ART BLOX

Who doesn’t love little art? I sure do. The Art Studios at Mission Mill recently had the opportunity to host Mary Lou Zeek’s wonderful refurbished cigarette machine, which she transformed into a vending machine of small art blocks (the size of a pack of cigarettes). The machine, ART BLOX: Small Art for Everyone, used to be in Mary Lou’s wonderful downtown gallery space, but since the gallery closed, the machine makes appearances only on special occasions or by invitation. We invited and the machine was delivered last Thursday.

Mary Lou showed me the quirks of the vintage machine.

Mary Lou and Dayna with the ART BLOX machine outside the studio of Max Marbles.

Last Thursday night was our quarterly Art After Dark and Open Studios. The upstairs studios were open, refreshments were served, and art was displayed throughout the space. But downstairs was the ART BLOX machine, which was hoppin’ throughout the evening, where we sold the small blocks of art for $10 each.

Dayna Collins sold ART BLOX tokens throughout the evening.

Lois Stark waves her hands at the machine in the hopes of getting the perfect block.

Roger Hull randomly pulled a lever and the machine dispensed an original piece of art by Bonnie Hull.

A happy guest received a Bonnie Hull original.

This little girl hugged the machine because she said she “loves it.”

An original art block created by Nancy Eng.

Katy Vigland who created blocks for the machine, stops by to purchase blocks.

James O’Shea photographs the process of purchasing an ART BLOX.

Cheryl Creel goes in for a second block.

Dennis Creel gets into the ART BLOX stance.

A sampling of the blocks we received:

A big thank you to Mary Lou and Alan Zeek for the use of the machine and for the many artists who created and contributed blocks. The proceeds from the sale of the blocks, almonst $800 worth, will be going to an artist relief fund in Salem.

Waterlines: The Opening Reception

Last night was the opening reception for my Waterlines show at Guardino Gallery. It was a magical evening with a steady flow of people stopping by to see my show in the Feature Gallery and Mar’s show in the Main Gallery. Words? Not so much. But photos? Yes, please.

Guardino Gallery is located at 2939 NE Alberta and the show runs through May 21.

Waterlines: Hanging the Show

My upcoming show, Waterlines, opens on Thursday, April 27th, with a reception from 6-9 pm. Yesterday was hanging day and it all went very smoothly thanks to Donna Guardino’s savvy eye and her assistant Gail’s infectious energy. My husband helped wherever needed, while I sort of stood around and watched everyone work. It’s exciting to watch a show come together after months of painting in solitude. From a blank gallery space . . .

. . . to watching Donna triage my art . . . .

. . . to auditioning different possibilities.

In no time at all, the hanging frenzy began.

Meanwhile, I schlepped painted driftwood from the car to the gallery for use in the front display window.

And within the span of two hours, the show was hung and the pieces numbered and ready for title cards to be hung. In the end, the show features 39 pieces of art, from 5×5 inches to 36×48 inches.

Here’s all the info on the show. Hope to see you tomorrow night.

Waterlines Art Show: Making Headway

“Where the Blue is Deep and Soft and Silent,” 24×24 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

I am happy to share the news that I’m having a show at Guardino Gallery in NE Portland. My show is titled Waterlines and I’ve been painting and preparing for almost a year, although I’ve been experimenting and painting waterlines for the past three years. My fascination with waterlines began as a child. Growing up as the daughter of a river rat on the Columbia River, plus time spent at my grandparent’s beach cabin on the Oregon Coast, I learned to love waterlines at an early age. In the summer of 2014, as I was floating in the Columbia River, I noticed the waterline on a boat. I was captivated by the beautiful colors and imagined it as an abstract painting.

“The Wind Stilled Itself,” 10x10x2 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

I like to describe waterlines as: Where water meets an edge. A shoreline. The hull of a ship. The sand. Riverbanks. Sky. In exploring various forms of waterlines, I am especially interested in experimenting with the intersections, where water meets the land. I ask myself, “What’s happening at the horizon line? Turbulence or ripples. Calmness or agitation. What’s above, or, what’s below.

“The Turmoil of Raging Tides,” 12×12 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

Drawing upon the flexibility of working with oil paint mixed with cold wax medium and sometimes R and F Pigment Sticks, I am able to create layers of color using palette and putty knives to apply, push, pull, and scrape the layers of paint to reveal and explore the rick complexity of water, land, and sky.

“Sweet Blue Rhythm,” 8×8 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

The show opens Thursday, April 27 and runs through May 21st. The opening reception is Thursday, April 27th from 6-9 pm.

“Heat Waves Buckling the Air,” 11×14 inches, plaster, oil, and cold wax.

