Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Blake Blogs.

For those of you who like to get your information from a primary source -- stop reading this! For the real Horse's Mouth about November Telephone Room Gallery artist Blake Haygood, check out his blog. What awaits you at www.blakehaygood.com/blog/? Our Mr. Haygood tells us, "I'll be posting images of my newest work, shows (mine and others) and a few random bits to keep it interesting."

Blake's work is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery until the end of November -- please email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for an appointment. Come by for a gander before you're all groggy from that third slice of pumpkin pie.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Chickens Only

"Is You Is?" New Drawings by Blake Haygood, currently on view in the Telephone Room Gallery, borrows its title from the song "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?" by Louis Jordan (1908-1975). The show isn't about the song, but this post is about Louis Jordan.

Louis Jordan began performing with bands in the early 1930s, and by the time of his death in 1975, he had made a lasting impact upon American music. Described by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as both "The Father of Rythym and Blues" and "The Grandfather of Rock and Roll." The "Hardest Working Man in Showbusiness" James Brown once said of Jordan, "He could sing, he could dance, he could play, he could act. He could do it all."

Sing, dance, play, act... That brings to mind another group of multi-talented performers. Here, performing one of Louis Jordan's classic numbers, "There Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens"...



"Is You Is?" New Drawings by Blake Haygood is on view from November 4 - 30, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Blake gets us into the Tiny Top Ten

Thanks Regina! Or is it thank you Blake!

www.artsjournal.com/anotherbb/2009/11/blake-haygood-in-the-telephone.html

"It 12.5 square feet, The Telephone Room in Tacoma is not the smallest gallery in the world but must be in the tiny top ten.

From its Web site:
It is located in a Dutch Colonial home in Tacoma and since 1930, its sole purpose has been to house a black rotary dial telephone. Until now...The Telephone Room is small, but its mission is big: to house artist-driven exhibits and programming. Big ideas in an intimate space.

Opening tomorrow night are Blake Haygood's new drawings under the collective title of Is You Is, in gouache and graphite on ragboard.

Haygood began as a printmaker and still paints in a modified printmaking style, incising form into wood panels and painting in layers through a process of erasure, laying on and partially wiping out. When he began painting earlier in the decade, acrylics in a mineral varnish woke up his weightless world.

Born in Athens, Ga., in 1966, he grew up in a smaller, more rural town nearby, spending a lot of time at his grandfather's farm bordered by woods. Untended, the farm had slid into disrepair. Beyond a barn with a caved-in roof and machinery rotting in the field was the woods, also strewn with broken machines.

A walk in the countryside meant a scramble over dumped refrigerators, cars and parts of cars, washing machines, buzz saws, bikes and bed posts. Wild grasses, mosses and tree saplings used the machinery as nurse logs, shooting up inside it and growing large enough to shoulder it aside or bury it.

Haygood's new work has moved beyond the semi-pastoral decay of the old South to explore more remote cosmologies. Inside them, densities of cut stone or wood linger on their blunt bases before pushing off into the air. His forms may be eroded, but his soft hues are always brand new. He is a master of the potent blank. He takes his cues from traditional Chinese landscape artists who created air, water and mountains largely by leaving them empty. Haygood's forms are lovely, but it's the colored air around them makes them matter.

Is You Is is half a line. Musically, it ends in a love song. Although Haygood uses the reference to mark a career turning point, no longer part-time painter and part-time art dealer but painter full-time, his paintings make the song their own. What is lost, ruined or left behind is desirable again in the redeeming space he makes for it. "
---Another Bouncing Ball: Regina Hackett takes her Art to Go, November 2, 2009, www.artsjournal.com/anotherbb.

The Telephone Room Gallery opening for "Is You Is?" New Drawings by Blake Haygood is Wednesday, November 4, 2009 from 6-9 pm and Blake will be in attendance.

"Is You Is?" New Drawings by Blake Haygood is on view from November 4 - 30, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Is You Is or Is You Ain't?

"The title of my show, "Is You Is," comes from the Louis Jordan (www.louisjordan.com) song "Is You Is or Is You Ain't (My Baby)." The question for me is not about my love life but about my career as an artist. After being a co-founder and co-owner of Platform Gallery in Seattle for 5 years, I began to ask myself, am I primarily a gallery owner or an artist? It became increasingly clear that I would need to make a choice and fully commit to one or the other. I left Platform at the end of July to focus on my art. Luckily for me the good people at the Telephone Room in Tacoma offered me a slot in their schedule. I'll be integrating my drawings of disintegrating/reforming mechanical/organic objects into the space. This is my first solo show with all new work since last showing at Platform in January 2005."
---Blake Haygood, www.blakehaygood.com


Blake Haygood, "Is You Is?", gouache and graphite on rag board, 2009.

The Telephone Room Gallery opening for "Is You Is?" New Drawings by Blake Haygood is Wednesday, November 4, 2009 from 6-9 pm and Blake will be in attendance.

"Is You Is?" New Drawings by Blake Haygood is on view from November 4 - 30, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime—email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

The End (of "Undead")

Some final images of the Undead show, a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers.

Consumption, control, attraction, repulsion... Capes. Fear. Lines of defense. Why do zombies and vampires continue to captivate our cultural imagination? Undead is artwork and writings that explore these fetid creatures of film, folklore and nightmares.

Featuring art by Jessica Balsam, Jessica Bender, Marc Dombrosky, Shannon Eakins, Matt Johnson, Lisa Kinoshita, Peter Lynch, Saya Moriyasu, Jennifer Peters, James Porter, Elise Richman, Julie Rivera, Chris Sharp, and Randy Wood.

As well as a folio including writing and art by Jessica Balsam, Marc Dombrosky, Bob Fingerman, Ben Paulson, Brooks Peck, and Brad Young. Contact thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for copies of the folio.


Undead at the Telephone Room Gallery, October 2009.


Undead at the Telephone Room Gallery, October 2009.


Randy Wood, Dogula. Papermache, wire, ink, marbles. 2009.

Randy Wood is a Seattle cartoonist/sculptor/painter. He is a member of the artist run gallery, SOIL, and teaches cartooning classes at Pratt and Gage Academy.
www.randywoodart.com

Julie Rivera, Untitled. Photograph. 2009.


Elise Richman, Wolf Man. Gouache on Illustation Board. 2009.

Elise Richman is a Tacoma based artist with an MFA from American University and a BFA in painting from the University of Washington.

James Ackerley Porter, TURNED. Charcoal/graphite/vinyl/collage. 2009.


Chris Sharp, Creep. Sign paint on sign board. 2009.

“Local award winning artist Chris Sharp is totally fine.” –Chris Sharp


Matt Johnson, Lestat the Elder: The Cleansing. Doily, crystal glass, dentures, water, Alka-Seltzer tablets. 2009. Price: Your soul or best offer.

Lisa Kinoshita, NO HOST BAR. Sterling silver barbed wire, silver shark’s tooth (cast from fossilized tooth), leather. 2009.

Undead is a group exhibition inspired by braineaters and bloodsuckers. On view from October 7 - 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.