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Connor Everts, Studies in Desperation
Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art
8568 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA
July 20, 2007–August 25, 2007

The visitor to Connor Everts, Studies in Desperation at Cardwell Jimmerson first confronts a lengthy introductory wall text that is also a rumination on the politics of art censorship. This socially-minded tone is right for the show’s contents: beyond lies a group of lithographs and charcoal drawings from the mid-1960’s that provoked an obscenity lawsuit at the time of their making. But it also sets up an expectation of transgressive art, of a shock—a shock that never comes. Far from sensationally indecent (the charge of legalistic eyes back then), Everts’ work visually maps psychic states of dread, alienation, desire using the subtlest effects of medium and hand. In the series of drawings entitled Prototype, Studies in Desperation, this formal economy is at its most potent, with a few choice erasures of a dense charcoal background coming to suggest grotesquely deformed mouths, limbs, loins. At times the work’s disturbed spaces indeed contain erotic references, albeit in abstract form, but even these episodes seem less than lewd. The show, in other words, brackets the moralistic debate over Everts’ art as a telling historical phenomenon. And one leaves Cardwell Jimmerson’s pristine white cube pondering another, very present-tense question—namely, in our age of hyperexposure, what image (if any) could read as reliably obscene?
(reprinted from Artslant.com)

Connor Everts with Paul Darrow, was a founder of the Los Angeles Printmaking Society in 1962

The LAPS Foundation was founded in 1987 to encourage the next generation of artist printmakers in southern California.

Foundation Scholarship Grant Awards
Each year printmaking students are encouraged to apply for our Foundation Scholarship Grant Awards. They must submit an application signed by a faculty member from the college they are attending. LAPS student members are eligible. No active regular member of LAPS is eligible for an award. It is common for student awardees to become active members in LAPS and the printmaking community after they have won a student award. LAPS Foundation spent many years fundraising to create a self supporting endowment for the cash grants provided for the Scholarships. Past awardees have included many current LAPS members, such as Dirk Hagner, now an active LAPS Board member. Each student who receives an award is invited to a special board meeting where they receive their check. Student winners are encouraged to donate a print to the Foundation collection. The Foundation has a collection of prints that we use in our fund raising efforts. A patron of LAPS is entitled to choose a print for his/her personal collection as a gift for a patron donation of $150. Patrons receive invitations to attend special patron events and all our regular LAPS events, as well.

2007 Winning Applicants
This year the LAPS Foundation chose 2 winning applicants:
A First prize of $1000 went to Leanne Reinhold and 2nd prize of $750 went to Susan Unoura. Both are students at Saddleback College. Congratulations to all of our student applicants this year.

Membership and the Foundation
All members in good standing of LAPS are members of the Foundation. There is an Executive Board of the Foundation consisting of President, Treasurer, Secretary, the current President of LAPS, and one other. There is at least one annual meeting of the Executive Board, and a financial report is submitted to the Board of LAPS.

Background Information
The LAPS Foundation was founded in 1987 as a nonprofit public
benefit corporation. It is organized under the Non Profit Public
Benefit Corporation Law for charitable purposes, and is not organized
for the private gain of any person. [Sec 501c]

The original 1987 Executive Board of LAPS Foundation included Robert W Brown, President. Masha Schweitzer, Treasurer, and Barbara Frankel, Secretary, and Mina Kan President of LAPS.

President
Jennifer Anderson

Vice President
John Powers

Recording Secretary
Barbara Frankel

Corresponding Secretary & Membership Roster
Masha Schweitzer

Treasurer
Mary Peterson

19th National Chair
Nancy Jo Haselbacher

Publicity Chair
Anita Klebanoff

Interleaf Editor
Dirk Hagner

Newsprint Editors
Donna Westerman, Vinita Voogd, Dirk Hagner

Mailing
Open

Exhibition Chair
Cathy Weiss

Exhibition Committee:
Rachelle Mark, Sheila Newmark, Masha Schweitzer, Mary Sherwood Brock, Jennifer Anderson, Nancy Jo Haselbacher, Diane Mcleod

Hospitality Chair
Barbara Salanitro

Fundraising Chair
Open

Fundraising Committee
John Powers, Mary Sherwood Brock, Vinita Voogd

Student Coordinators
John Greco & Ruth Leaf

New Members
John Greco

Slide Registry
Joy Chapman

Website Chairman
Mary Sherwood Brock

Members-at-Large Judy Dekel, Nancy Grenier, Sheila Newmark, Diane McLeod, Sarah Pavsner, Vinita Voogd

LAPS Foundation

President
Barbara Frankel

Secretary
Nancy Grenier

Treasurer
Masha Schweitzer

The Los Angeles Printmaking Society (LAPS) is a national non-profit dedicated to the encouragement of printmaking, educating the public and promoting the interests of printmaking as an art form. We encourage students exploring printmaking media with student exhibitions and the LAPS Foundation grants. LAPS publishes a quarterly journal Interleaf as well as catalogs and posters in support of our biennial exhibition, The National. We also maintain a web site where members can exhibit their work in our web gallery and where a calendar of events can be accessed. From our website one can explore many resource links to other printmaking sites. LAPS fosters communication among artists interested in expanding the dialogue in the graphic arts.

LAPS is a member of the American Print Alliance, which also includes: Boston Printmakers, California Society of Printmakers, Conseil Quebecois de l'Estampe, Florida Printmakers Society, Honolulu Printmakers, Maryland Printmakers, Mid America Print Council, Nova Scotia Printmakers Association, Northwest Print Council, Pittsburgh Print Group, Southern Graphics Council. LAPS has had a long and illustrious history in the Los Angeles arts community. Become an active member and join the Board.

The Los Angeles Printmaking Society invites its members to join our yahoo group. This voluntary group listing will allow members to share information with each other. This forum can be used to announce personal exhibitions, upcoming workshops, presses for sale or any other projects or questions related to printmaking in Southern California. To sign up go to the following page and hit the join this group button on the right hand side of the screen. Yahoo will guide you through the process.