Perceptions

This weekend was sunny and very amazing. The arts do flourish in a small way..

At the waterworks gallery in Friday Harbor, the show, Art Hansen - Celebrating 80 opened.
This show was wonderful to curate as I chose images that were created from the mid 70's to the most  recent watercolor' s of 2009. Black and white etchings, color etchings, lithographs and watercolors.  A steady stream of folks coming in to meet and visit with Art Hansen. Good conversation, Art, Food and Wine. Thanks to all who chose to spend the their time at the gallery.It was wonderful.

At 80, many things have constrained to slow Art Hansen down including the absence of his wife, best friend and companion of 50 years Gerta. She is now institutionalized as she suffers from Alzheimer's. Art visits her weekly. He has two grown sons, one lives in NY and one in Seattle. He is a grandfathers a few times over.
Art continues to bike, even after a severe bicycle accident a few years ago. He stays active in both mind and body.

I was introduced to Art 15 years ago by another artist I was showing at the time. I was intrigued by Art's work as he takes everyday scenes, of places in the landscape that he loves.The northwest. He paints the  view from his studio window on Vashon Island and visits his favorite places in the Skagit Valley. His love of gardening is evident as he paints roses with the thorns as a major part of the composition including the pruning cuts. His poppies make us remember the poppies of Georgia O'Keeffe.

His watercolors are a fusion of the stylization and simplicity of East meets West. The line's painted in his watercolors are deceptively simple. Yet each line repeats and builds on the previous line. The repetition of pattern creates the land. We can feel the weight of the barns, the prickliness of the rose's thorns, and the down on the stem of a poppy. He is masterful in his use of the dry brush and watercolor. 

This show is on display at the gallery till June 6
Art Hansen Show.http://www.waterworksgallery.com/artistbios/hansen/hansen.shtml

The following day, myself and my good friend, Laurie Paul went to Seattle to see the newest opera from the Seattle Opera Company, Amelia. As that area of Seattle is all under construction we parked downtown and decided to take the monorail to Seattle Center.

We sat facing with our backs to the route ahead.  This feeling of being seated the wrong way allowed me to see the building at the Seattle Center in a total new way. It was a beautiful sunny day and the light on the Music Experience Building was all reflected bronzes and yellowy sunlight.It was different. I saw  the monorail reflected in the building was intriguing.This experience changed my perception of that building and my ability to be delighted by that experience was evident.

If you have not heard about the newly commissioned opera Amelia. I will only convey a few details. The first difference to traditional opera is that this one is sung in English, yet still uses the Super Titles over the stage. This is a good, as the singing is still very large , sometimes once is so entranced by the sound that one does not even realizing that the language is in English. This makes for a different perspective and different perception.

This opera is also set in a America in fairly recent times.
America of the 60's, Vietnam in the 1960, and a America in recent past tense.

The story is based on letters from a Vietnam era Commander Pilot father to his daughter, the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son, Icarus, and the female flier,Amelia Earhart. The theme of flying and flight is inter woven into a story line about a mother's need to know her unborn child is being brought into a world that is safe and she will be loved." Love is worth the risk."

The sets are brilliant as is the staging.
The music is hauntingly beautiful.
The storyline complex and compelling.
Now that I have seen it once, I want to see it again.

This opera, while non traditional in time frame and in language, fulfilled me.

What is an opera? It is a story that embraces, love, death and war celebrating the art of opera.

This opera  helped me see the world of opera in a contemporary manner.
It was wonderful. Making me wonder about other opera story lines being presented in a current time line.
To me opera, is the ultimate vehicle for suspending one's beliefs.

In the darkened McCaw Hall, we allow the magic to embrace us.
This opera will only run another week, I would see it!
Cheers

Great local shows

Ginny Ruffner, Envisioning Series, A self image

This past Sunday, I asked a friend in Anacortes to join me in a Sunday outing to the Museum of Northwest Art [ 121 south First Street, La Conner]. Fabulous sunny day. The best part, for me, I could walk on the ferry boat and get picked up. What fun! So much less time spent waiting in ferry lines.

I wanted to hear this talk, Resonances in Glass with Ginny Ruffner, James Minson and Masami Koda. Ginny Ruffner, is the queen of Lampworked glass, I just started showing the jewelry of James Minson, and recently saw the works of Masima Koda. The common thread for all three artists is their medium is lampworked glass. The talk was conceived by the curator Kathleen Moles.

But as I learned in this talk, there are more common threads between them. I love all these connections that happen in the art world. James actually used to work for Ginny Ruffner, after her accident, James was involved in the lampworking program at Pilchuck. Then when it was time for him to move on, he had Masima replace him. She too works with Ginny Ruffner constructing her pieces. Small world , apparently years ago, James when he was in an MFA program in Japan, and Masima while,living in Japan, both attended the the the International Glass show. This was the first time both of them saw the whimsical, and wacky, works of Ginny Ruffner. Both, James and Masima fell in love with the newness of the work.
[I think I remember all the important facts from this talk.]

