Brought to You by Big Oil and Irresponsible Government

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

"Brought to You by Big Oil and Irresponsible Government" Relief Print by Jill Kramer

Bio:
Kramer is a printmaker based in Oak Park, Illinois. She is a native of Chesterland, Ohio and received her BFA from Kent State University. She obtained her Masters of Arts in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently the Education Center Supervisor for the Elmhurst Art Museum.

Jill’s current artistic practice focuses on landscape and it’s deterioration, through natural and man made causes. She uses relief and screen print methods to investigate her inquiries into this natural erosion and express her thoughts on idealized scenery. Her most recent projects have revolved around issues that allow her to contribute to group dialogue and participate in collective action on social justice environmental issues.
Jill works from her home studio where she lives with her husband and two children.

Artist's Statement:
I grew up in a rural area of North East Ohio. On hot summer days, nothing was better than cranking the water pump out side to take a gulp of ice cold well water from the natural spring on my parents property. I can still remember the slight metallic taste of iron that lingered in my mouth as the refreshing liquid ran down my throat.

Nowadays, I drink from the same water source that all Chicago area residents rely - Lake Michigan. And while this water still quenches a thirst, it remains flat in it’s delivery. The thought of reaching for a glass of water, with tiny amounts of benzene and arsenic from the runoff of Dilbit that has been transported through pipelines that cross the United States is a bit unsetteling. When Dilbit spills, as it did in 2010 outside of Marshall, Michigan, ground water is contaminated with small amounts of benzine and arsenic. These chemicals are used to thin the heavy oil so that it can flow easily through pipelines. When there is a spill or leak in these lines, ground water and drinking water becomes contaminated. Benzine is a known cancer causing chemical and arsenic has been used mainly as an insecticide for agricultural usage.

I cannot image now, taking a sip from the water pump of my childhood, and having to wonder if I was consuming cancer causing chemicals and known poisons at the expense of trying to quench my thirst.

The Geology of Louisiana #3

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"The Geology of Louisiana #3" Print by Pippin Frisbie-Calder

Untitled

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Untitled" Print by Natalie Woodlock

Flush BP

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Flush BP" Screen Print by Janet Schill

Artist's Statement: 
A Toilet – is this what it comes to. We are given an opportunity to take care our planet. Watching those who turn our environment into a waste dump is sad and frustrating. If we don’t say something it will be too late for all of us. Bev Keys in her quest to creatively expose some of these problems has led me to the screen print called “Flush BP”. No more should be said. A large toilet is what they think our lake should become. Doesn’t matter, we drink, swim, and fish out of this lake. It’s a waste dump to the refinery.

Bio: 
Janet Schill is a printmaker who lives in Riverside Illinois. She received a BFA 1987 from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. After moving to Oak Park, Illinois, in 1991, she joined Expressions Graphics. In the summer of 1996 she graduated from Northern Illinois University with a Masters of Fine Arts degree. She currently serves as executive director of Expressions Graphics gallery and press shop which is located in Oak Park. Her current focus is in screen printing on paper. She has exhibit in both national and international shows.

Just Add Water

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Just Add Water" Print by Fawn Atencio

British Prostitute

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"British Prostitute" Linocut by Carlos Barberena 

Bio: 
Carlos Barberena is a Nicaraguan self-taught visual artist based in Chicago, he has exhibited individually in Costa Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain and The USA. His work has been shown in important Art Fairs, Art Biennials, Museums, Galleries and Cultural Centers around the world.

Mr. Barberena’s work was selected to represent Nicaragua in the XIII Art Salon, Identity Imprint: A Glance at Ibero-American Printmaking at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, DC.; the 6th KIWA at the Kyoto Museum of Art in Japan; the 8th Triennial - Mondial de L’Estampe et de la Gravure Originale in Chamalieres, France; and the V Biennial of Caribbean Dominican Republic. He was invited to participate in the III World Body Art Conference in Venezuela and more recently, in the exhibition “Les Saltimbanques” an homage to Gustave Doré at the Musée d’Art Roger-Quilliot - MARQ - in France, where his work was exhibited alongside Doré’s Masterpiece.

