About the Artist

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

EVANY D. ZIRUL BA, M.F.A., D.O.

Email: Zirul@comcast.net

zirulart.com

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

ACORN GATHERER
Bronze, 5’4”

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