Art in the Community: Timberlake Creates 2008

It seems like forever since school ended and what a whirlwind those last few weeks are. Finally catching up on my "other" jobs: writing, the blog, my own artwork. Before I do, however, I need to share a post about something we do at Timberlake High School, where I teach. 

Timberlake Creates started last year as part of my Master's thesis project and involved coordinating an art show in the community. The idea was to link students with professionals, as well as address folks within the community who are, literally, in between student and professional...interested in art but not necessarily making a living at it (as much as anyone can make a living with their art!). The result was a juried art show that celebrated visual art, showcased our community, and returned recognition and prize money to area artists.

This year we have even more support from the Spirit Lake Chamber of Commerce and area businesses--especially sponsor Inland Northwest Bank, who donated $500 to first place prizes. The art show was up in Spirit Lake through June in 8 businesses, not including the library which is still exhibiting the "Heritage" category of artworks in honor of Spirit Lake's 100 year anniversary. 

The assortment of artists was terrific, including former students (now entering as adult community), fellow staff members, and parents of students both past and present. For some, it was the first time they'd entered a juried art show while for others, it was an opportunity to participate in a show that celebrated their own community. Check out the slideshow (below right) for artwork and winning entries.

Art in the Making: Student Exhibition

Sandpoint Waldorf School @ Redtail Gallery
Art is an integral part of the Waldorf School experience for all grades. From their website:

"Waldorf education emphasizes respect, wonder for nature and reverence for human existence. Learning becomes much more than the acquisition of vast amounts of information; rather, learning becomes an engaging voyage of discovery, both of the world and of oneself."

The young artists represented at Redtail's exhibit explore media, such as woodworking and weaving, as well as content and form to create works that confidently reflect creativity and technique.

Indelible: Mardis Nenno & Tresia Oosting at Kolva-Sullivan

"For me, the ordinary world of objects is rarely without a poem." Mardis Nenno

The quote might as well be attributed to both artists who, in this exhibition, are using ordinary objects in extraordinary ways. 

For Nenno, a Spokane Falls Community College ceramics instructor and former resident of the Archie Bray, kitchen matches become building blocks and chairs can be made of wings. There is a balance of fragile and formidable--her objects are sturdily sculpted from clay and much more durable than they appear--in both the medium and the context. Like the body to which Nenno's "chairs" refer, they assert themselves while at the same time revealing their vulnerability.

Oosting uses objects in a transformative way, often wrapping, stitching and overlaying them with tape, paint or other materials. They refer to the body--stylized figures or objects held like an umbrella or worn like pants or gloves--and there is no doubt there is a specific metaphor Oosting is hinting at. Yet they are also universal, a part consciously separated from herself, objectified, entities unto themselves.

It is an unusual pairing of works yet well-suited to the recently expanded space in the gritty-yet-almost-fashionable Adams Street area gallery. Remember to check out the Trackside Studio and gallery next door for exceptional ceramics by Chris Kelsey and Mark Moore.

Annual Art & Garden Show: Saturday, 5/24

Artist Kay O'Rourke's annual Art & Garden Show. 9:30-4:30, 3123 West 9th Street, Spokane, Wa (across from Finch Arboretum).  

KAY O'ROURKE

Paintings Drawings & Wakerobin Sculptures

PETER & KIT JAGODA

Iron Work For The Garden, Twig Trellis’s

Kits Painting & Drawing

DARA ALLISON HARVEY

Paintings & Novelties

SIMMONS LLOYD DESIGN

Furniture , sculpture

LOUISE & CHEMYN KODIS

Gypsy Garden House Novelties

JILL & SEAN SMITH

Clay Fox Pottery & Metal Maids

BRUCE ANN CULBERTSON

Paintings

RIK NELSON

Recycled Fish Searching for Bottlecaps

AMY MICKELSON

Way Beyond Pearls

JOHN WOJTULEWICZ

Braided Leather For Man & Beast

GINA FREUEN

Ceramics & Drawings

TRESIA OOSTING

T’S Garden Cart

KAREN MOBLEY

Painting & Drawings

GAY WALDMAN

Enhanced Photography

WILLIE - RALPH PRODUCTIONS

Rosanne Anderson , Handcrafted Rugs

Inlander Writeup: Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Llyn Foulkes will speak at SFCC on Tuesday, May 6 at 11:30 am; at the MAC at 7 pm; and at EWU Art Auditorium Wednesday, May 7, noon. Free and open to the public. Call (509) 359.2493.

Inlander PREview: “Ninth Annual Clay Invitational”

The Art Spirit Gallery, 415 Sherman Avenue, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho opens May 9 and continues through May 31. Gallery is open from Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am-6 pm and Friday until 9pm. Artist’s reception Friday, May 9 from 5 to 8 pm. Free. Open to the public. Visit www.theartspiritgallery.com or call (208) 765-6006.

Which Came First: The Chicken or the Egg-Shaped Image?

Kathryn Glowen & Bernadette Vielbig at Lorinda Knight Gallery, Spokane.

In the case of the new exhibition at Lorinda Knight, both pieces arrived simultaneously. It might seem like an unlikely pairing at first, though. Kathryn Glowen's past work at Lorinda featured ephemeral compositions of paper which also included bird's eggs. Bernadette Vielbig's past show assembled objects in wry commentary on such things as gender roles and the human condition with pieces like the A-style dress made of kitschy plastic flowers or the suit of wiggly eyes. 

Both artists have a sense of humor and enjoy nudging the edges of the envelope. Both are object-makers and collectors. And both like to transform the mundane into the profane, dealing with color, connotation, context and texture.

What resulted is Glowen's "Wonder/Alottment Gardens" and Vielbig's "The Pecking Order" on display through June 28. 

Dig deeper and see the connection to rural, even nostalgic America. Glowen's rosettes of vintage fabric are paired with plan-view illustrations of color, like a garden from above. They are framed like a beloved relic, deepening the sense of nostalgic layering.

Vielbig weaves a nest of ideas around poultry paraphenalia. With characteristic acerbic wit, Vielbig's "The Critics" features three, puffed up blue-tinged roosters (read into that what you may) seated on a hand-hewn log bench as they gaze at one of Glowen's pieces. "Lemmings" is a propped up post populated by a bevy of skinny birds, reminding of the flock that gathers outside gallery doors on opening night, facing this way or that as if unsure whether they like what they see...until the critics decide. Vielbig's humor in this show is masterfully sly, delightfully not whimsical at all. We are no longer sheep, but we are not off the hook; Vielbig's work makes us reexamine our place in the pecking order and schemes of life.