Waterfront in the softest of light filled rooms.
Set Design
This was wild and fun! I love cross-discipline collaborations and have got to work with literary artists and musicians, and now for the first time theater. Here's a shot of set design work I did for Key City Public Theatre. This is a near-future dystopian set for Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1.
Earthenworks
Installation view from current show at Earthenworks gallery in Port Townsend, WA
Collector's Space
2AM in it's natural habitat above a liquor cabinet.
Fox
Check out this badass Fox Collage that my 5 year-old son made:
Just Doin' My Job
My friend, Erin Sherry Prim, made me a custom caffeine dispenser. Now to work!
Collector's Space
Hanging Garden with kitty.
Many Lands
Upcoming group show at Bridge Productions -- I am extra-laser-excite about this!
MANY LANDS
GUEST CURATOR BEN GANNON
11 JANUARY - 4 FEBRUARY
OPENING RECEPTION 14 JANUARY
Feedback
I like having applications out, feels like setting messages in a bottle adrift on the ocean. The likelihood that anything will come of it is slight, but there's POSSIBILITY. I love possibility. I love open doors.
Mostly these notes disappear without explanation and that must be accepted. However, a recent rejection (bottle sinking under the waves) came with a hint from the other side. The folks at the Sustainable Arts Foundation give their jurors an option of providing feedback to applicants. To have some of the veil removed gives me valuable solid footing, helps make it feel worthwhile to keep sending these messages/applications out into the world; my messages are becoming more compelling and they are being received. Possibility.
Here is some of the feedback I received:
"Your work is expertly made and extremely impressive, especially given the circumstances outlined in your essays which are also beautifully and succinctly written."
"This is beautiful work: straddling the border between abstraction and landscape. I love the alien-like quality to this work -- the repetition and patterning of circles feels like a language. I also loved reading about your zoom in-zoom out approach and how you incorporate zoomed in, manipulated prints of a work back into the work itself. Very fractal. I also love the quote you reference ("I'm beginning to notice some improvement.") A wonderful statement of humility."
Collector's Space
Arrivals living back east with a lampshade that was made in the PNW.
Messy
An excerpt from a grant application. The grant is for artists who are also parents, so they want to understand how having children impacts your life and creative work:
"I live in the Pacific Northwest with my commercial fisherman husband and my three children, two daughters and a son, Emerald (13), Dare (10), and Liam (4). The kids have spent much of their childhoods homeschooling in our humble home. They and their friends are around all the time and are welcome into my studio space which is always inside our home. Artmaking, homemaking, schooling are interwoven--if I have five minutes while the pasta boils I work. I work early in the morning, late into the night, and grab moments throughout the day.
Truth is this life can get real messy. With my husband gone fishing much of the year parenting is often a solo job. The kids get in the way, sheer volume of mess, illnesses that hit at the height of a deadline crunch, kids' most urgent needs tend to happen late at night during my only sustained work time, that is just how it is. But it is big, it is rich. It is worth it. Making art is a non-negotiable part of who I am, I am a better person when I am actively working, this helps me be the parent I want to be. In turn the kids feed the art work. Their creativity is astonishing. I often collaborate with them and am inspired by their choices. I also find intense satisfaction in teaching my kids, their peers, and within my community at large. This is a good feedback loop.
I like to put it this way, I am "living my whole life right now." Sometimes I confidently own this powerful statement, other times it is a quiet mantra used as a reminder that I chose all of this. Always the message is that the different areas of my life are not separate from each other--I choose not to put anything off until later."
Path
From a recent grant application, regarding my future plans:
"The bottom line for me as an artist, is daily practice that leads to continued change, growth, and improvement. I always want to get better at what I do. When pre-eminent cellist Pablo Casals was asked (at the age of 93) why he continued to practice the cello three hours a day, he replied 'I’m beginning to notice some improvement.' This sounds like the path I am on."
Little Kid Counsel, already trimming own bangs and captivated by light.
Album Art
I have this little brother, this one and only sibling of mine, who is eighteen years younger than me and I love him. He is an excellent drummer involved in several music projects. One of these is a band of friends that have been making music together since adolescence. They are getting really good.
They released a full length album and I got to make art for it.
