Edgar Award Artists
Each Edgar Award honoree receives an original work of art by a local artist.
2008 Artist: Renee Gentz
Renee was born in Albuquerque, and grew up in California. She received her art degree from San Jose State University and has done post-graduate work at the University of New Mexico.
In 1994 when her youngest child started kindergarten Renee then found the time to start doing art again. She dyes and paints all her fabric, working with cotton and silk. And then transforms her fabric into vibrant fiber constructions and collages that have been described as "pure visual joy."
Renee's work is included in the Art Collections of the Harwood Museum in Taos, State of New Mexico, Bernalillo County and the Fisherville VA Medical Center
Renee writes, “I am fascinated by the tonal value of color, rough versus smooth, structure versus chaos. Some work will be about those two different approaches, and some work uses both ideas. My designs are never predetermined, they develop as I go. I work in a deliberate and thoughtful manner until the design problem is solved in a sudden insight. My goal as an artist is to communicate emotions in a non-verbal, non-objective way by using color and color combinations. I love that a connection between myself and another can happen regardless of time or distance.”
2007 Artist: Sunny Bueck
Ms. Bueck shows her crystalline glazed porcelain pottery at the Mariposa and Wyrich Galleries in Albuquerque, the Color and Light Gallery in Madrid, NM, and La Mesa Gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe. In addition to having one-woman shows at the Mariposa and at the Wyrich, she has also shown at the New Mexico Arts and Crafts Fair (a juried show) from 2001 to 2005. In 2002, the judges awarded her a 3rd place ribbon in the Ceramics category. She has taught pottery at the UNM Division of Continuing Education and Coyote Clay School in Albuquerque for several years.
Ms. Bueck writes: “I have loved working with clay since I first began working with it in high school. I am mystified by the soft, spinning fluidity of the clay and how it becomes transformed by the kiln into a firm, immutable body. I first saw a crystalline glazed pot in 1998. Very little had been written on the technique, so my first glaze experiments were based on trial and error. It took me three years and hundreds of pots to perfect this rare and extremely difficult glazing process. I never gave up because I always felt like I was on the edge of discovering an unbelievable beauty.
I love working with my hands (I am also a massage therapist). Hands are an extension of the heart and working with my hands is a creative expression of what I feel. Every pot is made from a heart filled with joy and creative freedom where everything is possible: you can create the life you want. I strive to fill my pots with this creative, joyful spirit.
Crystalline glaze technique is very demanding and specific. I am responsible for every step of the process: making the pots, formulating the glazes, loading the kiln and programming the firing computer. Because the crystalline glazes are so touchy, a temperature variance of 10-20 degrees can alter the results dramatically. A computer is usually employed for controlling the precise rate, rise, and fall of the kiln. It is this absolute control over temperatures which is responsible for the growth of the zinc oxide crystals on the surface of the glaze. Where these crystals form on the pot, and the size and shape they take, is completely random. I find it ironic that such exactitude is required to create a natural random beauty.
