We're proud to present our autumn show, Art of our Ancestors. This show is about our cultural kinship with our ancestors. Laurie Sylwester, artist and professor emeritus at Columbia College in Tuolumne County, gently judged the show. She shared some of her thoughts about the winners of the show; read them below.

"Thanks to all the artists who participated," she writes. "Realize that a different judge would make other decisions."

First place 2D
Best of Show
The Source: A Shaman’s Gift
James Respess
Digital

Conceptually and artistically captures the theme from the ancient enigmatic petroglyphs to the ray of light/mist (we ARE stardust!). The bird is considered a messenger from the Gods to the ancestors, and water is life. I can keep returning to the piece and seeing more—people in the rocks—and more. Great art sustains your interest and you can keep returning to it.

Second place 2D
Life’s Journey
Lori Kelly
Acrylic

So very well done! This one calls to mind my favorite piece at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. The old man that completely encompasses a whole room. The ancestor in this second place piece is so emotive. Great work!

Third place 2D
Scenes of Bodie, California
Susan Carracedo
Watercolor

Churches are architecture, thus art of the ancestors. The church is an expression of the ancestors and the window selection allowed light to enter; light was considered the proof of God. So, that is they the church was selected over the other Bodie images. Nicely done.

Honorable mention 2D
Inishere Island, Ireland
Susie Hoffman
Watercolor

Celtic crosses were the only monumental sculpture in the early medieval ages, an era of the great migration and small migration art. So, the crosses both were the markers and marked the burial of ancestors. I like the abstraction of the watery paint flowing from the cemetery.

First place 3D
Love of the Land and its Creatures
Marlene Bradford
Ceramic

An ancestor with feet of clay, well grounded in the earth! The animals anchor the young woman with the giant bird creating an emotional pull disproportionate to its normal size. The turtle plays a role in Native American and Aboriginal Australian creation/origin stories.

Second place 3D
Blue Kokoshnik (Russian Head dress)
Larisa Stevenson
Ceramic

This head is a proficient ceramic sculpture with the implication that the ancestral homeland lives in her/his mind. In fact, we are made of the DNA of our ancestors, and for some, the experiences can be conjured in a dream state.

Third place 3D
Neanderthal Family
Meg Grace Newell
Ceramic

You make me laugh, you get an award! The Neanderthals  made me laugh out loud!  Also, the artist got right: women also were cave painters as research has discovered.

Music in the Parks is free to all, but we rely on the generosity of those who can contribute to make this program available to the community. Please help if you are able. Thank you for your support.

When the Random Strangers start singing songs like “Blue Bayou” and “Ring of Fire,” it’s natural that you’ll want to sing along. According to vocalist and rhythm guitar player Suzanne Todd, that’s quite alright. They choose the music they play based on what they like, and they’re pleased when audiences like it too.  
 
“All the songs we choose are our favorites,” Todd said. “Something will come to a band member, and we email it around to make sure everyone is on board with it. Very rarely do we disagree.”
 
Agreement is evident in their tightly woven vocal harmonies and instrumental breaks; Todd and vocalist Larry Park sing with clear, fancy-free voices, and Park, once named one of the 50 fastest guitar players on the planet by Guitar World Magazine, keeps things interesting between chorus and verse. And Dave Wren on pedal steel guitar—what Todd jokingly called a Black & Decker steel workbench—makes the instrument whine, curl and cajole. Wren was inducted into the Western Swing Music Society’s “Hall of Fame” in 2008 and the Northwest Western Swing Music Society’s “Pioneers of Western Swing Music” in 2010, and he knows how to bend the strings. Rounding out the band are bass player George Spriggs and drummer John Duvall.
 
With a pure strong voice, Todd adds zest to their sparkling harmonies. Swinging into her second career (her previous job was with the Fire Service) as a country/rock/Americana performer, she said, “I feel like the luckiest girl on the planet to be surrounded by such high-caliber musicians. They’ve been around the horn musically and it really shows.”
 
The Random Strangers, based in the Foothills near Placerville, are popular in El Dorado County. “They pack the house,” according to Andy Tannehill, owner of Manzanita Kitchen & Events. With their blend of  country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues—a genre they call Rocking Americana—they  deliver “dynamite picking, smooth harmonies, blistering ballads, and foot stomping romps,” said Todd.
 
Railroad Flat Elementary School is a big field, but feels intimate. There's soft grass for sitting and picnicking. so come out and dance to the swing, sing to tunes, and have a great time.

It is a zero-tolerance zone, so please, no alcohol or smokables.

​Beautiful art is often made piece by piece. In May, mosaic artist Robin Modlin puzzled out a mosaic on the bathroom wall in Murphys Community park, and now fanciful flowers, birds and animals smile under a sparkling-tile sun.

