ArtsWest Gallery presents four regional artists in THE EDGE OF NIGHT; featuring three Seattle-based artists, C. ALBERT, JEAN BRADBURY, MONIKA DALKIN, and Portland artist DAVID CARMACK LEWIS. Two painters, a mixed media and a collage artist, each offer a unique, narrative style which can at times be slightly unsettling, like the place between wakefulness and dreams, like the edge of night.

C. ALBERT’s collages are assembled from various image sources including magazine clippings, colored pencil drawings and dimensional objects. Cutting, gluing and building up the surface of each work, the collages evolve organically with a surrealist resonance. The award-winning artist has been a regular participant in exhibitions in the Northwest as well as in Florida, Illinois, Washington D.C, and New York.

JEAN BRADBURY’s masterful oil paintings are both joyful and sinister, joining observations of the natural world with fanciful images of animals. Born in the Shetland Islands, U.K. she grew up on her parent’s organic farm in New Brunswick, Canada. It was there she learned to see plants and animals as a natural part of her emotional life. She completed her BFA in painting at Queen’s University and spent time traveling Europe and the Near East developing an interest in art history, natural dyes and archeology.

MONIKA DALKIN is a mixed-media artist who draws upon a host of media to develop her work. Initially inspired by everyday objects and situations, she then chooses the medium or media that best interpret her ideas: woodcut prints, etchings, fabric, dyes, thread, ceramics, pastel and more, are organized with deference to shape, color, balance, order, repetition and rhythm. The award-winning artist has a long exhibition history and is included in the collections of the University of Hawaii, the University of Arizona and the University of Minnesota.

Portland artist DAVID CARMACK LEWIS’s oil paintings on canvas interpret the limited spectrums of nighttime light sources, both natural and manmade, and are often populated by what is not there: an empty chair near a small fire, an elegantly lit theatre without an audience. His theatre paintings suggest the striking black and white photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto of empty movie theaters, but with the subtle hues of night. Lewis has participated in juried shows throughout the region, as well as in New Mexico, Arizona and South Africa.

THE EDGE OF NIGHT is on display Tuesday, October 11 through Saturday, November 19, 2011. Artists Reception: Thursday October 13, 6-7:30pm