VOL 04 ISSUE
03 
February 12, 2005
BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE
VOL 04 ISSUE
03 BACK ISSUES | ° | ¤ | CURRENT ISSUE |
| PASIÓN BOTÁNIA: INFANTE LYONS IMPROBABLE ENVIRONMENTS | ||||
 A PASSION FOR NATURAL HISTORY inspires
Linda Infante Lyons, whose paintings are being exhibited at Grant Hall this month on the
Alaska Pacific University campus in Anchorage. Sprouts, shown at right, is a
personal favorite of the artist among the works. Lyons is a painter who develops
her ideas on the canvas and her works are from her imagination based on dedicated
experience with the form. Her familiarity with the elements of plant life allow her to
invent plants to arrange on her simple, surreal landscapes. Raised in Alaska, Lyons spent
much of her adult life in Valparaiso, Chile, a coastal town with a harbor full of
shipping. The South American sensibility is evident in the lively colors and
devotion to plant life as a subject. In Sprouts, Lyons achieves a simple visual
poetry through multiple representations of the seedling at different stages, and the
lozenge shaped clouds. |
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ENREDADERAL:CHILEAN
TRANSPLANT Lyons works primarily in oil and in a fairly rapid fashion.
The horizon line is an established element to help stage the plants as portraits. The
plants are done in saturated hues to bring them forward against the pastel backgrounds,
and paint is applied evenly with little impasto. Lyons singled out Enredaderal,
shown at left as a plant most similar to plants native to Chile. Tendrils coming from the
tips of its leaves are twining around the stem of the plant, and the showy flower bursts
like a firecracker in the formalized clouds above the almost voluptuous scenery. "Finding equilibrium with color is what propels me forward on a painting." Lyons reports in a statement accompanying the show.." I explore the duality of nature, balancing beauty with evil, life with death, and science with spirituality. ... I hope to give the viewer a feeling of familiarity, as well as a disconcerting jolt of the unknown." The little birdies in some of the pictures told ArtSceneAK that collectors get the feeling. They are the type of work that inspires a personal connection that says 'must have'. Even the most involved works priced at only $1500 and many priced at half that or less, and Lyons wistfully reflected on her bargain rates. Even at such extreme values, would sales be sufficient to compensate for her investment? Pink Pyrola, the index image for this issue, is one that sold at the opening reception. This smaller, one foot square painting was framed with a deep box with the panel set well out towards the front. |
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RECENT
TRANSPARENCIES:MEALOR At the Carr-Gottstein gallery at APU this
month, a lush collection of recent watercolors by Gary Mealor articulate some of the same
vision as Lyons using a broader range of more domestic objects to represent. An example is
Whiskey and Water, shown at left, two things the artist notes as essential to
life. In this still life, as in several others, Mealor has made use of the digital camera
to manipulate his compositions and achieved his vision with Transparent Watercolors.
Whiskey background warps into un-identifiable form which serves to
reflect not only the shadow of the translucent objects but the refracted light from the
glasses as well (at the upper right of the image). Mealor's fascination with rendering
transparencies leads to ever more interesting challenges which he meets admirably.
Richard West, director of Seattle's Frye Art Museum used the French term tour de force
to describe Mealor's watercolors: "compellingly painted and beautifully
constructed."
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BELL, SINK, PINCH
& REST:WATERCOLOR In the painting named Bell, Sink, Pinch
& Rest, shown at left, Mealor seems to follow realism out around the corner into
abstraction in a way that is very contemporary and far from regional. Global artists are
increasingly expressing their virtuosity in rendering and free associating on the same
canvas, in a way that continues to evolve beyond the pastiche and appropriations of the
Post-Modernist convention. The tomatoes are painted suffused with light and casting bright
shadows in what appears to be water swirling down a drain. They seem to be distibuted both
casually and calculatedly. Mealor intimates that this painting has an emotional content
for him. Any observer can be effected by the clarity and mystery which he has accomplished
in accordance with his goal: "to create an image that is both believable and
impossible." Watercolorists like to form societies and Alaska has three: the Anchorage based Alaskan Watercolor Society, the Fairbanks Watercolor Society (FWS), and Homer area Kachemak Bay Watercolor Society. Regular meetings of multi-tiered memberships revolve around speakers, workshops, and classes. The AWS is probably the single largest membership based visual artist group in Alaska. The prospectus for their 31st annual juried exhibit in September is available online. |
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CLAM TIDE BEAR: AMASON
TROPHY AUCTION Public radio station KAKM in Anchorage is one of
several non-profit organizations that solicit artists for donations to auction to benefit
