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Volume 38 Issue1
August 28, 2000

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Friendships cemented through love of art

BY JORDAN CURRIER
MESA LEGEND
Submitted August 28, 2000

Art can educate, entertain and communicate. It can also help build and maintain lifelong friendships, as was the case for four MCC art instructors and a large number of local professional artists.

Courtesy of Beth Shook

Beth Shook's "Waiting for Truth to Change" will be displayed at the "All of Us" exhibit.

"The group started when we went to graduate school together," said Linda Speranza, an MCC assistant professor of ceramics. Speranza is referring to the 23 female artists who developed a largely ceramic art exhibit titled "All of Us," showing Sept. 11 to Oct. 12 in ASU’s Memorial Student Union.

According to Speranza, most of the women involved are close friends, who met as colleagues in their respective fields in ASU’s graduate and undergraduate programs in the early 1970s.

"We missed the comraderie that we had," Speranza explained.

Ten years ago, about a dozen women in the group decided to meet for occasional dinners several times a year. Today, the group is much larger and more diverse.

Amongst the friends, nine hold master’s of fine arts degrees, two hold master’s of arts degrees and three earned a bachelor’s art degree. The group also consists of a large number of  college-level art educators.

These friends would go on to collectively produce four art exhibits shown at ASU’s Union Gallery, Tempe Public Library, Grand Canyon University and Phoenix College.

"Finding a title was the difficulty," Speranza said regarding the development of the group’s fifth exhibit. "We’re friends, we get together."

The result was "All of Us," an informal collection born out of the artists’ shared friendship and love for art.

Including Speranza, three other MCC art instructors participating in "All of Us" are the project’s curator, Sandra Luehrsen, an adjunct faculty member who teaches three-dimensional design; Jane Kelsey-Mapel, an adjunct faculty member in ceramics and sculpture; and Beth Shook, also an adjunct faculty member who teaches ceramics.

"Ninety-percent of us work in ceramics," Speranza said. "Most of (the exhibit) will be clay."

Luehrsen, a professional ceramist whose work has been published in several books as well as the December 1999 issue of Ceramics Monthly Magazine, is enthusiastic about the forthcoming exhibit.

"It’s a fun thing to do," said Luehrsen. "A lot of us have ties to ASU."

Luehrsen added she was "far-removed" when she taught art classes at MCC. While she enjoys teaching, she was quick to note that the actual experience of creating art is important to "bring out your best with your friends."

"We have this one common thread," said Shook, who enjoys the diversity of the artwork among the women.  "You may be taught by the same instructor, but you create your own interpretation."

Shook, whose Christian faith inspires her work, is somewhat of a newcomer to the group but became affiliated with "All of Us" by that very "common thread" the artists share — art.

Since the group originated at ASU, it’s fitting that the exhibit should come full-circle, as it will be displayed on the campus and will be open to the public and its students.

Luehrsen believes there is a valuable opportunity for "art exposure for those students who might not normally see art." Luehrsen, Speranza, Shook and Kelsey-Mapel will attend an opening reception for the exhibit Sept. 13.

The ASU Memorial Student Union’s gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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