Robin led the community in this project, seeking funding from community organizations and captaining an army of volunteers that included mentors and mentees from Calaveras Mentoring. Even passersby stopped to set bits of mosaic into place. Now Robin is ready to start on the steps in front of the library. 
 
When the community pulls together, we can create great things. Community organizations like the Calaveras County Arts Council, the Murphys Community Club, Angels-Murphys Rotary Club and Murphys Library have helped build this work of public art. Quyle Kilns helped with the use of materials and studio space, and individuals like Amanda Sedgwick-Maule made all the difference. 

So stop by Murphys Community Park next time you're in Murphys (For Music in the Parks on August 7 maybe?) and enjoy our newest public art. 

Robin Modlin conceived, designed, and managed the community project to create a mural in Murphys Community Park.

People volunteered to help, and pieced together the mural in no time.

Children made the faces for the flowers at Quyle Kilns.

So many hands helped make this mural. It was a real community project 

Small pieces were made at Quyle Kilns, a local pottery and ceramics studio.

This spring we partnered with Conifer Communications and Calaveras High School to create a bright mural for the wall along their parking lot below the fire station. Three high school students--Emma Hohn, Summer Cummings, Sarah Araujo and Elizabeth Metzger--designed and painted it under the direction of retired teacher Dusty Dustyn.

The mural is at the corner of Highway 49 and Main Street. Stop when you’re driving through San Andreas to see it!

Read more about it at the Calaveras Enterprise.

Deadline: April 1, 2019
Recipient notified: April 4, 2019

Goldrush Writer’s Workshop: May 3rd, 4th, & 5th 2019

Are you a serious writer who wants to take the next step into writing? The CCAC is pleased to offer a grant for one to attend the 14th Annual Gold Rush Writers Conference on May 3 to 5 in Mokelumne Hill. We’re looking for a writer who is committed to the art and craft of writing.

The Gold Rush Writers Conference is an intimate weekend in Mokelumne Hill led by professionals who guide you through a series of panels, specialty talks, workshops and celebrated author lectures. Go one-on-one with successful poets, novelists, biographers, memoirists, screenwriters, playwrights and short story writers. The conference also includes a picnic supper in a Victorian garden Friday evening followed by an open-mic reading, Saturday dinner and Sunday lunch at the historic Hotel Leger. 

For more information on this year’s conference, go to www.goldrushwriters.com​

Submission requirements:
Grant application is open to all Calaveras County residents of any age. Submissions are by email only. Please include all requirements in one document that is attached to your email. 
 
Please submit: 
1. A 100-200 word bio about you and your experience and goals for your writing (it’s not necessary to be a published writer, but we’d like to see intent). Do NOT go over the 200 word limit.
2. A short cover letter detailing why you’re applying for the grant, including your need and interest. 
3. A 250-500 word essay answering the question, “Why the arts are necessary.” The essay may be a personal essay about why the arts have been necessary in your life, or it may be a researched creative non-fiction piece, or it may be poetry or fiction. Do NOT go over the 500 word limit. 

Include your name, address, email, and phone number.

Email submission by midnight, April 1 to ccacinbox@gmail.com with the subject line: workshop submission. ​
​If you have questions, email ccacinbox@gmail.com or call 209/754-1774

Calaveras County is rich with creativity. On September 22 and 23, you can experience that creativity up close and personal on the free, self-guided Artists Studio Tour presented by the Calaveras County Arts Council. Free guides are available throughout the county and at the Arts Council in San Andreas; a free map is available for download at calaverasarts.org.

There’s a lot to see. Thirty artists in nineteen locations will exhibit their artwork, opening normally private studios and homes to the public. You can meet the artists, learn about their artwork, and discover treasures that you’ll want to take home. And this year, some of the artists are participating in an abandoned art project; during the week before the tour, keep your eyes peeled for artwork left in public places as a free gift to the finders.  

​Every corner of the county will be represented. Starting in the Valley Springs area, you’ll find three artists conveniently located off Baldwin Street. Marlene Chapple fills her studio with oil paintings, hammered copper jewelry, ice-dyed scarves, and amazing encaustic work. From there, head over to Sue Carracedo’s studio to be charmed by her colorful watercolors and acrylics. Nearby, Brad Stone is a new addition to Artists Studio Tour, creating impressionistic landscapes and scenes of classic cars and horses in acrylic paint.

A short ride to Mokelumne Hill will bring you to Acme Art on Center Street, where four artists will show their work. Owner Ann Cook makes joyful collages and mosaics, as well as new jewelry she creates from repurposed older jewelry. Deborah Marlene’s glowing watercolors and alcohol ink paintings on tile will share the space, along with Lynne Sutton’s whimsical assemblages and watercolors. New this year, Kevin Brady brings his watercolor illustrations and paintings to Acme Art as well. ​

​A few blocks away on Clark Street, oil painter Sue Smith opens her home and studio to show her strongly designed work, featuring landscapes, animals, and portraits.

