First Night Spokane 2010

Last Thursday, I excitedly picked up a fresh copy of The Inlander, and after perusing the Quips & Digits, as well as an article about marijuana tax revenues in Spokane, I got to the First Night calendar.

This year's menu of art, music and performance looks decent. For $12 you can choose from several bands, some live artist demonstrations, films at the Magic Lantern and City Hall, comedy at the convention center, etc, etc.

After studying the map and schedule closely, I have created a rough plan for my First Night experience.

Celtic Knots music

This local Irish band has been a part of First Friday since this event started ten years ago. This is sure to be time well spent.

48 Hour Film Festival film

Even if I didn't have friends who submitted short films to this competition, I would still go to see what local cameramen and actors are doing with their spare time. These shorts will be playing at city hall.

Brickwall Gallery art

I intend to check this venue off of my list of galleries to visit. This gallery shows photography at 530 W. Main.

Glass Gods art demonstration

I haven't seen glass blowing before, so this should be a neat experience. I'll look for this on Riverside Ave on my way to the film festival.

Carousel fun

A free ride might be worth waiting in a long line. Then again, maybe not.

Fireworks

The main, midnight attraction.

First Friday Spokane, December 2010

December’s First Friday artist receptions and exhibitions
Annette Farrell

Graphics Editor

Spokane’s monthly celebration of local art and galleries, otherwise

know as First Friday, featured art of many mediums and artists of many kinds. The Spokane Arts Commission featured 24 venues in all. Let’s take a look at five events that took place during the first weekend of December.

Kolva-Sullivan Gallery & Track Side Studio

115 Adams St.

This gallery is located around the cor

ner from Washington Square, which is home to a Rocket Bakery and the clothing boutique Fringe and Fray. These two gallery spaces share the same front door. To the left is the pottery studio shared by two owners who use the space to work and display their craft. To the right, the Kolva-Sullivan gallery hosts the reception for Matt Boland’s “Scream and Shine” exhibition of pottery sculpture, which is partly a celebration of the artist’s return to Eastern Washington.

Boland is glad to be back in Spokane. He has seen Spokane’s art scene, and Spokane itself, grow a lot over the years. There is a belief held by many Spokanites that Spokane has no culture, but Boland said that this is the wrong way to think about it.
“”If you’re assuming there is no culture, then its going to die out. [Spokane] has really grown, and it’s going to keep growing,” Boland said.

The industrial gallery space of the Kolva-Sullivan gallery features a series of Boland’s sculptures depicting men in underwear, contorted into outlandish positions. Each angry, stru

ggling figure would have a rather imposing presence if not for the fact that they are stripped down to their whitey-tighties, with beer bellies and pink skin revealed.

“My current work addresses the ongoing obsession, in my life as well as those around me, with self-improvement,” Boland said.

One sculpture, called “Too Carry My Own Weight,” is composed of a floating man struggling to carry a copy of himself in a net. Through this sculpture, Boland communicates the kind of inner struggle that everyone experiences. Sometimes people struggle to carry their own metaphorical baggage, and sometimes it is actually the physical body that hold us back.

Boland uses the underwear as a contrast to the anger and struggle present in the little clay men. Contrast, which Boland says is different from

merely ‘opposite’, is important to this series. As one can see in the show’s title, “Scream and Shine,” Boland likes putting together contrasting concepts. It is a way to see things a little differently, and to create new meaning.

Fringe and Fray
1325 W 1st

This vintage clothing boutique has made space on the walls for the paintings of local artists and teacher Darcy Lee Drury. Her brightly colored paintings are imaginative and energetic. She creates flowing images of flowers, fish and abstract designs. Her portraits are also unique in the way she emphasizes the lips and creates big bright eyes, while keeping the personality of the individual in the painting.

You may have seen her work at the Terrain art show last October. If not, you can expect to see her work at other venues around town in the future. Examples of her work can also be viewed at her website, darcyleeart.com.

Second Space Gallery
610 W Second

Second Space opened on Friday with a juried exhibition titled “Lipstick and Rouge.” Artists were required to submit an original work made within the last two years that uses the color red. Judging the show is Karen Kaiser, assistant curator of the Jundt Art Museum. Most of the submissions came from Spokane, but there were a few works that came from places as far away as Chicago.

Vlasta Smola’s “Bailando Flamenco” is a stylized oil painting of a vivacious flamingo, with a spanish lace fan for a wing, and an undulating flamenco skirt for a body. Smola’s painting expresses the passion and heat of the color red, exemplifying the show's theme.

“Lipstick and Rouge” can be viewed at the gallery through the end of the month.

