Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde ValleySedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley
    Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley
    • Home
    • Sedona News
    • Business Profiles
    • Opinion
    • Mind & Body
    • Arts
    • Elections
    • Contact
    • Cart
    Sedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde ValleySedona.Biz – The Voice of Sedona and The Verde Valley
    Home » Unforgettable: Don Reitz ceramic mural’s long journey home to the Southwest Wine Center
    Southwest Wine Center

    Unforgettable: Don Reitz ceramic mural’s long journey home to the Southwest Wine Center

    July 14, 2021Updated:July 15, 20212 Comments5 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Email Reddit WhatsApp
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email Reddit WhatsApp
    samaireformayor
    Place ads on Sedona.biz

    Yavapai CollegeClarkdale AZ (July 14, 2021) – Like that of many a community college student, the journey of an internationally renowned ceramic artist’s mural to the Yavapai College Verde Valley Campus was long, circuitous and triumphant.

    The 6 by 4-foot Don Reitz mural, created in early 2009 while the late sculptor and art professor was teaching a workshop at the University of Iowa, found a permanent home this spring – the east wall of YC’s teaching winery, the Southwest Wine Center on the Verde Valley Campus in Clarkdale.

    Serendipitously, the clay mural was carefully pieced together and anchored to the wall by two of Reitz’s former studio assistants, YC Ceramics Instructor Ben Roti and his ceramics Instructor at the University of Iowa, Mat Rude. Both lived and worked at Reitz’s Clarkdale Ranch, albeit at different times after Reitz suffered a debilitating heart attack in the early 2000s and before his death in 2014.

    20210714_yavapaicoll4

    It was during Rude’s tenure and while Roti was a student at the University of Iowa that Reitz, a retired University of Wisconsin art professor, created the unnamed ceramic mural bound for the SWC. It was created by throwing slabs of clay, with each piece responding to the previous piece. “The spontaneity and the response to that spontaneity is actually how the (mural) was constructed,” Roti said, adding that Reitz “was a performer at heart. The way this piece was assembled… it’s almost something of a performance piece.” Reitz, Roti said, “was a force of nature for sure.”

    20210714_yavapaicoll5

    Roti and Rude disassembled Reitz’s mural at the University of Iowa, hollowing out and tracing each piece on a canvas before it was transported to the Reitz ranch. “At the time, we didn’t know where this was going to end up and that we were actually helping get it to its final resting place,” Roti said.

    While Roti was working at the Reitz ranch and studio from 2010 to 2014, the mural was displayed on the floor of an onsite gallery showroom. He recalled marveling at how it had been brilliantly re-fired by Reitz in one of his signature wood-fired kilns.  Wood-firing gives each piece of clay a unique patina, Roti explained.  “Fly ash” lands on the piece, essentially painting it with fire, he said. “I was there in terms of watching Don

    The mural pieces was housed at the Reitz ranch until the artist signaled in 2012 his desire to gift the mural to the Southwest Wine Center, a teaching winery under construction at the time at the YC Verde Valley Campus. “He thought it would be a perfect place,” Roti recalled.

    20210714_yavapaicoll1

    Reitz’s gift wound up in storage on campus, but not forgotten. Made aware in early 2020 of the mural and its intended placement at the SWC by longtime YC ceramics professor Tom Schumacher, newly arrived Verde Valley Campus Executive Dean Dr. Tina Redd took action.  “Such a valuable and interesting piece just sitting in a box was unacceptable,” Redd said. Told of Roti’s connection to the mural, she reached out to him.

    “Of course I knew a lot and I knew what it would take to assemble,” Roti said, adding that he suggested the college invite Rude to help with the installation. Rude obliged and the two Reitz apprentices, artists and teachers spent five long days at the end of May assembling and cementing the mural at the SWC.

    “It was a little bit of a challenge. It had never been mounted on a vertical surface,” Roti said. But the result was worth it. “To come back… and see it all assembled on the wall and finished is pretty spectacular. It’s a great feeling.”

    Redd said she, too, is pleased how the mural installation transpired. “It was one of those now or never moments and it came together beautifully. Not only is it important to highlight local artists on campus, it’s also important to highlight our ceramics program. This mural is education. It’s an intricate ceramic puzzle that engages each viewer’s imagination differently. It expands one’s understanding of what ceramic art is,” Redd said.

    Roti agreed, saying of the mural and Reitz, “It’s a significant piece. It’s definitely important for the college to recognize such an important artist – someone who lived in the backyard of the community whose work was collected all over the world and who conducted workshops all over the world.”

    The YC Verde Valley Campus will be home to more significant artworks in the future, Redd said. “The next project is a metal sculpture as part of the landscaping at the upper vineyard.  We’ll be holding a renaming reception for the art gallery soon, and at that time hope to launch a fundraiser for a more appropriate base for the Neptune sculpture.  We’ll work our way down the list of what we already have, and we’ll look forward to featuring other local artists both indoors and out.”

    Place ads on Sedona.biz

    Scott mayor
    samaireformayor
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Email Reddit WhatsApp
    Sedona.biz Staff

    Related Posts

    Emerging Winemakers Competition & Symposium Returns In-Person & Virtually to Yavapai College April 23, 2022

    March 24, 2022

    Southwest Wine Center Wines Win Again

    December 1, 2020

    Order your Thanksgiving dinner from
    Yavapai College by Nov. 13

    November 1, 2020

    2 Comments

    1. Donna Rude-Erickson on July 18, 2021 1:35 pm

      Love this article. Mat Rude is my son and he loved Don and working with him.

