The show is titled “Bits & Pieces” in reference to the use of isolated areas, (bits of the human figure in one body of work and the fragmenting of the figure in the other. Saelon Renkes, a local photographer, has worked with the figure (and other subject matter) for 18 years. With this current work, she has focused on fragments (bits) of the figure, often with a sculptural impact. Karen Truesdell’s ceramic sculptures are both fragments and fragmented. She has been a clay artist for over forty years and has her studio in Menlo Park.

KAREN TRUESDELL
Clay has long been a popular metaphor for man. In “Bits and Pieces” Karen Truesdell used a variety of clays to give character to the figures created. A rough iron-rich terra-cotta and white stoneware, both fired to 2200 F, form the basic materials. Clay slips, stains and glazes contribute a complicated palette. The sculptures are vehicles for glaze experiments using various decorative techniques. The materials form the message.

Working from rough sketches, basic units were thrown on the potter’s wheel, then manipulated and combined to form figures that come from a pottery/craft tradition rather than sculpted clay. They are hollow vessels, often articulated in a doll-like fashion, small commentaries on being human in our time which have come out of the exploration of materials and technique, a very right-brain tinkerer’s approach.

Truesdell is a graduate of Stanford University with a major in biology and minor in art and studied ceramics at San Jose State and the Corcoran School of Art. She has been teaching and showing locally for many years.

SAELON RENKES enjoys working on a human scale, with the curves and the textures of the human body, and thrives on making the connections between all humans – working with what we all have in common rather than making portraits of individuals. She especially enjoys trying to isolate moods and emotions and gestures, and is working to discover the smallest bits that can still convey the essence and beauty of an individual.

Saelon has recently transitioned from working with silver gelatin prints and handpainting them with oils, to working with digital prints in archival pigments on fine watercolor paper, and has found ways to achieve luminous prints with the soft colors previously associated with sepia toning or handpainting.

Saelon Renkes lives and works in Los Gatos. She is a graduate of San Jose State University, but that was Biology! Her art education is largely self-taught, with the addition of a number of very fine courses at Foothill College and workshops at UC Santa Cruz. She has been showing and teaching for 17 years, has been frequently published and has work in a large number of private collections.