23Sandy Gallery is pleased to announce our Best of Show Awards for The Poetic Pen. Since all of the submissions for this incredibly beautiful show far exceeded our expectations, it was a very difficult to choose, but based on a variety of criteria, we have selected four exceptional pieces for their outstanding visual and poetic appeal and mastery of the craft. In no particular order, here is a bit of information about each of our award winners. Click on the links below to view larger images of each piece.

THOMAS INGMIRE

Our first Best of Show Award is for Thomas Ingmire’s Diva Fall Jive: Mr. Verb Visits the Tayu. Ingmire’s artist book is exquisite in concept, construction, and execution. Originally using the artist’s abstract pen strokes for their aesthetics rather than their message, these symbols were eventually “translated” by British artist and writer, Christine Kennedy. Using language recognition software, Kennedy was able to effectively convert Ingmire’s “letters” into readable text using a new alphabet. His unique artist book is a fascinating melding of tradition and technology. Learn more about this piece here.

MARINA SORIA

Marina’s Libro Tejiendo Palabras/Weaving Words Book, incorporates vibrant embroidery on the cover with equally colorful and elegant calligraphic text. These two treatments create a book that beautifully stands on its own as an art object. Soria’s text is a fine example of calligraphy that adheres to the technical expectations. The highlight of the book is how the lettering starts of very formal on the first panel but becomes more free form and nearly abstract as the viewer moves across the pages—eventually emulating the readability of the embroidery on the cover. This book is just stunningly beautiful. See more photos of this book here.

CARL KURTZ

Our next award winner, Carl Kurtz, has taken the art of calligraphy and masterfully executed his piece with astounding precision. Psalms 42:11 is as eye-catching from afar as it is close up. The use of graphite lends a textural quality to the lettering, which is unexpected and appealing to the eye—softening the rigid lines of the forms. We think the positioning of each letter to create readability is an engineering feat! The letters fit together like a puzzle, coercing and challenging you to read every word. Catch this puzzler here.

ROD SAWATSKY

Local artist, Rod Sawatsky is our fourth award recipient for Imagination. A quote by Mark Twain, “You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus,” which has inspired several interpretations, makes this piece a favorite to almost everyone who has visited the gallery. For accomplishing what most art strives to do—evoking emotion and reaction, this piece is a winner. Even without the words, Sawatsky has created a beautiful painting, but one that compels the viewer to ponder the sentiment of Mark Twain’s words. See a large image of this piece here.

Congratulations to our Poetic Pen winners! We think this is a beautiful exhibit and hope you will come by the gallery to experience it for yourself soon. The Poetic Pen will be on view through July 28, 2012. Catch the full online catalog for the show here.

And stay tuned! On the closing day of the show, we will announce the Librarian’s Choice Awards. We have mailed catalogs to our library customers who will vote on who should receive these awards. One lucky winner will be a purchase prize, with the winning work being purchased by the gallery and donated to one of the lucky voting libraries.

Enjoy!

It’s a truly beautiful show and I am so honored to have it here in the gallery. Thank you for everyone who participated in the call for entries and to those whose work is on the wall, all I can say is WOW, you are all amazingly talented artists.

This opening weekend has been very busy day with all of the artists arriving early for the Calligraphy Northwest International Calligraphy Conference. What an exciting week it is going to be around this town. Did you know that 500 calligraphers are here for the conference? There are some open to the public events, including a vendors fair all day on Tuesday, which 23 Sandy will be participating in. Click on the “Public Events” link on the left side of their web site for more info. Hope to see you all there.

Check out this list of rock star calligraphers featured in The Poetic Pen who are also teaching at the conference next week. I’m so thrilled to have their talent grace our walls. Annie Cicale, Laurie Doctor, Kristen Doty, Thomas Ingmire, Suzanne Moore and Pamela Paulsrud (who is not part of the show, but her work is always in inventory in the gallery). Welcome to Portland everyone!

Mark your calendar for an artists reception for The Poetic Pen on First Friday, July 6 from 5-8:00 p.m.

Preview the online catalog for The Poetic Pen here.

