Tuesday, September 13, 2011

"Out of the Embers" by Allison Hyde

Using experimental printmaking, mixed media and sculpture, Allison Hyde's work seeks to explore ephemeral moments, and our notion of emotional loss associated with personal pasts. By splitting video sequences into still photos and recreating the images via printmaking she examines the subtleties of fleeting moments and the nostalgia related to recollections of memories. As muffled voices emanate from the charred confines of small boxes in Out of the Embers, the viewer is allowed a private moment to hear lists of other people's most important possessions -- allowing reflection upon the potential significance and emotional triggering effects that objects have in our lives.
Allison Hyde, "Out of the Embers," installation detail at the Telephone Room Gallery, 2011.
Allison Hyde, "Out of the Embers," installation detail at the Telephone Room Gallery, 2011.
Allison Hyde grew up in Lakewood, attended Charles Wright Academy and Colorado State University, and recently completed her MFA in Printmaking at the University of Oregon.
See also http://allisonhyde.tumblr.com/.

Out of the Embers by Allison Hyde is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from September 10-30, 2011. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for an appointment.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

What Was Your Favorite Craft?

That's what we asked some artists as we get ready for the opening of Assignment: Crafty on June 4.

Elise Richman:
   "I loved making candles as a kid. The process involved amazing transformations and vats of heated wax seemed like witches' cauldrons. Candle crafts feel very elemental. I was rapt watching candle wax melt like ice bergs into pools of lava. Candles are shape-shifters of a sort becoming layered rainbow stars, solid scented blocks, dipped tapered stalks or just about anything.
   I could never master any crafts involving yarn and hooks. I always blamed my left-handedness but know this is a poor excuse since I'm certain many south paws are knitting/crocheting fiends. My fingers get twisted and I can't manage the delicate intricacies of casting on, stitching and knotting. This was a source of shame when knitting became hipper than cupcakes or being in a band."
http://www.eliserichman.com/

Graham Bell:
   "My favorite was always drawing "boycentric" drawings. Of cars and dinosaurs and robots.
   My trouble was when it was realized by my teacher that I was just tracing out of a book with exceptionally thin paper and then adding on my own touches. Usually having to do with dino-robot-cars. Zoom. Rawr. Beep.
   Also I really liked gluing construction paper to itself with a gluestick. Never Elmer's. The slow-drying time was a definite negative."

Lisa Kinoshita:
   "As a kid I made daisy chains, also chains folded from Doublemint gum wrappers. Early inklings of jewelry making..."
http://www.lisakinoshita.com/

Shannon Eakins:
   "That's a hard question for me, but I had a special love of that clay that you made from flour, salt, and water (an early self-drying clay?). I remember making figurines, and miniature girl-scout cookies with it. The best part was using my mom's clear nail polish (shhhh!) to seal my creations, always before they were completely dry, and then watching the mold grow."
http://www.shannoneakins.blogspot.com/

Jennifer Adams:
   "When I was a kid, I enjoyed cross-stitch. Before heading to a friend's mountain cabin for two summertime weeks, we would head to the sewing store. My mom allowed my sister and me to pick up a little cross-stitch kit to pass the time when we weren't hiking, reading, playing UNO or saving mountain dogs.
   Now I enjoy knitting, which I am terrible at, and needle felting, which sometimes scares me because the needle is so big and barbed, and moving in such a fast stabbing motion!
   I have always wanted to whittle little animals out of wood, but am afraid of cutting myself to ribbons. As a kid, I tried with soap. I ended up with a chunk of chopped up soap and a mad dad."

Colleen Maloney:
   "My favorite craft is also a favorite family memory. When we were kids we got to decorate our own Christmas tree. So we sit on the floor and make our own ornaments out of straws, pipe cleaners, glitter, egg cartons and whatever else we could find. The only challenge was cleaning up the Elmer's glue and glitter on the coffee table."

Marc Dombrosky:
   "At the time, it felt more like an intensive training mission than a *craft*, but my brother and I would build extensive arsenals out of white paper and Scotch tape that we would then emblazon with insignias--Thundercats, Ho!--code numbers, buttons, and secret messages meticulously drawn in black marker. Telescoping swords would have components that would augment their use, like robotic gloves, secret compartments full of paper throwing stars and a shoulder strap. A shoulder strap?"
http://www.marcdombrosky.blogspot.com/

Revisiting craft projects culled from how-to books from the 1960s to the 1980s, Assignment: Crafty asked artists to explore three randomly assigned projects taken from these books. Artists were given the freedom to create one, two or all three projects, and encouraged to modify, combine and interpret the projects in any way through the filter of their own artistic practice.

