Human Rights Portfolio

(Non-Violence -- No Violencia)

Theresa Gates KUHR -- Cincinnati

Theresa Gates Kuhr es artista visual, entrenadora de salud transformacional y madre de cuatro hijas, que vive en Liberty Township, Ohio. Recibi6 su Maestrfa en Bel las Artes en Grabado de la Universidad de Cincinnati y su Licenciatura en Bellas Artes en Grabado de la Univer sidad Estatal de Ohio. Dirigi6 Tiger Lily Press, una Cin cinnati Fine Art Press, coma codirectora y directora du rante un total de dieciocho afios. Dia clases de grabado alIi y en la Universidad de Northern Kentucky. Kuhr tra baj6 en programas internacionales de intercambio de artistas con artistas de Munich, Alemania y Corea def Sur, promovi6 conferencias y programas de grabado nacionales y regionales y comisari6 y organiz6 numero sas exposiciones. Ha estado practicando y exhibiendo grabado durante 33 afios, ha mostrado trabajos a nivel internacional, y se le otorg6 una residencia de artista en Dresde, Alemania en 2013. Actualmente, Kuhr esta es tudiando Ayurveda, el sistema de medicina de miles de afios de la India, las artes de autocuraci6n y el reino vegetal comestible. Se considera una ambientalista y activista y continua estudiando la conexi6n entre la nat ura/eza, el arte, la espiritualidad y nuestras tendencias humanas. Autorretrato 2020, un rostro de no violencia en un mun do violento: "No hay cualidad del alma mas sutil que la no violencia" ~ Mahavira "Mientras me siento en mi auto, conduciendo a mi hija adolescente y a un par de sus amigas, escucho sus dis cusiones sobre sus suerios recientes. Una soriaba saltar de un edificio y estrellarse contra el concreto; otra so bre colgarse de un puente y caer en el agua. Como es toy claramente perturbada, me aseguran que esto era normal, lo que sus cuerpos querian para aliviar la an siedad y el estres que estan sintiendo, y que despues del impacto se sentirf an mejor y seguirf an con la vida con sencillez. Fue en este df a que el tema de mi es tampa se convirti6 en la violencia hacia uno mismo y la lucha para lidiar con estas mentalidades actuales. Me llam6 la atenci6n entonces que el enfoque materno ac tual es nuestra lucha para proteger a nuestros hijos de la cultura contemporanea. Cada conciencia y camino que seguf mientras estudiaba el tema de la no violen cia / seguridad me devolvieron al YO. Los estudios so bre Tolstoi, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ahimsa, el jainismo, Jesus, todos condujeron a la paz con el yo interior como el remedio para la violencia. Si bien in tente varias veces dibujar mi retrato con una leve son risa en mi rostro, finalmente mostr6 mas dolor y con templaci6n. Las palabras de Tolstoi,"Solo puede haber una revoluci6n, una moral: la regeneraci6n del hombre interior", estan ahora grabadas en la mente de este autorretrato de 2020 y se convierten en uno de sus principios rectores."

Theresa Gates Kuhr is a visual artist, transformation al health coach, and mother of four, living in Liberty Township, Ohio. She received her MFA in Printmak ing from the University of Cincinnati and her BFA in Printmaking from The Ohio State University. She ran Tiger Lily Press, a Cincinnati Fine Art Press, as Co Director and Director for a total of eighteen years. She taught printmaking classes there as well as at Northern Kentucky University. Kuhr worked on international artist exchange pro grams with artists from Munich, Germany and South Korea, fostered national and regional printmaking conferences and programs and curated and orga nized numerous exhibitions. She has been practic ing and exhibiting printmaking for 33 years now, has shown work internationally, and was awarded an artist residency in Dresden, Germany in 2013. Kuhr is currently studying Ayurveda, the thousands year old system of medicine from India, the self healing arts and the edible plant kingdom. She con siders herself an environmentalist and activist and continues to study the connection between nature, art, spirituality, and our human tendencies. Self Portrait 2020, A Face of Non-Violence in a Violent World: "There is no quality of soul more subtle than non violence"~ Mahavira "As I sit in my car, driving my teenage daughter and a couple of her friends, I listen to their discussions of their recent dreams. One dreamt jumping off of a building and crashing onto the concrete; another about hanging from a bridge and falling into the water. As I am clearly disturbed they assure me this was normal, what their bodies wanted in order to get relief from the anxiety and stress they are feeling, and that after the impact they would feel better and go simply about life. It was on this day that the theme of my print became about violence to self and the struggle to deal with these current men talities. It struck me then that the current maternal focus is our fight to protect our children from contemporary culture. Every awareness and path I went down while studying the theme non violence/security kept bringing me back to the SELF. Studies on Tolstoy, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ahimsa, Jainism, Jesus, all led back to peace with the inner self as the remedy for violence. While I attempted several times to draw my portrait with a slight smile on my face, it ultimately showed more grief and contemplation. Tolstoy's words, "There can only be one revolution - a moral one: the regeneration of the inner man", are now locked in the mind of this 2020 self portrait and become one of her guiding principles."