The Capital City Art Initiative’s Nevada Neighbors series of public talks includes interviews with artists in their studios or in a gallery setting. For this final talk, Stephen Reid interviewed artists, Sue Cotter and Elaine Parks, about their work in CCAI’s exhibition, “Fables & Myths”. The show is in Western Nevada College’s Bristlecone Gallery, 2201 W. College Parkway, Carson City, from May 14 – Sept. 10, 2025. Viewers are invited to watch the video presentation online at https://youtu.be/ekKbvMwJafI

Parks’ work depicts a cross of desert succulents and marine corals that the Disney fantasies missed. She said about her work, “I create organic hand-built ceramic objects of contemplation derived from my years of engagement with the desert landscape. In this series of ceramic sculptures, I take into account my shifting perspectives of the vast landscape and the closely observed details of the desert. The making process involves very detailed manipulation of each piece to create highly realized forms with a timeless quality. In part, the forms are invented during the process of making. I am fascinated when forms in nature seem to cross between categories. For instance, many actual tufa formations resemble animal and human forms. In some of my pieces, I focus on a surface rock texture, with limbs that create an animated, creaturely form. The textures of many of these pieces come from direct observation of the incredible variety of tufa rocks. I like to create forms that defy strict categorization, allowing the viewer to spend time thinking about what a piece looks like to them and engaging with the form, perhaps being reminded of time spent in nature. My goal is to bring to mind the vitality and spirit of the landscape.”

Cotter said that the show’s title superbly mirrors her fascination with fables, myths, and all genres of storytelling, which grew naturally out of a childhood immersed in stories. She said, “As my family moved from place to place, a feeling of rootlessness also contributed to my love of disappearing into a story. Books and characters in books became my best friends. As I pursued visual art, the idea of telling a story was always in my mind, not illustration but something more open and suggestive, letting viewers connect to their own narratives. In time, this approach evolved into the topographic mythology and the bird-headed Thel series.

“I have used topographic maps in my work since 1981, when, as a student at the University of Nevada-Reno, I saw maps and diagrams in a friend’s geology textbook. I was mesmerized by the beauty of the layered colors and contour line patterns. I didn’t see them as geologic deposits or land elevations; I saw letter-forms and dialogues, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic shapes; I saw mythological creatures with stories to tell. As earthbound beings looking up at wonders in the night sky, people of many cultures tell mythological stories inspired by star constellations and planets.”

About Elaine Parks

Parks is a ceramicist and sculptor. A Los Angeles native, she received her Master of Fine Arts from California State University, Los Angeles. In 1999, Parks moved from a town of 14 million to Tuscarora, Nevada, a town of 14 people. She currently divides her time between Reno and Tuscarora. In Nevada, Parks was recently commissioned to make a series of ceramic sculptures for Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada for the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Her work has been exhibited at the Northwest Reno Library, Nevada Museum of Art, Oats Park Art Center, Marjorie Barrick Museum, Sierra Arts, and the Holland Project. Parks taught art for seven years at Great Basin College in Elko and has received the Nevada Arts Council Fellowship Award twice. She serves as a board member of Double Scoop Art, an online visual arts journal.

Parks has participated three times in Telephone, an international game of art, whispered around the world. In 2010, she curated and hosted a pop-up exhibition with 24 artists, music, and performance events called pLAyLAnd. Nationally and internationally, Park was part of LA Contraventions in Germany, Cryptographics: a tribute to the Voynich Manuscript at the EXPO Chicago, and designed sets and costumes for Cabaret Revoltaire: 100 Years of Dada, a performance event at ArtShareLA. Parks has exhibited her work in Los Angeles at LA Artcore, Far Bazaar, Angels Gate Cultural Center, L2Kontemporary, Antebellum Gallery, Beyond Baroque, Ronald Silverman Gallery, Cal State LA, and Neo LA Gallery. https://www.elaineparks.com/

About Sue Cotter

Cotter is a mixed-media artist, letterpress printer, and artist bookmaker. She began her art career as a painter, but also loved to write. She found the perfect marriage of these two passions in the artist book genre. After earning her art degree (University of Nevada, Reno-1983), she went on to study the historic techniques of letterpress printing and bookmaking with Bob Blesse at the University of Nevada, Reno, Black Rock Press (1988-90). She moved to southern Utah in 1990, where she acquired equipment and established her own letterpress printing and paper-making studio.

Cotter has received grants and awards, including a Utah Artist Fellowship and a New Forms Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation. Her work is in numerous libraries’ Special Collections, as well as museums and private collections. She teaches workshops, exhibits extensively, and continues to explore the limitless possibilities of the book form. She lives in Parowan, Utah, where she and fellow artist Spike Ress have built their home and studios. https://suecotter.com/

About Stephen Reid

This is the fifth time Stephen Reid has interviewed artists for CCAI videos. He is a visual artist whose work has been shown nationally and in Japan. His paintings reside in the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College, as well as several private collections. He earned a Master of Fine Arts in 2006 from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelor in Fine Arts in 2001 from the Virginia Commonwealth University. He has taught as an adjunct instructor at Keene College in Keene, New Hampshire, and at Western Nevada College in Carson City. Reid has been the Artist Services Specialist with the Nevada Arts Council since 2017 where he manages the exhibition installations for the agency’s visual arts programs: the Nevada Touring Initiative-Traveling Exhibition and LXS-Legislative exhibition Series. He lives in Dayton, Nevada, with his family.

Western Nevada College is a component of the Nevada System of Higher Education, with campuses in Carson City, Douglas County, and Fallon. CCAI is an artist-centered nonprofit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, illustrated talks, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Initiative is funded by the John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Carson City Cultural Commission, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.

For additional information, please visit CCAI’s website at www.ccainv.org.