Artist Talks and Reception at 1+1=1 Gallery
Please be our guest at Helena’s unique 1+1=1 gallery this coming Friday night. Maureen and Tim will answer questions and talk about their inspirations and art media beginning at 6:30. Reception follows the talks, around 7:00 pm. Please enjoy wine, sushi and Thai appetizers after the talks.
The gallery will be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. We will open the gallery doors at 6:15 Friday evening. We’d love to see you there!
Wood, Trees and the Spirit of Nature Opens at 1+1=1
Luke’s Dream
Luke sleeps and leaps
in his sleep. In his dreams he
can fly, spinning feathers through the air
legs out front the way a hero flies.Luke sleeps and chases
in his sleep. In his dreams he
snaps at fish that tease and leap and
fly in moonlight, and arc over our bow.Luke sleeps and watches
in his sleep, in his dreams he
sees a spirit ship floating the crest of a wave
it has come to take him home
I recently finished “Luke’s Dream.” My sister, Kat and her husband, Jerry, commissioned me to make a mixed media painting to remind them of their sweet rottweiler, Luke, and their sailing life. It was lovely to deliver it to my sister in person and to see her reaction to it.
The 48 inch by 30 inch piece is in a mahogany box (made by Tim) and covered with glass (thus the weird horizontal lines reflection of the siding on my mom’s house in the top photo.) I included an old barometer, compass, cleats, and bits of sailboats, maps, cables, sails, a sacrificial-zinc disc. Scribbles and smudges of charcoal, conte and pastel. Layered papers and drawings. Photos of peeling cracked wallpaper blended with an antique planosphere (map of the heavens) and of course, Luke himself sitting on the bow of the Splendid Mane.
Luke developed bone cancer in his leg, and died a few years ago. Fly free, Luke. Sweet dreams! Catch lots of rabbits and flying fish, won’t you?
Wood, Trees and the Spirit of Nature
1+1=1 is becoming a reality! On November 8th our little month-long gallery will have an opening reception during the Helena Fall Art Walk. The reception is from 6 to 9 pm.
The idea of 1+1=1 began when my husband, Tim and I were talking with our friends Mike and Colleen over dinner at their house. We were asking them how they helped Doug Turman get his start as an artist and gallery owner and Mike told us about the popup gallery he and Doug had years ago. Now Doug and his lovely wife, Mary Lee, have the always-happening Turman Larison Contemporary (art gallery) in downtown Helena. And it just so happens that the place we found for our popup gallery is right next door to Doug and Mary Lee’s gallery. Awesome!
We have been wanting a place to show Tim’s studio furniture and my photography and paintings for a long time, and the idea of experimenting with a temporary gallery was enticing.
So we’re doing it! We found an empty retail space on Last Chance Gulch and Mike helped us arrange a deal with the owners of the building for just one month to try out this gallery idea. It’s pretty last minute because we wanted to have our opening during the Art Walk, and be open for the holiday shopping season before Christmas.
Tim and I share a common esthetic and creative vision, although we have very different ways to express that vision. He works with the spirit of trees through his hands, making functional art furniture. I express my connection with trees and nature through photography, painting and mixed media collage. Our home is filled with art from both of us and our friends and family. We live a blessed, simple life and we both feel lucky that we can make a living creating art that we hope helps others connect with Nature on a deep level.
Docenting: Learning as You Go
What is a Docent? Not What You Might Think
Well, I took the plunge and became a docent at our local art museum. Today was a day to get over some of my own stereotypes. Being a docent is something I have wanted to do for a long time, but hesitated because somehow I didn’t identify myself in the group of people who a) had time to volunteer, b) knew the right people or c) had a fabulously rich spouse.
With encouragement from a couple of acquaintances, I dove in and came up swimming. Imagine my surprise to find out that you don’t have to be a well-connected housewife to be a docent. I wonder where I acquired that stereotype? At my first docent meeting, I felt welcomed and valued. There are all kinds of people in this group of volunteers and I look forward to getting to know them and feeling comfortable in my role.
