Tom Prochaska, Gail Tremblay, Mark Andres, Bethany Hays

So Roger Hull not only writes the books and curates the shows, he also delivers books to various places (“distributor”added to his CV) and Thursday we headed to Augen Gallery with some books for the upcoming George Johanson show this spring.

Augen Gallery wasn’t open yet, so we went next door to the Froelick Gallery  where we looked at Tom Prochaska’s new show…work I really liked.  It was pointed out to us that Prochaska had had this postcard hanging in his studio for years…an old image from Louisville after a “flood” (though as a former mid-westerner I’d say more like after a tornado)…which had informed a lot of these paintings…

 

the colors, the brushwork, the composition was all appealing to me.  Additionally he had some great papier mache figures which included boxers

and these two…inspired by the interminable magicians, acrobats, etc. of the old Ed Sullivan show

and then the Gail Tremblay show.  Tremblay is a writer and artist who has been making baskets which combine traditional techniques (Tremblay is a Mi’kmaq and Onindaga poet, born in New York State, now teaching at the Evergreen State College) with experimental materials…in this case exposed film…

and it was explained to us that the larger film is “movie” film…in this case a film in Cheyenne language in which the lead actor was Trevor Howard (decidedly not native in origin and NOT a Cheyenne).

and the smaller film was educational film, films meant for schools which often did disservice to native people…

the combination of traditional basket weaving techniques, modern materials and social commentary make this work particularly attractive to my eye.

But now Augen Gallery was open…we delivered the books…(recycling a Blue Apron box in the mix)

and my eye was caught by this nice pair of Mark Andres paintings…

the off for you-know-what

We headed to the east side past the dumb bell buildings to pick up Sidney and head to Milwaukie to Rose Villa where Elizabeth Bauman and I will be showing work starting about March 10 (artist talk March 21…6:30.)   (I really like these buildings, Sidney does NOT like them, R feels they work because they are small…as “accents” but thinks they are a bit hard for “other buildings to live with”.)

 

We were met by CARV (Creative Arts at Rose Villa) program director Kathryn Celleriini Moore and looked at the big watercolors by Bethany Hays

referencing laundry, a constant thematic…

and then off to Sidney’s…