You're Invited: First Friday Artwalk, July 6, 2018

(This post is currently in progress.  Please enjoy it as we construct it in advance of the show's opening, and feel free to contact the gallery in the meantime with any questions.)

Summer is here, and another Artwalk awaits you on beautiful Bainbridge Island!  Do come downtown to visit us and the other terrific galleries, shops, and restaurants.  We'll be offering snacks, a sip of wine, chats with friends old and new and, as always, fabulous art.

Here's what is not to be missed in July:

New Work from Gallery Artists

July 6 - 31, 2018

Paintings & Prints:

Jan Branham, Karen Chaussabel, Pam Galvani, Sandy Haight

Meg Hartwell, Renee Jameson, Kathryn Lesh

Studio Furniture & Sculpture:

Sean Carleton, Marceil DeLacy, L. Wendy Dunder, Bill Galvani

Jeff Harmes, Peter Nawrot

Wearable Art:

David, NEO, Begona Rentero

Introducing

Jewelry Artist

Beverly Sokol

First Friday Artwalk, July 6th, 6-8 pm

In Concert on the Plaza:

The Tracie Marsh Band

IMAGES SHOWN IN MONTAGE ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT: 
Jan Branham, Tulips, Monoprint/Collage

Marceil DeLacy, En Pointe, Maple

Beverly Sokol, Wood and Silver Earrings

 

About the Show: 

Symbolically, July is the month of change and transformation, inevitably bringing with it a certain whimsy that naturally overtakes creative minds during the warmer months.  This can lead us down many interesting pathways, as will be on display in this Gallery artists’ show of work inspired by the ease and light of summer, in the genres of Paintings and Prints, Studio Furniture and Sculpture,  and Wearable Art.

Introducing jewelry artist Beverly Sokol, who works with simple tools and raw materials such as gold, silver and wood to create unique contemporary jewelry designs.

Visit the Gallery in person, as well as our brand new Artists' Page on the Website and extensive Online Shop.

About the Artists:

(Please click on the images to view more of their work.)

Paintings & Prints:

Jan Branham, Tulips

Jan Branham:  After retiring from a 35-year career as a public school art teacher, Jan has become a full time printmaker and is now an active member of the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN), Southern Graphics Print Council, American Craft Council and Seattle Print Arts. She is currently involved in creating a body of work that she calls “ansisters,” using small snapshots of interesting individuals taken in the 1920s-‘50s as inspiration to create her own printed and collaged images that have developed a new life of their own on paper.

Karen Chaussabel describes herself as "a mixed media artist in the making."  Currently living on Bainbridge Island, Karen originally hails from France. She infuses her work with the nature and countryside of her youth, allowing her life experiences to impact her work. Karen works primarily in encaustic, pen and pencil, with mixed media. Along with her abstract and landscape work Karen presents a series of fruit- and vegetable-like forms, that give suggestions of the harvest, the heart's attachment to it, light, and summer.  (No show image available at this time; please click to visit her Artist Pages.)

Pam Galvani, Paros

Pam Galvani :  For many years, Pam taught history, calligraphy and English. Primarily a printmaker today, Pam has also been a  calligrapher for 40 years, incorporating gestural marks in her work. She is inspired by reading or hearing words, phrases or stories that resonate with her and by abstracting the original text, she hopes to discover and reveal ideas that go beyond what legible words may communicate. She travels widely and her art has been shown nationally and locally, including Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.

Sandy Haight, Inner Sanctum

Sandy Haight:   
Watercolor was first introduced to Sandy in a life drawing class. She loved the luminosity of the medium and continued to grow more familiar with the planning, strategy and execution of a painting. Thus watercolor and ink brush line became the basis for her illustration career for nearly twenty years.  She has always loved the sensuality of the medium, the glow of the colors and the fact that the paint moves and flows on its own, intermingling with other colors.  Her artwork appears on book jackets, ads, posters, logos and packaging all over the United States, in Canada, and Europe.

