Come celebrate popUp Gallery’s second anniversary with an intriguing exhibition of words and pictures, music and poetry by twelve Bay Area artists whose imagery is infused with stories.
Poet ‘Éclat’ aka Mark Lynch will make a special appearance at our closing reception August 8, 6pm to 9pm.
Mark Lynch engages and writes about people in real time, producing a personal, poetic metaphor of his subject’s essence, with a collection of pieces resulting by the end of the event.
Our new show, “In Other Words”, tells stories about personal journeys and cherished memories through private musings, poetry and prose, and fragments of familiar novels. This is visual storytelling at its very best, providing tangible evidence that the magic of language still exists in a splendid variety of patterns and forms that evoke deep emotions and vivid imagery, reminding us of our collective past or perhaps offering a glimpse into the future. Our show will inspire you, surprise you and entertain you.
1517 Park Street, Alameda, California
Meet our artists
Companion to California
Adam Donnelly – Pinhole Photography http://www.adonnelly.com
Artist Statement
My work is rooted in pinhole photography – a historic process that predates the medium itself and essentially stands as the first technological iteration of photography as a whole. I build the cameras myself which creates a tactical connection to my materials. As objects, the cameras are both sculptural and functional and I look to the materials I use during the camera building process to inspire a photograph and create a dialogue between camera and image.
For my Visual Literacy series I create pinhole cameras from recycled books. The vocabulary of our visual imaginations is comprised of imagery that we take in throughout the course of our lives. When reading, the mind utilizes this vocabulary to form a visual narrative based on the text that the eye is consuming. This intangible narrative can only be “seen” by the reader. I am presenting my own visual translation of specific texts by using books as cameras.
Moby Dick, Ahab
Bill Ford – Illustrations, Drawing http://hermanandfyodor.tumblr.com/
Artist Statement
Dostoyevsky and Melville were speculators in the markets of the Sublime. In their storytelling, they open high and then knock it all down where they can pick things up at a discount, cover their short and take a nice spread. In these drawings I endeavor to short their short. And slip through a back door to the Sublime. Rather than illustration, I think of them as Abstract Expressionism with figures.
I had a career in advertising and another in software design. Since the second grade, when the art teacher showed me Lautrec’s At the Moulin Rouge and I thought I could do something like that, I have been drawn to the flame of art over and over again. I have been drawn to Giotto and Durer, to Caravaggio and Velasquez, to Rembrandt and Piranesi, to Van Gogh and Picasso, to Franz Kline and de Kooning, to Jackson Pollock, to Winsor McCay and George Herriman. I have been drawn to an economy of means, to a density of line and a heavy virtual mass, to psychological presence and multiple scales of interest, to encapsulated forms with uncertain edges, to things that seem to take over my pencil and live a life of their own. To things that go bump in the night.
CD Cover
Colin Herrick – Limited Edition Music Label http://timereleasedsound.com/
Artist Statement
I have been making art constantly for more than 30 years now. Having spent many years working in the printmaking field, and working on larger print/photo media wall works, I stumbled into the business that I am now in through both my love of music, and my love of the beautifully packaged product. I had always sought out and bought musical releases that came in some sort of artistically produced package, but it wasn’t until 2011 that I thought about starting doing this myself. I only wish I had thought to do this 20 years ago, when all music came in a package of some sort!
Founded in 2011, Time Released Sound is a lovingly hand made, limited edition release music label that is as much an art project as it is a musical outlet. Focusing primarily on classically infused and folk based ambient and electroacoustic sounds by the artists we know, love and admire, we will be striving at all times to produce visuals and packaging for these fine releases that are as original and uniquely beautiful as the music itself.
We here at TRS are trying our best to keep the beauty of physically packaged music alive..but we need your help, please! Think twice before illegally downloading music….support the few independent music stores that are still in existence…and above all enjoy the feel of the music in your hands, as well as in your ears!!
Dara Lorenzo – Printmaking http://www.daralorenzo.com
Artist Statement
There are windows into people’s lives that we often do not look through. People have connections with history and time. We all have roots and pasts. People embark upon adventures, and create personal narratives.
In this body of work I was trying to create a narrative about close surroundings and relationships, the stories that we just can’t ignore. I wanted to project a visual timeline about recent experiences involving my present circumstances. Comparatively I became interested in lineages and stories by fumbling through old pictures and albums. These are usually the albums of our lives, photographs of people and places that we are close to and love. It made me wonder more about the people of the past, and trying to understand a connection between our lives.
We all use collage as a function to form connections and storyboard visually. Collaging my present experiences with my immediate family and friends is, in a way an effort to bring us closer, to understand more. It is an exploration of a history.
The work uses photographic investigation as well as collage and printmaking processes to create an overlapping and layering of memories and stories. These compositions have narratives about people and places. I started my investigation thinking about how people interact through mark making and messages in the sidewalks and facades in the cities that we dwell in. That idea pushed me into a more internal place that is about story- tellers and the narrative of the individual.
Book Necklace
Elizabeth Ashcroft – Jewelry, Sculpture http://www.artbyashcroft.com
Artist Statement
The “Dissected Library” – that’s how I think of my ongoing series of altered, or repurposed, books.
