Tamara Stephas

Whew.  Lecture series are over for the term.  I have no shows coming up any time soon to prepare for.  Summer visiting season is over, and holiday visiting season has not yet begun. The weather is becoming grimmer.  Time to concentrate on new work and play with new ideas.  Freedom!

University House, the location of the “Faces and Figures” show, is a large retirement community hanging off the side of the Issaquah plateau.  Yesterday about four of us accepted the invitation to talk about our work to the residents.  I enjoyed the experience and learned a great deal from the other artists.  Each of us happened to address a different aspect of our work – technical, process, inspiration, sources.

Presenting a talk at a retirement home has its own challenges.  They had a very nice sound system set up, despite the moderate size of the room.  And the curator passed example works around the room for the audience to see; I blush to say I wouldn’t have thought of that myself, but she has extensive experience curating for them.

The talks were well received. I had to run afterward, but I understand the discussion afterward was quite lively, and some of the artists were invited to residents’ apartments to see art they had collected and continue the discussion.