Yesterday was the opening day of Unrestricted: an Exploration of Artist Books at the Port Angeles Fine Art Center. The show will be open through May 13, 2018.
This exhibition is a collaboration with the Cynthia Sears Collection in the Sherry Grover Gallery, Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
For those of you who can’t travel to the Olympic Peninsula, here is a visual synopsis. Clicking on any image will give you an enlarged version and/or the beginning of a slide show.
from the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Sherry Grover Gallery Artist Book Collection
Children of Margem, Robin Hruska
Manual of Weeds, Deborah Peek
The Ice Slide: An Educational Game from Jupiter’s Moon Europa, Carolyn Terry
Mortal Salt, Daniel Smith and Karen Finneyfrock
A Solemn Request, Amy Pirkle
In addition to the 17 BIMA artists, 30 invitational works came in from artists in the western United States and Canada. in the PAFAC large gallery:
overview
Ancient Forests of Frying Pan Creek, Lucia Harrison
Lovely and Amazing Photo Albums, Alicia Bailey
Soldier’s Heart, Mari Eckstein Gower
AK-47, Cora Li-Leger
Untitled, Randi Parkhurst
365 Debbi Commodore
Every Step a Lotus, Alicia Bailey
Suze Woolf
Lucia Harrison and Deborah Greenwood
The Old Chain, Carletta Carrington Wilson
Meditations on a Credit Card, Jan Dove
In the second gallery at PAFAC:
Overview and Broadsides by Ellie Mathews.
Mary Ashton, Japanese Rain
Amy Lund, Hygge
Pamela Hastings, Ancestors and Memories: How I Began
Diane Williams, Trash Talk
Lorna Leedy, Exactly the Same Except this Quietness
Mark Hoppmann, A is for Alien
Lynn Skordal, ARMANI unglued
Bonnie Thompson Norman, Ballot BOX
Bettina Pauly, Hänsel & Gretel
Laura Russell, Magnificent Beast
Curator: Jan Dove
Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Port Angeles, WA 98362 pafac@olypen.com (360) 457-3532
HOURS OF OPERATION: Gallery:Reopens February 24 at 5pm
Thursday – Sunday
11am – 5pm Art Park: Dawn to dusk 7 days a week.
There is a wonder-filled show at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, coinciding with this year’s celebration of Shakespeare in the Woods. Curated by Richard Stevens, the exhibit displays costume reproductions in the styles of the times in which Shakespeare lived and worked. A click on any image will fetch a larger image, easy return to page.
Above is a Spanish Renaissance gown for Tamora, Queen of the Goths, in Titus and Andronicus. Created by Tammie Dupuis. Heavy fabric in many layers to help keep the body warm in a cold climate. Opulent and jewel encrusted to indicate the status of the wearer. Oola was smitten by this one.
Below are two costumes, roughly the same period, Italian. Warmer climate, looser drape and lighter fabrics to let air flow around the body. Created by Margo Loes, the gown is for Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet.
Italian Renaissance
Two doublets for courtiers in Comedy of Errors and Love’s Labor Lost, and King Leone’s winter coat in A Winter’s Tale.
dublet by Lori Edwards
dublet by Lori Edwards
Coat by Richard Stevens
Succeeding generations have produced Shakespeare plays in the costumes of their day. This costume is for a Stuart-era Orsinio in Twelfth Night, created by Carmen Beaudry.
Orsinio, Twelfth Night
Richard Stevens, gave a talk to visitors at the opening of this show. Among the many cogent observations he made was this: that women could not perform on stage in Shakespeare’s time so women’s parts were played by men. And male actors would not stand for simpering women’s lines, so the Bard had to make strong women’s roles.
Here is a fanciful costume for Portia, the Merchant of Venice, who brilliantly makes the law work in her favor. The fanciful costume is opulent and heavy with masterful detail. (The costume’s creator is not cited in the show.)
Of course there are magical characters in Shakespeare’s. Richards is facing one of the Wierd Sisters above. Below is Prospero, from The Tempest, costume by Richard Stevens
Prospero
Prospero, detail
Oola, as I said, had aspirations for being the Queen of the Goths, but that being unattainable, she was perfectly happy to play the Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, costume by Margo Loes. (Apologies, Margo)
Oola as Titania
Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is sponsoring outdoor performances of Much Ado About Nothing for the next 3 weekends. At the Opening Reception for this Exhibition of costumes we were treated to a couple of preview scenes. Costumes are mid-20thCentury reinterpretations.
