feel good moment

I just signed in to my blog reader and there on one of my favorite blogs, Dear Ada, was my own work!

Contemporary Fiber Arts at PNCA

Along with artist Kim Lakin, I'll be teaching a class at PNCA this summer. It's part of their Summer of Making in the Continuing Ed program.

Summer of Making is a mixture of craft classes, social media, and the Contemporary Fiber Arts class Kim and I are teaching. Our class will be a survey about fiber as sculptural/art medium and contemporary artists who work with fabric or fiber. Other classes are:

• Bead and Button Jewelry, with Susan Beal
• Artful Blogging, with Sarah Schlosser-Moon
• By Hand: Needlework and Macrame, with Jess Beebe
• Podcasting for Everyone with Diane Gilleland
• Quilting Workshop with Denyse Schmidt

I met some of these women at a meeting the other day and they are a talented, well-connected bunch. If you are looking for some creative enrichment in your life, check out these classes in the PNCA online catalog.

Work on view at J Crist Gallery

Some of my small works are currently on view at J Crist Gallery in Boise, Idaho.

SUNY/Brockport

My work is currently part of a group show entitled EndoSkeletal and Exoskeletal: Sculptures with Armatures. SUNY gave me an honorarium to come install my work and do a talk to students and the public. Jennifer Hecker curated the show and Gallery Director, Tim Massey made it a beautiful installation. Both Jennifer and Tim are professors of art at SUNY. The Tower Fine Arts is a beautiful gallery and I was honored to be showing with Cheryl Coon, Ronald Gonzalez, and Therese Zemlin. I received two generous grants to help with crate building, shipping and travel expense. The Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York City provided me with an Emergency Grant. Additionally I received funding from the Oregon Art Commisson's Career Opportunity Grant.

Click on the photo below to see exhibition photos.

SUNY Brockport: Endoskeletal & Exoskeletal: Sculptures with Armature

Sameness Difference Stillness Movement

Here are shots of the show at Ogle Gallery (details are in the previous post). All the works looked great together and with a certain sameness of color throughout that felt very spare and elegant. Rob's pulsating reds and blues were the lively exception.




















This is my large piece, Low Tide. This was the first time I've used this black wax in such a large scale. Even though it dark, the amount of pigment is very small and there is still a certain translucency. I saw this article the other day about researchers at Rice University who have created the blackest substance on earth. Fortunately I've not gone there.



this is a detail of Low Tide













Fluctuations (Dark). I'm really enjoying this dark wax. I've got a couple of smaller pieces in the works in the studio. The variations result by simply adding more or less black pigment to the wax. I like that the natural color of the fabric shows through when there is less pigment - it almost appears pinkish.









detail of Fluctuations

Grants are like Chistmas presents!

So the Ogle show up and looking great and I just got the wonderful news that I'm getting two of the four grants I've recently applied for. One is the Regional Arts and Culture Council's Professional Development Grant in which I applied for funds to get my sorely outdated website upgraded. The other is from the Contemporary Arts Foundation in New York. They have an emergency grant that I applied for in order to get funds to crate and ship my work to the SUNY Brockport show EndoSkeletal/ExoSkeletal: Sculptures with Armature.

Exhibition at Ogle Gallery

I have organized a exhibition at Ogle Gallery of four artists (including myself) whose works explore the concept of repetition in one form or another. The preview reception is Wednesday, December 5, from 6-9pm. I hope you can join us for a glass of wine and a chat with the artists.

And if you miss Wednesday's reception, there is a First Thursday, December 6, reception as well – alas, no wine that night. A full press release is below.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sameness & Difference | Stillness & Movement
An exhibition organized by Brenda Mallory

Ogle Gallery: 310 NW Broadway, Portland OR 97209
Artist Reception: December 5th, 6pm-9pm
First Thursday Opening: December 6th, 6pm-9pm
Exhibit Dates: December 4th - February 2nd, 2008
Ogle Gallery Hours: 11am-6pm, Tuesday through Saturday

Repeated, seemingly identical forms combine into an endless mass to become a wheat field, an ocean surface, an advancing army, or a migrating flock. The power of the many with its potential for infinite expansion cannot be denied. But it does not overpower the rich experience of taking the closer look that shows distinct individual and minute variations within that vast sameness.

Nothing ever repeats itself exactly, but human beings, from artists, scientists, mystics, farmers and housewives, have found meaning in repetition. Brenda Mallory shows her own work and brings together three other artists whose practices explore these themes. Their methods and motivations vary, but each works within the discipline of repetition, examining the ideas of sameness, difference, stillness and movement.

Mary Lang studies the ephemeral and intangible by photographing the convergence of light and energy on the ever-changing fluid surface of water.

Rob Tyler patiently hand paints individual frames of 16mm film leader, then digitally manipulates the film into pulsating rhythms that never repeat in quite the same way.

Yoshi Kitai makes excessive individual marks that converge to form a surface, a meander, or a line in a field.

Brenda Mallory's connects multitudes of the same form, allowing the slight differences in the size or shape of the forms to create undulations and irregularities.

CONTACT
Brenda Mallory, 503-593-8897
Valentina Barroso Graziano, Ogle Gallery, 503-227-4333

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