Virginia Andrade
Born Long Beach, California
Resides Grants Pass, Oregon
Education
1996/97 Rogue Community College Grants Pass, OR
1989 Pasadena City College Pasadena, CA
1985 University of California Los Angeles, CA
1982/84 Los Angeles Art League North Hollywood, CA
Solo Exhibitions
2008 Hanson Howard Gallery, Ashland, Or
2007 "It's Not That Easy Being Green"
Rogue Gallery, Medford, OR
2005 "Separation by Degrees" Firehouse Gallery, Grants Pass, OR
2004 "Transitions", Jewelry Studio Gallery, Ashland, OR
2003 "Infinite Passage" Jewelry Studio Gallery, Ashland, OR 2001 "Infinite Passage" Rogue Gallery Art Center, Medford, OR
"Infinite Passage" Wiseman Gallery, Grants Pass, OR
2000 "Hanging By a Thread" Grants Pass Library Gallery, Grants Pass, OR
1997 "Falling From Grace" Grants Pass Frame Works, Grants Pass, OR
1996 "Who Tied The Knot?" The Expressionists", Artworks Gallery, Grants Pass, OR 1995 "Prayers To the Art God" Artworks Gallery, Grants Pass, OR
Selected Exhibitions and Museums
2005 "Women History" Wiseman Gallery, Grants Pass, OR
2004 "Transformations" Jacobs Gallery, Eugene, OR
"Contemporary Artists of Rogue Valley, Main Library, Medford, OR
"Seven Women Artists" of Ambus Gallery, Grants Pass, Museum of Art
2003 "Surface" Ambus Art, Jacksonville, OR
2002 "Pulp/Paper/Glass, Scarlet Palette Gallery, Jacksonville, OR
2002 "Art At 70" Rogue Gallery Art Center, Medford, OR
2000 "Millennium Madonna" Grants Pass Museum of Art, Grants Pass, OR
2000 "Spotlight" Grants Pass Museum of Art
1999 "Art of Collage" Rogue Gallery Art Center, Medford, OR
1999 "Watercolor Society of Oregon, Salem Capitol, Salem OR
"Watercolor Society of Oregon, Maude Kern, Eugene, OR
1995 "Fear of Dying", Firehouse Gallery, Grants Pass, OR
1993 "Evolving Spirit" Grants Pass Museum Of Art. Grants Pass, OR
1983 "4 Women Artists" Descanso Gardens, Flintridge, CA
1983 "Women Painters West" Century Gallery, Sylmar, CA
Juried Exhibitions
2002 "Rogue Gallery Art Center" Medford OR
2000 "Collage Artists", Valley Institute of Visual Arts, Northridge, CA
1990 "Women Painters West" Brand Library Gallery, Glendale, CA
1990 "Collage Artists" Lancaster Museum Of Art, Lancaster, CA
1988 "Women Painters West" Creative Arts Center, Burbank, CA
1987 "Brand Library Art Gallery" Glendale, CA
1987 "Women Painters West" Conejo Valley Art Museum, Thousand Oaks, CA
1986 "Pasadena Society of Artists" San Bernardino Museum of Art, Redlands, CA
1986 "Women Painters West" Antelope Valley College. Lancaster, CA
1986 "Women Painters West" Long Beach Art Gallery. Long Beach, CA
1985 "Women Painters West" Brand Library Art Gallery. Glendale, Ca
1985 "Women Painters West" Creative Arts Center. Burbank, CA
1985 "Women Painters West" Brand Library Galleries. Glendale, CA
1984 "Women Painters West" Descanso Gardens. Flintridge, CA
1984 "Women Painters West" San Bernardino County Museum. Redlands, CA
1984 "Women Painters West" Riverside Art Center Museum. Riverside, CA
1983 "Pasadena Society of Artists" Brand Library Galleries. Glendale, CA
Recognitions
2001 AUW First Place Mix Media Grants Pass, OR
2000 AAUW First Place Mix Media Grants Pass, OR
1999 Art Media Award- Watercolor
Society of Oregon Eugene, OR
1999 AAUW First Place Mix Media Grants Pass, OR
1997 AAUW First Place Mix Media Grants Pass, OR
Women Painters West Award,
Women Painters West Award
1987 Conejo Valley Museum Thousand Oaks, CA
Sherwin L. Schwartz Award Glendale, CA
1985 Women Painters West Award Redlands, CA
1983 First Place Graphics Award
Century Gallery Sylmar, CA
1970 First Place Graphics
San Diego Art Institute San Diego, CA
Gallery Representation
Hanson Howard Gallery Ashland, OR
Ryan Gallery Lincoln City, OR
Teaching/Lecture
2007 Gallery Talk Rogue Gallery,
2005 Gallery Talk Firehouse Gallery
Collage Workshop Grants Pass Museum of Art
Program Presentation Grants Pass Museum of Art
Ashland Salon Presentation Ashland, Oregon
VIRGINIA ANDRADE
MY JOURNEY
We each walk our own path. It matters not who I connect with on this journey, at the end of each day I once again face me and I call myself artist. I have called myself this for 40 years, but the seed was planted long before.
