Counsel Langley

moving on

2009-11-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

I’m moving to wordpress from blogspot. Why? Because blogspot can’t seem to handle videos without getting buggy and that just won’t do. Also, wordpress is prettier to look at and wordpress appeals to my sense of nostalgia for a time when words like these might well have been physically pressed.

With that, I welcome you to venture over to: counsellangley.wordpress.com

Oh, and to celebrate I’m going to begin by posting every video I have ever posted on blogspot. Enjoy.

2 sides to Every Story

2009-11-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

I'll be heading to Seattle tomorrow to attend the opening reception for Two Sides to Every Story which is now on view at Gossamer Collective. I'm showing a large body of new and recent work in Laurie Kearney's gorgeous space (just wait til you see the ceiling). In an interview with Scene in Seattle Kearney names me as an artist who "has what it takes to go the distance with their career." Thanks Laurie! From the interview:

SIS: Of all the artists you are working with right now. Who do you think has what it takes to go the distance with their career?
Laurie Kearney: The only way to keep this answer short is to pick a medium and run with it: Painting- Currently, I'm showing work by Port Townsend artist Counsel Langley at Gossamer. Counsel has such a unique and authentic approach to her work, and isn't afraid to put her training to the test, which I really admire. I experience real joy watching the development of her meticulously explosive style, and I see her going farther than she might expect. I also see powerful artistic strength and growth in Cait Willis, Natalia Czajkiewicz and Adriana Phillips, to name just a few (really difficult to narrow it down!).

Check out the interview in its entirety at www.sceneinseattle.org --Go to "Interviews: Ghost/Gossamer"

Approach, 2009, acrylic, ink, glitter, 30 x 60"

2 Sides to Every Story
Opening Reception Friday November 6th from 7pm to 10pm

Gossamer Collective
1406 18th Avenue (corner of 18th and Union)

Show is up now through the end of November

Gossamer's hours:
TUE-SAT 11-12pm-7pm or later (general)
BY APPOINTMENT SUN-MON
(206)323-7199

toasted harddrive and otherwise occupied

2009-11-04T11:40:00.000-08:00

Well, my harddrive bit the dust. May I just say, I recommend backing up your files. Also, I've been busy with things like this:

Very Frightening Snacks
ingredients: Black olive hummus, red pepper hummus, goat cheese, avovado, olives, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, carrots, romanesco broccoli, rice crackers, with dried apple frame.

Tigger and Demeter admire their jack-o-laterns

In art news, I had a successful Studio Tour in mid-October. Kathie Meyer of the PT Leader wrote this in her follow-up article Artists go all out to make studio tour special:

"Ya, know I didn't want to like this," said one visitor who couldn't help but be seduced by painter Counsel Langley's effulgent,* geometric paintings.

*I love the words seduced and effulgent! Granted, I did have to run to the dictionary for effulgent, where I discovered its awesome meaning: shining forth brilliantly; radiant. Sweet!

Also, I've been asked to have a solo show at the Castle Key Lounge in the Fall of 2010. I will create a body of site-specific work for the space and am looking forward obsessing over the contrast between the modern, geometric aspects of my work and the lush, Victorian style of Manresa Castle, where the lounge is housed.

And finally, I am honored to have been invited by Northwind Arts Center to have a show in 2011.

CHANGE OF PLANS!

2009-09-25T22:44:00.001-07:00

THE OBSERVATORY HAS HAD TO SADLY AND SUDDENLY CLOSE ITS DOORS . . .
BEST OF LUCK TO THE OBSERVATORY FOLKS IN FINDING A NEW HOME!

My new and recent work will be shown at Gossamer Collective in November.

2 Sides 2 Every Story
opens Mid-October and will run through Nov. 30th.

Opening reception
November 6th, 7 to 9 p.m.

Gossamer Collective
1406 - 18th Avenue
Seattle, WA

www.gossamercollective.com

Encounters

2009-09-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

Opening reception
Thursday, Oct. 1st, 6 to 9pm
with live music by Passenger Pigeon (Levi Fuller)!!

Show runs through October

DWG

2009-08-14T07:17:00.000-07:00

DWG: A Look At Contemporary Mark Making
I am looking forward to being a part of this show at OHGE Ltd. Alex Ohge has brought together a great group of artists who all have a distinctive take on how to go about making a great drawing. DWG goes up at the end of the month and will run through Sept. 26th.

Participating artists:

Timothy Cross
Linda Hutchins
Counsel Langley
Peter Foucault
Kevin Haas
Scott Kolbo
Gala Bent

August 29th through September 26th
Opening reception Saturday, August 29th, 6 - 9pm

OHGE ltd. 831 Airport Way South, Seattle WA (next to Lawrimore Project, Downtown)

WHITE WINTER HYMNAL

2009-07-20T15:46:00.000-07:00

FIRST EVER CHINATOWN ID ARTWALK

2009-07-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

Tonight! Canoe Social Club is serving as the home base for this artwalk. Canoe is exhibiting my B-Sides along-side work by Ellen Forney and Ryan Ketchum.

Determination, 2008, acrylic, zircon, glitter, 5 x 5"

Click here to read what the Seattle Times has to say. Thank you Marian Liu, Seattle Times Staff Reporter, for the recommendation!

Sat July 18 (and the 3rd Saturdays: Aug 15 and Sept 19)
5 - 8 p.m. Free!
Visit www.SCIDpda.org for more details

It's going to be sunny this weekend, so come down to the Chinatown ID and enjoy the art walk! This free event features 25 venues, over 30 local artists and great food specials!

Click here for a list of featured artists & for a walking map

Restaurants featuring Art Walk Specials for $5 and under!
Fortuna Café - Chicken or BBQ Pork Boxes
Gourmet Noodle Bowl - Braised Pork w/ Spring Roll
Henry's Bento - Pork Chop, Tofu/Chicken Bento, Taiwanese Lunch Box, Beef Noodle Soup
J Sushi - All Appetizers!
Kaname - Art Walk Happy Hour, 5 - 6:30pm
Kau Kau BBQ - BBQ Pork, Chicken Wing, Veg. Rice
Pacific Café - Hong Kong Kitchen - Salted Pepper Chicken Wings, Veg. Pork Dumplings

Phnom Penh - Battambang's Favorite Noodle, Beef Noodle Soup

Unicorn Crepes - Banana Custard Choco Whip, Strawberry Custard Whip

NEW WORK

2009-07-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Flesh is Very Delicate and Easily Bruised, 2009, acrylic, ink, glitter, 16 x 32"

Brand spanking new pieces from my Two Sides to Every Story series.
visit www.counsellangley.com for details.

Meeting by the Pond, 2009, acrylic, ink, glitter, 12 x 24"

SUMMERTIME

2009-07-10T13:10:00.001-07:00

I am loving summertime and the theme of this show. I take it as validation of my desire to sit back, straw cowboy hat squarely on head, gin-and-tonic firmly in hand--a desire I am not thwarting. Juan Thorp was kind enough to ask me to send this piece down to Bunny Gunner located in Pomona, CA to be included:

Cityscape 27 (At the Park), 2007, acrylic, ink, glitter, 12 x 12"

Check out this preview of Summertime --lots of great stuff!

SUMMERTIME
Bunny Gunner's 2nd Birthday!

June 11th - August 4th
Opening Reception: July 11th, 6pm - 11pm
Last Saturday Reception: July 25th 6pm - 10pm

Bunny Gunner
266 W. Second St.
Pomona, CA 91766

SAGE

2009-07-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

My fantastic photographer friend, Joshua Sage (who happens to be father to 50% of Nanda), is making his annual return to the Northwest and will be doing portraits while he is here. We make it a habit to do a shoot with him. The photos we get are gorgeous, unique and capture much more than physical presence.

Contact him now to schedule a shoot with him--Don't be slow, you don't want to miss out on this!

Here's a note from Joshua:

"Hello to you all,

Kirsten and I will be spending some time in the Northwest this summer and I will be available to shoot photographic portraits.

Sitting for portraits is something we often don't take the time to do, even though well done portraits are appreciated for years and years. They can illicit feelings and memories with every viewing. Family pictures are those things we think of taking with us if we only had one suitcase to take to our desert isle.

I only use natural light and generally shoot in black and white or duotone. Color is possible.... let's talk. Price for a sitting starts at $85.

If this is something you would truly like to consider, click on the link and take a look at the slideshow of portraits I have taken. Don't hesitate......... "

PORTRAIT SLIDESHOW

CONTACT JOSHUA: sageland@olypen.com

IMAGES: A few of last year's portraits by Sage of my two daughters, Emerald & I (top), Dare (middle) and Emerald (bottom).

LOVE.

2009-07-06T16:35:00.000-07:00

Love, 2009, acrylic, ink, glitter, 60" x 36"

I just returned from the most moving and artful wedding I've ever been to. A friend of twenty years has found the woman of dreams he didn't even know he had. I made them a painting. This was their wedding gift from me and thinking about these amazing individuals and their commitment to each other freed me up to do something I've not done for years: place actual, specific humanity in a painting. Last time that happened was 2002 in The Wait.

The Wait, 2002, acrylic, ink, glitter, 20 x 48"The Wait DETAIL

Here's some details from Love (the profiles are theirs and the word "Love" is copied directly from their invitations):

Seattle City Light Portable Works: Part 1

2009-06-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

View 42 artworks by 26 emerging Northwest artists--including paintings, prints, photographs, ceramics and sculpture--in Seattle City Light's Portable Works Collection. The featured artworks are part of a larger recent purchase by City Light totaling 86 artworks by 56 artists. The purchase was made possible with city 1% for Art funds. The rest of the artworks will be on display in a second exhibition from October through December.

Seattle Municipal Tower Gallery
700 Fifth Ave., Level Three Concourse
July 1 - Sept 29, 2009

Artist Reception
Tuesday, July 14
4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Remarks at 5:45 p.m.

Artists included:

Justin Beckman
Leo Berk
Gabriel Brown
Christopher Buenning
Jesse Durost
Tia Factor
RoseAnne Featherston
Geoff Garza
Kevin Haas
Kristina Hagman
Stan Hammer
Ben Hirschkoff
Jenny Hyde
Etsuko Ichikawa
Margo Knight
Scott Kolbo
Counsel Langley
Fulgenico Lazo
Julie Lindell
Hugo Ludeña
Steven Miller
Fred Muran
Melody Owen
Chauney Peck
Jamie Potter
Kinu Watanabe

B-Sides

2009-06-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

Cityscape 14 (Resources), 2007, acrylic, ink, glitter, 36 x 36"

During the month of July Seattle's Canoe Social Club has a group of early and experimental pieces, most of which have not been shown in Seattle before. A chance to see where I've been and some of the in-between steps leading to my current work . . . . Think of it as an exhibition of B-Sides.*

Hosted and Curated by Victoria Lahti.

