Pacific Northwest Sculptors

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Events-Archive

Virtual Reception for “Emergence” Exhibit

Pacific Northwest Sculptors hosted a virtual for the “Emergence” online sculpture exhibit. View the recorded event. The reception celebrated the first online sculpture exhibit presented by the group. Entrants from 32 states submitted over 500 works.

View Reception Video
View Exhibit
Best of Show: John Siblik – River Weaving,

Author, critic and curator, Richard Speer was the juror for the exhibit. He shared his observations and discussed his selections. The show included 61 pieces.

“River Weaving,” received the Best of Show award, created by John Siblik, Associate Professor of Art at Northern Illinois University. The environmental installation represents years of evolution from concept to realization. The piece includes 103 elements installed in a quarter mile of river.

As Siblik describes his installation, “The river forms the Warp and the Elements placed in the river form the Weft. Each Element is 6 feet by 3 feet by three feet. The elements are made from Willow canes which often grow along rivers, marshes and wetlands. The original design for River Weaving dates to 1986.”

Other award winners include: First place to Stephanie Robison; Second Place to Gard Jones; and Honorable Mentions for Jessica Bodner and Karen Theisen.

Newport Visual Arts Center Opening Draws Crowd

Friday, Sept. 8, was a big day in Newport for members of Pacific Northwest Sculptors. That afternoon, the Newport Visual Arts Center, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, welcomed the pubic to “Variety of Visions: Work from the Pacific Northwest Sculptors.” 

Sculptures in a wide range of media by 27 PNWS members were on display at the NVAC, a project of the Oregon Coast Council for the Arts. 

PNWS President George Heath, whose schedule kept him from attending the opening, said of the show, “It looks amazing and very professional. We can be proud.” He volunteered high praise for PNWS Shows Coordinator Dave Gonzo. “What I did witness was what it took for Dave and his crew just to make the arrangements. The negotiations were challenging and there were some last-minute issues that seemed impossible to overcome, but Dave just took it head-on and made it happen,” said Heath. “It was a marvel to see.” 

Newport Community Supports Visual Arts

Gonzo praised those who helped him make the show a reality. “With much hard work from all of the show committee and other members, it couldn’t have been done without them,” he said. “I would like to thank the show committee for stepping up in making the exhibition a reality. Chas Martin for the show title and taking submissions, Joe Cartino for creating the spreadsheets, Jessica Stroia and Sue Quast for handling the marketing, promotion, and social media along with Alisa Looney.” 

Gonzo also thanked Craig Dorety and Andy Kennedy for their logistic support. In addition, Kennedy also wrote promotional copy, and Jill Townsend found hotel rooms at a discount for PNWS members.  Gonzo expressed special appreciation for the contributions from Newport Visual Arts Center Director Tom Webb. “Working with Tom was a pleasure, and I learned much about putting on big exhibitions.  With communication, understanding, and patience, we pulled off a great show.”  

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Kinetic Light Sculptures Showcased at Member Meeting

The approximately 20 people who attended the July 20th PNWS members and guests meeting at the home studio of PNWS member Craig Dorety saw the light. And then they saw the raw materials and then the tools. They learned how this engineering graduate and artist uses innovative technology to make mesmerizing and thought-provoking kinetic light sculptures that take the art in directions likely to have been imagined by only a few. 

As a 2006 graduate of U.C. Davis with a degree in mechanical engineering and previous studies in mathematics and physics and who, along the way, completed a NASA internship in project management and program controls, fine art may seem an unlikely path for this Oakland, Calif., native. But wait; there’s more. A suggestion of artistic inclination emerges in Dorety’s curriculum vitae in the late 1990s when at Cogswell Polytechnical College in the heart of Silicon Valley he was certified in music technology. 

In the years since college—Dorety is in his mid-40s now—his work and personal interests have led him up and down California, across America, and across the globe on projects importantly to do with using modern technology, for example, to relight with LED bulbs iconic landmarks such as Madison Square Park in New York City, a somewhat similar project on part of San Francisco’s famed Market Street, and another at San Diego’s airport where 40,000 LEDs were used to illuminate the terminal with moving imagery. 

