Amber Zora is an interdisciplinary artist and curator based in Rapid City, South Dakota. She received a BA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and an MFA in Photography and Integrated Media from Ohio University. Her work looks at the trauma of war, the military’s impact on the environment and rural America's dependence on the military economy. Amber has exhibited her work in local and national galleries including the San Francisco Arts Commission, Chicago Cultural Center and the National Veterans Art Museum, among other spaces. She was enlisted in the US Army for 8 years and deployed to Qayyarah West, Iraq as an ammunition specialist from 2006-2007 with the 592nd Ordnance Company. In August 2023, Amber completed the Frontline Arts Veteran Residency program, as our 2nd veteran artist-in-residence.
Who are your favorite printmakers/papermakers/artists and biggest inspirations? (if applicable)
I look at the graphic work of Raymond Pettibon and Seth Tobocman a lot. I really appreciate their style and the way they use their art as social commentary. Their work also creates room for absurdity and slippage between the real and the fabricated. My other influences include visual artists Nancy Spero, Tacita Dean and writer Rebecca Solnit. Because I live in a rural place, I use books, magazines and social media to learn about new artists. I became familiar with Katja Lang’s work through Instagram and I really appreciate her style.
Untitled 001 monotype 2023
What was your first job as an artist?
That is an interesting question because I have brought creativity to a lot of different roles throughout the years from decorating sugar cookies at a bakery (my first job I got right after my deployment to Iraq) to styling outfits when working in clothing retail. My first formal art job and the position that has been most fulfilling over the years is teaching art. I find the mutual sharing of skills and learning alongside students very gratifying.
What is one tool you could not create without?
A bluetooth speaker. When I was at Frontline, Kath Yarkosky - Frontline’s Production Printer & Studio Tech - and I listened to a lot of mid-1990s nu metal and punk from our respective highschool days.
What is your biggest rule in the studio?
One rule I try to follow when I’m creating it is to not be too critical or overthink my work. Though I’m not sure I’m very good at this. If I think too much about the work conceptually, I can really throw myself into a tizzy and have a hard time starting. If I think too much about the work technically, I can feel like my skills aren’t strong enough and could abandon a project early. It’s important to try to see work all the way through to the end. Listening to music kind of breaks the tension of taking creation too seriously in those beginning stages.
I see that you have a wide array of artistic abilities that stem from watercolor techniques to even photography. How did you get involved in so many different techniques?
I never really cut myself off from any medium. I was drawn to photography and film as a young art student and I have an MFA in photography. Even within photo studies as a student you learn the elements of design, so I think I’ve just over time built up different skills and I have followed what medium makes the most sense for me to be working with at that time. The Frontline residency was special for me because I was able to learn new print processes from Kath and kind of bend my mind around how I could use those processes in my work.
Untitled 020 monotype 2022
As a photographer myself, I think it speaks volumes on how one carries their camera and what they think the lens should focus on. What kind of shots are you fascinated in when it comes to your own photography work?
My photo series are generally about an idea that I’ve been stewing on for awhile. Sometimes I know exactly what I want but most of the time something unexpected happens and it is better than anything I considered. Yesterday I was driving down the road as the sun was setting and this faded blue grain silo just took my breath away. I am always looking at light.
I think some photographers build images, they have a narrative in mind and a way they want to design the shot or capture a person. And I would say that I’m probably on the opposite end of that, where something kind of strikes me and I might think, “oh weird/that’s interesting light/why does this make me want to cry” and I take a photo with whatever camera is the nearest to me at the time.
I see that an aspect you focus on in your work is using imagery to create stories of the unexplainable. What sort of power do you see in storytelling?
I love a good story. I think it’s interesting that within the context of different kinds of storytelling, like science fiction, we can consume narratives of other people, worlds and societies and we can see the flaws from an outsider's perspective. Flaws that are hard for the protagonist in the story to see because it’s a part of that world’s social construct. If you are consuming this kind of media, you can start looking for the things that are accepted in our world that maybe shouldn’t be. The power of storytelling and art allows viewers to see a perspective that is different from their own, suspends reality a bit and invites the viewer to consider new truths.
What would you say are important messages that you aim to convey in your art? What takeaways from your time in service would you say carried over into your art?
It depends on which work I’m thinking about. Early on I imagined I was making my work for a younger self, a 20 year old woman that just got back from a deployment and felt alienated by the experience and didn’t know how to process it. And my hope was that this fictional girl would look at the entrenched series and not feel so alone. I am probably continuing to make work for a younger self.
I’m not so self-elevated that I think my art can create any big changes in the world but there is always hope that art can give us reflection and create a path to ways that we would like to build a better future and I can’t imagine doing anything else.
In addition, can you talk a bit about your interest in combining the past and present and how the balance you see in their interaction?
I think about the past a lot and how world events, policies and different big histories have an effect on our everyday lives. I think about how that connects to my smaller personal history.
