Giving Life to the Community
Mildred Howard:
Born in San Francisco, Mildred Howard has been creating art since her formative years. Her work has been exhibited in such diverse venues as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francsico; the Neuburger Biennale; and Nielsen Gallery in Boston. In February 2004, Howard was invited by the American Embassy in Cairo as a Visiting Artist/Cultural Specialist to Alexandria, Cairo, and Minia, Egypt. She has received numerous awards for her work including an NEA in sculpture, a Flieshhacker Eureka Fellowship, a Flintridge Award and Anonymous Was a Woman. She was named an O'Brien Distinguish Professor at Scripps College in Claremont, California in 2003.
"Myth and ritual, memory and place, religion and family, metaphor and symbolism, music, light, tradition and found objects. These are the sources and material of my work. I make art that summons familiar references, psychological associations and evocations of a history or histories. Those histories can be layered to evoke complex and ever unfolding human experience. I like to use found material in my work, everyday objects that can conjure-up multiple meanings. Fragments of objects are emblematic references that allow one to question how we view the world. I make sculptures and installations that set up dialogues. They define territories of understanding between objects and environment, objects and memory, memory and experience. It is important for me that my work pushes the boundaries of one's self, by having my work become a vehicle for understanding the complexities of the world in which we live and share."-Mildred Howard
