Sunday, May 31, 2009

Drama Queen
A Sensual Body of Work By Laurie McClave

Laurie McClave has been drawing obsessively since she was a young child. This California native knew she was destined to become an artist.

She earned an honors studio spot at the San Francisco Art Institute where she concentrated on figure drawing and painting; she received her BFA in Painting with emphasis in Art History in 1994.

After graduating and exhibiting work around
the Bay area, Laurie decided to move and raise her family in Port Townsend. She continues painting, and has been showing her work in galleries throughout the Northwest.

Her "Pantheon of Women" is a comment on iconic representations of femininity. These paintings are suffused with color, symbolism, and animal imagery. The "La Raison" trio explores
the different roles women play while representing the erotic nature of the human psyche. Laurie follows with another series, "Queens", which links allegorical elements to the natural world of the feminine.

Join us for a soft opening on June 6th during the local gallery walk from 6 to 8 p.m. Then on June 13th, from 6 to 8, we will have our formal opening with Mrs. McClave. Meet the artist, listen to music by Four Eyes, and feast your eyes on our new exhibit.























Also in JUNE... Megan Trenary will be with us in "The Annex"

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Treasure


Savor for the sparkle and warmth of Port Townsend's holiday season . . . .
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 for this not to be missed season of Treasures! We'll be roasting chestnuts on an open fire . . . .

Sunday, November 9, 2008

November at AOT



Judith Bird
Judith Bird’s Silk Originals are luscious doubled silk scarves. Bird uses white silk of many jacquard weavings, black fabric and black and white prints; all the silk is hand dyed. Many pieces are shibori, or shape resist dyed. A popular name for this is tie dye, but in her case she it is “fold and dye.” Tiny little packages of folded silk are pressed then dipped either in dye on the edges or a resist chemical.

Bird finds color ideas everywhere in her life. A sunny walk on a leaf shaded trail, sometimes music gives colors, a funky magazine article might give her a push, a fashion shoot with a glamorous elephant, toenails painted to match her sequined eye makeup, windows are frames for the views to her garden which is there in all its moods, seasons and times, even a friend’s painting, as in After Scape III, inspired by Stephen Yates’ Scape III.

Charlotte Watts
“Taking still pictures that defy time and space, capturing images that inspire action, all the while daring the viewer to look intimately within his soul,” is what Charlotte Watts’ photography is all about.

Watts was born in southern California but schooled all over the United States, eventually returning to Ventura, CA to practice Emergency Medicine and her real love--photography, having photographed since age 8. She was able to study under Ansel Adams and his colleges, and photographed primarily in B&W. In 1990 she moved to the Olympic Peninsula. In 2000 she retired from the practice of medicine, but this move allowed her more freedom to experiment with the digital process and color. Her work has been frequently shown at the Port Angeles Fine Art Center, in Seattle galleries, and the Ansel Adams and Yosemite Galleries. Recently she has been teaching workshops for the Ansel Adams Galleries in Yosemite.

As artist and physician, she believes that the camera does not stop the moment, rather the image is recorded by humans as a “brain-print” and recurs again and again as déjà vu, or music, or dreams; thus her images almost always contain some motion–a motion that sets the eye and brain going in a continuation of the perceived.

Charlotte lives on the Peninsula in a wildlife sanctuary where she can practice her other passion—raising and releasing Wood Ducks into the wild.

Victoria Maase Stoll
After a fifteen year career as a painter and sculptor, during which time she taught college, exhibited frequently, was awarded grants and fellowships, Victoria Maase Stoll's life long interest in rocks led her to take a few basic metalsmithing classes while living in Santa Fe. She continued to teach herself jewelry-making techniques and eventually opened a gallery on Canyon Road, exhibiting her paintings and jewelry, as well as the work of other contemporary artists.

Working with a variety of gems, fossils and often very rare mineral specimens, all of her work is one of a kind and fabricated in mixed metals, often with high karat gold accents. Sometimes subtle and earthy, sometimes large and bold, often the work is quirky and always unique.

Like her work, Stoll's lifestyle is unique. For most of her tenure in New Mexico, she lived in the mountains in a rustic cabin with no plumbing, water or central heating. A real chop wood and haul water existence. A desire to garden led her to Cape Cod where she currently lives in a large Antique home with three large geriatric dogs and extensive gardens. Future plans include a move to Port Townsend to paint, garden and continue playing with stones.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

cloud atlas + SlowART

In October Counsel Langley presents 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.


