University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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ire illness and disease — [help] with the acquisition of wealth — nd give] sophistication and worldly wisdom. These arterial anderings, these glimpses into the rivers and canals that feed a ind, seem vaguely voyeuristic and yet undeniably universal. i came to art relatively late; I was about twenty-four or twenty- e when I began, Sherwood says, commenting that her periences are encouraging towards young aspiring artists who ay not have very much formal training. As an undergraduate, aerwood majored in art histon, ' . Her background, she feels, has ade her more of an artist teacher, leaving its imprint upon her aching methods. Sherwood has been an associate professor in the t Practice Department at UC Berkeley for over a decade, teaching 1 levels of classes, from The Language of Painting, an troductory course, to graduate level curricula. Her enthusiasm for aching shines through In her interactions writh students, where le often takes a very personal, one-on-one approach to istruction. Passing through Kroeber ' s studios on a lazy afternoon, ne can observe Sherwood in earnest discussion, helping her udents develop their technique as well as discover their unique ;nses of aesthetics. ' The most enjoyable aspect |of teaching at Berkeley], she luses, is my interaction with the students. It ' s what keeps me here nd what I truly love. One of the classes that I teach, called The Features Language of Painting, pretty much draws students from every single part of the university. There are always five or six art majors, but 1 love teaching non-artists about art and introducing them to art. 1 think teaching is so important because I ' m giving the students knowledge with which to be art lovers and art majors, equally. 1 always joke that I ' m training stockbrokers to enjoy art. In 1999, the San Francisco Art Institute awarded Sherwood the prestigious Adaline Kent Award for her most recent work. The award is given yearly to a talented, promising, and deserving California artist. The 1999 Adaline Kent Award Committee wrote of her work, In viewing Sherwood ' s paintings, visual traces of the epiphany of human imagination are revealed. The award included a solo exhibition, held at the San Francisco Institute of Art from June 3 through July 3, 1999. On the strengths of this exliibit, Sherwood was chosen to participate in the Whitney Museum ' s Biennial Exhibition in January of 2000, a prestigious exhibit held in New York City that has helped propel several artists ' careers, though for a mature, established artist like Sherwood, inclusion in the Whitney Biennial may simply be considered as an affirmation of her asion as an artist. ■ Cynthia Hoiing Can Make A Woman (1999), mixed media on canvas, 108 x 84 inches Kathehne Sherwood at work

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1 The Beauty ot the Organic T vo paintings hang side by side in Katherine Sherwood ' s office in Kroeber Hall. One painting is representative of Sherwood ' s earlier style, and the other has a more recent genesis. The newer painting has an organic quality, a quality of roughness about its texture and brushwork, whose antecedent can be glimpsed in Sherwood ' s earlier work. This painting is spare and flowing, acrylic paints layered over photolithograhs of Sherwood ' s own cerebral angiograms (x-rays of blood vessels within the brain). These recent paintings, flowing with organic curves and textures, sit at the crux of art and science. Sherwood has taken images that were traditionally considered to be outside the realm of art and appropriated them in her work. Now, magnified a thousandfold, these images dare the viewer to regard them as anything but art. When asked how she decided to incorporate these cerebral angiograms into her art, Sherwood said, I first started using these [angiograms] after my 3 Knock Your Block Off (1998), mixed media on canvas, 96 x 72 inches The curvacious forms trapped in blocks at the lower right hand corner are King Solomon ' s Seals. stroke, which was in May of 1997. 