Sustainable Art: From The Ocean Floor to the Forest • The Art of Emma Hurley and Phil Clark
By Rozann Grunig
The Coast Highway Art Collective is hosting an opening reception featuring the works of Emma Hurley, hand-carved and thrown functional ceramics and original art screen printed clothing, and Phil Clark, wood working and fine furniture, crafted from sustainable or recycled wood. The reception is on Saturday, Aug 14 from noon to 5 pm. The show runs from Aug. 5 through Aug. 29.
Point Arena local and avid surfer Emma Hurley has created a line of wearable “fish art,” reflecting her background in conservation biology and her love of the ocean. While working as a fisheries biologist and an ocean educator in Santa Cruz, Hurley created a line of clothing using her hand-drawn designs, ‘inspired by 'the colors, shapes, beauty, humor, mystery and character of the fish that live off the cold brine water of California,” explains Hurley. Her goal with the brand, which she calls NorthCoast Brine, is to encourage stewardship and pride in the fish in our cold ocean waters. On hang tags attached to her garments, she provides species natural history information as well as advice on sustainable methods of taking and of eating seafood. “Many of the species I depict have a long history as human food. Most of us are now removed from the process of catching and cleaning our seafood and only know halibut, lingcod, or rockfish as a square white fillet. My wearable art work puts an image to these common food species that are beautiful amazing animals in their own right,” she explains. Her wearable (shirts, tanks, hoodies) will be on display and for sale at the show.
Hurley also applies her ocean inspiration to the art of functional pottery. Wheel- thrown pieces are richly decorated with waves, fish and kelp. In late 2015, fellow surfer and potter Bo Kvenild, employed Hurley to help glaze his large ceramic sculptures in his home studio where she fell in love with clay. Hurley throws various clay bodies into functional, lovingly hand-carved pieces in a process that can take hours and makes each unique. “Each chunk of clay is handled and handled: from wedging to throwing to trimming to carving to glazing,” says Hurley. Yet Emma enjoys her ceramics to be used, eaten out of and maybe even chipped! “I love seeing these forms find new homes in homes and kitchens and new meanings to those who touch and hold the same chunk clay after me in its new form.” Emma's online at NorthCoastBrine.com.
Phil Clark is a local, Point Arena woodworking artist who has had a long career in fine furniture making and wood art projects. He studied architecture at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. After college, he owned an antique shop in Oakland and, by restoring antiques, learned what joinery techniques endured and how authentic furniture weathered with time. Today, Clark exclusively uses traditional joinery to create
heirloom quality furniture and accessories. He takes his inspiration from the Arts and Crafts Movement and furniture design, Rustic furniture and American Design that utilizes distinctive grains and live edge.
Clark says he is a self-taught artisan woodcrafter and his process is spontaneous; he does not draw or make calculations before he begins a piece. “I love the process of creation,” Clark says. “Each piece of wood is different; the grain, the shape and its natural singularity will dictate how I use it to produce my one-of-a-kind pieces. I use hand and power tools and native and domestic urban woods, that I salvage, find and repurpose. I have cut down trees, and milled them into lumber and then fashioned them into furniture, after air drying them for years.”
Clark’s lifelong occupation with wood has included an Eco-forestry business in Oregon, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. He has constructed new houses and barns and worked on historical restorations of houses and barns. He was proprietor of two galleries in Ashland, Oregon that featured the fine woodworking of members of the Siskiyou Woodcraft Guild and other local artists. His woodworking has included bridges, greenhouses, fences and arbors, a jeweler’s bench, weavers warping racks, rocking chairs, tables and bookshelves, altars and framed mirrors. “Honoring the tree’s life through functional art and design is my goal as a builder-maker. I hope you enjoy my work.”
The Coast Highway Art Collective is located at 284 Main Street, Point Arena, the little red building next door to the Redwood Credit Union. Regular gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday, 11:00am. to 3:00pm or by appointment. Visit the galley’s website at www.coast-highway-artists.com to view the collective members and see the range of work available regularly at the gallery. Collective members work in multiple media, including painting, printmaking, ceramics, metal sculpture, steampunk, glass, textiles, basketry, photography, jewelry, woodworking and modern art forms, uniquely expressed in the creations by award-winning artists.