Much Ado About Nothing, Josh Sutcliffe as Benedict and Sharah Truett as Beatrice
Producer: Jessica Elliott
Director: Anna Anderson
Friday, Saturday and Sunday of July 21 through August 6. Pre-show at 6PM, Performance follows 6:30PM. Bring ground blanket or low chairs for seating. You will be entranced.
Cost: FREE, though donations will be appreciated.
The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center is located at:
1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Port Angeles, WA 98362 pafac@olypen.com 360-457-3532
On the slope rising from the Straits of Juan de Fuca to the Olympic Mountains there is a circular home called the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. I use the word “home” advisedly because it is the place where once lived Esther and Charles Webster. Now, thanks to Esther, it is the home for much beautiful art.
Port Angeles Fine Art Center
Surrounding the Art Center is Webster’s Woods, a special place to mosey and reflect.
Oola and I visited on a winter afternoon, and she really liked the address. This has become one of our new favorite places. (Please click on any image to enlarge; they are well worth it.)
Webster’s Woods
One of the reasons I like this place is that, with few exceptions, I could not find the names of the artists. The whole area seems more an expression of a community than of any single person. It seems that each year, artists add new work, much of which returns to the environment over time.
There is a foot path — kinda — and you can roam it from any direction.
Webster’s Woods
Webster’s Woods
Questions of monumentality and ego are absent — except by their absence. This is about the earth, the people, and time.
You might meet others like yourself on the path.
Always there is a straggler, or maybe the rear guard, or maybe just a dreamer — about to be swallowed up.
You will find wonderful work disintegrating into time and the earth.
Webster’s Woodsdetail in Webster’s Woods
I have seen blue ball sculpture before, but THESE blue balls are talking about a relationship with the trees — over time and through growth; and through stress when the wind blows from the Strait to the Mountains.
Webster’s Woods
You may pass something by — Oola found these — only to discover later that they are beads hammered into the fallen tree. This is my favorite of all that I saw in the woods that day.
Webster’s Woods
We found an open dell, and this elegiac group.
Webster’s Woods
We found sound wood, and the chance for communal performance.
Webster’s Woods
We found evidence that we had arrived at the correct conclusion from the wrong direction.
Webster’s Woods
I read that there will be more installations this summer. Definitely we’ll be back. I hope you get to visit, too.
PAFAC 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd. Port Angeles, WA 98362
Didn’t Mom tell you not to judge a book by its cover? Did your teacher say that art is about revealing inner reality? Artist Sue Roberts upholds both these maxims in her pointed and funny show “Family of Sorts” currently at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center. (You can click on any image to see an enlargement.)
“The Gun Family” by Sue Roberts
Attracted to “story” as I am, I was immediately drawn to this show (and gratified to see that artist has just ignored the vilifications which were heaped on visual narrative in my art school days). Beyond the story, though, I was attracted to the painterly excellence applied to the ceramic work. The artist doubles the intent of the work by skillfully adding semi-opaque 2-D layers which amplify the normal 3-D features of the work. In the case of “The Gun Family”, the underpainting and overpainting on the surface gives a subtle and most appropriate grit-and-glitter result to this social commentary on interpretations of the Second Amendment.
The artist uses another technique which adds meaning to her stories: Some of the work has a homespun look.
“The Pleaser” by Sue Roberts
In “The Pleaser” the costume conveys this meaning. But also, the dry and unsophisticated feel of the surface emphasizes by calling into question the complex maneuvering required for being a successful “pleaser”.
Compare that to
“Talons” by Sue Roberts
“Talons” which for the most part is polished with a coat of encaustic (a beeswax and resin concoction applied with heat). The resulting seductive surface adds another layer of meaning to the “story”, especially where it contrasts with the unpolished “skin” of the talons.
“Oblivion” by Sue Roberts
In “Oblivion” the artist treats the ceramic surface with what appears to be more established glazing techniques. The colors and surfaces are less subtle, the story more specific. What contemporary person does not recognize this chap who is oblivious to his world and to the oblivion in the falls ahead?
If you are in the area, go see the show. It is up until March 15, 2015. There is a master class with the artist on March 14. Find out all about it at pafac.org.
1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
Port Angeles, WA 98362
360-457-3532
Leave time to see the sculpture garden! More about that to come
Dove Studio 