Psst....An Invitation

1. 

Installation created at Northwind's new location in the Waterman & Katz Building with the help of Jim Garrett of Garrett Metals and Nimba Anvils fame.  Apart from the dryer hoses circling, twisting, tangling and stretching, there is a space set up for your participation. Grab a tag and show your response to the importance and value of art in your life (images, words or ??).  There are materials for you to use and post with - or take a tag home and bring it back before the end of November.  There are also tags available at the Jefferson St. Northwind location.  You can pick one up and return it there where it will be posted on the board later (currently the Waterman Katz location is open Sat. 12-4 until the end of November, and a few other days in between.  look forward to seeing your responses!  

If you can't visit in person leave your comment in this blog and I post it on the board with the rest.

Art and the Word - Exhibition at Northwind Gallery

Art and the Word - Exhibition at Northwind Gallery until October 27, 2014

Three of my images from the series, 'Touching Ground' are included in the exhibition.  The words were created from white cotton gloves laid out the land.  The white bird is also made of the same kind of gloves in a more solid form...she often goes goes on walks with me...wanting to fly in particular locations.

Photo with thanks to Stephen Yates

These pieces are encaustic photographs on wood panels with which I've been experimenting.  Working with the wax - the heat and fire...reminds me of the alchemical nature in the origin of photographs as well as my own experience of many years working in photographic darkrooms watching the magic of an image slowly materialize in a tray of liquid.

These pieces are on exhibit exhibit at Northwind Gallery in Port Townsend until October 27.  On Oct. 19 at 1pm there will be a presentation by the juror, Alan Newberg, who is a full-time artist maintaining a studio in Bremerton, Washington and is a founding member of the Collective Visions Gallery. 

I look forward to his talk and would love to see you there.

In case you can't make it to the exhibit, you can see the images below.

Listen 

Here

Now and Then

Ahhh -- and the evolution of this Port Townsend Installation

'Hands of Wonder'
on the grounds of Hui Noeau Visual Arts Center, Maui

                                                                                                                                                       In the beginning.... well, It's hard to say where something actually begins. For me perhaps in placing white gloves in the form of singular words on the ground in natural environments. Then wanting to "bring the outside - inside"... And thoughts of the way a stone dropping in calm water creates expanding ripples. Imagining words have their own ripple effect.  Creating words out of white cotton gloves which are generally used to handle valuables with extra care.

Artist friend, Margaret Lindsey agreed to the idea of creating a window installation together. (2 years ago, created the cloud photos for the window AND the one who painted the window wall with the current skyscape) 
We traded ideas and images via email for weeks before she arrived.  She sent me the drawing below in response to my words and idea of the ripple effect.  After her arrival we continued with the evolution of ideas and materials.

Below image is the creative result from our thoughts, ideas, conversations and materials.

633 Tyler Street, Port Townsend, WA, USA

Ahh...

Between sky and earth,

Touching.

Hand to ground

Colors to wall

Letters to sound

Word to image

Meaning to mind.

Choice of perception

for this place

  we call home.

Passage - Studio Window at Tyler Street - Uptown

Doorways mark passages between one world and another - whether between the hallway and the bedroom, the office and the rest of the world, the inside of an airplane and freefall. A transition zone between one role, activity, ecosystem; one reality and another. These physical doorways are familiar to us and easy to recognize, but what of the metaphysical passages within our invisible, inner worlds?

How do we sense transition zones in our non-physical areas of internal change?  Places and times are marked by an inner awareness that something has changed.  The world may seem suddenly fresh, alien, or our sense of self is altered.  These perceptions illuminate our awareness the internal shifting, moving, and changing of our inner landscape.  

I consider the forces transforming our inner worlds, some of which we initiate and some of which come upon us from beyond our conscious choosing.  Like metaphysical elements of fire, air, water and earth and their processes of burning, lifting, flowing, and grounding.  I consider these forces as active ingredients that help us move through our lives - like fish through water, wood in flame, bird in flight, tree rooted and growing towards light. We acknowledge this movement by metaphysical elements in saying,”trial by fire”, “free as a bird”, “riding a wave”, “solid as a rock”, or “rooted as a tree”.   

