We have a packed newsletter this month, but let's start with our new show of ceramic sculpture by Sara Swink. Sara Swink makes ceramic human and animal figures from a psychological stance. Introspective, ambiguous, sometimes awkward, they often have a humorous edge. This show takes its title from a single work called "Which Way to Reality".
Her ideas derive most often from a process methodology, which employs simple and unencumbered techniques like collage and doodling to unleash the unconscious. This leads to sketches and from there to forming the works using a gritty sculpture clay. She finishes the with oxides, underglazes and glazes, fired to cone 5. She discusses her work in a catalogue which accompanies the show, and in the video below.
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Our other new show is in our printmaking area and features new soft ground etchings by Jani Hoberg. Jani is a Northwest printmaker best known for botanical compositions in soft earthy tones. In more recent years she has been introducing the figure into these natural environments, and most recently has been inspired by the tropical beauty of Hawaii.
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Maggie Taylor's show and book launch "Internal Logic" continues through June 5. If you haven't had time to visit yet we have provided a video tour below. We also have a number of signed copies of the book in the gallery and available on the website.
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In our collections area we are introducing two new artists, Jeanie Tomanek and Stephen O'Donnell. We have received a collection of six new works by Jeanie, and four works by Stephen. Stephen let us choose from he currently available works and we selected two recent works in which he reinterprets famous painting and two yearly works which we just fell in love with.
Stephen often employs self portrait in his work, playing with gender as a thematic device in the work. He says, "I’ve often been referred to as the “man in a dress” artist. I’m often questioned about the political or psychological “choices” that I make in presenting myself in this way, but I never have a simple explanation, because my work almost always develops at a subconscious level. I feel that all the fascinating and beautiful imagery I’ve internalized along the way - my whole life - are constantly being sorted and arranged in my brain, filtering through my beliefs, my experience, to coalesce and “appear” in my head as fully worked-out designs for new paintings."
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Jeanie Tomanek is a self-taught artist and published poet. In her paintings she draws upon themes that are developed through her poetry. She explores various feminine archetypes from myths, folktales, fairy tales and her own experiences. Much of the imagery has a female protagonist, whom she refers to as “Everywoman,” journeying through a natural environment. This natural world is distilled from her memories of growing up on a farm in the Genessee Valley region of New York, and from walking her two rescue dogs in Marietta, Georgia, where she now lives. Trees, flowers, birds and snow serve as symbols for emotional states or story elements.
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