21 Drawings to fight cancer

So, as most of you know, I made a promise recently to give a piece of art to anyone who donated to the American Cancer Society in my name, all as part of this big Relay for Life event, which my gracious sister has been very involved with, in our hometown of Lake Stevens, WA.  (I have done many paintings loosely about Lake Stevens, including this one here)  We started getting really involved with this great fundraiser after my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple years ago (she's doing great, by the way!)

But I'm not writing here to bore you or ask you for donations, especially as I have mentioned, many of you have already been asked, and many have given, THANK YOU, and all that.  And many gave last year too!  I'm here to talk about these drawings, and show you a bunch of snap shots of the work I've been doing.

I gave this promise around the time I did the piece, Feldspar, which, essentially is a magenta version of Devil's Tower, which has been on my brain ("This means something") ever since I saw it while at that residency in Wyoming.  And the piece has been a big hit, several folks asking for it...so I figured I could use it to lure in some donations, oh wait, I'm not supposed to say that.  Well, I didn't promise folks this drawing, I said I'd do a drawing, a serious work, and perhaps it would be along those lines....the point I'm slowly getting to, is that I did, and am doing some versions of this piece, for the drawings, but I certainly can't do 21 versions of the same thing.  And 21 I have to do, thanks to all the generous folks out there!  4-5, maybe, but what about the rest?

But that's the beauty of this project - folks donated with little expectations about what sort of drawing they might receive, and now I have the opportunity to really push some of the ideas I've been working...ideas like what I did for LxWxH , but also it gave me a chance to build upon the skills I've been working on ever since I really dove into the use of gouache in Wyoming.  It's a forced exploration - you see.

The thing is, when I got back to working full time, and I have all these ideas for serious art projects, projects that you know will take time and resources, it becomes so much more difficult to just freely explore and experiment with materials and ideas.  To be loose.  But taking on this commitment has given me the chance to really delve into some just loose, fun drawings...well, paintings really.  I'm very much enjoying it, even while some of my larger ideas are still warming on the back burners.

In any case, thanks for reading this long winded into to some snapshots of these new works...without further adieu....

  remember, these are just loose snapshots, I didn't even set up any lighting...so forgive shadows and blurry shots and such.

This piece started by tracing 2 sand dollars while on I was on holiday in Moclips...

It rained MOLORAZZI - Pioneer Square Art Walk-May 2012

It occurs to me that it doesn't really feel like a Pioneer Square art walk anymore, sure there are still good spaces in what is actually Pioneer Square (Lawrimore, Davidson, and J Harris)  but all the other galleries are really east of the Square now, I mean surely the TK building isn't in Pioneer Square...but it's not quite in the ID too...any who, WHO CARES!

Maybe I'm just thinking about this as spaces like Cullom Gallery and Prole Drift draw more and more folks further East.  Plus with all the artists now filling up the INS building, and if they continue to be open each art walk like they were tonight - they may well replace the hole left behind by the demise of 619 Western.

Any who, it doesn't really matter, this is a MOLORAZZI post and you know what that means - time for awkward photos of art and artists from some of the shows I saw tonight:

 

I had no idea that Evan Blackwell had new work opening tonight, at Foster/White - the gallery that all the haters like to hate on...but the thing is, there's a lot of good stuff at the F/W - especially when they are showing artists like Evan, who explore materials in very challenging ways - this ain't your dad's Foster/White

 More work by Evan - in porcelain

 

And Mr Blackwell himself, in a perfectly awkward Molorazzi pose!  

 Speaking of perfectly awkward Molorazzi poses...here's esteemed artist Curt...let's just leave it at Curt...at Greg Kucera

 2 shots of the group show centering around gay themed art (and artists) which ties into the highly acclaimed show currently up at Tacoma Art Museum:  Hide/Seek.  This is also at Greg Kucera

 A quick and ugly shot of Eirik Johnson's work at G. Gibson.  His pictures draw you in, these abandoned mushroom camps and other structures ave very intriguing  - it reminds me of the work of that famous photographer couple...what the hell is their name...ah, the Bechers, thank you interwebs.  

 Robert Yoder being a good sport and smiling for the Molorazzi at his very handsome solo show at Platform Gallery. 

 There were several groups of paintings installed with such an elegant balance - not that you can tell from this awkward photo (which captures the backside of artist Robert Hardgrave) 

 

Erin Shafkind's piece in the middle of Text Editor, at SOIL.  [revised ] This shot is a rare moment when the crowd was open - most of the time I was there it was so crowded that some patrons stepped right on the piece before even knowing it was there - which created this weird feeling...were you supposed to step on it or not?  No one was telling anyone not to....because of that it sure seemed like it was intended to be walked on....but...the sound it would make sent shivers of pain through my Museum Security Guard body.  

 Artist Erin Frost and curator Sierra 

Stinson, also at SOIL

 Artists Shaun Kardinal, Joey Veltkamp, and Curtis Erlinger (oh crap, now I gave away his name) in close up profile, does it get any more Molorazzi than this?

 

Curator of Text Editor, Sharon Arnold, adjusting a work by Amanda Manitach

 On the left we have Erin Shafkind (on right) and friends; on the right we have Jessie Higman, Jana Brevick, and friends in Jana's backspace show, Moving Target, also at SOIL. 

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 The crowd at SOIL, with many famous artists mingling.  Also, nice job SOIL in renovating your space, it's way better with this lay out.  Very smart change. 

 

I don't know what this was about

 

 Nice mixed media layered pieces at Core Gallery by Aaliyah Gupta - acrylic on duralar, which seems to be overhead plastic, or something like that.  Is the use of transparency becoming a trend?

 Outside of Prole Drift looking in at Buddy Bunting's pretty jail painting

A large print hanging piece at Cullom Gallery for Brian Lane's curate Texture of Being