Opens Thursday, July 2nd at 5 pm
Free and open to the Public!
Show is in the gallery through August 5th

Canoe Social Club
International District, Seattle
409 7th Avenue South

* By the way, as a huge music fan I have always adored the b-sides. Brings to mind a peek into something more personal and exploratory than a big hit, a chance to hear (or in this case see) something closer to the artist's raw thought process.

New Noise

2009-06-13T14:16:00.000-07:00

Uncharted

2009-06-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Four pieces from a new series, Uncharted. The moment of first encounter with the unknown is exciting, stunning, overwhelming, fascinating, frightening, invigorating.
Visit www.counsellangley.com to see details.

my baby's on the level

2009-06-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

Mithun Installation Views

2009-05-22T11:26:00.001-07:00

Cityscape 17 (Start Over), 2007

Yesterday, with the help of a dear friend, I installed work at Mithun. It was a long day of driving with our trusty Hood Canal Bridge closed for a major rebuild. I wasn't able to stay for the party, but I am happy with the way my work looks in the space--here's a few shots. The furniture and gorgeous bits of wood you are seeing are by Meyers | Wells.

Waterfront I & II, 2009

Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing, 2009

System I, II, III & IV, 2009

Untitled, 2009

FLUID/STRUCTURE

2009-05-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Waterfront I, 2009, acrylic, ink, glitter, 30 x 30"

Mithun, an architecture firm located at Pier 56 on Seattle's waterfront will be hosting several new and recent paintings from May 21 through July.

Also on exhibition MEYERS | WELLS furniture with modern roots

Mithun Architecture, Seattle Office

Pier 56, 1201 Alaskan Way, #200 Seattle, WA 98101

T 206.623.3344 F 206.623.7005

Call for Participation in the Artist Selection Panel: Port Townsend, WA

2009-04-21T15:22:00.000-07:00

Port Townsend Arts Commission
Public Art Committee

Call for Participation in the Artist Selection Panel
For "Downtown Urban Streetscape and Waterfront Area" Project

The City of Port Townsend is currently engaged in a major capital construction project in the downtown Water Street area. The City has adopted a downtown urban streetscape plan that includes the enhancement of existing open spaces, the adaptive reuse of established architectural and design elements, the addition of new and the augmentation of existing community meeting places, and the use of landscaping that invites public engagement. This revitalized waterfront area, stretching from the Northwest Maritime Center at Point Hudson to Quincy Street, will celebrate the intersection of our historic and commercial cityscape with accessible seascape. Public art will be sited within this location, creating an area of public focus for activities which complement our maritime connection, public markets, special events, and community gatherings.

According to the Art in Public Places Policy and Procedure, each public art project requires the appointment of an Artist Selection Panel to develop the scope of work and call for artists. The Panel includes members of the Port Townsend Arts Commission Public Art Committee, one project architect or engineer, one project manager from the lead Department, representatives of other boards, commissions, committees, or public agencies (as appropriate), an at-large artist with specific relevant expertise, and two community members from the area in which the artwork will be located.

The Public Art Committee is seeking interested community members from the designated waterfront area (Point Hudson to Quincy Street) to serve on the Panel. Interested parties should submit to the Arts Commission a letter expressing interest, a description of his/her connection to the outlined site, and a bio or summary of experience.

The Public Art Committee is also seeking individuals to serve as the artist at-large. Interested parties should submit to the Arts Commission a letter expressing interest and a bio or summary of experience.

Postmark deadline for application is May 15--materials should be sent, or hand-delivered, to the attention of the Port Townsend Arts Commission (PTAC) at City Hall, 250 Madison Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368.

Strait Art Installation Views

2009-03-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Jake Seniuk, Director of the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center and Curator of Strait Art, just sent me these gorgeous installations views.

Wolf Like Me

2009-03-25T19:55:00.001-07:00

Time for another musical interlude.

Erin Sherry Makes Awesome Clothes

2009-03-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

I've brought you good food, great music and now (it's about time) for some hot clothes. Erin Sherry is one of my dearest friends, meticulous with needle and thread, and a brilliant clothing designer. Here's a sampling of her latest collection, shot on location in San Diego by photographer Kat Woronowicz.

Pinky red cotton, burgundy piping, front pockets, cream hand stitching, button back

Erin makes clothes for women with bods of all shapes and sizes. Everything is impeccably made, sexy-cute, and made with the premise that true gorgeousness is always comfortable.

You can see my particular attraction to her work is in the details. Lines of piping, shining dots of the snaps laid out in a unique 1, 2, 1, 2 . . . pattern. Wonderful!

JUMPSUIT! fine wale midnight blue corduroy, red piping, pears snaps, front fly

Organic cotton woven sweater, burgundy piping, front pockets, pearl snaps.
Skirt, purple cotton, cream hand stitching

And, now, drumroll please . . .
The Best Pants in The Universe:

Organic cotton woven sweater, burgundy piping, pearl snaps
Fine wale midnight blue corduroy pants, pockets, front fly

This sweetheart of a dress is one of a kind . . . go searchin' for rad vintage bed sheets . . . Miss Sherry will make you one!

Vintage wilderness scene bed sheet, fully lined, white piping, front pockets, vintage trim straps

Erin has a website in the works, I'll be sure to tell you all about it as soon as it is up and running.

For now you can reach her this way: erinsherry@yahoo.com

Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing: A Celebration of Art and Armageddon

2009-03-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

I am so excited about this event!

Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing, 2009, acrylic, ink, glitter, 30 x 60"

Jennifer Borges Foster is bringing together writers, musicians, dancers, painters, photographers, performance artists and more to re-interpret the title of her first completed poetry manuscript, Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing.

This project is made possible through the generous support of the Mayor's Office of Art & Cultural Affairs and 4Culture.

Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 7:00pm

Canoe Social Club at Theater Off Jackson

409 7th Ave S

Seattle, WA

Admission:

Free to Canoe Social Club Members

$5 for Non-Members

Note: Full Bar available.

This event is 21+

Contributing Artists:

Music

Sean Nelson

David Nixon

Jose Bold

John Ackermann

Rick Miller

Erin Jorgensen

Sunday Service

Dance

Amy O'Neal and Mark Haim

Zoe Scofield

Poets/Writers

Rebecca Brown

Matt Briggs

John Olson

Roberta Olson

Doug Nufer

Kary Wayson

Arne Pihl

Linden Ontjes

Brian McGugian

Kate Lebo

Elizabeth Colen

Carol Guess

Koushik Ghosh

Karen Finneyfrock

Peter Periera

Bob Redmond

Brangien Davis

Amy Schrader

Art/Installation

Elizabeth Bisegna Gaston

Counsel Langley

Kim Drake

Erin Shafkind

Jennifer Zwick

Jed Dunkerley

Paul Larned

Karen Rudd

Costume

Chrissy Wai-Ching

Stait Art

2009-03-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Strait Art 2009
March 22 - May 10

Two of my paintings will be at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, along with some great work from 35 other North Olympic Peninsula artists, for Strait Art 2009. Here's what PAFAC has to say about the show, from www.pafac.org:

35 North Peninsula artists exhibit diverse personal visions in the annual showcase drawn from the local scene.

Strait Art, the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s annual showcase of local talent, opens its 2009 installment on Sunday, March 22, with a reception for the artists from 2-4 pm. The exhibition presents the works of thirty-five artists from Clallam and Jefferson Counties and will continue through May 10.

“Each year this show provides a rich opportunity to sample what the artists of Juan de Fuca country are up to,” said PAFAC director and exhibition curator Jake Seniuk. “From the more than fifty applicants I chose a mix of newcomers and veterans of past Strait Art exhibitions.

“In order to provide a venue for the widest range of submittals we don’t search for any kind of overarching theme other than the artists’ residency on the North Olympic Peninsula. The existence of a bona fide regionalism has long been in decline as a serious consideration in art, and in our age of instant interconnectivity and information overload one is likely to find lots of overlap between local and international outlooks.”

Space is always at a premium in the relatively small footprint of the Webster House, but Seniuk feels it is important to show more than a single work from each artist. Except for a couple of installations, each artist is represented by a pair of works.

“In addition to showing the best work offered,” said Seniuk, “it is the curator’s challenge to make the most cohesive exhibition possible. That means finding both formal and conceptual relationships. By presenting at least a couple of works by each artist, not only does the viewer get a stronger inkling of any given artist’s personal style, but it also helps nurture the impression that all these diverse works somehow belong together.”

Apart from artists who are so awed by the intrinsic beauty of their home landscape — a predilection that is easy to cultivate amidst the Peninsula’s operatic grandeur of sea and sky, mountain and forest, river and meadow — Peninsula artists, like artists everywhere, struggle with form and content to make a broad range of observations, ideas and emotions visible. “It is the artist’s understanding and skilled handling of the interrelationships between form and content, which gives their works a depth of interest that sustains repeated viewings,” said Seniuk.

Redeye Over Vegas, 2007, acrylic, ink, glitter, 30 " x 30 "

On display are paintings that range from Lisa Gilley’s bucolic rural landscapes, to Counsel Langley’s architectonic designs that suggest systems part organic and part robotic, to Jack Galloway’s free-form Surrealist abstractions that give the impression of an interior space that could be in the bowels or in the mind, to Jennifer Lozada’s large Zen-inspired scrolls that revel in the gesture of the brush.

There is plenty of subject matter, too. Anna Nichols and Harold Nelson collage myriad magazine scraps into their paintings to provide an imbedded narrative. There are stories to decipher in the black-and-white documentary photographs of Harry von Stark, Ed Jaramillo, and Jeremy Johnson, while Brian Schroder, Arthur Grossman, Bob Kaune and Jessica Spisak push their color photos deeper and deeper into abstraction, and Rene Simons foregoes the camera altogether, relying on Photoshop’s liquefying and layering effects to conjure a warm agar in which microscopic and/or extraterrestrial life forms might spawn.

Color is of paramount interest in Renne Brock-Richmond’s weavings that rove across the spectrum in subtle gradations, in Barbara Houshmand’s bold geometric quilts, in Carolyn Cristina Manzoni’s fiery mohair vestment-like shawls and stoles, and in Kim Thomson’s yarn-wrapped vessels that resemble a species of hairy Venusian fruit.

The goddess imagery on Gayle Lutschg’s ceramic vessels draws from both Renaissance chapel frescoes and folk art, while Henner Schroders brilliant cast glass shields blend aboriginal pictographs with the luminosity of backlit cathedral windows.

Artists working in the round include Kathleen Meyer, who is equally adept at both figurative and abstract bronzes and Larry McCaffrey, whose fabricated stainless steel arcs are reduced to shiny vectors in a state of pure motion.

Gray Lucier and Margie McDonald both build up their abstract figures with scavenged materials cast-off by industry, while Anna Wiancko-Chasman draws from the natural world for found forms she molds into shamanistic figures and Pamela Hastings raids the knick-knack bin to create psychologically loaded dolls for grown girls.

