Am I going to create, or just look?? I think this week tipped me over from looking for inspiration, to needing to go make some of my own.

Viewing & Connecting

There was a LOT to see this week. First, I had to try and catch the July shows in Seattle, then take in the entire Seattle Art Fair. Let’s break it down.

Shift Anniversary Show

After a quick hello at Lynn Hanson Gallery, I stopped in for a thorough look at Shift Gallery next door, who were featuring current and past artists from the last 20 years.

This piece, by Karen Klee-Atlin, particularly caught my eye, with its visible layers. Titled “Log Boom”, it is a woodcut and drypoint monoprint, 22″x29.5″, and the top layer moving freely really spoke to me. The show was hung as a series of pairs, where a current artist & a past artist had work that connected; it was well-curated and displayed, making it easy to appreciate what Shift has built over their lifespan.

Gallery IMA

An artist I follow, Graham Fracha, mentioned that he’d have work up in this gallery, so I bookmarked it for a visit. I’m glad I stopped by , because I discovered another artist entirely. Here’s the piece that caught my eye.

Minimally titled, this is “Untitled 040907” by Eric Adrian Lee, a Portland artist. The texture and value contrast echo what I’d like to be producing myself. So simple, but lots for the eye to wander through.

Urban Garage Pop-Up

Some of the artists in the Tashiro-Kaplan building got a show together for art fair weekend, just a few blocks away from the fair itself. These are some of my regular stops during First Thursday art walks, so it was wonderful to see their work featured in a larger space, together.

Ellen Hochberg has been working on this piece for months, tying together small disks with red thread to symbolize and commemorate those we’ve lost to Covid. Given the extent of the pandemic’s effects, this only represents 0.5% of the deaths worldwide. Stunning!

And Sara Everett has been using pieced-together cyanotypes, which can’t always be shown to effect in her smallish studio. At this show, she was able to put a bigger space to work, to good effect.

Seattle Art Fair

Okay, time for the main event. There were slightly fewer exhibitors than before, and definitely less international galleries. But — still lots to see!

What caught my eye: texture, grids, and layers again. Ilhwa Kim’s work was made from rolled-up, printed or painted paper, some flattened and others left in bead form. Rachel Maxi’s work had to be pointed out to me, but I did like her palette, texture, and unconventional frame. The last piece was an ongoing series, and from afar, presented as a very closely-hung grid, it looked like a real estate window. Closer inspection was worth it: these are photos of prisons, punched out to make the image subject to decay, like the buildings they represent.

Meetings & Making

Working around all the viewing opportunities, I did visit some regular series.

These pieces are past halfway through the book, so I’m toying with the idea of them becoming a presentation — a slide show, maybe?

When in doubt, I scribble something, anything, in my little sketchbook. Maybe they get scanned for future use, maybe they don’t.

And, somewhat out of season, continuing from last week, I’ve been playing with abstracting some floral photography, some more obvious than others.

Finally, I do look over my Aerials series in progress, and tweak anything that is bothering me. This one was too green. Now — less so? I do like all that texture!

Reading

I’m working through Art From Your Core by Kate Kretz, and each chapter has so much to think about. Something she’s only just mentioned is that it’s possible to take too much in, and I think that’s where I’m at, especially after the art fair.

We dug into it a bit in an online call this week, where two of us are reading through the chapters slowly, and dissected what our art is calling us to do. To be outrageous, embarrassing? Or just awkward, blunt, unfinished? Any of the words that we’ve been told NOT to have our art look like is worth another look. Is that society, talking over us? Is there some truth in these uncomfortable directions?

So, even though I have LOTS of art without a home, it’s time to scribble and mess around, to make even more, and see if I can get to the next level of honesty in my work. Where do you need to push your comfort zone a bit? Join me?

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