Meg Hartwell, Space and Time

Meg Hartwell: I was an operating room scrub nurse for fifteen years, passing scissor, clamp, even saws to help fix the human body. I was privileged to see and hold body organs, and x-ray images. Music was always playing in the background. The atmosphere in the room had a calm control in the midst of chaos. Tools or surgical instruments had a specific purpose and fascinated me. This experience influenced my art and shaped my life. The monoprinting process allows me to embrace happy accidents and mark making with an array of tools. I am creating a visual language inspired by vibrant colors, pop art, and abstract expressionism to evoke a sense of controlled calmness. I tear and cut, and approximate the printed tissue paper pieces into a final composition.

Renee Jameson, Red Mountain

Renee Jameson:  Renee is a monotype artist and currently the printmaker liaison for the BARN   (Bainbridge Artisan ResourceNetwork). Her work is represented in private collections in California and Bainbridge Island. She is inspired by the landscapes of Bainbridge and California, and tries to create a world that viewers can interpret and respond to in their own way. She considers herself an abstract artist and hopes to create a mood and atmosphere that will evoke an emotion or memory in the viewer.

Kathryn Lesh, Urn

Kathryn Lesh is a printmaker who is obsessed with the drama of light and the construction of space, which are starting points from which she explores the line between the abstract and the figurative. Her images capture people and moments that are abbreviated and abstracted enough to invite broad interpretation.

Wood & Steel Sculpture:

Sean Carleton, Shelf no. 23

Sean Carleton is a multi-disciplinary artist creating work in Bothell, Washington. A Washington native who has a lifelong passion for creating with his hands, his work ranges from unobtrusive yet sophisticated metalwork which supports beautiful Northwest hardwoods, to sculpturally artistic, dramatic metalwork as the emphasis of the piece. Carleton has been recognized for furniture design and quality by the Bellevue Art Museum and Northwest Woodworkers Gallery. 

Marceil Delacy, En Pointe

Marceil DeLacy’s love of carving began as a child living on the outskirts of Seattle. With a pocketknife, she created images from Ivory soap, then letter openers from kindling wood and arrows from tree suckers before graduating to the use of chisel and mallet. She learned her craft from the wood itself, letting it guide her eye and hand. In the early 1980s she began serious fine art sculpting, winning awards in juried shows and having her work shown in the Bellevue Art Museum. As human encroachment and climate change displace flora and fauna, her art serves as a way of giving voice to nature. To this end, she strives for simplicity of form and uses only a clear finish or no finish at all in order to let the natural color and beauty of the wood speak for itself. It’s a process she calls “listening to the forest.”

L. Wendy Dunder, Untitled

L. Wendy Dunder is a professional watercolor and acrylic painter, known for depicting landscapes, still life, animals, and people. Recently, however, her focus has shifted to creating sculptural lamps of bent wood and laminated paper.  Created from multiple layers of tissue paper glued in place over frameworks of materials such as thin-cut and bent wood, reed, bamboo, and welding rod, these illuminated sculptures spring to life as glowing wall sconces, table lamps and hanging lamps. Delicate and graceful in appearance, they are amazingly strong and functional.





Bill Galvani, whose professional background is as a museum director, carves using the traditional tools of drawknife, spokeshave, wood rasp, and knife. He prefers basswood, a hardwood that holds detail and takes a blade well. Carving shorebirds and ducks has encouraged him to study them, which has led him to participate in conservation activities that preserve birds and their habitats.  (No show image available at this time; please click to visit his Artist Pages.)

Jeff Harmes  (Biographical information and image available shortly.)

Peter Nawrot, Charcuterie Board

Peter Nawrot:  Originally from eastern Washington, near Spokane, Peter has been working as a high-end cabinet maker in the Seattle area. He is a passionate wood expert and real enthusiast on all wood types and specializes in figured woods from the Northwest.  He is now working on contemporary sculptures as well as functional pieces like food-related cutting boards, charcuterie boards, chopsticks and jewelry boxes.  His style may best be described as minimalism, featuring sleek, uncluttered lines and understated elegance.

