June Sekiguchi on PATTERN PLAY
I explore pattern in a cultural context. I am interested in the transition where universal patterns evolve into an ethnic identity and how that further synthesizes into a significant personal aesthetic. Pattern in this continuum is a result of an extensive study of the arts, particularly textiles and architectural details from the historic Silk Road regions. The Silk Road was a network of trading routes ranging from the Far East through Central Asia and the Middle East to the Mediterranean. It served as a conduit for the reciprocal flow of ideas, necessities, and expressions of  art, craft, and design. I find great meaning in the idea of the Silk Road as a metaphor for cross-cultural exchange, and I see a timely relevance of the importance to achieve cultural understanding of these regions in our world today.

Judy and I were hanging out last month at All City Coffee, and I picked up a post card with a photo of a beautifully painted, intricate wooden sculpture. The piece, titled ‘Jack’, is pictured below. It is one of artist June Sekiguchi’s many sculptures in her solo exhibit ‘Pattern Play’ at ARTXchange Gallery in Pioneer Square.

Title: Jack • Media - acrylic on scrollcut wood • 24 x 24 x 24 inches • 'Drop...bounce...collect...is a repetitive cycle in the child's game of jacks. Inherent in the process is an increase of skill with a progressive difficulty of success. Jack is an interpretation of a piece of the game manifested by the intersection of planes' • June Sekiguchi

We decided to go to the gallery and check out the exhibit. Lauren Davis, the gallery manager, greeted us warmly and shared a virtual goldmine of information about June and her art as we examined each piece in the exhibit. We learned from Lauren that June would be demonstrating her scrollcutting technique the next evening in Issaquah as part of Artists in Action.

We met June at this event and watched as she operated her scrollsaw and worked on a piece. She had lots of cut wood pieces on hand and she encouraged us and other viewers to pick them up and handle them freely. June’s patterns consist of numerous holes cut into each piece of wood, and to do this, she first drills a small hole into the negative space of each area to be cut out, then carefully feeds the scrollsaw blade through one of the holes and connects it to her saw, then starts cutting. She repeats the process for each cutout shape. It’s a hugely time-consuming process and requires lots of skill.

Title: Ripple Effect • Media - acrylic on scrollcut wood • 22 x 22 x 9 inches • 'Mandalas radiate from the center outward as in a ripple effect' • June Sekiguchi

June’s work in ‘Pattern Play’ consists of intricately scrollcut and painted pieces of wood, layered and combined in various ways to create tactile sculptures with a beautiful play of shadows and positive and negative space. Having done a little scroll cutting in the past, I am very impressed with the complex patterns in June’s work. As it turns out, ‘Pattern Play’ is a very apt title for the wide range of work in June’s exhibit.

Ajrak Series, 2008 • Media - acrylic on scrollcut wood • 24 x 24 x 3 inches • 'This ongoing series of wall-hung sculpture draws from the Ajrak fabric printing technique native to the Sindh region of Pakistan. The original woodblock printing process is deconstructed by keeping the layers separate so that the positive and negative spaces become sculptural. Layering the patterned screens obscures what is behind while adding the depth and texture of cast shadows' • June Sekiguchi

Here’s a quote from the press release for June’s exhibit prepared by ARTXchange Gallery:

The centerpiece of PATTERN PLAY is a group of interchangeable ‘Stacking Blocks’, intricately scrollcut in iconic patterns from Southeast Asia to Northwest Africa. The collection is based on the basic shapes of children’s building blocks. By increasing the proportions, Sekiguchi plays with memory of building blocks to form a new experience. Children’s blocks in such a large scale become overwhelmingly architectural, reminding the viewer of the relationship of simple shapes to all human construction. June Sekiguchi will be present at ARTXchange Gallery periodically throughout the exhibition to rearrange and reconfigure the installation.

June Sekiguchi (on the left) with ARTXchange Gallery Director Cora Edmonds, standing in front of STACKED BUILDING BOXES (interchangeable sets), 2008, acrylic on scrollcut wood, various sizes, from 13 x 13 x 13 inches to 36 x 12 x 18 inches

June’s exhibit, Pattern Play, runs through Dec 31 at ARTXchange Gallery, 512 First Avenue South, Seattle WA, 98104
Phone - 206-839-0377
website - www.artxchange.org
A beautiful, full color catalog is available for $15

Official catalog for Calder exhibit

My friend and fellow artist, Fred Mullet, who knows I’m a big fan of Calder, recently sent me a link to the Whitney Museum of American Art, which is currently hosting an exhibit titled Alexander Calder: The Paris Years 1926-1931.

Ironically, two weeks ago I’d put a hold on several books on Calder and his art at my local library, and one of those books, pictured above, was delivered three days ago and it turns out I’m the first person to check it out! This book is hot off the press, and just happens to be the official catalog for the current exhibit, which opened on October 16th.

Calder’s career spanned 50+ years, but I am particularly interested in the art he created in his early Paris years - namely, his circus, wire sculptures and portraits, toys and free-standing and motorized mobiles. This beautifully produced book covers all those areas in detail, and also includes wood and metal sculptures, circus drawings, gouache and ink paintings, oil paintings and more!

There are photos of Calder’s art that I’d never seen in other publications, and lots of them are in full color. Calder was a master wire worker, and there are 25 wire portraits in the book, caricaturing the likes of Calvin Coolidge, Jimmy Durante and Joan Miro. Other wire sculptures, including ‘Aquarium’ (1929) and the interactive copulating ‘Pigs’ (1930) are simply amazing. Then there are the photos of his circus animals, people and props - incredible articulated sculptures on a very tiny scale.

The text in this 304 page book thoroughly covers Calder’s first five years in Paris, and his artistic life (with images) just prior to his arrival in Paris in 1926.

The exhibit at the Whitney runs through February 15, 2009, then travels to the Centre Pompidou, Musee national d’art moderne in Paris, where it will be on display from March 18 - July 20, 2009.

Click here to view images and a video from the exhibition.

The following information is quoted from the Whitney Museum of American Art Website:

About the Exhibition
On view October 16, 2008 - February 15, 2009

“For decades [Calder's] Circus, lent by the artist in 1970 to the Whitney Museum of American Art, has set flight to the imaginations of visiting children and adults. Now the museum is celebrating its genesis in “Alexander Calder: The Paris Years, 1926-1933,” an exhibition opening on Thursday that brings the young Calder and the giddy ferment of his artistic circle to life.”
–The New York Times, October 12, 2008

When Alexander “Sandy” Calder (1898–1976), arrived in Paris in 1926, he aspired to be a painter; when he left in 1933, he had evolved into the artist we know today: an international figure and defining force in twentieth-century sculpture. In these seven years Calder’s fluid, animating drawn line transformed from two dimensions to three, from ink and paint to wire, and his radical innovations included openform wire caricature portraits, a bestiary of wire animals, his beloved and critically important miniature Circus (1926–31), abstract and figurative sculptures, and his paradigm-shifting “mobiles.”

The Whitney has the largest body of work by Alexander Calder in any museum and is proud to be the exclusive American venue for this landmark exhibition, co-organized with the Centre Pompidou.

Inside view of PACCAR Pavilion from main entrance

Yesterday morning, when I walked through the door to the PACCAR Pavilion, the main entrance to Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park, it appeared to be almost devoid of people.

My favorite seating area in Pavilion for spectacular and ever changing views of park sculptures and shipping activity on Elliott Bay

As I sat down at my favorite table near the glass wall facing Elliott Bay, happily anticipating several relaxed hours spent reading and sketching, I noticed a beehive of activity in the Alvord Art Lab. Intrigued, I quietly entered the room. Ms. Victoria Clayton’s 35 6th grade students, on a field trip from the Annie Wright school in Tacoma, were in that room making sculptures from found materials, including wire and pieces of wood. These students were focused and totally oblivious to me as I stood at the doorway watching them create.

Ms. Victoria Clayton outside the Pavilion classroom with part of Geoff McFetridge installation 'In the Mind' visible to left

Part of Geoff McFetridge 'In the Mind' site-specific installation

Annie Wright 6th graders heading to PACCAR Pavilion entrance with sculptures in tow

Out in the main space, Victoria explained that her 11-year-old students had completed an earlier docent-led tour of two sections of the park. When the kids were on the Seattle Cloud Cover bridge, which connects the West Meadow and Grove to the Shore, the noise from traffic and the loud voices of the children made it difficult to hear the docent. At the highest section of the park, the North Meadow area, the kids wanted to stand under Calder’s massive 40 foot tall stabile, EAGLE. They were excited to view such a huge sculpture at such close range.

One of the students, Daniel, a budding photographer, looked up and started framing parts of the sculpture with his fingers. He asked Victoria to shoot those images and she did. The kids had a fine time viewing the Space Needle and Elliott Bay through various sections of Calder’s sculpture.

