Another week in Seattle was full of art, friends, and projects being nudged along.

Viewing

My friend Marie, always up for an outing, joined me for First Thursday last week. We saw Cameron Anne Mason at Foster/White, June Sekiguchi at King Street Station and Chatwin Arts, and I grabbed a quick peek at Anna Macrae, Kerry Kessler and Aaliyah Gupta at Shift Gallery.

I’m overwhelmed by the output of artists, especially those I’ve been following for a long time. The textures and palette that Cameron Anne Mason achieves on fabric are mind-boggling. June’s installation are multiplying, and I’m ever so thankful for her prods to get me into the art world over 20 years ago. And that Shift show — big work, talking to each other, just fabulous.

Saturday, I was back at it because my friend Marie wanted me to see Jaune Quick-to-See Smith at Seattle Art Museum. Good call: such a big show, volumes of work, speaking truths in a tough world, with layers of paint and collage.

There’s so much to think about from this show, but what struck me the most was how long she’s been delivering her messages, and whether they are starting to penetrate traditional, colonialist views.

One of the labels for a piece called “Flathead Dress: Women Who Run with the Wolves” had a particularly pertinent quote from the artist.

In dress after dress, I re-state the tough role that Indian women have in today’s world, including being leaders. … What is the notion of feminisum if not a woman who takes up issues in her community to open doors for other women — and perhaps men as well along the way.”

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith

Meetings & Making

A few weeks after my studio mate visited me up north, I was finally able to return to our shared studio, where a plot was afoot. On that recent visit, Joan’s travelling companion, Susan, mentioned she might have a full set of encyclopedias — would I be interested? Why yes, yes I would! As collage fodder, both text and diagrams, or printing substrate, the possibilities abound.

Now: the scope is a little overwhelming: I can barely lift each pile of books, and there are multiple boxes of them. One art friend requested a letter range for her own printing — gladly! I started in on the Rs, grabbed a leftover house shape from the holidays, and had some fun with my gel printing plate. One page down out of so many, but promising, and fun. I’m headed that way again today.

On Mondays I like to check the Paris Collage Collective image for their weekly challenge. Another great one this week, but my results were not inspiring. I include them here for work-in-progress honesty.

Among the many projects I have in progress, it felt like time to check in on my Aerials work. I’ve got the original analog work at the studio as a baseline, and last checked in during week 12, where I worked on colour dominance.

The analog pieces are necessarily much more textured, but also quite heavy on the pink. These digital compositions are… a bit wider in range? Definitely some pink references in many, but much flatter looking. I have a really textural pink layer, which I tried out on the top left piece. Phew, this needs more work.

So many projects, all appealing. How do you decide what to work on next?

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