Wearable Art:

David.Bali   (Biographical information available shortly.)

NEO, Coll 13

NEO  (Biographical information available shortly.)

Begona Rentero, Beautiful Raquel

Begoña Rentero:  A Spanish designer, originally from Granada, Begoña grew up in a family that had a profound respect for nature and the environment. These early influences developed into a passion for organic forms, color and movement inspired by nature. Begoña later translated this passion into a jewelry collection featuring a series of unique pieces. The colors and organic shapes of winter flowers, flora and sea fauna have inspired her latest collection of hand-made, exquisitely crafted jewelry. The pieces are made of special paper, fibers of silk, cotton, et cetera, that she prepares with a method she has developed to toughen them up for daily use, without compromising their delicate, organic aesthetic. Using only natural dyes her pieces both reflect and respect the environment and, as she says, "are so light you have to touch them to know that you're wearing them."

Beverly Sokol, Wood and Silver Earrings

Beverly Sokol  holds a BS in Textiles and Metals from Portland State University and further study in metals at the Oregon College of Arts and Craft.  An owner of a company which designed and produced fabric props for storytelling at schools and libraries throughout the United States for some 35 years, she now makes jewelry full-time at her studio near Portland. Her work has been exhibited at galleries in Oregon and California and she is a member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths.

 

Event Location/Contact Us/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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GALLERY HOURS

Tuesdays - Saturdays 11:00 – 6:00 pm

Sundays Noon – 5:00 pm

Closed Mondays

 

July 2017 Gallery Picks Newsletter

It is already July and we have wonderful summer treats for you!

In fact, as we gathered together this group of items and their artists, we felt rather humbled (though not surprised) by looking retrospectively at the remarkable and consistently long-term quality, and in many cases - such as Rana Helmi and Lou Zeldis - the sheer volume of work from the artists featured here.  We hope you enjoy seeing them, and will take the time to click on the accompanying links to view their other offerings, as well as their stories and personal journeys, on their Artist Pages. 

PAINTINGS & PRINTS

We have a marvelous show currently underway at the Gallery, running
through July 31st.  The work of three exceptional Bainbridge Island print
artists is on full, glorious display and has been very well received.  To see the
full prints, please click on the links below:

Above, from left:
Equivalent.  Pam Galvani.  Monotype
Lacey.  Jan Branham. Chine colle collagraph
Portal 7.  Shelley Minor.  Monoprint collagraph

Simiarly, to visit their individual artist pages for their
bios or to view more of their pieces:
Jan Branham, Pam Galvani, Shelley Minor

All three of these artists are connected to the new art community,
Bainbridge Artist Resource Network, or BARN.  (A fitting acronym
as our lovely little island is quite rural.)  And anyone who has spent time
on or near Bainbridge Island knows that it can fairly be described as Artist Central.

In fact, it is often said that you come here for the natural beauty of the place,
but stay when you suddenly discover that you're an artist.  Now, this is a bit
of a chicken and egg scenario - were we artists first, or did something in
the air or water or soil of this wonderful place soak through our pores and
suddenly we found ourselves dashing toward an easel, brush in hand?
Even after many years, the answer eludes us.

We don't know if the folks at BARN have figured it out either.
But if you have come to the realization that you, too, are an
artist, they might be able to help.  BARN is a non-profit organization whose mission
is to create and support a community of local artisans and makers via learning,
teaching, and inspiring each other with their skills.  Craft, their common
language, is therefore a magnet to bring people together to collaborate and
connect.  Besides printmaking (our fabulous print artist Renee Jameson, whose
work can be viewed in our online shop, was very active in setting up this department)
BARN's areas of focus include wood- and metal-working, fiber and kitchen arts,
technical, glass and jewelry arts, and even a writer's studio.

For further information, click here to visit their web site.