the 501(c)'s. They use the hallways of their broadcast building (just before APU north of
Providence drive) to preview the copious amounts of booty donated and offered refreshments
on first Friday to host interested benefactors. Refreshingly, a few original items were
donated to the auction by prosperous collectors, such as Conoco Phillips, who donated Clam Tide
Bear by Leda Amason shown at left. A plank mask with wonderful carved cam shells and
a teddy-bear face is framed by two willow sticks and a panoply of feathers and sawed
and painted wood blocks which give the sensation of wavelets lapping at a pebbly beach. Since the tax benefits accrue to collectors in a meaningful way, soliciting them as donors is a healthy cure for the market damage done by direct donation from the artist. There are prestige rewards for artists, and television exposure during the auction period at the end of the month, and certainly Channel 7 broadcasts the predominant amount if not the only programming dealing with the visual arts. Yet the promotional benefits are counterbalanced by the loss of compensation even as a tax deduction for the labor required to produce originals. Many generous artists accommodate the dichotomy by offering reproductions or inkjet prints nicely framed. Cost of labor is ameliorated by the economies of producing editions. |
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CANTANKAROUS:GHIGLIERI BRONZE Economies from an artist's willingness to part with one of an edition of over a hundred have a range of application, as shown by the most highly valued item prepared for auction seen at left, Cantankarous by Lorenzo Ghiglieri and donated by his studio/foundry. Suggested minimum bid for this lodge walker is over eighteen thousand dollars. A technically exemplary casting and inventive in composition, Cantankarous represents a grizzly bear rubbing its hide on a stump. Too fine in detail to be seen in the photograph, a mouse clings to the other side, hoping not to be noticed. Ghiglieri is a west coast artist based in Oregon, and his work attracts the admiration of the well-known and well-to-do. His talent is distributed between sculpture and painting, and his passion is for the animal form, bordering on the sentimental. The sculpture is displayed on a low corner and dimly lit for a piece which may bring the greatest contribution to KAKM's bottom line. | |||
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MOSQUITO LAKE:HEHNLIN TEMPERA Two artists who attended the preview reception included Andrew Hehnlin and Katherine Little, whose works shown at left included Hehnlin's Mosquito Lake Haines above and Little's Red Poppy below. Hehnlin, whose original egg tempera paintings are represented around Alaska (cf Issue #309) and at Elaine Baker's in Anchorage downtown, has lived a charmed life in association with the wealthy and powerful, including Elmer Rasmuson in his day. He downplays the technical achievements of his work by claiming to be self taught, using a loofah and a spray mister to manipulate colors into verisimilitude and mood. Yet he reaches a point in Mosquito Lake, however rapidly, where a viewer feels the urge to slap and itch. Describing the glaze which defines the reflective surface of the water on the lake, he mentions "Few will notice that the glaze darkens and mattes as it blends" to the left in the painting. Egg tempera enthusiasts also formed a society, but with so few that are willing to work directly with pigments and have the patience , they are nation-wide. | |||
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RED POPPY:LITTLE LETS IT FLOW Katherine Little was recently approached by Stephan's Fine Arts after a show in the martini bar Sub-Zero with Kim Marcucci caught their attention. Little has been reviving a style popular in the 70's and still considered decorative. Thinned veils of paint are flowed onto the substrate with a minimum of brushwork. Successive transparent layers lend themselves well to the floral theme of Red Poppy, with a similar organic gravity response. Further details at KAKM online. | |||
- ARTIST OPPORTUNITIES- 2/25/05 deadline IBEW WILD SALMON ON PARADE public sculpture promotion includes a halibut category this year, seeking proposals. Stipend, proceeds benefit Anchorage Cultural Council among others. Contact Melinda Taylor 907-777-7248 2/28/05 deadline CENTRAL PENINSULA GENERAL HOSPITAL & PLANETREE requests submissions from interested artists to be considered for future purchases or commissions. Requires letter of transmittal, work samples, fee and rate schedule received and time stamped before 3 pm Monday 28 at CPGH, 250 Hospital Place, Soldotna AK 99689 3/1/05 deadline SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSIONS is seeking to establish a pre-qualified pool of professional artists for a variety of public art projects.RFQ online. 3/7/05 deadline KING COUNTY MOUNT SI BRIDGE design team seeks artist for pedestrian enhancements. Budget $200,000, RFQ online. 3/11/05 deadline METRO ART LOS ANGELES seeks proposals from artists working in photographic media for light boxes at four stations. Four $5000 stipends. RFQ online or contact 213-922-4ART. 3/15/05 deadline RASMUSON FOUNDATION INDIVIDUAL ARTIST PROJECT AWARDS offers multiple grants up to $5,000 for clearly articulated projects with plan, budget, timeline, benefits analysis. Guidelines & applications online or contact Victoria Lord 907.334.0514. Alaska residents only. 3/20/05 deadline BP INTERNATIONAL PORTRAIT COMPETITION seeks entries for £47,000 in prizes including a commission and a travel grant. £13 entry fee, size restrictions, age restriction (18-40 years old). Prospectus online. 3/31/05 deadline ADOBE ACTION GRANTS $5,000-$20,000 for one year only. Adobe supports schools and community-based organizations with programs that enable and inspire K-12 students to think creatively, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively, using digital technology and communication tools. In Seattle, not Alaska
