Lanny Bergner

I first started working with metal mesh in 1983.  That was my final year of Graduate School at Tyler School of Art.  Back then I was working with aluminum insect screening and making all these suspended organic forms out of strips of screening.  It wasn’t until about four years ago that I began torch treating stainless steel mesh to create patterns and drawings on the mesh.  This has opened up a whole new world for me.  Prior to torch burning, structure and process was the primary driver of my work.

I included a few photos of me making “Columnar,” of one of my torch treated stainless steel works.  It was made out of 15 sheets of stainless steel mesh that I first sprayed with lacquer (the lacquer gives the mesh a bronze-like look), and then I burned the pattern/drawing into the mesh using a propane torch.  I can control the tone by how close I hold the flame to the mesh and how quickly I pass it over the surface and paying close attention to how orange the metal gets.  I treat the torching process much like drawing or painting.  I have never been that much of a pencil and charcoal drawer.   In the past I would draw for brief stints and then I would always be lured back into 3-D works.  But, since flame drawing is such a dynamic medium I have been increasingly pulled into the drawing/painting world and I just love it.  Now torch work is an integral part of my art.

I also use silicone and glass frit in my work.  One of the photos shows me pressing clear silicone through one of “Columnar” torch treated mesh squares.  Once the silicone is pressed through the mesh it takes on a bead-like appearance.  I use glass frit as a color element.  In “Columnar” I use it to surface Smoothfoam spheres.  I first coat the spheres with clear silicone and then press the frit into the silicone.

After exploring mesh for over 30 years I still feel like I have hardly scratched the surface of the material’s creative potential.  One piece just leads to the next.  Currently, I am working on large vessel forms for a show this September at Snyderman-Works Galleries in Philadelphia.  Most of these pieces will be made out of heavier gage stainless steel mesh, that way the vessel forms will be strong and self-supporting.  I’m also introducing more color into my work by mixing powdered pigment with clear silicone (I should have some images of this body of work by conference time). Creativity just keeps marching on and I keep enjoying the journey. 

 Lanny Bergner, 2014 Yuma Presenter

Click here for Lanny's Website

Burning pattern into the mesh with propane torch for "Columnar"

Pressing silicone onto the mesh for "Columnar"

Constructing "Columnar"

 

Finished work- "Columnar"   

 photo: KP-Studios.com

 "Primordial Muse 2"

Photo: KP-Studios.com

 "Primordial Muse 5"

Photo: KP-Studios.com

 

 

"All of the Above" by Ken Bova

I get asked on occasion just what exactly is the Yuma Symposium?

I’ve been thinking about the proper reply for a while now. Usually I’ll respond with a kind of stock answer gleaned from the web site and/or generated from my experiences of other symposia devolving into details of a) pin swaps, b) lectures, c) demonstrations, d) border crossings, e) pool parties, and the like. But it doesn’t seem to satisfy. It’s more than that. Really, it is.

In searching for a succinct response to the “what is Yuma” question the word “nexus” floated to the top. My dictionary (yes I actually do have a dictionary) has this definition for the word: the central and most important point or place: the nexus of all this activity was Lutes Casino.

Okay, I substituted the Lutes Casino part, but the definition is pretty close. Nexus comes from the Latin meaning "that which ties or binds together," and is the past participle of nectere "to bind."

It’s also the root word for “connection.” And that, to me, is what is most definitive about the Yuma Symposium. It’s the connections, the links, associations, contacts, relations, friends, colleagues, and networks of like-minded creative souls that gather in Arizona for a few days of art R & R.

So take your pick. The Yuma Symposium is like a multiple choice quiz but there are no wrong answers.

Me, being a nexus between two beautiful artists, Mary Luke and Anna Belom.

--Ken Bova

   click here for more information about Ken Bova

   

Looking Into the Crystal Ball

Looking into the Crystal Ball

The Yuma Symposium will celebrate 35 years this coming February! Doesn’t seem like it’s been going that long, until you look back through the “Yuma Symposium thirty years after” book. We all look so young!!! What happened?

Well, the event has survived: grown, had its ups and downs and grown again.

The whole event has changed somewhat over the years. It started out in the 70’s, before we started counting as weekend workshops at Arizona Western College for the students: very informal, local, funky, informative and small, with no alcohol on campus. It has morphed into what we have today, a little more formal, larger, national, more informative, very diverse and still kinda loose and funky.

So what is the future of the symposium, we ask? Those thoughts that have been in those word bubbles hovering above our heads. They have finally been spoken…..a few years ago and this year we are actually thinking seriously about this whole idea. Don’t want to rush into anything.