One of the most curious pieces is Karen Hackenberg’s Swarm, a giant wasp’s hive constructed of hundreds of wooden match sticks, populated by dozens of tiny model train figurines that bustle about their business oblivious to the tinder box on which they dwell.

There’s much more with works by Denise Erickson, Tammy Hall, Kim Kopp, Sandra Offut, Deanna Pindell, Cynthia Thomas, Jeff Tocher, and Rolf Wald.

Sunset 02115, 2007, acrylic, ink, glitter, 30 " x 30 "

Seattle City Light

2009-03-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

Just received word from a fellow calling from City of Seattle's Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs that Seattle City Light is going to purchase Bridge 7 for their portable art collection. Awesome!

Bridge 07
acrylic, ink, glitter
8 x 48"
2007

From Seattle.gov: The city's Portable Works Collection is a rotating collection of more than 2,600 artworks in all media, representing hundreds of artists collected by the city since 1973. The collection includes sculpture, painting, mixed media, prints, photography and textiles.

The artworks are exhibited primarily in public areas of municipal buildings. Using percent-for-art funds from city construction budgets, the portable collection includes the work of emerging and established artists.

The purpose of the Portable Works Collection is to increase public awareness of and support for the arts by displaying works in the working environment of public buildings. Here, the employees are able to experience a wide array of artistic and cultural expression.

When I Grow Up

2009-03-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
Martin de Thurah has directed the new Fever Ray video “When I Grow Up”.

Canoe Social Club

2009-03-13T20:51:00.000-07:00

The piece shown in the previous post is now in Seattle's International District at the Canoe Social Club. I have work there as part of a couple of Canoe events.

EVENT 1:

Canoe Social Club Grand Opening
Hosts Jennifer Zeyl and the Canoe Coxswains!
Sunday March 15th
4 pm - 11 pm

These pieces are also there:

Cityscape 17 (Start Over), 2007, acrylic, ink, glitter 36 x 36"
Bridge in Storm, 2006, acrylic, ink, glitter, 15 x 45"

EVENT 2:

Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing*
Host Jennifer Borges Foster
Thursday April 2
7 pm

Drop in during the Grand Opening . . . find out what Canoe is all about!

Canoe Social Club
409 7th Ave South
Seattle, WA

* Hence the title of that piece. Months ago Jennifer Borges Foster asked a bunch of friends to participate in an event she planned around a reading of a piece entitled, you guessed it, Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing. This piece is my response to that title.

New Work

2009-03-10T07:10:00.001-07:00

Uneasy Heavens Await Those Fleeing
Diptych
Response to title by Jennifer Borges Foster
acrylic, ink, graphite, glitter on board
30 x 60"
2009

Details:

This piece is the first in a new series:

Two Sides to Every Story. I've been layering two opposing approaches for several years. One is messy; using turbulent techniques, such as, dripping, pours, splatters to create effective representations of natural elements. The other is controlled; lines, concentric circles, grids and repetitive dots drawn with pen and ink, architects' tools, templates and compasses reflecting structures and infrastructures that we build.

Now I will separate, distill and place these same approaches in juxtaposition. On one side, using limited palettes--desaturated, sometimes nearly monochromatic--will be a field of controlled forms; clean and precise, emphasizing differences in surface textures to pick out forms, lines and fields of dots. Evidence that tools were manipulated readiliy apparent. On the other, paint will be allowed to follow its most natural tendencies; evidence of my influence on the medium disappearing to a minimum.

Good Eats

2009-03-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

Art rocks my world, but without good music and good food I'm lost. (Of course, ideally we are robustly devouring great art, music and eats simultaneously...ahhhhh....) .

With this in mind, I direct you to a CSA offering from some of my favorite farmers:

If you want fresh, flavorful and nutritious produce, nothing beats joining a farm CSA (except maybe growing your own garden)! As a CSA member you get a weekly assortment of seasonal produce picked the same day and a direct connection to your local farm and farmer. There’s nothing like fresh wholesome food with a story to deepen your appreciation of your meals !

As part of our farm community you’ll develop your sense of place, eating what the Quimper Peninsula can offer, while developing your palette and noticing flavors in vegetables that just don’t ship across the country, or wait for you on . . . OUR FARM:

Froghill Farm is truly a Port Townsend community farm! Located within city limits, the farm and its farmers have been dedicated to sharing its beautiful rural atmosphere and agricultural knowledge with the greater community through a variety of educational and work programs for both children and adults. Since 1998, Froghill has grown high-quality certified organic vegetables, berries and flowers on three fertile acres nourished with compost and cover crops. Our use of Biodynamic techniques and preparations helps bring life and vitality to our soils and crops. Our farm crew includes two farm families, apprentices, working CSA members and volunteers.

THE FARMERS
Sebastian Aguilar and Kelly Gelino have been farming full-time since 1997 and have three children (Emma 10, Ezra 8, and Noah 5).They are passionate about family, simple living, farming and community. A spirit of generosity and the study of biodynamics guides their farming practices. Kelley Janes and Alan Brisley have over 40 years combined organic gardening and farming experience and have farmed Frog Hill Farm since 1997 with their two children Linden (12) and Daisy (8). Kelley and Alan bring their community organizing backgrounds and their commitment to spiritual and social renewal to their farming activity and are developing a model for community involvement in the farm that they call “village style community agriculture.”

THE FOOD
Once a week from June through October, you’ll receive 7 - 9 vegetable crops that are harvested and washed that same morning. These vegetables are always harvested at the peak of ripeness and are a delight to eat. With a season cost of $450 (or less with a work-trade), you save 25% off the retail price. The crop list for this season includes:

carrots
arugula
strawberries
cabbage
garlic
chard basil
cauliflower
leeks
Oriental greens
cilantro
Pac-choi
onions
kale
parsley
spinach
potatoes
lettuce
fennel
green beans
radish
cucumbers
basil
winter squash
parsnip
summer squash
rutabega
brussel sprouts

(some crops will be u-pick)

MEMBERSHIPS!
There are several ways to become a CSA member. You may:
•Work off your share by participating in 22 work-shifts (of 4 hours each)
•Pay $250 and join 10 work-shifts
•Pay $450 and have no work commitments.
(Working members are asked to provide 1-2 meals for our work-day lunches.)

PICK-UP
Produce is picked-up either Tuesday or Friday afternoons at the Farm (located at the intersection of 35th and Howard)

EXTRAS
•Newsletters with farm news, recipes and inspiration.
•25% off any extra produce purchased (available at both the farm and the Port Townsend Farmer’s Market)
•From June 23 until September 1, we will have childcare available for our Tuesday work-shift members.
•Visit the farm and watch your food grow in a healthy soil!
•Optional Flower CSA Available! Receive 12 bouquets over the season for $100.

Washington Lawyers for the Arts will be in PT

2009-03-06T11:10:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to see these great folks make an appearance on the Olympic Peninsula and here they are! This is a great service.

NEW LEGAL CLINIC FOR ARTISTS IN PORT TOWNSEND – MARCH 25 2009

Arts Legal Clinic

What is it? The WLA Arts Legal Clinic offers low-cost, private legal consultations to artists and arts organizations in the state of Washington. In Seattle, the clinic takes place twice monthly, and appointments may be made for 30 minute, confidential consultations with an attorney who specializes in arts and entertainment law. Topics of concern include copyright, trademark, licensing, fair use and contract issues. The clinic is now starting in Port Townsend.

Who is it for? The clinic is open for artists and arts organizations to discuss art, entertainment, business and intellectual property law issues. All issues discussed must be related to your artistic discipline. Some business issues (like reviewing contracts and whether it is appropriate to incorporate) are fair game. Patent law, employment law and tax law issues are not appropriate for the clinic.

When is it? Wednesday, March 25, 2009 – Port Townsend, Pope Marine Building,
100 Madison Street, Port Townsend, WA, 98368– 6:30-8:30 pm

For more information please visit the WLA website: http://www.theWLA.org/.

How much does it cost? We ask for a $20 dollar donation to the organization for your 30 minute appointment to be paid during the clinic. The donation is not tax deductible.

What can I expect from the consultations? Each consultation with an attorney lasts for thirty minutes. While you are welcome to provide materials in advance (such as contracts), please do not expect that the attorney has reviewed these materials.

How do I schedule an appointment? Who can I contact with questions about Washington Lawyers for the Arts? Appointments are required. Cal Kinnear, Administrative Director, is the main contact for the clinic. Cal works Monday through Thursday and can be reached at: 206-328-7053 or info@theWLA.org (mailing address is on the website www.theWLA.org).
Please look for our website for the clinic coming soon: www.SeattleArtLawClinic.

Washington Lawyers for the Arts (“WLA”) makes legal resources accessible to artists and arts organizations of all disciplines. WLA is Washington’s only non-profit, arts legal service organization. For more than 30 years, WLA has helped thousands of musicians, filmmakers, writers, painters, designers and many others. Artists call on WLA when they need specialized legal expertise, and when the services of an attorney are cost-prohibitive. WLA’s invaluable offerings include the Arts Legal Clinic, Brown Bag Seminars, Speakers Bureau and Legal Referral Service.

Local Attorneys participating in the clinic include Paul Richmond and John Wood. Paul Richmond has degrees from California Institute of the Arts and the American Film Institute. He has worked as a lawyer for many artists and has had art work shown at museums and festivals around the world, and taught art on a college level and is organizing this clinic. John Wood's practice focuses on business, contracts, real estate and probate; he's done work for many non-profit organizations."

This event has been endorsed by the Port Townsend Arts Commission.

LIVE VIDEO BROADCAST from The Sketchbook Project

2009-02-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

LIVE VIDEO BROADCAST from The Sketchbook Project in Atlanta, GA tonight!
Tonight marks the first exhibition on the Sketchbook Project tour. We will be broadcasting it live over the internet so that people who can't make it to the exhibition in person can have a chance to view the show and see how people interact with it. The show tonight also features the work of Emily Maxwell.

The show starts at 7:00pm EST and runs until 10:30pm. To view the broadcast, simply go to: http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject/broadcast.

Please note that because tonight's show is at our own gallery, this is unfortunately the only exhibition on the tour that we are able to broadcast. Also, the broadcast is limited to up to 50 viewers at a time, so if you aren't actively viewing it, please close the window to allow others a chance to!

In my sketchbook, Everyone We Know is Going to Cross That Bridge When They Come to It, a crowd slowly begins to gather, growing page by page, until they are confronted with a vast unknown. The bridge crosses through the unknown and is empty. On the other side one brave soul waits for the next to cross. Graphite, ink, color pencil, black pastel layered with printed vellum which is cut and stitched into the pages with embroidery thread.

