Tumble 1 - 17 Hirondelle (1)

Anne Hirondelle, "Tumble 1 - 17" Stoneware and Paint

Ebb & Flow: Taking Shape

“Taking Shape”  Nov. 6 – Nov. 29, 2020Talk and Demonstration by Leah Gerrard Saturday, Nov. 7th at 1pm. (Seating is limited, call to reserve a seat 206-842-3132)Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Gallery151 Winslow Way E. ,  Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110…

  • “Taking Shape”  Nov. 6 – Nov. 29, 2020
  • Talk and Demonstration by Leah Gerrard Saturday, Nov. 7th at 1pm. 
  • (Seating is limited, call to reserve a seat 206-842-3132)
  • Bainbridge Arts & Crafts Gallery
  • 151 Winslow Way E. ,  Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110

I try not to refer to a gallery twice in a row, but this month I would like to point you back to Bainbridge Arts & Craft Gallery. Its November exhibition is “Taking Shape.” To confess a bit of author bias, as a sculptor myself, I could not resist the fact that this is an important sculpture exhibition. 

Of the seven sculptors exhibiting, with material concentrations of bronze, clay and paper, you also will see wide generational experience presented with four artists having four decades or more in their field, and some relatively new in theirs. The artists are Wally Bivins, Leah Gerrard, Heather Griffin, Anne Hirondelle Jan Hoy, Phillip Levine, Philip McCracken.

One of the artists with 40 years of experience is Anne Hirondelle. Her first 20 years were spent as a more traditional ceramicist making pots and abstracted vessels. What is on view this month is an example from her second 20 years, a period that began by eliminating the glazing layer and the beginning of experimenting with color. Her forms still begin on the traditional ceramicist’s wheel, but are later dissected and painted. This was the “ah ha moment” where she began to see her work as sculpture, as she explained to the Port Townsend Leader in an article about her evolution as an artist. These sculptures are bright, fresh, and visually active between color, line and form, and are elegant visual puzzles in three dimensions. Hirondelle was awarded an NEA Artist Fellowship (1988), was a Betty Bowen Finalist (2004) and received the Twining Humber Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. 

Heather Griffin, “Instructions for Kirigami Flower” paper, balsa, and adhesive.

Heather Griffin is one artist who may not have a decades-old track record, but her wall and three-dimensional sculptures are inventive and beautiful. She places great importance on the hand-making of her artwork. And paper constructions take much care! She finds paper a pleasurable challenge, taking the ordinary material, experimenting, and creating art from it. 

Jan Hoy presents some bronzes. She may be familiar to our community as she has shown in several BIMA exhibitions. Her works are abstract forms. Her approach is to use abstraction as  a freedom from references and associations. She creates in clay then transforms them into bronze or fabricates them into steel.

Other illustrious artists include venerable sculptors Pillip McCracken and Philip Levine. McCracken studied under Henry Moore and is considered a member of The Northwest School of Artists. His works are often centered on nature, birds and mammals and such. He has worked on “translating the cosmos” though, so some works have been more abstract or “other” natural in intent.

Levine is well known for his many (over 30) public sculptures around the Northwest. His work tends to be figurative with the suggestion of movement using gesture and balance. He was awarded the Governor’s Art Award in 1997. He also has work in BIMA’s permanent collection. 

With this assortment of sculptors, the range of materials and techniques, the breadth of experience, visitors should find plenty to enjoy.

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ABOUT BILL BARAN-MICKLE: 2020 Island Treasure Awardee . Recently, Bill has enjoyed exhibiting in several international art biennial exhibitions. Of the three in which he has participated, he won Third Place for Sculpture from the European Confederation of Art Critics in the Chianciamo Biennale, at the Chianciano Art Museum in Italy in 2011, and First Place in Applied Arts in the London Biennale of 2013. In 2013 alone, he will have participated in eight exhibitions: from London to a two-person exhibition near home. In addition, Bill was asked to be a representative for CCAC’s exhibition celebrating 100 years of the Metals Department, and a mix of group shows in New York City, Miami, Seattle and Las Vegas. Bill is the designer of the 10 foot Equitorial Bowstring Sundial located at the Richie Observatory in Battle Point Park on Bainbridge Island, WA and completed in 2015.