Fat Tiger Studios - Opening Night

By scotte

Here’s a little video I made highlighting our opening night at Fat Tiger Studios down in the Pioneer Square area of Seattle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SktuxqdXkg

(apparently I can’t embed the video… sorry)

New Images from Scott Kolbo

By scottk

Here are some images of the new prints I made for the Vancouver Project Exhibit at Fat Tiger Studios on Nov. 6th.

These one color screen prints were created from the line drawings I worked on this sumer in Vancouver. I ended up with an edition of 9 prints - meant to be exhibited in a grid. 

I thought a nice title would be “Grid of Beauty, Sublimity, and Grotesquery” in honor of all those late nights we spent discussing just what those terms actually mean…

Matt Whitney Painting #1 - Annunciation

By matt

Annunciation, oil on canvas, 22″ x 28″

Going into this Residency, we were given the themes of The Beautiful, The Sublime, and The Grotesque. Before we left for Vancouver, I came up with the concept imagery in a sketchbook that I was going to do for my paintings. Without getting too heavily into the philosophies (for that, go read Plato, Kant, Alice in Wonderland, etc.) the one idea I kept coming back to, or the truth I was discovering, was that each of these concepts blend into one another. Beauty is not mutually exclusive from the Sublime, the Grotesque can be beautiful, etc.
As I have done in the past, I have used biblical stories to further my concepts. These stories are familiar to myself and hopefully as well to the viewer, and provide fascinating food for my imagination.
For my Annunciation, I thought about what would happen if the story of the Virgin Mary were to happen today in modern times. What if a friend came to you and said she had been visited by an Angel of the Lord, who told her she would bear the Savior of the World. If it were me, I’d think she’d gone cuckoo-bananas. That is the well upon which I drew for this painting. I have a stern angel shocking Mary out of bed (Rosetti’s Ecce Ancilla Domini was one of the first to depict Mary in this fashion). On the right, beast-headed figures crash down her door, spilling into the scene and mocking her. A peacock figure bears a gift of prison bars. A fish carries a crimson dress, with which to replace the Virgin’s white one. The overwhelming pressure from both sides is driving her to the brink of insanity, as she begins to stare vacantly into space pulling her hair.
The theme for this painting is that beauty is fragile. We are constantly encroaching upon and destroying beauty - be it in the environmental disasters we inflict or our culture that pounces upon the breakdown of our celebrities (for reference, see any cover of Us Weekly magazine). Yet there is still beauty to be found in the world, and in our lives, if we would only seek it. Before you accuse me of being cliché (stop and smell the roses!) by “beauty”, I not only mean a physical representation of something pretty, but a universal, objective understanding and appreciation of the Good, and I hope thusly, Truth.

By matt

Hi all, Matt Whitney here. I think that rather than having a long, drawn out explanation of how grateful I am of the experience in Vancouver BC (which I truly am), and how gracious and amazing the other artists are (which they truly are), I’ll cut to the chase. So in thinking about the work I made for this project, I went back to stories from the Bible - knowing that most of our patrons are churches, and that the images will most likely be used in a worship setting, the stories would be familiar and thusly* give the viewer an immediate connection to the work. However, the familiarity probably ends there, because I take the imagery and attempt to inject my own questions of life into them; my own wonderment and also my mind-boggling lack of faith when it comes to themes of creation, human corruption, and redemption.

I’ve written a bit on the work I made during our time in Vancouver on my own personal blog, and I will bring those over to this blog to give you, Dear Viewer, a little insight into the process.

*p.s., I had my wife read this post to check for errors, and she didn’t recognize the word “thusly”, so we looked it up via an online dictionary. It states that the word was invented in the 19th century as a speech attempt of the poorly educated people of that time straining to sound smarter than they actually were. On that note, I hope you enjoy my blog entries!

The studio at the University of British Columbia

By scottk

The studio…

The Vancouver Project Introduction

By scottk

I thought I would try to introduce this project and post a few images…

The Vancouver project was one of those interesting opportunities that sort of fell out of the sky for most of us - we all tended to be a bit skeptical and wondered if it was some sort of scam when we first heard about it…. It turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my artistic life. We got to make art for two weeks in a distraction free environment. We spent time getting to know each other and greatly enjoyed the camaraderie that naturally develops when you spend time cooking, cleaning, and relaxing in a small dorm suite in an unfamiliar town. We spent a lot of time talking about what it is like to be an artist and a person of faith. We read some challenging articles about those topics and stayed up way too late debating and learning from each other. We made a lot of art.. some of us made more work in those two weeks than we had made in the previous three months put together. It was all a blessing…

Welcome to the Vancouver Project

By lance

You’re probably here to learn more about the Vancouver Project.

In August 2008, six artists gathered together for a two week residency creating original visual art together in community. They stayed in Gage Towers on the campus of University of British Columbia, in downtown Vancouver, BC and worked at the Binney Studios at UBC, a short walk away.

The residency was patroned by five Northwest faith-based communities: John Knox Presbyterian Church, Shoreline Community Church, Church of the Beloved, Mars Hill Graduate School and Regent College.  These communities provided housing, studio space and meals for the artists.  The artists donated their time and materials. The artists are also donating digital images of the works, releasing them under a Creative Commons license for free digital download and use.

Inspired by the Florence Portfolio, the project was conceived and curated by Brian Moss, Director of Worship and the Arts at John Knox Presbyterian Church. Brian married the ideas of the Florence Portfolio with the ideas of Sweet Sacrifice, an earlier ByFor project where Brian participated as a singer/songwriter.

The exhibition makes its public debut on November 6, 6pm at the Fat Tiger Gallery in the 619 Western Ave Arts Building in Pioneer Square in Seattle as a part of the Seattle First Thursday Art Walk. The exhibition will then travel to the five patron communities. See main project page for exhibition location details.

Hi from Christen

By christen

Burqah