The Badman and some bad men

Our current exhibit The Badman by Jeremy Mangan finds the Telephone Room occupied by a dead gunslinger: life-size, and in a pine box to boot!

The Badman effect has us watching season after season of Deadwood—and also got us wondering:

Was the Old West really full of the sort of gun battles that ricochet across the silver screen?
How did most of the westward settlers of the shoot-'em-up variety truly meet their end?

From Wikipedia:
"Often, a gunfight was spur-of-the-moment, with one drawing his pistol, and the other reacting. Often it would develop into a shootout where both men bolted for cover. Other times, one or both were drunk and missed several normally easy shots. Many times the shootout was little more than one taking advantage of the other's looking away at an opportune moment...

Gunfighters King Fisher, John Wesley Hardin, Ben Thompson, Billy the Kid, and Wild Bill Hickok all died as a result of an ambush, killed by men who feared them because of their reputation. Famed gunman Clay Allison died in a wagon accident. Gunmen Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Commodore Perry Owens, and Luke Short all died of natural causes, living out their lives on reputation and avoiding conflict in secluded retirement."

Secluded retirement? No! Just the thought makes us crave some good old fashioned... Reenactments! Every year the town of Northfield, Minnesota celebrates it's heroic place in outlaw history with Defeat of Jesse James Days. The festival, held the weekend after Labor Day, marks the anniversary of Northfield's brave stand against the James/Younger gang's attempt to rob the First National Bank.
If you'd like to learn more about this true tale of outlaws and gunfighters, the festival website has a historical account of that fateful September 7th.
Or, if you fancy yourself an expert on Jesse James, or on Northfield, Minnesota you can test your knowledge with the Raid Trivia Quiz.
If reenactments aren't your thing, check out some Mutton Bustin' instead.

Join us for an evening featuring Jeremy Mangan's art + ice carving + beer on July 24, 2009. Please RSVP at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

The Badman by Jeremy Mangan is on view from June 17 - July 31, 2009 in the Telephone Room Gallery. Viewable by appointment—please email us. Don't be shy.

Small is Dynamite!

...Or should we say TNT? The News Tribune arts writer and critic Rosemary Ponnekanti wrote about the Telephone Room on the GO Arts blog:

"Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Small art, fun space - the Telephone Room

Posted by Rosemary Ponnekanti @ 09:54:20 am

Laura Komada, "Untitled (bigfoot and tree)." Photo courtesy The Telephone Room.

It may be tiny, but there's a lot of art going on at the Telephone Room over the next week.

The one-room gallery inside the North-end house of artist Heide Fernandez-Llamazares is having two open houses: one today, to close the current show, and one next Wednesday, to open the next. The gallery, which Fernandez-Llamazares and co-organizers Ellen Ito and Marty Gengenbach call the world's second-smallest gallery (what's the smallest? The Tollbooth, of course), measures just 12 1/2 square feet. It's an original room in the Dutch Colonial house, built with curvy shelves to accomodate those wishing to have a private conversation on the black rotary dial phone (which still works, by the way.)

Since the room is pretty unusable for anything else, the artists decided to convert it into a gallery. It can fit about three medium-size flat works, lots of small ones, or maybe one medium installation (can't wait to see that, maybe the tiny room crammed with giant balloons a la Western Bridge?!) And since it's in Heide's house, you have to email to set up an appointment - unless there's an open house.

Which there is, tonight. The current show "Home Sweet Home," featuring Laura and Paul Komada of Seattle and Noal Nyland of Lakewood, is almost over - last chance to see it is from 5-8 p.m. Paul Komada's hand-knit Mondriaan-ish geometry mixes cozy texture and strict form in a pleasing way. Nyland (brother of Nicholas) creates a mapped landscape of greens and gray-blues with quilted fabric, the pieces chopped out like deer-bites in a rose bush, calm but disconnected. Laura Komada's watercolors are simple but strong: My favorite is the untitled Big Foot next to a fir tree, their shadows looming far beyond the reality.

Next open house is for Jeremy Mangan, who just won the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation Arts Award, and who'll be creating a life-size 3D painting of a shot-dead old-west gunfighter in a pine box. (That'll make it extremely crowded in the Telephone Room, which fits about two viewers at a time.) Rumor has it that he'll also be leading a beer mug ice-carving session in the backyard, complete with local microbrews. That's 5-9 p.m. June 17. I'll be there.

So where is the Telephone Room? Email thetelephoneroom@gmail.com to RSVP and find out the address. You can also visit http://www.thetelephoneroom.blogspot.com/ for info."

We have officially become citizens of the Greater Blogosphere. Thanks, Rosemary!

What will you do this summer?

Upcoming November 2009 Telephone Room exhibiting artist Kristen Ramirez was selected by the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs to be the artist in residence in Seattle's Fremont Bridge tower.
While some of us will be draped across kiddie pools in the throes of Otter Pop induced brain freeze, Ramirez will be creating a public art project inspired by the venerable drawbridge. Find out more in this article and this episode of Art Zone from the Seattle Channel.
Here at the Telephone Room Gallery, we'll be using our trusty namesake rotary dial to leave our Fremont Bridge thoughts and memories for Kristen's consideration at 206-455-9983.

UPDATE: Kristen's blog about the residency can be found here, or bend an ear to her feature on NPR's All Things Considered!

Vast and Incalculable

We stole this from Ryan Branchini's Facebook page because it is awesome:

"How important are the visual arts in our society? I feel strongly that the visual arts are of vast and incalculable importance. Of course I could be prejudiced. I am a visual art." - Kermit the Frog

Zack at Gallery4Culture

Zack Bent is currently on view at Gallery4Culture in Seattle for the month of May.

Buffalo Trace
May 7 - 29, 2009
"Home and family are the epicenter of Zack Bent's photographic and video works ... The scenes reference the behaviors of other tribes and communities ... Buffalo Trace focuses on the Boy Scouts, an iconic American institution."
...read and see more at www.4culture.org/publicart/gallery and http://zackandgalabent.com/index.php?id=159,0,0,1,0,0

Zack was a part of the Telephone Room's inaugural Hello! show (February 18 - April 30, 2009).
The Telephone Room is always viewable by appointment at thetelephoneroom@gmail.com.

Home Sweet Home

Please join us on Friday, May 15th at the Telephone Room Gallery for Home Sweet Home (May 7 - June 10, 1009), an exhibition inspired by home, handiwork and decor, featuring the artwork of Laura Komada, Paul Komada (both from Seattle) and Noal Nyland (from Lakewood).

Open house from 6-9 pm on Friday, May 15th at 3710 North 7th Street in Tacoma.
If you can’t make it on Friday, we will also be viewable by appointment. Please email us to visit!

Pass it on.


Noal Nyland, Untitled, fabric, 39½ x 46½ inches, 2009.

Wanted: Fans

The Telephone Room Gallery is now on Facebook! We hope you'll become a fan.
There goes the day...