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 yardin
Washington, DC, several summers ago. The nest still had down attached and the
egg was a few inches fromwhere 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 arenasof 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, ifyou can't get enough of my writing
about the mundane and notso 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
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Published On: Jul 04, 2005 05:41 PM
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