Dorothy Cochran
Dorothy Cochran printing encaustic monotype
My work explores circular imagery that evokes science, spirituality and the transcendent, positioning the viewer in imagined spaces with a distinct abstract vocabulary. I find inspiration in sources such as solar systems, metaphysical thought, microscopic science and the bounty of nature. Blending these influences into visual form, I push for innovative methods to express the drama, vitality and truth that I seek to embrace. I work in series that combine content and technique with the gesture of the hand evident in all the work.
Above and Below #1, Pigmented beeswax, Encaustic Monotype on Kozo cradled panel, 12.in. diameter.
Printmaking processes excite me. When engaging an image, there are limitless possibilities to choose from. I like crossing boundaries, experimenting and layering multiple techniques to discover innovative ways to communicate. Each new process reveals truths about the marks and nuances of the plate and paper surface, adding to the enigma of the finished piece.
Soul of the Night, Silk Aquatint, 15 in. x 11 in.
Trained in traditional print methods, I have found this foundation invaluable for breaking the rules and maintaining a high level of craftsmanship. Combining old techniques with new materials always pushes my work to become more than it has been, clarifying the themes I have worked with throughout my professional career.
Layers of Time, Monotype, 2021, 22 in. x 22 in.
Embracing this idea of stretching boundaries, I began introducing encaustic into my studio practice about ten years ago. Using hot plates and pigmented wax, I created encaustic monotypes on both western and eastern papers and fell in love with Evolon, a polyspun synthetic paper. Experimenting further, I discovered I could make printmaking plates by layering wax on Plexiglass and Yupo. These surface-rich and textural plates were then pressed or hand printed using water miscible inks. As the work evolved, I began mounting the prints on cradled boards with bas relief elements which often involved stitching and thread. There is magic in the pressing of paper to plate, a birth and a marriage all at once. Experiencing that emotion is like no other and is central to my artmaking.
Dark Sky, Encaustic monotype on Evolon with Thread, Mounted on Plywood, 8 in. diameter
Outside my studio practice over my long art career, I have enjoyed teaching and sharing my knowledge with many artists in venues such as art centers, universities, colleges and museums. It has also been my privilege to be an art gallery director in a New York City building for twenty-three years, working to help other artists share their work with the public. Whether curating or creating, art expression and creativity has always been at the core of my life.
Dorothy has two graduate degrees in art, including an MFA from Columbia University and operates a professional print studio in northern New Jersey. She is a long time NAWA member, including five years serving on the Board. See more of her work at www.dorothycochran.com and Instagram: dorothycochranart.
Sarah Katz
I’ve worked with ceramic materials in both industry and art for all of my adult career. I have a degree in ceramics from The School for American Craftsmen at RIT and in sculpture from the California College of the Arts. Most of my work is figurative and I work in series. There is a conceptual and a literary element to my subject matter. Sometimes I combine other materials into my sculptures. Encaustic has a nice fleshy quality, and I’m fond of feathers. I think the materials and processes you use to create a work are the foundation of the meaning of the work. In other words, there is a depth of meaning and intention that begins with your choice of materials.
Sarah Katz, Birdwoman, glazed ceramic and feathers, 8 in. wide x 11 in. long x 6 in. high
I appreciate all kinds of work, representational, non- representational, minimal, process. Art is a big room with lots of doors. My own work, though, is about things: experiences, stories, feeling, events. It’s how I talk about things I barely understand.
Turning Torso, Stoneware, feathers, encaustic, 24 in. x 11 in. x 6 in.
I love to model from life, and at the beginning of my career, I decided I would work mostly with women. I went to the Barnes Foundation. I saw that there were no women artists in the collection and there were so many images of women painted by men. I thought it would be interesting to see women with a woman’s gaze. As I worked deeper into my practice, I began to identify with my models, I would tell they’re stories, and also mine.
Eight Women, Glazed ceramic, 6 in. – 12 in. high
There are themes I keep returning to: Gestures, relationships, stories.
How Long? Glazed stoneware, 14 in. x 8 in. x 11 in.
I Wonder if My Mother Loved Me,
Glazed Stoneware, 14 in. high
Tango, Acrylic paint and stoneware, 14” high, each
I found it impossible to work during the pandemic. Before it started, I had been working on a series about lust. Just before we closed down, I had had some surgery, so I was recovering when we isolated. In view of both of those events, lust seemed irrelevant, and it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted to do. Also, I had been in my studio on Union Square for twenty-eight years, and I moved it upstate to a house I had bought. The move was difficult. I was so used to my old studio it was like walking into my own brain. I knew where every tool was – I could reach for any material. Working was seamless. In the new studio, I had to organize and look for things and it was very bumpy.
I could make pottery, though. Vases and bowls, just for get about the big themes and concentrate on the relationships of rim to belly to foot.
Vase, Stoneware with Bird Matt Glaze, 30 in. high
I’ve started again now, combining my pottery practice with my sculpture practice. When I really thought about what I wanted, it was to protect my friends and family, and, really, everyone from the chaos we have all lived through. I have started a series of sentinels, figures part human, part animal as protective deities. I’m combining wheel thrown forms and modeled forms. It feels so good to be working again.
Here are two of them in the new studio.