TEXTILES & WEARABLE ART

Silk Batik Tunic.  Rana Helmi/Lou Zeldis

Rana Helmi is one of The Island Gallery's first and most

admired textile artists.  Her eye for design and technical detail

is mind-boggling in its perfection and precision, and

a long collaboration with Lou Zeldis and his batik silks and cotton

fabrics has long produced eminently beautiful and wearable

clothing and accessory items.

Cotton Batik Vest.  Rana Helmi/Lou Zeldis

Rana was born in 1951 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Her father was an
Indonesian diplomat and her mother was Turkish. She began moving
around the world from the age of nine months, attending schools in
various countries and various languages.  It was a life of continuous
discovery, a stream of new cultures and new views.

 A well-dressed mother was her first introduction to the fascinating
transformations that could be brought about by colors, shapes and fabrics.
Many childhood evenings were spent watching as she experimented
with different “looks,” mixing global fabrics, accessories and styles.

Years spent in London in the late ‘60s introduced me to a more daring
spectrum: there was an explosion of freedom and clothes were costumes
that mixed designs, textiles and art forms from all countries in the
world at any date in history. It was exhilarating, and dressing became a
means of escaping narrow confines, of participating in an open world.
In particular a Magritte exhibition at the Tate made a very strong
impact on the rebel in me: here was a way of putting things that
made one laugh instead of feeling frustrated and wound up.

My university years were spent in Provence, in the South of France –
limestone country with a strong play of light. During winter days,
the Mistral harrowed the atmosphere and the huge limestone mound
transformed into every shape, size, and color imaginable in the
space of a few minutes; during the long summer evenings, the
sun fell slowly like honey bringing the country to light. The
interplay of light and colors absorbed much of my time.

Years later, having moved to Bali, I had yet another important
formative experience: building my own house from scratch.
The months of agonizing over blending practicalities and aesthetics
introduced me to the creative aspect of construction, an intimacy
with a process that I had never experienced before.  It gave me new
perspectives. A sewing machine, a gift from my mother that I had
initially viewed with suspicion, suddenly offered new creative possibilities
to express all that I had learned and absorbed.

Silk and Cotton Batik Jacket.  Red Lotus

Another gorgeous piece, this silk and cotton jacket is fully reversible and pieced
with silk batik from Isnia of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. One of a kind, it was
created by Rana in collaboration with the artist community of Red Lotus,
a craft-art endeavor whose artists create beautiful textiles, wearable art, and
jewelry.  They are located in Yogyakarta, Java, and Ubud, Bali, Indonesia.

FURNITURE:  SEATING

Three-Seat Walnut Bench.  Carl Yurdin

Walnut.  Textile.  Stunning.

This bench, crafted by industrial artist Carl Yurdin, is truly a

gorgeous piece of craftsmanship.  We have come to expect functional, accessible

beauty in Carl's work, but with the addition of seat inserts created from Tom

Johnson's Ridge and Furrow textiles (see more about Tom Johnson here), we are
surprised once again!

What more is there to say?

Take another look:

We're speechless.

So we'll let Carl say a few words about his work:

Carl Yurdin, an artist from the industrial design world of the East Coast,

moved to Washington State, settling first on Orcas Island and now

here on Bainbridge Island, Washington.  In his process he strives to use

the keen balance of the industrial designer to highlight aspects of the natural

wood or incorporate it into a function of use, in order to convey the possibility

of nature, but also to bring a practical usability to each piece.

As an industrial designer for over fifty years, I have spent my whole career

designing products that expand the visual possibilities.  I have remained

committed to high design standards, balancing functionality, user requirements,

regulatory needs and overall aesthetics – for both highly consumer focused

products, as well as more industrial products.  My process is about

investing in the beauty of the wood and revealing what possibilities exist.

I don’t always know what will come out of a project when I start, but I

respect the materials I am working with ... Together, we figure it out.

SCULPTURE:  FIBER

Woven Fans.  Lou Zeldis

Is there anything - anything at all - created by the
incomparable Lou Zeldis that we DON'T like?
If there is, we haven't found it yet.

