2018 Events
2018 was Another year of creative expression. My Hope and Trauma in a Poisoned Land' was invited to the Martin-Springer Institute for January and in Februarythe Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival requested my pice to shown along with their festival.
In the spring I was invited to exhibit 36 portraits 'The Red List' at the Roof Top Solar Gallery Flagstaff.
Adding 9 new endangered by the Dakota Access Pipeline #NoDAPL
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Late summer I created a local themed Art Contest ‘Endangered Species on the Verge’, Creative Art to raise awareness
Juried by Alan Peterson the curator of the Museum of Northern Az, Executive Director Flagstaff Arts Council Elizabeth Volger, Artist Shawn Skabelund, http://shawnskabelund.com/, and Bill Anderson, http://shawnskabelund.com/
Sponsored by the artist collective Art 35 north <Art35n.org>
The local Participants were from ages of 8 years old to 70 at the awards ceremonies opened with the head chair of the Sierra Club Joe Shannon’s introduction talk and we were able to offer $300.00 awarded in prizes.
Thank you to all that helped this endeavor especially Mackenzi Chase for her supportive article in the Daly Sun newspaper
Art35N looking for entries for multidisciplinary art and performance show on endangered species MACKENZIE CHASE Sun Staff Reporter Sep 23, 2018,
A balanced ecosystem contains a wide variety of plant and animal species in a push and pull of growth and decay. Predators need prey to survive and keep populations in check, and nearly a quarter of all ocean life relies on coral reefs to make their home, but many species are in decline.
Frederica Hall, a member of juried artist organization Art 35°North, has set out to raise awareness of the plight of endangered species with a call for artist participation in an upcoming multidisciplinary art and performance show, Endangered Species on the Verge, opening at Firecreek Coffee Company Friday, Oct. 5. Entry fees are $20, $15 for college students, $10 for high school students, $5 for artists under the age of 13. Participants will be entered for a chance to win cash prizes. Submissions will be accepted through Oct. 1 and can range from visual arts, music and dance to storytelling, poetry, stand-up and theater. Artists can pick up an entry form at Visible Difference, 116 S. Beaver St., or Firecreek, 22 Historic Rte. 66.
While Hall has been painting endangered species for 15 years, she wanted to use this contest as a way to engage other artists, to get them thinking about how they can make a difference.
“I ask everybody that’s participating in it to try to bring forth a hopeful perspective,” Hall said. “How can we positively go forward? If we don’t have any hope, we won’t go forward; we just give up and say, ‘OK, it doesn’t matter.’”
Concern for animals began to rise in the 1960s before the U.S. Endangered Species Act went into effect in 1973. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 26,000 species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction. While measures are being taken to grow populations of threatened species like black-footed ferrets and Mexican gray wolves, it can be just as easy to not think about things that don’t seem to be directly related to day-to-day life.
“We’ve gotten so removed from that which gives us life,” Hall said, noting that a nature deficit has been suggested to be linked to depression and obesity in children, something first described in author Richard Louv’s 2005 book "Last Child in the Woods."
When Hall paints endangered animals, she said she learns as much as possible about what is happening to their populations and how that impacts other animals before even touching the canvas.
“I try to portray in their eyes questioning, and I really try to see if I can hook with the spirit of the being so that it comes forth,” she said. “I want people to have a gut response to the human side because I figure that’s the only way maybe they can be a little more active or a little more curious even to find out what’s going on with the animals, who they are.”
Education is critical to change, and Hall said her hope is with the younger generation who can take what they learn about these issues and build on it throughout their lives to hopefully find a solution while spreading awareness of endangered species.
“Ultimately, [awareness is] what art’s always been about,” Hall said. “And if you go way, way back it was the story of the animals — the [Lascaux] caves in France, they’re telling the stories of these great huge animals. If you look at all these cultures, even astrology, it’s all about animals, and they say yoga was about looking at the animals and seeing how they move and trying to move like them. They were our teachers.
“I’m hoping that we’ll be able to wake up in time to do something to save them, to save ourselves, and that’s what I’d really like to get out there, is that if they go away, so do we.”
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To End the year I had another solo exhibition of 45 portraits of endangered species from December to January
