June 4- July 11
Featuring Sculptor LeeAnn Perry
Special guest Metal-Urge artists Joan Joachims & Micki Lippe

Meet The Artists
June 5th 5-8 pm
June 18th Third Thursday

  Cubist Warrior / Sensual Woman
marble 23x12x13 Featuring figurative sculpture by stone carver LeeAnn Seaburg Perry with Metal Urge guest artists Joni Joachims and Micki Lippe.  Co-operative, member artists also respond to Rock Paper Scissors with their materials, and methods, and some varieties of “madness?”  Exhibiting this month are Shirley Benton, Nick Butler, Bill Colby, Heather Cornelius, Becky Frehse, Bea Geller, Faith Hagenhofer, Mirka Hokkanen, Dorothy McCuistion, and Peter Serko.

Chisel, hammers, rasps, and a small grinding wheel are the tools LeeAnn Seaburg Perry uses to carve abstract human forms in marble, alabaster, soapstone and limestone.  LeeAnn’s process is physical and intuitive as she strives to reveal the most evocative, figurative gestures within each raw hunk of stone. LeeAnn personally chooses her stones from a quarry in Vermont and carves them in her outdoor studio in
Name This PieceTacoma where she endures the extremes of Puget Sound’s weather to focus all of her creative energy on carving.  LeeAnn grew up in Lakewood and studied sculpture at Pierce College and Lewis and Clark College. She earned her MFA from Pratt Institute in New York. Her work is in private collections in the US and abroad.

LeeAnn will also be present in the gallery on Saturday, June 6th, 12-4PM and Sunday, June 7th, 2-6 PM.

Joining Perry in this show are special guest artists Joan Joachims and Micki Lappe part of the City of Tacoma’s summer long celebration of “metals art” called Metal-Urge

Joni Joachims is a jewelry artist who creates one of a kind, wearable pieces such as rings, talismans, and personalized momentos as “miniature sculptures.”  Joni’s ideas are often inspired by stories and events suggested by the lives of people who commission her work.  She begins her evocative forms by carving them from wax and then casting them in various metals.  Her exquisite combinations of silver and gold are sometimes rendered with semi-precious stones and other materials of delight.

Micki Lippe tells us that her studio is her “safe place”. She makes the rules there; where there are no stop signs, no speed limits. It’s the place she goes to when life is good and when life is bad. Making jewelry offers her the pleasure of working with her hands building things. She likes to work directly with her materials, whatever they are. To quote Ramon Puig Cuyas “ The handwork turns itself into a way of thinking, where intuition is confronted with reflection.“ Most often her thoughts are about the myriad of shapes and forms that she sees as she hikes or cross country skis through the woods of the Northwest.

Micki’s work was seen in Tacoma most recently this spring in the 9th Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum.

Dorothy McCuistion responds to the theme of Rock Paper Scissors with a watercolor that was created in response to a hand injury caused by scissors. She generally works on paper, and her piece entitled, “Cut” carries this image further with the double meaning of the work being carved in linoleum.

Heather Cornelius exhibits stoneware pieces created by using different methods of firing such as cone 10 reduction gas firing and cone 6 oxidation firings, as well as multiple techniques for creating voluptuous vessels.

Becky Frehse is showing three, new mixed media pieces that reference the ephemeral natures of rock, paper, and scissors. The painting Ingathering, contrasts the gravity and solidity of rock with the fluidity and movement of fishing nets being cast about.

Shirley Benton’s paintings are characterized by strong color and form that evoke a wide range of emotions, from reflective and playful to chaotic and intense. The paintings selected for Rock Paper Scissors have a common cord of playfulness. Her primary medium is acrylic on masonite. Using simple tools, paint rollers and sticks, Shirley applies and blends multiple layers of color, sometimes cutting and sanding into the layers of paint to create a unique and free flowing style.

Gallery members Bill Colby, Heather Cornelius, Becky Frehse, Bea Geller, Mirka Hokkanen, Faith Hagenhofer, Dorothy McCuistion, Shirley Benton and Nick Butler will all show new and exciting work center on the shows theme.

April 23 – May 30, 2009
Meet the Artists Reception:
Friday, April 24, 4-8 p.m.

Feels Like Home is an exhibit by eleven artists who, in collaboration with Peter Serko, express their creative ideas about “home”. The gallery is designed to lead the viewer through “homey”, domestic spaces inhabited by Peter’s striking photographs, colorful tapestries by Vaughn artist Margo Macdonald, and new work by the gallery’s stable of member artists: Bill Colby, Heather Cornelius, Becky Frehse, Bea Geller, Mirka Hokkanen, Faith Hagenhofer, Dorothy McCuistion, LeeAnn Seaburg Perry.  This show also welcomes our new gallery members Shirley Benton and Nick Butler who will have new work in the show.

