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.

The other things artist do

Anne Belov

With thanksgiving, this week, I got to thinking about all the different activities and passions that we enjoy. The different ways we sustain our life styles of how we eat, play, work and nourish ourselves.

Most of the people I know are artists. This year has been difficult for many. The sales of artworks used to sustain artists financially and spiritually, but now some artists are finding themselves driven to other vocations to create revenue sources.


Anne Belov, a fabulous painter is exploring the cartoon/comic strip world of her creation, Bob the Panda and his adventures. It is amazing how a cute Panda and his friends have the funny struggles and adventures outside the zoo world. Anne is trying to get published.

Michael Dickter

Michael Dickter, another wonderful painter has been a part time graphics designer and architectural photographer and designer. He was the last freelancer to leave a large firm in Seattle. AS the real estate market is picking up perhaps so will his photography business. I am currently working on a project with Michael that has to do with waterworks gallery's upcoming 25th Anniversary. [More on that later].

Jaime Ellsworth

Jaime Ellsworth, another fabulous [yes I do repre sent a wonderful & fabulous group of artists] painter has recently completed a training course and has become a dog trainer of service dogs that work with people with disabilities. She is amazing with her generosity of spirit and love of animals. Jaime is the president of the San Juan Island Animal Shelter located here in Friday Harbor.

Sue Roberts

Sue Roberts, a fabulous sculptor is the creator of delicious chocolate caramels and turtles. For years, Sue created small batches of caramels and sold them to a small but loyal audience. This year she was able to rent a commercial kitchen and went into a small limited hand made production. The name of her company is Tickled Pink [sweet!] The gallery will have a limited supply of her fabulous chocolates for sale! How sweet!



We are all doing what we need to survive this year. Last night, I had dinner with Sue and we talked about this year. The year has elements that we support and other elements that have been difficult to digest. While we are both guardedly optimistic, we both felt the year has been about major shifts in our lives. Life style adjustments.

The ability to spend time and conversations with friends is tantamount to living in these times.

For Sue, she tried out being a chocolatier. Lots of hard work and a great product.

Does she want to continue on this path, decidedly not? She is a sculptor and will continue pushing out the edges of her works [metaphorically].

For me, the gift has been spending time getting to know them personally with Anne, with Michael, with Jaime and with Sue.

This is the time of year, to remember what where we were earlier in the year and to me be amazed that it is late November.

Winter solstice is a month away. With that in mind the days will start getting longer. The cycle renews itself.

We are grateful for the seasons and the changes they bring about.

I hope you share time with loved ones and good friends
I hope you share food and drink with loved ones and friends.
And most important now
I hope you share art with loved ones and friends.

Cheers