Alchemy Of Tea

L o n e S ta r C o ll e g e - K i n g w o o d F i n e A r t G a ll e r y

Curated by Jen Crickenberger

MAY 20 - JUNE 24, 2015

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER · BARBARA BARTLETT
BRIDGET CONN · JENNIFER COYNE QUDEEN

MARI OMORI · RODNEY THOMPSON



Lone Star College-Kingwood is pleased to present Alchemy of Tea, a collection of work inspired by
tea and tea drinking assembled by curator Jen Crickenberger. Alchemy took its first breath at the
Cornelius Art Center in North Carolina in September 2014. Later, Professor Mari Omori, one of
Alchemy’s artists, proposed an exhibition here and connected us with the Cornelius Art Center and
artists Elizabeth Alexander, Barbara Bartlett, Bridget Conn, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, and Rodney
Thompson. Our sincerest congratulations and thanks to Jen Crickenberger and the Alchemy artists.

Kris Larson, Gallery Director
Lone Star College-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery

Curator Statement

Alchemy of Tea connects a variety of national artists whose work is inspired by tea. This
unique collection of work provokes viewers to contemplate the transformation of tea from
its consumable and degradable form into evocative art. The golden hues and delicate
textures found in this exhibit project its historical and spiritual roots, while each artist’s
subjects juxtapose a contemporary interpretation of tea as a muse and a medium. In this
setting, tea takes on many forms alluding to themes of introspection, domesticity, memory
and mortality. Featured artists include Barbara Bartlett, Bridget Conn, Elizabeth Alexander,
Jennifer Coyne Qudeen, Mari Omori and Rodney Thompson.

Tea ceremonies, while rooted in Asian cultures, have inspired countless tea rituals across the globe
for centuries. The rituals often suggest that consuming tea will offer a calm mind, a connection
to nature and a path to enlightenment. Many ceremonies celebrate the inner and outer human
experiences while some have evolved to promote a sense of prestige. Alchemy of Tea examines the
history and evolution of tea as found within a niche artistic community.

With a focus on the artist as an alchemist, the exhibit demonstrates the innovative use of ordinary
objects transformed into art objects. While each artist has a distinct creative process involving
tea bags, tea stains, tea envelopes or teacups; all of the artists embody a sense of scientific
experimentation. Mari Omori and Rodney Thompson both illustrate an important connection to the
cultural history of tea. Bridget Conn and Jennifer Coyne Qudeen share a similar approach of tea-
infused surfaces used to convey personal memories. Barbara Bartlett exhibits scale and the power
of tea as an aesthetic medium. Elizabeth Alexander offers a modern-day reflection on the societal
allusions of tea. Alchemy of Tea prompts viewers to consider their own personal and spiritual
connections to tea.

Jen Crickenberger
Curator, Cornelius Arts Center

Jen Crickenberger is the Curator & Manager for the Cornelius Arts Center as well as the Public
Art Project Manager for the Town of Cornelius. She was recently awarded the Arts and Science
Council’s Regional Artist Project Grant and commissioned to design the traveling exhibition,
Giving Back: The Soul of Philanthropy Reframed and Exhibited by Johnson C. Smith University.
While working as the Outreach Curator & Associate Director of Education at The Light Factory
Contemporary Museum of Photography and Film, Jen designed a multitude of powerful art
programs and exhibits that engaged teens through technology, photography and literacy.
These programs used the creative process to promote meaningful dialogues among different sectors
of the community. A few highlights include China I-Sights, Message in a Bottle: Reconstructing
Lives, Unique Perspectives: Breaking Boundaries of Students with Autism and We R Clt. In her free
time, Jen continues to work as a professional photographer and teaching artist.

1

ALCHEMY OF TEA

Elizabeth Alexander ............................................... 3
Barbara Bartlett ..................................................... 7
Bridget Conn ....................................................... 13
Jennifer Coyne Qudeen ........................................ 19
Mari Omori ......................................................... 27
Rodney Thompson ................................................ 33

2

Elizabeth Alexander

I make sculptures, drawings, and installations out of intricately cut
paper and found objects. My work deconstructs and then reconstructs
chosen objects, images, or spaces through acts of concealment and
disclosure so that they become versions of themselves that are different,
unearthed from beneath the surface, and highly exaggerated. Patterns
are laboriously removed, divided, repurposed or applied to utilitarian
objects and images of indulgence, giving them uncanny emotional
character. Vulnerability, loss, escapism, and longing are among what stem the moment where these
manipulated items are neither materializing nor disappearing, but caught between both actions.

