Out of Sight Art Fair

Incubation, 54"x42", acrylic on panel

The Seattle visual art community is wide and deep these days, yet there has never been a large survey of contemporary artists until the Out of Sight Art Fair, which will be held at the historic and newly restored King Street Station in Pioneer Square. Curated by Kirsten Anderson, Sharon Arnold, Greg Lundgren and Sierra Stinson, the work of over 100 artists, including mine, will be on display from July 30 to August 2.  This is a pretty exciting event for our city. While this exhibit does not include every talented artist, it will be representative of the depth of working artists in this region. I'm feeling most fortunate to be living and working here. For a completed list of exhibiting artists, please click here.

Arts West Opening

Hornet's Nest, mixed media on paper, 17"x14", 2015

Please join me for the opening and artists' talk of The Moon is Free at Arts West, 4711 California Ave S.W. on Thursday, June 11 from 6-9 pm. Exhibiting artists are Lyndia Bassis, Sue Danielson, Ken DeRoux, Koji Kubota and Junko Yamamoto. Thank you to Susanna Bluhm for curating this exhibition. I'm proud to be included with this group of artists and their work.

Fiona McGuigan at Calypt Gallery

Tonight only from 5:30 to 9:00 pm, 1107 E. Denny, #2A. Okay, the hammer isn't part of the exhibit as the photos where taken during the install. Still worth the trip though! www.fionamcguigan.com

King County Arts Commission

Thank you King County Arts Commission for making I Was There (Here You Are) a part of their permanent collection. 42"x 49", mixed media on Tyvec, 2015.

The Moon Is Free at Arts West

Soft Square, 14"x 17", mixed media, 2015

The Moon is Free is a group show of abstract work from five Seattle area artists at Arts West, 4711 California Ave S.W., Seattle, WA. Exhibiting artists include: Lydia Bassis, Den DeRoux, Junko Yamamoto, Koji Kubota, and me. The exhibit runs from May 7 to June 27 with an opening and artists' talk on June 11 from 6-9 pm.  I'm excited to be showing this with terrific group. Please stop by. Gallery hours are Thurs-Sat, 1:30-7:30 pm.

Artists' Panel Discussion on Tuesday at Gallery4Culture

The Duwamish River from Herring House Park.

In conjunction with our exhibition Duwamish Residency: Artifact and Process, the Duwamish Residency artists invite you to a panel discussion on Tuesday, March 24, from 6-7:30 pm at Gallery4Culture, 101 Prefontaine Pl. S. Well-known artist, Juan Alonso, will moderate as we discuss our history and experiences along the Duwamish River as studio artists and as citizens of the City of Seattle. Our goal is to bring more awareness to this important economic and environmentally challenged area of our home town, which also encompasses diverse and vibrant neighborhoods. We hope to inspire others to create their own projects along the Duwamish River. In that vein, artist, Nicole Kistler, from Duwamish Revealed will talk about this terrific multi-faceted, multiple artist project that she and artist, Sarah Kavage, have created. A representative from 4Culture will discuss funding opportunities for Duwamish-related projects, many of which it has supported over the years. Juan will also share some of his own deep history of creating artist and community-based projects. Hope to see you there.

Just a Few Shots

Work by Steve Macfarlane, Emily Gherard and Fiona McGuigan

Work by David Kane and Gene Gentry McMahon

Work by Ethan Bickel and Jessica Dodge

Work by Sue Danielson and Chris Crites

Work by Juliet Shen and Robert Hardgrave (Please forgive the terrible
reflection in Robert's image. You really have to see this in person or in the catalog).

These are really just teasers. Missing is Linda Davidson's wonderful photography grid, which I absent-mindedly neglected to snap. No worries because you can see much better images of each piece in our catalog and read the curator statement by Sharon Arnold to boot. It's available to view and/or order your very own copy here. Thanks to Juliet Shen for putting the catalog together for us.

Next Tuesday at the gallery there will be an artists' panel discussion from 6:00-7:30 pm. Please join us!

Gallery4Culture
101 Prefontaine Pl. S.
Seattle, WA
Hours: 9 am - 5 pm Mon-Fri through March 28
Artists' Panel Discussion: Tue, March 24 from 6-7:30 pm

The Duwamish Residency: Process and Artifacts

We are very excited about this exhibit, which opens next Thursday. The experience over the past three years of working along the shores of the Duwamish River, Valley and the Georgetown Steam Plant with this group of artists has forever changed me. There is some sort of magical intertwining that takes place for eight days in August when these 12 studio artists go out doors to work, sometimes side-by-side, sometimes alone, but always together. Thanks to Sharon Arnold, our guest curator. We are very excited to share with you a little of our experience. For more information, please visit Gallery4Culture here or the Duwamish Residency website here.

