strait art 2005

Angelique, Port Townsend Boat Haven by Sharon Becker , watercolor, 18" x 24"

part I

STRAIT ART 2005 is the latest installment in an exhibition series, beginning in 1990, dedicated to artists of the Juan de Fuca region. The annual shows have taken many directions, presenting artists in assorted geographic, cultural and thematic groupings. This time around we proposed no theme or agenda, but simply asked artists to submit ten to twenty images of their best work. From the seventy-two portfolios received thirty-seven artists were selected for back-to-back exhibitions. Most were new names, a heartening sign of the rapidly growing art scene on the North Olympic Peninsula.

February: selections from the locators and encasers by Kim Kopp , mixed media, 54 " x 54 "

Beyond recognizing the intrinsic qualities of the works themselves, the twin exhibitions strive to represent the widest range of aesthetic viewpoints. While regional motifs are prevalent among artists using traditional approaches, the modernist and post-modernist sensibilities in play in many other works are attuned to more global visions.

Most of the nineteen artists in Part I (through June 5) expend their energy on style and vision, concerning themselves with strategies for representation or abstraction. Works range from the highly representational — such as Karen Hackenberg’s bucolic oils of cows at pasture and Micheal Moshier’s botanical illustrations of the genus Lewisia — to the abstract, such as Deedra Ludwig’s mystic mixed media works, David Noble’s encaustics with their luscious surfaces of translucent melted wax, or Stephen Yates’s exuberant abstract landscapes peppered with a stream-of-consciousness parade of floating doodles and gee haws.

Quiet, Silence, Night by Deedra Ludwig , mixed media, 42 " x 34 "

Photography is represented in Ernst-Ulrich Schafer’s stark high-contrast black and white images of Marines on parade and Doug Kurata’s haiku-like color studies of patterns in nature. Pacific Rim sensibilities are in play in the Japanese-style ink brush paintings of Heideko Goecker, in Jerry Busic’s spare pastel drawings of classic bird profiles and in Karen Sistek’s diaphanous silk floral banners.

The single-mindedness of purpose and dedication artists bring to their work day in and day out is given graphic form by Kim Kopp in her Locators and Encasers series. Kopp is in the midst of a year’s regimen where she has committed to create one painting every day. Thirty of these small canvases are arranged here like a page from a monthly wall calendar, chronicling the evolution of Kopp’s creative process with a chosen vocabulary of forms, a path that guides every artist’s progress.

Fleur de Lis Formosum by Stephen Yates, oil on panel, 20 " x 16 "

Part I also includes the works of Lynne Armstrong, Sharon Becker, Lois James, Carol Janda, L.D. Lawrence, Andrea Lawson, Maria Loe and Irene Yesley. For details of Part II see upcoming exhibitions.

Strait Art Parts I & II are presented with the generous sponsorship of Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty.