The End of Biomorph & New Images of Individual Wall Pieces

I drove down to Pasco this Friday to take down my Biomorph show. I also took my camera so I could get some quality images in the gallery with good lighting. Unfortunately, the midday lighting in the gallery didn't translate very well to quality images of individual pieces. I guess I need to wait until the weather is nicer and go back to my old stand-by image taking method.

Regardless, I got some images of the works hung on the walls and some of them turned out okay. I also picked up a CD from the gallery director but haven't had a chance to view the images she had for me.

My outdoor image taking method doesn't work particularly well for wall mounted work. I was hoping to have images of the new work, in particular, so that I could start entering new pieces in shows.

I ran out of time to get good images taken before the end of my sabbatical. I took plenty of pictures in my studio and while building, but these images all have messy and distracting backgrounds. The Biomorph show was installed in early January, days before winter classes began so I had, literally, zero days between finishing the works and installing the show. I don't really expect weather and my work commitments to allow me to take images outside until March (after classes end), so these will have to do for now.

 

I might have been able to get better images in the gallery if I had spent more time adjusting (or understanding) my camera settings. As it was I was worried about taking down the show, packing up the car, and getting a record of everything before it was taken down.  I didn't realized my flash was on for some of the pictures until I was halfway through taking images.

Of course, in some pictures where I didn't use the flash, the sculptures look so dark they are hard to see. Some of the individual wall pieces have the added distraction of shadows from other pieces and from multiple light sources. As a non-photographer, I want to believe that using a tripod will eliminate all other sources of error from a photograph of my work.

Regardless of the varied quality, I now have individual images of some new pieces and of some I never took installation pictures of in the first place (even though I've shown them before).

  

All of the works in this post (except the very first) were part of the Kekino wall installation at Esvelt Gallery for "Biomorph" January 2014

Last Chance to See "Biomorph"

This week is your last chance to see Biomorph at the Esvelt Gallery in Pasco. The show is open M-Th 8am - 8:30pm and then it's coming down.

 

This is your last chance to see this iteration of the Kekino wall installation.

This is also your last chance to see this iteration of the Ericano wall installation.

I don't know when you can see Laura Ahola-Young's paintings since she's based in Idaho.

The good news is that you can see my sculpture and my sabbatical work this April at Oak Hollow Gallery in Yakima. The show opens April 12, 2014. 

In the meantime, you can visit Oak Hollow Gallery on Summitview in Yakima and see Monica Lemmon's paintings and Jason Commodore's ceramics. The show is up now through March with a reception Feb 8 at 2pm.

Glass & Nail Polish

At the end of January I ran a clay lesson with a group of second graders from Apple Valley Elementary. I did this lesson last year, too. I didn't take pictures while I was running the lesson, but the woman running the event said she'd send some and I'll post them once I get them.

the original glass necklace

At the end of the event one of the volunteers asked me about my necklace and then told me how it was made. Like most of my jewelry, the necklace was a gift from my mom. I never thought much about how it was made, I just assumed it was cast glass.

the pendant, front and back

According to the woman, it is just a piece of clear glass with nail polish painted on the back. And, looking more closely at the piece, I can see that she's probably correct.

some of our pendants

Naturally this became the family art project for the weekend. We bought some clear glass "stones" (the kind used for filling vases at weddings) and collected the various nail polishes we had in the house. We set up the project on an old cutting board in the room with the bad carpet and started painting. My daughter and I each painted about five glass pieces before we ran out of energy and color options. (Next time we might need more than just glitter and pink polish.)

cardboard attached to the back shows through the glass front (and some of the polish)

We quickly realized that we could replicate a paperweight's decoration on a small scale by attaching a sticker or a picture facing the glass. The stickers worked particularly well and were pretty simple to attach with a bit of clear polish on the face and more polish over the sticky back.

my daughter's necklace and a sticker pendant

Then we used some memory wire and beads we already had to make a round necklace without a clasp. My daughter's bead choices on the necklace were more adventurous than mine.

my necklace and a painted pendant

I tried to copy the twisting metal bail that attaches the original glass piece to the necklace but I didn't have an appropriate gauge of metal and I kept snapping off the end. I decided to create a looser loop to attach to most of the glass pieces. The loosely looped bail also slides onto the necklace easily.