When they left the Eagle and walked down a narrow path into the Valley and came upon Richard Serra’s monumental sculpture WAKE, they got quieter and quieter, and when they started walking around and through the five parts of the 300-ton sculpture they stopped talking completely. TOTAL SILENCE. Victoria was amazed. Such is the power of art.

Sixth grade artists with sculptures, collecting backpacks and jackets at entrance to PACCAR Pavilion, as they prepare for drive back to Annie Wright School in Tacoma

ONE MUSEUM - THREE LOCATIONS

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) sponsors a dizzying array of lectures, events, Cell Phone Audio Tours, Guided Tours, film viewings and other educational programs for adults and students. Check here to find out more.

•SAM Downtown, 1st Avenue & Union Street (Free admission on First Thursdays)

•Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 Prospect St. Volunteer Park (Free admission on First Saturdays)

•Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Avenue, Downtown Waterfront (Admission always free)

Here are descriptions of two guided tours at the Olympic Sculpture Park, quoted from the official Seattle Art Museum Olympic Sculpture Park Map & Guide:

A Walk in the Park
Explore the Environment of the Olympic Sculpture Park with Local Experts

These monthly walks will be led by organizations that specialize in the environment and ecology of the Puget Sound area. Meet your guide and group in the PACCAR Pavilion every second Saturday at 1 p.m.

Site, Sculpture, Shoreline
Discovering the Olympic Sculpture Park
Saturdays, 11 a.m. and Sundays, 2 p.m.

Experience the Olympic Sculpture Park’s dynamic spaces and learn about the design and layout of the park, site history, selected sculptures, and more. Bring your walking shoes and meet a SAM docent in the PACCAR Pavilion.

EAGLE (and crow) stabile by Alexander Calder, created in 1971, stands 40 feet tall

Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park officially opened on January 20, 2007, and has quickly become a popular destination not only for locals, but for visitors from around the world. It is truly unique, as far as sculptural parks go. The location is fabulous - right on Elliott Bay - with unobstructed views north toward Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains and south toward the city of Seattle and the Port of Seattle.

And you can get up close and personal with over 20 works of art!!

Calder's EAGLE frames one of Seattle's ubiquitous ferrries on Elliott Bay

The Olympic Sculpture Park is quite remarkable in that it is built on three separate land parcels - a very unusual undertaking indeed - literally separated by railroad tracks with frequent train traffic and a very busy Elliott Avenue. For years, when Judy and I drove past the bottom section of this fenced-in land mass, overgrown with weeds and harboring the foundations of several brick buildings, we’d speculate about the ultimate use of this land, never even dreaming of its ultimate transformation.

In the 1990s the Washington Department of Ecology, in partnership with Union Oil of California (who developed the land in 1910 as a fuel storage and transit facility and phased out operations in the 1980s) removed 120,000 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil and installed a groundwater recovery system, paving the way for its eventual reincarnation as Olympic Sculpture Park.

View from lookout on Alaskan Way - train tracks are beneath the railing, Tony Smith's WANDERING ROCKS can be seen at center, and Mark Dion's NEUKOM VIVARIUM and PACCAR Pavilion are visible at top right

It is nothing short of amazing that New York architects Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi transformed this awkward nine-acre parcel of land into a strikingly beautiful sculpture park and managed to incorporate four distinct Northwest landscapes:
1. The Valley, with fir and cedar trees, ferns, groundcovers and an outdoor amphitheater
2. The Grove, with native aspen, birch and maple trees
3. The Meadow, with bridges and gently sloped open paths that to lead you throughout the park
4. The Shore, right at the water’s edge, with pines and a small beach area, designed for salmon habitat recovery in Elliott Bay.

It’s a wonderful experience to walk through these four completely different ‘zones’, look down on moving trains and heavy traffic, and see small and very large scale art at the same time! Very unique, indeed.

PACCAR Pavilion as seen from street - note Dennis Oppenheim's huge SAFETY CONE at center and Roxy Pine's stainless steel tree, titled SPLIT, at far left

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The main entrance to the park is located in the sleek glass and steel PACCAR Pavilion, at Western and Broad, in the upper NW corner. This building, with a parking lot underneath, houses a gift shop, cafe/coffee shop, a classroom/meeting room, and, on the second floor, park headquarters.

In addition to the permanant outdoor sculptures, Olympic Sculpture Park will exhibit temporary installations as well.

