Whitworth University Lied Center for the Arts Bryan Oliver Gallery:“Smoke and Mirrors”

I attended the faculty art exhibit at Whitworth University Lied
Center for the Arts Bryan Oliver Gallery on November 15, 2001.The
exhibit was entitled “Smoke and Mirrors.” This art exhibit was an eclectic mixture
of art styles and technics. The different works of art ranged from engaging and
inviting to dark and mysterious. The first art work that you see when you enter
the room is the looming digital print by Brytton Bjorngaard entitled “the words
of a talebearer are as wounds”. This print makes a bold statement in its large
looming size and its eerie, deconstructed impression. It has a shocking yet
tender feel to it. There was also a series of digital print by Brytton Bjorngaard
that where based on family. These paintings were done mostly in black and
whites with a contrasting color of red. These paintings have a very personal
feeling to them like you are looking in on someone else’s history or life. The
paintings had a mysterious feeling to them, because the names of the paintings
where very emotional and cryptic. The subject matter of the pictures where
bright and cherry but the dark black, white and red color add a sinister edge
to the paintings. There was also a very bright oil painting by Melissa Lang
called “Vespertillo III”. This painting had a feeling of movement and energy.
My favoritepiece of art in this collection was the digital recording of a man with a cloud
of birds and stars looming over his head. This picture was constantly moving
and changing. It was engaging to the views and made them wonder what would
happen to the man. The swarm of birds over his head progressively got thicker
and faster and the man progressively slumped lower and lower. My interpretation
of this was that the swarm up above his head represented chaos or stress that
eventually overwhelmed him and weighed him down.
Overall,I think the art was thought provoking and engaging to the viewer. I think it
had the effect of making the viewer not only enjoy the art visually, but
curious to figure out the motivation behind the work. This exhibit runs through
February 11, 2011. The Gallery is open to the public most business hours. There
will be a lecture by the artist on February the 9th at 6pm. I would encourage anyone to come and view thisexhibit not only because the art work is visually interesting, but because the
art will have you invested in trying to figure out the meaning long after you
leave the exhibit.

Homage to Women Artists

Chase Gallery Features

Palouse Women Artists:

Homage to Women Artists

November 1^st to December 30^th 2011

Participating Artists:

Sue Benier, Beth Blekesley, Celia Boland, Valerie Boydo, Tina Carlson, Michelle L. Carr, Katherine Clancy, Gail Cochran, Louise Colson, Jane Estocin-Klaibir, Barbara Feil, Becker Gutsch, Carolyn Guy, Janna Jones & Dona Black, M.N. Lehman-Kessler, Sharon King, Blue Leitch, Laurel Macdonald, Sally Machlis, Judy Marvin, Joan McDougall, Pamela S. Overholtzer, Lolly Owens, Linda Puccio, Janet Richards, Debi Robinson-Smith, Melissa Rockwood, Jennifer Rod, Ludmilla Saskova, Gerri Sayler, Mel Siebe, Carrie Vielle, Ellen Vieth, Linda R. Wallace, Patricia Wallace, Jeanne Wood, Nara Woodland

This show features 38 female artists from the Palouse exhibiting shrines commemorating other female artists from around the world. These shrines offer a small glimpse of the style of work from the artists being honored. The shrines contain materials similar to those used by various artists. These materials include, found objects, recycled materials, various forms of paint, sketches, papers and an array of other media.

I found this show to be especially fun. The creativity expressed shows exceptional craftsmanship and immense passion. Although the pieces varied in size, the maximum size for each piece is 18” x 22”. Many of the pieces offer exquisite detail.

