Press Release--August, 2005
VIVA Gallery Find a New Home
VIVA (Viroqua Independent Visual Artists) is opening its doors at 219 South Main Street after a short hiatus without a home.
Partnering with others of the restructured organization known as "Slippers" at Main Street Station, VIVA will occupy part of the handsome room fronting Main Street. The new space features stained galss, paintings, pottery, hand-painted glass, weavings, and jewelry, all by local artists that make up the VIVA cooperative.
VIVA is a true cooperative--12 artists share working at the gallery, displaying the work, maintaining the fiscal health of the organization, and even designing, building, and painting gallery furniture when needed. After a wonderful initial year in one of the internal spaces of Main Street Station, VIVA was looking for a larger venue with Main Street frontage. When a group of dedicated people interested in creating a new, community-based organization encompassing a wider variety of the arts took ownership ofthe "Slippers" space, VIVA found a home.
Artists currently represented by VIVA are: Kathleen Aaker (weaving and fiber arts); Sarah Caldwell (photography); Colleen Gilgenbach (watercolor, pastel, and jewelry); Virginia Goeke (fiber arts, knitted, spun and woven wools); Mark Herrling (prints and pottery); Maureen Karlstad (pottery); William A. Mapp (watercolor); Marlene Meyer (oil and pastel painting, hand-painted glass); Ralene Roberts (metal arts, jewelry); Ira Slatter (pottery); Anne Tedeschi (watercolor); Tami Weiss (pastel and acrylic painting); and M'Lou Wilkie (acrylic painting, stained glass, and jewelry).
VIVA will have a formal opening reception from 5-8 PM on Friday, August 12. Artists will be on hand to greet visitiors and provide demonstrations. Refreshments will be provided.
published IN THE LIGHT, October 2005
VIVA Gallery Features Four New Artists
The Viroqua Independent Visual Artists (VIVA) Gallery is now well established in the reorganized space for the arts known as “Slippers.” We share this space with other arts groups, dance, music, yoga and more. The VIVA Gallery also has four “new” artists in our cooperative, adding some exciting dimensions to the gallery art.
Joining VIVA several months ago,
Ira Slatter
, an artist who takes personal expression, intuition and catharsis seriously, makes ceramic pieces primarily because he finds that “clay works best for that,” and because he loves the “give and take” of the medium. He says, “You could say that my art falls into the expressionist realm. I admire Japanese aesthetics and philosophy which I believe has to do with the perfection of nature.” He also does interesting pottery. Look for some of his larger pieces, featuring unusual forms and glazes.
At about the same time, we welcomed
Mark Herrling,
print maker and potter, who has especially strengthened VIVA’s image with his finely produced, striking prints, bringing a highly professional element in his work. But don’t neglect his pottery when you visit the gallery. Mark says that he “likes to work in a variety of mediums, from clay to
canvas, to sculpture and printmaking.”
More recently, artist blacksmith
Kirsten Skiles
joined VIVA, bringing to the gallery stunning ironwork. These are generally some of her smaller pieces which she says she hopes would “create a sacred sense of nature within the home.” She also does “forged ironwork for commercial and residential clients” in her studio at her home near Red Mound where she lives with her husband and two children. She also teaches part-time at the Three Rivers School in LaCrosse.
Deb Conlon
, from rural Rolling Ground, also has joined the Gallery recently. She is a painter and a jewelry maker. She has worked with metal for the last 15 years, and enjoys using nature themes and natural materials such as shells and stones in her jewelry. But that is not all. She has been painting in oils for some years now and some of her charming paintings are already in the VIVA Gallery.
So there is a lot to see! We hope you will come and visit the VIVA Gallery.