The Engineering Tools Implemented

Amid his professional work, he makes time for extensive personal projects. He writes on his website, “I’ve spent countless hours creating and fabricating a variety of devices including midi controllers, synthesizers, kinetic light sculptures and various visual arts pieces.” Settled in Portland now, Dorety does much of that personal work in his studio which is equipped with a large CNC router with which he fabricates the surfaces he uses in his sculptures. “CNC” is shorthand for “computer numerical control.” This large, computer-controlled table router can perform the functions of several other tools including the panel saw, spindle moulder, and boring machines, among others. The tool can be used with wood, composites, aluminum, plastics, and foams. 

Those familiar with the use of any kind of router may be amazed to learn that Dorety can use his big machine to create the detailed cratered surface of moonscapes—Dorety calls them “lunar carvings”.

He writes that he learned this technique when he “hacked” a friend’s CNC router in 2012 in Australia where he attended the Perth International Arts Festival. Dorety writes thoughtfully about his art, what motivates him, and how he works. 

Insights From Perth

“The human brain has some built-in limits beyond which it cannot properly interpret visual information. I use this limit to express the workings of the subconscious…. Clean lines, simple shapes, self-similarity on varying scales, and pure, changing color are my palette; information systems and data-sets are my subject matter.” 

He says he uses “mathematics and engineering to formulate physical space-time distortions: displaying static images through time while squeezing and folding the images’ space into 3-dimensional layers.” He concludes, “I collapse space and remap it onto the time axis. By redisplaying information in this manner, I give the viewer a glimpse into spacetime as seen through my eyes.” 

Go online to www.craigdorety.com to see lots more of what Dorety sees. 

To learn more about Pacific Northwest Sculptors events, contact us today!

Effective Publicity For Sculpture Classes

Paul Haist

The Clackamas Review newspaper published an article in January about PNWS past president Carole Murphy. It was a very favorable article that focused primarily on Murphy’s then-upcoming sculpture classes. It included an attractive photo of the artist, her work, and some of her raw material. After spelling out the details of her class, the reporter, Ellen Spitaleri, went on to fill in some details of Murphy’s background. 

It was a well-crafted article designed (and placed) to get people’s attention. Murphy said it led to people getting in touch with her about joining her sculpture class. 

Differentiating Ad Space vs. Featured Story Articles

That kind of publicity—publicity that generates the desired result—usually does not come cheap. However, as a rule, one does not pay for editorial placement in a newspaper. So, how did Murphy do that and how can you do it too? To begin, it was not entirely free. Murphy previously placed an ad for her sculpture classes in the Review. It cost about what one would expect for a small display ad in a small-town—but also importantly suburban—newspaper. The ad yielded no results. When the newspaper contacted Murphy later to ask if she wanted to renew the ad, she remarked that it had not motivated any response. The newspaper’s response? “Do you think a story about your class would help?” Well, perhaps not exactly those words, but words to that effect, according to Murphy. They offered her editorial space and a reporter with a camera. Editorial space—more than ad space—implies credibility.

One likely gets a lot more mileage from even a small story than a big ad. Also, small-town papers often operate with something like a sense of family. They often want to help. Main Street goes in both directions in most small towns. Murphy did not elaborate, but she said that she previously had a similar experience. Artists take note.

To learn more about Pacific Northwest Sculptors events, contact us today!

3D Modeling Technology Propels Sculpture Forward

Paul Haist

Pacific Northwest Sculptors President George Heath welcomed members and guests to the group’s monthly open meeting on the evening of Jan. 19 at Form 3D Foundry in Portland to demonstrate the advancements of 3d modeling technology. 

This time, the meeting featured an up-close look at innovative 3-D printing technology and how sculptors are using it to advance their art. The host for the evening was Rob Arps, the founder of Form 3D Foundry. He was assisted by Production Manager Steve Christman. 

