Celebrating the Summer in the Garden

We're celebrating summer and our June artists, Nicholas Nyland and Ben Hirschkoff, on Friday, June 11 from 6-9 pm.

The evening will include a "flicker flame" lantern making activity inspired by Ben Hirschkoff's installation. You are invited to bring your own DIY paper lanterns to light up the yard, but please use battery powered flicker flame candles (to be found at Walgreens among other places).

This will also be a bittersweet Auf Wiedersehen for our gallery co-operator Marty who is moving to North Carolina to pursue a Master of Library Science at UNC Chapel Hill.

Update 6/8/10: Due to unforeseen circumstances, Julie Rivera will unfortunately not be on view at the Telephone Room in June. But we look forward to working with her in the future.

Novelty and Possession by Julie Rivera: An examination of two collectors and their need to collect and possess.

Julie Rivera, Untitled, photograph, 2009.


In The Garden by Nicholas Nyland
In June, the Telephone Room expands to include the adjacent garden where Nicholas Nyland will install playful sculptural works that respond to their setting and call upon a long tradition of ornamental garden sculpture.

Nicholas Nyland, Plaid Gnome, glazed ceramic, 2009.

Extended through June 2010:

Eternal Flicker Flame by Ben Hirschkoff
Using the all too common brass chandelier as a medium, Ben Hirschkoff's sculpture celebrates the artificial and symbolizes renewal, creation and destruction.

Ben Hirschkoff, Eternal Flicker Flame (detail), 96" x 28" x 5", reconfigured brass chandelier with flicker flame bulbs, 2010.



Artworks by Nicholas Nyland and Ben Hirschkoff will be on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from June 11 - 30, 2010. Viewable by appointment almost anytime - email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Trace Evidence now viewable online!

Trace Evidence is a collaborative photographic installation by Jennifer Peters and Ellen Ito.

Photos of refuse left behind by visitors in museum spaces examine ideas about territory, propriety, trespassing and adaptation.

Why do we leave traces of ourselves wherever we go?
Is it unconscious or deliberate?

Don't leave a Trace

Nutmeat, 2010.

Trace Evidence is a collaborative photographic installation by Jennifer Peters and Ellen Ito.
Photos of refuse left behind by visitors in museum spaces examine ideas about territory, propriety, trespassing and adaptation. Why do we leave traces of ourselves wherever we go? Is it unconscious or deliberate?

On view from April 2 to 30, 2010.

Open house on Friday, April 2 from 6-9 pm. Please join us!

Cool Rush, 2010.

The Telephone Room Gallery is always viewable by appointment at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

The Telephone Room will remain Drunk until April

Drunk Dialing by Kristen Ramirez, that is... Come see the show for the first time, or make an appointment to fall in love with it all over again. If you need more information about the artist, check out this Q & A from the Seattle Times. Hot off the press!

If you'd like some Drunk Dialing inspiration of your own, the Telephone Room recommends the following recipes (courtesy of the Bartender's Guide by Trader Vic, 1947 edition). Try them all, and remember to call...The Telephone Room Gallery!

Do Be Careful Cocktail

1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. cointreau
1/2 tsp. grenadine
1/2 tsp. lemon juice

Shake with fine ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass

Artist's Special Cocktail

1/2 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. dry sherry
1/4 oz. lemon juice
1/4 oz. Groseille syrup (you can use currant or raspberry syrup)

Shake with cracked ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass

Oh Oh Mac Cocktail

1/2 oz. brandy
1/2 oz. lillet
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. cointreau

Shake with cracked ice, strain into chilled cocktail glass

Each recipe serves one.

Drunk Dialing by Kristen Ramirez is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery until March 26, 2010 and is always viewable by appointment at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

What's a "hmuh"?

The Telephone Room is all aflutter, with birds alighting on every surface. In honor of Elise Richman's avian themed show, For the Birds, we've put together a brief list of bird facts. Twelve interesting tidbits about our feathered friends, one fact for each day left in the month -- twelve days remaining to come see For the Birds!

The sparrow-sized Elf Owl, only 5 to 6 inches long, found in southwestern deserts, is the smallest owl in the world.

The average canary has about 2,200 feathers.

At 40 pounds or more, the Trumpeter Swan is North America's heaviest bird.

The average robin lives to be about twelve.

Harris's Hawks often hunt cooperatively.

Only six inches long, the Least Auklet is the world's tiniest Auk.

The topknot that quails have is called a hmuh.

The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.

There are more Bald Eagles in the province of British Columbia than there are in the whole United States.

A group of larks is called an exaltation.

Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock.

A group of ravens is called a murder.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

For the Birds by Elise Richman is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from January 8 - 31, 2010. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

"For the Birds" by Elise Richman

The Telephone Room gallery proudly presents For the Birds by Elise Richman in January 2010.

"For the Birds involves intimate portraits of birds that act as surrogates and guardians, emotional personifications that simultaneously expose and protect. Each amiable yet awkward bird expresses a yearning for a state of wonder and receptiveness that is perpetually lost and sometimes regained. Their very postures and round forms convey a striving for openness and good will as they open, spread and lift their wings in gestures both hopeful and helpless." ---Elise Richman

Elise Richman, For the Birds, 2010. Installation at the Telephone Room Gallery, Tacoma, Washington.

For the Birds by Elise Richmand is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from January 8 - 31, 2010. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com for an appointment.

For the Birds

Birds! Sculptures, drawings, paintings of birds! Standing, sitting, almost flying birds! Friendly, amiable, round birds!

For the Birds is a show about hope, humor and feathers -- lots of feathers. They adorn and identify, making each bird special, providing characteristics that express character.

It's a flock of sorts, composed of birds who do their best to be who they are while trying to become something more.


Elise Richman in her studio with "Billy".

For the Birds by Elise Richman is on view at the Telephone Room Gallery from January 8 - 31, 2010. Viewable by appointment almost anytime -- email us at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.