary Paper & Encaustic bridges these media worlds by presenting the work and processes of a full range of innovative artists from around the world in an e-publication, a brand new type of teaching tool formatted for use on the computer. 

Please help support my project!

To learn more about the project click this link
To view a portfolio of the 28 int'l artists I'd like to interview, click this link~
To see a step by step photo showcase of how I created the above cast paper sculpture entitled Sky Nest, a new work of mine from 2011, click this link~

A number of artists are offering works in exchange for your pledge.  I've uploaded imagery of their works in the next post.  Here's a link.


Thanks so very much for
your generous support!

Catherine Nash

This is a description from Lynette Haggard's blog:

Contemporary Paper and Encaustic

WHY IS CATHERINE NASH WITH USA PROJECTS? 

Catherine has been selected to participate in a new online community of America’s finest artists called USA Projects. This site was created by United States Artists to expand its mission of investing in America’s finest artists. USA Projects provides a platform for promotion and fundraising for individual artists projects. 


WHAT IS CATHERINE GOING TO CREATE?
She's got a big vision. Her book will be a full 200+ page e-book with "turnable" pages — a brand new type of teaching tool formatted for use on a computer. It will be available both on DVD or online. It will encompass both a gallery section that includes a work each from 90+ international artists as well as a portfolio section that includes a 4 page spread for each of 28 international artists with their embedded video interview within their pages. She plans to focus on how media corroborates with the expression of artists ideas and content.  

To see the artists Catherine plans to include in the portfolio section of her book, click  HERE.

When Contemporary Paper and Encaustic is published in DVD format by the summer of 2012,  it will be sold on Amazon.com as well as Catherine's site.

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT HER PROJECT?
Catherine is seeking funding to help her travel across the United States to conduct studio visits and create one-on-one taped interviews with the twenty eight artists.

Her project fundraising has a countdown: If she reaches her goal by December 3rd, the project is a go!  Currently your tax deductible pledge will be matched by USA Projects.  Your credit card will not be charged until the results are in...

Hiroki Morinoue, artist & master printer

It had been 12 years since I'd opened my box of Japanese woodblock tools....Last week, I dusted the lid and peered inside. An immediate longing for the smell of carved wood came over me. Hmmmm, perhaps it is time again.

In 1987, on my first of two research trips to Japan, I studied washi (traditional Japanese papermaking) and moku hanga (Japanese woodblock printing). My focus in the following years, gradually leaned towards papermaking/paper sculpture, but the moku hanga techniques I'd learned were translated into mixed media drawings and large sumi paintings. By '98 I was painting with encaustics and embedding my papers/paintings into these molten wax paintings while always continuing to make washi works. Lately I've been monoprinting with encaustic but that's pretty painterly.

I have never forgotten that my roots began in printmaking....it's just felt like it's been put to the back burner. Does one ever completely lose the thinking pattern of a printmaker once ingrained?

I was so excited when I heard that PaperWorks: The Sonoran Collective for Paper and Book Artists was hosting artist and master printer Hiroki Morinoue from the big island of Hawaii to teach 2 days of moku hanga in Tucson. Morinoue would then travel to teach 2 days of experimental abstract watercolor at the Tubac Center for the Arts just 60 minutes south. Hey! Time to shake myself up, and spark a new creative flow!! I whittled out time in my schedule to take all four days.

In his artist statement, Hiroki Morinoue writes: "In all of my works, there is a compelling sense of place---of the shoreline, rocks, lava flows and skies of the Big Island. I have long been a patient observer of nature, in particular, of its rhythms, cycles, and patterns. My creativity is two-fold, one to express myself and the other to express and study different media most suited for the message I want to convey to the viewer."

Morinoue's work speaks to me through color, his personal iconography and references to nature.

Watching Morinoue go through a step by step demo of the very special Japanese techniques of woodblock printing with water based inks (in his case, straight from the tube watercolor paint slightly diluted, and blended with rice paste on the block) was like taking a drink of water after a long drought.

There are a few steps missing here to keep it relatively short, but it gives an idea:
Morinoue printed 9 colors on this demo piece, some multiple times to deepen the color and/or add a gradation.

...

But when he started printing from varied blocks in a more intuitive manner creating woodblock printed monoprints, I was enthralled. Although Morinoue demoed carving and registration, our hands on focus was with trying to control the printing. We had access to a slew of pre-carved blocks. He explained that the light source is the paper, and to keep in mind that with each printing, we were subtracting light...

The idea of printing freely from numerous blocks, overlapping colors and shapes to create unique images was truly an ah-ha moment for me. I totally appreciated the freedom and spontaneity of this manner of printing.

I am sure that other printmakers might have a different feeling, but my training and subsequent approach to printmaking, not only in Japan but also during the 14 years prior as well, was very controlled and preplanned....and this was precisely why I turned towards mixing media that would allow for unrehearsed, more spontaneous creation so to speak. I wanted the work to lead me sometimes, to have a conversation with it. Does that make sense?

At the end of the two days, our trimmed prints were pinned into a grid, truly a visual delight. We were asked to trade cropped images and reconfigure them into a new composition. A wonderful exercise and energetic way to end the workshop. Morinoue was adept at critique and offered pertinent suggestions and thoughts. He told me, "You should really consider being a printmaker!" I guess one just can't fully lose the mindset. And yes, I am one. Remember that, Nash. I'm pulling the pot from the back to the front burner~

The watercolor course in Tubac was just superb as well: totally fun (especially sharing the adventure with my friend Mabel), and I certainly learned a great deal, particularly about Morinoue's approach to color. As the painting techniques paralleled my own practice with sumi and watercolor painting, it didn't have quite the impact that holding a baren again had, but nonetheless it was exciting, fresh and still felt new. Perhaps at some level, I had mourned just a bit letting moku hanga go (after longing to go to Japan since I had been seven!...I had been having major issues with Tucson's total lack of humidity and Hiroki gave me some pertinent suggestions on what to do.) I had known it would reappear in my creative work, I just didn't know when.

I have, of late, been integrating handmade paper and cast paper with encaustic...oh, but now I can see doing mokuhanga on my own papers, and dipping them or enhancing them with encaustic monoprinting...for stand alone works or incorporated into artist books. Or carving the wood on which I paint encaustic...hmmmmmmmm.

Ah, that creative flow! So excited to have solid stretches of time before me as we head into the summer.


Throughout the workshops, his wife, artist Setsuko Morinoue was a hard working assistant and we appreciated her help too.
Thank you Hiroki and Setsuko Morinoue!