Above: Hoop Dancer, watercolor, by Camille Hofvendahl

Meet the SICA 2027 Calendar Artists, Part I

Assembled By Fayra Teeters

As previously announced, here is the first of several articles introducing you to the amazing artists who contributed their artistic images to the SICA 2027 Calendar.

Alexa Wichert

The Latihan is a fragrant breeze on the wind to me. A divine fragrant breeze. As most people, I too have felt this divine impulse in my life. I remember being just one year old looking up at trees alone in our Detroit backyard with a full sense of Divinity in nature. It wasn’t until 1996 when I was opened in Seattle, Washington, that the divine impulse took shape with a direction. An impulse. I struggled to find my own artistic expression through my own complicated learning modalities.

My father had his own complex way of being. Because he was a professor of Art History and Painting, it was difficult for me to be artistically expressive. There could only be one artist in the house growing up. The Latihan opened a door, putting a breeze under my wings to expand my vision through food: I founded Catering By Phyllis in 1990. The Latihan expanded my internal voice enough to the point of being able to embrace working with my father and combine our talents.

My image for the 2027 SICA Calendar is a photo taken at an event catered for a show in conjunction with The Masters Tournament in August, Georgia, where my father was appointed as the first William S. Morris Foundation Eminent Scholar of Art at the then August College. Now, August University.

I firmly believe that my father, James Mahlon Rosen, experienced a divine impulse while painting. Once that impulse could be shared, mine through the Latihan, a new experience of creative flow emerged and was nurtured. What an honor to present this photo of the culmination with my Dear Papa’s “unfinished work” and my extensive catering.

Lorraine Arden

by her daughter Elisa Arden

Lorraine’s participation in the Latihan did not simply influence her art — it shaped the trajectory of her entire creative life. The Latihan guided not only the subject matter of her work, but often the medium as well. At one point, she stepped away from painting for nearly ten years after receiving that she needed to focus on spiritual development first. When she returned to art, she received that she was meant to become a sculptor, leading her to study bronze casting and carving.

In her own words:

Religion and my life are not separate at all. I’m trying to be, my whole life, closer to God. Most of my work relates to dreams or spiritual experiences that I have had. I am interested in the inner content of all major religions. I have sought to depict ideas from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which I feel my own experiences helped me understand. I especially relate to these religions as they all believe that God interacts with his creation and that miracles are possible. I want people to understand that the sum of what these religions have in common is much greater than the differences that separate them.”

The spiritual life is often envisioned as full of sweetness, joy and light. And while it is all of those, it is also a field of conflict for the internal struggle, sacrifice and pain that come with growth and stretching of the heart, mind and soul. My expressionistic paintings and sculpture convey one individual’s intense, at times agonizing, struggles to open up the mind, the heart and the soul. From struggle comes peace. From resistance a new yielding and willingness to give. From pain comes light.

Camille Hofvendahl

Camille Hofvendahl is a visual artist, working in many mediums including clay, yarn, cloth, painting furniture, printmaking and more recently, watercolor. Recently drawn to painting the Native American images photographed by Edward Curtis at the turn of the 20th century. Although his subjects were on reservations when he made his daguerreotypes, they were living an authentic lifestyle and wearing traditional clothing in his photos. She likes to use his compositions because he took great care to preserve the essence of native people. Camille offered her watercolor painting, Hoop Dancer, for SICA’s first online auction fundraiser in 2023.

Lucian Parshall

Tanagers are one of my favorite species to photograph. There are close to 149 species of birds in the Americas with tanager in their name – 145 in South and Central Americas and only 4 are found in North America. As one can see in my gallery tanagers are a very colorful species – they are noted for their brilliant, jewel-like plumages, with striking greens, blues, and yellows.

I was a birder in the late 60’s but as soon as 35mm film cameras with telephoto lenses emerged in early 70’s my interest in bird photography began. The problem with film was that you don’t find out if you got any decent photos until you had them developed. Unfortunately, with a young family film photography became too expensive and I had to put my photography on hold.

However, nearly 4 decades later (2010) my hobby restarted in earnest. I had retired, digital cameras had matured and I became an empty nester. It was a trifecta: I could bird, I could photograph, I could travel. At that time my attention refocused from birds in North America to those in South and Central America. I traveled to ecolodges in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica – with so many new species it was like starting out as a rookie birder all over again, but this time with digital. With digital cameras you could edit your own photos on your computer which became gratifying in itself.

My hobby observing, banding, feeding and taking photographs of birds began very early and has lasted my lifetime – what a wonderful joy dinosaurs turned out to be.