The application or removal of decoration from an object or space serves to affect its function and
character. The decoration, often floral, is a stand in for delicacy, femininity, cultivation, indulgence,
and beauty, and acts differently when it is removed from a porcelain teacup or added to a tool. When
added, the presence of decoration projects desire, prosperity, and escapism onto objects and places
that are often overlooked. When removed, the absence of decoration signifies loss, vulnerability, and
a leveling of perceived unreachable places. Regardless, the true nature of these objects, spaces, or
images becomes out of place, uncanny, or surreal: tools are too delicate to use, the comfort of domestic
space is alien, and working class symbols are objects of desire. The chosen object, image, or space
is deconstructed, reconstructed, concealed, or exposed to become a version of itself that is different,
hidden, or exaggerated.

Bio

Elizabeth Alexander is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in sculptures and installations made
from paper and found objects. She is a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery with degrees in
sculpture from the Cranbrook Academy and Massachusetts College of Art. She has fellowships from
both the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the St. Botolph foundation for her work in Sculpture
and Installation Art and was awarded the title “Best Artist of Boston” for 2014 by Improper
Bostonian magazine. Her work has been highlighted and reviewed by publications such as Boston
Magazine, The Boston Globe, Art New England, The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research,
Santa Barbara News-Press, The Detroit Free Press, New Glass Review, Open Letters Monthly, and
Berkshire Fine Arts. She frequently exhibits in museums and galleries across New England in addition
to occasional participation with galleries across the US, Asia, and Europe. Her work is part of private
collections across the United States, including a public 3-D collage in the lobby of The Baronette
Renaissance Hotel in Novi, MI. She regularly serves as a guest speaker, juror, and critic at various
educational institutions including the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is an Assistant Professor at
Montserrat College of Art where she teaches sculpture and installation art. You can view her work at
elizabethalexanderstudio.com.

3

Pitch

4

Holly I

5

Holly II

6

Barbara Bartlett

Although I have been a lover of tea since childhood, it was only
about three years ago that tea bags began to show up in my artwork.
Since then, I have immersed myself in the world of the overlooked,
discarded tea bag – the beauty of the stained paper, the subtle colors
of the spent tea leaves, the bright variety of tea tag designs, and even
the simple charm of stained tea strings. I love the aspect of recycling
and reuse that comes into play in this work. Although the process of
drying and disassembling the bags can be labor-intensive, there is
also a satisfying and meditative quality to re-purposing the materials.

As an artist, experimentation is almost always central to my working process. Sometimes
the materials will be the starting point of a piece, as I often found in my work on this series.
Different tea bag profiles (I have discovered more than 25 tea bag designs!) create different
shapes to work with and suggest a variety of ways they can be joined together. In creating
this work, I found myself being drawn to stitch by hand or machine, to glue, to staple, or to
use beeswax as an adhesive medium. While initially the work was two-dimensional, I was
increasingly drawn to creating three-dimensional pieces. Indeed, I often found myself asking,
“Just how far can one push a tea bag?”

Even as a tea lover I was not able to drink enough to amass the many thousands of bags that I
needed for this project. The ongoing donation of used, dried tea bags from a vast circle of friends
and family (and even a local Woodstock café!) has given this work great meaning to me. I love
that within each piece are many cups of tea that translate to pleasure, refreshment, sustenance
and comfort to people I care about. As I make the work, I’m conscious that behind each tea bag
is a story. It is continually fascinating to be challenged to create interest and beauty out of this prosaic
recycled material in which every piece is unique. In making this work, I found myself increasingly
guided by my instinct, trusting my voice as a woman and an artist. It affirmed my willingness to
take risks in the process of discovering what I want to communicate through my work. And yet,
because of the whimsical nature of the material, I found it natural to inject a sense of humor
into what I was creating. But in the end, the contemplative process of making these pieces
just seemed to resonate with the part of myself that savors a cup of jasmine green, Ceylon,
Darjeeling or peppermint.

