A month is almost over and our show, FEAST, ends on Saturday.

It’s time for a real feast! Please come to a POTLUCK LUNCH from 1-3 at Grover Thurston Gallery on Saturday, September 29th. Please bring food to share. You can see old friends and meet new ones.

Thanks for visiting the show and this blog over the month.

At the end of the potluck we will dismantle the bread wall and you can take home a piece if you would like. The bread will last for years if it stays in the open air.

This show, FEAST, contains work that Joe and I created over several years. But for me the work didn’t come in a steady flow. I work in my studio consistently but my ideas and output ebb and flow. Sometimes I am dissatisfied with what I am making and sometimes I am excited. What I want, and what I sometimes get, is to be so absorbed in what I am doing that the work takes on a life of its own; creating starts to feel like a conversation. I call this traction – my friend Deborah Mersky calls it flow. I think we are talking about the same thing. When I don’t have flow or traction I am itchy, miserable and self-doubting. When I do then life falls into place around the central act of creating. Sometimes I can’t remember what starts a flow of ideas and sometimes I can. Here are a few things that bumped me into creativity for this body of work.

I saw a show of African American quilts at the Bellevue Art Museum this summer. I was inspired by the beauty, the utility and the imperfection of the quilts. This subtle variations in shape and the many shades of blue and white – all slightly different – made this quilt come alive.

The quilts jolted me with the idea that images don’t need to be complicated to be beautiful or meaningful, and they led to the series of work that I called Blue Quilts. I did many paintings on small sheets of paper and pieced them together like quilts. I dyed some of the sheets of paper with tea to create variations in the whites.

Another bump came when I was having lunch with a friend – Margaret Chodos-Irvine. I was frustrated with the work I was doing for Feast and feeling empty of ideas. She said: “Well, you can’t just paint a Feast. It has to be feast or famine.” How could I have forgotten? I almost kicked over the table in my eagerness to get back and  paint. These paintings and more were sparked by that conversation.

In old still-lifes the butterfly symbolized mortality. Life is fleeting. Fruit ripens and dies. We ripen and die. Feast and famine go together, as do life and death, creative times and fallow times.

Thanks to everyone who came by and made it such a fun evening.

I installed the bread wall. First I spread all of the bread pieces on the floor on tablecloths and then nailed them to the wall.

You can see more pictures of the Bread Wall by clicking here.

Here is a picture of Susan Grover hanging our wall of collaborative drawings. She and Joe put them up.

And here is Richard Thurston hanging a wall of paintings by Joe.

Please come by the Grover Thurston Gallery for the opening on Thursday night from 6-8. Anything that is crooked in these pictures will be straightened out by then!

This week we have been printing posters for the show. Here are a bunch of them drying in the dining room.

Joe has had posters for most of his shows. The posters advertise the show and they are part of a long graphic tradition of handmade artist’s posters. I have designed most of them – adding lettering to Joe’s art. Sometimes we have made them ourselves, other times we have had them printed. Here are a few of those posters. We’ve done about 15 in total. We have done several (including this year’s poster) with spray paint through a stencil. The photographs are a little crooked but you get the idea!

Jeff at Two Dimensions silkscreened several over the years.

Scott Smith designed and printed this letterpress poster.

and this one was printed by Cracked Compass Press using images from Joe’s sketchbooks.

This painting is a collaboration. Joe drew the ink bowls and Julie painted the fruit in them using gouache. We made a series of 18 of these drawings. Each one is 30″ H x 22″W. Together they form the main dish of the show.

Wolf Girl, acrylic on panel, 48x48

Siems’ inspiration behind the show was the evolution of her daughter from childhood into adolescence and the idea that wild animal spirits may help children navigate their way through this transition.  In each of us there is a wild, animalistic-like spirit that, as we grow up and grow older gets buried under years of suppression and training in proper behavior.

Antler Girl, acrylic on panel, 40x52

In Siems’ work, we see children taking on historically grim expression and formal, constricting garb, reminding us of centuries of children whose innocence is lost all too soon.  Children whose natural wild spirits may fight against the constraints of social tradition and custom.