Saranac Art Project
W 25 Main St

If you are looking for video installations in Eastern Washington, the Saranac Art Project is the place to go. This month’s show, called “Digital Matters,” is a display of digital art projected on the wall, displayed on TV screens, played through speakers and printed on paper.

Pulsating sounds that ebb and swell fill the gallery, while technicolor moving pictures slide across the screens. One of the videos uses an image from a Washington state traffic cam, and blurs the image sideways, the way a slow computer sometimes repeats a segment of web page on accident. Hanging on the wall are printed compositions of abstract forms. The works in this gallery all have a heavy dose of computer manipulation in them.

According to the Saranac Art Project website, this show attempts to answer questions about the nature of the digital medium as an art form. The show runs through January 1.


The Museum of Arts and Culture
2316 W. First Ave

Saturday afternoon brought local artists and art appreciators to the MAC for the artist reception of Timothy Ely and his exhibition “Line of Sight.” On display are Ely’s hand bound and illustrated art books.

This exhibition is unique on several different levels because the art is in the form of books, and the exhibits represent the artist’s work created as early as elementary school, and as recent as this year. Audience members had the opportunity to hear directly from the artist, who spoke about his influences, and answered questions like why he uses unreadable text.

Each of his books is a unique work of art, and to get the full experience, you must hold the book in your hands and flip through the pages. All of the books displayed in cases, but Ely created a new book for this exhibition specifically so people could touch it and flip through the pages. The difference between books and paintings, according to Ely, is that books are a much more intimate experience, while 2-D paintings are more passive, like furniture.

“I’m interested in the ideas of people,” Ely said,.

Ely’s compositions are dominated by geometric shapes made precisely with mechanical instruments like compasses. His inspiration comes from science fiction novels that he began to collect and read at the age of eight. The process and materials used in the making of a book are still Ely’s favorite part of making art.

He has also developed a kind of fake alphabet, which he uses in place of text normally found in books. Ely does not want the viewer to get distracted by meaning contained in paragraphs and sentences. Walking up to one of Ely’s compositions might seem strange at first because of the lack of information beyond the abstract designs.

When asked about content and meaning in his abstract drawings and symbols Ely said, “I don’t think anything can be made without meaning, so I can safely say ‘yes,’ [my paintings] have meaning.”

“Line of Sight” will be exhibited at the MAC through April 16, 2011.

Links:
http://experiencespokane.com/redskykolva/
darcyleeart.com
http://www.secondspacegallery.us/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saranac-Art-Projects/30231042635
http://www.northwestmuseum.org/

Christmas Break-ing Bad

Now that it's Christmas break, and I somehow managed to end up with only eleven hours of work, I am left with a vast amount of free time.

The idea of free time is fantastic, but as a peson who has been insanely busy with work and school for the past 3.5 months, this new free time is almost a burden.

So far, I have spent my free time spending money on presents (for others and for myself), watching TV, and writing Christmas cards.

On Tuesday, my finace David and I both had the day off. Our first day off together in months, and we choose to spend it on the couch, watching Easy A, How to Train Your Dragon and the entire first season of Breaking Bad.

The good news is that David and I have a new TV show to obsess over. Breaking Bad tells the story of an intelligent chemist working in an ordinary teaching job.

As his illness worsens, Walter White takes time off from work and spends his free time cooking meth to pay for his medical bills and support his family.

What a great moral quandary, right?

Of course, I am only through the first season, but it looks fantastic so far. Walter is the classic, repressed middle class, middle aged white male who is discovering his own strenght and gaining self respect by providing for his family by any means necessary. With the current economic situation, there must be other Walter Whites out there as this very moment.

I can't wait to see the next two seasons!

Israel faces more criticism in conflict with Palestine

Much discussion on the topic of the Palestine/Israel conflict has been occurring on Capitol Hill and the Internet, and you probably won't hear about it on cable news and other common news sources.

An analysis of independent media sources and lobbying groups reveal the complexity of the situation, and the many view points related to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Traditionally, the United States sides with Israel on political issues, but a political action committee and lobbying group called J Street demonstrates a point of view that is pro-Israel while still disagreeing with Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people. Public reaction to groups like J Street also reveal a strange tendency for Americans to label all speech against Palestinian occupation as Antisemitism.

The history of this conflict shows the lethality of the conflict, and the difficulty of getting Israel and Palestine to agree to, and maintain, peace with each other.

During the summer of 2009, President Obama began to persuade Israel to stop construction in Palestinian occupied land, now called Israeli settlements, so that Palestine would agree to peace talks with Israel. Also, in June 2009, the UN began to investigate war crimes committed by Israel's armed forces. By April 2010, the US is still getting Israel to agree to cease new construction, and the tension between Palestine and Israel continues to rise.

