The Sweeper, from Like Mother, curated by Kelly Lyles
The big sleep of winter seems to have abruptly ended this week, with 70 degrees predicted Sunday! Along with the bloom of forsythia and plum there are 3 spring exhibits ahead.
Like Mother No. 11 at Kirkland Art Center
I hope to see you at the opening of the newest (11th!) iteration of Like Mother at Kirkland Art Center Friday March 22nd, from 6-9. Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 11-4, Saturday 11-2. Address: 620 Market Street, Kirkland WA 98033.
This version of the exhibit includes several new artists. As interesting as the art are the stories accompanying the work. For me the process of making the three collages in the show was a remedy for grief and a joyful exploration. Being the daughter of a controversial public figure is not always easy. I knew a very different, private version of my mother, and these three collages reflect that view. After my mother’s death in 2019 I began going through her archives. She saved every letter and every document of rites of passage, and these are the artifacts I used to honor her memory.“The Sweeper” (above) depicts Ginny at 3, the youngest and last child in a family of 5, left to entertain herself in a big house mostly emptied of children. The light is the constant sun of California, in the formal rooms of the family home in Redwood City, where her father was mayor.
Governing Verbs (The Nun)
All her life my mother spoke of the nuns, and of the particular torment of growing up with a wild spirit in a Catholic world. Until her early 20’s and a dramatic disillusionment, she had thought she might join the church and become a nun herself. Her tales of Catholic school were Gothic, and I assumed somewhat fictional. How startling it was to find in a lost photo album a series of tiny photographs of the nun, and to see played out in black and white the complicated relationship of anarchy and authority that were the story of my mother’s life. Lastly, Ginny was an ardent activist, and she spent 3 months in the King County jail for civil disobedience. “Released” incorporates the actual document releasing her from jail and the feminist dichotomies of the time: she wrote, she organized, she sewed, she knitted, and when I would visit her and talk through the bullet proof glass she usually had yarn in her lap.
Released
Moving Parts Opens at SAM Gallery
Coming up in April I will have work in a show of abstraction at SAM Gallery. From the SAM Calendar:
APR 6 2024
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
SAM GALLERY
2 PM – 4 PM
Join us as we celebrate this April’s featured SAM Gallery artists and their artworks at the opening reception of Moving Parts.
This show is made up non-objective abstraction with bold color, bursting energy, creative collages and delicate details. From linear pathways that loop and twist, to moody shades, shadows and shapes, Moving Parts is an engrossing exploration of various artistic ideas and mediums.
Featuring the artwork of local artists Katie Anderson, Deborah Bell, Carolyn Cole, Alfred Harris, Iskra Johnson, and more.
Looking for the Northern Light
Save the date! Spotlight North Open Studios May 4-5 2024
I am excited to open my studio again for a return of Spotlight North, showcasing the work and studios of artists in Shoreline and North Seattle. Recent work will be posted soon at the Spotlight North website and Instagram. I will be showing my prints, cards from The Gardener’s Almanac of Irreproducible Phenomena, and small affordable collages and paintings (if they are dry and framed in time!). This is such a fun event for meeting new people, sharing the process of art making and seeing first hand how people respond to work. There will also be an exhibit at Shoreline City Hall of all Spotlight North Artists, opening March 28 from 5-7 PM.
I have been continuing my sketchbook explorations as I find a path to painting. The direction (which could change….) is urban and industrial landscapes, with many detours into surface and abstraction along the way, which is how my digital printmaking process works. I cannot recommend Cheryl Taves’ 30-Day Sketchbook challenge enough. The month of prompts and the sketchbook community on Instagram gave me a wonderful impetus to try new things and inch closer to the next phase of my studio practice.
Meanwhile, last but not least:
Artist Trust Auction 2024
I am excited to participate in this year’s Artist Trust Auction. This year the theme is “Florescence,” and in a celebration of Seattle’s Pioneer Square arts district the event will be held at Axis Gallery Space, on First Avenue. I hope to see you Sunday March 24th for the auction brunch, 12-3 PM. My entry in the auction is “South Holgate Gantry.” (You can bid online for this and other artworks in advance of the live event.) This image was made from a layering of many processes: transfer printing onto metallic paint, scanning, photography and painting. It is a limited edition print in an edition of 3.
South Holgate Gantry
If you can bear to go inside during the coming sun break I recommend a long visit to the Seattle Art Museum. I stayed for three hours the other day, taking in the Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith exhibit and American Art | The Stories We Carry. The two exhibits seen together provide a uniquely provocative and thoughtful experience. I am not someone who usually wants to read labels or have anyone to tell me “how to see” through a political lens. Yet this one was worth the words. I would love to hear what you think, especially if you are, like me, preoccupied with landscape art and the idea of “The West.” While you are there visit Andy Eccleshall’s landscape show at SAM Gallery. The opening for his show was quite literally wall to wall people, all of them new art appreciators I had never seen before. Andy’s work is large, romantic, soulful, and brilliantly executed. This one, “Silent Change”, puts me in a mood – I can smell the air and feel change coming.
Happy Spring!
Silent Change, © Andy Eccleshall at SAM Gallery
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