Bison Boy Drawing, mixed media on paper, 38x50

I was particularly drawn to Bison Boy ( above ), perhaps for the way the figure is isolated starkly against the white paper background.  He has been taken out of his environment, out of his element.  His garments are in the somewhat effeminate style of his era, yet his bison head & skin seem to be reminding us to not forget the wildness within.

George’s favorite work in the show was Lynx Cap ( below ), as this figure retains a sprightly, little girl expression in contrast to the other figures’ more suppressed, even haughty countenances.  She is still an innocent.

Lynx Cap, mixed media on paper with embroidery, 22x30

Guidance Tree, mixed media on panel, 48x48

I could go on and on about these and talk about every one– they are so interesting, visually and spiritually.  If you’d like to see more of Anne Siems’ work, please visit her website.  If you’re in Seattle, I highly recommend a visit to Grover Thurston to see these in person, a truly stunning show.

Featured image is Heart Branches, mixed media on panel, 30×30.  All images are via the artist’s website.

Wolf Girl, acrylic on panel, 48x48

Siems’ inspiration behind the show was the evolution of her daughter from childhood into adolescence and the idea that wild animal spirits may help children navigate their way through this transition.  In each of us there is a wild, animalistic-like spirit that, as we grow up and grow older gets buried under years of suppression and training in proper behavior.

Antler Girl, acrylic on panel, 40x52

In Siems’ work, we see children taking on historically grim expression and formal, constricting garb, reminding us of centuries of children whose innocence is lost all too soon.  Children whose natural wild spirits may fight against the constraints of social tradition and custom.

Bison Boy Drawing, mixed media on paper, 38x50

I was particularly drawn to Bison Boy ( above ), perhaps for the way the figure is isolated starkly against the white paper background.  He has been taken out of his environment, out of his element.  His garments are in the somewhat effeminate style of his era, yet his bison head & skin seem to be reminding us to not forget the wildness within.

George’s favorite work in the show was Lynx Cap ( below ), as this figure retains a sprightly, little girl expression in contrast to the other figures’ more suppressed, even haughty countenances.  She is still an innocent.

Lynx Cap, mixed media on paper with embroidery, 22x30

Guidance Tree, mixed media on panel, 48x48

I could go on and on about these and talk about every one– they are so interesting, visually and spiritually.  If you’d like to see more of Anne Siems’ work, please visit her website.  If you’re in Seattle, I highly recommend a visit to Grover Thurston to see these in person, a truly stunning show.

Featured image is Heart Branches, mixed media on panel, 30×30.  All images are via the artist’s website.

"Life", 2011, Acrylic on wood panel, 54"x60"

In her biography, Anne says that she “continues her interest in the human figure (medical and botanical works inspired her earlier works), and the attributes that surround it. These attributes show something about the being without giving a specific narrative. Ideas about life and death, sensuality, sexuality, nature, experiences in the realm of dreams, psyche and spirit” are her ongoing topics. What resonated with me is that she says that elements found in her work were there because they felt right and that they had no specific symbolism. I don’t want to work at liking a painting because of its “symbolism.”

Looking Back - Detail

The artist, who was born in Germany, has an impressive biography. She is a Fulbright Scholar, has exhibited widely throughout the country, and is included in various important collections:  Arkansas Art Center, Boise Art Museum, Microsoft Collection, the Tacoma Art Museum, Hallmark Collection, Nestle USA, Nordstrom, Safeco  and Harry Connick, Jr.’s private collection (one of my favorite singer/actors!).

I know it is always fascinating to see where an artist paints, so you can see Anne’s studio at another Seattle artist, Alicia Tormey’s blog.

And lucky for me, Anne told me that she will be having an artist reception April 5 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Grover Thurston Art Gallery in Seattle where she will be exhibiting.

Wolfgirl, 2012, Acrylic on wood panel, 48"x48"

“Guidance” will show April 5 through May 12 at 319 Third Avenue S., open 11-5 Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment.

Plant Hat Drawing, 2011, acrylic on paper

Thank you, Anne, for graciously allowing me to share my new discovery–you!