What a sprint!

After my vision stabilized from January's cataract surgeries, I focused entirely on planning, painting, and documenting new work.  Among them, two large (48"x 60") pieces:  Aqua Dream 1 and Aqua Dream 2.  The tilted backgrounds are acrylic, the biomorphic figures are in oil.  These figures have messages to convey!

In addition to biomorphism, I've continued working in my rectilinear vein, Influenced by Russian Suprematism and International Constructivism.  These movements continue to speak strongly to me.  See Turning (acrylic on canvas) and Dynamo (oil on canvas), each 48"x 36".

These paintings (along with 20 others) will become part of the rental program managed by Ryan James Fine Arts in Kirkland WA.  After they hang in a client's offices for the rest of the year, they'll be available for purchase.

Art is communication

Art of any discipline is communication:

• from the artist’s background, desires, and image-ination, filtered through

• the medium of words, notes, paint, clay – and the artist’s technical ability, to

• the reader, listener, or viewer – but filtered by their backgrounds, hopes, and knowledge.

Thus, arts of any sort are only completed when read, heard, or viewed. That’s one reason why galleries, museums, concerts, and readings are important: They help complete the communication for which art is produced.

However, the audience’s interpretation is aided by – but doesn’t require -- understanding the artist’s background, desires, and imagery. A poem, dance, composition, or painting must be able to speak for itself. But we usually get more of the communication if we understand the origins of the dance form, the conventions of the musical form, the methods, intent, and symbolism of the visual artist.

At a gallery reception or an artist’s talk, you have the opportunity to learn about artists’ background, desires, and imagery.

So please – in the midst of talking with each other, identify a work that captures you, find the artist, and learn more about their motivations. Take the time to come to an artist talk, or listen to a discussion about producing and presenting paintings, sculptures, plays, poems, novels, music.

Black Artists show at TCC Gallery

The Gallery at Tacoma Community College presents a juried show of works by black artists, all of February.  The works include my paintings Going Home and The final touch.

The Gallery at TCC is in Bldg 4, near S. 12th Street and Mildred St, the NW corner of the campus.  Open Tu-Th 10-4, Fri 10-3.  I'll give a brief talk at 12noon on 2/8;  there's a public reception from 4-6pm on Fri 2/9. 

CVG Show is open

The Collective Visions Gallery annual juried show is now open in Bremerton WA.  The selected works are available for viewing (and purchase) at 331 Pacific Ave. (corner of 4th Street).  My painting The Impossibility of Knowing (39) is among those selected.

At 3pm on the 13th (at the Roxy Theatre, 270 4th St.), Juror Greg Robinson (Cynthia Sears Endowed Chief Curator for the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art) presented awards to pieces among the works selected for the show.  The show runs through 2/23;  the gallery is open 12-5 W-Sat and 12-4 Sun.