He has received various awards, most notably the National Printmaking Award 2012 given by the Nicaraguan Institute of Culture in Managua, Nicaragua and the award- poster for the Ecology and Human Rights in Banana Plantations in Costa Rica, given by GEBANA in Berlin, Germany. Barberena’s work is in the collection of KIWA, Kyoto, Japan; the School of Fine Arts, (UNAM), Mexico; the Triennial Prints Cabinet, AMAC, France; the International Exlibriscentrum, Stedelijke Museum in Sint-Niklaas, Belgium; the Lia Bermudez Museum, Venezuela; Praxis Gallery of Nicaragua, the National Gallery of Costa Rica and the Museum of Contemporary Art "Julio Cortazar" in Managua, Nicaragua.

Whiting Springs

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Whiting Springs" Print by Geoffrey Sciacca 

Bio: 
Geoff holds a BFA (Auburn University) and an MFA (Lousiana Tech University) in Graphic Design—the field in which he currently serves as a professor at Elmhurst College. While his design background undeniably influences his prints, geoff finds screen printing to provide a welcome respite from the digital environment, and an ideal medium for communicating.

Statement: 
With the vast amount of communities relying on the Great Lakes for drinking water, the thought of the refinery in Whiting, IN dumping increasing, unacceptable amounts of waste into Lake Michigan in order to refine a dirty source of fuel is beyond upsetting. This satirical piece brings this to attention by recontextualizing drinking water from Lake Michigan; it alludes to the historic nature of the Whiting refinery through the stylistic treatment of the bottle label; and makes reference to the corporate greed behind this expansion through the color and symbology of the background pattern. Perhaps the notion of polluted drinking water is more tangible in a plastic bottle than looking out at one of the world's largest lakes.

The Resource Curse

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"The Resource Curse" Print by Michelle Mashon 

Artist statement:
I've always been an illustrator at heart, wanting to tell a story through every painting and print. As a New Orleans native, this subject was near and dear to me and I had a lot of feelings about it- my goal was not attempt to say everything, but to focus on one or two results of the many tragedies BP has brought upon the US and present these in a print drawn in the allegorical tradition.

Muck-Minded Sentries of the Ruby

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Muck-Minded Sentries of the Ruby" Print by Liz Born

Toxxxicity

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

“Toxxxicity” Linocut Print by Joshua Kolbow 

Joshua Kolbow’s Statement 
The concept of “Toxxxicity” is pretty cut and dry. America is a whore selling her freedom for the right price. Elected officials, “Big-Oil” lobbyists, and corporate devils have become America’s pimps. They sell her to increase profits and obtain power with no concern for citizen welfare or America’s future. Like all whores, America will eventually become tainted with disease and cease to be profitable. Her infestation of greed and corruption will make her expendable garbage. Until then, we watch as each devil takes their turn riding America for the money shot.

Artist Bio 
Joshua Kolbow is a 2011 graduate from University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a B.F.A. focusing on Drawing and Printmaking. Heralding to the precision and composition of Renaissance and Baroque masters such as Durer and Caravaggio, Joshua fuses Renaissance draftsmanship with graphic – novels’ dynamic narratives and forges compositions with forceful satirical motives. Joshua’s work has been exhibited primarily in Wisconsin, including Stevens Point, Manitowoc, and Milwaukee. He recently participated in an international print exchange featuring over 150 artists from 20 different countries. Joshua teaches relief printmaking workshops to bring his passion for prints and art to new people so they can experience new ideas and become part of the printmaking community. Joshua resides and works in West Bend, Wisconsin where he pursues his printmaking career and plans to enter a graduate program.

BP Arrives

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"BP Arrives" Linocut by Rene Arceo

Artist's Statement:
"My print is about the pollution threat we, in Chicago, are under because of the PB plant located in Whiting, Indiana, a stone's throw away from the third largest city in the United States. On the bottom of the composition I included several Chicago buildings and coming from the top a giant gentle, ghost-like figure, beginning to cover and darken the sky. The giant ghost, who comes from BP plant, leaves across its path the polluting chemicals that plant processes and dumps in our environment. This includes ammonia, sulfur, nox, pm10, voc, so2, co, chloride, mercury and lead."

Spew

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Spew" Print by Ruthann Godollei

Artist's Statement:
I was born in Indiana when Gary was dark at noon from industrial air pollution, now I live in a state extracting Mississippi River sand and the water for washing it for fracking oil and gas elsewhere. We also have a 300-mile Canadian tar sands crude oil pipeline in Minnesota with record of ruptures and fires. Reading about the oil contamination in the Gulf of Mexico, I was struck by the smallness of the words used to describe huge events: "spill", or "leak". The text and images in my prints point to policy and consequences. That we decide as a society to allow deep water drilling and hydraulic sand fracturing strikes me as absurd. That we let corporations decide environmental policy strikes me as criminal.

