Chronology
1945 Born, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1949 Chokes on butterscotch candy and nearly dies. Father, John William Florig inadvertently performs the Heimlich maneuver while rushing to the car.
1951 Enters first grade at Dilworth Public School and immediately becomes acclaimed artist in school.
1959 Enters Peabody High School and studies art with Esther Fineman under whose encouragement receives scholarship for Saturday drawing lessons. Family financial circumstances dictate that she choose a business and not a college preparatory track seemingly sealing her fate as a drone.
1961 Becomes co- art editor of the high school year book.
1963 Graduates in January from Peabody with strong desire to go to college but with little chance of admittance without required high school courses. Arranges to have interview with Lee Goldman head of the department of Art and Design at Carnegie Tech (currently Carnegie Mellon University). On basis of interview and portfolio, receives full scholarship to Carnegie for fall 1963. Puked on lawn of campus after interview because so much was at stake.
1964 Studies with active new artists from New York hired by Lee Goldman to enliven the school.
1965 Marries fellow student and chemical engineer Robert Clarke.
1966 R. Clarke graduates and accepts a job at Bechtel Corp in San Francisco with the encouragement of Linda who wants to leave Pittsburgh.
1967 Leaves San Francisco for New York in early February to live as an artist. Finds a group of like-minded thinkers in the lower Manhattan loft district that later became known as SOHO. Rents 3rd floor walk up raw space studio with sink in hallway on corner of Bleeker and Bowery. Reconnects with freshman Professor Dean Fleming who introduces her to Park Place Gallery the co-operative founded by Fleming and 7 other artists including Mark Di Suvero, Frosty Meyers, Tony Magar, Tamara Melchert, and funded by Patrick Lannon, Virginia Dwan, and Vera List among others. Gives up studio on Bowery and moves in with Dean Fleming in Broome Street loft. Is included in the last exhibition of Park Place Gallery and receives critical acclaim from fellow artists and downtown art world. Goes to Group 212 an artist run summer camp in upstate New York where she works on outdoor pieces in forest and on lake. Other artists include Meridith Monk, and Charles Ross. Goes to Colorado with Dean Fleming and Tony Magar to attempt to set up a rural branch of Park Place Gallery with studios in the Rocky Mountains.
1968 Divorces Robert Clarke and marries Dean Fleming. Finds 360 acres of land in Southern Colorado and donor funding as one of four founding members of a new artist’s community called Libre. Designs and builds 40’ geodesic dome as studio and home. First child Lia Fleming is born in adobe house on adjacent land. Moves into nearly completed dome to spend the first winter.
1969 Gives first public lectures during 20 stop lecture tour with 5 other members of Libre beginning at Alloy a conference created by Stewart Brand, Steve Durkee, and Steve Baer at the Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and including the National Institute of Mental Health in Wash DC, Washington U in St Louis, Cranbrook Academy, Columbia U, School of Visual Arts, the Corcoran, Suny Purchase, and Rochdale Free University in Toronto.
1970 Goes to Japan with Lia to reunite with Dean and travels for 5 months from north to south with one month stay on volcanic island during typhoon and volcanic eruption.
1971 Daughter Lia dies of drowning in Colorado three months shy of her 3rd birthday
1972 Goes to Ecuador where a distraught Dean Fleming has fled after daughter’s death to talk him into returning to Libre.
1973 Travels to Europe for first time and visits Di Suvero at shipyard residency in Chalon sur Soane, France. Returns to Colorado, reunites with Dean Fleming and goes to New York to spend the winter working. Has first one person show at Wilamaro Gallery in Denver. Rents loft on Chambers Street in raw building with Jene Highstein, Susanne Harris, and Richard Mock.
1974 Returns to Libre for birth of son Luz Fleming.
1975 Spends winter in New York staying at loft of singer John Hammond.
1976 Designs and builds park in Gardner, Colorado under a federal beautification grant.
1977 Continues dividing time between New York City and Libre in Colorado. Has the use of Mark di Suvero’s studio in the Fulton Fish Market. Follows sound of chainsaw through lower Manhattan to find lumberjacks removing large public xmas trees and convinces them to deliver the wood to her studio for sculptures.
1978 Returns to Libre and begins to build own house on the first day of 1978. Goes to California in fall and shares studio at Peter Volkous’ Macaroni Factory in Oakland with
Dean Fleming. Luz attends Sister Clara Mohamed School.
1979 Spends summer in Colorado, has one person exhibition at University of Colorado at Boulder, is offered first teaching job at Mills College for one semester sabbatical replacement.
1980 Has exhibition at Hansen Fuller Goldeen Gallery in San Francisco. Is invited to participate in Sculpture 80 at Maryland Institute, Baltimore Md. Is asked by student helpers to return and teach at the school.
1981 Teaches at Maryland Institute in the spring semester, has one person exhibitions at Diane Brown in Wash. DC and Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, NY. and 4 group exhibitions.
1982 Included in 10 exhibitions of large scale sculpture in New York, San Francisco, Miami, Chicago, Santa Fe, and Baltimore. Is invited to join ConStruct a cooperative organization of 8 sculptors with galleries in Chicago and Miami. Works in studio in Santa Fe, NM.
1983 Has one person exhibitions at Hudson river museum in Yonkers and ConStruct South Sculpture Park in Miami. Receives Athena Foundation Grant. Rents storefront studio in Brooklyn on Columbia St. near Union Street. While resting in back room of gallery on 57th St. sees video of old hero Buckminster Fuller talking about using ones skills and finding what needs to be done and doing it. Begins to look for more intellectual engagement.
