Bay Area Artist's "Sketchbook Images of Whiskeytown" is Coming to the Whiskeytown Visitor Center

Date: April 21, 2010
Contact: Sheila Edridge, [phone]

Bay Area artist Jan Wurm will display images from her “Whiskeytown Sketchbook” at an upcoming exhibition at the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Visitor Center.  Wurm produced the images during her stay last summer in the Artists Cabin at Whiskeytown.  The immediacy of the artwork and spontaneity of technique will bring back fond memories of a warm summer’s day at the beach.

Jan Wurm, a Berkeley resident and art instructor at the University of California Berkeley Extension, graduated from The Royal College of Art in London.  She has had extensive solo and group exhibitions including the California Modern Gallery in San Francisco, and the Berkeley Public Library, as well as exhibitions in New York, Chicago, London and Berlin.  She has lectured and participated on multiple art panels, and her work is included in many public and private collections including The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, New York Public Library, Children’s Hospital of Oakland and Archive Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen, Berlin.

Wurm’s artwork is affectionate and warm.  Within her “Whiskeytown Sketchbook” you will see her love of nature and her love of people.  She is masterful in the way she approaches each new subject or topic; this mastery enables her to be prolific while still infusing a strong artistic connectedness to each piece.  Jan Wurm’s “Whiskeytown Sketchbook” will be on display at the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Visitor Center May 21st through July 24th.  A public reception for the artist will be held at the Visitor Center on Friday, May 21st from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

In addition to the “Whiskeytown Sketchbook,” three North State authors will be available to discuss their books:  Max Walter who wrote Northstate Single Track, a book often referred to as the mountain biker’s Bible; Peter Edridge, author of Burning Bears Fall From the Sky, a newly released and humorous book about the trials and tribulation of an urbanite’s relocation from a desk in the Bay Area to a remote mountainside in Shasta County; and Al Rocca who will be available to discuss his several books on the North State and will provide a preview of the book he is currently working on, which discusses the building of Whiskeytown Dam and the creation of Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.

The Whiskeytown Visitor Center is located on the corner of Highway 299 West and Kennedy Memorial Drive, and is open from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Beginning May 31, the Visitor Center switches to summer hours and will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  For more information, please call [phone], or visit Wurm’s website at http://janwurm.com/  For more information on Whiskeytown National Recreation area, please visit the park’s website at http://www.nps.gov/whis

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