A Very Green Gallery: Saranac

The Saranac this month is featuring the works by artists Ben Tobin and Margot Casstevens, who both bring very different forms of art to the table. Ben Tobin , a professional photographer, features multiple pictures of a morning worthy of envy. Ben's photos tend to consist of the things he enjoys the most:sports. From cycling to snowboarding, most of Ben's photos capture the greatest moments of sportsman doing what they do best.
Although he says he does tend to do the occasional landscape or classic boardwalk/sunset feature for those who contract it. Being a freelance photographer Ben has also done a lot of work with magazines such as the Spokane Metro. All the photos featured at the gallery, however, are of several days he and some cyclists spent in Moscow, Idaho. While there the cyclists would perform amazing jumps and tricks, while Ben would stand off to the side and photograph them.
Most all of his photos were taken using a high end Canon-brand camera, which gives amazing depth of field in each of the pictures. The photos themselves are extremely vibrant with the cyclists being the center piece complimented by a lush forest background, creating truly beautiful pictures.
Moving from one side of the gallery to the next you would think you had moved from a sports magazine showing, to a garden as Margot mixes up the gallery with her very unique and beautiful art. The first thing that really stands out the most to an attendant of the gallery when they enter Margot's hall is probably the grass layed out in the middle of the space. Just regular grass, with a bit of a twist. This worked , named "In the Garden", has what appear to be the lower abdomen and upper thighs of a human in the sitting position jutting out of the grass. Moving on to her next piece called "Venus on the Half-Shell" is a figure of a female made out of Hydrocal plaster curled up in the fetal position with grass coming out from underneath her, while she herself rests on a piece of flat metal.
Not only did she have sculptures present but also drawing, huge drawings of what appears to be nothing but streaks of darkness lead the lookers' eyes to the bottom of the sheet revealing a full grown human with the appearance of a child in the mothers womb. Many of her works present, Margot explains, have yet to fully develop their meaning. She states that overtime each peace will develop its own purpose and meaning.
Truly an amazing gallery with such a wide diversity of media, and meaning for the artists themselves and the people who attend, this months gallery is extremely unique. If you have any free time on the weekends I encourage you to come and check out these artists work so you can experience them for yourselves.

IMPRESSIONISM

Impressionism at the Museum of Arts and Culture right here in Spokane, was a very interesting event. The works displayed there were those by Impressionists such as Renoir, Pissarro, and Boudin. The show consisted of real Impressionist paintings punctuated by famous quotes made by them. The Impressionists revolutionized the world’s view of art, beginning in Paris. Their art is primarily known for visible brushstrokes, reduction of details, and wild colors. They were very good at visually summarizing shapes without spending too much time on them. These were the beginnings of modern art, and the ‘MAC’ hopes to educate Spokane about the art of the contemporary world.

Most, if not all of the works were in oil on canvas. There were many bright, unblended colors in the paintings. The forms depicted were very general; there would usually be a light and a dark side to a shape. This is not very complex but from distance, the objects looked real. There were no Impressionists around for me to interview but according to history that they wanted to capture the effects of light and to generally paint the essence of each object. They wanted to paint realistically with loose brushstrokes. One piece that I studied more deeply was Edgar Degas’s Ballet in the Park (pictured below). This is a beautiful composition that uses the rule of thirds format. The vertical placement of the canvas suggests action that is happening on the stage. The focal point in this piece is where the silhouetted head of the woman creates a high contrast with the bright background. The moon perhaps acts a second focal point that gets the eye to move to the upper part of the painting. The positioned figures on the stage give the sense of action. The stark white and the ghostly green colors of the stage and the moonlit nighttime scene suggest the theme of the ballet.

The Impressionism art display was quite different from the modern art we see today. For example, going from Impressionist art to the other exhibits in the MAC, Need/Want and Territory, was like going into another world. However, the event was still a good way to foster community. I found myself talking about the art with other interested artists and even security guards.

I felt very much connected to this event. Personally, I enjoy this type of artwork; I felt I understood it more than the other two exhibits. The Impressionists use colors and brushstrokes in an impressive way that gives atmosphere and space to their art. I think that their early work gave us a better understanding of painting realistically but also inspired us to break some art rules. Do you believe that the Impressionists helped us gain an understanding of atmospheric perspective and ignited what is now known as modern art?

Works Cited

Seeing Impressionsm. 2 Dec. 2011. Paintings by some of the famous Impressionist artists. Museum of Arts and Culture, Spokane.

"WebMuseum: Impressionism." Ibiblio - The Public's Library and Digital Archive. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. .

