May 10th 2012 WSAW

Beginning May 8 and continuing through July 7, ArtsWest will present Tableaux Vivants featuring the work of six artists who work as story tellers, creating art that inspires conversation and stimulates the imagination. Tableau Vivants offers a splendid sampling of work by six very talented artists. Please join us for an artists’ reception, part of the West Seattle Art Walk, May 10, 6:00 – 7:30pm. We will provide light refreshments and you will have the opportunity to meet these amazing artists. And stay for our current play, Exit, Pursued by a Bear, which starts at 7:30p.m. www.artswest.org

Seattle artist Marty Gordon draws on a diverse artistic background that includes writing, theater, and printmaking to make his clever collages. A former minister, Gordon now devotes his spare time to collage making. Blending sophisticated humor with a comic visual style, his art appears lighthearted at first glance with clever wordplay and allusions to comic books. Scratch the surface and you will find much more. He has exhibited his art nationally and internationally and is one of 40 artists featured in the recent publication Masters: Collage.

Betty Sapp Ragan, of Tacoma, also uses collage in her art, but with a very different approach and result than that of Marty Gordon. Ragan’s artwork blends architectural elements from buildings that she has photographed, with portraiture that she creates in the studio. Her large scale gelatin silver prints are carefully cut together, brown toned and hand colored using Prismacolor and oil pigments. The imagery successfully combines the stone building facades with the portraits and the artifice of the applied color resulting in photographic works that are reminiscent of classical roman sculpture. The award winning artist has many regional and national exhibitions to her credit.

Although Ulrich Pakker’s sculptures are created from hard heavy materials – stainless steel, bronze, aluminum and glass, their curvilinear shapes and undulating swooping lines give them a buoyancy that seems to defy their weight. Pakker’s sculpture can be found in private and corporate collections nation wide. His work has also been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Bellevue artist Deborah Scott says that her mixed media oil paintings are collaborations with her models. Her paintings are the perfect vehicle for story telling; casting her models as universal archetypes from fairytales, tarot cards and mythology. Scott distresses her canvases by scraping away paint, abrading the canvas and otherwise distressing the work giving the finished art a look of long handled timelessness.

The two person collaborative artist team, DameBuilder, are Seattle artists Tracy Cilona and Crystal Fosnaugh. Inspired by the Feminist Art Movement of the 1970s, they continue their exploration of gender related issues that informs their work. DameBuilder will present a short video documentary addressing the feminist role in food and nourishment.