Creating life from mud
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Biography
Growing up in a small town in
Michigan
, Linda Lewis was often drawing or painting, building houses for her dolls or sewing. She would likely be found in the sand box making buildings and cities and objects. A fresh rain yielded more creations! Around age 10 her brothers and she discovered some clay in the banks of a creek. Long hours were spent making and remaking objects from the clay she dug from the side of the creek. With no art curriculum at the school she attended, she was surprised to find she could fit in at least one art class each semester while attending a small college in Iowa (Graceland College). Her focus was drawing and painting but a four week workshop in ceramics left her wanting to do more with ceramics.
Linda began teaching elementary school after college, married, and became the parent of four children. After her children were grown and with 30 years as an educator, she began pursuing a lifelong dream as an artist. Forty years after her first experience on the banks of a small creek, she began creating figurative sculptures from clay and taking classes at the
Des Moines
Art
Center
and in
Santa Fe, New Mexico
.
Linda now creates medium-scale, earthy, figures from clay. The figures are hand-built using stoneware or earthenware clay and fired at low temperatures. Surfaces of oxides, slips, underglazes and glazes are added and fired several times between each application until a rough, weathered texture, with glimpses of color emerges.
If you look hard enough, you might see a part of yourself in one of the pieces.
Resume
Linda Lewis
5908 Brookview Dr., West Des Moines, Iowa
50266
515-224-1276
lindalewisart@msn.com
Juried Exhibitions
2008 Marion Arts Festival, Marion, Iowa
2008 Iowa Arts Festival, Iowa City, Iowa
2008 Iowa Sculpture Festival, Newton, Iowa
2008 Krasl Art Festival, St. Joseph, MI.
2008 Uptown Art Festival, Minneapolis, MN.
2007 Greater Des Moines Exhibited 14; Polk County Heritage Gallery
2007 Iowa Exhibited 21; Polk County Heritage Gallery
2007 Uptown Arts Festival, Minneapolis, Mn.
2007 Iowa Arts Festival; Iowa City, Ia.
2007 Iowa Sculpture Festival; Newton, Ia.
2007 Uptown Art Festival, Minneapolis, Mn.
2006 Iowa Sculpture Festival;
Newton, Ia.
2006
Iowa
Exhibited 21;
Polk
County
Heritage
Art
Gallery
,
Des Moines, Ia.
Solo Exhibitions
2008 Life from mud; Charles City Art Museum, Charles City, Ia.
Group Exhibitions
2008 Linda Lewis & Jane Chukas; Outside the Lines Gallery, Dubuque, Ia.
2007 The haunting and the hilarious; The Downtown Chait Gallery, Iowa City, Ia.
2007 Plays well with others:a collaboration between artists, From Our Hands, Des Moines, Ia.
2007 New Works from Linda Lewis, Diane Mattern & C. Briggs; From Our Hands, Des Moines, Ia.
2006 Earthen Treasures; From Our Hands,
Des Moines, Ia.
2006 Galleries in the Gallery; Polk County Heritage Gallery,
Des Moines, Ia.
Awards
2008 Honorable mention, Iowa sculpture Festival, Newton, Ia.
2007 First Place, Clay, Artbuzz, 2008 Collection
2007 Finalist, Uptown Arts Festival, Minneapolis, Mn.
2007 3rd Place, Sculpture Competition, Sculptural Pursuit
2007 3rd Place, Iowa Arts Festival, Iowa City, Ia.
2006 2nd Place, Iowa
Sculpture Festival,
Newton, Iowa
Publications
2008 Artbuzz; 2008 Collection
2007 "Linda Lewis, Narrative Sculpture", Sculptural Pursuit ,Fall, 2007; 2006 “Thou art the best of 2006,” Jim Duncan, Cityview,
Des Moines, Ia.
2006 “The bearable likeness of being,”Jim Duncan, City View,
Des Moines, Ia.
2006 “Clay’s the thing,” Michael Morain, Des Moines Register,
Des Moines,Ia.
Gallery Representation
From Our Hands;
East
Village
,
Des Moines, Ia.
The Downtown Chait Gallery; Iowa City, Ia
Outside the Lines, Dubuque, Ia.
Education
2007 The figure; Judy Fox, Santa Fe, NM
2006 Figure-form-Surface-Vessel; Andy Nacisse,
Santa Fe, NM
.
2006 Sculpting the figure; Rick Stewart,
Des Moines
Art
Center
, RDG Dahlquist Clayworks
2006 Handbuilding; Chris Rodi,
DSM
Art
Center
, RDG Dahlquist Clayworks
2006 Mold Making; Rick Stewart,
DSM
Art
Center
, RDG Dahlquist Clayworks
2005 Storytelling, narrative sculpture; Debra Fritz;
Santa Fe, NM
.
2003-2006 Various ceramics classes through the DSM Art center,
Des Moines, Ia.
1989
Drake
University
, MSE
1975
Graceland
University
, BA
Born
1953 Vassar, Mi. now resides in West Des Moines, Iowa
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