Shared Art with the Girl Scouts

For our shared arts project we chose to go to the Girl Scouts center in Spokane. We both love working with children so it seemed like the perfect place for us. Recycling is something that is important to both of us as well, so we thought why not take the lesson of recycling and turn it into a fun activity the Girl Scouts would hopefully enjoy. We found a “pattern” of the world online and an idea to repurpose puzzle pieces to fill it in. The Girl Scouts is an organization that offers activities and involvement for young girls, inspiring leadership, creativity, and life skills. To learn more about the Spokane Girl Scouts Center, visit http://www.gsewni.org/

Our experience with Girl Scouts was not what we were expecting, but ended up being one that was special and more personal than we would have thought. Going into the project we were expecting to have around thirty girls, but when we arrived we learned we actually only had four girls. This was a little bit of a shock, but it gave more room to get to know each of the girls better, making it a more intimate experience for us and hopefully for the girls as well. The project itself went smoothly and the girls seemed to enjoy it, creativity exploring options they could do with the puzzle pieces to decorate their world. Overall, our experience with the Girl Scouts ended up being a very special time to get to know these girls and we wouldn’t have changed that experience with them.

Martin French

http://www.martinfrench.com/

Many artists speak about how you should chase your dreams and make yourself unique. Most of them come across sounding very cliché and boring. However, with Martin French I felt a kind of inspiration that I haven’t had before when someone lectures me on my uniqueness.
Martin is a very accomplished artist who creates his work by hand painting, sketching, or drawing and then uses Photoshop to manipulate the individual pieces. Coming from a three-dimensional discipline, I have always had a hard time appreciating the graphic design world but when Martin started describing how he created his pieces it facilitated in bridging the gap between the two. He defines himself as an Illustrator and designer. He studied at Art Center and went through a rigorous education where he learned to discover is own unique style through a series of trials and errors. After graduating, Martin went on to work for Microsoft and Atari. He now has his own business and has created pieces of art for clients ranging from the usual run of the mill office to the New York Times. When asked how he creates his work, he said that he prefers to build from brokenness and take risks. He begins his process by rough sketches of what the wants and then he moves into the creation of the piece. Martin creates large swatches of paintings, sketches, and drawings and scans them into the computer. Each one of these echo the movement of what the final design is meant to look like. From this, he uses channels to manipulate the layering of the pieces and the saturation of the colors.
When I viewed his art, I felt particularly attracted to it because of how organic it felt. Usually when I think of graphic design or computer based art, I think of very clean organized shapes. However, because of the process that Martin took to create his pieces it gave a depth and fluidity that would be very difficult to mimic if the piece was made entirely on the computer. I would describe his art as kind of a cartoon grunge feel. It has strong colors and bold strokes that creates intense movement.
Despite Martin being an amazing artist, I felt most inspired by his encouragement to push my own art into the world. Often I feel like my ideas have been done before or the feeling that I am trying to communicate isn’t coming through. However, Martin really emphasized the uniqueness inside of everyone. One of the most memorable statements he said was “the uniqueness is inside you already if you mine deep enough, you can create something that people want”. This motivated me to not feel discouraged and continue to push the boundaries of my art.

Center Pointe: Shared Art Project

For our shared community art project, we worked with the disabled adults at Center Pointe. Our goal for this project was to create a stimulating artistic experience and teach them the basics of the voting process. Founded in 1953, Center Pointe is a safe haven for disabled adults in Spokane. The organization’s main goals are to create educational activities in a safe environment with the hope that they can overcome their social isolation, develop friendships, increase life-skills, and serve others. They cater to a wide range of disabilities and help them to establish a healthy lifestyle. This organization does not receive Federal, state or local funding, so the only way they keep their doors open is through donors and fund-raisers. To learn more about Center Pointe go to http://www.centerpointeactivities.com/index.html.

For the art project, we worked with the adults to create a chalk stencil piece. Overall, this project was a success and most enjoyed it. Everyone participating was very receptive and welcoming to us. From this experience, we gained a better understanding of working with disabled people as well as organizing a community art project. We gained a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses in this kind of situation. Despite long preparation, there were a few hurdles that we quickly overcame. For example, upon our arrival we were greeted by 50 excited people, rather than the anticipated 15. After a minor panic attack, we were able to regain our footing and continue with the project seamlessly. In addition to the surplus of participants, not all of the people had the ability to do the art project. We overcame this by lending our assistance and encouragement. Although there were some difficulties, we had an enjoyable, rewarding, and eye-opening experience.