Artist blends nature, technology in her work

BY FABIOLA SANTIAGO

fsantiago@MiamiHerald.com

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AL DIAZ / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Wendy Wischer and Glitter.

» More Photos

• Video | 'Utopia,' a video installation by Wendy Wischer
• Slide show | Miami artist Wendy Wischer

IF YOU GO

What: Wendy Wischer's N-S-E-W

Where: David Castillo Gallery, 2234 NW Second Ave., Miami

When: noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, through April 5

Cost: Free

Info: 305-573-8110 or www.castilloart.com.

Miami artist Wendy Wischer grew up in Wisconsin surrounded by spreads of farmland, lush woods and Native American reservations. On good weather days, the family went camping, and Wischer remembers being mesmerized by the wide sky, as beautiful in the twinkling darkness as it was in the light of day.

''My favorite thing to do was climb a tree and read a book where no one could find me,'' Wischer says. ``We spent nine months out of the year in the house, so when it was nice, we wanted to be outside.''

It's been a long journey from the rural grace of her childhood to the neon limelight of Miami's contemporary art scene, where the 36-year-old Wischer is one of the emerging stars.

In every medium Wischer embraces -- sculpture, installation, video and photography -- her artwork merges two seemingly opposing forces, nature and technology. Yet in her sprawling conceptual works, the two feel as if they belong together.

Sort of like her memories of Wisconsin and Miami, where Wischer has been living and working the last 11 years.

EXPLORING MIAMI

When she arrived in Miami, Wischer says, she felt the same sense of awe she experienced in Wisconsin on nights when meteor showers were in the forecast, and her mother organized midnight picnics in the backyard, and everyone lay down on lawn chairs, ate sandwiches, and watched the spectacle.

She felt the same craving to explore the Miami night as she did when there was an eclipse and her mother made a pinhole in cardboard, called it a telescope, and invited the neighborhood children to watch the heavenly show.

''I look up at the night sky, and I feel this incredible nostalgia, identity,'' Wischer says. ``The Miami nightscape is gorgeous with all the neon, with the Bank of America building lit.''

And so, when she married the rural and the urban, she made the leap from the more traditional sculptures she had been making, inspired by the anthropological work on art and culture of scholar Ellen Dissanayake and the work of earth artists, to her electric installations and video of today, which are influenced by new media.

''I started working with light and stars, a natural and artificial format, but it's the same material,'' Wischer says.

Her light installations evoke a starry sky. In the video project Full to Wailing and Back Again (2002-2004), she projects the image of the moon onto the walls of downtown Miami buildings, a work she repeated in 2003 in the Dominican Republic, flashing the moon onto colonial ruins in the capital.

''All the work is very layered,'' says Wischer, who earned a bachelor's of fine arts at the University of Wisconsin and a master's from Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Wischer readily discusses the inspiration for her work, but she's guarded when it comes to her personal life. She's single and spends a lot of time kayaking and biking at Oleta State Park or in the Everglades.

''I'm an outdoor person,'' Wischer says. ``I camp, well I cabin camp, it's Florida.''

Until she went to college in Madison, she had always lived in towns of 2,000 to 30,000 people. She was so industrious that she had earned her first degree by 21, her second by 23. She began to visit South Florida while she was studying in Tallahassee.

She lived a year in Chicago before moving to Miami, but she didn't get to visit New York City, every artist's dream, until 2000. ''I was poor, I came from a rural background, I put myself through school, and I just didn't have the opportunity,'' Wischer says. ``No one in my family other than me has been to New York City.''

But she made up for it when she did.

''I saw a ton of artwork in a week, and the pieces that really resonated were very high technology,'' Wischer says.

SOLO SHOW

Her new solo show N-S-E-W at David Castillo Gallery in Wynwood focuses on the four cardinal directions, and incorporates rock and light sculptures. It includes a poetic video, Wishing You Were Here, of a drop of water, which runs on an endless loop and is presented inside a container that looks like a minimalist wishing well.

''A plea,'' Wischer says, adding that the work is a reference to South Florida's water shortage.

''I choose the medium that is going to fit the concept,'' Wischer says. ``There is never just one meaning. All the work has a very personal attachment to it, yet it's more universal. Certainly everything deals with boundaries, categories and blending.''