It’s a bit of an adventure to Lower Dorray Road in Glencoe, but it’s worth making the beautiful drive to see the four artists on that street. Brenda Montelongo’s jewelry, made from glass beads, silver forms, and stamped metal would be tempting enough, but alongside Sonya Ziegler’s gorgeous paintings, photographs and decorated gourds, Andy Trinkle’s fancy woodworking and Janet Trinkle’s pressed flower pictures, it’s hard to resist.

In Sheep Ranch, Shay Baker is back again with her fanciful paintings and drawings in acrylic, pastel, and watercolor. From there, it’s a popular but twisty drive to Michael Gustavson’s ceramic studio near Murphys on Fullen Drive, where his giant sculptures punctuate incredible views of the mountains.
 
In Dorrington, Ann Nancy Macomber says that people say they like to start their tours at her studio, where they can see her award-winning acrylic and watercolor paintings. From there, it’s an easy drive down Highway 4 to Arnold, where Ruth Morrow, a venerable, well-known and well-loved artist holds court in her studio that’s chockablock with paintings and found-object assemblage. This year Heidi Gaissert joins the tour, displaying hand-built and wheel-thrown ceramics at her studio on Meadow View Road.

 The historic Quyle Kilns will host four artists this year, and not all of them are clay workers. Victoria Fout covers canvases with thick acrylic impasto to create semi-abstract pieces that often have fairy princesses and demons on the same canvas; her miniatures of fantasy animals make terrific gifts. If realism is more your style, George Haskell’s tonalist landscapes and corgi paintings will please you. It’s reasonable to expect ceramics at Quyle Kilns, and Pamela Quyle and Amanda Sedgwick-Maule won’t disappoint with their functional pottery and sculptural pieces. ​

Just outside of Murphys you’ll find Susan King and Aaron Quinn on Coyote Drive. Susan’s studio will be full of her luminous watercolors and collage, and Aaron, new to the tour this year, will be showing his complex and colorful ink and watercolor drawings.
 
The elegance of letterpress printing is unmatched in our modern world, and Ryan Anderson aims to bring it back to Murphys in his print shop and studio off French Gulch Road. Come learn about this vintage art form and take home posters and cards that will inspire.

At Michel Olson’s studio just off Appaloosa Lane between Angels Camp and Copperopolis, there’s more to see than art, although Sharon Strong’s otherworldly masks and sculptures will anchor the site in artwork. But Olson, a skilled blacksmith who will be demonstrating his craft, has created gardens of standing stones and outdoor assemblage, plus a collection of gypsy wagons. Vicki Burnham Wilson’s kinetic and motorized art vehicles will give the site, and the tour, plenty of zoom.  

​There will be a special preview reception for Artists Studio Tour at the Gallery store at 22 N. Main Street in  San Andreas on September 15, from 3 to 5 p.m.  Artworks by the artists on the Artists Studio Tour will be on exhibit and there will be a raffle of small artworks to benefit the Arts Council. light refreshments will be served; everyone is invited. 

The Calaveras County Arts Council intends to wake up a sleepy Saturday afternoon—Saturday May 12, to be specific—with its first ever family community event at the Gallery Store in San Andreas. The Council is planning a free art-filled afternoon, with art tables where families can paint, weave, make a bubble wand, puppets, or a Mother’s Day card. The sidewalk behind the gallery will be the canvas for a giant chalk mural celebrating family and created by the community. A storyteller will be on hand, as well as musicians from the Murphys School of Music to keep things light-hearted.
 
“We wanted to do something fun for families and kids in our county,” Kathy Mazzaferro, executive director said. “We want people to know that the Arts Council is a fun resource for all ages.”  Event chairperson Fara Roberts added,  “This will be an opportunity for families to have fun while experiencing the arts council gallery as well as the old buildings of main street. It is an opportunity to open an art show to more people in the community and have them become involved with the arts council.”
 
The show will feature artwork about motherhood by local artists, as well as poems and prose. If you wish to read your work, sing a song, or tell a story about motherhood, contact the Arts Council at 209/754-1774 for more information.
 
In addition to exhibiting artwork by local area artists, this show will feature artwork by local mothers. The project, also called Motherhood, invited women at local mothers groups to express their feelings about motherhood on 6” x 6” canvases. According to Roberts, “Mothers throughout the community, from different walks of life in their motherhood, are expressing on the canvases what motherhood is to them. This is an opportunity for them to be creative, to collaborate on one installation that reflects what mothers experience.” The resulting artwork will be hung together, as one young mother said, “like a patchwork quilt.” 
 
An additional display of artwork from the students of Toyon Middle School will provide another perspective of motherhood. “I like kids’ artwork because it’s uninhibited,” said Mazzaferro. “Children’s artwork frequently has a truth to it that adults are hesitant to express.”
 
The gallery show will extend from May 4 to June 16.

Gallery: 22 North Main St., San Andreas, CA 95249