I’m back on the West Coast, spending a few weeks down in Seattle to see friends and help family. What wonders await?

Viewing

A few shows were about to end, and I got to Seattle jus in time. First, a Seattle Print Arts show, Pink, Unpacked, was closing soon at the M. Rosetta Hunter gallery at Seattle Central College.

Wow. Not only did I relate to the palette choice, given my own recent work, but I recognized so many names, of artists I’ve been following, admiring, and even lucky enough to know. What a delight!

Then, on another jaunt, I caught SAM’s rental Gallery show on abstraction, Moving Parts, which pulled strong pieces from their artist roster. This is Veil by Katie Anderson, an oil on canvas. I love the values, the soft abstraction, and the grid structure. I knew some of the other artists featured, but this work was new to me, and I’m happy to add another body of work to my follow list.

On the way home from there, I stopped into Slip Gallery in Belltown, which was showing Art Herbarium through May 4. I just loved these painted leaves photographed by The Monarq.

I’ll be back to Slip Gallery once collage takes over the space mid-May, for the first of my two World Collage Day shows.

Andrea Lewicki of the Special Agent Collage Collective has gathered quite a set of events for the month, making full use of the Slip Gallery space for her Collage-o-Rama celebration. I hope you can join in, somehow.

Meetings & Making

Every month, the Northwest Collage Society offers an online studio night, with a gracious host, Laurel King. I hopped on to see how everyone was doing, and tried another variation on my spelling collage book.

Last week, I nudged 4 new options for my Adaptive Horizons series toward completion: they got a quick critique, and I went on a hunt for some titles. But: do they fit into the existing series? My new palette has veered quite a ways from my prior oranges.

The new ones, at the top left, needed more yellow and golden tones, for starters. One of these isn’t feeling as much like the others to me — how about you?

And on a rainy Seattle day, I joined my cheery friends online for the weekly SLMM Studio, to ponder variations on the Paris Collage Collective offering. Another great image this week, on the left — look at those graphic lines! It’s from the Museum of New Zealand: The Tube staircase, 1929, by Cyril Power, a gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953. Te Papa (1953-0003-271).

In passing, my sketchbook got some attention. I started with some revenge on financial mail, because the insides of those security envelopes are too good to pass up.

Then with some scribbles, and a bit more collage, all it needed was some truly dark areas. Just tight scribbles instead of loose, but so satisfying to press into. And then, I turn the page, and try again.

Iterations and habits, sometimes nudged toward completion — that about sums it up. How was your week?

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