The evening began, as usual, with a get-acquainted social hour featuring potluck dining fare accompanied by an array of beverages. While many stayed close to the food and beverages during the socializing part of the event, others freely explored the sprawling studio in close-in Southeast Portland where, even after regular business hours, a large, automated 3-D printer was quietly at work by itself in something resembling a laboratory clean room. 

Exploring the 3D Modeling Technology Process

Form 3D Foundry provides a wide variety of services for sculptors including, for example, 3-D scanning in the studio and on location, digital sculpting, traditional sculpting, and the creation of enlargements and reductions of existing pieces. The studio also provides robotic machining of various materials including blue PIB (pipe insulation billet) polystyrene, white polystyrene, polyurethanes, and wood, and can also do clay milling over foam. 

While the studio seems outwardly to be a technological tour-de-force with exotic machines and wherever one looks yet another computer terminal, Arps stresses that the creation of art is the core or heart of what he, his staff, and their clients do at Form 3D. In remarks at the meeting, he explained that he is “reluctant to use the term ‘digital sculpture’.” He thinks it is “demeaning,” that it diminishes the indispensable role of the artist. Rather, as he points out on the studio website, a constant he insists on is “to explore, embrace and utilize technology in order to propel art and sculpture forward.” He calls it “the use of technology grounded in traditional artistic principles.” During the social hour at the January meeting, he elaborated on this theme at considerable length to the rapt attention of all present. Before the formal guided tour, everyone introduced themselves. 

The crowd included long-time PNWS members, new members, and non-members. Among the members present were Julian Vos-Andreae and Marty Eichinger, both of Portland, and Nancy Thorn Chambers of Olympia, each of whom is working closely at present with Form 3D Foundry. Member Alisa Loony of Portland was on hand. She, Vos-Andreae, Jennifer Corio, and Dave Gonzo are coordinating this year’s PNWS celebration of International Sculpture Day (is Day) set for April 24. Gonzo also attended the Form 3D event. Looney outlined plans for this year’s event and encouraged members to volunteer to staff the event.

To learn more about Pacific Northwest Sculptors events, contact us today!

Clay Sculpting Through the Eyes of the Blind

A YouTube video of Edmonds, Wash., sculptor, and PNWS member Pam Mummy at work clay sculpting was released by its creator in November and has since “gone viral” with over eleven million views as of Dec. 26. 

What makes the video so interesting is that the three head-and-shoulder sculptures Mummy created for the project were based solely on verbal descriptions of each subject by a loved one who happened to be blind. 

The video, created last summer, is the project of Cut.com, a Seattle-based video production company that found Mummy through PNWS. “The crew came to my studio and set up lighting and lots of cameras for the film,” said Mummy. “Three blind people were chosen for the project, and each had lost their vision in about the past 15 years.”

Mummy said she would start with a skull shape and begin the sculpture as each person started to describe their loved one. 

One of the blind persons taking part was a woman who described her son and had not touched his face for years until the day before she sat down with Mummy. “She felt it didn’t matter how people looked and her son did not particularly like to be touched,” said Mummy. 

It’s All in the Clay Sculpting Details

The second person was a woman who described her assistant, whose face she had never touched until the week before the clay sculpting session. The woman had never asked to touch the other’s face “because she had felt she knew just how she looked,” according to Mummy. “She was correct. She was very aware of every detail of her face.” 

The third participant was a man who touched his wife’s face often and, said Mummy, he “was very good at describing how she looked. His approach was very mathematical and (he) had used his hand to measure the distances of her face. He had been an engineer.” Mummy said it took two full days to record the video and that “it was fascinating to be involved in the production.” The husband and wife pair asked to keep their sculpture; the other two were destroyed. 

Mummy said it was “like sculpting in the sand; they weren’t meant to survive.” Besides being viewed widely on YouTube, a story about the video also appeared in the Daily Mail of London. One YouTube viewer of the video suggested in a comment that next time the video-maker “should blindfold a sculptor and make them feel a model’s face and sculpt it.” View the video online at https://youtu. be/xkVaSXAu5vY. Learn more about Pam Mummy online at http://pmummy. com.

To learn more about Pacific Northwest Sculptors events, contact us today!