Bio

Barbara grew up in the Chicago metropolitan area and pursued a career in special education
and social work before following what had been a long-term interest in art. The Boston area
was home for 30 years until she moved to Vermont in 2006. Since the late 1990s, Barbara
has devoted herself full-time to the study and creation of art. She has exhibited nationally
and in Australia. She is represented in private & corporate collections in Sydney, Munich,
Boston, New York, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont. Barbara divides her studio
time between Vermont and Sydney, where she lives for four months every year. Barbara
initially studied watercolor and acrylic painting, but soon was drawn to printmaking.
The aspects of layering and texturing it offered easily translated into mixed media, which is the
current focus of her art. In recent years she has become fascinated by the possibilities of working
three-dimensionally. Employing recycled or repurposed material as much as possible, she has
recently created a large collection of pieces made from used tea bags.

7

Stringing Ideas Together

8

Dip It or Dunk It

9

Heart Poem

10

Mobilitea

11

12

Bridget Conn

This body of work deals with my evolving themes of ritual, tradition,
and inheritance, as they blend with nature and science. I find equal
wonder in the traditional “women’s work” activities of baking and
cooking as I do in studying geography, astronomy and biology.
These images are created to express the wonder I see in the
every day, the lurking sense of order and sacredness that imbues even
the most mundane of objects. I strive to cross-breed the spiritual and
the analytical, rather than separate them into two distinct languages.
Printing images onto teabags satisfies my personal conceptual concerns of working with a material
that holds significance to me – the ritual of morning tea that I have observed since I was a child.
I drink from every tea bag that is used, dry it, empty it, and digitally print a portion of the image
onto it. Much like my training in traditional darkroom photography, the image is “developed,” in
this case by hand, as I paint highlights, shadows and color into the image with watercolor crayon
and pencil. The dried stains of the tea bag remain and are integrated, layers of visual texture are
created, and the passage of time is implied.

Bio
Bridget Conn earned her BFA in Photography from Tulane University in 2000, and her MFA
from the University of Georgia in 2003, focusing in Photography, Mixed Media, and Installation.
Throughout the 2000s she taught at numerous colleges in Georgia and was a member of the
Stillmoreroots artist collective based in Swainsboro.

She has participated in over 100 shows, more than 20 of which have been solo. These venues
include the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah; the Art Museum of the University of Memphis;
as well as venues in Italy, Hungary and South Korea. She has been a resident at Elsewhere Artist
Collaborative in Greensboro, NC, and the Hungarian Multicultural Center in Budapest.
In the fall of 2009, Bridget moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where she currently spreads her
time among teaching, arts writing, design, and creating art. She is the Photography instructor at
Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, NC. She is also the director and main instructor at
The Asheville Darkroom, a non-profit photographic center she founded in 2012.

13

March

14

Fragile Home 2 Good Year

Missing Piece 2 Quiet

15

Feather Lady

16

Stubborn

17

Countdown
Gift

18

Jennifer Coyne Qudeen

Memories are often associated with tastes, scents and sounds. Tea
is my memory link. One whiff of freshly brewed black pekoe with
mint and orange transports me back to my grandmother’s kitchen.
Lady Grey wends me to Newburgh, Scotland where I first sampled its
delicate yet steady taste.

My work with tea bags explores and expands on the concept of
memories, whether real or imagined, through the use of marks –
the tea’s own as well as my hand made marks, direct rust prints,
digital prints and hand and machine stitching. The translucent quality
of the tea bag paper seems the perfect medium for expressing and storing memories as with time
they become ethereal.

Bio
Jennifer gained an appreciation for fiber arts early as her mother and grandmother hand quilted
and crocheted. Baskets were particularly fascinating and after graduating from Berea College in
1982 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Management, she learned the fundamentals of weaving
with reeds and other natural materials.