So … what is a docent? Sondra Hines, the Educational Coordinator at the Holter Museum, asked the kids in a school tour if they knew. They didn’t. Neither did I. I was glad she didn’t ask me. A docent is a volunteer trained to share their enthusiasm and knowledge of visual arts with all ages, and to encourage them to experience art in ways that are not available in classrooms. Basically a different kind of educator.
My First Day as a Docent: learning from the students
So, jumping right in, I had a blast with 19 sixth graders today — first, listening to them explore and think critically about “Counting Coup” a warrior made of pieces of rusty car wrecks by Jay Laber. Then, watching how easily Sondra channeled their curiosity and insights. The Holter Museum uses Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in all tours. After observing Sondra use VTS so fluently, I am excited to learn this method of stimulating more engagement with art. I will write more about VTS as I improve my skills.
After the tour of Laber’s art, we made wire-and-stuff- sculptures. One girl struggled with her skeleton of copper wire and tossed it aside because it just wasn’t doing what she had in mind. She began again a second time with wire so thick that even I couldn’t help her bend it the way she wanted it to bend. I suggested trying the copper wire again. Nope. Didn’t want to. She knew what she wanted, and was going to stick to her strategy no matter what anyone suggested. Reminded me of myself. Stubborn. In the end, she had a spare figure and ran out of time. She had struggled with this really heavy unbending wire in her wish to show it who was boss.
One lesson I think many of the kids came away with was that even if you start out thinking you are making a certain something … the wire and other bits will eventually dictate what you are making… your idea may change from a cat to a chicken. Or from a horse to a spaceship. Or you might take the easy way out, announcing that you have made an abstract sculpture.
Time compresses when you are having fun. Or working on something challenging. Or trying to help six different kids simultaneously. Time compresses especially in the last five minutes of a workshop. You suddenly realize you have a head, two arms and not much else because you have obsessed and perfectionized about a certain placement of the feet or making sure the legs are the exact same length. Meanwhile, your table-mate has willy-nilly twisted, tied, dangled and wrapped his wire with buttons, washers, bolts, window screen, feathers and pieces of nylon cloth. And come up with something remarkably resembling a wild and crazy alley cat.
Steal Like an Artist
- Different styles of work and play.
- Different ways of seeing the same materials.
- We all look at life in a different way.
I recently read a little book titled “Steal Like an Artist.” It’s simple. Compelling. And I read it in the time it took my toes to wrinkle like prunes in the bathtub. The idea that humans are incapable of copying perfectly, stuck with me from the book. Copy copy copy. You will never make the same exact something someone else has made. The students used much the same materials, and some of them emulated Laber’s sculptures (warriors, horses, a buffalo) yet their amazing creations were so much a part of the creators that I marveled at their creativity.
Seen:: Tiny Fisherwoman Casts Her Net
Exciting New Thing for Us: a Pop-Up Gallery
I have some good news: Tim and I made a commitment to renting a space in downtown Helena, for a whole month. We’re going to open a little pop-up (temporary, short-term) gallery the night of the Fall Art Walk — November 8th. The as-yet-to-be-named little gallery will feature Tim’s exquisite hand crafted furniture and my artwork. I will write more about the show and our progress as the time nears, both here and on my Facebook page.
We would be honored if as many of our Helena peeps as possible would come down to our little gallery during the art walk — or anytime from November 8th to December 8th. I’d love to see you and show you my work and Tim’s. You’ve been able to see both of our work online, and at the fall art walks for the past few years, but now is your chance to see a lot more of it — in person.
And when you come, please sit in one of Tim’s super comfy chairs. You’ll be amazed.
I will be at the little gallery during the Art Walk and Tim will be there part of the evening. He also has his piece, The Madison, in the Art of Wood show with the Helena Woodworkers Guild at the Placer Hotel lobby during the art walk.
Anyhoo, I’m really excited about this — and a little nervous. It’s a ton of work to put together a show of artwork, and we still have so much to do. I am working on 5 new paintings, and really excited to show them to the world.
Stay tuned for our progress, an invitation to an artist reception (and gallery talk) and more details as we get them nailed down.
LINKS ABOUT POP-UP GALLERIES AND THE POP-UP TREND