Last Saturday's Ballard Art Walk 


A recounting of last weekend's exploits in the world of art. Adam and I attended the 5th Annual Northwest Print Fair at Seattle Center, which was great fun and illuminating - I'd had no idea of how many really fine prints there are out there. Then we continued the exploit by catching the Second Saturday Ballard Art Walk. I've included some thoughts about local artists whose work I've seen - some of them in a couple of different places. A few photos showing off the two inches of snow we had - which was gone in less than 48 hours.  

Saturday last, Adam and I headed out for a couple of art walks. Our first stop was Seattle Center where the 5th annual Northwest Print Show was going on for the two days of the weekend. Other cities, mostly the big art cities back East and Chicago and LA, have these print shows (or fairs) where galleries which own huge numbers of wood block cut prints display and sell them. The galleries are from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and all the usual "art" towns except one, which is from Lincoln, Nebraska. Why Lincoln. It turns out that the heirs of one of the most prolific American woodcut print artists gave the entire collection to this Lincoln gallery to manage. How's that for being in the right place at the right time.

The print fair was in one of the Northwest Courtyard rooms at the Center. These rooms are in the northwest corner of the Seattle Center campus and are used as exhibition space for the fairs and as classroom space for other purposes. One of the cool things about Seattle Center is that it is a "city" recreational property and portions of the space can be used by ordinary citizens as meeting space or exhibition space. Simply following the right protocols and getting the right permissions can result in even me getting to use something like the Snoqualmie Room - which is where the print fair was set up.

The dozen and a half galleries all have sets of display tables, with cloths covering them, filling the room, which is about 80 feet long by about 40 feet deep with maybe a 20-foot ceiling. On each of the tables are these nifty "V"-shaped wooden print holder racks. Each rack is filled with a dozen to two dozen wood block cut prints - monochrome and color. There were Japanese, Indian, Chinese and other oriental prints, there were prints from most of the countries of Europe, a few from South America and a huge number from the U.S., some dating back to Colonial times. If the artist kept the cut wood block, once finished, that block can produce any number of "original" prints so even some of the oldest "cuts" had fresh impressions being presented. Many of the galleries also performed restoration functions so some of what was being displayed showed off their efforts at "art" restoration.

I think the prints from the Industrial Age period - late 1800s through 1920s - were my favorite. These were almost all done with incredible detail - whether they be European, South or North American. It was probably the style. These were scenes of activity in cities or details of commerce or manufacturing or simply landscapes. The scribing must have been done with the benefit of a magnifying glass because on most of the prints there are fine lines everywhere describing the texture of a building or the detail of a locomotive. The Industrial Age prints also managed to capture two elements of that time - the hustle and bustle of the people and their activities, all with lots of machines or infrastructure like bridges, and, the "griminess" of the era with all the coal-produced smoke leaving soot on everything in sight. It was also a period of elaborate design and some of the prints showed an almost rococo approach to embellishment.

I was less enthused over the oriental prints, most of them using classic Japanese or Chinese subject matter for the scribing. I'm much more fond of the actual Chinese and Japanese silk screen paintings than I was of the prints of the same subjects. But, perhaps I wasn't as tutored in the subject matter as I should be and will have to check the Japanese and Chinese prints out again next year when the print fair returns.

Some of the most fun prints were more recent works by American artists using simple colors and overlaying the print blocks in such a way that the resulting print looks much more complex than the simple scribe lines and sparse use of color would suggest. That's the challenge with block prints - how to create the block in such a way that different inks can be applied with the same block and produce an ever-richer and more complex final print. When I was last at Daniel Smith Artists Materials <http://www.danielsmith.com/> I picked up two linoleum blocks and a set of scribe tools and five tubes of print ink. I'd like to try my hand at block prints again - I did one about 30 years ago and like it but never pursued that art form. So, I was as the print fair as much to pick up ideas for wood cuts of my own as to admire other's work. I did get a few ideas and would like to play around with creating a block which can be used several by turning it 90-degrees on a side and printing with a different color ink.

