Weekend Update
Broadsided! The Intersection of Art and Literature Opens in the Gallery
Broadsided! The Intersection of Art and Literature Opens in the Gallery
Announcing the First Friday Eastside Gallery blog!
This is definitely the way to usher in the fall season. 23 Sandy Gallery is excited to present an artist lecture by Holly Senn. Senn will discuss her installation, Tale, this Saturday, September 26, at 5:00 p.m. This is a great opportunity to experience this awesome exhibit and hear from the artist herself. To view more of Senn’s work, check out her online catalog.
Also in the back gallery we are featuring the artist books of Barbara Gilbert. Her books are rich with photographic images and unexpected book forms. For a sneak peek of Gilbert’s work, see her online catalog here.
Since 1976 Peter and Donna Thomas have worked collaboratively and individually to create their unique artist books. From start to finish their books are truly handmade. The Thomas’ make their own paper, letterpress print the books, and bind each in their signature style.
We are thrilled to offer several of the Thomas’ books in the Gallery. Each one is beautifully illustrated by Donna Thomas and printed on handmade paper made with indigenous materials. These books have a primitive quality and each is inspired by nature, from the most demure botanical specimens in Beauty to the expansive Grand Canyon. These accordion style books are as tactile to the touch as they are lovely to look at. Each volume measures approximately 2 x 3 inches–small in size, big in craftmanship.
Under the imprint, Peter and Donna Thomas: Santa Cruz (CA), the Thomas’ books have been shown in individual and group exhibitions in the USA and abroad, and have been purchased for collections around the world. Ask to see their artist books during your next visit to the Gallery.
Barbara Gilbert, Photo, Canvas, Book
Portland photographer and book artist, Barbara Gilbert, is featured in our back gallery all this month! Gilbert designs books where the medium and materials are as integral as the images to the final piece. Using a variety of photo transfer processes, Gilbert’s handmade books articulate her photographs beautifully. Gilbert states, “This exhibit is really about mediums, materials, and methods.” Be sure to check out this fascinating collection of intriguing, dimensional pieces.
Also showing is Holly Senn’s installation, Tale. You will be awed by how Senn has transformed 23 Sandy Gallery into a botanical-inspired forest.
Both exhibits will be open through September 26, 2009.
Jan Owen is a calligrapher and book artist from Belfast, Maine who incorporates traditional, sometimes ancient, techniques and transforms them into contemporary renditions of popular text. Owen’s love of medieval manuscripts, Asian calligraphy, music and poetry is evident. Her work has an architectural feel and incorporates a tapestry of shapes, colors and textures. Often larger in scale than one would expect, many of her pieces are designed to be hung on a wall. Using handmade paste papers, textured surfaces and gilt, a depth of layers is created, each rich and significant enough to stand alone, but in total harmony.
Owen, also a former Bangor Symphony string bass musician, has taught at Haystack School of Crafts in Maine, Sitka Center in Oregon, and at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland. Her work can be found in the special collections of the Library of Congress, National Museum of Women in the Arts and Harvard, Yale and Wellesley. She exhibits her work internationally and we are delighted to represent her at 23 Sandy Gallery. Owen’s work is luminous, symphonic, and eloquent. We invite you to come by and take a look. 23 Sandy Gallery is open Thurs.-Sat., noon-6:00 p.m. or by appointment.
You can also see more of Jan’s work in the gallery inventory here.
Photo: Rim of Darkness ©Jan Owen
And, Mark Your Calendar for Saturday, September 26!
This month’s installation in the gallery has been a huge hit! Holly has created a Vod-Cast of her work and we are thrilled to be able to share it with you.
You can also learn more about Holly’s installation when she gives an artist talk in the gallery on Saturday, September 26 at 5:00 p.m. Mark your calendar for this inspiring event.
Jacob’s Ladder Book and Beaded Leather Binding Coming Up Soon!
Join us for two new workshops in the gallery in October. First up is Chandler O’Leary, a Tacoma based book artist who will teach us the a very fun structure based on the classic children’s toy, the Jacob’s Ladder. This magically movable binding makes for an exciting, kinetic hardbound book. Discover the surprises and illusions the Jacob’s Ladder creates by making your own blank book—complete with ribbon fasteners and boards covered with decorative paper. The Jacob’s Ladder also provides many possibilities for beautiful, tricky storytelling—this class will give you plenty of ideas and inspiration. Complete registration can be found here.
Then for two Sundays in October we’ll feature Beaded Leather Journal with Painted Papers with Tamara Gerard. This two part workshop is suitable either for beginning or experienced book artists who wish to learn a beautiful decorative technique. On day one, we will prepare a supply of magnificent painted papers. On day two, we will bind those papers into a gorgeous soft-cover beaded binding. Find out more about this terrific workshop here.
Also, we are looking for new book arts workshops to bring to the gallery. Deborah Watkins is our new Workshop Coordinator and we are thrilled to have on board to handle all the arrangements for workshops. Email the gallery if you have a fun workshop idea.
And we are ready for First Friday
Wow! Holly did a marvelous job with her botanical forest made from book pages. You are going to love this—our first installation in the main gallery space. Learn more about Holly’s work at our web site. More photos coming soon.
First Friday is Coming Up Quick
Join us from 6:00-9:00 p.m.
Summer break has been great, but we are happy to get back to work this week with an exciting new show by Holly A. Senn. First Friday is going to be a blast! Holly kicked off her installation on Sunday by assembling the 8-foot tall sculptural tree made from old book pages. Tomorrow she’ll line the walls of the gallery with more book pages and complete the installation with seven gorgeous seed pods also constructed from book pages. You are going to love this show. It’s our first full installation in the main gallery!
During the month of September, 23 Sandy Gallery will be transformed into a botanical-inspired forest created from the discarded book materials that Holly A. Senn collects during her day job as a librarian at Tacoma’s Pacific Lutheran University. Narratives of real or imagined events create living landscapes of time and place. Here, on this tree-lined street, the natural world merges with the intellectual world. The trees’ enlarged seeds invite us to consider how tales unfold, grow, and ultimately alter our thoughts. Senn states, “I create sculptures and installations in which I explore the life cycle of ideas—the organic, non-linear process in which thoughts have a genesis and then are disseminated, adopted or refuted, forgotten or referenced.”
Stay tuned. We have the marvelous art photographer, Dan Kvitka coming to shoot the installation on Thursday. We’ll post the photos ASAP!