Tom O'Day Starts New Year Out at Tinman Gallery

I did the classic double-take when this email popped open on my computer the other day:

In keeping with our current policy of having more hands on art activities along with traditional art exhibits, Tinman has put together a "Mini-Studio Month" for January.  Three artists will exhibit their different art and have weekend activities related to that art.  Our artists are Tom O'Day, Margot Casstevens, Kurt Madison and Summer Moon Scriver and Iris Graville.

Tom O'Day? The Spokane Falls Community College instructor known for his acerbic wit and penchant for blowing things up? INSIDE Tinman's little gallery space? This I gotta see.

At right is a photo from his installation at Saranac Art Projects. And here's a link to the "typical" kind of art this wonderfully atypical artist did recently at Whitworth University. And as Tinman's Sue Bradley notes, much of this work will be suspended from the ceiling or tacked to the walls at Tinman's Garland Street location.

It's Common Knowledge: Local Group Art Show and a Bowl of Soul in Sandpoint

Common Knowledge Bookstore & Tea House is a well-kept secret from most of the outlanders. It's a good karma kind of place, with odors of whatever is cooking in the back and old books in the front of the store. They have a garden outside where they grow some of their own produce in this vegetarian haven, as well as a patio surrounded by oversize sunflowers, prayer flags and the distant hum of Boyer.

A postcard in the mail alerted me to a collective exhibition by Sandpoint-area artists:

Daryl Baird • Jennifer Ball • Nicole Black • Ron Bedford • Charlotte Bond • Laura Calvert-Peitz • Sarah Dickson • Catherine Earle (her artwork is shown above) • Gabrielle Earle • Natalie Fuller • Ruby June • Daris Judd • Kristin Johnson • Lanie Johnson • Carvery Kearney • Brietta Leader • Julie Meyer • Anna Monfort • Erica Nizzoli • Amy O'Hara • Kristina Orton • Holly Pennington • Colleen Russell • Diana Marie Schuppel • Fran Summerday • Chela Turner • Marie-Dominique Verdier • Holly Walker.

Some of the names I know, but not for art, so this ought to be an enlightening show. Through February 17th.

Find the "Lost Art of Handwriting" in Moscow, Idaho

 

 

Local schoolchildren will be participating alongside local, established artists in this unusual exhibition at Moscow's Third Street Gallery through January 8. With the transition to emailing, texting and computer-generated print, the art of handwriting may be lost indeed, but not forgotten

Holy Family Opens at Gonzaga's Jundt Just in Time for You Know What

Spokane, Washington

The exhibition “The Holy Family,” featuring prints and crèches depicting the nativity, will open Dec. 4 in the Arcade Gallery of the Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga University and run through March 13, 2010.

An array of prints, spanning four centuries, includes several lithographs from German draughtsman/engraver and lithographer Johann Nepomuk Strixner. Strixner, who mainly reproduced paintings by the masters, was also a publisher. The exhibit features a 16th-century etching from Italian Annibale Carraci titled “Adoration of the Shepherds” as well as an etching with the same title by German artist Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich.

Dietrich was known for his abilities to reproduce masterpieces of the previous century, particularly Rembrandt. Artist John Murphy received his training in painting, sculpture and architecture at the school of the Boston Museum, where he most likely was taught woodblock printing. Murphy’s print “Nativity” will be on display along with Eric Gill’s wood engraving “Christmas Gifts: Daylight.”

Gill, a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Rembrandt’s 1652 etching “The Adoration of the Shepherds, A Night Piece” will also be featured. Three-dimensional crèches on loan from private collectors from Sri Lanka, Italy, Mexico, and an American Folk nativity from the early 1900s complete the display.

The museum’s exhibitions are free and open to the public from 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and noon- 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Closed Sundays and school holidays. For more information, please call Karen Kaiser, assistant curator for education at (509) 313-6613.