From an outside perspective, I suppose the links I’m making between past and present could feel a bit scattered but from my perspective I’m trying to make sense, make meaning or even balance out how it all fits together. I mean it’s all a bit chaotic and the past blends into the present then a project I did 10 years ago is now very much in the past.
Untitled 021 monotype 2022
Can you describe your experience with Frontline Arts, regarding the residency program you've recently taken part in?
I had a number of Zoom studio calls with Kath, leading up to my in-person residency. We discussed goals, what processes to use, and what ideas to focus on while I was in town. At the end of August, I was at the Frontline Arts studio in Branchburg for about a week learning from the staff and printing. It was kind of a fast and furious week of printing, trying different techniques out and honestly it was just a lot of fun to play around.
My intention going into the residency was to learn and expand on a series I started in 2021, Welcome to Rocketown. It was awesome to have access to presses to expand on the series but also to have access to the staff to help troubleshoot my new ideas and processes.
Can you describe the process of making an art series like the ones you've shared?
When looking at the Welcome to Rocketown series, it all started with an email from a veteran artist about the pyramid of North Dakota. I had never heard of it before. This artist told me that there were a few people looking into doing an art project out on the site. I got a small grant to drive out to the site and take a tour. Through conversations with my family, I learned that my great grandfather worked at this site as a general contractor and he painted the inside of missile silos in North Dakota. This kind of opened up my interest. The research included going there, talking about it, digging around the internet, looking at photographs, reading books both fiction and nonfiction about missile programs. When approaching actually making the work, I would consider themes I came across in my research and images that I held onto or imagined relate.
I make series because it’s easier for me to catalog in my brain what I’m working on. For instance, I can say to myself, “This is a digital photo series as a part of this project.” Or “These are monotypes and a part of this series.”
I'm seeing a sense of pattern and connection across the various works - what sort of connection do you think these works have with one another?
I would love to know what pattern or connection you see across my work because sometimes I take two steps back and wonder if any of it makes sense at all or even appears to be made by the same artist. Obviously there is a military thread that connects a lot of my work and the land. I don’t necessarily see myself as a landscape artist but there are a lot of landscapes. Making work and being a woman also seems to make its way into the substance of the work. To me there is something kind of feminine about a door, a window or a secret and that kind of mystery in the periphery is probably a connection from one series to the next.
Most of the works are done in a monochromatic color scheme, was this something that came naturally in the creation process or was this a deliberate choice you wanted to make?
It was a simple, uncomplicated choice. I really was the most interested in getting my ideas across and creating the work as quickly as possible. I didn’t want to spend too much time on selecting colors - and having the whole color wheel to pick from was just too many decisions. There were a few colors that came to me to use occasionally like a 1960s pale mint green that I’ve seen when touring a number of missile program sites and blush pink. I think the monochromatic color scheme also came from me looking at the black and white photographs during the Cold War and it just seemed natural to keep things black and white.
You've explained to me that the cyanotype poppies created a sort of trial-and-error procedure for you. Can you talk more about what that experience was like and how you think it affected the final result?
With the cyanotype poppies at Frontline, I coated the paper Photographers' Formulary Liquid Cyanotype, waited for the paper to dry and did test exposures on the paper. In the past I’ve also used the dry chemistry, Ferric Ammonium Citrate and Potassium Ferricyanide from Bostick and Sullivan and created the liquid mixture.
I was using Frontline paper that had been created from different uniforms at multiple workshops. The different papers had different reactions to the cyanotype chemicals. Sometimes it was harder to rinse out the cyanotype chemistry from the paper after the exposure. We troubleshooted if it was retention agent that was added to the paper that made it harder to rinse. I’ve experimented with this process multiple times on paper made out of military uniforms over the last 8 years with varied results. I know the next step is to make my own paper so that there can be a constant and troubleshooting can be easier. Maybe the next time I come back to Frontline I can do that process from start to finish.
2023
Do you have any words you would like to leave readers with? Like perhaps advice on those interested in participating in residency programs or the like?
Apply to residencies you think are a good fit for you and your practice. And don’t stop applying! Have friends and mentors look over your application and take time with it. Read through the materials offered by the institution that is hosting the residency. This advice is coming from the jobs I’ve had in art administration.
I know that it can feel personal to not get selected for an opportunity but just know that rejection is a part of every artist's life. Don’t dwell on it, just keep making your work and move forward. Going into a residency, remember to be flexible. Sometimes things work out perfectly but like most things in life you’ll encounter challenges and try to have a good mindset about it. This could be travel plans getting wonky or studio equipment not working the way you think it will. I think a lot of the opportunities I’ve had came my way because of being a part of a community, continuing to apply to stuff and taking things in stride.
For more information, please visit:
https://amberzora.com/home.html
For more information on the Frontline Arts Veteran Residency, please visit: https://www.frontlinearts.org/52-reasons-to-love-a-vet
Interview by Hugo Gatica, November 2023