Full dates for the Sketchbook Project Tour:
Art House Gallery - Atlanta, GA
February 27, 2009
7:00 - 10:00pm
309 Peters St
Atlanta, GA 30313

Museum of Contemporary Art DC - Washington, DC
March 3, 2009
7:00 - 10:00pm
1054 31st St NW #9
Washington, DC 20007

Chris' Jazz Cafe, Philadelphia, PA
March 4, 2009
5:00 - 7:00pm
1421 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Laconia Gallery - Boston, MA
March 6, 2009
5:30 - TBD
433 Harrison Ave
Boston, MA 2118

Antena Gallery - Chicago, IL
March 8, 2009
1:00pm - TBD
1765 S. Laflin
Chicago, IL 60608

Soulard Art Market - St. Louis, MO
March 11, 2009
6:30 - 10:00pm
2028 S. 12th Street
St. Louis, MO 63104

3rd Ward - Brooklyn, NY
March 13, 2009
7:00 - 10:00pm
195 Morgan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) - Atlanta, GA
April 2, 2009
285 Peachtree Center Ave
Atlanta, GA 30303
mid May - Mid June

Chicago Art Source Gallery - Chicago, IL
mid May - mid June
1871 N. Clybourn Ave
Chicago, IL 60614

HYBRID

2008-11-28T13:54:00.000-08:00

CoCA's 19th Annual Juried Exhibitionition:
HYBRID
This piece will be in the show:

Cityscape 21 (Casual Explorations of Space), acrylic, ink, glitter, 30 x30" | 2008

Artists' Reception | Thursday, December 11 5pm-10pm
featuring performances by
Iyeoka and Seattle's National Poetry Slam Team Champions

This year’s juror is Riko Nakasone.

Riko Nakasone has been the director and curator of the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia for over 8 years. The Bau-Xi Gallery represents a broad range of emerging and senior artists creating both representational and abstract work in diverse media.

Show Runs | Dec 8, 2008 - Jan 14, 2009

Center on Contemporary Art

CoCA Ballard:
Inside the Shilshole Bay Beach Club
6413 Seaview Ave NW Seattle, WA 98107
Free entry and parking

Treasure

2008-11-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

Treasure opens Saturday, December 6th --Immediately following Downtown Tree Lighting Ceremony!

Hand selected work by 15+ of AOT's favorite local talent. Ranging $5 - $500 be certain about what you are giving those special folks on your list. And, get exactly what you want with The AOT Wish List!

Join us at AOT for this not to be missed season of Treasures!
We'll be roasting chestnuts on an open fire . . . .

Artisans on Taylor

236 Taylor Street, Port Townsend, WA

Mini-Art Extravaganza!

2008-11-09T10:07:00.001-08:00

I have nine paintings, all 4 x 4", in Ghost Gallery's Mini Art Extravaganza III!

Celebrate GG's 2-year anniversary with mini work by 20+ local and national artists, plus "tiny" music, live dj's, drink specials and more!

Opens Friday, Dec. 5th at 8 pm.
SOLO BAR
200 Roy Street

SWEET 100 at Suite 100

2008-11-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Oil Slick 1, 2 & 3, acrylic, ink and glitter, each 8 x 8" | 2008

They are in:

Sweet 100

November 14th thru December 31st

Opening reception Friday November 14th, 6:00PM - 10:00PM

Suite 100 has 3 of my new paintings for Sweet 100, the gallery's 2nd Annual Holiday Exhibition, featuring 45 artists with over 100 pieces of work!

the canvas project

2008-10-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Memories and moments theme: "Tell a story in 5 frames"

Every day there are thousands of memories that we experience. Everything we do leads to another. Everything we do affects us as well as everyone you interact with and who they interact with. We are left with the inability to control these moments. No matter what you do, something will effect this wave of moments.

We want to see these moments captured in a painting or collage. We are going to send you five 3x3 inch canvases. What moment leads you to the next?

show opens December 12th, 2008
at Art House Gallery
309 Peters St Atlanta, Ga 30313
404-584-7967

I made this for the canvas project:

Drove All Night II
acrylic, ink and glitter
Five 3 x 3" canvases
2008

PUBLIC ART IN PORT TOWNSEND

2008-10-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

If you've got any claim to Port Townsend, be it past, present or future, please make your voice heard regarding public art in Port Townsend. There's potential for new Public Art in Port Townsend and this is the time to get in your say while the process is in its earliest stages.

Public Art impacts everybody.

Consider public spaces, how you use them, how they could serve you better; consider what you like and don't like about living in/visiting Port Townsend. I encourage you to let the City of Port Townsend know what is important to you about this town and how art could support that.

Please, help get the word out far and wide about this opportunity--pass this along to anyone who might have something to say!

Thank you so much for your time.

##########################################

Here's the PTAC blurb and link to the public blog where you may leave comments:

The Port Townsend Arts Commission is seeking public comment on the draft 2008/2009 Public Art Plan. We have created a monitored blog so that you might easily participate in the public discussion about the Plan. We will monitor and keep open the blog until November 15, 2008 at which time the Commission will review the public comments and make appropriate modifications to the Plan prior to submission to the City Council. Alternatively, hard copy comments, signed, dated and with contact information, can be submitted to the City Hall, care of the Port Townsend Arts Commission. The Public is welcome to comment on this draft Public Art Plan at the Commission’s November 3, 2008, 1:00 pm meeting.

http://porttownsendartscommission.blogspot.com/

##########################################

Video Interview, Part II

2008-10-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

http://jeane-artit.blogspot.com/2008/10/2nd-half-of-video-interview.html

Video Interview, Part I

2008-10-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

Jeane Myers dropped in while I was working in my studio and made a sweet video interview! Visit her blog to see Part I of our fun chat. Thanks, Jeane!

http://jeane-artit.blogspot.com/2008/10/video-interview.html

Filter Vol. II

2008-10-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Pre-Order Vol. II! Copies will be available late October/early November:
Tinkferfinch Books and Art

Filter is a hand-bound literary journal that features original poetry, prose, art and erasures. The book is sewn together by hand using various colors of waxed Irish Linen thread and an exposed spine binding with a modified button-hole binding technique. End papers are hand torn and come from various sources including Japanese Washi paper, pages from Apgar’s Plant Analysis Adapted to All Botanies (1892) (some of which include the notes, illustrations and actual flower pressings of a Mr. D.A. Powell made in the Spring of 1904), and color plates from Travelling With The Birds (1933). Books feature an accordion-fold erasure booklet made from hand torn Rives Heavyweight paper, each hand printed using 10 separate ink screens and slipped into hand made envelopes created from pages of old books about magic and maps featuring nations that no longer exist. All of the color artwork is tipped in by hand. There are two different cover designs (Aardvark & Aardwolf) by Amy Jean Porter (Jubilat, McSweeny’s). The covers are each screen printed by hand, using 3-4 screens and 7 colors.

List of Contibutors:

Mary Jo Bang, Jennifer Borges Foster, Matt Briggs, Rebecca Brown, Elizabeth Colen, John Cross, Rachel Davis, Dana Elkun, Emily Kendal Frey, Johana Fuhrman, Adriana Grant, Carol Guess, Matthea Harvey, Maggie Jackson, Ariana Kelly, Counsel Langley, Kate Lebo, Norman Lock, Erin Malone, Ben Mazer, Brian McGuigan, Tatyana Mishel ,Sierra Nelson, Nico Vassilakis, David Mitsuo Nixon, John Olson, Roberta Olson, John Osebold, Deborah Poe, Amy Jean Porter, Trisha Ready, Bob Redmond, Zach Savich, Amy Schrader, Claudia Smith, Kary Wayson, Deborah Woodard, Corrina Wycoff.

These two pieces from my recent Cloud Atlas series are in Filter Vol. II

AOT in October

2008-09-25T11:35:00.001-07:00

In October I'm presenting Cloud Atlas, a series of new paintings inspired by David Mitchell's novel of the same name. The book consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to the far future after a nuclear apocalypse. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or watched) by the main character in the next. Mitchell has said of the book: "All of the [leading] characters except one are reincarnations of the same soul ... identified by a birthmark. ... The "cloud" refers to the ever-changing manifestations of the "atlas", which is the fixed human nature."

And, heldover by popular demand, Harold Nelson's SlowART. Art is catching up with food in it's need to step back, slow down and be conscious. Robert Hughes puts it this way "We have had a gutful of fast art and fast food. What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time as a vase holds water; art that grows out of modes of perception and whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn't merely sensational, that doesn't get its message across in 10 seconds, that isn't falsely iconic, that hooks onto something deep-running in our natures. In a word, art that is the very opposite of mass media." Nelsons are is literally slow to creat, handmade, not digitized or mechanized. Its message is layered with complexity, both visual and emotional. Take your time.

Installation photo by Rachel Ganapoler

Sugar Maker I, from Cloud Atlas series

2008-09-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

acrylic, glitter on board
30 x 30"
2008

[SHOWN: full shot, followed by three details]

NELLIE YOU'RE MY HERO!

2008-09-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

FEATURED MUSIC INFLUENCED VISUAL ART FOR SEPTEMBER

Nellie the Elephant by MIKE FIELDS
Inspired by the Toy Dolls rendition!! WATCH THIS! I LOVE THIS SONG!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eti21PVHXrg

Seattle Time

2008-08-29T08:50:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Seattle where I met with the folks at Mithun to talk about a show I'm going to do there next May. I'll be presenting all new, site specific work. I do love architects! I've wanted to do something like this for some time now. Very excited.

While in town I had the pleasure to meet Laurie Kearney, the force behind Ghost Gallery. I left a bunch of paintings with her for an upcoming show at Stylus (see previous post).

I also delivered this painting to Flying House Productions for their upcoming fundraiser auction. Great art, good cause, fun fun.

In addition, Emerald spent a couple of hours being in an music video for a new "Awesome" song called What They Do.

And we went to the zoo for Dare's 2nd birthday.
[zoo photos by David Nixon]

And Emerald discovered that she has her first loose tooth.
[she's wearing a Britney Davis necklace]

STYLUS

2008-08-20T20:27:00.001-07:00

More new work

2008-08-01T20:26:00.001-07:00

acrylic, glitter on board
30 x 30"
2008

[SHOWN: full shot, followed by two details; the last detail shows this painting in late evening; bright sunlight slanting in through the window.]

New Work, Part II

2008-07-31T18:10:00.001-07:00

. . . just the tip of the ice berg mind you:

New Work, Part I

2008-07-31T18:04:00.000-07:00

Using digital images of my originals I am selecting details, repeating, flipping and cropping until I'm satisfied. Then I have them printed with lightfast inks on archival canvas which I can stretch and paint on. Haven't settled on how to present them, but they keep coming anyway.

FEATURED MUSIC INSPIRED ART FOR JULY

2008-07-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

FEATURED MUSIC INFLUENCED VISUAL ART FOR JULY 2008

Singer by COREY TATARCZUK
Portrait of singer Buick Audra, 8mm film still, 2007

UPCOMING ARTISTS:

JULY: COREY TATARCZUK
AUG: ARABELLA PROFFER-VENDETTA
SEPT: MIKE FIELDS
OCT: MATT HOOKER

STILL ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER: Your music inspired image with a link to your site featured for one month. DEADLINE IS ONGOING/SEND SUBMISSIONS TO contact AT counsellangley DOT com Up to 4 entries per artist please. JPEGs preferred, 72 dpi, 900 pixels maximum on largest dimension.Thanks!