Ruthann Godollei is a Professor of Art at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She exhibits internationally, incorporating political and social commentary in her prints. Her work is in many internatinal collections, such as the Centre For Fine Print Research, Bristol, UK, the Polish National Museum of Art, Poznan, KUMU National Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia and the penang State Museum, Malaysia.

Bioaccumulation

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Bioaccumulation" by Michelle Rozic 

Artist Statement: 
Representational art affords a greater understanding of the everyday world by focusing in on moments to contemplate, inherently questioning what is real and what is imitation. Today these distinctions are blurring because of advances in science and technology. With copies developing at ever quickening rates, it becomes difficult to decipher what is original to nature.

Images of flora and fauna from Lake Michigan’s food web shed light on industries impact on local ecosystems. Bioaccumulation occurs as environmental contaminants accumulate in organisms during the cycle of producer, consumer, and decomposer. The contamination magnifies as predator eats prey, with those at the top of the food chain receiving the highest dose.

These representations bring to light acceptance of the reproduction as a stand in for the original – malformed animals for healthy – asking what is lost and what is gained by these evolutions.

Artist Bio:
I received my BFA in fine arts from the Columbus College of Art and Design and MFA in printmaking from Indiana University, Bloomington. Currently I am an assistant professor of art and printmaking area coordinator at California State University, Northridge. My work has shown throughout the U.S. and abroad. Recent projects include curating Edge of Life: Forest Pathology Art, a collaborative, invitational, art and forestry exhibit and accompanying catalog. In 2010 I spent time at the U.T. Dallas Central Trak artist residency creating work for Edge of Life.

Atra Mors

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Atra Mors" Print by Fotios Zemenides.

Artist's Statement 
The story of humanity is replete with hardship and suffering. Our species’ struggle is what has brought us to this point in time. All of our greatest cultural and technological innovations; our music, art, engineering, science, political systems, philosophy, literature - our very way of life, are products of surviving a harsh and deadly environment. Our defiance of oblivion made us smarter, stronger, and wiser. We are not however immortal, invincible or unassailable. There is a great deal about us that still must evolve. Our treatment of one another and of the environment is in desperate need of refinement as we are quickly making the world uninhabitable for us.

This image questions the ramification of the world's increasing demand on oil. The title refers to the Latin translation for the "Black Death" or as we know it: the Great Plague that ransacked Medieval Europe and killed off nearly one half of the continent's population. This occurred because of several reasons, one being population density in urban centers which saw the rapid spread of the plague but also due to unregulated commerce which brought the disease from the east in the first place. This unabated commercialism was the result of high demand of inexpensive commodities and goods, without concern of quality. Before this time, the Roman Empire had a well maintained, regulated and taxed shipping and commerce system, which prevented any major pandemic from taking hold. Medieval Christianity had no such standards but learned its lesson which helped bring about the Renaissance. We are now reliving the complications brought about from unchecked consumerism which oil consumption is the heart of. The catastrophe this time however will not be a mere pandemic but environmental destruction on a scale which will make life for human civilization untenable. Of course we offer our up our future generations to this fate in the struggle to consume as many manufactured goods as possible.

This print is meant to remind the viewer that potentially civilization ending, man made disasters still run rampant throughout the entire world and affect us all. We should not take for granted what we have and what all of our achievements depend on.

Fotios D. Zemenides, MFA
Fotios Zemenides was born a refugee, his mother fleeing the Turkish invasion of Cyprus with him in utero, while his father stayed behind to fight. The very nature of his existence is a paradox, for he is both a child of Chicago simultaneously living with a reality unfulfilled. Displaying aptitude in the visual arts from a young age, Fotios choose to pursue his undergraduate studies in fine art and art history at DePaul University in Chicago. Paul Jaskot introduced him to the notion of understanding art by becoming a student of history, thus placing the work in its socio-political context. As the very essence of social justice was ingrained into his being from a young age, his intended goal was to use his abilities to create art that force the viewer to question the way of things and ask difficult moral and ethical questions of themselves.

After a brief hiatus into the world of urban planning and development he returned to art, receiving a Master of Fine Art in painting and drawing at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. Under the tutelage of Joe Kegler at the Chicago Fine Art Foundry, he mastered the process of bronze and aluminum casting for sculpture. He also studied classical academic principals of painting and anatomy under David Jamieson and Melinda Whitmore from the Vitruvian Fine Art Studio.