I imagine these forces transform our inner worlds and thus our perception of the physical world. I find navigational assistance in this world of inner transformation in Jung’s writing on alchemy.  With the installation, ‘Passage’, I attempt to give form to these non-physical forces and to evoke the experience they create within us.

"Yes and..." 'at Earth Matters' Exhibition chosen as Best of Show

Three photographs from the my series,Touching Ground, were chosen for inclusion in "Earth Matters" at Northwind Gallery exhibit.  February 28 - March 31, 5pm.   Best in Show was awarded to "Yes and..." (shown below) by Juror Michael Paul Miller.  Work was chosen in relationship to the following statement.

Looking through your own personal lens, what is your relationship with the land as material or metaphor? What does the word Earth mean to you? ” . . . the care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope” – Wendell Barry

I was considering the importance of finding what and where we can say 'yes' with out energy and attention.  Also drawing from an idea from improvisation....when someone approaches you with something....find a way to say - Yes....and.

Yes and...Haleakala Crater, HI

How can art help?  Rialto Beach, WA

   Hands to ground, Cabo Pulmo, Mexico    

To see background information and more images on my work with gloves see link below

http://glorialamson.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html

     

During the March 9th artist lecture juror Michael Paul Miller gave about the exhibition he shared the following comments about my work.

     

"I awarded “Best in Show” to Gloria’s environmental artwork, “Yes and …” When I asked the artwork if it should receive the award for “Best in Show” and if it truly believed that Earth Matters it then responded in Magic 8 ball fashion with a, “Yes”. How could I argue with that?

Now seriously, when looking at the formal elements of this photo it’s difficult to find anything disagreeable. The image seems perfect. The composition, contrast, and details are spot on and it’s beautifully presented with a simple white matt and thin black frame that enhances the almost grey monochromatic presence of the landscape. However, this artwork is more than a beautiful photo in a frame, it’s about a process that extends beyond the frames borders. One that seems to change locations, shapes, and ideas based on the other works of art Gloria has submitted to the show. In another similar work that appears to be a part of the series she shouts asking, “HOW CAN ART HELP?” The appropriate bumper sticker slogan response is that, “Art saves lives”. Yet it is a serious question that the artist or individual is burdened with and must consider when wanting change for the better. It’s especially overwhelming when that desired change is against the economic interests of the plutocracy.

At first glance the white forms of, “Yes and …” appeared to be feathers carefully placed to form letters in the landscape in an Andy Goldsworthian fashion. After closer inspection I noticed that they were white gloves, which are normally used to handle items of high value. They are also symbolic of the white glove treatment, which provides first class care and service. When placed in context of the landscape they are representative of people as caretakers of the earth. We should handle the environment with white gloves. We should perhaps give Mother Nature the white glove treatment instead of the usual individuals who receive this service and that are also responsible for its demise. Gloria with her limited resources is most likely doing her best to do what she can to care for and service the environment by creating art that can and more importantly does help.

There is a slightly darker and more sinister interpretation that can be found within the work. The illuminating light and heavy atmosphere found in the landscape adds both mysticism and mystery, which brings into question what lies beyond the foreground. It could be a reference to the unknown future that is obscured by either a more optimistic cloud or ominous smog. The word, “Yes” appears as if it were a large Hollywood sign making the fog read as smog. Going even deeper and darker into the artworks reading is the title of the work, which is, “Yes and …”. The ellipsis in the title suggests that some part of our ability to understand what is going on has been omitted as we are then left with unanswered questions and an awkward silence."

Michael Paul Miller

Associate Professor of Art

Peninsula College

http://www.mpmart.net/

How can art help? New Year 2014

Rialto Beach, Washington state coast.

Question I'm asking myself, interested in how we might think about this. 
Created with white cotton work gloves.  (some history on the "glove work" http://glorialamson.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html )