      • Sedona.biz Staff on July 19, 2021 10:08 am

        I was one of Mat’s students when he taught at Yavapai College Clarkdale campus. Great instructor, we were all sad when he left. ~Sedona.biz Staff

    Paid Political Ad Paid For by Samaire for Mayor
    Paid Political Ad for Samaire Armstrong
    Paid Political Announcement by Samaire For Mayor

     THE MOMENT IS UPON US

    Dear Sedona,

    The moment is upon us. The time for a united effort to shift the focus back to our community is now.

    The ability to thrive in our community, our environment, our workforce, and the tourist industry, is entirely possible because we have all the resources needed for success.

    Still, we need a council that isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions, that makes decisions based on data and facts, and through discussion, rather than moving and voting in group unison as they so regularly do.

    This is my home. I have been a part of the Sedona community for 28 years. I witnessed the road debacle, the lack of planning, the city circumventing the local businesses ability to thrive, while making choices to expand the local government and be in direct competition with private industry.

    I am a unique candidate because unlike the incumbents, I don’t believe the government should expand in size, nor in operations, nor would I attempt to micromanage every aspect of our community.

    City government should stay in its lane and allow the competitive market of local private industry to prosper. And it should defend our community from corporate takeover and infiltration of our town.

    I do not agree that we should sign onto International Building Codes and regulations by signing Sedona up to the ICC. It is imperative that we remain a sweet, rural community.

    Where are the arts? Where is this organic thriving element that we allege to be animated by. Where is our culture? Where is our community?

    The discord between the decision making process and the desires of the community have never been more clear. It has been nearly a decade in the making.

    It is time for a new era of energy to take charge. An energy that is reflective in the ability to succeed rather than be trapped in out of date consciousness.

    It has been a great honor meeting with each of you. I hear your concerns over the insane and out of control spending and I echo them. A budget of $105,000,000 in a town of 9700 residents is completely unacceptable. A parking structure (that looks like a shoe box) originally slated to cost 11 million, now projected to cost 18 million, is incomprehensible. Especially, considering there is no intention of charging for parking.

    For those who are concerned that I lack the political experience within our established system- that is precisely what Sedona needs… Not another politician, but instead a person who understands people, who listens to the voices within the community, and who will act in service on their behalf with accountability, for the highest good of Sedona. What I am not, will prove to be an asset as I navigate the entrenched bureaucracy with a fresh perspective. Business as usual, is over.

    Creative solutions require new energy.

    Every decision that is made by our local government, must contemplate Sedona first.

    • Does this decision benefit the residents?
    • Does this decision benefit the local businesses?
    • Does this decision actually help the environment?
    • Will this decision sustain benefit in the future, or will it bring more problems?

    What we have now is a city government that expands to 165 employees for 9700 residents. Palm Desert has 53,000 residents and 119 city employees. Majority of our city department heads are not even in town. I find this problematic.

    Efforts towards championing in and courting new solutions for our medical needs are imperative. We are losing our doctors. We must encourage competition with other facilities rather than be held hostage by NAH, who clearly have their own set of dysfunctions.

    We must remember that so many move to Sedona for its beauty, hiking, and small town charm. Bigger, faster, and more concrete does not, in broad strokes, fit the ethos of Sedona.

    The old world must remain strong here in balance, as that is what visitors want to experience. Too many have noted that Sedona has lost its edge and charm.

    As Mayor I will preserve the rural charm of our community, and push back against the urbanization that is planned for Sedona.

    As mayor I will make it a priority to create opportunities to support our youth.  After school healthy, enriching programs should be created for our kids, and available to the Sedona workforce regardless of residency and regardless of school they belong to.

    As Mayor, I will create an agenda to deliberately embody the consciousness of our collective needs here, allowing private industry to meet the needs of our community rather than bigger government.

    I hope to have your vote on Aug 2nd. I am excited and have the energy to take on this leadership role with new eyes, community perspective, and the thoughtful consciousness that reflects all ages of the human spectrum.

    Thank you deeply for your consideration.

    Sincerely,

    Samaire Armstrong

    Sedona elections
    Armstrong vs. Jablow: The Main Event
    Ready to Rumble

    By Tommy Acosta
    In the Blue Corner stands Scott Jablow and in the Red Corner of the ring stands Samaire Armstrong, ready to rumble to the bitter end in their fight to become the next Sedona mayor. Jablow weighs in with 1,137 primary election votes (36.13%) under his belt, having wielded his advantage as sitting Sedona City Council vice-mayor to his favor. He brings his years of serving in that capacity into the fray and waged a solid fight in his campaign to make it to the run-off. Armstrong, however withstood a blistering smear campaign from the other opposing candidates and their supporters to make it to the final bout with 967 votes under her belt (30.73%), an amazing feat for a political newcomer. Unfortunately, for the other two candidates, Kurt Gehlbach and sitting mayor Sandy Moriarty, neither put up enough of a fight to make it to the championship bout. Read more→
    Recent Comments
    • Bosco Hurn on Armstrong vs. Jablow: The Main Event
    • Laura M on Armstrong vs. Jablow: The Main Event
    • Rob Adams on Armstrong vs. Jablow: The Main Event
    • Mike W on Armstrong vs. Jablow: The Main Event
    • Rob Adams on Armstrong vs. Jablow: The Main Event
    Categories
    © 2022 All rights reserved. Sedona.biz.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.