During the next 20 years, Jennifer’s work evolved from traditional, functional baskets into vibrant
abstract wall pieces that are studies in color, movement and texture. She became a juried member
of the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA in 2002 and participated in many nationally
recognized art shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

Jennifer’s focus changed in 2006 when she fell in love with mark making. Continually experimenting
and pushing her artistic boundaries by asking what if, she now combines her passions for tea,
mark making, direct rust printing, stitching, photography and storytelling to create artist books and
wall pieces with a wabi sabi aesthetic. www.jennifercoynequdeen.blogspot.com

19

Detail of Quiet Time

20

Whispered Stories, and detail

21

Quiet Time

22

Water Dreams #3

23

Water Dreams #1

24

Tea Stories

25

(clockwise from top left)
Detail of Tea Stories #4, #12, #23, #26

26

Mari Omori

Tea is more than a beverage. Serving and receiving tea is an art form
deeply rooted in the traditions of many cultures worldwide. Drinking
tea is a centuries-old ritual that plays many roles in daily life: to start
a day, to greet guests. In my culture, its purpose is also to cleanse
one’s body and soul. Tea is a gift to celebrate and bestow a long,
healthy life.

I am a Japanese-born artist living and working in south Texas since
1992. My interest surrounding tea is the time shared, the mutual
respect between host and guest, and the memories of the moment
as an event. In 1997, a pivotal moment in my art-making occurred when I noticed the stain made
by tea leaves on porous teabag paper. When I unfolded the teabag, it revealed a stain designed
by tea and the passage of time, an imprint left from the tea as if it were a memory. Each opened
teabag, devoid of tea, has a distinguishing stain that evokes multiple images; at times it appears to
be a distant forest, and another time it resembles the shroud of Turin. Since that time I have been
collecting hundreds of used teabags and related tea items to construct sculptures and create large-
scale room installations. The use of tea stain as a medium and teabags as raw material provide
endless possibilities as I explore identity, memory, transformation, and the notion of time.

I am interested in the materiality of humble, everyday materials and recycling them, turning used
into new art. I am also interested in their nature, history, and associative meanings. I want to tap
into the material’s undiscovered nature as a way to explore its unknown aspects. Tea as material
has considerable significance and my journey with tea will continue for many years to come.

Bio
Born and raised in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Mari Omori is a multimedia artist, art educator, and
curator who received her MFA from UCLA and BA from California State University Northridge.
She is currently a Professor of Art at Lone Star College-Kingwood, TX, a position she has held
since 2002. Her awards include the 2008 Mino Culture Art Project Artist-in-Residency, Japan,
in conjunction with her Sabbatical Grant, and the 2007 Palm Beach County Cultural AIR
Grant, culminating a solo exhibition at the Morikami Museum, Palm Beach, Florida. Her recent
AIR experiences are Oaxaca, Mexico in 2013; Hilmsen, Germany in 2012; and COLLAGE:
Art for Cancer Network with MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, on-going since 2007.
Her works have been exhibited internationally in Japan, Germany, Mexico, Taiwan, and Thailand,
as well as in solo and group shows in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas.
Her work is in the collection of The Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX; Mino Washi/
Paper Museum, Gifu Prefecture, Japan; and Lone Star College-Kingwood, Kingwood, TX.

27

Katachi: Shape

28

Tea Bowl: Morning Dew

Tea Bowl: Sunrise

29

Sundial #2

30

Tea Collage

31

Mask: Summer

32

Rodney Thompson

I often utilize common objects of everyday life, things overlooked,
disregarded and unappreciated, and present them out of context such
that the viewer sees them first for their beauty and later for what they
are. In this way I hope to suggest how there is much to be seen and
appreciated in our world that is often missed. Beauty is all around
us, available to the observant eye. Encaustic allows me to include
these objects and materials in my artwork in ways that add layers
of meaning to the art, referencing both the joy of simple activities of
daily living as well as more specific concepts that I associate with the
objects and materials.

Teabag paper and coffee filters are examples of such materials and artifacts of our daily lives.
Drinking tea or coffee is a calming and soothing meditation. We often stop and sit with the hot
drink, allowing ourselves to rest and to be in the moment. The simple objects used in these works
are like prayer flags marking a moment of daily life spent quietly and peacefully.

Bio
Rodney, an award-winning self-taught artist, has been working with non-traditional mixed media
materials for the past 25 years in his studio in northern California. In the past decade he has
developed a passion for encaustic medium and finding ways to incorporate drawing and objects in
layers of encaustic wax. Rodney has shown in galleries throughout the country and has contributed
writing and artwork for four books on encaustic art. He has taught workshops and has provided
presentations at several encaustic conferences on a variety of subjects. He was honored to be
Artist-in-Residence at two national parks.