Please check out both album and art here: Why We Are Here, Why We Left, Cold Comfort
Statement
I think in terms of a ZOOM in/ZOOM out quality of life: zoom in on the immediate: food, jokes, bills, lovers, traffic, temperature . . . zoom out: oceans, volcanoes, solar system, sugar molecules in space, a planet made entirely of diamond, vast wastes, dark matter, universe, multiverse . . . repeat. This is wrapped up in a childlike sense that so much is happening all at once; tigers and happy hour exist on the same planet, Jupiter and Twinkies share a solar system.
Using acrylic paint, graphite, ink, as well as, collage with my own manipulated photography (often using actual photographs of a work in progress, flipped, repeated, resized and printed back into the physical to use in the work), generous amounts of glitter, paper, and various found materials. Much of my work comes down to finding balance between two opposing approaches. One, loose painting techniques: dripping, pours, flow and scatters which effectively represent natural elements – weather, water, clouds, smoke, etc. And the other, using architects’ tools, templates and compasses to rigorously draw controlled lines, concentric circles, grids and repetitive dots; using these to reflect structures and infrastructures that we build.
I am influenced by the look of outer space, computer chips, dramatic weather, electric circuits, decay, rock-n-roll glamour, plans and diagrams, b-rate sci-fi control panels, urban environments, fluid turbulence, engineering schematics and architectural drawings, and, increasingly, the stunning good looks of the Pacific Northwest. In my work there are things that come up again and again: Lost highways, nebulas, grids, geometric forms, mysterious powerful ladies who appear to be performing strange rites, mountains, animals, the woods, water in all states (solid, liquid, vapor), and cities, often isolated and/or in a state of decay.
Collector's Space
An interesting black and white shot of a teenager's desk space with Casual Conversations About Space.
drawing
I have essentially taken two years of quiet to practice drawing. My skills have improved, plenty of room for continued improvement, but that’s awesome. There’ll be room for improvement until I’m dead. Anyways, here’s a couple of samples:
running wolf
kid at work
I’m did this, am still doing this, for two main reasons: 1) I want to illustrate picture books. 2) Improving these skills is going to improve my paintings and give me greater options in what I can do in any given piece.
Red Current (sweet fruit0
Two of my paintings are en route to Seattle today to be included in Red Current (sweet fruit), a group show at Roq La Rue curated by Seattle artist and art provocateur Sharon Arnold. This show features an array of work by 37 Northwest artists–I am humbled and super excited to be among this truly stellar group of artists.
Roq La Rue Gallery Presents RED CURRENT (sweet fruit)
Curated by Sharon Arnold
Roq la Rue Gallery scheduled a winter break in it’s programming, and found that it presented an ideal opportunity to fulfill a goal the gallery had for awhile, namely working more closely with local contemporary artists who work closely to but outside the gallery’s usual realm of Pop Surrealism and underground contemporary. Gallerist Kirsten Anderson enlisted Sharon Arnold who had been curating dynamic shows around town to come on board and create a group show for Roq la Rue.
Arnold was inspired to create this exhibition by contemplating the definition of a current, something present and electric, a dynamic force with great power. Citing the exponential blossoming of the local art scene, Arnold wanted to take the opportunity to feature a snapshot of what she feels is an important moment in the growth of the Seattle art scene. “ I believe this will be a very strong collection, and something that hasn’t really been put together to this extent in recent history ”.
Arnold chose artists on the strength of what she felt they brought to the table. “I want this exhibition to feature artists in Seattle who I’ve been watching work hard, inspire, create, build community, push themselves, and move forward.”
The show itself will feature 37 artists in a salon style setting and will feature an array of media including painting, drawing, installation, and video. Roq La Rue is thrilled to work with such an abundance of Northwest talent. Please join us for a very festive opening on March 23rd from 6-9pm!