Elephant Sentinel, Glazed Stoneware, thrown and modeled forms, 20 in. high
Dog Sentinel, Glazed Stoneware, thrown and modeled forms, 17 in. high
Judith Modrak
Judith Modrak is a sculptor and installation artist based in New York City whose work often bridges art and science. “I am fascinated by what goes on inside and outside of us – from the composition of brain cells, to the ways in which memories are formed and stored, to the intricacies of human engagement, to the fragility and beauty of the ecosystem we inhabit. The relationship between inner impressions and the external world, taken together, unmask how our personal and collective experiences develop and are mirrored in the larger environment.
Endangered Fossils with Artist, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY, 2021
Endangered Fossils, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY, 2021, size: 8 ft. x 6 ft x 5 ft., material: eco-friendly casts, pigments and mica. Photo: Sylvie Rosokoff
Caminos Fluidos / Fluid Pathways, AADK Murcia, Spain, 2019, size: 25 ft. x 15 ft. x 3 ft., material: plaster, pigments. Photo credit: artist
Standing-by, Almost, and Disappointed in Multi, Pen and Brush, New York, NY, 2021,
sizes: varying, 26 in. x 12 in. x 10 in. – 40 in. x 9 in. x 6 in. Material: plaster casts, oil and pigments on wood bases. Photo: Sylvie Rosokoff
Pre-Pandemic 2019
2019 saw the realization of two firsts: “Fluid Pathways”, a permanent public artwork installed in Murcia, Spain, and “Cartographies of the Mind”, a visualization of participants’ brainwaves. My work was also the subject of a solo exhibition at the New Arts Center in Kutztown, PA.
An ode to Mother Earth, “Fluid Pathways” is a reflection on the earth’s internal composition (inner core, outer core, mantle and crust) and how that is mirrored in our neural and cellular constitution. “Cartographies of the Mind”, realized on Governors Island in 2019, was an audience produced visual installation of color-coded brainwaves captured via EEG skull caps. As participants considered climate change and their relationship to planet Earth, their brainwaves lit up inside sculptural urns and on the walls.
Multi, Pen and Brush, New York, NY, 2021.
Sizes: varying. Material: plaster casts, oil and pigments on wood bases. Photos: Sylvie Rosokoff
Passion I and II in “Art for Your Collection”, Catherine Fosnot Gallery, 2022, size: 50”x19”x24”, 53”x26”x14”, material: plaster cast, oil and pigment on wood base, photo: Metin Oner
Pandemic 2020 – current
Many events in 2020 were canceled or postponed to 2021. 2021 rebounded for me with a flourish, including group exhibits at Pen and Brush in NYC, The Catherine Fosnot Gallery in New London, CT, and the realization of “Endangered Fossils”. I was honored to receive a 2021 LMCC and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Grant for the “Endangered Fossils” project.
Currently on view in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY, “Endangered Fossils” continues themes explored in earlier works, such as “Fluid Pathways”, though with an added urgency. The larger concept was very much about the fossil record in light of disastrous climate change which is causing many species to tragically become extinct, fossils are even “endangered” as certain species may not leave a trace that they ever existed. It is an homage to our beloved Mother Earth in a critical time requiring immediate attention. It represents an imagined archaeological excavation and the discovery of a new organism. The project ponders the origins of the ecosystem we inhabit and our role, relationship and responsibility to that environment.
Kim McAninch
Longboat Key, Florida-based painter Kim McAninch credits her B.F.A degree. in Surface Pattern Design from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and a 17-year career—in which she designed a wide range of products from wallpaper, fabric, and flooring to wrapping paper and dinnerware—with informing her current work.
“My education, my design of all products printed or woven, and interior design experience have all informed my art. Trends in home décor were always important. Color was very important. I have designed for many interior styles which is definitely a strength. My challenge now is to be less rigid and use repetition to my advantage and create a composition with successful entry and exit points.” Kim now enjoys the absence of a set of dictated requirements to explore the space and achieve balance between representation and design, leveraging the very same elements she has mastered–design, color, and line among others.
Living most of her life in suburban Cleveland, OH, Kim moved to Pittsburgh, PA in 2013, enjoying downtown living and an urban collective studio space. She moved to the Sarasota, FL area in 2019. A visitor to the area since 1979, the views have long been the inspiration for her coastal landscapes and they continue to be the subject of most of Kim’s work. The horizon gives her a base, an armature on which to build. “I can’t seem to leave the horizon behind. This is likely from the allover design of my past, where order is intentional.” She uses this element purposefully, as within this structure she is allowed a loose interpretation of color, scale or gesture, without losing the viewer’s ability to read it as a landscape. She says she is currently working towards more information with less detail.
The art originates in her mind and her point of view. She prefers not to lead the viewer by naming her paintings. Instead, the viewer adds personal experience to give the art life. “When I begin, there are no mistakes and eventually, I see the connections and work with the positives. I love when people have a favorite painting of mine and one with which they connect. I love when what emanates from my mind’s eye can be viewed with the same familiarity.”
Kim has a large body of work on paper, which originated from two residencies on Cape Cod, experiences that provided direction. She uses an array of media for both the work on paper and the work on stretched linen. Her technique uses anything that makes the mark, texture, and energy desired in the landscape. “My work over the past 35 years has never been about social or cultural commentary. I paint to immerse myself in my own process and escape thoughts about our system or division. It is selfish work, for sure.”
