Sixshot Snapshot Show @ Capitol Theater - on exhibit now through February 26, 2011

I'm one of six artists participating in a group snapshot photography show at the historic Capitol Theater's Mezzanine Gallery, located in downtown Olympia at 206 5th Ave SE.

Fellow local artists include Mezzanine Gallery curator Ira Coyne, Jennyrose Wright, Judith Baumann, Isaac Overcast, and one outta-towner, Ira's friend, Conrad Carlson, who lives in NYC.

Rather than an opening, we'll be having a closing reception,
Saturday, Feb 26th - time TBA.

As this image-based installation is in a movie theater,
I selected shots with the potential for resembling film stills,
either in the sense of "the film" itself or behind-the-scenes.
(But yes, there a few pet portraits tossed in the mix.)

Taken with a no-brand point-and-shoot and 35mm film (usually Fuji),
many of these snapshots have not been previously exhibited
- a collection of apparent "outtakes" taken circa late-1990s to 2005, or so.
Viewed collectively or individually, these images pose interesting narrative possibilities, threading through and crossing over one another...

When I view a photograph, the snapshot in particular,
I'm drawn to and interested in what is framed,
but perhaps more so in what is going on beyond the frame
- there is that within the frame from which a conclusion may be drawn,
or is it just the beginning, the opening line, to a larger story?

I hope you get a chance to stop by the theater to see all these compelling tiny tales told through the kaleidoscopic lens of six different hearts and minds...

A few clay animal sculptures...

These are three small clay pieces I made during one of my volunteer shifts at the Tacoma Art Museum's Open Art Studio - two rabbits and a hedgehog-but-transformed-into-armadillo. I haven't worked with clay in forever, it's so much fun! At TAM's art studio, one can also do drawing, painting, printmaking, and jewelry-making!

Before I took on a regular shift with the Open Art Studio, I did a few shifts in the gallery taking photos of visitors as part of the photo-based exhibit, Mighty Tacoma: Picture Yourself Here: http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/Page.aspx?cid=6403

The Mighty Tacoma exhibit will be up through April, so stop on by and get pictured, then pop in the art studio for some art making of your own!

Acting blue in a new film by Jason Gutz

Back in December, I got to play play "Blue", one of the three primary colors characters representing Kodachrome for a new work by Jason Gutz. Jason is an avant-grade/experimental filmmaker based in Tacoma. He's been working on a film having to do with the end of Kodachrome film, both production and processing. The film's release is TBA, though Jason may be screening works-in-progress here and there.

me as "Blue"

Kodachrome (aka K40), a color reversal still and moving image film stock, was introduced in the early 1930s. The stock produced sweet saturated color and rich reds in particular, but the processing required more heavily toxic chemicals than most other film stocks.

By the late 1990s, the last place in the States to provide a "true" Kodachrome processing was in Texas. After that lab closed, one had to send film all the way to Switzerland, but they soon stopped as well. Following rumored threats over the last 15 years or so to discontinue this amazing-looking yet environmentally-damaging stock, Kodak stopped producing Kodachrome in 2009.

Heather Hall as "Red"

And the last place to get it processed at all in the world up until December 30th, 2010, was Dwayne's Photo in Kansas (although Dwayne's website states they were Kodak-certified, in my view, their production resulted in almost muted colors, more resembling ektachrome.)

Heather and I furthered our costumes' use by continuing to wear them all the way home from Tacoma to Olympia, stopping at a Starbucks and Jack-in-the-Box along the way - but that's a whole 'nother story...