Here are two new art pieces that I plan to finish for the Final Friday Art Party on March 25, 2011, at the Hobbs-Taylor lofts in Lawrence, Kansas.
Additional upcoming exhibits:
–My clayboard (also called scratchboard) pieces will be included in an exhibit of three artists who work in black and white, at the Carnegie Cultural Center in Ottawa, Kansas, in August and September, 2011
–My art will be exhibited at Wheatfield’s Bakery in Lawrence, Kansas, mid-October through mid-December
The Hobbs-Taylor Gallery at 8th and New Hampshire (Lawrence, KS) is hosting a “Final Friday” New Years Eve Art Party! Nineteen artists will be showing work from 5 – 9 pm, including me. Â Here’s a couple new pieces that will be in the show:
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: 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. Â Hrs. M – F 9 am – 5 pm and Su 1 – 5 pm. This exhibit will be at the Percolator, Lawrence, KS, in May.
Strange birds are visiting my imagination, and although these are caught in a strong headwind, you might also enjoy the bird-oid I made playing in a fountain, on display at the 1109 Gallery (1109 Massachusetts, Lawrence, KS) from November 11 – January 10, 2010. Â Everyone is invited to the opening reception on November 14, from 7 – 9 pm.
I would also like to invite you to see my work at Bethel College in N. Newton, KS in March, 2010, and at the Percolator Gallery in Lawrence, KS in either May or June of 2010. Â More information on these exhibits will be coming soon
“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. Â All are invited to the opening on August 8, 7 – 9 pm.
Dave Gnojek, a Lawrence-based designer and photographer, visited my studio and blogged about it as part of his ongoing series about Lawrence artists. Visit his blog at http://blog.designojek.com/2009/01/16/lora-jost/.
I’m currently (through July 11, 2009) exhibiting art at the Percolator Gallery (913 Rhode Island, Lawrence, KS), as part of the group exhibit, “Signs of a New Apocalypse or Glimmers of a D.I.Y. Utopia.” The exhibit explores the future, bleak or bright, and everything in between, and is open on weekends, noon – 6 pm. For more details visit this lawrence.com article and the Percolater website.
Here is a new piece of mine in the show, called, “The Two Yolker (2008).” I’m also exhibiting “In Jamestown (2001),” and “Homeland Security (2006).”
Two 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.â€
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.â€
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” 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.