Up, Down, and All Around

I am working on three different projects right now, in three different studios. Come on, I’ll take you on a quick tour.

This is a look at my second floor studio located at the Willamette Heritage Center and part of The Art Studios at Mission Mill. I have converted my studio from an all purpose space to an area devoted to working on my What’s Your Story mixed media/collage project.

Here’s a sample of my project.

At my central Salem home, I use the basement of my 1926 house as my assemblage studio. Currently, I’m putting the finishing touches on a piece for the Salem Reads: One Book, One Community Project. Salem is hosting their first ever community reads event and several artists were invited to create a piece of art in response to the book Spare Parts.

My piece, Everything Accounted For, will be hung in the Salem Library Spare Parts art exhibit at the end of this month. I’ll share my completed piece once I have put the finishing touches on it.

Finally, my painting studio is in a big airy space upstairs at my house. Right now, I’m immersed in oil and cold wax in preparation for two upcoming shows in 2017.

Here’s a piece I’ve been working on this week for my Waterlines show at Guardino Gallery in May.

I’ll be sharing more about all of these projects in the future.

Art for Everyone: An Affordable College Art Textbook

Over a year ago, I was invited to submit art to be used in a college textbook being published by Chemeketa Community College. The book was being put together by the Chemeketa art faculty in response to the steady rise of textbook prices. The textbook being used for ART 101 had risen to $214. For the past year, a beta version of the faculty-produced textbook was used by students. During the year, the textbook was revised, edited, and fine tuned.

The college recently published the first edition of the textbook, Art for Everyone, and it is available for only $28. To celebrate the launch of this beautiful book, artists who submitted art to the textbook were invited by the art faculty at Chemeketa Community College to participate in an art exhibit at the Gretchen Schuette Art Gallery, located in the heart of the campus.

The reception was held on Wednesday, November 2nd in the afternoon so students would be able to attend. There was a steady stream of visitors, students, and artists, with introductions and the story behind the book shared with everyone present. Here I am standing in front of my piece, The Essence of a Thing, which appeared in the chapter titled Nonrepresentational Approaches, in a subsection on Color Field Painting.

A few photos from the afternoon reception . . . .

The other piece I had in the book (but not in the show), was Freedom in the Silence, which appeared in the chapter titled Formal Elements: Value and Color; my art was featured in the section on Complementary Color Schemes.

10th Annual Day of the Dead Show at Guardino Gallery

For ten years, Guardino Gallery in NE Portland has hosted a dia de los muertos group art show. I’ve participated in many of the shows over the past ten years. This year the show moved to the Main Gallery and features over 50 artists. The show, curated by Donna Guardino and Stephanie Brockway, runs through October 23, so if you’re in Portland, I hope you’ll swing by and see an amazing show.

MY ART

THE SHOW

THE PARTY (I mean, opening reception)

BONUS: Preparing

Make up done by our daughter, Amy Kayon.

Passage: Caught in the Flow of Life

Nine months ago I had the opportunity to become part owner in an art gallery. Along with Tory Brokenshire and Bonnie Hull, the three of us took over the reigns of Compass Gallery, located at the Willamette Heritage Center, where all three of us have upstairs art studios. We came up with nine months worth of shows and each of us took on a monthly task (Tory created the show cards, Bonnie kept our website current, and I produced the press release). Then there was the Herculean task of creating a steady stream of art every month (for those of us who didn’t have art in basement vaults). Yesterday, we hung our final show, Passage: Caught in the Flow of Life, which about sums up our nine-month grand experiment.

We all enjoyed our time as gallery owners, and we especially loved having lunch together after hanging a new show. Yesterday was no exception. We enjoyed a long, leisurely lunch at Taproot in downtown Salem, plotting and scheming about future projects. You knew we weren’t going softly into the night, didn’t you?

Fortunately, Compass Gallery will continue, reverting back to the original visionary, Catherine Alexander. There are some other changes in the wind with the gallery. . . . but all of that is for another day, another post.

Waterlines: Life On and Near the Water

My fascination with waterlines started the summer of 2014 when I was floating in the Columbia River and I saw the waterline of our boat, Rapture. I was captivated by the beautiful colors and thought it looked like an abstract painting.

I continued to love the idea of waterlines, at first the hulls of ships, then shifting to more natural waterlines, defining waterlines as “Where water meets an edge. A shoreline. The hull of a ship. The sea meets the sand. A passage of water.”

A few months ago it was decided that our July show at Compass Gallery would be titled Waterlines. I started painting with that theme in mind. The paint flowed easily because I was excited about the topic and the vast possibilities.