A long-time professor at the New World School of the Arts, Wischer is teaching sculpture this semester at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, and commuting between the two cities. At New World, a number of emerging Miami artists were her students -- Adler Guerrier (currently exhibiting at the Whitney Biennial in New York), Natalia Benedetti, Jen Stark, to name a few.

''She's fabulous,'' says Mary Luft, director of Tigertail Productions, which administers the Artist Access Program, a Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs grant program that has awarded $170,000 in grants since 1997.

''Wendy is someone that from the very beginning has had a sense of urgency and clarity about what she's doing and where she's going,'' Luft says. ``She asks questions, she pays attention. She doesn't get paralyzed by her own drive and ego. She's able to adapt and make changes when they need to be made.

It took Wischer three tries to win her first Access grant, Luft says, but she didn't give up until she did. ''She comes back and wants to know what she needs to do, what was missing,'' Luft says. ``I love seeing her application when it comes in. It's so clear, so well-thought out.''

Since her first exhibition in 1999 with another four young artists, Currently: Art Focus 1 at ArtCenter/South Florida, Wischer has exhibited widely in Miami galleries. During Art Basel Miami Beach last year, her installation In Search of Magic at the Freedom Tower in Miami garnered raves, and her Northeast 36th Street studio was one of a dozen toured by Basel VIPs.

She was also a 2008 recipient of the South Florida Cultural Consortium's Visual and Media Artists Fellowship.

Luft predicts that Wischer will be one of those Miami artists who'll ``rock it out of the ball park.

'She's one of those artists that in years people will say, I knew her.' ''

Fighting crime while fighting for her life: Hero girl cop battles terminal cancer

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Jenna Seaton, 22, was diagnosed with terminal thyroid cancer two years ago - just after she had started training with Essex Police.

Shell-shocked Jenna, of Barking, Essex, had to put her dream on hold as she underwent gruelling courses of radiation and chemotherapy.

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Survivior: Jenna Seaton has incredibly realised her dream of becoming a police officer - despite being diagnosed with terminal cancer during her training

She started intensive treatment after doctors at London's St Bartholomew's Hospital dropped the devastating bombshell.

The former Barking Abbey student had to put her dream on hold while she bravely faced the gruelling treatment to keep the cancer at bay.

Brave Jenna recovered so well that she was able to resume training at the end of last year.

Last month she achieved her life ambition, became Police Constable Seaton and is now walking the beat as she fights crime in neighbouring Grays.

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Survivior: Jenna is determined to live the rest of her life to the full

Although her cancer is incurable, Jenna is determined to live her life to the full.

The amazingly courageous girl cop is now planning to take part in the Race for Life, a 5km run for cancer research, with her best mate, Jennifer McCree, 22.

Jenna said: "I love my new job there's a lot of paperwork but no two days are the same.

"I remember when I used to work as a sales assistant I would know what I was going to be doing before I got to work - now every day is a surprise.

"There are certainly a lot of dangers when you~re a police officer and I think a lot of criminals think I'm going to be a bit soft because I'm a woman and I'm slightly built. But boy are they wrong!"

She added: "My family were all so happy when I graduated from Chelmsford.

"You're only supposed to have two people at the ceremony I think I had about 12!

"I have started a new round of chemotherapy and medication at Marsden Hospital in Fulham which deals specifically with cancer.

"I'm responding well to the treatment and I haven~t felt sick which is great.

"I'm really looking forward to the run, I think I might even try to run instead of walking it this year if I feel up to it."

Doctors found a lump on Jenna's thyroid and referred her to a specialist who performed an operation to remove her thyroid, some lymph glands and a tumour on her chest.

Jennifer, of Barking, has been Jenna's best friend since infant school.

She said: "Jenna has amazed us all with her determination to succeed in the police and not let cancer get to her.

"Once she was well enough, she returned to training, and passed out last month.

"Her friends couldn't be more proud of her."

Jennifer and Jenna both ran the 2007 Epping Race for Life at North Weald and have signed up for this year's event on July 9.

Jennifer added: "I didn't realise until we got to the event how emotional it was - seeing everyone's messages as they were running was very sad as many were there for people they had lost to cancer."

An Essex Police spokesperson said: "Jenna's story is a truly inspirational one.

"She has battled long and hard against her illness demonstrating her will power and energy.

"Jenna is a credit to herself, her family and the force."

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