Grand Traverse Insider: The Magical Art of Flora Ricca Hoffman

By Kristine Norris

This story originally appeared in the Grand Traverse Insider

The Glen Arbor Art Association (GAAA) will present the next event in its popular “Talk About Art” series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31 at the GAAA building, 6000 Pine St., in Glen Arbor. The talk is free and open to the public.

The evening’s speaker will be Traverse City artist Flora Ricca Hoffman, whose wide-ranging practice includes printmaking and construction of found-object assemblages.

Hoffman will introduce attendees to the creative process that has guided her artistic activities and the ways in which it has colored her personal and community relationships.

Hoffman grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and attended “Saturday Art Classes” at the Carnegie Museum throughout grade school and high school. She earned a BFA in Painting and Design from Carnegie Mellon University, an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and did postgraduate study at Arizona State University.

The artist has taught printmaking at Northwestern Michigan College, shown her work extensively in the area including at Gallery 50, and hosts periodic open house exhibitions in her own gallery space at 737 State St. in Traverse City.

“My work continues to evolve; it took a turn when I returned to school at Arizona State University and studied color intaglio printmaking techniques,” said Hoffman. “I began a series of color prints which I folded and bent into 3-D shapes.

“I put them into a box and combined them with natural forms, collage materials, found objects, and photos and then used remembered experiences and personal awareness to discover where I wanted to go with the piece.”

This dimensionalization of her prints led to the creation of the mixed media constructions that characterize her current work.

Hoffman’s ability to treat natural forms and found objects with sensitivity and understanding lend a magical touch to her constructions, awakening a response in the viewer not unlike that evoked by poetry or ritual.

Recording memories

“There are stories to the works,” said Hoffman. “They come from memory, and are brought into focus sometimes by having made a record of experience with the camera – a wonderful tool for this purpose. Ideas mostly grow out of other ideas, and are mainly the result of keeping your awareness level up – that’s what kindles the imagination, stirs your emotions, and brings in a little intuition about what feels right.

“What I’m trying for in my latest work are qualities of mystery, elegance, spirituality, and the evocation of the cycles of life.”

Hoffman credits her husband Dick, who was an art professor, with having provided her with the life situation she needed to develop as an artist. Companions in life and art, the two enriched their life together with travel – and Hoffman’s special love for Mexico has added a special flavor to her work.

“In the United States, I have traveled to the Southwest, the Eastern Seaboard, California, and Arizona, and have also traveled to eastern Canada, Italy, Costa Rica, France, London, and the Yucatan Peninsula and Central Mexico. There is very little of Michigan in the visual aspects of my work, but I find the large community of artists who make this area their home a very special thing, and I like living here.

“I wish Dick were still alive,” she said. “He gave me great gifts of time, space and funds, so that my work could evolve beyond the art school phase. It often happens that creative work gets left behind in the interest of earning some kind of living, and this creates difficulties for most artists, since society marginalizes us most of the time.

“Staying with an art career over the long haul is difficult unless you can cut back on your ‘wants’ versus your ‘needs,’ and aren’t attached to the goal of earning a big salary. But if you can do it, you will be involved with a very rewarding aspect of being alive.

“The aesthetic values that creative people bring to society are invaluable,” she said, “and the results of ignoring them can be seen all around us. Creative artists express what is most human about us – emphasizing individual perspective and accomplishment as opposed to sacrificing the development of the self in order to please others. If you can keep the aesthetic and creative values operating in your own life as an artist, you are contributing a much needed quality to society.”

To arrange a visit to Flora Ricca Hoffman’s gallery, inquire about her Monoprint and Collograph Workshops, or to be included on her mailing list for workshop notification, contact the artist at (231) 941-7197 or send an e-mail to flower819@att.net. Hoffman also welcomes inquiries about an artist community she is planning to develop in Nova Scotia.

To learn more about the “Talk About Art” series, call (231) 334-6112, or e-mail office@glenarborart.org.