Tuesday, July 22, 2008

August at AOT

Internationally recognized master printmaker Ken Parker returns to Artisans on Taylor bringing with him a new body of work. Parker presents large-scale silkcreen prints of overstuffed vintage armchairs. The life-sized studies make “you want to curl up in them,” says AOT Director Teresa Verraes.

Parker describes printmaking as “2D sculpture!” Silkcreening is one of his favored printmaking techniques. He uses the silkscreen process on its own and also with collograph to form a hybrid highly unique to the artist, the collo/silkscreen print. Making prints up to four meters square in some cases, his is a very sophisticated, accomplished work.

Parker holds a Masters Degree in Fine Art from the University of Ulster at Belfast and continues to exhibit his prints and sculpture and teach on both sides of the Atlantic. The prolific Irish artist has spent the summer in the region teaching printmaking at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. AOT is proud that he has made the time to show some of his new work in Port Townsend, which was once his home for several years.















Also, featured at AOT are Peter Gritt and Brent Wickline, two artists whose small-scale works are powerfully delicate. Working with ink on paper Gritt’s line-work drawings emerge “from deep within his uncensored imagination.” As a child he was “lost in the world of comic books,” which he first taught himself to copy before pushing his own edgy drawing style and seeking subjects beyond the reality of his source materials. Inspired by old Sears catalogs and thrift store finds Gritt uses his sense of the ridiculous to twist sedate images into outlandish fantasies.

Wickline’s table-top kinetic sculptures move with the slightest of provocation. Created from twisted wire, splashes of brilliantly colored plumage and various odds and ends they achieve a simple elegance and perfect balance. They give the viewer an irresistible impression that the work is reacting to their presence.

Opening Reception is Saturday, August the 2nd from 6:00 to 8 p.m. Artisans on Taylor is located in Downtown Port Townsend at 236 Taylor Street, across the street from the Rose Theatre. The gallery is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.




























IMAGES: Armchair Study 2, Large Armchair, & Rosita & Armchair Study, Silkscreen prints by Ken Parker.
Elephant Walk, Ink on paper by Peter Gritt.
Feather sculpture by Brent Wickline.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Fused Glass by Lizbeth Harper

I am fascinated by the whole process of fusing glass. Opening the kiln after the glass has been fired reveals a treasure. The glass has transitions from a raw edged, cold feeling piece to something soft, sensuous and vibrantly colored.

Currently, I am happily exploring the may possibilities fused glass offers. My glass wall art mounted on different metals creates a reflective piece that is contemporary and striking. Each design, never preconceived, reveals a unique play between form and color. As I work on the piece, I try to let the glass "speak to me" and move in a direction that is both harmonious and balanced. Creatively, I find each piece a new and stimulating adventure.


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Youth Artist Stephanie Johnson

Artisans on Taylor welcomes back youth artist Stephanie K. Johnson, 17, as their featured artist for July. This award winning painter has developed her own playful impressionistic style.
This past year has been punctuated with many artistic endeavors. Stephanie participated in Seattle’s National Portfolio Day and came away with offers from several prestigious American art schools.

Her dramatic oil originals for this year’s exhibition includes a sunlit home in Port Townsend, European and domestic café scenes, a Japanese Koi, and several Tuscan landscapes.

Stephanie’s work in oil has broadened and become more developed. Her “Walking through Sant’ Anna” painting won best in show at the Woodinville Community Art Show, Teen division and her ‘Inside Sant’ Antimo” won first place.

Stephanie has studied for the past seven years under international artists Teresa Saia and Milan Heger. Her teachers Dianne Brudnicki and Laurie Garcia have also given her direction. Collectors in Europe and North America have enjoyed her colorful and expressionistic paintings.

Her recent works, in oil will be available through the month of July at Artisans.

Please join Artisans on Taylor and meet this talented young artist at a reception held Saturday July 5th, 5:30 – 8:30 pm, during gallery walk. Light refreshments will be served. Artisans on Taylor is located at 236 Taylor St., across from the Rose Theatre. The gallery is open daily, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.




























IMAGES:
1. Sunset at the Villa
2. The Tuscan Vineyard
3. The Pergola
4. Waiting
5. Walking to Work