Lou's fans, including these woven ones made of attar vine, have
appeared in the Gallery from time to time over the years, to cool the
visages of many a fine island lady, and the frequent shocked tourist who arrives
in the Northwest in July in their mukluks and anoraks, to be faced with gorgeous
low-80s days, clear blue skies, and full sun.
Okay, we admit:  the place has a reputation for gloom and sog.
But even in our frequently drenched rainforest home, these fans fit right in -
for example, set atop their specially made (here on Bainbridge Island by metal
artist Patrick Clanton) black steel display bases, where they pop rather
beautifully and wait, optimistically, for the next break in the fog.
So really, what could be better than something fully functional yet
pure art, and close to hand even in full display mode?

Nothing.  We love them.

But of course we do - Lou made them, after all.

Visit Lou's many styles of art - Textiles, Jewelry, and Fiber Sculpture -
by clicking on these links.

CERAMICS:  WOOD FIRE

Flower Vase.  Robin Hominiuk

How lovely!  Summery, useful, the product of heat and heart and

excellent design skills.  Did we mention useful?  How overflowing

is your garden with flowers these days?  No problem, we have plenty
of beautiful vases and containers for you, beginning with these
from our amazing ceramic artist Robin Hominiuk.

Seattle, Washington artist Robin was born in Canada and moved

to the United States in 1998.  In addition to the beautiful functional pots

she produces from her studio kiln, she also creates pottery and

sculpture for wood firing.

A lump of clay is a seductive thing - it is the beginning of a journey, an exploration

of possibilities.  My clay work is inspired by many things, from the practical

considerations of the everyday utilitarian - the plate-cup-bowl… that you envision

and know will give joy in its function and beauty, to the natural world that

surrounds us, like the softly rounded water-etched rocks that are formed by the river...

The majority of my work is wood fired in kilns based on ancient Japanese and

Korean designs. These are large tunnel shaped kilns ... fired upwards

of 70 hours, fueled only with wood and the hard work of fellow potters...

 the outcome is always unpredictable.  In these types of firings, there are

no guarantees - you surrender your expectations and control to the kiln.  

 Pottery fired in the intense wood-fire method is transformed by

flame and ash; the colors and marks cannot be replicated or produced

in any other way.

All these lovely pieces have recently arrived in the Gallery.  We're delighted to

add that Robin is about to send us even more, so for all you wood-fired ceramic
aficionados - especially those of you with overflowing flower beds -
we recommend that you keep an eye on the Ceramics: Wood Fire
section of the shop.

These and other pieces appear on her Artist's Pages; simply click on the link for
easy viewing of Robin's latest, and her full bio.

JEWELRY & ACCESSORIES

Double Hanging Pendant, Aqua & White.  Alice Taylor

Brand new to the Gallery, adornments that simply say Summer:
Beautiful beach glass jewelry.

These pieces, crafted by Northwest jeweler Alice Taylor, are quite
beautiful and perfect with a warm-weather ensemble.  Making her home
by Puget Sound, she personally collects each piece of her sea-gems herself
from Washington State's beaches before surrounding them in precious metals,
most specifically sterling silver.  There is no mechanical tumbling or shaping
involved: the glass is naturally tumbled by the surf, making it genuine sea glass.

Double Bezel Ring, Cola & White.  Alice Taylor

Surf-tumbled sea glass becomes more rare each day. Since the 1960s, cities

no longer dump their garbage into the sea and individuals litter far less. Due

to our enlightened environmental practices, sea glass dwindles with each piece found.

The pieces Alice finds are tumbled naturally for 60 to 120 years against large rocks

and pebbles. Each piece of glass likely has a long history as a functional object

in someone’s home and then an even longer history in the water.

 Left:  Double Hanging Pendant, Yellow & White
Right:  Double Hanging Pendant, Cola & White
 

Alice was an Arts Administrator for 25 years, most recently managing the

Public Art Program for Washington State Arts Commission.

See more of Alice's lovely jewelry items, and her full bio, here.

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