So, why is this thing such a success? I look around on Thursday evening during participant orientation at the Yuma Theatre and can’t help but wonder, “ What is it that brings so many here? They spend a lot of money, take time off from teaching or other jobs, some year after year. I’m so close to it, I don’t have the perspective that most participants have. I always love it when you come up to me and express why you make time to come each year.

I can tell you that I have the most professional, passionate people to work with. Most are out-of- towners and many have been involved from the very early days. I’ve served on a number of non-profit boards and the symposium crowd is the very best. In fact, I brag about you. Everyone steps up when needed, is good at what they volunteer to do and do what they say they will do. I believe Ben Mitchell, who wrote the forward for our 30^th anniversary book, stated it very well. He used the words egalitarian, democratic, open, generous and freewheeling.

I would like to explore this idea of why the symposium is so unique and how it can continue to be, at its essence, the event that is so important to so many wonderful people. Lynda Watson was quoted as saying, “It’s the best, most conversant group of artists sharing their work, ideas, fun and supporting each other”.

This is where you come in.   It’s this atmosphere that needs to be preserved. The fact that it’s for artists, by artists makes it different, along with the multi-disciplinary format, but I’d really love to hear your thoughts about why you support the symposium and what would be important to consider for the future.

I hope to maybe hear your thoughts sometime soon.  See you in February!

Neely Tomkins,

Head of Cheerleading for Yuma Symposium

Neely@Yumasymposium.org

Food is big part of symposium. Here's John Copp (breakfast coordinator) Marlene True (2010 presenter in metals) along with Pete Jagoda (Artistic Director) listening to John Grant tell a story and make an apple tart in the 78 W 2nd St. kitchen.

Welcome back to the Yuma Symposium Blog!  Our names are Teresa Burgher and Autumn Brown, and we will be the co-hosting the blog for the next six months.

We can’t believe it is only 170 days till we meet again at Lute’s Casino for the 35th Yuma Symposium?!  Time really does fly when you are having fun!

Since last February we both have stayed busy enjoying life, and from the reports we get, others have been having a pretty good time too.

Teresa joined Neely and George in late May in Charleston SC, for a terrific five days of hanging out, ogling the architecture, and checking out the extraordinary cuisine.  They enjoyed some of the opening events of the Spoleto festival and walks in the best neighborhoods of America during the evenings. Since then she has had lots of time to write, garden, and spend time in the pool with the grandkids.

Teresa and Neely in Charleston SC

Autumn finished up a fabulous spring semester teaching metalsmithing at Pitt Community College in Greenville, NC.  She then had a few weeks off to do studio work and travel with family before moving north to Interlochen, MI for her fourth season as summer metals faculty for Interlochen Center for the Arts.  She is now in Athens, GA and is looking forward to taking the fall off from teaching in order to focus on some personal work.

Autumn's metals class at ICA

Neely and George retreated from the heat to much cooler Michigan. Ken Bova has kept in touch with us all posting one stunning picture after another from Montana and an awesome album from his Santa Cruz Teaching Adventure with Angela Gleason.  Keith Lewis is in Argentina and Jane Gregorius has just returned from Canada.  John Grant is on the road from coast to coast and he has shared a photo and rave reviews from his stay with Gary Greenberg during his kiln firing in Pennsylvania.  Plus, Gary visited Autumn in Greenville, NC where he did a fantastic demo on foil firing!!

Ken's Santa Cruz Teaching Adventure

Greeny in Greenville, NC

Greenie;s livingroom by John Grant

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. People have moved, traveled, made wonderful art, had fabulous shows, taught amazing classes, and welcomed new members to their families. It has been a heck of a summer!

Now we are back to our routines, for the most part, and many of us are planning the nuts and bolts of the next, most fabulous Yuma Symposium. This year we are thrilled to feature a great lineup of presenters:  Kim Winkle, Lanny Berger, Willem Volkersz, Sara Mast, Julia Harrison, Chip Thomas, Kat Cole, Scott Kolbo, Robin Lasser, Stephen Robinson, Rocky Lewycky, and Alison Carey.

They will be joining a dozen Yuma regulars every week on this blog to share a bit of what is happening, what is up and coming, and what they hope will be when we all meet again on February 20, 2014.

Check out the blog on Sunday evenings for new posts! Next post, Teresa will share some of her prized messages from one of her favorite Yuma alumni and board members, John Grant.  Drop by right here for “On the Road, Coast to Coast"

See you in Yuma!

Teresa Burgher
Christiana, TN

Autumn Brown
Greenville, NC