NEXT: RONDEZ GRANDEZ FEEDBACK Aggravated again?! Get a NO Prize for proving us wrong. Let us know you love us or hate us and tell us about your upcoming event or opportunity and get a No, Thank YOU. Help correct attribution errors you suspect. SHORTCUTS: When we use your 100 word reviews of any show you've seen recently, sweet and sour, you'll earn a free limo ride some First Friday. Form makes it easy. cf also ART IN ALASKA |
SCHEMATICS:AMHA PROGRESSES The
architect David Chipperfield visited Anchorage this month on his round of world-class
projects his firm is managing. In an interview with Mark Baechtel of the Anchorage Daily
News, Chipperfield defended his admittedly cheechako formulations that Alaskans didn't
care about being dropped off at the door and that a snow white building looks good in a
landscape covered with snow six months out of the year. In his astonishment at finding the
environment to be fundamental to Alaska, he claims to want to refute the protective
qualities of the museum. As a statement, this must be understood in the sense that Bob's
Your Uncle or tongue-in-cheek, certainly. A longer discourse by Kieran Long on the
Chipperfield design philosophy is in the December issue of Icon magazine online.One year ago in February 2004, Chipperfield's Figge Museum was reported to be 'on time and on budget' at $30 million. More recently, construction costs have been reported at $49.5 million for the four story, 100,000 square foot building, clad in the same fritted glass sheathing proposed for Anchorage. Artist's Math: Davenport spent $495/square foot, Anchorage proposes to spend $1100/ square foot. Taxpayers will be asked to burden themselves beyond the self-protective tax cap for the privilege to cover operational costs. ArtSceneAK's fantasy virtual expansion (above right) shows the new building paralleling Sixth Street, connecting to a new second floor over the back of house section of the existing museum. The alley is formalized and expanded with vehicular access to underground parking doubling existing capacity. It is safe to say that anyone who boasts of their willingness to brave arctic cold to walk from an off-site parking spot parked in the Museum's basement garage and took the elevator. Instead of smothering up against the existing building, our suggested orientation for the addition takes command of the vacant block and positions a generous reception hall at the base of an elevator tower to a gallery eight floors up featuring views of Mt McKinley reinforced by the Museum's signature paintings of the massif. The McKinley tower would be an instant 'must-see' attraction, would actually make a statement in the skyline of Anchorage, and remove ambivalence about where to enter the new building. Climb aboard your choice of white elephants in the BACK ISSUE Index.
Thank You and Welcome back to a renewing subscriber in Anchorage Margret Hugi-Lewis reported in: "I took down my show and found your contribution in the form of a drawing.I was so very pleased that you did this, thank you.I had some other people doing work with the still lifes and I want to make a nice evening with dinner here at my house for all of them, including you of course.Take care have fun with whatever you do." Yay! Victoria Lord has some pertinent advice on the next round of Rasmuson Foundation Arts and Culture Initiative Individual Artist Project Grants, with a deadline rapidly approaching of March 15: "Please read the guidelines carefully. Questions? Give me a call. 907-334-0514" Anchorage experimental artist and ArtSceneAK publisher Donald R Ricker got this nice note in the email recently, and was pleasantly surprised to say the least. "Dear Mr Ricker, We wish to inform you that you are invited to the Florence Biennale as a guest, you won't have to pay for the participation fee, we will also be happy to pay for economic class air ticket and hotel in Florence for a few days. Please let us know if you are interested and if yes, remember to send all the documents and photographs needed for the participation.Looking forward to hear from you,Our best regards" --- Arte Studio. The Imaginarium's Bonnie Jack sent word about the Future of the Museum Committee meetings: "You are always welcome to attend these meetings. They are open to the public. Of course if the other three (artist liaisons) are in attendance you would not be able to participate but could speak at the end of the meeting. I strongly to attend if/when you have time. " The next one is scheduled at the call of the chairman.
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text & photos © 2005 Donald R Ricker; artist's works pictured ©2005 to artists credited.
ArtSceneAK is published by Donald R Ricker and sponsored by
BETTER LETTERS, PO Box 103554, Anchorage AK 99510-3554
