About all kinds of water nymphs, at the Piante Gallery

Richard Evans who writes the Art Beat at the Journal, now featured in the monthy insert called the Muse, dropped in on me a couple of week before the opening at the Piante gallery of The Glacier Art Project and At Waters' Edge. We had fun looking at the paintings - which I strewed out on the floor in my studio - and in his art review he captured a lot of what I said, including the concept of "iciness". But, what I found brilliant in his writing was the interpretation he gave to the figures that appear in quite a few of the paintings. Here's what he wrote: "It’s so fascinating to observe how artists call upon their backgrounds and skills to bring forward themes using new visual clues. Iris has been a lifelong practitioner of drawing from the live model and in many of these prints anthropomorphic figures emerge as though calving into our presence."

Thank you Richard!

Here's what I say about these nymphs in the art: Greek mythology gives us a multitude of nymphs associated with life giving waters: Nereids, nymphs of the Mediterranean Sea, Hyades, rain, Limnades, lakes, Potameides, rivers, Oceanids, salty water and Naiades, of fresh water. At the splintering edge of a tide water glacier one can imagine playful Naiades, bathing, dancing, singing, and also raging as the glacier violently calves an iceberg."

Piante is open on Wed. through Sat. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. my exhibit comes down on Aug. 30. I do have a key if one of my friends would like a private showing when the gallery is closed.

Sunset over Samoa or can an old smokestack be beautiful?

17 days until the vernissage at Piante in Old Town, Eureka, Saturday August 6, 2011

This is what happened. We had some time to kill between dinner out and a movie, so we decided to walk along the shore in Eureka, washed over by one of those icy cold and vibrant winter sunsets.

Without paying much attention, we ended up inside some large wire enclosures...and kept walking and taking photos and talking about the end of the pulp mill era. The end of the stink, and the end of the jobs. The rusting hulk, and the seeping toxins. How when we moved here our real estate broker pointed out the active smokestack with its plume across the bay. He thought it enhanced our view. He was part of the generation that saw this as progress.

Well, we got stuck, the gates were closed when we wanted to get back to the car. My man, manly as he is, wanted to climb over the tall fence. Luckily, before he actually did so, we found a way out of the maze. Don't know if my painting is based on his or my photo. We often photograph the same thing and then argue about who got the best shot. It is a three color registration monotype diptych.

For an extensive and unique exploration of human impact on our earth take a look at local artist and art professor Cynthia Hooper's paintings and videos. I quote from her website: "My videos, paintings, and interdisciplinary projects investigate landscapes transfigured by social and environmental contingency. My work is meditative and poetic, but also takes a generously observational and generally factual approach toward the places I examine."