At the last minute we decided to spend two weeks on board Rapture at the Portland Waterfront. Our show would be hung two days after we returned, so I had no choice but to pack up my substrates, oil paints, cold wax, pigment sticks, and the tools associated with laying down and scraping off paint. I set up an impromptu studio in the galley of our boat and painted whenever I could.

I spread out plastic table cloths in the helm, on the coffee table, and on the back deck. Things dried quickly because it was warm, windy, and bright – all three things that encourage oil and cold wax to dry.

I’m sure the gentle rocking of the boat influenced my work, as did the view out of every window and porthole. I created a couple dozen pieces, ranging in size from 6×6 inches to 12×24. Fortunately they were dry by the time we made the cruise from the Willamette River back to the Columbia where we moor our boat.

Here’s a look at some of the pieces I created during our two weeks living on board Rapture.

"Caught Up in Waterweeds" — “Caught Up in Waterweeds”

"A Thrilling Release of Earth and Air" — “A Thrilling Release of Earth and Air”

"A Small Current of Power" — “A Small Current of Power”

"The Air Was Perfumed" — “The Air Was Perfumed”

"Mist Rose From the Water" — “Mist Rose From the Water”

"Memory Floating Up" — “Memory Floating Up”

The show at Compass Gallery, Waterlines, runs July 8 through August 3, 2016. The opening reception is Thursday, July 14, 5-7 pm.

In addition to my work, the current show features the work of Bonnie Hull and her interpretation of waterlines.

Funky Junkyard Birds: Light As Air

About once a year, I create a batch of my Funky Junkyard Birds. They take a couple of months from start to finish, so I make two to three dozen when I made them and they usually last through a year of selling them.

I’ve just completed 33, the most I’ve ever done at one time.

The Back-Story

In October, 2010, I took a class from Leighanna Light called Birds Gone Wild. In the class we cut up metal tins and attached aged, metal parts. I loved my bird and wanted to make more. I wrote Leighanna and asked if she was okay if I made metal birds and sold them; Leighanna gave me her blessing and I started making batches of birds, calling them Funky Junkyard Birds. (Leighanna still teaches her Birds Gone Wild class if you’re interested in learning how to make them yourself.)

Over time, my birds morphed and got more complicated from my initial ones; they got fancier and I attached more flamboyant wings; I started dangling more metal pieces from beaks and legs. I also devised a way to cover the cold connections on the back of the birds (i.e., the brads), using pieces of decorative paper Washi tape.

The Creation Process

First, I spend several hours cutting out bird parts: wings, heads, pants, shirts. This involves flattening vintage metal tins, cutting, and sanding the razor sharp edges.

Then the auditions begin. I pull out various found objects that might serve as a body, then try out different heads. A persona begins to take shape, pants or legs might be adding, then an array of wings are considered, balancing shape, color, and design. A personality begins to emerge.

Once the birds are completely designed, it is time for attachments to begin. Holes are punched or drilled into all of the pieces, glued with E6000, and clamped over night. The next day the clamps are removed and all of the cold connections are made using brads, wire, or eyelets.

Part of the auditioning of each bird is determining what the bird will hang from: a ruler, a saw blade, a piece of interesting wood. The whole process is repeated for the hanging piece: holes drilled, glued, clamped, attached. Wire is then added to the hanger, forming a nice arch for eventual hanging on the wall.

Once all the cold connections have been made, I apply Washi tape to the back of the birds, covering the brads. A bit of matte medium is applied to hold the tape in place. At this point, the birds are almost finished. I talk to each bird individually (not literally!): What do you need? What will make you special? Keys are sometimes dangled as legs. Often a wheel is attached to give the bird a sense of motion. I go through my random, one-of-a-kind pieces of metal, looking for something unique to attach to a leg or the belly; these pieces are wired on and scream: LOOK AT ME!

The final step in assembly is adding a piece of torn, ragged silk or sari ribbon to soften all of the hard metal edges.

Finished? Not yet. Each bird gets a name. I Google unusual baby names to see what is trending and pick out a few dozen names. I especially like androgynous names to keep the birds gender neutral, however, sometimes I just know it is a boy or a girl, and their name reflects this.

Assembled, named, photographed. The gang is ready to meet the world.

And a few are ready for their close ups.

The Debut

A couple dozen of my new birds will be going to Compass Gallery for our February show, Light As Air. The show hangs on Thursday and I’m excited about hanging the birds from wires strung across the wall. About six of the birds will be headed to Guardino Gallery in Portland for sale in their Gift Shop gallery. Whew. Maybe by January of 2017 I’ll be ready to create a new batch.