Nada Dada Motel Room 407

Please visit me in Room #407 of the El Cortez during the third Nada Dada Motel this Thursday June 18 – Sunday June 21, 2009.

Mixed media artist Marian Studer and I will be displaying new work in our impromptu hotel room gallery.

Nada Dada Motel is a yearly avant-garde art event. Artists rent rooms in downtown Reno’s historic El Cortez Hotel turning them into temporary galleries and studio spaces open to the public. Come experience this unique event.

Reno Metro Pulse SNCAT Episode

SNCAT Reno Metro Pulse Episode featuring the works of two Reno artists - painter Rossitza Todorova and photographer Kelly Bridegum. The two artists both portray their experiences commuting to and from Reno to Carson in their recent collaborative exhibit at the McKinley Arts and Culture Center Gallery in Reno.

Reno Passport April 2009 Artist Profile

April Issue 2009 - Reno Passport
by Chag Sorg

The eight bodies of work found on www.rossitza.net are all works hand-inked using markers or brushes, stained into big white paper stretched over backframes. The depictions are in various levels of representation. Some of the oldest drawings rendered are slashed into forms of abstracted shape and indeterminate dimension on big white expanses of paper ground–yeah, they can warp your mind a little if gazed into long enough, and all examples are accomplished with only black ink on paper.
Says Todorova,“I am fascinated by man’s drive to change and adapt his surroundings. I find man’s desire to take charge of his own life visually inspiring,” apparently referring to bridges, overpasses and thoroughfares that stretch travel distances for the nomadic career oriented human commuters.

With a mind let to wander; the paintings could be viewed as sumi brush paintings, a kind of sci-fi robot love story, quasi-mechanical abstractions or medical drawings of muscle tissue but in only tones of gray and usually reminiscent of bridges crossing the landscape and highwayspheres of the high desert.

“In my drawings I try to capture the motion of man in one landscape; the road and the body that created it.” It’s the negative and positive spaces in these pictures that sometimes make the sinewy visual connection for viewers. The whitespace can all-of-the-sudden resemble something concrete or figurative.

The ink slashes are sometimes like shards of obsidian, sometimes more minimal and almost cartoony, and some are painted at wall scale, depictive of land and water. The ambivalent depth can be disorienting, it all melds into shadows or mass.

Using usually grays in light to medium washes and with straight to arced lines and broken perspectives, the newest vistas are accurately rendered representations of Todorova’s commute from Reno to Carson City. All of the pictures have remnants of futurist and cubist works such as that of the early DuChamp paintings.

Todorova’s works have been exhibited throughout the Reno area; including recent solo shows at the Nevada Museum of Art and the Sierra Arts Foundation. In 2005, she earned her B.F.A in Painting/Drawing with minors in Business Marketing and Management from the University of Nevada, Reno. Presently, she works at the Nevada Arts Council as the Community Arts Development Associate.

1 Comment - http://renopassport.com/reno-artist-profile-rossitza-todorova/

"Drive to work, Rossitza Todorova and Kelly Bridegum" article Reno News & Review

By Nicole Seaton
photo by Lauren Randolph
March 26, 2009

The commute to work has become an inevitable part of American life. Although the distance remains the same, the long stretch of everyday road contains millions of variables, including precarious weather, car accidents and split-second glimpses of wildlife. Two Nevada artists, Rossitza Todorova and Kelly Bridegum, have collaborated on an exhibit, From: To: A Study of Space and Commuting at the McKinley Arts and Culture Center that explores the mutability of their daily trek through Washoe Valley.

Bridegum works in Reno and lives in Carson City, and Todorova makes the opposite commute, so it’s only natural that the artists would show their work on either side of the room, directly facing each other.

“They’re kind of like in conversation with each other because they are very different perspectives and understandings of the same thing,” says Bridegum.

Todorova elaborates, calling their work a “more rounded view of two people seeing the same thing, but having a very different experience. … You don’t really know where you end or where the commute starts.”

Bridegum is a photographer with a background in sculpture, and Todorova describes her work as watermedia. While their chosen forms of expressing the daily commute differ, they both celebrate the contrasting beauty of manmade technology in nature. “I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about it this way,” Todorova muses, “but it’s the element behind the element, like engineering or pipe systems … someone thought of it, made it—man and nature. It can be empowering, inspiring.”

Bridegum nods in agreement. “I think it’s just so interesting. So many people get uptight about the environment and man’s influence on the environment. … It doesn’t have to be something that you see as a blemish on your aesthetic canvas.”

The artists met when they both working at the Nevada Museum of Art. A little over a year ago, Todorova approached Bridegum about an exhibit based on commuting. By chance or sheer synchronicity, Bridegum had just completed a piece on that same theme. They put a proposal together for the city and applied for the space to show their artwork.
“I really liked our title, From: To: … It feels that way a lot of the time,” says Todorova. “Not only are we studying it visually through this exhibit, we’re going through it every day.”

Bridegum and Todorova are graduates of the University of Nevada, Reno, earning their respective bachelor’s degrees in studio art and fine art. The artists are exuberant about art in Northern Nevada.

“I think that there are a lot of opportunities here, more than people think,” says Todorova. “There’s the ability to apply for shows. There’s grant funding. I work for the [Nevada] Arts Council, and we give so many grants to individual artists, which is very different than in any other state.”

They believe that Nevada is a good place for artists. “It’s a very close-knit arts community in terms of organizations working together, spaces being shared,” says Bridegum.