He is currently a member of the North Shore Art League where he practices with veteran printmakers Audrey Niffenegger, Bert Menco, Diane Thodos, Paula Campbell, Elizabeth Ockwell and Diane Dorigan. Via the Beverly Arts Center, he acts as an outreach art instructor for underprivileged youth in Chicago’s South Side and is a staunch promoter for increased government subsidy of Art education. As a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Hellenic Museum, he is working to guide the institution to become a significant player in the art and culture advocacy infrastructure of the Midwest. He lives in Chicago with his wife Joanne who is an elementary school teacher.

Contact: fzemenides@aol.com
http://www.fotioszemenides.blogspot.com/

Infernal Machine

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

"Infernal Machine" Linocut by John Pitman Weber.

Artist’s Statement Concerning “Infernal Machine” 
“Infernal Machine” is inspired by the Whiting refinery, an immense, immensely complex, and fascinating piece of engineering. I could not view that awe-inspiring, towering forest of pipes and tanks without a being also horrified by its purpose: “The Canadian Crude Project. “ Canadian and very, very heavy crude. The refinery is being expanded and refitted specifically for crude to arrive by pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands mines. One cannot but be concerned about the catastrophic results to be expected from the destruction of the Boreal forest and the energy intensive reduction of the tar sands to an exportable liquid. Some of that refining is going to happen right next door, resulting in massive releases of greenhouse gases, and of toxic chemicals directly into Lake Michigan, the water supply for many millions, including my family.

John Pitman Weber is a printmaker, painter, and muralist based in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. His prints and paintings have been included in major travelling shows, notably the landmark “Committed to Print,” MOMA, 1988, “Kunst und Krieg,” 1989 Berlin, “Bridges and Boundaries,” from the Jewish Museum, 1999-2000 and the recent “Collaborative Vision: the Poetic Dialogue Project.” He founded the Chicago Mural Group, now known as Chicago Public Art Group, with the late William Walker and with Ray Patlan in 1971. His public work includes mosaics, cement reliefs, sculpture, and painted murals. He has led public projects in New York City, Los Angeles, and smaller cities in Georgia, Iowa, Florida, England, France and Spain, as well as Chicago. During summer 2010 he served as a U.S. Cultural Envoy, leading mosaics with the program La Ciudad Pintada in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Alava, Spain.

Weber has had two dozen solo shows, including 5 in New York City. He also has had two print retrospectives. He participates annually in Pilsen Open Studios and in the Made in Pilsen exhibit at Prospectus Gallery, 18th & Racine. He taught for 43 years at Elmhurst College.

Weber studied printmaking with S.W. Hayter at Atelier 17, lithography with Ray Martin and Mark Pascale at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has done printmaking residencies with David Driesbach at NIU and with Derli Romero in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico.

www.jpweberart.com and Facebook: John Pitman Weber for more information and images.

Spirit of Water

PIPELINES & BORDERLINES: People Can't Drink OIL! Print Portfolio

 

"Spirit of Water" Linocut by Liliana Gerardi.

For this project I was inspired by the idea that the whole universe is one organic unity. The universe is in deep harmony and we are breathing together. The whole universe is breathing together, the earth, the men, the animals, the plants, and the water. If we damage the water we stop breading together and we destroy the harmony for the life of future generations.

“My art work ranges from symbolic to abstract. I am inspired by primitive art, aboriginal art, as well as art with spiritual significance like that of Klee or Kandinsky. I work intuitively without previous sketches and I like it that way. I like curved lines, free as flowing water, the circle in my work is a generator of energy and I prefer it red.”

Liliana Gerardi
Born in Argentina, Liliana Gerardi has a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts from the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo with a Major in Printmaking. Since 1990, she has participated in exhibitions in Argentina, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Spain, Belgium, France, The United Kingdom and Japan. She has resided in the United States from 2000. With a strong commitment to spread engraving techniques in the South Florida area, she spends part of her time giving workshops in museums and galleries in Broward and Miami-Dade.

COLLECTIONS:
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria Egypt.
International Artists Society Salon de Tokyo. Tokyo, Japan.
Museo de la Xilografía, La Plata, Argentina.
Museo Nacional del Grabado, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan.
Ajuntament de Sabadell , Barcelona.
XYLON International. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Concello de Ourense. Ourense. Spain.
Museo Municipal de Arte Moderno. Mendoza, Argentina.
Private collections in North and South America.
She currently has her studio at the Lauderhill Art Center.
www.LilianaGerardi.com