"Sense of Wonder" portrait of Marsha Klein by CM ILLGEN
Mystery, Symbol, Dream, Raw Vision, Soul Food
Art contains me as a refuge and a vehicle, providing the opportunity to develop a unique visual language of my life's experience. Using the body as metaphor to personify the human psyche, my paintings and sculpture are rich in content with strong archetypal and biomorphic images. Steeped in the collective unconscious, I integrate mythological references into my personal imagery. Although my initiating impetus is rooted in the personal, the completed works speak to the universal.
My art is transformative, in the making and in the viewing. Usually working in series, that reflect an unfolding progression, I begin with a visual idea and go directly to the canvas, recording a waking dream. Proceeding intuitively, I work slowly with deep concentration, or intensely, riding an eruption of primordial creative energy. My raw approach presents an unexpected juxtaposition of images. As I edit, I allow essential elements from each layer to remain visible. Exploring seeming dualities of: containment/expansion, layered/ unveiling, rooted/ transcendent, I parallel inner and outer worlds.
BIO
My art practice has spanned over fifty years, creating bold, figurative oil paintings and organic ceramic sculpture. Sculptural elements occur in my paintings, just as painting elements are an integral part of my sculpture. My own art making was generated within the Bay Area Figurative tradition, as a student at University of California, Berkeley, in the mid 1960s. I majored in Art History and Art Practice, studying drawing with RB Kitaj and then ceramics with Peter Voulkos and Ron Nagle. Coming from a painters perspective, I was attracted to clay’s sensual appeal and the ability it gave me to take my images into three dimensions. In my early sculpture I responded literally to the Bay Area emphasis on bodies in connection with nature. My bodies sprouted wings, flowers, cacti and roots. Ceramic sculpture was my main medium from 1969-1989, when the times signaled a switch in focus, back to painting from 1989 to the present.
My lifelong connection with Jungian therapy and Tibetan Buddhism could well account for the importance of dreaming and the sacred, archetypal, Feminine principle throughout my work. In 2010, retrospectively considering my forty years of art making, I realized that my intent would be to synthesize the themes and images that have pervaded my work, to get to the essence, to the skin and bones of my vision, both literally and figuratively. When I employ a reoccurring image, like the ribcage, I choose it for its visual presence and equally, for what it symbolizes. With its butterfly-like shape, and its function as a cage for the heart, it is the soul of the matter, the bare bones, as well as what remains behind.
The work included in this site represent themes running through decades of my work and culminate in a surprising, new direction, “Autumn Nocturnes,” with long, expressive Northern Lights expanding across the indigo horizon over barely perceptible figures below, essentially bringing light into a very dark time. Followed by “Skyscapes” which were a refuge from a world gone mad during the pandemic discord, mass migrations, more wars and economic instability, where truth is a moving target.
CV
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Sonoma Regional Library, Sonoma CA
2013 Abandoned Art - an Unexpected Performance Piece: San Francisco: MOMA, Yerba Buena Ctr. for the Arts, Legion of Honor,Napa-Sonoma: diRosa, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art 2012 Gallery 212 Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma CA 2008 McCree Goudeau Gallery, Vallejo CA
1992 Jung Institute, San Francisco CA
1989 Elizabeth Fortner Gallery, Santa Barbara CA 1984 Matrix Gallery, Sacramento CA
1976 Transamerica Pyramid Bldg. San Francisco CA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION 2023 Life As Myth, Yerba Buena Center Convenings Grant Exhibit, Sonoma CA 2022 Artists Equity, New York, NY
2011 Pacific Art League, Palo Alto CA
2010 Gallery 212, Sonoma Community Center, Sonoma CA 2008 McCree Goudeau Gallery, Vallejo CA
2002 Sunset Idea House, Palo Alto CA, Copia, Napa CA California Design, curator: Kenneth Trapp, Smithsonian Museum 2001 Denise Bibro Gallery, New York, NY
2000 Sustainability Show, San Francisco CA
1995 Long Beach Art Center, CA, curator: Henry Hopkins Foundation Napoleon, Paris FRANCE
1994 Art & Action Project, Los Angeles CA 1989 Pinch Pottery, Northampton, Mass.
1983 San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art CA
MUSEUM GROUP SHOWS
2003 Wet Paint, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art 1992 Newport Harbor Art Museum, CA
1988 Craft & Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles CA 1973 California Clay & Glass, Oakland Museum, CA
PUBLICATIONS 2022 Orange Book, cover artist, New York, NY Artistonish Magazine, Canada
AWARDS / RESIDENCIES 2022 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: Artist Power Convenings Grant
Artist-in-Residence - fellowship
2011 Women’s Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY
Artist-in-the Schools 2003 Sonoma Valley Education Foundation Grant 2000 Sonoma Valley Education Foundation Grant 1991 Sonoma County Community Foundation Grant 1984 California Arts Council Grant
Awards
1983 Marin Society of Artists, jurors’ award/first place, San Jose Art League, jurors’ award/first place 1976 Atrium, Santa Rosa Jr. College, jurors’ award 1973 Sacramento Festival of the Arts, jurors’ award
COMMISSIONS
Public 2014 Community Mural: Plein Air Grant-Sassarini School, Sonoma
2013 Community Mural: Plein Air Grant-Sassarini School, Sonoma 2010 Mahoney Memorial Garden, Sonoma CA
2008 Community Mural: Sylveira School, San Rafael CA
2007 Community Mural: Sylveira School, San Rafael CA
2005 Community Mural: Plein Air Grant-Sassarini School, Sonoma, Napa Valley Wine Auction, ceramics 2004 Community Mural: Plein Air Grant-Sassarini School, Sonoma
2003 Exploratorium, San Francisco CA, ceramics
Private:
2006 Leavitt House, tile mural
1994 Eastside Oyster Bar, Sonoma CA, tile mural
1992 A. Weinberger House, tile fireplace
1985 Knipschild House, site specific sculpture in Progressive Architecture Magazine 1983 J. Weinberger House, tile murals
1979 Freeman house, tile fireplace
1976-2003 SELECT PAST REPRESENTATION-CERAMICS
Virginia Breier, San Francisco CA Pieces, Chicago, ILL. Running Ridge Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
Fast Forward, New York, NY Elaine Potter Gallery, San Francisco CA Incorporated Gallery, New York, NY American Craft Council Shows: San Francisco, CA, Baltimore, MD Sherwood Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA Meyer, Breier, Weiss, San Francisco CA Collector’s Gallery, Oakland Museum, CA
SELECTED COLLECTORS
Martin & Sharleen Cohen, Los Angeles CA Tom & Jody Tomc, Chicago ILL
Ron & Linda Colnett, San Francisco CA Julie Atwood, Glen Ellen CA
Linda Sullivan, Encino CA
Mel & Gae Shulman, San Francsco, CA Rather-Taylor, Sonoma CA Bellah-Reynolds, Graton CA Trevino-Winston, Sonoma CA
PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS:
Teaching:
2008 Sonoma Community Center, CA 2003 Copia, Napa CA 1978- 2018 Artist in the Schools & Community, Sonoma & San Rafael CA
Arts Coordinator:
2008 Sonoma Community Center, CA 2003 Copia, Napa CA
2000 Presidio, San Francisco CA
EDUCATION
1995 San Francisco Art Institute CA, advanced painting workshop 1968 B. A. Art / Art History, University of California, Berkeley, ceramics: Peter Voulkos, Ron Nagle, Jim Melchert drawing: R.B. Kitaj, Patrick Tidd
1967 New School for Social Research, NYC 1963 Brooklyn College, NYC