33

Noren

34

Basin & Range #32

35

Chant II (Om Mani Padme Hum)

36

Ryokan #7

37

Earth Quadrant #6

Earth Quadrant #7

38

Elizabeth Alexander Bridget Conn (cont’d)

Pitch Feather Lady
5.25” x 4” x 4” 20” x 24” x 1.5”
Hand cut porcelain, adhesive Hand-colored inkjet photograph on tea bags,
mounted on wood
Holly I
5” x 3” x 4.5” Stubborn
Hand cut porcelain, adhesive 14.5” x 11” x 1.5”
Hand-colored inkjet photograph on tea bags,
Holly II mounted on wood
6.25” x 4.25” x 3”
Hand cut porcelain, adhesive Gift, Countdown
12” x 12” x 1.5” each
Barbara Bartlett Hand-colored inkjet photographs on tea bags,
mounted on wood
Stringing Ideas Together
11” x 11” x 1 1/2” Jennifer Coyne Qudeen
Tea bags, linen thread, plastic, tea leaves
2011 Whispered Stories
21” x 87”
Dip It or Dunk It Tea marks, ink drawing, direct rust print, digital
28” x 14” print, text, collage, machine stitching with cotton
Tea bags on fusible fabric, thread thread on tea bag paper
2011 2014

Heart Poem Quiet Time
30” x 30” x 1 1/2” 27” x 30”
Tea bags, thread, stones Tea marks, direct rust print, digital print, collage,
2013 machine stitching, machine stitching with cotton
thread on tea bag paper
Mobilitea 2014
100” x 24” x 24”
Tea sacks, bamboo, red thread, swivels, mesh, Water Dreams #3
adhesive, wood dowels 26” x 32”
2012 Collage, tea bag paper, tea marks, ink, text,
direct rust print, digital print, cotton thread,
Bridget Conn machine stitching
2015
March
24” x 20” x 1.5” Water Dreams #1
Hand-colored inkjet photograph on tea bags, 24” x 30”
mounted on wood Tea marks, direct rust print, digital print, collage,
machine stitching, machine stitching with cotton
Fragile Home 2, Good Year, Missing Piece 2, thread on tea bag paper
Quiet 2014
12” x 12” x 1.5” each
Hand-colored inkjet photographs on tea bags, Tea Stories
mounted on wood Set of 32 4” squares
Tea marks, direct rust print, digital print, collage,
39 machine stitching, machine stitching with cotton
thread on tea bag paper
2014

Mari Omori Rodney Thompson (cont’d)

Katachi: Shape Earth Quadrant #6 and #7
85” x 45” x 2” 12” x 12” each
tea bag envelope, tea stain, string, tea tag, Encaustic, teabag paper, earth
archival paste on paper 2010
2014

Tea Bowl: Morning Dew
8” diameter x 4”
Mino Washi/paper, archival paste
2014

Tea Bowl: Sunrise
8” diameter x 4”
Mino Washi/paper, archival paste
2013

Sundial #2
50” diameter x 2”
Tea envelope, tea stain, pins on paper
2007

Tea Collage
8” x 10” each
Teabag and paste on Arches paper
1997-2013

Mask: Summer
20” x 12” x 6”
Teabag, string, beeswax, silver
2006

Rodney Thompson

Noren
8” x 6”
Encaustic, teabag paper, walnut ink

Basin & Range #32
6” x 6”
Encaustic, teabag paper, coffee, rust, oil

Chant II (Om Mani Padme Hum)
10” x 40”
Encaustic, paper, teabag paper, earth
2012

Ryokan #7
7” x 5”
Encaustic, teabag paper, comb wax
2005

40

Credits
LSC-Kingwood Media - Jason Watson, Diana Sorenson

LSCK TV - Garrick Joubert, Edwin Brega, Dan Ko
Show Curator - Jen Crickenberger
Designs in Print - Pamela Clarke
Graphic Artist - T.C. Robson

LSC-Kingwood Fine Art Gallery
20000 Kingwood Drive

Kingwood, TX 77339-3801
Phone 281.312.1534
LoneStar.edu/Kingwood

Affirmative Action/EEO College