1 had a cerebral hemorrhage, and they performed this procedure (on me]. When the procedure was over, I sat up and saw this beautiful image of the inside of my head, and I was moved to say, ' I have to gel those. I want those. ' She adds, with a laugh, All the doctors and nurses looked at me like I was crazy, and I said, ' But I ' m an artist, I have to get these! ' The spirit that moves Sherwood to create is difficult to describe. It comes from a place that ' s very hard to put into words, she says, pointing to intuition rather than a set process. From art history, 1 draw a lot of inspiration, especially all the work that was done around the first millenium, says Sherwood. The cerebral angiograms are another major source of inspiration. Sherwood points to the moment when she first saw her cerebral angiograms as the catalytic event that propelled her back into the studio. That was the first time 1 had even allowed myself to think as an artist, because before I was just so taken with the fact that 1 had to get well. Sherwood ' s stroke changed more than her focus and subject matter; it also transformed her entire painting process. Prior to her stroke, Sherwood was right-handed. After the stroke, Sherwood taught herself to paint with her left hand. Her left hand, says Sherwood, is more free than her right hand. My recent work also tends to be on a larger scale, she comments. Although Sherwood has used brain imagery in the past, her recent work carries a much more personal meaning, where the cerebral angiograms come to symbolize the concept of art making |as| a life-saving device. , Sherwood ' s painting process begins by laying lu-r canvas on a horizontal surface in her home studio. There is a bed in my house that is too high for me now. 1 converti ' il llial from my bed to my siutlio table. I lay the canvas on the bed and work on it while I sii in a chair with wheels. 1 just circle around [the bed] in my chair After the stroke, Sherwood wanted to detoxify the process, so she switched from oil paints to acrylics, and she finishes the paintings with oils. On these canvases, Sherwood juxtaposes photolithographs of her cerebral angiograms with thick, iw ' islin lines of paint and the occasional Kinj; Solomon ' s Seal. The seals are images culleii horn a ini ' dicval in.uHis( ripl cnlillcd ' Ihc I.emegetan. They have the abiliu I ' : ' 1

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John ' s Island, South Carolina, 1995 ;inSJ. Lewis Watts has taught photography at Berkeley since 1 978, although his association with Berkeley dates much further, to his undergraduate years. Watts received both his B.A. (in political science) and his M.A. (in photography and design) from UC Berkeley. I lis photographic interests have led him to photograph the lives of African Americans in the Oakland area, and led him to the heart of the Deep South, capturing those moments of elegance that too often slip by unobserved. In his introduction to the catalog for Watts ' latest exhibition, Jeffrey Hoone writes, There are many journeys in Leuis Watts ' photographs and if we pay close attention it seems that each image can inove us through a continuous cycle of inemory, ritual, and renewal. Cynthia Houng: Beginning with the very basics, how did you first become interested in photography? Why choose the camera over any other medium? Lewis Watts: I became interested in photography when I was a graduate student in Architecture and 1 simultaneously took a photo class and had a work study job in the photo lab of the University Art Museum. I was drawn to photography because it included elements of film and painting which i had had some interest in eadier in my life. CH: Do you consider your photography to contain more of an artistic aspect or a documentary aspect? LW: I would say that my work has a combination of fine arts (]ualities in a documentary form. i ' Al: Do you prefer to work with a certain type c f subject matter? What have been some major themes of your work? LW: I am interested in cultural landscape which explores issues of history, culture, and contemporary life as louiul in liic cm iionincius ol ilic piiiccs I ,)hotograph. I also photograph ilic pcdplc wiio inluihit Capturing the neighborhoods and rural areas that 1 have been working in. CH:You pursued a B.A. in political science before committing yourself to photography. Do you feel that your background in political science changes the way you approach your subject matter? LW: 1 am sure that my backgroiuid and interest in political science and history has informed much of my photographic work. I have used visual means to explore and express places, people and experience that 1 was interested in for a much longer period than I have been a photographer. CH: How do you go about choosing and setting up a shot? What kind of equipment do you use? LW: 1 usually react to situations, rather then working in a totally calculating way. 1 don ' t work randomly as I have worked over extended periods of time in West Oakland, other urban areas, and in the rural south, and 1 am tuned into certain kinds of visual and cultural clues. 1 do try to stay open to many unexpected situations and 1 try to frame my images in ways that incluilc aiui exclude the Richmond, California, 1996 m