1984 Divides time between Brooklyn studio and Libre in Colorado. Exhibits in 5 group exhibitions in New York, Santa Fe, Wash. DC, and California. Is invited to lecture at opening of exhibition Works in Bronze at Sonoma State University. Toilet in Brooklyn studio freezes in winter and California begins to look good. Lectures at San Francisco Art Institute and is invited back to teach in 1985.
1985 Teaches as visiting artist at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and builds “Wave Theory” exhibited at Minneapolis Institute of Art. Resumes work on park in Gardner Colorado. Spends fall in San Francisco teaching at the Art Institute and San Francisco State University. Builds “Grove” of wood and steel exhibited at Fort Mason.
1986 Spends the late spring painting in Brooklyn studio. Returns to MCAD to teach and build “A Journey: a Place” sponsored by and exhibited at General Mills. Works at the newly created Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, NY and exhibits work in inaugural show. Returns to San Francisco to teach at California College of the Arts. Receives grant from Art Matters.
1987 Decides to leave New York and divide time between San Francisco and Libre in Colorado. Meets painter Michael Moore. Rent warehouse together in the Mission District of San Francisco and begin many years of work.
1988 Has first one person exhibition of large outdoor work at Esprit Sculpture Garden in San Francisco and 4 group exhibitions. Son Luz receives full scholarship to The Urban School in San Francisco for high school. Travels to Europe in winter of 88-89. Sees Roman glass collection in Dusseldorf and begins large depictive drawings.
1989 San Francisco earthquake prompts desire to move archives of work away from San Francisco.
1990 Purchases and renovates small warehouse with Michael Moore in Walsenburg, Colorado near Libre to house archives of work. One person exhibition at University of California at Davis and 4 group exhibitions.
1991 Receives residency from la vie des Formes at a shipyard in Chalon sur Soane, France for 3 months. Begins to work mainly in steel from shipyard scraps creating “Some Models for the Universe”. Sees Caesar’s stone bath being uncovered in France and is haunted by its oculus shape which begins to appear in sculpture. Has one person exhibitions at Rena Bransten Gallery and SF State University in San Francisco. Installs “Vessel” at Andre Emmerich’s sculpture park Top Gallant, Pawling, NY.
1992 Luz graduates from Urban and enters Bennington College in Vermont. Named Associate Dean of 3D studies and Associate Professor of Sculpture at CCAC.
1993 Receives Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and Distinguished Faculty Exhibition award from CCA. Exhibits at Katonah Art Museum “Women in Wood”.
1994 Receives Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation grant. Promoted to Full Professor at CCAC.
1995 One person exhibitions at Oakland Museum Sculpture Court, Oakland, CA, and Refusalon Gallery, San Francisco. Included in group exhibition at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY. Purchases 160 acres in northern Nevada on Smoke Creek Desert with Michael Moore and they begin to reclaim the overgrazed land and create wildlife preserve. Land named Wall Spring on maps from 1850’s.
1996 Marries Michael Moore at Wall Spring in January. Exhibits at 10th Anniversary exhibition at Socrates Sculpture Park. Luz graduates from Bennington College and moves to New York.
1997 Invited to join Board of International Sculpture Center. Exhibits “Transformer” at Navy Pier, Chicago.
1998 “Space Lace” acquired by Stanford University. Tangible Mind, an exhibition of 6 large works installed around capital building in Santa Fe, NM.
1999 One person exhibition at Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Gallisteo, NM. Exhibits “Arcangela” at Chicago Navy Pier.
2000 Installs 1 year long exhibition “Perishable Industry” at Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO. Purchases bar/restaurant in Benicia, CA and converts to studios and living space.
2001 Installs “Phosphene” one person exhibition at Nevada Art Museum in Reno and “Tracery” at the Wood Street Gallery in Chicago.
2002 Exhibits 3 large outdoor works at Sculpture on the Grounds at Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, NM. Installs “The Conjuror’s Cloak” and “The Conjuror’s Chart” a commissioned permanent installation at Neiman Marcus Department Store, San Francisco, CA.
2003 One person exhibition “Parallel Universe” at Linda Durham Contemporary Art, New York, NY. and “Protracted Meditations, Graphite Drawings” at Flora Lamson Hewlett Library, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA
2004 One person exhibition “Dis Integrated Ingredients” at Linda Durham Contemporary Art, Galisteo, NM.
2005 One person exhibitions “Ex-Halations”, Lemmons Contemporary, New York, NY. and “Brainstorm” at Arts Benicia, Benicia, CA. Work transforms as straight lines turn to curves and industrial forms morph to lace.
2006 Installs “Dona Benicia’s Mantilla (Envelops the General’s Chair) a commissioned permanent work at Harbor Walk in Benicia, CA. and a one person exhibition “Nebula/Ether/Wisp” at Brian Gross, San Francisco, CA.
2007 Embarks on full year sabbatical from teaching but dreams of sitting on a rock in the forest are quickly dashed by multiple projects including: installation of "Refugium: Works from 1980 to 2007," Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, CA, August 30 through October 21; "Celebrating CCA at 100," Brian Gross, San Francisco, CA, "Artists of Invention, A Century of CCA," October 13, 2007 through March 16, 2008, Catalogue.
Also I will be installing commissioned works at the Westin Monache, Mammoth Lakes, CA in the winter of 2007 and at the International Quilt Study Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE in the spring of 2008. But maybe I can wander off when no one is looking.