PETER SERKO –“When we think of home our first thoughts are about “place”; the house where we were raised or our own home as adults. Yet, we all experience at one time or another a place or situation that feels just right to us, that feels comfortable, that feels safe… that feels like home.  With a hint of familiarity this place evokes memories and emotions reminding of us of where and how far we have come in our life’s journey.  Whether it is something we simply construct in our own minds or a tangible quality of this place, we are drawn to it.  This show is about these two aspects of home: home as place and home as memory or emotion.” 

SHIRLEY BENTON is a Tacoma artist whose abstract paintings are characterized by strong colors and forms that evoke a wide range of emotions, from reflective and playful to chaotic and intense.  She works with various mediums including fabrics, spray paints and acrylics on paper and Masonite.  Using simple tools, paint rollers and sticks, she applies and blends multiple layers of color, sometimes cutting and sanding into the layers       of paint, to create unique and free flowing images.

FAITH HAGENHOFER’s mixed-media, sculptural work explores the intersections of ordinary, everyday objects and extraordinary journeys. She is interested in the implications and expressions that become possible in exploring losses of cultural purity, their opposites – cross-cultural fertilizations, and the intersections these make with a necessity for deep local knowledge of home.  Faith is dedicated to craftsmanship and its practices in the best service of concept and idea; wool comprises a large proportion of her pieces – felted, knit, unraveled.  Usually her wool is home-grown; an important conceptual component.

LEEANN SEABURG PERRY’s marble sculpture “The Laundress” catches her in the act of carrying a loaded basket of laundry to her ironing board.  Ironing and folding laundry is done on her Mondays…

MIRKA HOKKANEN’s subjects have almost always been animals. The vast forests in her native Finland were her playground growing up– her Disney Magical Kingdom. Her drawings and prints examine the disturbing disconnections people in western societies seem to have towards food sources in their commodity-based, commercially driven cultures. The hand printed linocuts in the exhibition are from her endangered animals series. This series shows both well known wild animals that are endangered and more ordinary, domestic animals that are on the brink of extinction.

DOROTHY McCUISTION responds to Feels Like Home with five, painterly monotype viewscapes from her home along Puget Sound.  The west-facing panorama is a dominating feature of her home and impacts her daily world view. From the early

morning light to mounting storms to exquisite sunsets; the view is both constant and constantly changing.

BEA GELLER’s “Remembrance of Things Past” is a series of 4x5” photographic vignettes named after a series of books by Marcel Proust that convey nostalgia and
longing. Geller’s still life images are from childhood memories- Boris and Natasha
dolls, Superman comics, toy airplanes, and other vintage memorabilia inhabit the scenes.
These photographs were created with a large-format, 19th century view camera and are
contact prints from the original negatives.

BECKY FREHSE’s delicately expressionistic, mixed-media paintings explore the sights and sounds of the backyard as a place for memories to merge with selective forgetting and wishful thinking.

BILL COLBY’s masterful wood-cuts and etchings are infused with familial memories in quilt-like blocks depicting tavern pin ball, family TV, circular stairways and nature bird trails to the mountains.

HEATHER CORNELIUS’s installation titled “A Cup of Sugar?“ explores the concept of neighbors co-existing so closely to one another, yet having little to no interaction—in some cases for good reasons. Heather’s contemporary, ceramic vessels celebrate utilitarian, domestic objects that are often over- looked or ignored in a domestic context, but hold significant symbolic intention when embraced by Heather’s creative schemes

March 5 – April 11, 2009  

Meet the Artists Reception, Friday, March 6th, 5 – 8 PM
Always open for Third Thursday Artwalk, March 19th, 4 – 8 PM


Mary Mann
Prevailing PeaceGrand Impromptu Gallery welcomes two new members to the stable of artist-members this month along with Guest Artist Mary Mann for “It’s a Spring Thing”. Mary Mann is best known in Tacoma for her large-scale murals in public places.This month Mary will exhibit several luscious encaustic paintings and Prevailing Peace—all small enough to own and enjoy in your interior space!

Joining us from Finland via Illinois and Texas is Mirka Hokkanen, a printmaker whose imagery depicts animals and their relationship to both the natural world and commercial culture. Her work challenges the viewer to consider the disconnections western cultures have developed between nature, farming, and our commodity-driven food chains. Mirka was born and raised in Finland. She earned a BFA from Rockford College in Illinois and an MFA from The University of Dallas in Irving, Texas. http://www.mirkah.com

Heather Cornelius joins the gallery as a 2007 graduate of Pacific Lutheran University’s BFA program in ceramics.  Heather pairs hand- built, figurative forms with classical ceramic shapes to conceptualize ideas relating to the Feminine.  In addition to her prolific studio work, Heather also teaches at the Open Arts Studio and is the Hot Shop emcee at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. http://www.heathercornelius.com

Other artist-members whose work will be featured in It’s a Spring Thing include Bill Colby master printmaker; Bea Geller showing twelve, juicy botanical pigment prints, Faith Hagenhofer documents the winter floods and how they impacted her daily life in the country; Dorothy McCuistion presents monotypes from the Shell Song series, her most recent prints. These images take a fresh look back at shell collecting during long days at the beach. In these prints the shells become icons, giving them the tribute and attention they deserve; Peter Serko’s digital photographs reveal his amazing attention to detail and layers of space; Becky Frehse exhibits small, mixed-media pieces made from microscope slide file boxes and a large charcoal drawing about Spring Fragrance-metaphorically speaking; LeeAnn Seaburg Perry’s stone sculpture “Little Bird” is resting in its nest, waiting for the warm spring weather to arrive.

