North End Artists open show Friday

 For their first show at the Yuma Art Museum, the North End Artists' Cooperative will be introduced during a reception today (Friday) from 5 to 7 p.m. at 254 S. Main St., in the central gallery.

  The show is titled "In Retrospect."

  Angel O. Luna, business manager for the co-op, said, "It's great to have this big, beautiful space available to us, and to have an opportunity to showcase the talent and diversity of our members on a larger scale.

  "The North End co-op is an independent entity managed by its membership, dedicated to promoting Yuma-area artists by providing a venue to display and sell their works. For this they have a regular space in the United Building, just south of the Historic Yuma Theatre. We are open each Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., when artists are on hand to demonstrate their media."

  For the show, which will continue through Nov. 7, expressions of art vary.

 Luna, for example, has worked in ceramics for 13 years, focusing on the surface with either underglazes or vitreous slips. "I use handmade brushes to paint on the surface of my work."

  His contributions to the show include "payasos" (clowns), plus functional ceramics and experiments.

  Luna, originally from Washington, has a bachelor of fine arts from Eastern Washington University and a master of fine arts from the University of Idaho. He's a professor of fine arts at Arizona Western College.

  Another in ceramics, Debra Perius applies her talents to creating masks, from clay, painting them with acrylics and adding beads.

  "I have been intrigued with masks since I was a child. Mask-making spans thousands of years and has occurred at some point, for some reason, in most cultures. Most people are familiar with Mardi Gras and, here, the Day of the Dead and Halloween."

  Perius has been in Yuma since 1982, graduated from both AWC and Northern Arizona University-Yuma. She has taught ceramics, was a substitute teacher for 10 years, then taught at Yuma High School.

  A painter, Scott Wesley Jones, said, "My work is changing somewhat. I'm going into more of the literal and narrative world. I teach language and arts at the Centennial Middle School, and words are inspirational to my art."

  He has used the "word" in his hand-printed story art, a contrast to abstract painting.

  Jones' wife, Holly Hendrick-Jones, teaches art and ceramics at Cibola High School. She has a display of her ceramic crosses in the adjoining gallery.

  In the central gallery, her four ceramic hands each has a message, reflecting "my personal hope for our future  as a community (Yuma). The hands are titled 'Ray Moore,' and I describe this with 'I'm just trying to tell the truth.'"

  Ann Walker dubs her series of beaded jewelry "Potomac Light."

  After attending workshops by Pam Jersey Bird, artist in residence at the Yuma Art Center last winter, Walker said, "I became fascinated by the possibilities offered by layering paint, paper and other materials. Collage suits my spontaneous side."

  Her jewelry reflects her silversmithing skills, wire wrapping and beading, and stones, playing with contrasts in those elements.  

  Walker has samples of her painting of scenes along isolated stretches of the Potomac River while on a trip to Maryland last fall.

  The artist is a writer and public relations specialist for the Yuma Visitors Bureau.

  More of the North Point Co-op are:

  • Mary Ward, a teacher at Orange Grove School in Somerton, whose work is ceramics.

  • Michael J. Obney, a retired Navy veteran and an accomplished, award-winning  pen and ink artist.

 • Judy Phillips, a retired teacher who  specializes in stained glass, pastels, glass and sterling silver jewelry, fused dishware and lamp worked glass.

  Application for membership to the co-op is available at www.northendartists.com.

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Pam M. Smith can be reached at psmith@yumasun.com or 539-6856.