EXHIBITION EL ZAGUÁN
40th Anniversary Show – Wendy Fay & Mary Olson
OPENING DECEMBER 2, 4-7PM • EXHIBITION CONTINUES THROUGH DECEMBER 30, 2022
Historic Santa Fe Foundation (HSFF) is pleased to present a joint exhibition by art educators Wendy Fay and Mary Olson. The exhibition will open at El Zaguán, 545 Canyon Road, Suite 2, Santa Fe, NM on Friday, December 2, 2022 from 4-7pm. Contact Hanna Churchwell at hanna@historicsantafe.org or call 505.983.2567 for more information.
LEFT TO RIGHT: QUAIL COUPLE IN TALL GRASS BY MARY OLSON; MARY OLSON & WENDY FAY; TAMARISK SUMMER BY WENDY FAY
JOINT ARTIST STATEMENT:
Mary and Wendy met in college and have been constants in one another’s lives ever since.
Fellow creatives, budding arts educators, and dear friends for life. Our friendship celebrates similar life paths - We began our teaching careers together at the Bemis School of Art in Colorado Springs - are still with our (same) husbands, have children of the same ages, are both educators, who through the years have sought out best practices for teaching in the arts. You could say that we have been the cheerleaders for one another’s lives.
In May of 1982 we were a couple of artists on a path that blossomed into our joint Senior ART Exhibit at Colorado College. These days, we find ourselves joyfully living in the same town, starting a new chapter which enables us to focus on our own work. Santa Fe nurtures our souls with nature, beauty, and a breathtaking arts community.
We cannot think of a better way to launch this precious moment than to celebrate our 40 years as friends, artists, and arts education colleagues than to create another show together.
TITMOUSE FAMILY BY MARY OLSON
ARROYO HONDO FALL BY WENDY FAY
WENDY FAY BIO:
For many years Wendy Fay worked as an arts educator and administrator. She teamed with theatre folks, musicians, dancers and visual artists. Through that collaborative work Wendy encouraged young people and adults to respond to their world through the senses that each of these arts disciplines cultivate. It all had to do with becoming vitally engaged, despite the distractions of modern life.
Wendy studied the Liberal Arts and some design in college and painting afterwards. In recent years, she has taught less and painted more. Wendy is interested in communicating the experience of being out-of-doors. The natural world invites people to key into all of their senses; touch, sight, sound and smell are at the forefront of the experience of working in nature. How can one’s perception and interpretation of what is there before us be conveyed on a two-dimensional surface in oil paint? Paint is her medium. Color—relationships, texture, pattern—my language.
Wendy’s work is largely about New Mexico and the San Luis Valley of Colorado. She finds the beauty of both places almost overwhelming. Her response is to limit herself to painting more intimate sites - the arroyo, her garden and to narrow the larger landscapes, by making smaller landscapes to “contain” the great expanses. She works on site because she sees nature as her current collaborator.
WENDY FAY
ARROYO APACHE PLUME SPRING
MARY OLSON BIO:
Mary Olson became enamored with clay in high school and majored in art at Colorado College. A suggestion that she apply for an internship at the Bemis School of Art at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center led to a full-time position and a rewarding career in arts education. She has especially enjoyed teaming with local museums, visiting artists, and arts organizations with her students.
Mary received a Master’s in Experiential Education with a K-12 Art endorsement from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and furthered her studies at the outstanding Santa Fe Clay programs. She co-founded Clay Bodies and Mud-luscious Pottery in Boulder before opening a home studio, from which she hosts many shows.
Good fortune brought Mary to the amazing art capital of Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is grateful to have taught art at Wood Gormley Elementary School for 17 years where she built a rich arts program incorporating the Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) pedagogy. Mary has more time for her studio work now. Whimsical clayworks are the focus of late encounters with grouse, and one particular towhee fascinated by his reflection in the window of her home, inspired her most recent series of birds.
MARY OLSON IN HER STUDIO WITH A FISH PLATTER
Contact: Hanna Churchwell at hanna@historicsantafe.org or call 505.983.2567 for more information.