This blog highlights the talents of this years symposium presenters. For more information about attending this years symposium, please see http://www.yumaartsymposium.memberlodge.org/

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Hosanna Rubio


Making Meaning from Mayhem OR How to Over-Share at Parties

You know the people who you can tell have just had a “life”? Like, life with a capital L: Life. We smile till our cheeks hurt, but our eyes say we have seen some things. I am one of those people, whose casual anecdotes typically get one of two responses: “Wow, you should totally write a book”, or stunned silence followed by a slow escape. But if pop culture and a generalized knowledge of art history have taught me anything, it’s that I’ll never lack for experiences to draw from to make art.



If you have ever met me, chances are you know that I was raised in a Fundamentalist Pentecostal church. Our church leader had been prophesying the end of the world since the mid-seventies, and with every passing year the congregation became more emphatic that we were living in the end times. For as long as I can remember, I was taught not to fear death, but to welcome it. People would often tell me, always with a glow of religious fervor, “This isn’t our true life. Our true life comes after we die.” This constant discussion of death filled me with existential dread from such a young age that it drove me to seek out why something that was so reassuring to those around me could be so terrifying for me.


Morbid from a young age, I threw myself a funeral at age five. “Here lies Hosanna”


I developed a fascination with subjects that touched on the macabre, such as Vanitas paintings, which used imagery like bones and wilting flowers as reminders of man’s mortality. The word Vanitas was derived in part from Ecclesiastes 1:2, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” While the original Hebrew word “hevel” means a “breath,” or “vapor,” and symbolized fleetingness, later translations substituted the word vanity, which has Latin origins meaning empty, vain, and idle.

Hevel. Steel, sterling silver, copper, brass, enamel. 6” x 3.5” x 1”


In the Shadow of your Poison Tree. Steel, silver, copper, brass, bronze, laser etched enamel, tulle, acrylic, cigarettes, rubber. 18” x 6” x 2”


In Medieval Christianity, disease and death were seen as divine punishment, and it was common for individuals to examine their moral conduct to determine how they had brought illness upon themselves. In some form or another, this belief lives on today. I was never a healthy child. The other members of our church saw my constant injuries and afflictions as an indication of a moral failing on my part. This pressure to fear my pain and illness, to feel ashamed of it, drove me to try to find a way to redefine the situation for myself, to reclaim the beauty in the transience of life.

Keen Brooch Series: Shadow, Uphill, Void. X-ray, acrylic, paper, copper, brass, silver, steel, enamel, hair, wood. 7” x 3.5” x 1”





Prick. X-ray, acrylic, silver, copper, brass, bronze, rubber. 20” x 3.5” x 1”



Mourners. X-ray, acrylic, silver, steel, brass, rubber. 20” x 3.5” x 1”


This lecture and demonstration explores a body of work consisting of jewelry and sculptures that delve into personally significant issues such as mortality, religion, and gender, while also striving to push the boundaries on what constitutes expected jewelry materials and processes. I will share the techniques I have developed over the course of my studio practice, such as galvanic etching, which allows me to make my mark on the world just as it has left its mark on me.


We Came Together and We Came Apart. Cast silver and bronze, acrylic, X-ray. 2” x 1.5” x 1.5”


Creating layered, detailed pieces allows me to find balance in the chaotic, to attempt to exert control over the uncontrollable aspects of my life and in the world at large. While my experiences are not universal I hope to inspire an atmosphere of dialogue with my work to show that sometimes moments of pain and tragedy can offer us the greatest opportunities for beauty and transformation (And hey, it’s cheaper than therapy!)


Opening, Witness, Barrier. Enamel, china paints, copper, brass, steel, silver. 5.5” x 3.5” x 0.5”

I am so excited and honored to be presenting at the upcoming Yuma Art Symposium (can you tell??)


Come see Hosanna at Yuma Art Symposium!!

Register for Yuma Art Symposium 2020 HERE 

See Hosanna's  Webpage HERE


Saturday, January 4, 2020

Judy Stone


Enamel Layering: 3 D Color on 3 D Form

It is my great honor to be chosen to be a presenter at the 2020 Yuma Symposium.
I have been working in my medium since 1972.  Along the way I have developed a unique composite of enameling techniques based on the contemporary work of the late Fred Ball and the teaching of the late Bill Helwig.

Sgraffito through liquid white from Fred Ball’s Experimental Techniques in Enameling 


I work mainly on formed copper.  Most of the vessel shapes are cut and then rejoined with woven copper wire, copper rivets, and copper tubing. 


sewing a copper bowl

I call these "destructed" vessels Burnt Offerings because they not only represent my homage to the medium and the power of heat and fire, but also they challenge me to heal what has been destroyed and hopefully make it more beautiful. As I began making my vessels several years ago I was not conscious of the Japanese ceramic tradition of Kintsugi which is about healing broken vessels. In time I began to see my vessels as representing my attempt to make a broken world whole again, much like the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam.







 Kintsugi vessels


The vessel form, which is dimensional, has taught me to look at my enameling as narration much as historically vessels have contained some form of narration.




 Keith Haring ceramic vessel


The fact that my enamel narration is frequently on both sides of my vessels has created the challenge of finding balance and harmony between the enamel and the form. It is always exciting when I succeed.  

I work in thin layers of enamel in which I try to evoke the looseness of painting on canvas. I see the layers as creating 3-D color which reflects and refracts light through and off of the various layers and the copper.  Light, optics and dimensionality are everything to me.





 Ball Study 3


Hermioni 3



See more of Judy's work HERE

Find out how to see Judy at Yuma Art Symposium HERE