July 5 - 28, 2019
Wood and Wall Art:
Randy Acker, Chris Demarest, Jacki Moseley, Len
Eisenhood
Wearable Art:
David, Betsy Giberson, Ana Lisa Hedstrom,
Laura Hunter, Virginia Paquette
Ceramic Art:
Thomas Fossier, Rosette Gault
First Friday
Artwalk, July 5th, 6-8 pm
In Concert:
The Tracie Marsh Band
IMAGES SHOWN ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT:
Len
Eisenhood, Snowfall. Marbled paper
Laura
Hunter, Shibori Scarves. Silk
Virginia
Paquette, Necklace, Citrine and Oxidized
Sterling Silver
Thomas
Fossier. Slab Built Bottle. Stoneware
Chris
Demarest, Dragonfly. Shoji paper
Summer Cornucopia: Creative Concepts from Gallery Artists
abound in this multi-media show featuring new work in wood, fiber, ceramic and
wall art.
Opening reception, First Friday Artwalk, July 5, 6-8pm with
The Tracie Marsh Band.
About the Artists:
Randy Acker (Olympia, Washington): Randy designs and builds objects for people who desire both utility and
beauty in the items that are a part of their everyday lives. Throughout
his life he has been drawn to science and the natural world, and
believes that the more connected we are to that world, the more we are
inclined to truly value our natural heritage. He sees wood as a perfect
medium for creating a bridge between the natural world and our everyday
indoor environments. Where possible, he uses natural edges and defects,
such as cracks, holes, or insect damage in his work, since they serve
as a reminder that wood, no matter how carefully cut and finished, is
still a product of the natural world. While he started woodworking
around age seven, he pursued a career in state government, and before
retiring served as an executive manager for the Department of Natural
Resources.
Chris
Demarest (Bainbridge Island, Washington): Born in New England in 1951, most of
Chris’s career has been in children’s publishing with over 100 titles to his
credit. FIREFIGHTERS A to Z was a New York Times Best Book (2000).
Research has taken him as far as the Persian Gulf, as an official artist for
the US Coast Guard, as well as flying into Hurricane Ivan with the Hurricane
Hunters. From 2011-2017, he traveled the country painting in museums and
libraries portraits of World War II era men and women while collecting their stories.
The tour brought him to Bainbridge Island in 2017 where he documented the
internment of local Japanese Americans, the main painting now hanging at the
island’s Historical Museum. In 2018, he settled on Bainbridge Island where he
began exploring sculpture in wood and shoji paper, leftovers from a teahouse
studio he built. The World War II exhibit is now permanently housed at the Palm
Springs Air Museum, Palm Springs, California. A smaller exhibit is currently
touring Alaska.
Len Eisenhood (Bainbridge Island,
Washington): After several decades
of paper marbling, Bainbridge Island artist Len Eisenhood utilizes his
experience of both classical and innovative marbling techniques to create
richly beautiful papers. Each one possesses a synergy of intention and
serendipity. Marbling is a hydroprint
process that was developed in Japan in the 7th century and in Persia in the
13th century. Pigment is dropped on a size made from carrageenan moss and
water, then manipulated into patterns. Paper made mordant with an alum solution
is laid on the size and picks up the design. This creates a unique marbled
paper, although color palettes and basic patterns can be repeated.
Thomas Fossier (McKinleyville, California): Thomas Fossier, a retired pilot, began
working with clay while living in New Zealand some 20 years ago. His primary
focus is wood-fired vessels, fired in his anagama kiln in northern California.
He explores form and surface with a Zen sensibility. In his own words:
I
have spent much of my life walking in the high mountains and desert canyons of
the American West. Rocks and colorful soil are the most essential features of
these landscapes, and my aesthetic vision has been tuned to the characteristics
and beauty of mineral surfaces. I find that I am a materials enthusiast, and
love ceramics for reasons similar to my love for Western landscapes: the colors
and textures, and the sense of material substance and solidity in
three-dimensional space. …The medium of clay is inspiring for both its
forming and firing characteristics, and I am drawn to exploring its limits,
bringing attention to its specific properties. Firing my work in a wood-burning
kiln, at very high temperatures for multiple days, brings out the tactile and
colorful potential of clay and melted ash. The unique character of different
clays becomes markedly evident after immersion in this transformative
environment…. I see my clay forms as both canvases upon which I will
paint with fire, and as the formal structural elements which balance the
organic patterns that flame creates. There is an opportunity for serendipity
that wood-firing engenders since it is a collaboration between the potter’s
intention and natural process that is not wholly controllable, and thus the
seemingly random complexity of nature is evident in every piece.
