Helga Winter

Helga Winter's hand turned bowls are perfect for a one of a kind gift this holiday season. Artisans has a large selection for you to choose from. Last month Helga was our featured artist and did several demonstrations. Watch her in action below.

December

COUNSEL LANGLEY:
NEW PAINTINGS
DANIEL WILSON: CRAFTSMEN BOXES

DECEMBER

OPENING RECEPTION:
SATURDAY THE 1ST
6 -8PM

LIVE PAINTING

READ IT NOW: RANDOMLY GENERATED INTERVIEW

New Paintings by Counsel Langley

Artisans on Taylor is proud to present new paintings by Counsel Langley. Raised in Northwest Langley received her BFA in Metals from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston in 1999. Metalsmithing’s emphasis on small-scale details and rich surfaces directly impacts her technique as a painter. Her work has been exhibited in several Northwest solo and juried shows, was awarded Best of Show in this year’s Art Port Townsend regional juried exhibition, and was selected for publication in Visual Codec’s One Shot. Using acrylics, inks and immodest amounts of glitter, her paintings explore her memories of urban spaces, as well as the look of circuitry, fluid turbulence, weather, diagrams, and outer space.

Langley presents pieces from her cityscape series in which she experiments with new perspectives—from a airplane, amid skyscrapers, particular districts, exposure of a vast underground upon which the city is built, along with others. Regardless of the perspective, there is always an element of these contrived environments interacting with the natural world, whether in antagonistic tension or pristine balance.

Along side these Langley shows Bridges in which she illustrates a fascination with both the “impudent will that drives us to conquer natural barriers and the level of trust required to cross bridges one did not build.” She unveils two new series: Utility and Captivity/Captivate. With the Utility series the artist “looks at how we harness and use of energy.” Captivity/Captivate explores the “irresistible intrigue of the Other and questions what it means to be in a cage.”

It is with sheer delight that Artisans on Taylor will host a series of “Live Painting” events in which Langley will recreate, in the gallery, a slice her life in the studio. The first Live Painting will be during the Opening Reception with and later dates in December to be announced.

Enduring Quality: Daniel Wilson’s Craftsmen Wood Boxes

During the month of December Artisans on Taylor presents craftsmen wood boxes by Daniel Wilson. Handmade with care and attention to detail these unique works reflect their maker’s desire for sustainability, enduring quality and beauty. “When designing a project, I make choices based on this conservationist sensibility. Whenever possible, I use recycled materials. I build to last. When I begin, I look for the beauty; when I finish I leave beauty.”

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest has molded Wilson into “a sailing enthusiast and a bit of a tree hugger.” His experience, which includes work in housing construction, harvesting forest products, recycling and boat repair, has made him witness to a grievous waste of resources. “I wish that we could all make that shift in consciousness to personally practice conservation every day.” In his work Wilson makes this wish a part of his practice by using resources wisely. “If I am going to support the tree harvesting industry, which is what I’m doing by buying wood, then I feel I should use that wood to create a monument to the beauty of the tree. I believe that one should approach every woodworking job as though a tree gave its life for this project.”

Helga Winter: Wood Turn Vessels

November at Artisans on Taylor we will feature Wood Turned Vessels by Helga Winter.
Opening Reception with the artist Saturday, November 3rd, 5:30

Artisans on Taylor is proud to present wood turned vessels by Helga Winter. Born and raised in Germany, Winter has been a wood turner since 1982. She studied under Rude Osolnik, David Ellsworth, Liam O’Neil and Paul Pitts. Her work has been exhibited in group shows in Europe and the United States. Winter received her M.S. in Education from Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. She has demonstrated wood turning in Austria, taught studio classes since 1987 and was an instructor at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building in Port Townsend, Washington from 1992 through 1995. She also helped found the Tennessee Association of Woodturners.
She hand turns unseasoned or “green” Pacific Madrone (arbutus menziesii) on a wood lathe. The drying of green Madrone is an organic process of change, for the artist it refers “to a sense of mystery, balance, the fragility of life and a sense of movement.”
Looking at the center of things is the underlying theme in Winter’s work as an artist and educator. “The process of my work is a self-discovery. The pieces are felt and become known to me only to be discovered anew through the beholder’s imagination” upon whom it rests to investigate and decide the function of the piece.
Winter embellishes her turned vessels with dyes and drawn patterns as well as paper to invite a closer look and investigation. The vessel, “when given a new appearance or ‘look’ through dying or patterning its surface, allows a quiet conversation to take place. Who am I really? How does my appearance, my attitude affect my inner being? Do they enhance the Self or cover it up?”
Through these processes Winter strives to show the pureness of the wood. Her work is a metaphor for the essence of Being.

OPENED! SALON DELUCCA

On October 1st a small private opening took place Uptown in Port Townsend. Artisans On Taylor assemblage artist, Lisa Johnson, opened her new space, Salon Delucca. Besides being a visual artist, Lisa is also a very talented "hair colorist" and interior designer. Salon Delucca is a hair salon and gallery, showing artists from Artisans On Taylor. This month's featured artist is Jeane Myers. Congratulations Lisa! Your new space is incredible. Watch the video below and don't wait another minute to head uptown and check it out for yourself!

Miki Ataka: New Line

OCTOBER

Japanese artist exhibits a new line of jewelry + her fantastic fabric works!

Not to be missed.

AOT fully loaded........

Internal Guidance System's Visionary art and Mike Biskup's Massive Attack of Love packed AOT for a "Last Weekend of Summer" party! Check out the show in the video below!

Internal Guidance Systems

Artisans on Taylor presents

Internal Guidance Systems:
2006-2007 USA Visionary Art Tour

Curated by Anne Grgich with Colin Rhodes

Internal Guidance Systems is a “must see gathering of visionary, folk and outsider art. IGS includes an array of well-known and established artists from the Pacific Northwest, as well as, national and international visionaries, Raw Classics Folk and Emerging and Cross Over Artists.


“Internal Guidance Systems presents the best of that art which lives at the heart of our lives and yet, curiously comes out of the margins. This is compelling work that grows out of its creators like a plant grows out of the ground, taking the very fabric of contemporary life, it transmutates into significant message. It speaks!” Colin Rhodes.

INTERNAL GUIDANCE SYSTEMS
What a perfect title for a show! So what is it that makes the outsider/visionary artist special? It is this—the 'allowing' of that innate sense of creativity, spontaneous and unsullied by art school or other training - Internal Guidance

In this age of hype and ego and promotion of the Self, how refreshing that artists are emerging for whom the most important thing isn't self-aggrandisement, but rather the pure choiceless expression if their artistic creativity.

All those in this touring show are extraordinary examples of artists who have surrendered to this inner intelligence and produced art that is new, hugely imaginative and unfettered by cultural conditioning. Let us honor them and other creators of their ilk, as explorers of uncharted territories, fearless and prepared to risk all.
Henry Boxer 2007

Internal Guidance Systems runs all of September and October, with two openings. The first opening will be September the 1st, then IGS will be completely refreshed with new work and a new look for a second opening on October the 6th.