RICK HINTZE

Artist Biography

Rick Hintze was born in 1944 in Peoria, Illinois. He received a B.A. in Art from Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, an M.A. in Art History from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, and an M.F.A. in Ceramics from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. After teaching ceramics and sculpture at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, during the 1990’s, he moved to Wisconsin to establish his studio in Johnson Creek and opened his gallery in the fall of 2002. Over the years he has received numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship, an Iowa Arts Council Artist Project Grant, and an Award of Excellence from the American Craft Council. His work is in the collections of the Racine Art Museum, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, Southeastern Louisiana University, Ripon College, Kirkwood Community College, The China Zisha Museum in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, and various regional and national private collections.

Artist Statement

I make functional pots, coiled vessels and some sculptural pieces. Currently, with the pots, I am interested in a couple of directions; one that tries to exploit the movement of the wheel and the character of the clay, hoping to enhance these qualities with slip and glaze, and another that requires smooth surfaces for incised lines stained with iron and coated with slip. For the last 13 years I have also been making some medium sized, coiled vessels that are inspired largely by African pottery and to a lesser extent Neolithic Chinese pots. Most of these are stained with iron oxide and coated with a clay and wood ash slip.

SUSAN MESSER

Artist Biography

Susan Messer creates mixed media drawings and handmade books using a combination of alternative print strategies and varied drawing and sculptural media. These works have been presented in exhibitions and lectures in Beijing, Bogota, Oaxaca, New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Milwaukee. Awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artists Space, Art Jewelry Forum, Kohler Foundation and Wisconsin Arts Board have supported her creative projects. An experienced studio instructor in drawing and book arts, Messer has taught in varied educational environments including the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Women’s Studio Workshop, Peninsula School of Art, Université Sainte-Anne – Nova Scotia, Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños and Beijing Normal University. She maintains an active studio practice in Wisconsin and has participated in artist residencies at Beijing Normal University, Cité des Arts (Paris), Ucross Foundation, and the Vermont Studio Center. Messer received her MFA in Drawing from Arizona State University and studied intaglio printmaking at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Artist Statement

As an artist, I create mixed media drawings and handmade sculptural books. In content, both studio practices explore personal narratives and cultural history and acknowledge the body as a persistent reference point. The majority of works on paper involve the combination of pinhole photography, van dyke brown printmaking and hand drawn imagery. In this research, I am interested in integrating photographically derived images with more conventionally rendered elements and wedding the concrete with the dreamlike and ephemeral. For many years, this studio work focused on the image of water surrounding the figure to establish a site of transformation and redemption and support a fluid narrative structure. More recently, informed by personal experiences and my educational background in ecology, I’m including botanical and landscape imagery in my drawings. These varied organic references transgress physical boundaries and are now visible within the figurative forms. Along with my interests in drawing, I have a regular studio practice dedicated to the design and construction of single edition, sculptural books and handbound journals. While making books may appear to involve different artistic concerns than drawing, I find the demanding attention to craft, and my deep affinity for language, history, material meaning, and narrative form are equally engaged in each process

BETHANN MORAN-HANDZLIK

Artist Statement

I work namely from direct observation, meaning I stand within or before my subject. I work this way to experience the subject first hand. I love the moment when nature around me acclimates to my presence; birds alight on my canvas, deer cross my path and once a mouse took shelter by my foot.  While painting I am constantly balancing what the brush work expresses and the truth of the subject. But at a certain point I feel I nearly disappear, the work moves outside of verbal language.  My hope is when the work is complete, the viewer can re-see, re-experience what I saw; and then be drawn repeatedly into a satisfying contemplation of everything that is on their mind and in their heart. My paintings are about a relationship with beauty and they belong with people. They are meant to lived with, and handed on, to inform hearts and lift spirits toward hope.

Artist Biography

Bethann Moran Handzlik’s work has garnered many awards and is held in private, corporate and public collections. Her paintings have been exhibited in regional, national and a few international exhibitions including plein-air events, galleries and museums. Bethann was awarded a Hudson River Fellowship/ Grand Central Atelier in 2014 and a La Napoule artist residency in France in 2016.  She had the privilege to do master copy works at the National Gallery Scotland, National Gallery London and painted the landscape on her families travels to Scotland. Bethann’s work is represented by Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, Wi and Edgewood Orchard Gallery, Door County, Wi.   Moran-Handzlik enjoyed a long teaching career and has taught at University Wisconsin Milwaukee, University Wisconsin Whitewater, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY, among others. Bethann continues to teach workshops.   She posts regularly on Instagram @pasmeche and sends out a newsletter twice a year to those signed up on her website newsletter subscribers, bethannmoran.com

Bethann is married to the poet Patrick J. Moran and together they have three wonderful children.

Opening Reception: Friday November 18, 2022

5:00 – 7:00 PM  – Gallery Talk 5:30 PM

Gallery Exhibits have been supported by MAC Corporate Underwriter Colony Brands, Inc. and Season Media Underwriter Big Radio, with additional support from Dave and Julie Buchanan, Pete Guenther and Barb Woodriff, Lee and Chris Knuteson, Mike and Norah Sanders, Kevin and Chris Callahan, Jane Paradowski, Deb Thompson, Chuck and Chris Wellington, and Don Amphlett and Jan Johnson.