CHECK OUT THE PAST: here

Recent Inspiration Board

2008-06-09T10:42:00.001-07:00

Image Fix: June 7th

2008-06-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

TURN IN YOUR COINS!

2008-06-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Radio Hour!!!!!

2008-06-08T10:30:00.001-07:00

LATEST CRUSH, BABY!

FEATURED MUSIC/ART FOR JUNE

2008-06-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Tracy Sings American Boyfriend by DAVID NIXON
who also happens to be a musician.

UPCOMING ARTISTS:

JULY: COREY TATARCZUK
AUG: ARABELLA PROFFER-VENDETTA
SEPT: MIKE FIELDS
OCT: MATT HOOKER

CALL TO ACTION ATTRACTION II

2008-05-28T09:45:00.001-07:00

Bridge 3, acrylic, ink glitter, 8 x 48"

Bridge 3 is up for auction to benefit The Boiler Room:

BENEFIT AUCTION - June 21, USO Hall, Fort Worden
Doors Open: 5:30 pm
Admission: 20 at the door
Advance Tickets: $15, now available at Quimper Sound
If you are 21 and under - admission is FREE

LIVE AND NOT-SO-SILENT AUCTION WITH JAZZ
We are proud to have Kees Kolff and Joey Pipia as our Auctioneers!
Live Music, Entertainment, Delicious Hors D’oeuvres
Special Performance by: NANDA

CHECK OUT WHAT BROUGHT THIS ON NOW:

An anonymous donor in our community has offered the Boiler Room a $25,000 MATCHING GRANT which would go towards our capital campaign fund if we can raise the same amount by the end of June. As you might know, the Boiler Room is in the process of paying off its building, so this is an amazing opportunity to make some serious progress! Our total debt of $325.000.00 is due as a balloon payment in 2016, but we hope to reduce it significantly much earlier, to cut monthly interest payments.

In an effort to raise money we have staged a series of three fundraising events with the help of Boyd Grafmyre, a legendary promoter who ran the Eagles Auditorium in Seattle during the late 60s and 70s, as well as organized The Seattle Pop Festival in 1969 (featuring Led Zeppelin and The Doors, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner and others) and has become a regular patron of the Boiler Room since last fall.

STILL TIME TO to donate an item, or to learn more, please call Catska Ench at 379-0528

Image Fix, I & II: From "two sides to every story"

2008-05-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the seat

2008-05-26T22:24:00.000-07:00

So the Chair Affair was last night, sounds like it went great. Last I heard they'd raised $8,300 and the donations are still coming in!
Chair photo by Katy Laveck and Nick Reid

I got a little tender about letting go of the kid rocking chair I'd painted and donated, but so be it, to the highest bidder it shall go. Then at the last minute a bunch of my family showed up, all pitched in for it and got the chair for my girls. So sweet! Thanks Ma and Uncle Wayne, Aunt Vickie, Cousins Valerie and Vanessa (up for a weekend visit).

That is Dare sitting in it, but Emerald made the quotable comment when she got to sit in it, "It's like sitting in magic! It is like I'm sitting in one of Mom's paintings and you're not even supposed to touch paintings!"

tiny + rage = love

2008-05-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

Another blog for Centrum:

tiny + rage = love

From Ten Tiny Dances, performed in Seattle, September 2007. Choreographed and performed by Amy O'Neal, Music by Zeke Keeble.

On a tiny stage in the round Amy O'Neal is my current favorite time-based kinetic sculpture. A stretch perhaps, but it won't be the last time you catch me showing disregard for the boundaries which are rumored to separate performing and visual art. As part of One Tiny Dance, this piece was originally performed in the lobby of Pacific Northwest Ballet during their Celebrate Seattle Festival. Amy says, "At that time it was untitled with a slightly more playful energy. There were a lot of kids around me dancing with me while I was performing--it was so great!" The piece took on a new vibe and gained a title at Ten Tiny Dances, "It became about owning my anger and channeling it positively, to move forward . . . . embracing my history as a woman and as a dancer."

Amy O'Neal, photo by Gabriel Bienczycki

From Locust website: Amy O'Neal is a performer, choreographer, teacher and the co-director (along with Zeke Keeble)of locust (music/dance/video company) based in Seattle. Amy teaches contemporary dance technique and funk regularly at Velocity Dance Center and has taught and/or conducted residencies at the University of Washington, University of Idaho, University of Oregon, Lane Community College (Eugene, OR), Northwest Vista College (San Antonio, TX), and Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle, WA). Her work has been commissioned by Spectrum Dance Theater, Moving Current in Tampa, FL, and Seattle Theatre Group's Dance This . . . where she collaborated with Sonia Dawkins and Savion Glover. As a performer, she worked with the Pat Graney Co. for 3 years, was a 6-year member of Scott/Powell Performance, was the lead singer of the Seattle band Marrow for 3 years, and performed in Mark Haim's acclaimed Goldberg Variations. Amy also frequently collaborates with musician/comedian, Reggie Watts. For locust, Amy has received funding from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, the international DanceWEB scholarship, the Mary Levine Fund, Artist Trust (Fellowship '05, GAP '04,'06), 4 Culture, the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation of the Arts, the National Performance Network, and the Creative Capital Foundation. Amy holds a BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts and will choreographed for Cornish Dance Theater in Spring 07. In 2007, she was also a guest lecturer at the University of Washington and will conducted a residency at Texas Women's University.

Locust is the dance/music/video performance brainchild of musician/composer Zeke Keeble and performer/choreographer Amy O'Neal. Since 2000, locust has created 5 evening-length works Leave me Inside (2001), Left-out (2002), DEFACE (2003), convenience (2005), and mockumentary (2006). They have toured to Jacob's Pillow (Becket, MA), The Myrna Loy (Helena, MT), PICA's TBA Festival (Portland, OR), and Joyce Soho (New York, NY). locust invites performers on a project to project basis and has worked with some of the most distinctive and talented performers in Seattle. locust has been described as the avante guard garage band of the Seattle dance scene.

Music + Art

2008-05-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

I am running an online exhibition of music influenced art on my website. One featured image which changes monthly. For May I've got "Nine Lives" by Troy Gua

hand-cut paper "floating" under glass, each portrait 10 x 10"�

UPCOMING ARTISTS:
JUNE: DAVID NIXON
JULY: COREY TATARCZUK
AUG: ARABELLA PROFFER-VENDETTA
SEPT: MIKE FIELDS

PAST:

APRIL: BOWIE 2 by ANDREA HEIMER

MARCH: GEISHA by JONATHAN FISCHER

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

SUBMIT YOUR WORK!

Your music inspired image with a link to your site featured for one month.
DEADLINE IS ONGOING/SEND SUBMISSIONS TO contact AT counsellangley DOT com
Up to 4 entries per artist please. JPEGs preferred, 72 dpi, 900 pixels maximum on largest dimension.Thanks!

Rhody 2008

2008-05-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Grand Parade highlight, Uncle Dekker, sweet drummer, on the quad.

Emerald making the precise face one makes when looking at a half eaten dead snake hanging from a tree branch. She's with great friend, Rayna. Rayna is John and Sarah Coffelt's daughter. They were here visiting for Rhody weekend. I've been friends with Sarah since we were babies.

There is a dead snake there. Way off to the left. Really.

Dare in her natural habitat.

Collaborating with Erin Sherry

2008-05-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

Fashion Designer, Erin Sherry and I have teamed up to create a line of clothing and housewares. Check out some of Erin's other projects at erinsherry.etsy.com.

We will be slowly unveiling our direction as things progress. For starters, one of our initial sketches is available for purchase. These are:

Limited Edition, printed with lightfast inks on archival canvas, 14 x 22"

READY TO HANG gallery wrap style

$48 each *contact me and offer a little more dough if you want some original painting added*

Blog for Centrum: Kim Kopp

2008-05-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

Now and then I write something for Centrum. Here's one from way back:

Port Townsend—Just Down the Road from Illinois: A Conversation with Kim Kopp

"'Everything is biographical', Lucian Freud says. What we make, why it is made, how we draw a dog, who it is we are drawn to, why we cannot forget. Everything is collage, even genetics. Here is a hidden presence of others in us, even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives at every border that we cross." – From Divisadero, novel by Michael Ondaatje

Counsel Langley: You state a “desire for simplicity,” yet you use a long list of materials. How does this reconcile? What sort of simplicity—mental, visual—are you seeking?
Kim Kopp: That’s a very good question. A number of years ago I was meeting with a group of artists in Port Townsend every week—we just discussed, talked, whatever. And, it occurred to me one day that simplicity is so incredibly complex. Something about the complex nature of simplicity made being simple one of the most difficult things for me because I come from a long line of pack rats. I love materials. I pull in from all kinds of places. Life is complex. Our daily existence is complex and requires a lot. And to simplify is a desire, it’s a goal, it’s the unattainable. So, I pursue it, I’m constantly unsuccessful, but oh well. It keeps me going it keeps me working.

CL: With the Calender Project you convey a sense of time and our relationship to it. Where does your need/desire to address and track time come from?
KK: Time has always been very interesting to me because I observe all the time—shadows coming and going, the sun moving across the sky, how the light changes over days. Particularly in 1995, here in Port Townsend, I’d been here a couple of years. I lived by the Chinese Gardens and every day I would go away and come back and I was struck with the water in the pond, the water in the strait, and the sky. And, then that is interspersed with the land in between the pond and the strait. Some days you get to see the islands, some day you don’t. So I did a study of that.
Just every morning I would go and stand there and look at it and look at it and look at it from one point of view. I’d notice the texture of the water, the color of the water. Then I would run to my studio and do a three inch by three inch painting of what I remembered of what I saw. I think that was the first real manifestation of time in the way I’ve come to do it now.

CL: I did a similar observation of early mornings in the months after my first child was born. Every morning I’d walk with her to the end of the same pier and I’d stand in the same spot and snap a shot with my camera. There was something comforting in collecting these, it makes visible the effect small changes in circumstance have on appearance. You find out that you could spend the rest of your life just studying that.
KK: Exactly. So much is in it, yet it is a very simple thing. It goes back to the complex nature of simplicity. It is not an easy thing to understand. I think Chinese philosophers spend entire lives trying to figure out the same thing. What I am trying to figure out is nothing new.

CL: Sure, it is a fundamental curiosity, feels like looking in a mirror, like you are going to learn something about your nature by understanding the nature of that scene over time.