I find the literal board-paper-thread-glue-ink-word essence of the book to be the ideal platform for exploring the boundaries of my creative expression and intuition. The duality of the book as both a visual object and a conduit for ideas is a source of constant inspiration. There is something deeply satisfying about physically carving into the depth of a book; about taking an existing work of art and giving it a new context; about bringing together found words and images from disparate sources to orchestrate a new creative relationship.
New Yorker 1
Gabriele Bungardt – Painting http://www.gabrielebungardt.com
Artist Statement
My Still Life paintings are about recording the everyday objects that make up most of the narrative of life. They are the pages of my own journal, a testament to daily routines and meditations, with each scene representing a piece of the continuing story.
I’m often more interested in the shadows than the object, because the presence of the shadow (often overstated in my paintings) represents the light I crave so much, and which, to me, is equivalent to happiness. Light inspires my still lifes and its depiction in my artwork is a form of homage to California and the lightness of being and positive attitudes that are a reflection of a culture that takes its essence from the presence of light.
Waves (Detail)
Jan Dove – Book Art http://www.jandove.com
Artist Statement
Artist Books are visual art that finds its expression in the form of books, sometimes incorporating text, sometimes without text. Artist Books can dwell in the realm of the narrative, but they don’t have to.The forms of “the book” are numerous, especially when you consider them historically – clay tablet accounts, scrolls, folded papyrus, manuscripts written on skin, and collections of printed pages. I consider stories recorded on obelisks and in stained glass to be types of “the book” for the non-reader.
I like to test the boundaries of the book form, trying to make the form of my books relate more to the content of the book than to the traditional Western book form. Many of my books incorporate line drawings of the human figure.
I draw the figures directly into the computer and usually composite them with my digital photographs. I enjoy combining the newest technologies with the old and with the mark of the individual hand. The content of my books is about the things I am thinking about; usually the planet that I love (such as it is) and the people who inhabit that environment, such as they are.
Chicago Mfg Memories
Leah Virsik – Book Art http://www.leahvirsik.com
Artist Statement
The challenge to look at things in alternate ways fuels my work. My preoccupation with reuse is entwined in my familial roots. As a child, I remember a quilt frame my dad made for my mom that took up our entire living room. His grandmother taught him to quilt using old clothing. My mom taught me how to sew. Now, I create collages and paint papers that I tear up. In the process, paper scraps land on my studio floor and come alive with vivid personal memory and speak of pure potentiality. I can’t bear to throw them away. Inspired by Richard Serra’s Verb List, I use alternate ways to connect, stack or sew these scraps together. My work includes remnants of torn personal journal entries that hint at a desire to expose myself. The process feels like a personal excavation.
As I combine these fragments of my life, I concurrently explore the larger themes of value and abundance. My art and life converge as the paper stacks in my studio mirror the piles of paper in my office. Yet my artwork shows commitment and a focused effort of layering seemingly disparate fragments to create work larger than myself.
Fin
Mary Wings – Drawings, Visual Storytelling
Artist Statement
Illustrations for an Untold Story:
I had a wonderful idea for a novel
(I thought)
a lightweight detective novel
based in the small community of San Miguel de Allende.
I wanted the illustrations to reflect a Mexican sensibility
in color, tone and symbolism, echoing
velvet paintings, lottery cards, holy cards….
I succeed far better with the illustrations than with the writing.
I couldn’t find a title.
The images kept coming.
I find it hard to sit down at the computer. My leg falls asleep.
I was worried that people in San Miguel might recognize themselves in the story.
The easel with the black paper beckoned and beckoned.
My friends liked the paintings very much. Some laughed in a nice way.
That was pleasing.
Everyone likes to fantasize about the meaning of the paintings/cards that I presented.
And so I present them to you.
Make of them what you will.
And if the shoe fits, enjoy.
Mi’Chelle Fredrick – Drawing http://popupautobodygallery.com
Artist Statement
I am often asked what comes first, the words or the pictures. It depends. Sometimes a phrase haunts me until I’m inspired to illustrate it. Sometimes the image suggests the words. Often words and images burst to the surface simultaneously and I find myself madly scribbling phrases along the margins of the painting or drawing thatI’m working on.
As a child, I was a voracious reader. I lacked the skill then to illustrate what I read, but I created detailed scenes in my mind page after page. My mental images were often so vivid that I could recall them years later. Even now, if a movie is made from a book I’ve read, the sets and characters rarely live up to my imagined scenes.
For me, words and images are inextricably linked. Many of my drawings have poems to accompany them, but the poetry is often too personal to be shared. I continue to seek ways to merge my writings with my visual arts.
SPECIAL GUEST:
Éclat, aka Mark Lynch – Poetry at the closing reception August 8.
The discreet and charming Éclat engages you as a caricaturist would.
But instead of drawing a portrait, Eclat composes an original poem about your personality and immediately prints and presents the poem to you on Éclat’s custom stationary, suitable for framing.
Chat with Éclat as you would with any other guest.
While you converse, Éclat composes a unique work of art…about you.
Éclat writes it, reads it to you and gives you a beautifully printed copy to keep.
Each guest who talks with Eclat departs with their own original creation in hand.
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