Cargo Collective Selection

Duwamish Squared I, 2014, mixed-media

Thanks to Chyrum Lambert for selecting one of my pieces, inspired by my experiences during the Duwamish Artist Residency, to be featured on the home page of Cargo Collective.  Please take a look here. 

Paper+Pigment at Bellevue Community College Gallery

Fortress I, monoprint, 2014

I've been a member of Seattle Print Arts for a few years now, a terrific organization that provides a community for printmakers in the Seattle area. Benefits of belonging includes free workshops, special tours and talks, opportunities for portfolio review, grants, and this year the chance to be juried into an exhibit at the Bellevue Community College by Margaret Bullock, the Curator of Collections and Special Exhibitions at Tacoma Art Museum. My mono print, Fortress I, has been accepted into the exhibition, which opens on Wednesday, March 4 from 4-7 pm. Please stop by and check out the show. 

Work in Progress

Here is one of several new pieces I've been working on in the studio this year. These are a continuation of the Memory Sieve Series, which is driven by my fascination with how our memories work. Or, as I'm acutely aware, how it sometimes fails us. Why do we sometimes remember silly facts and the important ones elude us? Science has proven that each time we remember an event our memory of it shifts ever so slightly without our awareness. That's part of the reason why eye witness testimony is pretty unreliable DNA tests have borne that out and people who have been convicted of based upon it are being set free. Memory can be a trickster, it seems, and an ongoing sifting process. 

Duwamish King Tide

On Friday I had a chance to visit the Duwamish River during the king tide, which is an unusually high tide that happens in the winter. Since the Duwamish flows into Elliott Bay the high tide flows up stream and impacts the shoreline. Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of the difference not only between summer and winter, but low tide and extra high one along the shore of Seattle's only river. The Duwamish has become one of my favorite all year round places in this city.

    

Duwamish Residency Artists Gene Gentry McMahon, Fiona McGuigan, Linda Davidson, Steve Macfarlane, Robert Hardgrave, and Emily Gherard with guest, Jim Demetre, who gave us a  naturalist tour during August 2014. In the background is an average tide on the Duwamish River.

Friday, January 23, 2015 during the king tide, same location.

Looking south from Herring House Park, the Duwamish River between
Foster Island and the shoreline.

Makers Podcast

Check this out! Local painter, David Hytone, has started his very own podcast highlighting Seattle artists. The latest to drop is a two-part conversation with Emily Gherard. Other interviews include Robert Hardgrave and Juan Alanzo, among others. Here's a link: Makers

Happy New Year and the End of Postus Interruptus

Well, I hope this finds you happily ensconced in the new year. For me this begins a fresh start to the blog for 2015. No, the dog did not eat my paper although the cat has shredded a few things (only at home). A lingering flu (now gone), a relaxing vacation, the holidays and, sadly, the rather sudden loss of a family member have pulled me away from writing here.

Duwamish River Squared I, 12"x12", mixed media, 2014, Sue Danielson

Although out of sight on the blog front, work continued in the studio during the fall and winter and is ongoing. I've been working towards a group show with the artists of the Duwamish Residency, which will take place in the Gallery4Culture in March. We are excited to have Sharon Arnold of LxHxW and Roq La Rue Galleries as our guest curator and the possibilities that her keen eye will bring to our interpretations of the river. The opening will take place on March 5 during First Thursday in Pioneer Square. We hope to see you there!

Studio shot of current work in progress, including a large drawing and a mono print. 

Work continues on the Memory Sieve series that was first shown in August at Blindfold Gallery (the gallery sadly closed at the end of the year). Above is a shot of various works in process, all mixed media. Working on the large piece in the center has been variously heart pumping and a headache, but so it goes.

Did you miss out on getting one of the Memory Bite pieces from the Blindfold show before they sold out? Here's your chance. Four new Memory Bites are currently available at the Shooting Gallery at Wallflower Framing in West Seattle. Please stop by and say hello to the lovely Courtney, master framer, and check out the work of local artists. Proceeds benefit Paseo's Safe Haven. The exhibit is up through January.

Reconsideration

Reconsideration, 

Here is a small mixed media piece that began as a drypoint print that just wasn't working. Upon reconsideration it now has a second life.