ARE YOU HUNGRY?

May 2nd, 2013

We are thrilled to welcome Faye Castle, Gail Davis, Cary Jurriaans, Jonni Reed and Jason Waskey to Brackenwood for “A MATTER OF TASTE!”  These painters are excellent and the work coming in is lively and fun. The show opens on May 4 with an Artists’ Reception from 5-7 and runs through May 27.

Last year when we envisioned this show, we were excited about the idea of featuring art that celebrates food! Everyone likes to eat so having a show centered around food seemed like a great idea. These artists totally stepped up to the plate and produced inviting creative work that captures the essence of “A Matter of Taste!”

The Pastel paintings are scrumptiously full of color and Faye’s titles reflect her wonderful sense of humor!! She even has a visual recipe of sorts for Moussaka!

The next time you are pondering what to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner, take a walk through the gallery for suggestions. Jason has painted some fun quartets around the times of day we eat.

The wine and cheese selection in here is astounding and if you add the salami and olives you would be set for hor dourves, thanks to Gail, Cary and Jonni.

Outside the blossoms on our local fruit trees and vines are in full bloom, but inside Brackenwood tantalizing pears, apples, oranges and grapes await you!

Come enjoy “A MATTER OF TASTE” and let your eyes enjoy this cuisenaire’s artistic delight!

Oh, we have a special guest for the Gallery Walk and ARTISTS’ RECEPTION! Cellist Buell Neidlinger will be playing music, a perfect accompaniment for the cuisine! All in all this show will wake up your appetite so Bon Appetit!

 

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More Incredible Photographers…

April 29th, 2013

This is the final Blog post for this April’s show “Discerning Eyes” which features Skip Smith, Ed Severinhaus and Kim Tinuviel. Previous blog posts have featured photographers Earl Olsen and Rich Frishman.  This photography show runs through April 29.

SKIP SMITH

Skip Smith is a master photographer using the lithe print development technique, which creates a “black and white” image that looks like it came from antiquity. Really the images are more tones of dark brown and cream. For this show Skip chose lovely small prints from a recent trip to Italy. He captures the details such as a lovely flowerpot full of ivy in a tiny window, or a close-up of a subtle smile on a marble statue. He even snapped photos of interesting graffiti with a sense of humor. Looking at these photographs one wonders when the photo was taken, in the 19^th, 20^th or 21^st century. The timelessness of the subject matter and his unique development technique combine to create little worlds of wonder.

 

ED SEVERINGHAUS

Ed is a master photographer specializing in black and white images. Utilizing software, Silver Efex Pro, converts his color digital prints into black and white images with a quality approaching the black and white silver gelatin prints of the “old days”. His theme for this show is northwest landscapes with a focus on scenes from our lovely Langley as well as ocean beaches on the Olympic Peninsula. He captures the essence of those places so well.

 

KIM TINUVIEL

Kim calls the work in this show “Street Lights”. Her brightly colored abstract images are bold and full of energy. Kim loves experimenting with photography and artfully orchestrates a complex interplay of camera and computer. Filled with the energy of Las Vegas, the photos almost vibrate with the excitement of dancing lights. By moving her camera around and using time lapse photography Kim orchestrated these images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A PAINTERLY PHOTOGRAPHER

April 8th, 2013

Each week I am highlighting another photographer in our show “Discerning Eyes”. This week Earl Olsen is in the spotlight. Earl is a photographer but I would say he really is a painter and his medium is the camera. He has such a painterly eye and sees the most amazing things in the ordinary.

For instance, we have several photographs Earl took of driftwood. We all walk by driftwood on the beach, but rarely see what Earl sees. His photographs bring out the texture of the wood and suddenly hidden designs seem to emerge. By playing digitally with the image he transforms the usual into the unusual. If you study this image you will start to see multiple faces within faces and suddenly the Starwars character Jabba the Hut pops out! I find myself staring at it trying to find more faces. It’s certainly an interactive piece of artwork.

 

This photograph is one of the most beautiful we have in the gallery. People look at it and swear it’s a painting, but it is a photograph. The colors and the composition are perfect but so too is the texture.  The softness of the foreground and the crisp tree that is totally in focus in the center of the photograph illustrate Earl’s artistic talent. When people walk into the gallery they are drawn right to it.

 

Known for his landscapes, Earl has several in this show. The snow peaked mountains with soft white clouds floating above them is a classic. But I continue to be drawn back to the driftwood photos. The texture and the brilliant orange color of the fungi contrast with the soft gray of the beach logs. You want to reach out and touch them. Again it’s that painterly eye seeing things we might never notice.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to catch this show it continues through April 29. Rich Frishman, Kim Tinuviel, Skip Smith and Ed Severinghaus round out this show with unusual work that highlights their talents. One of the things I really have enjoyed in this show is the interactive pieces. Several of the photographs draw people in to study and really look at the work. This kind of art is great anywhere but perfect for public spaces such as offices or showrooms.

