Hello!
I’ve had my hands full with a lot of things and have really enjoyed doing more than talking about what I am doing.
But, sometimes talking is part of the doing.
Don’t worry, I won’t start waxing esoteric right now about the nature of words and their role in turning the nonexistent into reality. What I will do … is stop procrastinating on writing this update, because I have some time-sensitive things to fill you in on.
last week of Collectively Assembled
I just took a walk over to Allied Arts to get a second look at the show Collectively Assembled, which comes down at the end of the week. Allied Arts is a local nonprofit that works to bridge different arts organizations and create arts opportunities in Whatcom County. Good stuff!
This project was dreamed up by Suzanne Morlock, artist of all kinds of interesting installation work—most of it temporary.
I contributed a quadrant to a blind assemblage by four artists who together created something like a moon jellyfish. If you’re in town make sure you pop by to get a peek at this inventive show, and support local arts. The pieces are also available via auction here.
Another art drop: Blind Bird Gallery
I submitted work for another gallery show up in Blaine and will be headed up there with my work tomorrow. I’ll be showing two pieces: IN THE BEGINNING (charcoal on paper) and AGGREGATE OF CELLS, an acrylic piece from my residency project at the Lookout Arts Quarry—which I still need to do a proper recap on. Later!
The opening reception for this show is July 31 from 6-8pm, and the show runs until August 9. I do believe all the art in this show is featured from artists who will be part of the Whatcom Artist Studio Tour this coming fall.
This show at Blind Bird is a good chance to get a preview of what you’ll be able to delve into deeper come the first two weekends in October when artists across Whatcom county (including myself) open their studios to the public.
The magic that is community radio
Getting to do an hour of radio time with Moon Blomgren (KZAX music director and guitarist/singer in local band Sceneric) on KZAX was a highlight of this past month. If you are interested in hearing our conversation you can check it out on the KZAX archive—it will be available for replay for another couple days. Just put the date 7/10 and the time 4:00pm.
I was feeling the hype of community radio and what an important local resource it is, so I decided to attend last Friday’s Radio Forever Festival at Make.Shift—a live broadcast of DJs and bands that lasted late into the evening while we all rocked out and sweated in the basement.
And I worked on a big painting in the venue throughout the event.
Why not do visual art for a radio broadcast event? Ha!
Two years of being committed to staying off of social media has me thinking differently about what it means to be present and participating in art.
Some people probably think I am deranged for my anti-marketing shenanigans (ok I know it’s not just probably but hey, if nobody thinks you’re crazy it’s probably because you’re not doing anything interesting).
The painting in question was the door project I am supposed to have done in just 8 days which will be presented to the public in time for the next First Friday Art Walk downtown at Gallery Alley. That’s August 7 by the way.
Here’s how it looked towards the beginning vs how it looked towards the end.
That’s the last peek of this door I will give until the final thing is out in the wild.
Doing live art in Ferndale!
In some ways this painting sesh at Radio Forever was a bit of a warm-up for an upcoming live art gig, hosted by Placemake Northwest.
Rock the Block is a free public event taking place all afternoon on August 1 in downtown Ferndale. There will be food trucks, vendors, music, and beer at Fringe Brewing.
Five artists each get a 4′ x 4′ canvas to turn into a completed piece over the course of five hours.
In case I wasn’t obvious enough, I am one of those five artists. I’m looking forward to seeing what my compatriot artists create!
Getting The Deep End ready
Even though I am managing to keep the community art activities rolling, most of my time is going into getting my new studio/gallery The Deep End Art Space ready to open the first Friday of October. That’s October 2.
My cadence will likely shift once that date arrives, and I will have regular hours for customers and art enthusiasts to visit.
Until then, I hope to run into you somewhere interesting. There’s a lot of art happening around, which is a pretty great thing to be part of right about now.
More coming later.
Adrien