Joan Rhine

     I fell in love with paper in art school. Now making handmade paper and passing on my knowledge to others through workshops is my passion. In 1984, my husband Jim and I co-founded Submarine Paperworks, a hand papermaking studio, at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco. After moving to Gualala in 2000, we re-established the papermaking studio on our property. Our studio Submarine Paperworks has all the materials and equipment I need for hand papermaking and workshops. It also has a dedicated area for me to create my other obsession, jewelry.

     My art includes abstract wall pieces and sculptures in mixed media as well as my original contemporary jewelry collection Joan Rhine Designs. I feel that there is a symbiotic exchange of ideas and materials between my different expressions of art. The elements of color and texture found in my jewelry are influenced by my mixed media art. Jewelry materials, metal, wire, gold leaf, and beads have migrated into my wall pieces and sculpture.

     I enjoy exploring the versatility of metal and paper and how these materials can be perceived as both hard and soft. I like to contrast simple shapes with rich texture, controlled forms with random elements, shiny surfaces with matte, and geometric elements with organic forms.

     Much of my work is inspired by my surroundings. When I walk on the beach or in the forest, I absorb natural forms, textures, and colors. Landscapes, skies, and even man-made structures along the coast and through the countryside stimulate my imagination.

 

Active Member:

North American Hand Papermakers

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Education: 

BFA. The Cooper Union, New York, NY. 

MFA in painting, printmaking

 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY

Papermaking. Dieu Donne Paper Mill, New York, NY

Jewelry with Charlene Modena. San Francisco’s Academy of Art University

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Recent Awards from Gualala Arts:

First Place in Jewelry and Ornamentation at Art in the Redwoods (2019, 2015, 2012)

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Recent Exhibitions:

Joan Rhine & Jim Meilander Together: Individual & Collaborative Art at Coast Highway Art Collective, Point Arena

 

Gualala Salon at Gualala Arts:

The Art of Paper at Art Center Ukiah

Expressions in Handmade Paper 3 at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka

 

Where to Find My Jewelry:

Mendocino Gems, Mendocino

Red Stella, Gualala,

The Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay

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