KK: Right, let me show you what I did do [pulls out a leather bound volume of thick artist’s paper]. That pond, it really sticks with me. I did study it for a year, not every day, but once a week. I bought this very cool sketchbook from David Burroughs. The sketchbook was expensive, bound in a 16th century way, an absolutely lovely book with really good paper and it turned out that it had fifty-two leaves. So after having the book for, I don’t know, months, I finally counted the pages and I thought ‘Oh, it has fifty-two to leaves, it’s supposed to be a year long project!’
I didn’t invent the idea of time, but humans invented how we keep track of it. I just plugged in to what was already there. So, I did this same view once a week for a year inside this book. I started on the Fall equinox and went round the year that way. It comes out once in a while, Libby Palmer borrows it for her Marine Science Center workshops.

CL: You’ve designed books and done bookbinding. Does that influence the way you present your work?
KK: It does. I’ve always loved books and paper. Books in their nature create layers, create a sense of time. It can be experience in a linear way or flipped through at random, moving from back to front.

CL: Something we share is a relationship to boats. My dad is a shipwright—I grew up using his draftsman’s tools and being on the water. You studied at the boats and boatbuilding, can you speak to how that impacts your work?
KK: When I came to the Northwest it was to go to the Northwest School of Boat Building. The reason I did that, to back up a little, is that in 1992 I had just finished my Master’s degree at the University of Chicago. Part of the requirement, in addition to doing a thesis exhibition, you have to do a written thesis and you need to take at least three courses out in the general curriculum, away from the Art department. They can be anything, any professor who would let you into their class, whatever interest you have, go for it. Well, I went to the Anthropology department. I had some connections to a Native American culture on the west coast and that sparked an interest in how cultures around the globe relate to boats. I learned that parts of boats, especially in primitive cultures, are named for parts of the human body. My work, when I began art school was very figurative. I started making connections between primitive cultures, their boats and our bodies.
At the time I was making a nine-foot tall sculpture of a woman and in order to work on I had it lying down. So, I left, to get my coffee, and walked back in and saw a canoe. It was just like ‘Oh! I see where this is going.’ From that moment forward my work has moved into abstraction.
CL: And you haven’t turned back.
KK: No, but I have wavered, because I have a love of the figure. I studied the figure with some really great people and there is just nothing that is so wonderful as well done figure. I still have a love of that. What tipped the scale for me was the intellectual connection—this whole idea of boat/body metaphor—I could trot around the globe and find references to this. So, I did through the Anthropology department.
So, I get all done with graduate school and, you know, it’s that big swan dive into the abyss—what do you do after you life has changed in this really dramatic way? You no longer fit in the mold you were in. I saw a little ad in the back of a magazine for the boat school. I was at home and I was idle that day and thought ‘Well, I’m just going to call them as ask about this,’ they said, ‘Gee, pop in if you’re in the neighborhood.’ I got off the phone and looked at a map and here’s the boat school in Port Townsend, Seattle closest big city and I’m looking at Interstate 90 which I could’ve thrown a rock from my house and hit. I thought ‘Well, it is just down the road,’ and I needed a road trip. I threw my dog in the car and had a cousin of mine meet me in Port Townsend for the Wooden Boat Festival.
I went the boat school and was given a tour by Dan Packard, he’s not teaching there now, but he was teaching there then while on sabbatical from his position as Chair of the Sculpture department at the University of South Dakota. He and I went off for two hours talking about boats and figure and the relationship and art. Boats are beautiful, my god, in the water they’re something, out of the water there’s so much potential, there’s so much going on with a boat. I got bit at that moment. Living outside of Chicago, flatlands of the world, in a big urban area, wondering how could I work on my work and live, support myself, all that. I decided to go to boat school. It seemed perfectly logical
I went with the intention not of working on boats. I wanted to enhance my sculpture skills, my wood working skills and knowledge and really make a transformation in my work. That brought me to boats, which again influences my imagery.

CL: How has your education served you?
KK: Oh, I wrestle with that all the time. There’s no going back again. Once you have grown out of a form or a mold or a shape, as elastic as we like to think we are, there really isn’t any going back—you can’t unknow what you know. For me education was the way I could put value on being an artist. Growing up in a large urban area where in a town of 50,000 I didn’t know any other artists. My first adventure into college right out of high school was a real reality check. I went to a huge university. I felt like a number. In the Art department one of the teachers was telling us about how he was turning forty that year, you know I was 19, and he was just starting to get his work out in the world. And, so he had a job as a professor in order to do that. I realized very quickly that I have a practical side. That I’m going to have to work, how am I going to eat until I’m forty? And then of course what I’ve learned since that being out in the world as an artist is not a guarantee of a living.
I think for me going to school, when I went back, I quit school after that year—got a lovely waitress job, eventually wandered back into school through interior architecture. Which impacts my work also. I love drafting tools, like you. Went into the Art Institute of Chicago through that door and then I took a painting class to enhance my rendering skills. They lost me.
So that was kind of a convoluted path, but for me going to school became a way to do artwork, to find myself in that world. If I had been left outside of that I don’t know that I would have pursued being an artist.
It also helped me to me to communicate about my work. I’m a not a writer, I struggle with that. It gave me a sense of being in a community where I could talk about my ideas. It was good soil to use a gardening analogy. It was good soil for me to grow in.
CL: What would you say to someone considering an arts education?
KK: Well, I’d have to give that a lot of thought. Or, maybe none at all. I think of the professor that said “Gee, I’m just turning forty and am just starting to get recognized for my work.” I was ripe at that moment to hear that. I regret at times, if I have regrets, having quit after that year. I think it might have been good had I stayed, found a way to stay or I had not been so shy as to go up to someone and say ‘ya know I’m a little scared. I don’t know how to move it this world.’ And found someone who’d mentor me. So maybe that’s what I’d say. Look inside yourself and see what it is you need and want from it and know they are not necessarily the same thing.
I think it might be to look inside and find out what you need. Then look back inside and find out what you want. Then go to the right place and speak up. Leave you ego a little bit outside—being an artist humbling and school is very safe ground. But, even in school it is humbling. You are in competition with you teachers. You are unzipping yourself. Always try to speak truth. And if you don’t know say so, someone will help.
I needed a mentor. I needed someone who could just every once in a while tap me on the shoulder and said, “Keep goin’, keep goin’.” And I did find that later. I actually didn’t voluntarily go back into the arts. I had someone who saw it me and tricked me into it. I am grateful to that person!
I think that the thing with art is that you don’t need the degrees and you can patchwork together the experience, but you have to be really self-motivated in order to do that. I know a lot of self-taught artists that are just fabulous that have hard attitudes about people who’ve had education. But once again it comes down to the individual. I needed because I worked full-time and it was a way for me to find the time.

CL: So I’d love to know, you’ve got Pathways and Echoes running at Fetherston Gallery in Seattle right now, what’s up next for you?
KK: Next! Gosh. I have been invited by Barbara Shaiman to be part of the SAM Gallery. I’m going to be a part of their summer introduction. So that’s my next thing. It is going to be paintings. She loves the calender project but in her context it doesn’t work. So she has been waiting to see what I do working bigger. In graduate school and shortly after I was working six by eight feet, so bigger is not a problem. But like a fish I grow to the size of the tank—calendar project I had an attic studio, that’s how that started. Now I have space, I’ll work bigger. I’m really excited!
CL: Congratulations!
KK: Beyond that that’s where my little art administrator needs to get her butt in gear to find the next thing. I’d like to get representation outside of this region. I have to start looking for that. That is the hardest part of being an artist for me, getting my art out into the world. Fetherston is being helpful with that. They have some ideas, but it is a hard time for art.
CL: Why do you think so?
KK: Economics. I think it is a great time for art making, very rich for the making, but being in the world in any sort of economic way it is rough. I think that is something that is not taught well in school, that it is a business. There is little in the way of support. Artist Trust! Put a plug in for them! Fabulous organization. There’s another great reason for being in Washington State.
CL: What about themes, what will we be seeing coming up in your imagery?
KK: I’m not really sure. I’ve been thinking about holding, the word holding and I have been considering moving into oils again. I took a diversion, when I had a Centrum residency, into printmaking. This influenced the work that is at Fetherston. And, I moved away from oils, in part because the studio was in my house and there were toxic issues. Now I am working in my mind with oils and collecting. In addition, to the word holding I have been dealing a lot with the idea of ‘falling.’ So oils, holding and falling.

KIM KOPP'S STUDIO:

[PICTURED, from top:
starcircle, graphite, dry pigments, wax on japanese papers over panel, 10 x 10"
the calendar project: march (from year 2005), graphite, dry pigment, acrylic, ink, found objects, correction tape, wax on japanese papers over 31 panels, 55 x 55"
march view from 52 week pond observation, photo by Counsel Langley
window to night sky, graphite, dry pigment, acrylic, ink and was on japanese papers over panel, 25 x 25"
five views of Kim Kopp's studio, Port Townsend, WA, photos by Counsel Langley]

Print Design

2008-05-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I can be enticed into doing some design--if it is a fun project my ability to say no abandons me. Here, in no particular order, are some examples of jobs I particularly enjoyed. Contact me if you have a proposal for me or want to see more.

IMAGES:
1. S.O.S., Punk rock band
2. Playground, recent art show at Northwind Arts Center
3. My recent show at AOT
4. Heartbreaker, a juried group exhibition that I conceived of and co-curated with Teresa Verraes
5. Armed in Eden, Lisa Johnson and Jeane Myers at AOT
6. Massive Attack of Love, Mike Biskup at AOT
7. Internal Guidance Systems, Visionary Art Tour at AOT
8. Moving Earth, Logo for excavator, photo of this baby plastered onto dumptrucks coming soon!

books

2008-05-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

I love books. Now I am making them. First one commemorates the one-year anniversary of Emerald's awesome artistic debut. This is no mere scrapbook! It a professionally designed artist's catalog, 34 pages in-length with 64 full-color images.

Take a sneak peek and place your order if you're so inclined . . . .
Profits from her book will go to purchase art supplies.

Emerald Honor ...

FIRST ART SHOW!

By Mama

Book Preview

In the works is a book about Bridges & Weather featuring my paintings and an epic work documenting the past three years of the "hottest little gallery on the Olympic Peninsula," AOT.

I MAKE KILLER APPLE PIE.

2008-05-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

Passing priceless knowledge on to the next generation.

Bridge #17

2008-05-26T09:13:00.001-07:00

This child’s rocking chair is the seventeenth painting in a continuing series of bridges. All of my bridges address our impudent will to conquer natural barriers, act as a metaphor of the ambivalent, suspended state of mind and revel in the level of trust required to cross bridges one didn't build. This one in particular is also influenced by the joy and mystery of childhood.

I painted this little kid's rocking chair for the Chair Affair--an auction of chairs created/altered by artists. The money raised goes to childrens' art education.

It was a blast. I'm going to do more. Lemme know if you want a custom piece!

RANDOMLY GENERATED INTERVIEW

2007-11-25T14:53:00.000-08:00

Q: If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A: My name's Counsel Langley. I'll keep it.