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Motorcycle Mania in Photography

March 26th, 2013

“Discerning Eyes” Continues Through April 29

If anyone interested in Motorcycles walked into the gallery today, they would be blown away by three incredible photographs by Rich Frishman. The first photograph called “Sturgis, So. Dakota” captures what must be an amazing experience when hundreds of thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts, bikers, venders of motorcycle paraphernalia descend on this tiny town each August to celebrate the mystic of the motorcycle culture. * Please visit Rich Frishman’s page on our website to see the photos which are at the end of his slideshow.

Rich utilizes an unusual photographic technique to conjure up this extraordinary scene. Standing on a tower overlooking the main drag, Rich took hundreds of photos over a two-hour period. Then he “knit” together approximately 50 individual photographs to create a panorama, which at first glance appears to be a snap shot of a single moment. Upon closer scrutiny one starts to notice people and objects popping up several times across the picture, and as you lean into the photo studying it more intently you find yourself fascinated by the subject matter and suddenly you are there! You can almost feel the heat on your back and hear the cacophony of sounds and smells that must be emanating from that street. Anyone who has actually experienced this Motorcycle Rally in person will surely be drawn to the photograph as it sparks conversations and storytelling about their adventures at Sturgis!

When Rich last visited Las Vegas, the Guggenheim Museum was paying homage to the art of the motorcycle. Photographing 48 different individual bikes, Rich composed a single photo-mosaic called “The Art of the Motorcycle” incorporating dozens of separate 4X6 inch prints of many different bikes in the exhibit blended into one motorcycle. He included a Crocker, Indian, Haley and a Daimler steam-powered wooden cycle to name a few. Its a beautiful photograph even if motorcycles are not your passion!

Finally, while visiting the California desert Rich was encouraged to go see the Imperial Sand Dunes known for their windblown beauty and solitude. Instead he encountered hundreds of off highway vehicle (OHV) enthusiasts racing their high performance dune buggies, quads and motorcycles down the sand dunes with music blaring and sand swirling in every direction. It was truly a sight to behold and Rich captured it by shooting hundreds of photos over a three-day period. The final composite montage includes over 200 separate photographs painstakingly masked and assembled in their actual relative positions. Frishman creates a scene of heightened human activity over this incredible desert landscape. The photograph is printed on canvas, which gives it even more texture than the thousands of tracks that crisscross the undulating dunes extending as far as the eye can see. One is mesmerized just looking at the crisp images of these vehicles as they careen over the sand dunes, sometimes airborne, dodging and weaving thru this dune buggy desert paradise.

Hope you can come by to see these photographs in person as well as the work by our other fabulous photographers featured in this show: Earl Olsen,  Ed Severinghaus, Skip Smith, and Kim Tinuviel.  Future blogs will highlight their amazing work. We are lucky to have these talented photographers in our community who open up worlds we may never actually visit thru their “Discerning Eyes”.

 

 

 

 

 

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Conversations Around Mending Hearts

February 9th, 2013

Valentine’s Day evokes strong feelings we all have for each other. It also brings up times when our love lives have stumbled. “Mending Hearts”, Brackenwood’s current show, explores the yin and yang of love. Sue Taves obviously knew carving hearts from beautiful stone then documenting the breaking of them would be a thought provoking exhibit. When Sue and Zia Gipson brainstormed the mending processes they had to be deep in conversation about how people usually heal but are changed in unforeseen ways. It’s been fun eaves dropping on the conversations this art has generated.

At first glance, people don’t know what to make of them. “Hearts, lots of hearts,” they say looking quite puzzled. Then they start to realize the hearts have been broken and mended. As they look more deeply the conversations start:

“There is no way for all the tiny shards of stone to be put back together again. I guess hearts can mend but they are never quite the same again.”

“Wow that one looks like the break was so sudden, it just sheared apart! But the gentle way it was mended  shows there is hope after heart break.”

 

“Heartbreak can expose our inner most fears and terrors. But sometimes, through heartbreak also comes beauty. The inside of this stone has crystals that you would never have known were there before it was broken. Just like people, you never know what the broken heart will be like once it has mended. It might be better than it was before.

I find people looking at Michael Stadler’s photographs to see how the pieces broke and trying to find the mended heart it goes with. The explosive photos also elicit comments such as: “Wow that one really exploded. That’s powerful!”

If you haven’t had an opportunity to see the hearts close up, come on by. This is one of those exhibits that truly gets at the heart of art: communicating emotions and ideas thru the use of provocative images. “Mending Hearts” certainly does that.

Besides “Mending Hearts”, which continues through Feb. 25, 2013, we also have some fine gifts you could consider for your special Valentine.

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