another painted pendant

I'm not sure I'm going to go into production with these, but it was a fun, easy project for a winter afternoon. And fun and easy is about all I have time for this winter.

three painted pendants and two with attachments: the top one had cardboard behind nail polish, the sunburst is a sticker with pink polish behind 

Something New: Dinosaurs

My sabbatical was about taking a break from teaching to focus on research. It allowed me to delve into my new work in greater depth, build more work than I can finish in a normal year, and get into a flow state with my work. By the time the sabbatical officially began in September, I had prepared my space and finished leftover pieces and had already begun to test ideas so that I entered the sabbatical at a running start. The months of September, October and December were particularly productive. (In November I had to underglaze so I didn't feel productive.)

argh! underglaze layers

I ended the sabbatical at a sprint, installed my show and have been talking about the show incessantly ever since. Part of the reason for talking about the show incessantly is that I haven't been into the studio since I installed the show except to fold packing material in preparation for picking up the work in February.

professional grade packing material (aka old towels and bubble wrap)

The other reason for the reiterative focus is that I came back to teaching at a full sprint as well. After focusing almost non-stop on my studio work for 6 months, I suddenly have five classes to teach (that's close to 130 new students) as well as new art program head responsibilities in the wake of my colleague's retirement and new requirements as I begin the tenure process. It is a bit jarring for the brain to go from one extreme (studio work and show installation) to another (teaching and school duties) and I can't seem to hold complex thoughts about things other than my current show, my past sabbatical and tomorrow's lesson plan.

I can't get you outta my head

At least in part because of the sabbatical, I find myself refreshed and energetic about the new challenges at work. I just don't find they necessarily lend themselves to discussion on my blog. I've been considering what to put in this space as I transition out of production/sabbatical/studio mode into teaching-and-never-seeing-my-home-studio mode.

dinosaur?

And now for something completely different
What to put in this space? Dinosaurs.

fossil textures so pretty

For Christmas I got my brother this book, "My Beloved Brontosaurus" because he used to be into dinosaurs as a kid. But after I gave it to him, I realized that I just really wanted to read the book, so I got it for myself, too.

In the book, science writer and apparent dinosaur expert Brian Switek basically updates grown-up dinosaur fans (those who went on to do things distinctly unrelated to dinosaurs) on what has changed in paleontologists' understanding of dinosaurs since we were kids. The book is fascinating, but also rather dense for someone who hasn't really paid attention to dinosaurs since Jurassic Park came out. I keep having to stop and look things up or go back and reread a section.

prehistoric texture

I'm actually feeling pretty expert, since I was just looking at dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History in New York last month. I watched the video, I saw the family tree. I kinda remember some stuff about, um... (I don't really.)

fossil turtles, so interesting

The book is very interesting and an enjoyable read, but I'm really impressed with the illustrations by Jeff Martz. As one can see by the photos I chose to take in the crowded AMNH halls, I am attracted to visual textures and interesting repetition, both of which show up in the book's illustrations. This book's illustrations are pretty but also help me understand what the author is trying to explain. I regularly listen to science audiobooks while I work in the studio, but the topic of dinosaurs and prehistoric life greatly benefits from visual support.

sprigs?

Unfortunately the illustrations are small and I have trouble seeing them in the detail I would prefer. This past weekend, I looked up the images online. In doing so I stumbled across the same illustrations by Jeff Martz on a blog about Archosaurs with a special focus on palaeoart. Not only did I discover a source of interesting information, beautiful diagrams and fascinating illustrations of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, but I also learned that there is such a thing as palaeoart. You have to love a new art term with four vowels in a row.

bike parts!

This all may seem exceedingly random to discuss on my blog. After all, this has nothing to do with bike parts or ceramics, but after an extensive period of intense personal focus on one thing, it feels particularly refreshing to happen upon something almost entirely new to me that is both fascinating and completely unrelated to what I have been focusing on for so long. I wanted to share. Click through my palaeoart links and enjoy.

Upcoming Exhibition: Monika Lemmon & Jacob Commodore at Oak Hollow Gallery

Last spring my home and studio were featured on the Larson Gallery's Tour of Artists' Homes and Studios. I also featured work by Monika Lemmon at my home. Her paintings are beautiful and surreal, very interesting stuff. 

one of Monika Lemmon's paintings from the Tour of Artists' Homes and Studios

Starting this week her new work will be featured at Oak Hollow Gallery in Yakima. Her work will be sharing the gallery with ceramics by Jacob Commodore. The show runs from January 28 to April 5, 2014 with a reception on February 8 from 2-4pm. 