We spent about 90 minutes at the print fair and then continued onward towards Ballard for the Second Saturday art walk. We were hoping to catch an 18 bus which would take us up 24th Ave. NW, which is where one of the galleries we wanted to see was - Gallery 63-eleven <http://www.theseattlesun.com/2004news/0407jul/outart.html> on 24th Ave. between NW 64th and NW 63rd Streets. But by the time we left Seattle Center, the Seahawks game had let out and the buses were running late so we hopped on a 15 and would just get off at NW 65th Street and walk west the nine blocks to 24th Ave. Which is what we did. We walked down 24th to the studio and entered Gallery 63-eleven to find the opening of C.L. Utley's "Some Enchanted Evening" <http://www.gallery63eleven.com/exhibits/archive/05_01.html>show. Adam and I walked in at about 6:10 pm, only a few minutes after the "official" start time and entered a smallish gallery which was relatively filled with what I took to be Utley friends and well-wishers, many of whom were dressed as if for an opening night affair! I didn't really feel out of place because it was "art walk," which meant galleries should expect all manner of riff-raff, me included.

Utley, or C.L. I guess, was leaning against a central platform and brandishing a wine glass around as he explained something or exclaimed in response to the conversation. It seemed like he was talking to everyone who had already been there before we arrived and like we just barged in on his event. Which, I suppose, we did. Undaunted, Adam and I went around the room looking at each painting - acrylic on canvas or board. Most were two feet wide by maybe 20 inches deep, or same dimension turned 90 degrees. It took us maybe twenty minutes to walk around and comment, try and analyze, compare and understand Utley's visual show. To my eye and mind he is using iconic representations of "people" or "events" or persons engaged in a specific manner and displaying these icons, the visual memes, in a way which tells either a story or provides a sociology. Some of his best work looked like a complex, multi-block, neighborhood with all manner of activity and demeanor being depicted but tied together with an undercurrent represented by the roads or sociological paths, several of which were intertwined through the neighbhood.

When we'd seen the entire show we got ready to leave and I said "wait." I'd seen the card of the gallery owner on the central platform and had managed to deduce which person in the the room she was and told Adam that I'd like to meet her since sometime in April we'd be back for a show Jeff Mihalyo <http://www.mihalyo.com/> will have. So I wandered toward the back of the gallery, where C.L. had managed to maneuver about half-a-dozen of the people he'd been talking to who apparently also wanted to meet the gallery owner. The opening night artist obviously had first call on the gallery owner, leaving his six compatriots with her and leaving him and me facing each other with no other recourse than for me to say "so, you're the artist?" That led C.L. to give me the one-on-one which I'd overheard him giving all the folks in the room when we'd arrived. I tried to cut him short, not really wanting to tell him that I'd overheard all this before. I asked him "so, I heard you talking about which of the paintings were your favorite." What an opening, but after saying for the seventh time that this next one was a particular favorite, I stopped him and said, "that's brave." He looked at me. I said "your self portrait. I think that's brave to have a self portrait in the show." He then continued on about which other paintings he liked, apparently not wanting to talk about the self portrait.

All his work has a thematic and so many of the visual metaphors he uses he re-uses so there's a family resemblance to Utley's work but of the 40 or so paintings at 63-eleven, three stood out. The self portrait was in a contradictory style from his other iconic metaphors. Like it didn't apply to him. Two of the other paintings were different by not being rainbow-hued and completely multispectral. One was a very pensive study of two people interacting done in scant shades of gray and midnight blue. Actually one of maybe six of his works which caught my eye. Four of the others were within his major genre at this showing - his iconic visual metaphors showing off human interaction. The other one which was different was a spare neighborhood with a predominant purple cast to the entire composition. I asked him what he thought about the gray one and after maybe four minutes of non-answer and evasive "I think I was" allusions to where he might have been going, I asked him about the purple painting. This time he completely evaded and went back to another one he liked in particular called "The Villain Factor." This one is, indeed, effective but I liked his more subtle approaches better.

One thing about Utley's work, I could easily see how one could find new and different nuances in his art each time you looked at it. They're very complex in content and very simple (iconic) in visual treatment - in this case less implies so much more. His next project will be to take this level of complexity and move it to larger canvases, five and six feet square. Utley said he was a designer and likes drawing and that all his work has some of that drawing buried in it. He's very good at creating the iconic representations he wants. A wall of his recent work tells a lot about what's going on in our society and world and yet appears so cartoon simple when you look at it.

I said to Utley that I thought his work was similar to another artist I'd been following. He asked who and I said Jim Stoccardo <http://www.jimstoccardo.com/gallery.php>. Utley said yes, he was familiar with Stoccardo's work and had bookmarked his site on his computer. Utley thinks there is a move among some artists to leave a lot of experimentation in approach and technique and return to a simpler method. In Utley's case it seems to be painting as social statement using very understandable and conceptually easy visual metaphors. One almost sees a "stained glass as religious-teaching aid" concept at work here. I didn't want to occupy any more of C.L.'s time and was probably stealing him away from something or someone who would be more useful for his present show so I said thanks and good bye. Adam and I headed south along 24th Avenue to get to Market Street where we'd turn and go a few blocks for an art cooperative we wanted to see.

