Layers of Re-iteration

Nov 24

Layers of Re-iteration: A Tribute to Galen Brown and Jim McCormick

The connections we forge with fellow artists often transcend mere friendship, evolving into collaborative legacies that shape our personal and shared creative journeys. This sentiment resonates deeply with our experiences alongside Nevadan artists; Galen Brown and Jim McCormick, two remarkable figures whose lives, philosophies, humor and artistry have left an indelible mark on our community. In this exhibition, we invited artists from the Printmakers’ Conspiracy group to reflect on the works of Galen and Jim, creating their own pieces inspired by their memories of these two influential figures.

Curators Candace Garlock & Frances Melhop

For more information and to purchase the book, please visit Melhop Gallery.

Book Cover - to purchase please visit Melhop Gallery.

I’m not going to write extensively about this exhibition here because it is housed on Frances Melhop’s gallery website. Please, if you get a chance, visit it. There are contributions from the artists involved and an exhibition essay by Chris Lanier.

For my own work that I created, I reflected on Jim McCormick:

The impact that Jim had on her own artmaking, stating; I am humbled by the reminder of the grid, a constant element in Jim’s work and now embedded in my own. Jim McCormick, a printmaking professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, saw his academic career conclude as my artistic practices were just beginning in the late 1980s. His work evolved from addressing civil and social issues in the 1960s to focusing on the political and environmental challenges of the Nevadan landscape. By 1986, he had shifted his style to embrace the grid, abandoning figurative work to explore the concept of landscape. He revisited metaphors of the West, uncovering the historical grid imposed on it. “Landscape” is a cultural construct, encompassing both nature and the human alterations to it, including symbols of property ownership. The sense of order and balance offered with the grid aesthetic has been directly influenced by my exposure and friendship to Jim. His vistas constructed of screen-printed grids are built to trigger memory of site, of gazing, and of mentally changing land to landscape, examining the tension between natural organic spaces and the man-made grid of control.

*Ode to Jim McCormick: NV Reflections,* 2025, wood, rusted remnants from Ely, NV, 48”Wx 28”H x 3”D, Candace Garlock standing in front of both pieces. Sierra Arts Gallery, 2025

I had just completed my thesis defense, “The Contemporary Male Nude,” when Jim McCormick was creating a series of assemblage pieces for a show at Stremmel Gallery in 2006. I purchased one of his pieces titled “I’m a Bit Rusty in the Love Making Department,” a title that was a running joke between us. One of my cherished memories is sitting in Jim's studio while he worked on these pieces. Much of my own work, beginning with the male nudes, carries his influence. I even wrote about his vista work and the use of the grid in my graduate thesis.

As I reflect on the piece I own and the time spent in his studio during the creation of the 2006 desert assemblages, I recall how Jim was an avid collector, always excited to discover items that sparked his imagination. I remember him getting thrilled about his grandkids' wooden dinosaur shapes from a trip to Michaels. He began collecting those alongside rusted remnants found in the desert and other collage materials.

My homage to Jim started with 4"x4" wooden blocks that I arranged in a grid in my studio. I remember his fondness for Eureka, NV, and the entire Highway 50 experience. When I stumbled upon an old dump site in Ely, NV, I found my own "remnants." I wanted to explore the metaphor of reflections, including the orange reflections of construction cones that mark Nevada roads in summer—hidden behind the wood, these are man-made constructs upon the land—alongside the reflection and memory of being with Jim, listening to his stories about finding discarded man made objects in the desert.

*Ode to Jim McCormick: NV Reflections,* 2025, wood, rusted remnants from Ely, NV, 48”Wx 28”H x 3”D

JIM MCCORMICK, *I’m a Bit Rusty in the Love Making Department,* collage elements on linoleum, 14” x 14” x 2” by Jim McCormick. Collection of Candace Garlock.

Candace Garlock

As an artist, Candace Nicol Garlock uses an array of mediums in her work. The coalescence of printmaking techniques, painting, photography (and sculpture, too!) overlap and converge with color, texture and line in a collaboration of mixed, experimental beauty. With her appreciation of the interconnectedness of everything, she elevates relationships: human and environment, human and animal, human and human. She writes, “my multilayered compositions posit engaging questions to viewers regarding relationships, social identities, and societal issues surrounding the female gaze.”

Garlock's mentorship in student advancement, both artistically and professionally, as well as her engagement and participation in community events makes her a true ambassador of art. She draws inspiration from the collaboration of those around her, through the interplay with students, and continually is organizing collaborative projects. A renown printmaker whose work has been shown nationally and internationally, she has received multiple awards including the Reno Tahoe Artist Best in Sculpture/3-D Artworks in 2022, Best of Show and Best in 2D Mixed Media in 2023 and Best in 2-D Artworks in 2024, the Nevada Regents’ Creative Activity Award in 2017, the Nevada Arts Council Artist Fellowship in 2009 and an honorable mention in Printmaking Today in 2008, a review of fine art printmaking in Abruzzo, Italy. Nicol’s work can also be seen in 100 Artists of the Male Figure by E.Gibbons. Her work is included in many prestigious collections including the Kinsey Institute, Zuckerman Museum of Art, Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, Nevada Arts Council, and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.

https://candacenicolgarlock.com