Come see contemporary perspectives on fish printing, bottle gardens, rock creatures, Ojos de Dios and more from the following artists: Jennifer Adams, Jessica Bender, Peter Lynch, Matt Johnson, Ann Darling, Lauren Faulkner, Chris Sharp, Colleen Maloney, Elise Richman, Saya Moriyasu, Tobin Eckholt, Maria Jost, Meghan Mitchell, Lisa Kinoshita, Jennifer Peters, and Terry Dew.
 
Assignment: Crafty is curated by Ellen Ito and is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from June 4-30, 2011. The opening is on June 4 from 5-9 p.m. Viewable by appointment almost anytime afterwards -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for an appointment.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Rock Craft by Saya Moriyasu

Revisiting craft projects culled from how-to books from the 1960s to the 1980s, Assignment: Crafty asked artists to explore three randomly assigned projects taken from these books. Artists were given the freedom to create one, two or all three projects, and encouraged to modify, combine and interpret the projects in any way through the filter of their own artistic practice, as well as document their efforts.

The following craft was executed by Saya Moriyasu.

Assignment: Crafty is curated by Ellen Ito and is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from June 4-30, 2011. The opening is on June 4 from 5-9 p.m. Viewable by appointment almost anytime afterwards -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for an appointment. 

Monday, April 11, 2011

"Dead Loss" by Jessica Bender

Coming on April 15, 2001: Dead Loss... an installation inspired by solitary confinement, padded cells, and blanket forts by Jessica Bender during the months of April and May, with an opening on Friday, April 15 from 6-9 pm.

Jessica is a midwest transplant to the northwest, and her art is about identity. She wants to be a vampire.

Jessica Bender, Dead Loss, installation detail at the Telephone Room Gallery, 2011.
In the meantime, browse around Jessica's blogs: http://www.cabinet713.blogspot.com/ and http://www.jessicaabender.blogspot.com/, and see more images of her work at https://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.bender.

Jessica's work has previously been seen in the Hello! and Undead group shows at the Telephone Room Gallery, as well as in a solo installation The Bluebird, inspired by Charles Bukowski and his poem My Telephone. Her art was most recently seen in Tacoma as part of the SpaceWorks Tacoma project: http://www.wait-whereami.com/ and http://spaceworkstacoma.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/.

Jessica Bender, Prey, Mixed media, 11½(w) x 9½(h) x 4(d) inches, 2009.
Jessica Bender, The Bluebird installation at the Telephone Room Gallery, 2009.
"The Bluebird is an installation inspired by and celebrating the life and work of Charles Bukowski, American poet and author, for his birthday August 16th." --Jessica Bender
Jessica Bender, The Bluebird installation at the Telephone Room Gallery, 2009.
Jessica Bender, The Bluebird installation detail at the Telephone Room Gallery, 2009.
Jessica Bender, to baby strigoli, with love, felt, leather, found buttons, ring boxes, whiskey, "blood," 2009. For sale: $66.6
Dead Loss by Jessica Bender is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from April 15 - May 28, 2011. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for an appointment.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Exit133 Tacoma Arts in Review: "Emulate" at the TRG

Erin Bailey visited us for our Party Line with Lauren Faulkner on March 18, and gave us a nice write-up on Exit133 this week:
http://www.exit133.com/6199/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tacoma Arts in Review: "Emulate" at the Telephone Room Gallery
(March 27, 2011 by Exit133 Tacoma Arts in Review)
by Erin Bailey
 
The Telephone Room Gallery is an alternative art space located in the North Tacoma home of Heide Fernandez-Llamazares. This pint-sized gallery operates under the mission “to house artist-driven exhibits and programming. Big ideas in an intimate space.” Named for the working rotary telephone mounted inside, the Telephone Room offers uniquely personal opportunities to experience art up close and to interact with artists over a welcoming kitchen table.

Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes features three nude portraits by emerging artist Lauren Walker inspired by iconic artist Egon Schiele. Faulkner’s work takes the viewer along on an artistic journey as Faulkner captures Schiele’s style while displaying her own progression and inspiration, and challenging her abilities. Egon Schiele was an Austrian artist during the turn of the 20th century who studied under Gustav Klimt, drawing inspiration from artists such as Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh. Early in his career Schiele gained fame for his pornographic style, depicting women in erotic positions. Schiele defended the legality of distributing his work in public against many who argued it was pornography which resulted in the destruction of his work and three days in prison.

This is Faulkner’s first showing in a gallery since she graduated from University of Puget Sound with a concentration in painting, and her commitment to learning from process and exploration is clear. Says Faulkner: “In this series, I examine Schiele in terms of style. I combine some of Schiele’s most revered nudes with my own palette imbuing in the paintings a synthesis of Schiele’s and my own vision of the body. By emulating his style, I hope to gain further insight into his creative process, and to create work that reflects his artistic mastery.” While her work is as stylistically her own, traces of Schiele are evident in the exposure of the human body and poses that emulate loss, discovery and sexuality. In confronting eroticism, sexuality and Schiele, Faulkner sidesteps Schiele’s trademark eroticism, and instead imbues her subjects with serenity and modesty. In explicitly addressing and exploring female sexuality, the artist acknowledges her connection with the women she depicts.

The first nude you encounter is a woman praying with her back to the world. In hiding her face and layering blues and purples Faulkner imbues the work with a sorrowful ambiance; yet despite the sadness portrayed, the subject does not appear defeated. Faulkner uses her affinity for Schiele’s style to utilize color as an emotional language, layering shades to create an aesthetic rendering of what many see as Schiele’s grotesque style in a modern and feminine interpretation. Faulkner stated that she excluded the face to leave interpretation open, to allow for an individual emotional reaction from each viewer. The exclusion of the subjects’ face and their cultural ambiguity allow for the viewer to relate easily.

The Telephone Room activates the local art community, offering both established and emerging artists a venue to share their work and interact through “Party Line” artist talks and activities. Opening homes for the arts sustains the community in times when art support suffers from budget cuts and dwindling interest. Imagine if we all were art activists, offering our homes to local artist…what would the art community in Tacoma look like? Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes is on view through March 28, stop in before it closes!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

"Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes" by Lauren Faulkner

"Born in 1890 in Austria, Egon Schiele was a figurative painter mentored by Gustave Klimt and associated with Art Nouveau and early Expressionist movements. Schiele is well known for his brutal confrontation of death, sex, loss and discovery as subject matter. His ability to convey weighty emotion through the simplicity of pose is masterful. During his life, Schiele’s work was lauded as depraved, pornographic and controversial. His visceral and uncomfortable representations of the human form, as well as the human condition, are unflinchingly honest, poignantly beautiful and expertly crafted. Although Schiele died in 1918 at the age of 28, his work reflects the talent of a fully-matured artist.

In this series, I examine Schiele in terms of style. I combine some of Schiele’s most revered nudes with my own palette imbuing in the paintings a synthesis of Schiele’s and my own vision of the body. By emulating his style I hope to gain further insight into his creative process, and to create work that reflects his artistic mastery."
---Lauren Faulkner, March 2011.

Lauren Faulkner recently graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a concentration in painting. She is originally from Portland, but Tacoma is her home for now. http://www.laurenfaulkner.weebly.com/

Lauren Faulkner, Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes installation at the Telphone Room Gallery, Oil on canvas paintings, March 2011. Painting on left: 22"x26"; Painting on right: 24"x30".

Lauren Faulkner, Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes installation at the Telphone Room Gallery, Oil on canvas paintings, March 2011. Painting on left: 22"x26".

Lauren Faulkner, Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes installation at the Telphone Room Gallery, Oil on canvas paintings, March 2011. Painting on left: 22"x26"; Painting on right: 24"x30".

Lauren Faulkner, Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes installation at the Telphone Room Gallery, Oil on canvas paintings, March 2011. Painting on left: 24"x30"; Painting on right: 16"x30".

Lauren Faulkner, Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes installation at the Telphone Room Gallery, Oil on canvas paintings, March 2011. Painting on right: 16"x30".
Emulate: A Visual Interpretation of Schiele’s Nudes by Lauren Faulkner is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from March 4 - 28, 2011. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for an appointment.