Please join us when printer, book artist, and founder of the Codex International Book Fair, Peter Koch, will be speaking at Em Space in Portland, Oregon!  He will present some of his more recent artist books and talk about the Codex Book Fair and Symposium—the fourth Codex is coming up in February 2013.

Monday, July 2, 2012
5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Location:
Em Space
407 Southeast Ivon Street
Portland, Oregon 97202

Peter Koch:
For the past thirty-two years, Peter Koch has cultivated a cross-media dialogue between art, philosophy and literature. He has conducted his business as a fine-art printer as a means of creating and transmitting his own ideas about language and form, both by creating his own work and by designing and directing collaborative publishing projects with others. In pursuit of his art,  he is deeply committed to the crafts of typography, papermaking, printing, bookbinding and the design of books. Beginning a career in Missoula, Montana Peter Koch started with one platen press. He since settled in the San Francisco Bay area and following the San Francisco literary tradition of fine press printing, has acquired an international reputation and several more presses. Editions Koch specializes in publishing limited edition livres d’ artiste, broadsides, portfolios, and text transmission objects. Learn more about Peter at his web site here.

Codex:
The Codex Foundation exists to preserve and promote the hand-made book as a work of art in the broadest possible context and to bring to public recognition the artists, the craftsmanship, and the rich history of the civilization of the book. The Codex book fair and symposium occurs biennially in Berkeley, California and brings together high-caliber artists from all over the world. Visit the Codex web site here.

This event is free and open to the public. No RSVPs are necessary.

That just happens to be one of the most popular lines from Mar’s book titled, Tell Me Again. Several people visiting the gallery have commented on it. This, and many of the lines in Mar’s new works in this show are from the new Leonard Cohen album, which Mar listened to over and over again while creating the stunning group of artist books featured in the gallery right now.

But, you better hurry if you were hoping see Mar Goman’s show before it ends. This is the last weekend to see the show! We’ll be here today, Friday and Saturday from Noon to 6:00 p.m.

INTROspective, her second solo show, features artist books and sketchbook-derived mixed media works created with her unique illustrations, rusty metal, found photographs, old books, matchsticks, stones, bones, and more. Much of the Mar’s art focuses on psycho-spiritual issues such as loneliness, existential angst, love, death, and relationships. Mar tells us, “I tend to work from the dark side of my soul and my work is often about the interior journey, our invisible wounds, and the process of becoming authentic spiritual human beings.”

Find out more about Mar’s work here.

See you soon!

Mar Goman will be interviewed by Kathleen Stevenson on Eva Lake’s art radio show called Art Focus. Tuesday, June 12, 11:30 a.m. Find out more about KBOO and the show here. Mar is a fascinating and inspiring person and she has a fun personality that will be great over the airwaves. Tune in!

Get prepared for the interview by previewing Mar’s online catalog here.

Miniature books are a small but sweet subsection of the artist book world. In the United States, books are considered miniature if they measure three inches or less in any dimension. In Europe miniature books can be slightly larger. You’ll find everything from fine press and artist books to pop-up books to print on demand miniatures. Their small size presents some very interesting binding challenges as well as a unique design opportunity in a compact format. There is even a non-profit organization devoted to miniature book collectors, The Miniature Book Society.

23 Sandy Gallery stocks a selection of miniature artist books ranging from those by the ever-popular Peter and Donna Thomas to a fascinating miniature by Alicia Bailey titled Crystalline Flower that features pages made of mica with laser-etched text. Stop by the gallery soon to peruse our flat file drawer full of marvelous miniatures or view our online curated collection of miniature artist books here.

As you know, we organize two national juried exhibitions each year. These shows inspire artists to create new work using a set theme. Well, it’s time to put your thinking cap on. Our next call for entries will be posted in a month or so and the theme will be Infinite Possibilities: Science, Math, Book Arts. This show will be in the gallery in December with a late September entry deadline and we’ll have a guest juror, Dina Scheel, a Bay Area book artist and collector. Stay tuned for more information very soon.

In the meantime you’ll find inspiration in this math and science curated collection from gallery inventory.

Featured image: “Eadem mutata resurgo.” by Susan Lowdermilk.