Ranch on Display!

Hello everyone! For those of you hoping to see some of my Motels work live and in person, your wishes will soon be granted! My photograph of the Ranch motel in southern Oregon will be on view at the Photo Center Northwest all month as part of the Volunteers annual exhibit. Ranch is one of my favorite images, and staying at the Ranch motel is certainly on my list of things to do before too long….

Ranch

Seeing my picture in print, and mounted on the wall in mat I cut myself has giving me the fever to make more images for display. Stay tuned for more images in the 3rd dimension….

Organizing my Art Supplies

I’ve been going through my art supplies- old photographs I’ve printed, small boxes, knick knacks I’ve been carrying around for years…. I keep reorganizing this stuff, yet it never feels accessible. I keep thinking ‘Once I get this all organized then I will start making art.’ Sometimes I think maybe if I had a studio space that would encourage me to create some things. I want to just make something! I want to glue some things together so that they tell a story. But these things are my treasures, and I am afraid that if I use them to make art and the art doesn’t turn out beautiful (and why would it turn out beautiful since I never practice and have not perfected my artform?) that I will lose these treasures forever.

magazines, labels, acrylic paint, glitter, glue sticks, mat board, and card stock piled onto the floor

I tried to throw away some magazines, but when I picked them up to thumb through and see if there was anything worth saving, I just wanted to clip and save and use the images I found inside.

I have to get started! But there is so much going on with family and friends and traveling and romance and partying and socializing and working and schooling and cleaning and eating and washing and being pretty and being lazy.

Day in Design

On our most recent art date Justin and I took the I-90 bridge to Bellevue. Bellevue has one of the most exciting, stimulating museums in the area. Curators at the BAM focus on bringing in local artists for their unique, all sensory shows. The main exhibit going on now is George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher. In celebration of what would be the famous, innovative designers 100th birthday, the BAM has put together an exhibition highlighing the forward thinkers career. From fancy wall clocks, to the modeluar living cubes that are remincient of todays suburbs, to the iconic furntiture we now see as the norm.

It was interesting to see this exhibit on design and the innovations in chair architecture right after going to home depot to buy an office chair for myself.

This weekend I saw a King 5 special edition on the mega store, Target. They were talking about how Target was the first discount retailer to offer designer products. It all started with Michael Graves and his designs exlusivly for Target of home products, including tea kettles, clocks, and toilet bowl brushes.

I felt like this week really lead up to the show at BAM. Though I am not really a design person it felt like a little mini course. Lately I’ve been feeling like I’m in school, but its really fun and I’m learning all the things I’m interested in. Life school.

The real show stopper was Janice Arnold’s felt installation in the Travelers: Objects of Dream and Revelation exhibit. The hand woven felt tent had been woven and then burned to create lacy and inconsistant textures. Crimson red reached to the ceiling, and viewers were given magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the textures of the felt.

Isaac Layman at the Frye

Seattle artist Isaac Layman has his first solo museum exhibition going on now at the Frye Art Museum. Layman’s project, Paradise explores utopia created in his own home, through photography. The commonly accepted idea of a utopia is somewhere outside the city, where society has not taken its toll on the land and the community. Layman’s utopia goes inward to his Seattle home; rather than escape out, he escapes in.

While I found most of the show rather boring (his homes front windows have been hung on the gallery walls), and repetitive (how many more ways can you see a dirty wall?), there were two images that stood out. Because they were of actual objects, his methodical approach to f-stop and focus, became clear and interesting.

layman_guncase0001

layman_bubblewrap

So, if you find yourself on First Hill, and want to check out some free art go see these very large photographs in person!