View from just outside the entrance to PACCAR Pavilion

Photo of Richard Serra's WAKE framed by Anthony Caro's sculpture RIVIERA, taken outside PACCAR Pavilion

Richard Serra's massive 300-ton sculpture 'Wake', consists of five pieces, each 14 feet high and 50 feet long

Currently you’ll find five huge orange Safety Cones by installation artist Dennis Oppenheim sited throughout the park, and a site-specific installation in the  PACCAR pavilion by artist and graphic designer Geoff McFetridge, titled In The Mind.

When I recently Googled ‘Olympic Sculpture Park’ there were allegedly 479,000 websites that referenced the park! Here are three that I highly recommend.

This Wikipedia link is excellent. You’ll find a history of the park and dozens of links, including links with information on the sculptures and biographies of the artists. You can spend many enlightening hours here.

Click Olympic Sculpture Park/Seattle Times Newspaper for videos and slide shows. You can watch the park’s entire construction process in the photo sequence ‘park built in a minute’, take a ‘Virtual Tour’ of the park, view ‘Eagle in flight to park’ and see Alexander Calder’s 40 ft tall sculpture take shape in its new surroundings, watch ‘Art Alfresco’ and view photos of each art work, explore the park with an interactive map, view information on the art and the artists, and much more.

Click Unplanned ‘offspring’ at Olympic Sculpture Park get SAM’s blessing to see a nest of recently hatched ‘eaglets’ next to Alexander Calder’s “Eagle” sculpture.

TYPEWRITER ERASURE, SCALE X, by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, sited on hillside above Western Avenue, on loan through 2009 from the Paul Allen family

PERRE'S VENTAGLIO by Beverly Pepper with PACCAR Pavilion in background

BUNYON'S CHESS by Mark di Suvero

SCHUBERT SONATA by Mark di Suvero with Elliott Bay in Background

Glass bridge titled SEATTLE CLOUD COVER, by Teresita Fernandez on left, and one of Dennis Oppenheim's SAFETY CONES on right

Fountain titled FATHER AND SON by Louise Bourgeois, and another one of Dennis Oppenheim's SAFETY CONES, as viewed from Uptown Espresso (best coffee in Seattle) located in Pier 70 on Alaska Way. SEATTLE CLOUD COVER Bridge at top right crosses over train tracks

In this photo you're looking at the same SAFETY CONE visible in the previous photo through the space between the last two cars of a fast moving train. Note the real traffic safety cone lying on its side at bottom right

'The Shore', on Elliott Bay, features a tidal garden with kelp, algae and other plants that are revealed and concealed with the changing tides

'It's No Secret' (oil and enamel on wood, 48" x 42", 2008). One of many Terry Turrell paintings and sculptures on exhibit at the Grover/Thurston Gallery in Pioneer Square

It was a tough choice, but we decided to watch the vice-presidential debate instead of visiting galleries in Pioneer Square on First Thursday Art Walk, and missed the opening night reception for Seattle artist Terry Turrell.

We found out about Terry Turrell’s exhibit when we read ‘Overwhelmed with Inspiration’ in Art Access, written by artist and arts writer Molly Norris (we also viewed Molly’s current exhibit - ‘Paper Cuts: Works by Kate Sweeney and Molly Morris’, at Gallery 110 in Pioneer Square. Be sure to see this exhibit, too, when you take in Terry Turrell’s show). Molly’s article and the accompanying photos were compelling - we marked our calendar for Saturday, Oct 4th.

Terry Turrell is a self-taught artist. 27 years ago he sold painted tee shirts from a stall in the Pike Place Market. Fast forward to today, which just happens to be Terry’s 62nd birthday, and the day we viewed his solo show of recent paintings and sculpture at the Grover/Thurston Gallery in Pioneer Square. This is one of the most exciting shows by a contemporary artist I’ve ever seen. And it’s a BIG show - lots and lots of mixed-media paintings and sculptures, constructed from wood, linen, tin, wire, found objects, and oil and enamel paints, with some encaustic paintings thrown in for good measure. WOW!

Terry Turrell is an absolute master at creating rich, narrative surfaces that compel the viewer to explore every square inch in depth for partially obscured words and images. The show is a luscious, visual feast, and Terry’s incredible surface treatments made me want to explore his works not only with my eyes but with my hands - they are incredibly tactile!

The Terry Turrell show runs October 2nd - November 1st, 2008. Mark your calendar now!

Click here to read an informative article about Terry Turrell, written in 1998 by Robin Updike, Art Critic for the Seattle Times.