I haven't seen much of Monika's most recent work as she's now in graduate school in Idaho. She has worked in a wide variety of media. I love her paintings and have the privilege of living with one of them at my home since the Tour last spring.

the Monika Lemmon painting in my living room

My current and upcoming shows:

My show, Biomorph is up for another two weeks at Esvelt Gallery in Pasco. The show's last day is February 6. The gallery is open Monday - Thursday from 8am - 8:30pm and Friday from 8am - noon. Admission to the gallery is free.

gallery view of "Biomorph"

In April I will be bringing much of sculpture from Biomorph and my sabbatical to Oak Hollow Gallery for a local exhibition. I will not be hanging the wall installations, however, so you'll have to get to Pasco in the next two weeks to see them.

"Biomorph" sculptures

Esvelt Gallery (Biomorph Show)

The Fred Esvelt Gallery at Columbia Basin College is a strange space. Try looking up the map for the campus and you should be able to find the art building just from its top view. The exterior view of the windowless building would be forbidding if it weren't for large "Art" and "Drama" signs. I believe the architectural style is Brutalist, like the Humanities Building on UW-Madison's campus.

The art building is on the far left, notice the open space inside the exterior walls.

The view from the exterior is grim, but bravely walk into the building space and what appeared to be one windowless box becomes three separate buildings with their windows and entryways facing each other. The walking space between the buildings can't really be termed a courtyard, maybe a breezeway. The cement floored space is more protected and less green than those terms suggest. But the space is oddly pleasant. And weird--the space is definitely weird.

View of the gallery and exterior courtyard during the reception for "Biomorph."

The Fred Esvelt Gallery does double or triple duty as the entryway and both upstairs and downstairs lobbies. The main space is on view directly as one enters the building. To reach the clay and sculpture studio, one crosses one side of the gallery space. A short length of wall separates the gallery space visually from the hall space. In Biomorph my wall installation sculptures wrap around this wall and Laura Ahola-Young's paintings are hung on the side of the stairway across this "hall."

The short wall (left) perpendicular to the entry doors visually separates the gallery space from the hall space.

Large windows line one side of the gallery, parallel to the staircase/hall space. The windows allow an exterior view into the gallery. From inside one looks out onto a small, brutal cement courtyard area. The reflections and external gallery lighting change considerably depending on the weather conditions and time of day outside.

Reflections in the window (view from top floor)

During the reception in the middle of the afternoon, the reflections on the glass were quite clear. The reflected images made taking straight photographs difficult, but interesting. I kept noticing the doubling of my installation and my pedestal pieces when I stood along that side of the gallery. 

Window reflections (view from top floor)

The gallery is visible from the stairs on the way up to the faculty office area. A second level of stairs is blocked from view of the gallery but leads up to the second or third floor lobby (I'm confused about floors because the office area comes off the side of the studio/gallery space like a split level house. The top level studios appear to be directly above the bottom floor studios.) The upstairs lobby/gallery space is small, leading to upstairs classrooms and an exterior balcony area. Most of the upstairs lobby space is open, providing a view down to the gallery below.

Sculpture Pedestals (view from top floor)

The open space is surrounded by high cement walls and appears to be visible from outside the large windows that look out on the balcony. The view down into the gallery is interrupted by lighting on rails. I am afraid of heights or I would perhaps have enjoyed the bird's eye view of the show more.

"Pedal/Petal" (view from top floor)

As it is, the foreshortened (and distant) view of the show is at least an unusual one. I am unlikely to see most shows from this perspective again.

"Kekino" (view from top floor)

I was intentional about installing pieces on the top of the short wall near the doorway specifically because of this view. The space is pretty big, allowing a great deal of work to be swallowed up by the gallery without seeming crowded. Given more time, I think it would be lots of fun to take advantage of more of the strange architecture of the space, having pieces hiding in spots only visible from above.

Two levels of windows and reflections (view from top floor)

"Biomorph" is up at the Esvelt Gallery through Feb 6, 2014. Hours are M - Th 8am - 8:30pm and Friday 8am - noon.