Wall 5 Archives

“Untitled”, Zola Zaugg

Untitled, Zola Zaugg, Oil on Linen on Board

Artist Biography

Zola Zaugg was born in 1890 in Mexico Missouri. She had, from an early age, an interest in art, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Hardin College Conservatory.

In 1916 she married Frederick Zaugg, a dentist, and they moved to Colorado Springs shortly thereafter. They were accepted into the society of Colorado Springs in which the arts were admired.

The Colorado Springs Art Guild was born in the 1940s and Zola joined the local art scene as it grew and developed, showing her art for the first time at the Hacienda room at the Antlers Hotel. She told Gazette art critic Tom Reaney that after hanging her paintings, she went home depressed. His observation of this was that “she showed a humility and honesty that will push her to greater accomplishments”. Her landscapes “seem to be handled with a freedom and sureness but leave enough to be wondered about, and create a desire to look again and see something new.” At a later one-person show at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center, Zola expressed her inner belief about her art by quoting a favorite line of Walt Whitman: “to sing what belongs to you and none else.” She was best known for portraits, landscapes and familiar scenes of local landmarks including much painted Pikes Peak, Cheyenne Mountain and the Garden of the Gods.

With the growth of the abstract in art, she made her feelings known by asserting that the artist should maintain “some semblance to known objects that a connection of some thought may be established between observer and artist.”

As her reputation grew she exhibited her art beyond Colorado Springs in Denver as well as in her hometown of Mexico, Missouri. Zola Zaugg passed away in 1983.

“Untitled”, Mary Chenoweth

Untitled, Mary Chenoweth, Wood Printing Block

Artist Biography

Mary Chenoweth was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1918, spending most of her childhood in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She trained for the United States Coast Guard in 1945, before coming to Colorado in 1949 to complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree at the University of Denver in 1950. She later earned her Master of Fine Arts Degree from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in 1953.

That same year, Mary came back to Colorado to teach printmaking at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. In 1957, she joined the Colorado College faculty, as Graphic Arts Instructor, then Assistant Professor from 1963 to 1972, becoming Associate Professor until 1982, and was made Full Professor upon her retirement in 1983.

Alongside teaching, and after retirement, Chenoweth was a prolific artist. She was proficient in sculpture; woodcarving and woodcut; silkscreen; watercolor and oil painting. She made outstanding pen and ink drawings; etchings; collage; and unique hand-made postcards. Continually experimenting and expanding her artwork, her creations were exhibited nationwide, with many clients. Her travels over the globe enriched her work. The large, main entry doors of the Broadmoor Community Church in Colorado Springs are an excellent example of her design and carving ability.

Mary demonstrated her sense of humor in the postcards sent to friends all over the country and the world. Each individually designed, they were often framed and preserved by the recipients.

“Portal”, Pat Musick

Portal, Pat Musick, Enameling on Copper, Wood, Mixed Media

Artist Statement

The nature of portals–gates, doors, transitional spaces—is to open into the unknown, or to exit from what has been. Synergies arise in “Portal” out of rough wood together with shiny glass (enameling), precise calligraphy with loose powdered glass sifted and fired in many layers. “Entrance” or “Exit” on this portal depends on the angle of light: it’s all how you look at it. Or is it all one? In the words of William Blake, inscribed just below the “Entrance/Exit” panel, “if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear…as it is, Infinite.”