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Warriors Waiting

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"Warriors Waiting", Monotype Print with gold Leaf mounted to panel. “Whatever you are physically...male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy--all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.” ― Cassandra Clare , Clockwork Angel I am currently reading and enjoying Clockwork Angel , Cassandre Clare's book one of "The Infernal Devices".  I think I enjoy it because her Nephalem and Demon characters are heroes with weaknesses and shortcomings.  They are flawed and therefore real in their struggle to overcome plot circumstance (life).  There is an edge of realism in the struggle with oneself that is missing when a Hero is too complete and is inspirational when a character that we identify with is, like us, not perfect.  My Monotype Print, "Warriors Waiting&q

Tile Workshop with Cory Winn

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"Birth of Athena"  8 x 4 in.  A couple times this summer I have taken tile workshops with Vashon Island artist Cory Winn.  She makes truly exquisite and intricately patterned pottery, objects, tiles and tile installations.  Influenced by early English arts and crafts and medieval illustrations, Cory's work is meticulously crafted and then glazed using the cuerda seca technique. Cuerda seca, (Spanish for "dry cord") is essentially a wax resist line painted to separate the water-soluble glazes.  It is an ancient technique that can make crisp patterns and multiple colors on fired terracotta sing!   Cory is a great teacher and I am quite taken with the whole process.  You know you are having fun when minutes turn to hours and an afternoon has flown! My tile at left celebrates the cerebral birth of Athena, Goddess of wisdom, daughter of  Zeus and the Titan Metis. When Zeus heard the prophecy that a child Metis bore would usurp his thrown, Zeus tricked Me

"Oracle at Delphi," Celebrating Sacred Space

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Plymouth Church of Seattle celebrates the opening of their newly remodeled sanctuary.  This beautiful renovation includes lighting, new paint, ceramic tile floors, acoustic wall configurations and an astonishing new ($2.4 million) pipe organ. Modeled after the Cavaille-coll organ at St. Francoise Church in Lyon, France, it will be the only purely authentic French Romantic organ in the Pacific Northwest.  I look forward to the performances! The Sanctuary Improvement Project Committee, improvement donors and all who were involved will be acknowledged in the grand reopening on Sunday, May 3, at 4 PM.  The Susan Pascal Trio and Plymouth Church Choir will perform in celebration. I am so honored that Janice Randal, Plymouth's Director of Communications,    selected my steel and wood sculpture, "Oracle at Delphi" to be part of Plymouth Church's inaugural exhibition! The sanctuary and sculptural exhibit will be open on Seattle's First Thursday Ar

Argonautica Series at Washington State Governor's Mansion

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  "Jason"  "The Boxing Match"  "Resurrecting the Ram" and "Claiming the Fleece"  Rust Monoprints by Brian Fisher I am very excited to have work from my Argonautica series selected to hang in the Washington State Governor's Mansion.  This is the third exhibit Roby King Galleries of Bainbridge has curated for the private/public spaces of the Governor's residence.

The Sphinx

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Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem "The Sphinx" was the inspiration for a recent series of eight small prints.  Each was created by printing a cut cork plate over monotype backgrounds.  The cork matrix was an experimental material but definitely one that I will use again. Above is "Life, Death Overtaking" and below "Daedalion Plan"   (5 3/8 x 4 3/4 in.)

Kouros

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Kouros, 30x30 in., Rust Monotype on panel with gold leaf Roby King Galleries In Winslow on Bainbridge Island, Washington, hosts a Printmaking Exhibition this month.  The opening reception is October 3 at 6 PM.  My rust Monotype Kouros (youth), above, and companion print Kore (maiden) will be exhibited. Kouros and Kore were inspired by sculpture of archaic Greece (800 BC – 480 BC).  The Kouroi and Korai sculptures of Greece did not represent an individual but the idea and ideal of youth, a combination of moral and physical beauty and nobility.

"Fetch"

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Day of the Dead is theme and exhibition at Vashon Intuitive Arts Gallery through the month of October. Nine island artists: Annie Brulé, Sooze Bloom DeLeon Grossman, Adrienne Edmonson, Brian Fisher, Kara LC Jones, Lynndee LeBeau, Carol Schwennesen, Jane Valencia, and Sherene Zolno share imagery inspired by El Día de Muertos.
 
 Opening night, Vashon's First Friday, October 3rd, from 6 to 9PM, will include a live harp performance by Jane Valenci.  Intuitive Arts Gallery also welcomes  images and offerings that celebrate memory and connection from the community.
 "Fetch" honors the  memory of my dog "Tashi" and his obsession/mission in life to retrieve!


Exhibition to Benefit Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

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Roby King Galleries hosts its first annual exhibition of Puget Sound artists benefiting the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.  It's a big show.  I hope it goes well!  Here is the invitation and artists who are participating.

Nuclear Family

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On September 19 and 20 Vashon Allied Arts will transform, the “O Space” into Outer Space.  This years theme is- 2014: An Art Odyssey . Two evenings of intergalactic fundraising festivities include Friday’s The Big Bang and Saturday’s A Starry Starry Night. Here you may Preview the Auction Catalog and read more about event details , but the count down begins Friday August 29 from 6-9 PM.  It's the real Preview Party and Artist Reception, honoring the artists who have donated over 150 pieces of stellar art to this year’s Art Auction. At left and below is my fantasy take on a robot family.  Maybe this is Hal's family of origin?  It's named "Nuclear Family".  These table toppers do double duty as decoration and as auction items.  Artists volunteer each year to transform similar objects into something artful. This years commissioned artist are: wood sculpture-Tom Northington, jeweler- Gordon R. Barnett, basket maker- Barbara Dusty

Monotype Print Workshop

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Fellow Artist and good friend Ilse Reimnitz and I just completed our summer Monotype Print Workshop.  Everyone who participated  brought real enthusiasm and creative energy to the weekend event. I thank each of them for jumping into the inky good time. The approaches to monotype print are many.  The basics our workshop emphasized were  reductive methods of creating compositions to print, printing with selected natural shapes, with cut paper stencils, and printing with textural found materials.   We also experimented with draw-through  techniques.  The combination of these print methods result in painterly textures and unique imagery.

Garden Gate

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The legends of Jason and the Argonauts are primal myths of Western culture.  The stories are older than those told by Homer though surviving texts were not written until centuries later. The oldest extant account, the third century B.C. Greek epic poem by Apollonius Rhodius, with additional material by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Flaccus, has informed the imagery and design for many of my "Heroes Journey" Monotype Prints.  Now, I am interpreting those mythic and seminal narratives as gates. Above is my garden entrance before installation. At left is the design for the first of three entrance gates to my home, garden and studio.  Two of those gates will illustrate the Quest for the Golden Fleece and the Heroes of the Argonautica.  A third gate will depict the Hero Theseus and his epic adventures in the Labyrinth. The gates will be cut from from 12 gage steel and mounted within 1 1/2" steel frames.  I always enjoy creating si

Mandala Opening

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Mandala's debut at ArtXchange , Seattle's contemporary international art gallery, was extraordinary!  I am delighted to participate in this wonderful show and exhibit with such extraordinary artists.  Many thanks to Cora Edmonds, Gallery Director, Lauren Davis, Gallery Manager and friend Mugoux, Creative Manifestadora and the Arxchange team! The opening, during Seattle's First Thursday Gallery Walk, featured a performance by Butoh dancer Kaoru Okumura and company.  Vashon flautist, Larry Lawson accompanied their performance. The Exhibit runs July 3-August 9. I'm already looking forward to the First Thursday Artists reception on August 7, 5-8 pm.