My name is Virginia Andrade. I was born in Burbank, California. It was 1930, the beginning of the "great depression". Those early influences; of making do, taking care of what you have because there may not be any more, create your own entertainment, and if you don't have it now you probably don't need it, became my lifetime lessons.
We lived in an abandoned speak-easy restaurant converted into a two-family dwelling. My Father, being an enterprising man, learned to raise chickens, rabbits, goats and pedigreed Cocker Spaniels, all as a means of income and self-preservation. Pens and cages were built from broken-down sheds and barns, even nails and rusty hinges were confiscated and reused. This was my introduction to the usefulness and possibilities of discards and the satisfaction of reconstruction.
I did not decide to become as artist, it was breathed into me by my third grade teacher. She told me, "Oh, Virginia, you are an artist", and so I was. But it didn't happen then. The custom then was, grow up, get married, and raise a family, and I did do that. But I became a serious artist when I realized my children were starting to have lives of their own and I wasn't. I lived in San Diego at this time and resumed my art studies at our community college, going through the basics with an emphasis on special studies, Art Therapy. I began the long hard road to a degree but was interrupted.
Seems like overnight I became a professional when I found myself divorced and no marketable skills. Professional meant I was able to sell my work. It also meant I painted what the general public would buy. Outdoor shows in San Diego, weekends, year round, for eight years, became my source of income. Remarriage in 1978 provided me financial freedom to resume art study and the time to reflect how I wanted to express myself.
Being married to a motorcycle enthusiast was a surprise as was the introduction to traveling long distances on the back of a motorcycle. Camping in the southwest introduced me to Native American culture and to my own spirit.
We were in Mesa Verde, Colorado, the site of the Anasazi cliff dwellings. Richard walked ahead of me down the paved path. It was very warm and quite still. There were no visitors in sight nor was there any sound. I suddenly felt a cold breeze across the back of my neck and my hair stood on end. At the same moment my body was turning to the left and I found myself facing a grotto-type hollow in the cliff wall. The walls were shades of pink, blues, and lavenders. The air became cool and moist and I was all alone. My attention was directed to the ground beside the roped-off path and there a park sign indicated "Indian Women Watering Hole". Then the magic was gone leaving me a hollow feeling but I have been changed forever.
Prior to this experience my work had been contemporary/traditional, landscapes, seascapes, still life, and florals. However, on return to my studio these subjects held no interest. I allowed myself to be directed as I discovered new methods of communicating from a place of spirit.
My current work developed from a quest for honesty. Aging is not a state of grace in our society, it is the beginning of isolation. I had inadvertently stepped into old age like an unavoidable accident. I recognized the impact of time as it affected my skin, my hair, and enthusiasm. Body proportions were changing and I was helpless to control the inevitable. I was becoming invisible, ignored and a discard. I wanted to protest and I wanted to reclaim my life.
Discards became the focus for my art and metal in particular seemed to embody the results of how time and exposure to the elements on its surface. My frustrations found release working the metal but it needed a support. I opted for wood panels. This resulted in an integration of subject and ground. The materials needed each other but the merge was difficult. By marking, carving, and imprinting, the relationship was complete.
As my current work continues to explore life changes, my choice of mediums has changed to accommodate a shift in my focus. I have discovered by combining powder pigment and gouache the work has rounded out, taking on a different meaning and provided me a new direction, adding fullness to the work. This is an exciting time for me.
Current Work: "It's Not That Easy Being Green"
The issue is environmental. The focus "What are we doing?" How we live, where we live and what we need. Are we conscious of our space and what surrounds us? How do we preserve, protect or quite possibly lose?
I'm trying for a soft sell here. The technique of hand-rubbing powder pigment and incorporating gouache, spontaneous ink sketching and then softening the effects with pastel offers a soft focus for this space we call home, our Earth Mother.
Allow ourselves to move through the work with an open mind. Observe the various aspects of nature. How things may form, and shift forms, almost as we watch. It becomes a kind of breaking down and moving from one thing to another. It could continue to flow in a gentle manner if we, as caretakers, do care.
Virginia Andrade
2008