{"id":36789,"date":"2015-03-25T16:42:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-25T23:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=36789"},"modified":"2015-12-04T16:15:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T23:15:09","slug":"local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2015\/03\/25\/local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Local artist Karla Leopold wins major sculpture competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cWoman
\u201cWoman on a Journey,\u201d National Association of Women Artists\u2019 2013 award-winning mixed media piece by Idyllwild artist Karla Leopold. Photo courtesy Karla Leopold<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Idyllwild artist Karla Leopold is modest. She creates edgy art in a variety of mediums \u2014 evocative art suffused and deepened through her work as an art therapist treating mental illness and childhood trauma. Leopold exhibits in prestigious galleries and teaches in leading universities. And although her art is strikingly original, and her skill as an art therapist is widely acknowledged, Leopold is still surprised when her art receives major recognition and accolades.<\/p>\n

She was recently notified that she had won one of the most prestigious awards in sculpting, the Margo Harris Hammerschlag Biennial National Direct Carving competition \u2014 \u201cWomanly Splendor\u201d and \u201cSmall Twist.\u201d A competition sponsored the National Association of Women Artists (www.thenawa.org) sponsors.<\/p>\n

Friends and family had to coax her to enter the competition. \u201cI was reluctant,\u201d she said. \u201cAs an artist, you always question your own work. And I\u2019m not a specialist in this area specifically.\u201d The area, direct carving, is one in which the artist \u201cdiscovers\u201d the piece as they are carving it. The process of carving suggests the final form rather than working from a preliminary model to create a piece.<\/p>\n

Leopold confided that she had only sculpted about 20 direct-carved pieces prior to entering the direct-carving competition. To enter she had to submit 10 examples of her work in this category. \u201cThe 10th piece was on top of my husband\u2019s refrigerator, and that is one of the two that won,\u201d she said. \u201cMy stone carving is feminist, strong, hard, but fluid and beautiful. Stone has such a deep connection with the earth. When you carve stone, you can\u2019t go in with an agenda. When I thought I knew what I was doing, it would break off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cWomanly
\u201cWomanly Splendor,\u201d one of two award-winning sculptures by Idyllwild artist Karla Leopold.
Photo courtesy Karla Leopold<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To walk through Leopold\u2019s Idyllwild studio is to experience the breadth of her talent \u2014 art in many forms \u2014 pastel painting for which she is best known; mixed media rooted in trauma and suffering, using a broad swath of materials and textures; and illustrations, a specialty for which she was trained at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her mixed media piece, \u201cWoman on a Journey,\u201d won the President\u2019s Award, NAWA Gallery in New York City in 2014; her \u201cChild of Trauma\u201d won second place at Pennsylvania State University\u2019s Hub-Robertson Gallery, also in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do so many things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that I\u2019m unfocused. It\u2019s just that I have so many interests, pushing to the edges and then on to the next subject or form.\u201d Leopold recalled how she became an art therapist. \u201cI\u2019d always been fascinated by therapy and at a certain point in my life I felt I was unfocused, not knowing what to do.\u201d She said she then went on a Los Angeles TV show Psychiatrist Dr. David Viscott hosted. \u201cHe said he did not see me as unfocused. He advised that my children, who were older, no longer needed as much from me, but that the world did. I asked, \u2018Is there such a thing as an art therapist?\u2019 He told me I \u2018was\u2019 an art therapist. When I asked what that meant, he said I\u2019d figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

And she did, going to graduate school at Loyola Marymount University to be formally trained in art therapy. She has helped guide many suffering from life-altering losses work though their loss using art as the healing agent. In the fall of 2005, Rosie O\u2019Donnell\u2019s foundation, \u201cFor All Kids,\u201d asked Leopold to lead a team of California therapists to work in an evacuation camp in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with children traumatized by Hurricane Katrina. O\u2019Donnell\u2019s foundation fully funded the team\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\"Idyllwild
Idyllwild artist Karla Leopold
Photo by Mallory Cremin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When talking about her art, Leopold talks process. \u201cMy art is my process,\u201d she stressed. \u201cAll I have experienced, in treating pain and loss, has flowed through my work. I keep saying, It\u2019s not me, it\u2019s all those with whom I have worked.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the Hammerschlag award, Leopold said, \u201cIt\u2019s such a validation of my hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leopold said she is preparing a comprehensive exhibit of her work, including the winning Hammerschlag sculptures, for exhibition this fall in a gallery near Idyllwild.<\/p>\n

In addition to being catalogued and archived at the Smithsonian, Leopold\u2019s award-winning sculptures also will be on file with the Whitney Museum of Modern Art in New York City as well as the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim and Metropolitan museums, the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. For more about Leopold, visit www.karlaleopold.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idyllwild artist Karla Leopold is modest. She creates edgy art in a variety of mediums \u2014 evocative art suffused and deepened through her work as an art therapist treating mental illness and childhood trauma. Leopold exhibits in prestigious galleries and teaches in leading universities. And although her art is strikingly original, and her skill as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLocal artist Karla Leopold wins major sculpture competition • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2015\/03\/25\/local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \\u2014\\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2015\/03\/25\/local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/artist21.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2015\/03\/25\/local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2015\/03\/25\/local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition\/\",\"name\":\"Local artist Karla Leopold wins major sculpture competition • Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2015\/03\/25\/local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-25T23:42:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-04T23:15:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2015\/03\/25\/local-artist-karla-leopold-wins-major-sculpture-competition\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\",\"name\":\"Marshall Smith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f832ebbb90c77ae40e932b1b868a8db?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Marshall Smith\"},\"description\":\"Marshall Smith has been writing for the Town Crier since 2005. His favorite quote is: '\\\"Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.\\\" Robert Kennedy quoting George Bernard Shaw\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36789"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36789"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41796,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36789\/revisions\/41796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}