Jost at the Yost Art Gallery in Highland, KS

My exhibit Linked in Spirit is showing at the Yost Art Gallery from Nov. 16 – Dec. 16, 2010, located at 606 W. Main on the campus of Highland Community College in Highland, KS.  The exhibit includes three new works that I’m showing for the first time:

Linked in Spirit at the Percolator

I enjoyed showing my exhibit Linked in Spirit at the Percolator in Lawrence, Kansas in May and June of 2010. 

Here are some of the art pieces that I showed in the exhibit, including clayboard drawings, mixed-media collages, and mosaics.

Look for additional images from my exhibit under Pages: Portfolio: Linked in Spirit

I painted mural-figures related to my art on a movable wall. The figures directed people to one of my favorite pieces, and led viewers around to the other side of the wall.

On the other side I made a collage of photos, sketchbook entries, and memorabilia that represented some of the ways I find inspiration for my art.

I held an all-ages art making workshop at the Percolator where participants experimented with materials and made clayboard drawings, mosaics, and mixed-media collages.

I’m looking forward to showing this exhibit again, including new work, at the Yost Art Gallery at Highland Community College (Highland, Kansas) in November of 2010.

Linked in Spirit, The Percolator, May 15 – June 27

detail of "Blackbirds"

The public is invited to a reception to celebrate the opening of “Linked in Spirit: an Exhibit of Clayboard Drawings, Mixed-media Collages, and Mosaic,” on Saturday, May 15, 6 – 9 pm, at the Percolator (look for the green awnings in the alley between 9th St. and  the Lawrence Arts Center at 940 New Hampshire, Lawrence, KS.) Keyboard musician Brad Hoopes will play at the reception, and refreshments will be served.

The exhibit runs May 15 – June 22, 2010.  Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday, noon – 6 pm, or by appointment call 785-840-5507.

Linked in Spirit, Bethel College, Mar. 5 – Apr. 2

Linked In Spirit: An Exhibition of Mixed-media Collages, Clayboard Drawings, and Mosaics is on display at the Fine Arts Center gallery, Bethel College, North Newton, KS, March 5 – April 2, 2010.  Hrs. M – F 9 am – 5 pm and Su 1 – 5 pm. This exhibit will be at the Percolator, Lawrence, KS, in May.

New Scratchboard at 1109 Gallery

Composition with Goose

“Composition with Goose,” a 12″ x 12″ clayboard drawing, will be on exhibit at the 1109 Gallery (1109 Mass, Lawrence), as part of the “Animals & Nature Dog Days Show,” August 5 – September 6, 2009.  All are invited to the opening on August 8, 7 – 9 pm.

Two Mothers, Two Sons

The EnchanterTwo Mothers, Two Sons, at the Lawrence Public Library (April 2007) included the work of two artists, Lora Jost and Sara Stalling, and their sons Nicholai (age 5) and Maya (age 6).

Lora Jost writes: “I enjoy making art about experiences that move me, be they mundane, whimsical, or socially urgent. How can one not be moved by the everyday, sometimes dull but never predictable world of parenting? The work I show here is based, in part, on life with my family, from the odd experience of standing together at night in the light of a search helicopter, to watching my husband and son tend a burn pile, to the process of sketching my son while he plays and draws. I love to watch him draw, and making art together, an ever-evolving process, is a great joy. Nicholai likes to try out the tools that I work with; he experiments with new ways of shaping and placing expressive marks. Often when we make art together, we each do our own thing yet share the quiet moment. Nicholai also enjoys drawing with his dad, and their drawings show an interplay of ideas and imagery shared from their playing together.”

Sara Stalling writes: “I am an art teacher, a student of art therapy, a mother of one, and an artist at heart. I believe that the making of art has a profound way of describing through image what most of us feel but cannot quite explain. My art is about emotion, that invisible but palpable force in our lives that asks us to look deeper into ourselves in order to see what we need and want from our living. Maya Spitzer, my son, is six years old and loves art. It is and has been a blessing to watch him make his art. He has reminded me that for a tender time in our lives we are able to create without the restraints of self criticism, a fleeting time where we are free to let the line be a line and a space be the whole, without the fear of failing or the thought of a “product,” a time where we are free to simply enjoy our ability to create.”

Here’s the link to the Lawrence Journal World article about the exhibit: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/apr/10/mother_son/

The Experience of Farmers

During the Hard Times (sold)

The “Experience of Farmers” was a series of mixed-media and clayboard works, exhibited in various locations (Kansas, Virginia, Canada) between 2000 and 2002.

ARTIST STATEMENT FROM “THE EXPERIENCE OF FARMERS”

The “Experience of Farmers” is an art project that uses pictures and words to explore the experiences of farmers at a difficult time (1999-2000). The project developed out of concerns about the farm crisis and how this crisis is affecting farm families, rural communities, and the broader society. Low commodity prices are squeezing many independent farmers out of farming, and this project explores the joys and struggles of farmers, and what society loses when independent farmers lose their livelihood.

Since July of 1999, I have interviewed and tape-recorded the voices of forty-two farmers, farm family members, and farmer advocates for this project. Quotes transcribed from the interviews are included directly in the artwork, or on text panels beside the artwork. Themes in the project include: experiences of the countryside, the joys of farming, the farm family, the experience of drought, the beauty of rural Kansas, the perseverance of farmers, discrimination against black farmers, the erasure of independent business and agriculture, and the effects of corporate mergers and multinational corporations on rural communities.

In my artwork I enjoy creating rich surface textures, careful compositions, and fanciful images to capture moments in the stories — from mundane to whimsical to socially urgent. To make the black and white drawings I use an art material called clay board. This material includes a thin layer of white clay covered with black ink, affixed to a Masonite surface. I scratch off the ink with a sharp tool to create white lines, cross-hatching, and textures. The collages I make include a combination of materials such as photos, magazine pictures, embroidery thread, cloth, and paint.

Collaboration with farmers and organizations was a fundamental part of “The Experience of Farmers.” I collaborated with eight Lutheran churches from Kansas – from Belleville, Beloit, Concordia, Courtland, Glasco, Mankato, Norway, and Scandia. The churches, through the City of Glasco, provided matching funds for a Grassroots Grant from the Kansas Arts Commission to fund interviews with farmers from each church. I believe the churches were interested in this project as an outreach project offering farmers a chance to talk about their concerns in a way that would reach an audience beyond their local communities. I was also granted a month-long residency at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in Minnesota to work on the project. Assistance in locating other farmers for interviews was provided through Jerry Jost of the Kansas Rural Center, friends and family. Farmers from the Newton, Kansas, area and Lawrence, Kansas, area were also interviewed for this project, as well as farmers from Nebraska and Minnesota.

“The Experience of Farmers” has been exhibited in libraries, coffee shops, peace centers, galleries, conferences, the state capitol, and other spaces in the Kansas communities of Topeka, Lawrence, Newton, Concordia, Kansas City, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.