Friday, November 30, 2018

IN THE WINDOWS: Blythe Davis


ARTIST STATEMENT – BLYTHE M. DAVIS

My Wild REcycleD bike pieces are inspired by Pablo Picasso's 1942 work, TĂȘte de Taureau ive_(Bull's Head), and are created using collected bike components heading for reuse, recycling, scrap, or landfills. The parts I use have been found or purchased from Twin Cities bike shops and local community members.  Some of the wood bases are created from thrifted game boards, old signs, cabinet doors, cutting boards or purchased raw wood plaques.

Visually, I am often inspired by the rough and ragged aspects of the world - those that have withstood the battle against time, space and weather. Bike sculpture allows me to visually experiment with the conflicting states of harmony and struggle, finding beauty in what others might deem ugly. These bike components have seen many miles and maybe some better days, but I think the unique wear, tape, rips, scuffs, and scratches add visual interest and appeal to each one-of-a-kind art piece.

Though not a proponent of hunting for sport, I find the concept of using trophies to display one's achievements an intriguing social practice. With these pieces, I aim to whimsically celebrate our incredibly vibrant Twin Cities bike culture while finding a new creative life for these bike parts.

If you have bike parts you would like to donate or bike components you would like turned into a commissioned art piece, please contact me. Additional work can be seen at www.blythemdavis.com or on Instagram at blythemdavis_art.

Blythe also works in encaustic. While not on display in the windows, you can see a few examples here and many more examples at the Women's Art Festival.

TO PURCHASE:
Please email at blythemdavisartist@gmail.com.


Monday, October 8, 2018

IN THE WINDOWS-Lynda Angelis










“Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient”
-     St. Thomas Aquinas

In abstract painting, the subject is rarely important to the viewer: it is the painting itself - its colors, shapes and textures- that arrest the eye.  To say that a painting is strong is a compliment. Its strength may come from the combination of its colors or subject matter or something subtle that not all viewers will feel.


I am deeply motivated by the concept of abstract expressionism.  I find this genre without borders and as valid and alive as when it was first explored by the great pioneers of modern art.
I create my own vision of this exploration and utilize what to me is true urban and sometimes is very much reminiscent of street art.  My approach to a painting is unplanned, spontaneous and often accidental. It is multilayered with many untold stories underneath the finished paintings.

“A craftsman knows in advance what the result will be, while the artist knows only what it will be when he has finished it.”

W.H.Auden

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

In The Windows- Geometric Events!

 GEOMETRIC EVENTS
by
Susan Hensel
A single stitch is made by stretching a thread between two holes. The line formed by it can be loose or tight. It can be thick or thin, depending on the diameter of the thread. It can be long or so short that it barely exists. But, it can never exist as more than a single defined geometric event, a sort of singularity. The combinations of these singularities create planes, lines, forms, and geometrical space.

Since recieving a Jerome Foundation Project Grant for Textile Art in 2014, my intense media focus has been on digitizing for machine embroidery. The process is highly technical, using several software packages that can only be described as a nonintuitive cross between Photoshop and Illustrator.

Digital embroidery lends itself to the study of geometry.  The combination of high tech with "women's work" provides a delicious contrast of hard/soft, nostalgic/current, objective/non-objective. It also lends itself to modular repetition and re-combinations. Themes can be played out quickly in the computer and then stitched and sampled oh so slowly on the machine; combined with and without mixed media in a wide-ranging exploration of forms in space.  


In this chaotic time, digital textiles seem like a way to begin to bring order to the world. Order is, however, always unstable, a glimmer of a hope, cut off by random acts of chance or intent. It is no different in digital embroidery.  In the computer, all things seem orderly, put together, and logical... as though the human propensity for chaos did not exist.  In the production, chance operates: human error, flawed thread, broken needles, run out bobbins, high humidity, low humidity, fabric popping out of hoops and the panicked phone call from a friend.  Repair savvy, canny attention and a spirit of wabi sabi is essential.







Tuesday, March 6, 2018

COMING SOON! Special Event: Jennifer A. Schultz and WHERE WE COME FROM

This is a one time only special event!

March 16-May 18, 2018

Where We Come From/Jennifer A. Schultz

Reception Friday March 16, 7-9pm. 



WHERE WE COME FROM is an exhibit of small books created by artists from Buffalo, MN as well as bookworks by Jennifer A. Schultz. Each explores the ways in which landscape- the physical place we live, the places our people come from- helps determine our identity.  Buffalo artists participated in two bookmaking workshops taught by Schultz at Wright County Historical Society last August.

Jennifer A. Schultz was a recipient of the 2017 Minnesota Artists initiative Grant. She led workshops in Buffalo, MN, collecting stories and teaching people how to put their stories into book form.  

This weekend event is your opportunity to see what's been cooking up in Buffalo and to enjoy seeing more of Jennifer's work in the Window Gallery.

Monday, February 12, 2018

IN THE WINDOWS: Adepts, Accidents, and Anecdotes by Tom Roark

I've known Tom pretty much since I moved to Minneapolis in 2004.  He is a neighbor, a gardener, a kind volunteer, a writer, a rock and roll guy, an aspirant permaculturist and he draws with me, and a bunch of other people,  once a week.

In 2008, Tom saw twenty Robert Shetterly portraitsamericanswhotellthetruth.org. The paintings portrayed Americans from Sojourner Truth to Martin Luther King. All spoke loudly for justice, peace, and truth.

He felt that peace happens for reasons beyond good intentions and wanted to look closely at thinkers and doers who either cultivated the conditions for peace, or, sometimes, stood as exemplars of what not to do.

He write “Faces of Wisdom” for Duluth’s Zenith City Weekly Zenith City News. Each column is accompanied by a portrait drawings.  Some of those — and a few other pictures — are included in this display. 

His drawings will be in the windows until mid March.  Do come by.