"Veneer" at Portland's MoCC

photo by Dan Kvitka
75 Gifts for 75 Years
Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland OR
July 28, 2011 – February 25, 2012
Curated by Namita Gupta Wiggers

Happy birthday, Museum of Contemporary Craft! What do you get for a 75-year-old who has almost everything? Everything they don't have, apparently. In honor of this milestone, collectors near and far have donated or promised gifts that will enable the Museum to fill gaps in its permanent collection. Many of these works will be on display in a special exhibition that starts later this month and continues into 2012.

I am thrilled to report that my Veneer pendant will be part of the action! Thanks to a generous Seattle collector, the Museum of Contemporary Craft will own a copy of Victoria Beckham's cleavage (which is itself a splendid example of contemporary craft and has been displayed worldwide). Most of my series of maple cleavage pendants are more subtle sections of A, B, C, or D-cup frontages that can sometimes actually suction in place if properly fitted. Then I started thinking about the "what if" extremes and carved Veneer while looking at a paparazzi photo of Posh Spice. Almost any wearer fails to fill her "shoes", the gap behind the spherical lobes casting questioning shadows on the real chest beneath. The name refers to the practice of covering furniture and other objects with wood veneer, a thin skin of real material; it amuses me that the word also hints at Venus, and the related word, venereal.

And here's me at the opening reception for the show, in front of the case that my work shares with Keith Lewis'...

"Art by Attrition" Opens

Art by Attrition
Featuring work by:
Teresa Faris, Julia Harrison, Shinji Nakaba, Jon M Ryan, Emily Watson, Hiroko Yamada

KOBO at Higo
Openings Friday, May 27, 5-8pm
and Saturday, May 28, 5-8pm

Even after all these years, the process of carving still fascinates me. It's mysterious in a way that only something so simple can be. In essence, you just take away the material that doesn't belong, then stop when you see the shape you want: ta-daaa. But of course there's more to it than that. I love the tools and the tricks and the physical challenge, and I still get chills from the notion of extricating one form from inside another.

On the other hand, it's a totally absurd thing to do all day, attacking tiny pieces of wood with even tinier pieces of metal until my hands cramp and my butt falls asleep. Sometimes when things get tough (or when I breathe in too much varnish) my internal coach borrows Jesse Jackson's voice to bark out a kind of carver call to arms:
"You've got to negate to cre-ate! RE-duce to PRO-duce!"

When the owners of KOBO at Higo asked me to organize a group show for the SNAG conference, I decided to focus on artists using subtractive techniques to create jewelry and small objects. My hope is that the show will pique people's curiosity about both the technical and conceptual skills that working negatively requires. My ulterior motive was to surround myself with the work of other people crazy enough to create beauty by committing tiny, repetitive acts of violence.

Bellevue Art Museum Display

I currently have three pieces on display at the Bellevue Art Museum as part of the Pratt Scholarship Exhibition in the Community Gallery. My pieces include a wood carving from 2009, my cast glass hand from 2010, and a new ivory carving, "Eye of the Needle" (below), that I finished this January, about 10 seconds before it went into the box bound for BAM. I attended the opening reception last Thursday and it was a real thrill to see my little group among the stunning pieces from the 4 other artists participating in the show.

The Scholarship Exhibtion runs through through April 23.

Upcoming PONCHO Lecture

This week at Seattle's Pratt Fine Arts Center, the 2009-10 PONCHO Artists-in-Residence & Gregory M. Robinson Pathways Scholars will present slides and discuss how they've been affected by their scholarship year. The presenters are Adele Eustis, Crista Matteson, Arun Sharma, Pete Singleton, and myself. I've had the opportunity to get to know some of the others this year, and I can't wait to see what they've come up with!

The talk takes place on Thursday, September 16, from 6:30 to 8pm, at 1902 S Main St in Seattle.

The PONCHO/Pathways show is on view at the Pratt Gallery in the Tashiro Kaplan Building (306 S Washington St, Ste 102) through October 1. A piece from each artist is also on display in Pratt's main building.

"Anatomy Lessons" at Taboo Studio

I have a small batch of work (including "Holler", above) in an new group show at San Diego's Taboo Studio.  "Anatomy Lessons" also includes work by Kristin Beeler, Jessica Calderwood, Diane Falkenhagen, Thomas Mann, and Christina Smith, and I'm very happy to be keeping such good company.  

The show runs through June 18, and since I won't be able to see it, I'd love feedback from anyone who does!

Signs of Life Opening

Signs of Life 2009
Facere Jewelry Art Gallery
October 7-28

Every year the Facere Gallery puts together a show with an interesting twist: each invited artist submits a photo of a major work, which is then is given to a writer to serve as inspiration for a poem, essay, or story. The two are published together in a lovely glossy journal.

The exhibition of the submitted works opened on October 7. A number of the artists and writers showed up for a public presentation beforehand, where we showed slides and read passages from the journal. It was fantastic to meet so many of the participants, to see their work, and to hear the stories read aloud--it really brought the whole project to life!


















My catalog piece was Choros, a necklace made of 11 torsos carved in the classical style. In the accompanying short story, writer Erica Baumeister cannily describes a visit to the Louvre--the very place where I got the idea for this piece.

I also submitted a large maple pendant, Veneer (not shown), that looks sort of abstract but is in fact a portrait of Victoria Beckham's overengineered cleavage, and two brooches depicting cleavage of another kind. I carved the plain version, Low Rise (below, middle), a while ago, after trying in vain to find jeans that were neither matronly nor obscene. Further thoughts on sacral display led to Swallowtail (below, top), which is "tattooed" with a wood-burning tool, and Formline (below, bottom), whose lacquered thong also alludes to the sinuous lines seen on much native Northwest Coast art.