Modern Storyteller: Marie Watt

I have to share an amazing exhibit currently at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art in Salem that my Salem Art Group visited on Wednesday. The exhibit is titled Lodge and is the creation of Marie Watt. Here is what the Museum's web site says about the exhibit:

Marie Watt is a nationally recognized Portland mixed media artist whose work explores human stories and ritual implicit in everyday objects. Organized by Willamette anthropology professor Rebecca Dobkins, the exhibition will feature a range of work from the past decade, including portrait blankets of Jim Thorpe, Ira Hays, Susan B. Anthony and Joseph Beuys. Work also includes stacked blanket sculptures and “Engine,” a felt cave-like structure that honors the act of storytelling and the storytellers in the artist's life.

Marie was recently on Oregon Art Beat and you can view the segment here.

The exhibit is poignant as those who donated blankets filled out a tag telling the story behind the blanket. One of the stories was of a man who was sent to numerous concentration camps during World War II and his tags told the story of how he obtained the blanket and kept it all these years, gratefully donating it to Marie for this exhibit.

Here are some photos of the stacked blanket sculptures.







And then there is the cave, Engine, made of felted wool. We removed our shoes and entered, but just a peek . . . you're going to want to see it for yourself.




The exhibit will be in Salem through April 1, then it will travel to the Tacoma Art Museum for an exhibit that will run from June 23-October 7, 2012, so there are a couple of opportunities to experience this show.

Edgar

It is my Mom's 80th birthday on Valentine's Day and as part of her gift, I finished something I had started with her in mind about two years ago. While cleaning out my studio in January, I stumbled upon the almost-completed house. I had already painted it and adhered shells, seeds, and natural items inside on two of the shelves. I had partially completed the front - it had the handwriting in the background, but I had glued on a rather garish blue bird and that is obviously when I had walked away. The blue bird would never do with my sensibilities now, so I scraped and soaked it off and auditioned a pile of black birds until just the right bird was found. Edgar. That's the name of the big black crow that visits my Mom every morning for peanuts.


Come on along for a peek inside:







I had already prepared the 12 little matchboxes by painting them, but that was all I had done. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to add a photo and a story, a photo and a charm, or just a photo. In the end, I chose 12 photos - the first box has a photo of my parents before kids and the last photo in box 12 is a photo of our whole family with both sets of grandparents. The ten boxes in between are all photos of my sister and I. Awwww . . . .




Happy 80th birthday, Mom . . . and Happy Valentine's Day, too.

PS I just returned from my Mom's birthday dinner. Here's a photo of her opening her gift:

The Art of Communication

The 100 Artists Show at the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery has opened. I wrote about my donation to the show, Fragments, about a week ago. You can see more about what I created by clicking here. Mary Lou's website has all the details of the show as well as photos of the over 100 pieces of art. Just a simple click right here and you'll be taken to her site. You can also check out Mary Lou's blog post about the recent opening. Mary Lou describes the essence of the show:

During the month of February, the Mary Lou Zeek Gallery will be presenting “The Art of Communication”, the 10th annual 100 Artists show. Participating artists received a blank letter through the mail and were asked to write a thought, a story, or whatever they so choose and then send to their “partnered” artist. The artists had over three months to transform the writings into their work of art.

All art is for sale by bidding, which can be done in person or by calling the gallery. Bids start at $50 and can be raised in increments of $5. There are four closing dates, so the artist's assigned number determines the closing date. The closing date for my art is next Friday, February 10th -- so if you're interested, get your bid in! And I must say, there are some great pieces of art in the show this year.

Okay, let's get on with some photos. On Wednesday of this week, I met up with Tory and Steph, who both have pieces in the show, for a preview of the exhibit before the opening reception later that evening.





Each of the artists has a folder at the gallery, which Steph dubbed our dossiers. Inside each folder is a copy of the letter we received from our partnered artist (mine is Kim Robertson who has become a real life friend and pen pal through this process - she lives in Pennsylvania!), our artist's statement about the piece we created in response to the artist's letter, and some of our business cards.





The fabulous and tireless curators, Tina and Mary Lou.


A preview of the show . . .








After an afternoon of roaming around downtown Salem, our tummies were rumbling. None of us had eaten at Napoleon's, a newish French restaurant, so buckwheat crepes were the order of business. Melissa, Tory's daughter who is also in the show, joined as well as two husbands, Antoine and Howard.







Mary Lou and Tina put together an artist's only reception next door to the gallery and our passes were the chained post cards I shared in an above photo.






And then it was time for the opening!




Now I just need to decide which piece of art I want to bid on!