A UN human rights investigation last year revealed strong evidence of war crimes on both sides of the conflict. Then, on October 3, 2010, the New York Times reported that two Israeli soldiers were convicted of war crimes for using a young Palestinian boy as a human shield while searching for possible bombs in 2008.

One month later, CNN reports that the US is disappointed by Israel's decision to continue construction in "sensitive areas" of Israel. While Hilary Clinton hopes to continue peace talks, Israel's decision to continue construction will effectively end Palestine's willingness to participate in negotiations and peace talks.

J Street is urging President Obama to take action and make the creation of a separate Palestinian state a priority by collecting petition signatures, despite political opposition from capitol hill and synagogues.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian people are still treated as second class citizens, and it still takes hours for ambulances carrying Palestinian patients to reach a hospital.

Israel Commits War Crimes! and Net Neutrality hangs in the balance.

Normally, my mind is on the arts and my arts administration degree, but lately I have been listening to the Citizen Radio podcast with Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny. Between their political analysis on the conflict Israel and Net Neutrality, and all of the newsletters and articles I have been reading on these events, both issues have been on my brain.

I have been thinking about them so much, in fact, that I am driven to write about them.

I am going to do some research, and get back to you on both topics as soon as I can.

Venues: Saranac Art Symposium, Nov 13, 2010

It's Saturday and night and a small group of artists and art lovers are gathering at the Saranac art gallery. They are not here for an artist reception, but for the promise of good conversation.

In the second part of what has become a series, the Saranac Art Symposium brought together a panel to discuss venues in the Spokane art world. Everyone is invited to participate and listen in this event, which represents of tearing down of fences in a community made up of isolated individuals.

^ Panelists Jim Kolva and Naaman Cordova-Muenzberg

Scott Kolbo, Whitworth Art Department chair, moderated the panel. As a member of the Saranac art cooperative, his goal is community outreach. As a moderator, his rules are five minute limits for panelist speaking, and no whining or personal vendettas. This discussion is for constructive and thoughtful ideas.

Many young faces were in attendance, most were visual artists, and many were at the first Symposium in October, which was a general discussion about the present and future of the Spokane art scene. All of them listened enthusiastically to panel made up of local art venue owners.

This month's panelists include:

· Sue Bradley – Gallery Owner – The Tinman Artworks
· Naaman Cordova-Muenzberg – Artist and Curator (Black Rabbit Magic)
· Jim Kolva – Art Collector and Co-Director of the Kolva/Sullivan Gallery

Each panelist represents a different part of the art venue spectrum, from serious to informal. Jim Kolva spoke first, choosing to discuss what types of venues exist in Spokane and bringing up the problem of the general public's lack of interest or education in the arts.

Meunzberg had much to say about the local arts community, and he decided that performance art would be the best way to get the message out. A man came up from the audience and set out a mirror and a suitcase. He proceeded to put on a toupee, fake mustouche, glasses, tie and jacket. He then began to read a prepared statement, in a business like tone, about the relationship of money and art.

Art choices made in galleries are driven by what sells, rather than by aesthetic value. Most galleries can only stay open if the art sells, and the natural outcome is that real artistic expression falls by the wayside. Spokane art buyers are not as sophisticated as big city collectors.

Possible solutions bounced around in discussion. Temporary art shows like Terrain came up as examples of how new and interesting art might find a way into the public view. A lot of interesting and quality art is being created in the inland northwest, but there need to ways for such artists to be seen by the public. The coffee is one such method for unknown artists to get exposure, but art shows like Terrain reach out to artists who might not other wise know how to participate in the art community.

Sue Bradley uses her bookstore to show art and host children's art classes. The Tinman is also commonly visited by art students who are completing homework assignments. Educating the public about the arts is one of Bradley's goals for her gallery. The Tinman is considered part of the backbone in the Garland shopping district. She would love to see more street art around her gallery, or any sign of underground art culture.

Underground spirit characterizes many people in the room. This symposium brings together people who are passionate about the arts, as well as the community they live. As Scott Kolbo said at the beginning of the symposium, art makes the world a better place to be in. This group of artists want to make Spokane a better place to be in.

The next Saranace State of the Arts Symposium is being planned for sometime in January. Contact Scott Kolbo through the Saranac Project

Have you found fashion inspiration at Polyvore yet?

Find me on Polyvore

Polyvore is a fantastic fashion website with a growing online community of fashion lovers. I check the blog daily and look for inspiration here. I made these sets using the websites collage tool. You can use images of clothing and objects from the site, or find your own. These three sets are my first experiments with Polyvore and fashion design.