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From Scratch: Artists who grind, forage, mine, dig up and mix their own medium

Presented by Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission at Sacramento International Airport

June 11-September 4, 2010

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This exhibition can be seen in 10 display cases throughout Terminal B (6 of which are restricted to ticketed passangers).

The exhibition features the work of four Sacramento area artists who create their art with materials they make from scratch. The exhibition includes ceramic, paper, oil, encaustic, pastel, ink and egg tempera works, all of which start with handmade media from natural found items, such as earth, bark, leaves, ground rocks and minerals, wax, insects, and egg yolks.

These techniques, employed in ancient times, remain virtually unchanged today. The encaustic medium, as seen in artist and art professor S.S. Solis’ self portrait, originates with the Greeks in 5th Century BCE. It is made from beeswax and dammar crystals mixed with hand ground pigments. S.S. Solis is so fascinated with how ancient artists made their materials that she created a course on the subject, which she teaches at American River College in Sacramento.

Grass Valley ceramic artist Richard Hotchkiss is inspired by the native clays of the region. He routinely digs up the area’s earth which he refers to as Nevada County "wild clay". In keeping with ancient techniques, he burnishes and fires his creations in a wood fired kiln.

Sacramento paper artist Tom Weideman is passionate about the four-thousand-year-old art of kite making. Weideman prefers to build his kites with paper he makes from materials, such as wild mustard and Japanese iris—the latter of which he found in a garden refuse pile in South Sacramento.

Originating with the ancient Egyptians, egg tempera was commonly used in medieval times to create religious icons. Margie Miller, a Nevada City artist, utilizes this ancient technique in a contemporary application, as seen in her work titled “Luminous California: Mid Morning in a Foothill Orchard”. Miller is drawn to the luminosity which is created through the small brush strokes and the building up of colors from dark to light.