Artist-in-Residence Profiles

Anke C. Hass Artist-in-Residence

Anke C. Hass

Artist-in-Residence

My six years of academic training at the Bergische University had left me with an awareness for the deeply unsettling tension between the questions of what it means to be a human and where truth comes from and what humans are here for and the training for a specific job market, that requires skills, experience and applicable information. I thought I would never find myself advocating the integration of these two opposing realities of a personal and professional life. It is important to me as an artist and a teacher to understand that where I put my time and resources, where I build up my skills and expertise, I will also find what I value most. And if I discharge the big questions as useless I will limit my usability to a very narrow application. It is my passion to exemplify an integrated human being, where all aspects of a moral, spiritual, intellectual, emotional or esthetic creature is intensely relational and alive. That should be a life of a true homo liber.

It is wonderful when business meets creativity, when provision meets need, when Arts for the Schools meets the students of our community. I am glad to partake in this exciting enterprise for the Arts. Create, inspire, engage - that's my job.

Nancy Lopez Artist-in-Residence

Nancy Lopez

Artist-in-Residence
www.trailsandvistas.org

"My art is about connection ­ to a place, to the earth, to people's lives."

For the past ten years collaborative strategies have played an essential role in my work as a professional artist and art educator. Many of my productions incorporate performance, music, poetry, dance and earthworks. I enjoy working with other artists, teachers, students, and specialists in a diverse range of professional fields to create events that celebrate the environment and strive to reestablish a sense of community and personal connections to nature.

My love for the fine arts and attachment to the landscape stems from early childhood lessons from my mother; a biology teacher and poet, my father; music major and education administrator, and my elementary school teacher, Mrs. Fundas, who saw a creative spark in a young girl struggling with learning disabilities. With encouragement from art teachers and art professionals I went on to receive my Bachelor of Fine Arts from Southwest Texas State University and Masters of Fine Arts from San Jose State University with an emphasis in sculpture and installation art.

Nancy also takes students outside the classroom for cross-disciplinary learning. In 2007 Nancy worked with the Town of Truckee and Sierra Watershed Education Partnership to have her students paint trout silhouettes on stakes and then place them in the river off Donner Pass Road in Truckee. According to Nancy; "In addition to basic art technique, we teach about different cultures, the interconnectedness of humanity and the marriage between art and environment."

Cathee van Rossem St. Clair Artist-in-Residence

Cathee van Rossem St. Clair

Artist-in-Residence
www.catheestclair.com

Since I lifted my first crayon as a child, storytelling and language — the language of birds, the language of animals, the language of earth, and the silent language we humans use to interact with our inner and outer landscapes, have fed my art. Dreams, observations, and quirky musings continually push their way into my work. On these walls are a few of my reflections.

Since 1988, I've been an Artist-in-Residence for an extraordinary non-profit organization dedicated to bringing professional artists and performers into classrooms in the Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District. Arts For the Schools sponsors "The Egg Painting Workshop," a program where I encourage fourth graders to paint their own stories on the surfaces of eggshells and write poems about their creations. This experience gives these students an opportunity to experience the nature of fragility and discover how it relates to the importance of caring in our everyday lives.

If you'd like more information, please contact me or Arts For the Schools through our websites.