Evany Zirul
Feminizing Steel
As a youngster, sitting still in school was a difficult chore. At 14, my parents gave me a special pen, a Rapidograph, along with a book of blank paper and permission to doodle in the book instead of the margins of my notes. This served me well, and, as long as I concentrated in class I was allowed to indulge my need to draw and doodle. I never quit doodling.
I continued this odd habit of doodling throughout college, med school and my professional life as a surgeon. Prior to attending medical school, I earned an MFA in Sculpture and Design. I taught art at Centre College in Danville Kentucky. With the recession in 1973-4, I lost my job and took a leap of faith to go to medical school. I eventually became a Head and Neck Surgeon (ENT). Now I would not just draw and sculpt people, I could actually help them. I continued to draw and create a figurative sculpture in bronze throughout my career as a surgeon.
On retirement from Kaiser Permanente, I learned a new technique: the combination of the linear vision of my drawings with the solidarity of metal in sculpture. An elderly mentor, Chris Sorensen, taught me the technique of welding coat hangers into sculpture.
This technique is fascinating and I was completely captured. What is hard and cold, I can twist and meld into a figure of my imagination. The lines of my ink drawings are re-imagined into the linear nature of the hangers. And, I am recycling a waste product of our contemporary life.
I call this new series of sculptures: Feminizing Steel. I take delight in transforming the hangers into intricate labyrinths of paisley and lace to form a recognizable figure. Hush is such a piece. The patina is rust. Nature also has its place in my work.
RESUME
ART EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT
Mills College | BA Art History | 1968 |
University of Kansas | MFA Sculpture and Design | 1971 |
Centre College, Danville Ky | Instructor Fine Arts | 1971-1973 |
California Sculpture Symposium, Cambria CA | Instructor in the Figure | 2008, 2010 |
Nudes in November, Fresno CA | Judge | 2012 |
RECENT AWARDS
Bonita Museum, Digital Show: Personal Stories (“HUSH” & “Holding Peace”) | December 2023 |
All about Women , Marin Society Digital Show. “Holding Peace” Award | August 2023 |
Sorensen Studio: Flowers, second prize “The Turn” | June 2023 |
Sorensen Studio: “Faces” First Prize for “Grief” | March 2023 |
Sorensen Studio: Best in Show for “Dancer” | November 2023 |
Benecia Focus on the Figure | July/August 2022 |
Sorensen Studio: Nudes in November. First prize Sculpture, Dancer. | November 2020 |
Sorensen Studio: “All Metal” First Prize for “Hush” | March 2020 |
Yountville Art Walk, Yountville CA “Leaving Leonardo” | October 2019 |
Award of Excellence: “Holding Peace”. Third Dimension, San Luis Obispo Museum of Art | August 2019 |
First Prize, “Animals”: “Dog” welded steel hangers, Sorensen Gallery | March 2019 |
First Prize “Nudes in November” Sorensen Gallery | November 2018 |
First prize :sculpture, Sorensen Gallery, All metal show | May 2018 |
“Award of Excellence” juried show “Visual Rhetoric” San Luis Obispo Museum of art | April 2018 |
“Best in Show”; Nudes in November, Sorensen studio | November 2017 |
“First Prize”, sculpture; Nudes in November Chris Sorensen Gallery Honorable Mention | 2016 |
Marin MOCA annual juried show | October 2016 |
Third Prize Words. Art League of Lincoln CA | September 2016 |
Third Prize: Black and White Show. Sorensen Gallery | May 2015 |
Sponsor’s Award, Nudes in November Sorensen Gallery | November 2015 |
First Prize Metal, CA Sculpture Symposium Show | May 2015 |
Second Prize, sculpture, Sierra Art Trails Focus on the Figure | February 2015 |
First Prize for Sculpture, Nudes in November, Chris Sorensen Choice Drawing”Nudes in November” |
November 2008 |
Second Place, Sculpture (bronze) ” Nudes in November” | November 2007 |
PUBLIC ART
“THE ACORN GATHERER” Commission for Clovis, California installation BRONZE |
September 2009 |
MEMBERSHIP
Sorensen Gallery | 2016 |
Fig Tree Gallery |
2009-CURRENT |
ART PUBLISHED
Narrative Medicine Anthology, Collection from the Permanente Journal, “Modern Woman”, Permanent Press | 2015 |
Drawings of Evany Zirul, ISBN 978-0-615-46499-2-52500 a collection of #107 pen & ink drawings |
2011 |
“Modern Woman” Epidemiologic Review, Vol 33/2011 Harvard Review, Breast Cancer Monograph “Modern Woman” |
2010 |
Permanente Medical Journal “Modern Woman” (bronze) | 2009 |
Permanente Medical Journal, Drawings, | 2007 |
I1 IV, Ishmael Reed and A. Young | 1984 |
Quilt V, Ishmael Reed and A. Young | 1985 |
(medical illustrations for various medical publications) | 1980-2001 |
Recent Exhibitions
SLOMA 3rd Dimension juried exhibition, prize recognition | August 2019 |
1821 Gallery, Fresno, 2 pieces on show | Current 2019 |
“Visual Rhetoric”; San Luis Obispo Museum of Art juried Show | April 2018 |
Chris Sorensen “Nudes in November” | September 2017 |
Phantom Project, Central Valley Sculpture Group, San Luis Obispo | September 2017 |
Phantom Project, Central Valley Sculpture Group, San Luis Obispo | August 2017 |
Marin Society of Artists, Sculpture Exhibition | April 2017 |
Degrees of Separation, Artes America, Fresno | March-May 2017 |
Nudes in November, Chris Sorensen Annual Show | November 2016 |
Marin MOCA annual juried show | October 2016 |
Words. Art League of Lincoln CA | September 2016 |
Strange Configurations: Juried exhibition Limner Gallery, Hudson NY | September 2016 |
NAWA Small Works Summer Exhibition: Bronze Fat Men Marching | July 2016 |
Two Degrees of Separation: Artes America, Fresno | March-May 2016 |
Fig Tree Gallery “Feminizing Steel” solo show | September 2015 |
“That Extra Dimension” Invitational Show, Visalia CA | July 2015 |
Focus on the Figure, Stellar Gallery, Oakhurst CA | February 2015 |
1821 Gallery, Fresno Figures in bronze and steel | February 2015 |
“Dimensions” San Luis Obispo Museum | September 2014 |
Nudes in November, First Prize Sculpture, Chris Sorensen | November 2014 |
Fig Tree Gallery Members Show | November 2014 |
Chris Sorensen Rental Gallery Drawings & Sculpture | 2013-2014 |
Santa Cruz juried show “All those Figures” Yellowgirl. | August 2013 |
All those Figures Santa Cruz Art League | September 2013 |
Merced College, “Life in Lines” Zirul only, sculpture and drawings | September 2013 |
California Sculpture Symposium | April 2013 |
OTHER FACTS AND EXPERIENCE
Evany D. Zirul D.O. | |
University of Health Science, Degree in Osteopathic Medicine | 1979 |
Otolaryngology, Head and Neck residency, Union Hospital | 1979-1983 |
Practice : Head and Neck surgery, in Kansas City Mo, and Fresno CA | 1984-2008 |
retired from practice of medicine and surgery, Kaiser Permanente | 2008 |
MUSIC | |
Violin education for 15 years, (Violin soloist with Kansas City Philharmonic Youth Concerts) |
1962 |