James Minson, The Reef, lampworked glass

The show, Resonance in Glass, currently installed in the small glass Benaroya Glass Gallery in the Museum. This show reflect the differences in these three artists work, yet reflects their passions.

Ginny spends lots of time thinking and asking questions. Her works can be seen as questions or perhaps new ways at looking at old information. James, from a family of industrial science glass workers, spent time diving in the ocean and exploring new frontiers in jewelry. His pieces reflect his interest in ocean reefs and the interactions with nature. Masami concern about her intimate environment shows up in her work. She has translated glass into rain, and her gardens into dreams.

Masimi Koda, Water Crochet, lampworked glass

This show includes works loaned by Anne Gould Hauberg, the Microsoft Collection and Traver Gallery
For me, I had a wonderful time listening to each of them, share a story about their works and perhaps, I caught a glimpse of how and why they work. I felt more intimate about their works. I wanted to take them all out for food and continue the conversations. Kudos to Greg Robinson and the Museum of Northwest Art!

All images courtesy Museum of Northwest.
Next time in La Conner, take the time to discover the Gallery Cygnus, [105 Commercial St.] It is across from Maple Hall at the end of town in La Conner. The show currently on view is a small collection of mixed media sculpture form Philip McCracken and the photographs of Mary Randlett. The space is well organized, and intimate. The gallery is run by a small group of artists, including Peggy Doyle, whom I chatted with. She told me the gallery is celebrating being open one year. Wahoo ! The gallery is open weekends. Stop by and see some Skagit Valley artists.
Gallery. A wonderful opportunity to see these three artists works together.

Traveling to Home

Richard Avedon (American, 1923–2004): Dovima with elephants,
evening dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, August 1955.
© 2010 The Richard Avedon Foundation.

After returning from a few winter adventures, I am writing this blog entry from my home in Friday Harbor. I was able to view a few choice exhibitions scattered around the country.Locally, I hope you were able to go the Calder show here in Seattle at Seattle Art Museum

One of the highlights, the works of photographer, Richard Avedon at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palms Beach, Fl. I appreciated photography as artform, but mea culpe after a few photography classes, I now understand art as photography on a visceral level.

Avedon Fashion 1944–2000, Richard Avedon revolutionized fashion photography in the post-World War II era with his spirited, imaginative images of the modern woman. This spectacular exhibition will feature more than 160 works – including edition and vintage prints, contact sheets, and original magazines – created during Avedon’s long career at Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, The New Yorker, and beyond.

The elegance, and simplicity of the black and white images were inspiring, leaving me wanting to see more of his works. Perhaps it is time to show photography at waterworks gallery.

The other highlight of my winter was a trip to Abiqui, New Mexico, the home of Georgia O'Keeffe. I have admired her works, especially her role as one of the few successful woman artists. I wanted to see the land that inspired her visions.

This was my first trip to Santa Fe. My initial impression of the land was reminiscent of the hills of eastern Washington or Oregon and Idaho. High plateau scubby, sagey devoid of intense color, a desert. Not till I actually got within a few miles of Ghost Ranch, that I saw the RED HILLS.
Oh my god, even on a cloudy day the rock formations were dauntingly beautiful [ Yes, I like rocks].

From the painting show of Georgia O'Keeffe's entitled "A Sense of Place", the landscape tour was created to allow the viewer to fully experience the actual locations of the paintings from Ghost Ranch. A tour of her home is another option. For the landscape tour, a dozen people are loaded into a van and driven around the large ranch to the areas that she painted on canvas. Museum curators and guides have assembled the paintings as placards and the same locations. Highly simplified and yes, there are purple hills. These towering rock formations painted for many years, mark the passage of time. Some sites are still intact , other have changed with time.
Even in winter under rain and clouds, the magnificents of the land is almost holy.

More stories of art shows to follow. Cheers

Weather

As this is the winter, [with the great sunny weather, you would never know] I 'm taking the time to take a few classes and using this time to travel to studios and meet perspective gallery artists.

waterworks gallery is on winter hiatus and Friday Harbor is very quiet. Most galleries and other business in town are keeping very limited hours. Without the pressure of regular retail hours, life is simpler. The winter season is the best time for learning new things.

I completed a wonderful Digital SLR workshop at The Photographic Center Northwest in Seattle with Leslie Sabor. [wohoo]. Great class. Good instruction. Great location. A bit of history: I used to print black and white photos many years ago, easy to forget it all with the automatic way we do things. The class helped me remember what I loved about photography and now working with a digital SLR camera is truly a brave new world. I bought a Lumix SLR DMC FZ18 for the gallery's needs. Limited but functional. Now after this class all I have is camera lust! Nikon or Canon! Not sure, What's your opinion?