From: To: effectively captures the collective artistic consciousness of Northern Nevada through two interpretations of a well-known stretch of road. “It’s more like an everyday road trip rather than a commute. The visuals are different, too. When you commute in heavy traffic, and there’s nature, you have time to study sections or see certain things.” Todorova points to the ceiling with one hand and clutches an imaginary steering wheel with the other. “There’s an eagle!”

From: To: A Study of Space and Commuting is on exhibit through April 2 at the McKinley Arts and Culture Center, 925 Riverside Drive.
For more information, visit www.rossitza.net or www.staringthroughleaves.com.

Exhibit - From: To: a study of space and commuting, February 9 – April 2, 2009

Rossitza Todorova & Kelly Bidegum
From: To: a study of space and commuting
February 9 – April 2, 2009

Opening Reception, Thursday, February 19th from 6 to 8pm at the Mckinley Arts & Culture Center

From: To: a study of space and commuting is a collaborative exhibition of artwork by Carson City photographer, Kelly Bridegum and Reno artist, Rossitza Todorova. Comprised of both artist’s individual artwork this exhibit was inspirited by the artists’ daily 45min drive though the high desert of Washoe Valley.

Bridegum and Todorova commute for work in opposite directions on HWY 395. One drives from Reno to Carson City the other Carson City to Reno at about the same time, day-in and day-out through sun, snow, and wind. Each day’s long commute inspires new visual images for both artists.

Bridegum and Todorova depict the commute in their own unique styles. Photographs by Bridegum, strong in their since of place, story and texture will be displayed in contrast to Todorova’s sweeping black and white desert landscapes.

Directions: Mckinley Arts & Culture Center is located at 925 Riverside Drive, Reno, NV 89503. Map

To view a gallery of my artwork please visit www.rossitza.net for artwork by Kelly Bridegum visit www.staringthroughleaves.com

“6 Sides 2 Every Story” - Cube 16

I am currently participating in the “6 Sides 2 Every Story” art collaboration organized by Candace Nicol. This project is funded by grants from the Nevada Arts Council, and Sierra Arts Foundation.

Candace introduces the project by saying, "As humans, we have the incredible ability to perceive the same events as completely different happenings. This collaboration project will give consideration to these individual points of view."

"Participants are asked to illustrate their own individual perspectives by carving one side of a wooden cube. Each cube will represent one current issue found in a national/international article, internet posting, or magazine. This project will expand across the United States, starting with 100 (2"x2"x2") cubes, 600 participants."

I began Cube 16 based on the second oil pipeline proposed to be build through Alaska, "Alaska Now Has 2 Gas Pipeline Proposals" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1998861/posts

The participants of this cube are as follows:
Rossitza Todorova - Nevada — theme originator
Melanie Yazzie - Colorado
Leslie Benson - Colorado
Todd Christensen - New Mexico
Helen Baribeau - Colorado
Susie Mitchell - Colorado

The sides of each cube will be printed and framed for exhibition. A book of the prints is slated for later this year.

50% Cut to the Nevada Arts Council

Dear friends, colleagues, artists, and arts supporters,

The Nevada Governor’s Office has recommended a 50% reduction for the Nevada Arts Council (NAC) budget for each year of the FY10-11 biennium. A cut this deep signals serious consequences to your NAC grants, programs, and professional development services from which you, your organizations, and your community benefit.

I'm writing to ask for your help.

Should the Governor’s proposed reduction go through, the following are very real scenarios?
• The Nevada Arts Council grants would be reduced by 50-80 percent.

• Funding for programs like Circuit Riders (art consultants) and Professional Development Grants could be exhausted by fall, 2009.

• Challenge Grants funding major institutions like the Nevada Museum of Art will be eliminated for two years.

• Outreach programs such as Tumblewords, Traveling Exhibition Program which bring high quality visual and literary arts to Nevada’s rural communities will be suffer suspension and/or marginalization.

• NAC will layoff staff, including my position, Community Arts Development Associate, working with Nevada Arts Organizations around the State.

This is a very real threat to our state’s cultural infrastructure.Please let your legislators hear from you by doing the following two things.

1. Come to Carson City on Thursday morning, February 5, from 9 – 11 a.m. Quite simply, we need to pack the room with NAC grantees, constituents and artists. Your physical presence is vital, whether you speak or not.

2. Contact your Legislators and tell them that the arts matter in Nevada.Write to them via http://capwiz.com/artsusa/nv/state/main/?state=NV or call:

Senate Finance Committee
Senator Bernice Mathews 775-684-1433
Senator William Raggio 775-684-1419

Assembly Ways and Means Committee
Sheila Leslie 775-684-8845
Debbie Smith 775-684-8841
Heidi Gansert 775-684-8837
Tom Grady 775-684-8507
Pete Goicoechea 775-684-8573

Talking Points
Comments should/may address economic impact and diversification (jobs, payroll, taxes, etc), access and participation, cultural tourism, arts education, services to populations typically underserved and community vitality.

Your message should be clear – Nevada’s investment in the arts for more than 40 years through the Nevada Arts Council has been good use of public dollars and continuation of public funding for the arts is essential in Nevada. AND artists count as taxpayers and entrepreneurs.

Your voice is critically important. Again, this is a very real threat to public funding for the arts—not only here in northern Nevada, but throughout the state.

Remember the recent student demonstrations on behalf of higher education? Legislators saw and heard their message; it is now time to deliver the same message on behalf of the arts.

Higher education is the brain of Nevada, the arts are Nevada’s heart. Don’t leave Nevada without a mind and soul.

As always, thank you for your personal support
- Rossi