User talk:Raykass

Ray Kass is a nationally recognized painter and writer, and is founder and director of the Mountain Lake Workshop, a collaborative, community-based art project drawing on the customs, environmental resources, and technology of the New River Valley and the Appalachian region. His paintings have been widely exhibited and are represented by Zone: Chelsea Center for the Arts, NYC Since 1983 he has conducted an ongoing series of inter-related workshops at the Mountain Lake Workshop, that have resulted in many unique, usually non-objective, works of art that have both extended the creative scope of the collaborating artists as well as deeply involved the local community in the production and meaningful context of the artworks. The Mountain Lake Workshop reflect the extraordinary society and ecology of the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia where Kass has lived since 1976 and is Professor of Art in the College of Architecture and Urban Affairs. Artists who have completed several workshops at Mountain Lake (or are currently engaged in ongoing projects) include folk-artist Howard Finster, Japanese artist & sculptor and Jiro Okura, the late avant garde composer, writer and artist John Cage, sculptor in light forms and virtual reality, Jackie Matisse, East Harlem street artist and muralist, James De La Vega, Colorado based eco-artist, Lynn Hull, waste management installation-artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles (official artist in residence of the New York Sanitation Dept.), ceramic artist, poet  and author M.C. Richards (author of Centering), among many others including Kass himself, whose individual workshops seek to provide an interface between the concepts and discipline-centered activities of those of the visiting-artists. His publications include numerous reviews, articles and catalogues including Morris Graves: Vision of the Inner-Eye, Braziller, NY(1983) and John Cage: New River Watercolors , Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond,VA (1988) Burton Callicott: A Retrospective – "Sharing a Vision", Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, (1991) and Glenn Berry: Recent Paintings, Humboldt State University, California (1992); and critical essays in Writings Through John Cage’s Music, Poetry and Art, Univ. of Chicago, 1999 and Klange des Inneren Auges, Kunsthalle Bremen/Beyeler Foundation, and the English language version:  Sounds of The Inner Ear, Univ. of Washington, 2002.