Our next gallery was down at the corner of 28th Avenue NW and NW Market, in the Sev Shoon <http://www.sevshoon.com/about.html> print school building. At Art & Soul gallery they were featuring hyper-realist painter Patti Bezzo's <http://www.gallery110.com/cgi-script/csGallery/index.cgi?command=s&ccat=5> work. Her acrylic-on-canvas paintings are all landscapes showing off unique features of the Northwest environment and all are painted with a rich palette with lots of over-painting and layering. Her works are large, four or five feet by four or five feet and rich in color, layer and complexity. She does have a visual thematic which she seems to weave into every painting - a sinewy intertwining of some element - be it the branch of a tree or the interlocked waves of a shoreline. Her visual trademark, I suppose.

While crawling around the rest of Art & Soul, I ran across some photographic reprints of local artist Scott McDougall <http://home.earthlink.net/~uforick/mcduck/wave.html> and his wave and landscape art, which impressed me. Scott paints using acrylic-on-canvas and his style seems to be photo-realism. His "waves" series is incredible, capturing the light of a turning wave perfectly. His work will be featured at an upcoming exhibit at Gallery 63-eleven.

We didn't get to any of the other studios at the BallardWorks art space - the upstairs of the Sev Shoon building. Mostly because we were getting hungry and a bit tired of the weather. It was still cold and a bit misty, so, we grabbed a bite to eat at a local hot dog shop and caught the bus home. I'll dig deeper into the other studios at Sev Shoon during the February art walk. I've been looking for some affordable art classes and Sev Shoon seems to have really affordable classes in printmaking and photography. The printmaking looks appealing for several reasons. One, I'd like to learn more about technique and method; and, two, it might allow me to meet some other artists or artists wannabes which would allow for further discovery and exploration of this art. Not sure my budget can afford it this season - classes seem to run in quarters and the present quarter is late-January through mid-March. I'll be checking on their website for Spring classes, which might also allow me to bike to the studio. Anyway, something else to occupy my time.

And, since I've been commenting on the art of others, I felt it only appropriate that folks have a chance to comment on my art. I've created a new site which shows the pastel and acrylic work I've done in the past several decades - <http://homepage.mac.com/credmond/art>. I need to update the image gallery on that site as I've done at least five more pastels and probably have finished the second acrylic (I'm still debating whether or not it is "done"). I've also begun work on three more acrylics - sort of triptych style - and have begun to carve a linoleum block to start working with prints.

I've also been going wild with the business of converting LPs into MP4s. I recently went through my Rolling Stones collection and added Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Emotional Rescue,and Some Girls to my iTunes collection. Good stuff, early Stones is simply outstanding Rock & Roll!

This afternoon and this evening I'm heading down to Elliott Bay Books <http://www.elliottbaybook.com> to hear Charlotte Kasl speak on her approach to self-awareness through Buddhist studies and later Craig Childs describe a harrowing experience in the wilds of the Southwest and how it gave him a renewed will to live. Should provide some interesting fill for the Winter weekend hours.


And now, a few snow snapshots of the neighborhood...


Looking east out of the tower right after the snow quit falling.



Looking southeast, down 39th Avenue SW.



Looking west-southwest towards Puget Sound.



Looking straight west out over the Sound.



Looking north, again along 39th Avenue SW.



Looking down at the pond and shed. The water in the pond was fine, the pump motor keeps the water warm
enough that it doesn't freeze.



Looking down at the driveway area of the front yard. Pretty and it was all melted away by the morning of the
second day. No left-over slush.



This is a shot I also posted on the photoblog page. It's of a robin's nest and egg which we found in our front yard
in Washington, DC, several summers ago. The nest still had down attached and the egg was a few inches from
where the nest had landed in the yard. It's pretty impressive what a robin can do with small twigs.

If you haven't checked out what I'm doing in other arenas
of the visual and multimedia arts, check out my art at
<http://homepage.mac.com/credmond/art>; or my multimedia work at
<http://homepage.mac.com/credmond/multimedia.html >; or my weekly photos at
<http://homepage.mac.com/credmond/photoblog.html>. And, if
you can't get enough of my writing about the mundane and not
so mundane, check out my other blog at
<http://spaces.msn.com/members/chasblog2>.

Otherwise, have a pleasant rest of January - the days are finally getting longer. 

Posted: Sat - January 15, 2005 at 11:14 AM          


©