Q: In what hour of the day do you function best?
A: The Eleventh. a.m., p.m. and the proverbial...

Q: What inspires your color choices?
A: Unnatural lighting, urban sunsets, asphalt and concrete grey juxtaposed with neon signs and garish advertisement, safety indicators, warnings, decay, shining steel and reflective windows, rock-n-roll, glaciers, liz taylor eyes, that bathing suit i had when i was 12, bardot hair, 70s auto interiors, james bond movies, inclement weather, japanese anime and japanese folk tale illustrations, our digital world of little blinking lights, pinball, roller rinks, casinos, outdoor stadium events at night . . . I enjoy and deliver beauty, but not easy beauty. My colors reflect this--I seek combinations that are unexpected, yet hold some sort of meaning to me. Through these imposed meanings I've developed a code with which I can tell a story. My colors choices reflect moods, atmosphere, and my own personal little rules about what a color "feels" like. Some are"on" others are "off," this one is "full" that one is "void," hot and cold, dirty and pristine, bossy and submissive, floating and dense . . .

Q: What is your favorite aroma?
A: Vanilla.

Q: If you could have lunch with any artist, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
A: Leonardo DaVinci. Hands down. I mean he is the man isn't he? He did it all and did it well. I love people who have many interests and skills--specialization is for insects; passionate curiosity is magnificent. No one epitomizes this type of life like DaVinci. My only concern is that he'd be one of those "We should get together sometime!" -but-always-just-too-much-on-his-plate-to-ever-pin-him-down-for-a-date-people. So, since Leonardo can't commit I'd go with Albrecht Durer. He is sheer brilliant talent in a meticulous way that appeals to me. Also, he's, like I am, a painter whose early training was in metalsmithing. Plus, I have this idea that he'd be real chatty.

Q: When you went to school you did mainly metalsmithing. How did you end up painting?
A: I was drawn to metalsmithing, and repelled from the painting department, because of the seriousness of the metals students. You can't bs your way through a metalsmithing curriculum. Also, I was attracted to the wealth of tools available to students of metals. Aspects of working with metal that I embraced include the attention to small-scale detail, the rigor required in terms of proper use of tools and respect for your medium, the rich finish of surfaces. However, as graduation approached I began to find that patterns and plans I was drawing for objects I would later build were more intriguing, more beautiful and mysterious to me than the completed 3d object. So, I began to paint the 2D plans and haven't looked back. The work I am doing now evolved directly from this.

Q: Do you have any plans/ideas about expressing your style through other mediums?
A: I'm so glad you asked! Yes! I am very excited about three things: 1) Going back to my metals/3D roots I want to begin creating relief works using various rigid materials, such as sheet and wire metal and foam core. The basic visual language will be the same as that I have been developing in paint, but the effect will be more sculptural. 2) One of my best friends, brilliant fashion designer Erin Sherry, and I have begun a collaboration. We are developing one-of-a-kind clothing and housewares based on my visual imagery and her clothing designs. The items we are creating include, but are not limited to dresses, pants, skirts, shirts, bags, bedding and throw pillows.

3) Electricity! Light and movement! I plan to create paintings using my existing visual language, but in place of painted dots there will be actual switches and knobs. These will be linked to lights and motors. The circuitry will be both functional and arranged so that it will be visual pleasing in the same way that I arrange paint.

Q: What word in the English Language do you wish you had invented?
A: Serendipity.

Q: Do you generally plan out your works ahead of time or do you let them evolve organically as you work?
A: A little of both. Generally I'll have a mood, color pallette and subject matter in mind at the outset of a painting. Along the way I allow the unexpected to occur and make adjustments in reaction. Sometimes this can dramatically alter my intended course, other times the finished work is quite close to my original conception. You know, when you decide to climb a mountain the eventual goal is the top. You plan ahead, choosing the day, reacting to the weather, planning your ascent via a particular trail. However, it would be insane to plan each individual step of your foot, intake of breath, gaze at tree or beast. If you were not flexible and open to react to the unforeseen and make adjustments based on new information you would not only make for a dangerous hiker you'd also miss out on the major reason for embarking on the climb at all. When all is said and done you, like me and my paintings, might still make it to your intended goal of the summit despite all the meandering and unplanned details navigated along the way. Or you might be rained out, or come across a something so wonderful that the original plan no longer holds sway.

Q: What is your favorite flower?
A: The one which is given unexpectedly.

Q: What or who inspires you to be your best self in any situation?
A: I believe that there is always room for improvement and that it is honorable to be doing your best to be your best self, so the answer used to be myself, but now that I am a parent my kids motivate me far more than I was able to on my own.

Q: What affect has having children had on your art?
A: Having children was the final straw that moved me from cool chick talking art in the bar to someone who makes art every single day. They taught me the meaning of discipline and the value of five minutes. I have my family to thank for the progress I've made in the past few years.

Q: What do you miss about your childhood?
A: Magic.

Q: Are you ever influenced in your work by mythology or legend?
A: Hm. Yeah, i think I am, but it is buried pretty deep down. There's a part of me that wants to say 'we are all influenced by our myths and legends and this comes across in what we produce,' but to avoid a cop out I'll try to answer in terms of my work specifically. Looking at my general approach to making paintings I think my sense of story telling via metaphor and codes is a mode of communication absorbed from reading myths and folktales. I feel the desire to make my own. I have begun a series I'm calling Captivity/Captivate. This series is more openly inspired by myth. It is about mythical creatures and how they represent pieces of our psyches; our urge to examine and define The Other; why it both fascinates and frightens; how we cage and are caged by that which we deem to be oddities.

Q: What's the biggest mental hangup you've had to overcome as an artist?
A: That I need to live in a big city and have a cool hair cut to get my art seen.

Q: What do you listen to when you work?
A: MUSIC. I CAN NOT OVERSTATE THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC TO MY WORK, HELL TO THE CONTINUED PUMPING OF MY HEART. I am indebted to musicians. I consider the immediate emotional response that music produces to be among the essential tools that I employ to do what I do. Music aids my memory, my ability to focus, reminds of what I love best about being alive, and creates a direct route to my sense of self worth.

Q: What is the main fault in your character?
A: I take stuff too personally. (Sadly, this, in my view, breaks down into a whopping THREE faults: egocentricity, paranoia, and a tendency to get bummed out for no real reason.)

Q: When was it that you first realized that art was taking a hold of you in a way that you could no longer ignore?
A: Honestly that realization came somewhat recently, sometime in the past few years, long after art had already taken hold. Probably came during some quiet moment while the coffee was brewing, the weather was calm, and my mood was serene. The realization would have just floated up into view and poof there was awareness where a moment before there was none. I was already a ways down the road and chose not to turn back. I'm certain it was a supremely satisfying realization.

Q: What is the first quote that comes to your mind?
A: "Success is loving what you do." So says my coffee mug.

Q: Where and what do you see yourself doing 10 years from now?
A: Further along the same road. Painting and parenting . . . my kids will be older and my paintings will be better.

Q: Finish this sentence with one word: "Happiness is ......
A: Self-actualization.

Q: Are you happy?
A: Very.

###

How this came about:

I wanted to try a new approach to the bio/artist statement. So, I asked friends and family for a question with the plan of answering with spontaneity and then putting it altogether in interview format. The volume responses made this very fun and challenging! Thanks to everyone who participated in my Randomly Generated Interview. Although, in order to avoid repetition and preserve a certain tone, I did not end up using all of them I appreciate all of your questions.

SWEET 100

2007-11-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

November and December, Suite 100 Gallery exhibits 100 works of art by 36 artists (including me), perfect for the gift-giving season. This eclectic salon-style show has something for everyone, from oils and acrylics to gouache and ink, from photography to screen prints. SWEET 100 draws from the best in a variety of mediums.

Additionally, 10% of Suite 100 Gallery's proceeds will be donated to the Child's Play Charity.

Best of Show

2007-10-18T13:51:00.000-07:00

Rock-n-roll!

Cityscape #14 (Resources) was awarded Best of Show at Northwind Arts Center's Annual Northwest juried art exhibition.

Thank you to juror Lisa Van Doren and all the fine folks at NAC.

REVIEW

URBANITY: Opening night

2007-10-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone at Suite 100 Gallery for a fantastic opening night!
OCTOBER 12th 2007

DJ Noisemaker, BEATCON

URBANITY

2007-10-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

PARTAKE IN My Urban Obsession

"Suite 100 Gallery is proud to announce a show dedicated to Counsel Langley's urban obsession.

'Urbanity' features works inspired by memories of urban spaces and the effects they have had on the artist. In this show, Counsel Langley experiments with new perspectives -- from a airplane, amid skyscrapers, particular districts, exposure of a vast underground upon which the city is built, along with others. Regardless of the perspective, there is always an element of these contrived environments interacting with the natural world, whether in antagonistic tension or pristine balance.

Counsel Langley also presents a suite of bridges, illustrating a fascination of the impudent will to conquer natural barriers; the metaphor of the ambivalent, suspended state of mind; and the level of trust required to cross bridges one didn't build.

Together, this body of work illustrates the complexity, intricacy and magnitude of urban life."

GOING GOING GONE

2007-09-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

"JUST ART"
The 4th Annual Art Auction & Cocktail Party
To support the Seattle Men's Chorus & Seattle Women's Chorus

Jonas Jensen Fremont Studios
155 North 35th Street, Seattle, WA 98103
Friday, September 28, 2007, 6 to 10 pm

Fun night, great art, good cause! This piece is up for grabs:

Cityscape #19: Floating
2007 · acrylic, ink, glitter · 12 x 12

ART PORT TOWNSEND 2007

2007-09-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Cityscape #14 (Resources) has been selected to be included in ART PORT TOWNSEND - EXPRESSIONS NORTHWEST, the Northwind Arts Alliance and Port Townsend Arts Commission's 9th Annual Juried Art Exhibition.

Show runs October 13-28.

Juror, Lisa Van Doren, who is a freelance arts consultant in Bellingham, WA and served as Curator of Art at the Whatcom Museum of History & Art, from 2002-2005, selected 80 pieces from 514 works of art submitted from Washington, Alaska, Oregon, British Columbia, Idaho, and Montana. Further info at www.northwindarts.org OR artporttownsend.org.

URBANITY at Suite100Gallery

2007-08-16T08:59:00.000-07:00

Urbanity
October 12th thru November 2nd
Featuring TONS OF NEW WORK!!!

[we have pretty picture now....see above]

Suite100gallery ROCKS and is located in Downtown Seattle
2222 2nd Ave Suite 100
Seattle, WA 98121
206.956.3900

My Kid's an Artist Too

2007-06-28T21:40:00.002-07:00

"Emerald's Process"
video by Jeane Myers
music by Emerald

"I'm not finished...JUST GETTING STARTED!!"