Thank god for the delete button. My philosophy is edit the shot mentally, compose carefully, shoot it many times. My experiences lead me to think, I can learn to manipulate the shot later, but somehow I don't want to spend more time on a computer than I already do. Silly me!


I realized what interest me visually are textures and the play of light, both reflected and actual. The gallery 's artist are an extension of these interests.

These shots are from my travels, up to Nanimo, British Columbia. [The top is on a sandstone beach at Gabriola Island, bottom another provincal park on Gabriola Island] I traveled north to meet a painter. He is an avid outdoor painter but instead of plein aire is much more interpretive, a contemporary in the style of the Canadian Group of Seven painter. The gallery will feature this painter late this year.

I am an aspiring photographer learning to shot on manual.
More travels and artists news next time.
Cheers

Wheh !

Almost the end of the month.

Am on a bit of a sabbatical. Living in the city, Seattle. Taking photo and photo shop classes.

Very interested in seeing photograph work.

Saw a wonderful show at the

Polaroids: Mapplethorpe

Henry Gallery at the Univ of Washington.

A collection of Polaroid photographs from the early days in NYC. A precursor to who we know as Robert Mapplethorpe. The show is up till January 30th.


another show to see:

Eirik Johnson: Sawdust Mountain

both very informative and very different from each other. This up till January 31st.

Find your muse

Last weekend, I went to Mount Vernon to the beautifully restored Lincoln Theater to see the Metropolitan Opera's rebroadcast in HD TV of Jacques Offenbach, The Tales of Hoffman.

Complex opera with the main character the writer Hoffman telling the tales of the three unhappy loves in his life, from his perspective while in the company of his muse, impersonating his best friend.

Yes, a complex and complicated storyline with different loves and villains.

Battling for Hoffman's creative soul, the muse tries to protect Hoffman from himself and the woman around him.

In driving Hoffman away from love, the muse propels him onto greater artistic achievements.

What consequences does the muse invoke for her writer, or even herself when she envelopes his life with protections from that lived life ?


After the opera, driving back to the ferry, I thought about the word muse.

Such a small word with great meaning and reverence.

Where and what was it's root?

What kind of classical mythology was involved?


Muse

(myōōz) noun. Greek Mythology Any of the nine daughters of Mnemosyne and Zeus, each of whom presided over a different art or science. muse A guiding spirit. A source of inspiration. muse A poet. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin Mūsa, from Greek Mousa; see men-1 in Indo-European roots.]

muse

(myōōz) verb. mused, mus·ing, mus·es v. intr. To be absorbed in one's thoughts; engage in meditation. v. tr. To consider or say thoughtfully: mused that it might take longer to drive than walk. n. A state of meditation.

My wish for the New Year is to find your muse.
To thinking thoughtfully, musing over and doing no harm.

Bellevue Art Museum rocks

John Buck, East West

Open spacious, a very quiet space with free parking in a beautiful new building in downtown Bellevue stands the Bellevue Art Museum. As one climbs the museum's interior staircase, a feeling of quiet descends. A sense of intimacy of the exhibition space is forthcoming.


On the day I visited, I was the only person on the floor other than a docent volunteer.
The show is John Buck Iconography from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his family foundation.


My work focuses on three basic formats: wood block prints, wood relief panels and sculpture which feed into one another. By shifting from printmaking to painting, I am able to see with a fresh eye. -John Buck

Tattoo, edition 4/15, 1992
Five-color woodcut, lithograph, chine colle
74 x 37 in.
2002

John's work, the wood blocks & rubbings appear to be created of complex spaces and elements that initially appear to be flat. Standing close up to the works, the background icons that appear are pretty graffiti like and even cartoonish. Very beautiful and very difficult to print.

North of South, 2005
Wood panel with acrylic paint
72 x 72 x 3.5 in.

The elaborate assemblages of sculpted wood chiseled boxes are multi - paralleled universes with minimal colors. His choices are an amazing 60's Yves blue or a red.


My sculpture is inspired by contemporary issues as well as primitive and folk art of many cultures.My approach to sculpture is a combination of figurative and abstract compositions which represent the imagination as physical forms and that combine the properties of balance and tension.

from the catalogue essay from What the Fox Knows: The Art of John Buck by Eleanor Heartney.

The show is a must see up till February 28th.

About the Artist

John Buck was born in Ames, Iowa. He studied with Roy De Forest, William T. Wiley, Robert Arneson and Manuel Neri at the University of California, Davis, and out of these fertile roots developed an authentic, resonant, lyrical voice – a voice unmistakably his own. He currently divides his time between a ranch in Bozeman, Montana and studios on the island of Hawaii, together with his wife, artist Deborah Butterfield.