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The exhibit at Beaverton City Hall will be up until the end of August.  We’ll be taking it down on the 31st.  If you haven’t had a chance to get there yet, it’s a great reason to go to City Hall!

 

I made my second deadline for the two art exhibits I’ll be in this month.   This one is:

Crossing Borders/Breaking Boundaries: Oregon Women’s Caucus for Art Member Art Exhibition, Beaverton City Hall, 4755 Southwest Griffith Drive, Beaverton, OR.

There is no official opening planned, but the art is on display Monday through Friday, 8am- 5pm, in 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd floor hallway galleries from Wednesday, July 6^th through Wednesday, August 31^st.

In this exhibition, OWCA members were encouraged to push their personal boundaries to explore new ground, content, materials, and methods.

My art will be on the third floor with the fabric and mixed media art.  It’s a beautiful building, full of light.  It’s wonderful that the city hall provides such a great space for art.  The OWCA has added a wonderful range of art work to browse through.

I have three pieces in this show.  I am showing an older piece, The Reader, a fabric sculpture.  She sits on a pillow reading a  handmade book.

I made a new Wheelchair Mermaid, part of a series I make that explores the challenged body, using mythology, whimsy and color.  This is a fabric sculpture and mixed media piece.  This is called Muriel – The Wiser Mermaid.

I wrote up a little story to go along with her and attached it to the back of the chair:

I believe I’m breaking boundaries by working in fabric and pushing the limits of it’s sculptural aspects.  The third piece I made is a high-relief fabric and paper wallhanging.  It’s called Unfolding.  I made a surreal figure out of wire crochet and cloth, a determined figure with starry beads for eyes.  She is undoing the wire, letting out crumpled bits of her self.  They unfold and refold into origami birds.  I used another head and hand to show the transformation made by letting things go.  It’s really hard to photograph, but I did the best I could.

We took the pieces down to Beaverton City Hall this morning and were delighted by sight of so much artwork being hung.  The OWCA has artists from the very young to the very seasoned, working in many mediums.  All the art work is for sale.  It’s really worth a trip there.  Later in the month I’ll go back and take a few pictures and post them here.

Here are the sculptures on their plexiglass pedestal.  They look happy!

I finally got the last stitches done on my new fabric sculpture, Shared Vision: Blind Goddess and her Seeing-Eye Dragon.  I’ve named the goddess Iris, and the dragon Aurora.

I have embroidered the name of the piece and the characters in French-knots in braille on a grid that I downloaded from a braille translation site.  It taught me a lot about the complexity of braille.  I don’t know if my knots will be legible, but I like the design nonetheless.

It’s been a very challenging piece and I got to learn more about structure, armatures and the nature of cloth.  Cloth is very versatile medium, but it does have a mind of it’s own.

I had originally planned to do Iris in all white with scraps of textured white fabric and knittings I  had done, but they didn’t hang well together and the whites clashed.  The bright whites muddied the creamy whites.  I tried a dress I’d hand knitted for another piece I’d plan to make in the near future and Iris loved it.  She also wanted a kimono made of gorgeous but fussy burn-out velvet.  I think the results are pretty nice.

My pieces are hard to photograph.  Iris’s eyes are made of prism beads and I painted the skin with a iridescent pearl paint.  She has a soft glow that can be seen better in person.  I took these photos outside for the best light but I think you’ll get the full impact if you come to see it at A Somewhat Secret Place:  Disability and Art, a group show at PRESENTspace gallery from July 9th until July 30th.

I tried to give Aurora both dragon and dog characteristics.  I hope the mood of this piece captures the symbiotic relationship between people and animals.  Guide animals have a warm powerful energy that exists in relation to the power of their owners.  I wish we were all schooled in this way of relating to each other and the world around us.

I’m putting together a story about this idea and this piece for the closing day of A Somewhat Secret Place, which I will present at the gallery on July 30th from noon til 2 p.m.

I will also be showing another, smaller fabric sculpture, the Survivor, and a fabric wallhanging called Not Out of the Woods Yet.  There will be 28 artists,  both regional and national, represented.  The opening on July 9th will feature literature and performance art.  It’s everything from the edge to the illuminating — and everyone will enter through the side entrance where the ramp is installed.

Here’s a list of all the events that will take place during this month long event.  All the events will take place at PRESENTspace, 939 NW 10th Avenue, Portland, Oregon.