LIFEDOTDOTDOT

2007-04-27T15:07:00.000-07:00

MAY & JUNE
OPENING RECEPTION
SATURDAY, MAY 5TH, FROM 5 TO 8PM

Life Dot Dot Dot. As in Life etc. As in life and all the rest of it. That and there will truly be a veritable smorgasbord of dots to feast your eyes upon when Artisans on Taylor brings together Tom DeGroot, Zach Hixson, Counsel Langley, and Eric Olson, four abstract painters whose work captures and encodes nothing less than the stuff of life.

LIFEDOTDOTDOT is an opportunity to see work by three artists,
Tom, Eric and I, whose work is included in
Visual Codec's One Shot (see previous post)!

AOT is located in downtown Port Townsend at 236 Taylor Street.

p.s. I designed the announcement . . .
if you want one email me with your mailing address.

Visual Codec's ONE SHOT

2007-04-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Hot off the presses! I've got my copy.
THIS BOOK RULZ!

One Shot features work by 100 regional artists selected in a blind jury process. Includes many Northwest heavyweights--I am honored to be in such good company!

"One Shot is a thing a of beauty -- an elegant 5 1/2" square volume of images with a silver pistol printed discreetly on its embossed black cover. The reproduction quality is of the first order and the represented artists include many favorites and a few surprises. Years from now, I suspect, historians seeking a document that reveals the essense of our present moment will lean heavily on this textless tome. It will go on my shelf beside Charles Cowles's Northwest Traditions and Bruce Guenther's 50 Northwest Artists, but will compare favorably with them in terms of style and intent."

Jim Demetre
Artdish Editor

Cityscape 14 (Resources)
acrylic, ink, glitter
36 x 36"
2006

Visual Codec’s One Shot–-a locally published book featuring work by 100 regional artists working in the visual arts. Visual Codec, published a monthly online magazine from February 2006 to February 2007. Its core focus was in-depth coverage of the vibrant regional contemporary visual arts scene showcased by three pivotal Pacific Coast cities: Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Online archives of the magazine can be found at: www.visualcodec.com.

In conjunction with the magazine, Visual Codec spearheaded One Shot, a book project intended to showcase both emerging and established regional visual arts talent drawn from Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.

One Shot features work by 100 regional artists selected in a blind jury process. Each artist/team was allowed to submit only one work of art, and, while up for review by the jury, each entry was presented with only the medium it was created in, the title of the work, and the general knowledge that it was created somewhere in the region. No artist names, gallery affiliations, cities, resumes, or artistic statements were presented to the jury.

One Shot Book Specifications
- Custom cover foil-pressed on cardstock
- Internal pages laser CMYK on 28lb Bright White
- Dimensions approx. 5.5"w x 5.5"h x .5"d
- Locally conceived, designed, compiled, printed and bound

One Shot Online Availability

The One Shot book is now available, to Washington, Oregon and Vancouver BC residents, direct from Visual Codec to OR, WA, and BC residents via PayPal. Books run below cost at $20USD plus any applicable tax and shipping/handling. No PayPal account is needed to purchase via PayPal. Please allow 1-2 weeks for shipping. All sales are final; no returns or refunds.

BUY NOW

Online sales everywhere else (nat'l and int'l) will be handled by www.powells.com (coming soon)!!

One Shot In-Store Availability

In conjunction with the release events we are also working hard to make the book available via select retailers in PortlandOR, SeattleWA, and VancouverBC.

Powell's City of Books has confirmed status as our Portland retailer, Wall of Sound will be handling Seattle in-store sales, and we are still working on confirmation with our Vancouver retailer.

Updates available as retailer stock becomes available...

NEW WORK

2007-04-25T10:48:00.000-07:00

Cityscape 17 (Start Over)

Acrylic, ink, glitter | 36 x 36" | 2007

More new work in the PORTFOLIO

Featured on JUXTAPOZ.com!

2007-04-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

First week of April two pieces featured on JUXTAPOZ.com

Cityscape 12 (Bright Night)
Archival inkjet print
2006

Cityscape 15 (Leaving Town)
acrylic, ink, glitter
12 x 12"
2007

Go see: JUXTAPOZ.com

Trade with Matt Hooker

2007-02-22T12:32:00.000-08:00

Cityscape #15 (Leaving Town)
Acrylic, ink, glitter
12 x 12"
2007

i'll give this to Matt Hooker when he makes me a triptych based on this list:

rock-n-roll
glacier
unicorn
clipper ship
swords
red
sparkler
gin
city
tiger
cranes
map
flourescent
eyes
big hair
sugar
control panel
poker

CD design almost done...

2007-02-22T12:11:00.000-08:00

MAZEWAYS: Original music composed by Larry Thomas

Last year Larry and I collaborated to good effect for Interactions: Art & Art, an annual event--part of Art Port Townsend--performers select visual art pieces that resonate what they do. Larry chose my work. We put together 4 presentations. Went over so well that he was inspired to press a cd and let me design the packaging. The cd will be available for purchase at AOT in Port Townsend during my show May and June 2007.

ONE SHOT flipbook

2007-02-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

ONE SHOT flipbook
Visual Codec
Available in May 2007

HEARTBREAKER is history

2007-02-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

Thank you to ALL the HEARTBREAKER fans and artists. My curatorial debut was a blast and huge success thanks to you! Thanks also to Teresa Verraes-Landis and her beautiful space at AOT. Farewell HEARTBREAKER!

HEARTBREAKER press release:

Ever lost in love?! Betrayal, jealousy, unrequited, love/lust, unattainable, unapproachable, unresponsive objects of love/lust, tainted, tortured, led-on, let down . . . . it’s a HEARTBREAKER.

HEARTBREAKER is Artisans on Taylor’s inaugural group exhibition. Conceived of by painter Counsel Langley and co-curated by Langley and gallery owner Teresa Verraes-Landis, HEARTBREAKER brings together paintings, prints, photography, jewelry, and sculpture by more than twenty-five artists from across the region, up and down the West and East Coasts and points in between.

Read on for a taste of what’s on the menu this January through February 15th:

“The pleasure of putting together a themed group show is asking the question. In this case the question was ‘Dear Artist, What is Heartbreak?’ It is interesting not because you know what you’re going to get, but because you don’t know how they will answer, how they will interpret the theme,” says Langley. “The diversity of response to the HEARTBREAKER call for artists goes far to prove that the human heart aches in many ways.”

There is the deep ache of childhood lost as reflected in an intimate ink and watercolor by Mike Biskup. “My Two older brothers moved out & away when I was about 17. I lost my nice country home in Fresno to smoggy air & suburban sprawl. My dog, Misty, got hit by a car. My brother permanently “loaned” my skateboard to one of his stupid friends. I lost religion. I lost my dream of being a bird flying. I lost the moon & stars.”

Heartbreak is also to be found in the claustrophobia of roles assigned by society. One of a handful of HEARTBREAKER jewelry pieces, Ring of Heartbreak by Brooklyn-based filmmaker and activist Corey Tatarczuk, depicts a woman trapped in the heartbreaking world of the Victorian daguerreotype. “She is sewn into her elaborate, uncomfortable clothing, doing needlepoint—thankless work. The film is mounted on mother of pearl, allowing light through. Mother of pearl also alludes to some of the classic materials of ‘women's work’ and attire.”

Several HEARTBREAKER artworks are intensely personal. These daringly place taboo private moments into the public sphere. One example is Amanda Marshall-Kapp’s unembellished self-portraits, photographs taken the morning that she “ingested an overdose of prescription drugs shortly after [her] son and his father left the house . . . .” Another is The Read Letter, an acrylic painting by David Nixon, Philosophy Doctorate cum Rock Star member of up-and-coming Seattle band “Awesome.” Nixon depicts himself sobbing as he reads a letter, a moment of emotional breakdown that is normally kept safely private.

Other works are more documentarian, but no less poignant. Photographer David Conklin presents sensitive images from his hospice project in which he has captured the moments at the end of a person’s life. “This [project] is through the local hospital. I am taking portraits of people in their last stages of life. I am trying to show people in an environment that is meaningful to them, in a positive light.”

Some HEARTBREAKER works, the photography of Bainbridge Island’s Harry Longstreet for example, verge on voyeurism. “I almost always shoot with available light and avoid staging or posing a shot.” Longstreet’s two HEARTBREAKER images are of couples he does not know in public places who, despite being in an embrace, are clearly and sadly no longer on the same page.

Heartbreak on a political level is acknowledged by painter Jason Gould. His peice, G.W. Love, is his “attempt to bring more love and compassion to [George W. Bush], to try and break his heart. Every time your heart breaks, it breaks open, allowing the love within to flow.”

Myth is rife with heartbreak, and is manifested here by Edmonds ceramist Pamela Mummy with her sculpture entitled Daphne “after the Greek goddess who was pursued by Apollo. He was frantically in lust with Daphne, due to an unfortunate arrow from Eros, but she would have nothing to do with him. To help her escape Apollo, her father turned her into a laurel so she would be protected from his embrace—a classic heartbreak.”

Of course, HEARTBREAKER would not be complete without the knuckle biting heartache of the pin-up. The I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendar fills this role by delivering twelve decades of heartbreaking beauty—at your fingertips, yet always beyond your grasp.

Finally, Brooklyn painter Jorden Haley goes straight to the human organ that has been deemed the seat of emotion. With In This Together he simply says that to be human, to have a beating heart, is to experience heartache.

Heartbreak is not comfortable and is mostly avoided by polite society. All of the HEARTBREAKER artists have shown a deep compassion for human nature with all its vulnerability. They have, as well, shown bravery in their enthusiastic willingness to work it out and show it off

HEARTBREAKER artist list:

Buick Audra New York NY
Mike Biskup Port Townsend WA
Stacey Bott Bellevue WA
Jane Champion Port Townsend WA
Rena Coen Boston MA
David Conklin Port Townsend WA
Dan Daniels Portland OR
Michael DeMeng Missoula MT
Nicole DePonte Revere MA
Lauretta Frost Port Townsend WA
Jason Gould Port Townsend WA
Jorden Haley New York NY
Zachary Hixson Salt Lake City UT
Newel Hunter Port Townsend WA
iheartbrooklyngirls New York NY
Andrea Lawson Port Hadlock WA
Harry Longstreet Bainbridge Island WA
Deedra Ludwig Port Townsend WA
Amanda Marshall-Kapp San Fran CA
Pamela Mummy Edmonds WA
David Nixon Seattle WA
Orpheus Chocolates Lopez Island WA
Jackie Pallister Port Townsend WA
Ken Parker Ireland
Sharon Pollard Bothell WA
Jonathan Safir Port Townsend WA
Joshua Sage Port Townsend WA
Erin Sherry San Diego CA
Corey Tatarczuk New York NY
AND MORE . . . .

Cityscape #12 (Resources)

2007-02-15T16:21:00.000-08:00

Cityscape #12 (Resources)
Acrylic, ink, glitter on board
36 x 36"

This is the sort of thing I'm working on lately.