Rosette Gault (Bainbridge Island,
Washington): Dr. Gault has been
contributing to the field of artistic ceramics since 1970. She earned her M.F.A. in ceramics from the
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington in 1977-‘78 and her Ph.D for
Innovation from the University of Sunderland in the United Kingdom in 2014. As an artist she explores the substance of
paperclay as a tangible thought form in service to practical and expressive
needs of mankind. Her award winning ceramic sculpture and commission work has
been exhibited widely since 1978, and is included in public and private
collections around the world. As a visual
artist and teacher, she has been invited to present at numerous workshops and
master classes at top universities, symposia, and art schools worldwide. She has been involved with numerous artistic
ventures in the Pacific Northwest and beyond and is currently affiliated with
the University of Sunderland National Center for Glass and Ceramics Research in
the northeast of England. Over the years
her work has appeared in many publications and she has authored a number of
books. In 1990, she isolated the optimum
ratio of (recycled) paper pulp to clay that would permit her to work wet on dry,
patch dry cracks and extend the repertoire of methods never known possible to
fire with traditional clay or manmade fiber composite clays. Her work has
served as a technical impetus behind much innovation and advancement in
international ceramic art and design.
Betsy Giberson (Warner, New Hampshire): Betsy Giberson was born in Washington, D.C.
and completed a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her
background and work in sculpture is reflected in her textile art which features
shibori and sculptural elements in collaged pieces with exposed seams. She is
exhibited at multiple venues throughout the United States and makes her home in
New Hampshire. Her garments are
exquisitely crafted of crinkled silk crepe de chine, organza and noil. Surface
decoration is achieved with shape-resist, piece dying, and overdying. Pieces
are often enhanced with stamped designs.
Ana Lisa
Hedstrom (La Honda, California):
Ana Lisa Hedstrom is known for her signature textiles based on contemporary
adaptations of Shibori. Her textiles are included in the collections of major
museums including the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt, the Museum of Art and Design,
and the De Young Museum in the United States, and the Takeda Kahei Shoten and
Aiichi Shibori Archive in Japan. Her work has been exhibited and published
internationally, including in Canada, China, Germany and Thailand. Ana Lisa has
taught and lectured at numerous international Shibori conferences and schools,
including in Australia, Chile, England, Japan, India, Canada as well as the
United States. Her awards include two NEA grants and she is a fellow of the
American Craft Council. She holds a BA in Art from Mills College.
Laura Hunter (Olympia, Washington): As
an artist I am drawn to themes of repetition and evidence of change. I am
fascinated by subtle marks that suggest something else that is there or has
been there. The Japanese form of bound resist dying called Shibori speaks to
both of these ideas. All of my scarves, shawls, and apparel are individually made
using one or more types of shibori. Arashi Shibori is a pole-wrapping technique
which creates pleats and varying patterns on silk. Itajime Shibori is a folding
and clamping technique which creates dyed shapes on fabric… Creating and selling Shibori has been my
livelihood for 20 years. I have a BFA in Fiber Art from the University of
Washington. I work in my home studio with some physical assistance and much
encouragement from my husband, Allen Olson. We live in Olympia, Washington with
our two sons where we enjoying cooking, our garden, and a relatively slow-paced
lifestyle.
Jacki Moseley (Bainbridge Island,
Washington): Jacki began felting in
2012 after being attracted to the texture and dimension of felt for many years
– fascinated by its properties, how to make it, and how to make things with it.
She has most enjoyed making bowls, vessels and wall hangings. She also worked
with beads, sewing them onto her creations, which are made with merino wool.
She uses both wet and needle felting processes, where the wool fibers become
intertwined to create a design and/or a form.
Virginia
Paquette (Seattle, Washington): An
MFA graduate in painting from the University of Washington, Virginia Paquette
has worked and exhibited internationally. Her art responds to motion and
memory, and is inspired by natural forms and phenomena. Winner of numerous
public art commissions, Paquette has collaborated with her husband, Bill Smith,
on site performance installations here in the Pacific Northwest and Seattle
area, as well as around the world, including “Deluge,” created for Queen
Victoria Museum, Launceston, Australia, “Saffeides” at Teatro Greco in Rome,
and with ARTKOAMIA performance consortium.
For a recent residency at the Conservatorio di Musica in Bologna,
Virginia created mixed-media works as part of a collaboration with Bill Smith.
They presented her visual responses to his works of music, influenced by their
years together in Italy. Paquette responds to Smith’s music with color, line,
rhythm, gesture, and collage of found images, salvaged from the streets of
Italy.
About The Island Gallery
Established in
2002, The Island Gallery features internationally recognized artists whose work takes
traditional art forms in exciting new
directions: studio furniture and sculpture; museum quality textile art and wearables; wood fired ceramics from the finest potters in
America; paintings and prints; and unique jewelry creations. Monthly exhibitions include
live musical concerts, featuring such genres as jazz, rock, folk, chamber music
and performance art. This, along with
its reputation for excellence, makes The Island Gallery a destination spot on beautiful Bainbridge Island, a short ferry ride from Seattle, and steps
from the new Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
In 2017 we celebrated 15 years of collaboration with unique and
talented artists from near and far.
Event Location/Contacts/Visit:
The Island Gallery, 400 Winslow Way
E, #120, Bainbridge Island, Washington.
Underground
parking is available at The Winslow off Ericksen Avenue.
Web site: www.theislandgallery.net
Shop: www.theislandgallery.net/shop
Blog:
www.theislandgallery-artblog.blogspot.com
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SPRING GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday-Saturday 11-6pm
Sunday Noon-5pm
Closed Mondays
Closed Thursday, July 4, 2019
