I hope you can come to the Pioneer Square Artwalk tonight. As well as the usual gallery openings, Todd Jannausch’s Small Voids art gallery/installation will spring up along a block or two near the TK building. 100 (or is it 110?) artists’ work will be in his small illuminated “galleries.” Let me know if you spot mine. (Hint: it combines landscape and architecture, with a touch of surrealism.) CityArts has a nice write-up.

And next Friday please join me:

Opening Reception
Friday, October 12, 7 pm – 9 pm

Yield. Oil on panel.  36 in x 24 in. At the Phinney Center Gallery through November 28.

Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast, oil on canvas with mixed media, 33 in x 61 in.

Detail, Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast.

This work has been in process for a long time, and I am thrilled to finish it and see it assembled. It juxtaposes Albert Bierstadt’s wildly imaginary painting of the same name with a contemporary Seattle location. Using, yes, a roller blind. I have been distracted by the implications of the pairing for months. Manifest Destiny meets the future. Crashing waves meet gentle drizzle. Romanticism meets post-modernism. Dramatic cliffs (the mountain looming higher than Everest through the cloud tops doesn’t show in this view) meet the glacial hills of downtown Seattle – some of which were actually sluiced into the bay during a 1902-1911 regrade project.

The light hasn’t changed, though; Bierstadt may never have visited the future site of Seattle, but his Alaska travels clearly familiarized him with the soft dove-grey light of the Pacific Northwest. And the man could paint.

The opening reception for 10x10x10xTieton was well-attended, and the work is terrific. The Mighty Tieton art community is a wonderful project to benefit both artists and a shrinking small town; artists are always seeking cheaper real estate, and bring back vibrancy and business to vacant areas of a charming old orchard town. It’s intriguing art of high caliber, too, not tourist-trap fluff. I was delighted to see the other work in the show.

The gallery is a converted apple-storage warehouse.  You can see the giant door (standing open) with its airtight seals and the small inspection door in the center.

It didn’t occur to me how different (and I suspect difficult) hanging a show of small works would be.  The scale invites close inspection – you don’t stand back and scan.  It’s very intimate.

I will have new work in a number of shows coming up over the next few months.  I hope you can come to one or more of these events.

July 21 – October 18: A Celebration of Washington Artists, Washington State Convention Center, Seattle WA

August 11 – October 11: 10x10x10xTieton, Tieton WA

October 3 – November 28: Northwest Fine Arts Competition, Phinney Center Gallery, Seattle WA

February 2013: ArtsWest Gallery, Seattle, WA

This rearrangeable array of small wooden panels is an attempt to simultaneously portray multiple possibilities across time.

Sixteen Views of a New Tree of Life. Oil, graphite, charcoal, and 1912 ‘Who’s Who in America’ on 7in x 5in wood panels.  Dimensions variable.

Detail: Sixteen Views of a New Tree of Life Panel 9.

Detail: Sixteen Views of a New Tree of Life Panel 15.

The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture is showing two exhibits of contemporary art through January 7.

Need|Want is a juried show “addressing ways contemporary American society assigns value.”

I am always interested in the ways a curator and other artists interpret a show theme.

The mediums ranged from painting and printmaking to video and and performance artifacts.  The subject matter spanned the very personal to global environmental and economic trends.  I was particularly drawn to several works that seemed to relate to matters I’m thinking about now.

Tim Oberst’s piece A Sand County Almanac (the rosette in the gallery view above) looked like a large timber cross-cut, but on closer inspection was formed of corrugated cardboard strips.  Pre- and post-consumer states.  It made me think of Karen Rudd‘s stunning old-growth stumps built from cardboard scrap, but felt delicate and airy instead of massive.

Rik Nelson’s clever Fortress is a patchwork of post-consumer aluminum and plastic.

Rik Nelson, "Fortress", 2003

The rearrangement of “open” to “nope” in Benjamin Sloat’s piece appeals to my sarcastic side.

Benjamin Sloat, "Nope," 2010

Of course every artist wants to see how their own work is hung in a group show. I was delighted to see the installation of Spill, and glad to see it in this company.

The second contemporary show is Territory: Generational Triptychs, and the premise is intriguing.  Pairs of artists, one established and one emerging, were matched up according to some similarity in their background, subject or themes.  Selections of each artist’s individual work were shown, and additionally they were asked to create a collaborative work especially for the show.  Artist pairings were eclectic, including a father-daughter pair, and a visual artist matched with a poet.

Austin Stiegemeier & Ken Spiering, "Passing the Torch", 2011

Austin Stiegemeir and Ken Spiering created a stunning collaboration. They have worked together before, and their combination of deep experience and youthful daring result in a brilliant execution, playing successfully with both illusionistic and actual space. I am inspired by this piece.

Juventino Aranda, "The Southwestern Front", 2010

Juventino Aranda’s work, in contrast, is very stark in execution, but I was struck by the strong concepts and commentary on social justice. I also appreciate the MAC’s willingness to pour sand on the carpet.

I drove from Seattle to Spokane earlier this month to see the Need/Want and Territory shows at the MAC.  I was able to choose a period of clear weather to avoid storms in the Cascade passes.  As it happened, the corollary of the high-pressure calm air was nightly fog across the central Washington plateau.  Combined with freezing temperatures, this had caused a beautiful buildup of frost on every leaf and stalk of grass along the way.

I am honored by the recent flattering interview in the blog The Solipsistic Me.  I hadn’t thought of my work in terms of social justice before the interview, but Michael Hulshof-Schmidt points out that is a significant aspect of my passion about sustainability, the environment, and the size of our collective footprint.

Michael is one of the kindest, most perceptive gentlemen I have ever met.  Yet he also has the courage to tell it as he sees it, and hold people accountable.  If you haven’t read his challenging blog yet, you should check it out.

I have work in two shows which open in October.

In Spokane, my mixed-media piece Spill was chosen for the exhibition “Need|Want: Matters of Priority” at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC).  The project is a collaboration between the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture and Terrain, a grassroots, non-profit organization seeking to connect generations of artists with each other and to promote the arts in the community at large.

Need|Want: Matters of Priority
October 15, 2011 – January 7, 2012
Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture
2316 W. First Avenue
Spokane, WA 99201

BeGin! opening party:
Friday, Oct. 14, 6-9 pm

Spill, oil and acrylic on canvas with mixed media, 77 in x 28 in x 8 in.

And in Seattle, the Phinney Center Gallery is showing work by the winners of the annual Northwest Fine Arts Competition. Jurors Gary Faigin, Sarah Dillon and Jayme Yahr selected my painting Intersection for inclusion.  The other featured artists are John Armstrong, Susan Aurand, John Bolivar, Matt Calcavecchia, Tina Carter, Karen Hackenberg, Aron Hart, Tyler Kimball, Paula Maratea Fuld, Michael Medrano, Nia Michaels, Joseph Pentheroudakis, Todd Smith, Jan Viney and Suze Woolf.

Intersection, oil on canvas, 18 in x 30 in.

Northwest Fine Arts Competition
October 5 – 28, 2011
Phinney Center Gallery
6532 Phinney Avenue N.
Seattle, WA 98103

Opening Reception:
Friday, Oct. 14, 7-9 pm