April showers bring... beautiful art.
Must we say more?
Oh, all right; as you insist (and we
are eager to say quite a bit more), we are delighted to show off more marvelous works from our marvelous artists.
Enjoy!
SCULPTURE
This is one of those unexpected pieces of art that, one
might say, is wrought by nature, refined by man.
Alan Vogel of Bainbridge Island has exactly the well-tuned eye
required to take what looks to many of us like an ordinary
piece of maple, make a few well-placed cuts, smooth and finish,
and unleash its silent beauty.
And what lively beauty Alan has found here:
A sun burst, a solar flare, fingers of flame.
Without the true eye and gentle hand of a committed artist this
kind of art would remain unseen, even though it is quietly being produced
by Mother Nature, all around us, all the time.
Let us all think about that for a moment.
~o0o~
(Pause to think...)
~o0o~
But while we're on the subject:
Another extraordinary piece by Alan, this one has quite
a different feel to it, although it is no less extraordinary than Flare.
A beautiful slab of walnut, handles are carved from the wood on either
side, and it is finished to a high gloss, durable finish.
This would make an exceptional centerpiece on a
dining table or sideboard. The hewn "bowl" is off center,
and could accommodate a variety of small offerings - even
a glass container filled with floating petals or candles.
Beautiful, serene, and simply fabulous.
Bravo, Alan!
TEXTILES
Rowland Ricketts utilizes natural
dyes and historical processes to create
contemporary textiles that span art and design. Trained in indigo farming
and dyeing
in Japan, Rowland received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2005 and is
currently an Assistant Professor in Textiles at Indiana University’s Henry
Radford Hope
School of Fine Art. His work has been exhibited at the Textile Museum
(Washington, DC),
Cavin-Morris Gallery (New York), and Douglas Dawson Gallery (Chicago) and
has been published in Textiles Now, FiberArts, Selvedge, Surface Design Journal,
and Hand/Eye Magazine.
Chinami is a weaver who crafts
traditional narrow-width yardage for kimono and obi
using historical kasuri (ikat)
techniques. After studying indigo dyeing in her native
Tokushima, the center of indigo
cultivation and processing in Japan, Chinami
pursued an apprenticeship with Yumie
Aoto, where she learned the kasuri and
weaving techniques that form the
foundation of her work today.
Read Rowland and Chinami's
discussions on their philosophies and
The following are excerpts from an
article that recently appeared in
American Craft Magazine:
Rowland Ricketts is happiest when
he’s blue – or at least when he’s planting,
harvesting, composting, and fermenting the dye-producing indigo plants he
cultivates with his wife, Chinami.
The couple met in 1997 when both were apprentices at the Furusho indigo
dyeing studio in Chinami’s hometown of Tokushima, Japan. Since 2006, they
have lived in Bloomington, Indiana, where Rowland is assistant professor of
textiles at Indiana University. Along with teaching, farming, and dyeing,
Rowland
channels indigo’s energy into art installations that draw attention to the
source and its
centuries-old traditions. For Chinami’s part, she more sparingly
incorporates indigo
in the yardage she weaves for kimonos and obis (sashes) using
the dye-resist ikat technique.
It was in high school that Rowland first
visited Japan, a trip that propelled
him to study Japanese at Wesleyan University. After college, he took a
job teaching English at a rural Japanese high school and lived in an old
farmhouse, where he met people working with natural dyes, inspiring
him to learn the process.
After their apprenticeships at the
Furusho studio, the couple lived in Japan for
several years, with Chinami apprenticing with Yumie Aoto, a well-known ikat
kimono fabric weaver, and Rowland farming indigo and dyeing textiles
for clothing and interiors.
They moved to the United States in
2003. Rowland earned an MFA in fiber at
Cranbrook, followed by a one-year residency at Arrowmont School of Arts
and Crafts, and then the teaching job in Bloomington; they bought their
six-acre
farm just outside of town in 2008.
His installations, which focus on
the plant and its deep hues, have included blue
felted stones, billowing and bulbous sheets of cloth, videos of the plant,
and
even dried indigo leaves that gallery-goers can touch.
The couple’s farming has been made
easier with the purchase of a Japanese indigo
harvester, funded through a United States Artists Fellowship awarded to
Rowland in 2012. Still, the agricultural and extraction processes are
laborious
and lengthy – just under a year from dirt to dye. They need 440 pounds of
dried
indigo leaf to sustain the composting process for 100 days and concentrate
the dye.
The composted leaves are called sukumo, which is then fermented in an alkali
liquid made from wood ash and limestone.
After years of working largely
independently, the partners, who are both 44
and have three young children, will soon begin collaborating on home
products.
Adding a production line creates a
need for more indigo, and, like a chef
lining up local produce suppliers, Rowland is
expanding indigo production
to nearby organic farms.
“I see it as a very meaningful way
of bringing this dye and these plants into the
community,” Rowland says.
“That’s one of the things I love about the
tradition – it’s so much bigger than
the individual.”
-From "Dirt To Dye" by Diane Daniel
American Craft, April/May 2015
FURNITURE
Wendy's stunning us again with a new group of remarkable illuminated sculptures.
This one is a long sconce, so is perfect as a glowing wall accent,
and would make a welcoming statement in an entry or hallway.