The Somewhat Secret Place Calendar of Events

July 6, 6 pm – A Somewhat Secret Place Post Hanging Party: A Preview for Donors:

Invitations to this event will go to all those who have donated $50 or more to the show through Kickstarter or the OWCA.  It’s a chance to meet the artists and curator and purchase artwork in advance of the public. Tickets are still available – contact asomewhatsecretinfo@gmail.com

If you’re reading this before July 2nd, you can still make a donation to the Kickstarter campaign which we’re having to raise money for rent and artists’ stipends and other expenses.  A $50. or over donation will get an invitation to this pre-opening private event.  Please click this link to find out  more:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owca/a-somewhat-secret-place

July 7, 6 pm – A Somewhat Secret Place First Thursday Public Pre-Opening

Artist Carmen Papalia will give a talk from 6 to 6:30 and then the show will be open for those on the First Thursday  Art-walk to have a peek. A free event!

July 9 – A Somewhat Secret Place Grand Opening

Noon – 2 pm – The Grand Opening starts off with a participatory workshop facilitated by Write Around Portland, where participants can find inspiration in the intersection of contemporary art and disability.  A free event but limited to 80 people.

6 – 9 pm – Grand Opening Night Reception features one-time, original performing artists and author readings.  American Sign Language Interpreters will be there as well as descriptors for the visually impaired.   It promises to be the most accessible and hippest art opening in Portland history.  A free event with refreshments!

 

July 14, 6 – 6:30 pm – Artist Talk with Andrea Rosselle, installation artist and sculptor, whose work explores the imposition of the medical object, and experience as a medical body, upon the act of every day living.  A free event!

 

July 21, 5 – 6 pm – Artist Talk with Eric Ferguson: “A Wobbly Line: from Improv to Ink and Back Again.” A free event!

 

July 26, 7 – 9 pm – ADA 21^ST BIRTHDAY PARTY! The Americans with Disabilities Act turns 21 and we are throwing a celebration to mark it.  There will be a panel discussion on its impact, then the birthday bash with cake and drinks.  This is a ticketed event.  Invitations are sent to Kickstarter donors, and at the door tickets are $21 for 2.  For discount tickets, check out A Somewhat Secret Place Facebook Event page.

 

July 30, 12 -2 pm – Artist Talk and storytelling with Joy Corcoran to engage children of all ages to explore the creative lives of people with disabilities. Children must be chaperoned.  A free event!

 

July 30, 6-9 pm A Somewhat Secret Place Closing Party:

A performance by Elie Charpentier and several author readings will celebrate the conclusion of the exhibition.  The after-party will be a great opportunity to mingle with the artists, writers and organizers.  A free event with free refreshments!

I hope to see you at one of the events!

I spent yesterday putting on layers of paint — a flat gold and an iridescent pearl – to get Aurora the Seeing-Eye Dragon’s spikes to match her skin.

She then wanted a pedicure.

So here she is almost at full size:

I spent today constructing the wings.  They started out like this:

And after wrestling with wire, threads, batting and beads wound up like this:

She now stands at 16″ tall and 38″ long.   That tail will be curled up a bit around her blind partner, Iris.  I’ll begin constructing her next.

Please read the previous posts to find out more about the Seeing-Eye Dragon I am making for A Somewhat Secret Place: Disability and Art

 

I am continuing work on my seeing-eye dragon for A Somewhat Secret Place exhibit.  I decided fabric was just too soft for the spikes so I made them out of Creative Paperclay.  I found a perfect shade of gold paint and an iridescent glaze.

I sculpted them over coat-hanger wires that would anchor them in the body.  I put little holes in the bottom to stitch them down — I thought that would look neat.  I painted and glazed them.  But when I attached them, they just looked wrong — like she’s wearing a series of party hats.

It’s funny how what you see in your head is rarely what you can recreate in with your hands.  I got the Paperclay back out and used the spikes to create a more integrated looking spine.  It’ll take a day or so to dry then I can repaint it.

While I was working I decided to name her Aurora.  I think that’s a good dignified name for a dragon who is serving as someone’s vision and is a source of power.

Next I’ll make the wings, paint the spine then add any needed ornamentation demanded by a well presented dragon.

I’ve already cut out her companion, Iris — and found the prism beads for her eyes.