Artist list:
Mandy Greer Kimberly Trowbridge Amanda Manitach Izzie Klingels Serrah Russell Saskia Delores Debra Baxter Jess Rees Anne Blackburn Erin Frost Lynda Sherman Laura Ward Jennifer McNeely Susanna Bluhm Counsel Langley Erin Shafkind Claire Johnson Klara Glosova Andrea Wicklund Gala Bent Rumi Koshino Naomi Faith Allyce Wood Julie Alpert Crystal Barbre Deborah Scott Kristen Ramirez Allie Manch Ellen Garvens Cristin Ford Gretchen Bennett Francesca Lohmann Emily Pothast Bette Burgoyne Jennifer Borges Foster Jennifer Zwick and Stacey Rozich
Frequency
Favorite mug/frequent mistake
Some News
POSTS: There were a couple of great posts. One at Beautiful/Decay. Thank you. And, another by a fabulous collector/lady I like: The highlight of my day.
SHOW: (so) Much (too) little, shared with Gala Bent and Sharon Arnold, was at Northwind Arts Center.
About a year ago NAC invited me to have a show with them. They asked that it be a two or three person show and I immediately began thinking about who I would like to invite. Gala and Sharon came to mind quickly and I can’t say how delighted I am that the both agreed. Our work is not immediately visually similar, which is exactly what I wanted for this show. The places where we overlap lies below and is rich territory: repetition, pattern, and a reach for balance of geometry and control with fluid natural phenomenon is present in all of our work. This is spiced with a serious crush on science and the approach of asking or why/how/what do we do and where do with do it, plus a healthy dose of storytelling.
Foreground left, painting by Langley, foreground right, drawing with ribbons by Gala Bent; background left, two peeks of Langley paintings and background right four from Sharon Arnold’s 1:1 series
from left to right: one feathered Langley, three works by Gala Bent
Sharon Arnold’s Gutted
Far back wall work by Gala Bent, with Langleys to either side.
Emerald discussing Sharon Arnold’s work 1:1
About which she says, “I like that so little material was just pretty much transformed into awesomeness.”
Filter
Filter III cover, design by Kate Fernandez
Filter Vol. III has arrived. This 3rd issue of the entirely handmade journal is a box of wonder:
The cover has a paint-by-numbers theme, and the box structure is letterpress printed by Kate Fernandez of Fernandez and Sons (I absolutely adore this image). The book will be filled with brilliant work in individually bound chapbooks of prose and poetry, with art postcards and posters that you can remove and display.
the guts of Filter III as seen from above
About Filter Literary Journal:
“Filter is a literary journal made entirely by hand. Each issue contains erasures and other literary art alongside unaltered poetry, fiction and visual art. Filter seeks to represent the work it holds on a visceral level, so that the book is as carefully crafted as the poetry, fiction and art that it contains.”
There are many things I love about Filter, including: the slow deliberate process of the handmade, which results in an object of sheer beauty and strong physicality; that it is its own record of the intense labor that went into creating it; the cross discipline inclusion of literary and visual art; and, possibly above all, that it “seeks to represent the work it holds on a visceral level.” Filter is a rare treasure.
I am honored to contribute artwork to Filter for the second time. This time around my presence in Filter is in the form of recent painting, Dusk, which is included as a poster which can be removed and displayed! This is especially cool since the original painting has very quickly gone off to a good home, so I’m super happy that the piece will get this ‘bonus round’ as a poster.
Dusk, acrylic, ink, graphite, paper, 30 x 30″ completed in 2011
Filter Literary Journal is created and edited by Jennifer Borges Foster.
Contributors for Filter III are:
Yusef Komunyakaa, Zachary Schomburg, Stacey Levine, Amanda Manitach, Maged Zaher, Sharon Arnold, Martha Silano, John Osebold, Rebecca Brown, Counsel Langely, Ed Skoog, Karen Finneyfrock, Sean Ennis, Sarah Mangold, Gala Bent, Rachel Contreni Flynn, David Lasky, Elizabeth Colen, Sandra & Ben Doller, Brandon Shimoda, Ben Beres, Brandon Downing, Sarah Kate Moore, Dan Rosenberg, Susan Rich, Susan Denning, Sid Miller, Sarah Bartlett, Shawn Vestal, Marie-Caroline Moir, Lucy Corin, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Jill McDonough, Jessica Goodfellow, Jessica Bonin, Friedrich Kerksieck , Erika Wilder, Elissa Washuta, David Bartone, Chris Dusterhoff, Britt Ashley, Becca Yenser, Anne Gorrick