Worth a Drive to Moscow: Annual Faculty Art Exhibition at U of I

Creatively Yours: University of Idaho Faculty Works Featured at Prichard Art Gallery in December and January

MOSCOW, Idaho – The University of Idaho Prichard Art Gallery will present its annual faculty art exhibit, which is a celebration of faculty members' creative contributions in the community. The exhibit will be on view Dec. 11 through Jan. 16, 2010, with an opening reception on Friday, Dec. 11, from 5-8 p.m.

Works by faculty from the university's College of Art and Architecture are featured in the exhibition. The media include photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media, books, architectural studies, furniture, product design and design plans. The artists and designers will present a variety of styles ranging from representational to abstract, and modern to post-modern traditions.

“The faculty continue their creative output. Their engagement with current issues, be it internationally relevant critical ideas or the local built environment, are presented. This exhibit crystallizes their importance to the cultural and intellectual life of the community,” said Roger Rowley, Prichard Art Gallery director.

The participating faculty include: John and Miranda Anderson, Bill Bowler, Matthew T. Brehm, Val Carter, Jason Ferguson, David Giese, Lynne Haagensen (see image, below), Mark Hoversten, Frank Jacobus, Delphine Keim-Campbell, Jan Kirchoff, Mark LaMoreaux, John Larkin, Sally Graves Machlis, Phillip Mead, Nels Reese, Randy Teal, Greg Turner-Rahman (image above left) and George Wray.



This exhibit is open to the public and refreshments will be provided. The Prichard Art Gallery hours are: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; it is closed on Monday. The gallery, an outreach facility of the University of Idaho, is located at 414/416 S. Main St. on the corner of Fifth and Main streets in downtown Moscow. Admission is free. Additional information is available at www.uidaho.edu/galleries.

Release and Restraint: New Exhibition at Saranac Art Projects

Since going co-op this past fall, Saranac has been lining up a variety of contemporary artists, including the latest exhibition featuring Garric Simonsen and Rick Garcia, which opened last week. Expect paintings that challenge the notion of traditional paint handling and use of space. Simonsen's work in particular captures the frenetic energy and multi-sensory feel of what could be the modern mind or urban experience or both.

Masters in Woodworking Exhibition on the Palouse

Wawawai Canyon Winery Pullman, Washington

Artists in Wood: New Expressions

Wawawai Canyon Winery will exhibit the works of area master woodworkers Ben Carpenter, Jim Christiansen, Geoff Crimmins, John Elwood, Bill Hendrix, Ed Krumpe, Kristin LeVier, Will Simpson, Gerrit Van Ness and Len Zeoli. “Artists in Wood: New Expressions will be on display from December 3rd through February 2010.

Of the group involved in the upcoming show, six artists have recently displayed their work at the Dahmen Barn with great success. The group formed as a means to support each other’s creativity and similar interest in wood as a medium. Critique and a sense of vision are common threads amongst the artists. Woodworker, Jim Christiansen (see image, above) has functioned as mentor to many of the artists.

“He makes his shop, his knowledge and his critical skills readily available. We gather around him because of his kindness and support,” said Len Zeoli.

Zeoli further explained how the group is working to establish itself, “Our small band of woodworkers has recently come together to show and market ourselves as fine artists. The long-held distinction between fine art and craft is often about the media associated with it, especially painting. In my mind, this distinction is artificial. Pieces created in wood may be functional—but they may also be significant works of fine art. Our initial success has stimulated us to continue producing new works and to develop a personae for ourselves, which I must say is in its infancy. There is great talent, skill and vision amongst us. People don’t have to go to the big cities to see some of the best work in wood that is available today. We hope to make ourselves known to our friends and neighbors on the Palouse, and to draw people from further away who will come here for the variety and beauty we have to offer as a group of artists and as a region of Washington state.”

Indeed, the pieces in the show range from purely sculptural works to those that are functional…such as furniture, turned bowls and artfully crafted wooden spoons.