Read Spunk Program - California Shakespeare Theater

nature
guardians buried with the First Qin Dynasty
emperor in the third century B. C.”
Michelle Gregor holds a BFA from UC
Santa Cruz and MFA from SFSU; she
currently heads the Ceramic Department
at San Jose City College. You can fi nd
her architectural sculpture outside of San
Francisco’s Olympic Club and inside the
Spa at Pebble Beach, and her fi gurative
sculptures in bronze and ceramic are
in the homes, offi ces, and gardens of
private collectors. In late July, Gregor and
Susannah Israel (who has two pieces in
this season’s Works in Nature) will create
a collaborative fi gurative sculpture in one
week at Sierra Nevada College (Incline
Village, NV).
On the southwest end of the plaza’s
pistachios, a more whimsical fi gure
stands eight feet high—Giant, by young
Palo Alto native (and East Bay resident)
LISA REINERTSON
Polar Bear/Slip Sliding Away
Day at the Beach
BAR SCHACTERMAN
Baal
PATRICK SILER
A Saxophone
on the Sea Bed
AL SINERCO
calmTiki
Tom Franco. Giant’s materials include
found objects, as with most of Franco’s
sculptural work, a constant comment on
the modern era’s pervasive consumer
culture. Franco, too, got his BFA from
UC Santa Cruz, and earned and MFA
in ceramics fi ne arts from CCA. He is
the co-creator and sole director of the
Firehouse Art Collective—comprising six
locations in the San Francisco Bay Area
that include three galleries, three micro
store fronts and a bazaar, four groups of
studio space, and two groups of shared
apartments—and his most recent project
is the collaborative incubator Tom Franco
Co-Lab.
Perhaps the most striking of this year’s
fi gurative works is Baal, which can be
found at the top of the Amphitheater,
by our chair rental station. The piece,
by Russian-born artist Bar Shacterman,
JOHN TOKI
Blue Memory
Spring Majesty
WANXIN ZHANG
Mask
TOM FRANCO
stands just over four feet high and is
part of his “Mythology” series, which
depicts god, humans, and supernatural
heroes from a wide variety of sacred
texts—“Ba’al” has had many meanings
throughout the ages, just one of which, in
Judaism, began as “God,” but later came
to represent a false deity. Shacterman was
born in Odessa, but immigrated to Israel
when he was six years old. He trained
at the Academy of Art in Tel Aviv, then
traveled through Europe, India, and an
apprenticeship in Japan before settling in
Northern California.
The full list of pieces in 2012’s Works in
Nature exhibition can be found below.
You’ll find a map of all the sculptures
and other details to the left of the path
near the entrance to the plaza, and more
information about the rest of the artists in
subsequent 2012 show programs.
More information about
this year’s installation
can be found online at
calshakes.org/WorksinNature.
encoreartsprograms.com 23