Below is her latest flower-themed table lamp, in color and
design a delightful touch of spring.
 |
| Tulip. L. Wendy Dunder, Illuminated Sculpture |
We have several more new pieces from Wendy
available in the Gallery (and soon in the
online shop, here).
WOOD-FIRED CERAMICS
We are happily rediscovering this wonderful piece, which was
featured in our past Exhibition: Wood-Fire & Ikebana, honoring
traditional Japanese flower arranging and featuring ceramic art pieces
specifically suited to that fine art form.
Melissa has just returned it to us, which has piqued our
creative urges: the flower tops are removable, so the base
can be filled with water to a mid-point level to accommodate
fresh-cut flowers, or it can be left dry for an arrangement of
grasses, twigs or flowering branches. It features sturdy construction,
excellent color from the kiln and is a rather large piece,
functionally considered a triple vase.
Here's a little about the artist:
Melissa Balch took her first ceramics
class in 2006 and was totally smitten.
Many of her pieces are
hand-built using the ancient coil technique.
She has wood-fired with the fine
people at Seabeck and Port Orchard, and
soda fires at Pottery Northwest in
Seattle. She has traveled and shown her work
in China, Korea and in the Pacific
North West.
She lives and work in Tacoma, Washington, and is firing most
of her
current work at Tacoma Community College.
In Melissa's own words:
Art, life, process, it is
all one; whether drinking tea, meditating,
digging in the soil, forming the
cool clay with my hands, drinking
deeply from nature.
Life is art in flow,
giving in to the greater mystery.
The stillness of sitting, meditating,
observing my thoughts as they pass
like clouds through the sky.
Moments of
clear sky, no thought, of observing, noticing the thought-cloud.
Just sitting,
nothing special but also vast beyond words.
Working from empty-mind,
no judging, no second guessing, my hands moving,
forming the clay.
Like a
tactile meditation I respond to the medium in an intuitive manner.
The ceramic
process allows me to explore and play…..form arising from stillness.
It offers
me a way to reconnect to the mystery of spirit.
VISUAL ARTS
As a general rule we try to avoid using the word "cute"
when referring to our artist's hard-wrought creations.
In this case, though - well, we have to say it!
This adorable little fellow is a small acrylic painting on board and
nicely shows off Andrea's whimsical side, seen in her children's illustrations.
Andrea's paintings, drawings and prints, for which she has received multiple
awards, have been exhibited across the United
States and Europe.
She will be a featured artist in our August 2015 show, so please
watch this space for more information as summer rolls along.
A few words from Andrea:
I like to experiment with many materials including pencil, charcoal,
ink, acrylic,
oil paint, watercolors, pastels, printmaking and found
materials.
Inspired
by music, dance and nature, my paintings are produced through
a
voluptuous layering of paint and vital gesture. My work is intensely
process-oriented, born of my ongoing engagement with the emotion,
mystery and magic of applying paint to canvas.
In the
context of our contemporary, technology-driven world,
my paintings act
as environmental expressionist auguries, offering the viewer
a feeling
of reconnection with nature and participation
in the enigmatic dance of
life.
The view from my studio is always a mysterious adventure.
Sometimes I see schooners that turn out to be pirate ships, blue herons
that are part dragon, and northern elephant seals romping with flying selkis.
I am a published and listed member of The Society of Children's Book
Writers and Illustrators.
Andrea's studio
overlooks The Port Townsend Bay where she lives with her husband,
Michael
Hamilton, a furniture designer, and their two dancing daughters.
Now, about our adorable (cute) little fellow:
The only true arboreal members of the kangaroo family, tree-kangaroos
inhabit
the tropical rainforests of New Guinea, far
northeastern
Queensland, Australia,
and some of the islands in the region. Although most
species are found in
mountainous areas, several also occur in lowlands.
Most tree-kangaroos are
considered threatened due to hunting and habitat destruction.
Tree-kangaroos have a much larger and
pendulous tail than terrestrial kangaroos,
giving them enhanced balance while
moving about the trees. Tree-kangaroos are
slow
and clumsy on the ground. They move at approximately human
walking pace and hop
awkwardly, leaning their body far forward to balance
the heavy tail. However,
in trees, they are bold and agile. They climb by
wrapping their forelimbs
around the trunk of a tree and, while allowing the
forelimbs to slide, hop up
the tree using their powerful hind legs.
They are expert leapers.
(Oh, and yes, they are cute.)
Karen Chaussabel of Bainbridge Island is new to The Island Gallery, and describes
herself as "a mixed media artist in the making", working on paper, creating
encaustic monotype, using inks, pencil,
and fibers. She will be a featured
artist in our July 2015 exhibition.
After admiring her work, we discovered that she also has a
strong entrepreneurial bent: she makes wonderful journals and
canvas tote bags featuring her original artwork. The photo
above shows one of several designs she uses in her large, sturdy,
functional and very reasonably-priced totes. Other designs are currently
A peek at her journals:
 |
| Journal, with Image from Original Artwork. Karen Chaussabel |
As we approach July we will be adding more of
Karen's work to her
online page and also feature further
information about her and her process here on the blog.
That wraps things up for April; May flowers beckon - and so many other wonders! Come back soon for information on shows, sales and events, and if you'd like our monthly Newsletter notice sent directly to your inbox drop a note to
sr [at] the island gallery (one word)
dot net; we'll sign you up right away.
As always, thanks for visiting!
