Silver City, Nevada - New Zealand artist Sophie Scott has been traveling the U.S. this Fall, beginning with New York City, then on to Memphis, New Orleans, and various spots in New Mexico and Colorado before arriving in Nevada via train for a mini-residency at the Resident Artist Program in Silver City.
While she was in Silver City, she created much-admired paintings and stencils based on historic photographs of Silver City, Virginia City, Lake Tahoe and the Sutro Tunnel. Sophie explains,
"The stencils are remnants of the painting process revealing the editing system of reduction and erasure, reducing the image down to what is essential, leaving a confetti of geometrics."
Her pop-up show at the Silver City School House on October 24, 2015 was a veritable who's who of the Northern Nevada art scene.
Among the visitors, we spotted Joseph DeLappe, professor of the Department of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno; New Zealand born photographer Frances Melhop; Reno artist Wes Lee; Carson City artist Galen Brown; French born artist Stephane Cellier; Silver City craftsman and artist Doug Beverly Brown; North Carolina artist Cindi Powell; New Zealand film maker Max Bellamy; Silver City artist Karen Kreyeski; Western Nevada College instructor and artist Stephen Reid; and Cashion Callaway of Silver City, who has an example of her metal smithing - a set of pierced overlay silver buttons - in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JACK DEMING: New Zealand artist Sophie Scott is seen here at the Silver City School House with Rasta, dog of Silver City musicians Will and Sheree Rose. New Zealand-born photographer Frances Melhop and New Zealand film maker Max Bellamy are in the background.
Sophie Scott: Sophie Scott is an award-winning artist, already featured in many shows in New Zealand. Her mesmerizing
"work hovers at the point where an image forms and dissolves, through a stencil process. Her images are stripped back until the place is recognizable only through its landmarks, suggestions of shape" [quote from Diversion Gallery in Picton].
Sophie grew up on a rural high country station near Kingston, New Zealand, and graduated in 2011 with a BFA in painting from the University of Canterbury in urban Christchurch, New Zealand. In addition to creating artwork that's been acclaimed in New Zealand, she works as a shepherd on a high country sheep farm in the South Island of New Zealand. When she returns from her travels in the U.S., she'll immediately resume the challenging physical work of the sheep farm.
Exploring Northern Nevada: While she was in Nevada, Sophie got an insider's tour of northern Nevada's arts and culture scene with internationally known photographer Frances Melhop, who is also originally from New Zealand. Together they visited Lake Tahoe, and Chinese painter Yu Ji's new exhibit at the Haldan Gallery at Lake Tahoe Community College. They also visited the Nevada Museum of Art, and met with acclaimed artists Phyllis Shafer (Sierra Nevada College), Karen Kreyeski of Silver City, Galen Brown of Carson City, and a number of other artists in the Reno area. While at St. Mary's Art Center, Sophie visited many of the museums, historical sites, and tourist attractions in Virginia City, and while at the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, she visited the Nevada State Museum's new exhibit "Ranching in the High Desert," and hiked the hills above the historic community. After the Silver City residency, Sophie went on to hike at Yosemite National Park, then enjoyed Halloween in West Hollywood, and traveled northward to check out the music scene in Seattle.
The resident artist program exists within the vibrant small community of Silver City on the "Comstock" - one of the nation's largest federally designated historic landmarks. Recently designated an "Arts and Cultural Resources Production Center," the town is already home to a surprising number of Nevada's highly productive artists, musicians, photographers, writers, actors, artisans, academics and other innovative thinkers and unique souls. Those creating in the performing, visual, media, design, or literary arts are being invited to reside at McCormick House and engage with the community for periods of up to 4 months, in exchange for offering public performances, exhibitions, workshops, art work, etc.
Schedule of Visiting Artists at the Resident Program 2015-2017: Upcoming artists at the Resident Program include internationally acclaimed New Zealand born photographer Frances Melhop; widely exhibited and published writer and artist Scott MacLeod of Oakland; in-demand, London-based illustrator Claire Scully; UK artist Stewart Easton (Midlands based artist working in hand embroidery and digital print on fabric); and the international cultural -research team Marksearch Oakland, which will come to Silver City after a 6 month project in Japan (sponsored through the US Japan Friendship Commission, which is administered by the National Endowment for the Arts). Retreats with themes of plein air painting, yoga, and photography are also planned at the Resident housing, known as "McCormick House".
Contact: The "Resident Artist Program in Silver City" is privately funded and directed by Theo McCormick and Quest Lakes. Artists have been scheduled through Summer 2017, and additional applications are being accepted for later dates. Please contact Quest Lakes at quest@theodata.com for additional information.
More about the Resident Artist Program in Silver City can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/silvercitynevadaresidentartistprogram
Sophie Scott Show Acknowledgements:Special thanks to Community Harvest CSA for local, organic produce, to artist Galen Brown for technical support, to the Silver City Historic Preservation Society for use of the space, to Mylo McCormick for providing music, and to Frances Melhop for extensive support, including communications and photography. The show is sponsored by the Silver City Volunteer Library, Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties, and the Resident Artist Program in Silver City.