  E.T. Artists: Thanks again for sharing your work with us for Evolutionary Tales. The show was a great success.

Brian Ohno took the attached photo at the opening reception—
Back row L to R: Bob Vogel, Elayne Vogel, Kathy Gore Fuss, LeeAnn Seaburg Perry, Gary Jackson, Alain Clerc, Peter Serko, face hidden—please identify yourself!, Larry Naylor, Kevin Erhard
Middle row: Bea Geller, Carissa Meier, Maureen McHugh, Lynn DiNino, Debbi Greenwood, Janice Wagner, Trinda Love
Front row: Claudia Riedener, Dorothy McCuistion, Becky Frehse, Mindy Barker

January 29 – February 28, 2009

Charles Darwin’s Birthday Party and a reception to meet the artists will be held on Thursday, February 12, 2009, 5:00 – 9:00 PM
Always open for Third Thursday Artwalk, February 19, 4 – 9 PM

The Grand Impromptu Gallery commemorates Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday in February 2009 with Evolutionary Tales. Every gallery member has developed a “family line” of artists by inviting one artist, who then invited another artist and so on until a maximum of six artists are in each family line. This unusual method of curating an exhibit has resulted in 46 artists each contributing an artwork that interprets Charles Darwin or his science. This inventive and provocative exhibit celebrates Darwin’s birthday with a big party on February 12, 2009, 5 – 8 PM.

The family lines of artists, with the Grand Impromptu Gallery member artists in bold are: Bill Colby, Fumiko Kimura, Selinda Sheridan, Lois Yoshida, Caroline Buchanan, Mary Scheibler, Becky Frehse, Kathy Gore Fuss, Susan Christian, Marilyn Frasca, Susan Aurand, Matt Hamon, Bea Geller, Carissa Meier, Larry Naylor, Kevin Erhard, Trinda Love, Mindy Barker, Zachary Marvick, Maureen McHugh, Maria Jost, Sara Rougeau, Dorothy McCuistion, John McCuistion, Otto Youngers, Amy McBride, Jessica Spring,  Chris Sharp, LeeAnn Seaburg Perry, Debbi Greenwood, Bob Vogel, Elayne Vogel,  Lynn DiNino, Claudia Riedener, Peter Serko, Ruthanne Annalaro, Janice Wagner, Gary Jackson, Torey Lystra, Alain Clerc, Faith Hagenhofer, Fern Renville, Jami Heinricher, Shaw Osha, Laura Sharp Wilson, Judith Baumann.  Read More About The Artists

Dorothy McCuistion, who originated the idea for this exhibit, sees this show as an inclusive and non-judgmental way to create an exhibit. After all, who better knows the good artists in the community than other artists? The response to this theme is wide ranging from the obvious to the subtle. We invite you to enter the gallery with an open mind and be confronted by Otto Youngers’ “Bird Brains and other Evolutionary Tails” and to take the time to lose yourself in Deborah Greenwood’s “Variations”. The artworks presented will make you think, smile, or laugh out loud.

Come on in to the Grand Impromptu Gallery in February and out if you are related to any of the artists in this exhibit.

More on Darwin: 2009 also marks the 150th anniversary of the 1859 publication of Darwin’s “The Origin of Species”, which presented the scientific theory that populations evolve over generations through natural selection. The theory of evolution was controversial in Darwin’s time and remains controversial in the United States today. Recent Gallup polls show that 43 percent of Americans reject the theory of evolution and instead believe that “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.“ At least four 2008 presidential candidates said they do not believe the theory of evolution. In the midst of this ongoing controvery, area artists offer their take on evolution and Darwin’s science.

Articles on Charles Darwin are featured in February 2009 issues of in National Geographic and The Smithsonian

Meet the Artists Invitational Reception, Friday, December 5, 2008, 5:00 – 8:00 PM

Dorothy McCuistion Treasures features all of the Impromptu Gallery artists: Bill Colby miniatures prints, Betty Ragan photo collages, Dorothy McCuistion prints, Peter Serko and Bea Geller photos, Trinda Love paintings and hand-knit scarves, Becky Frehse paintings and LeeAnn Perry stone sculpture. Joining the members are their guests: ceramicists Dan Barnett, Jane Kelsey-Mapel and John McCuistion as well as Tacoma jewelry artisans Joni Joachims and Cheryl DeGroot.

What is art but a gift, a treasure to keep or pass along to someone you love. The Impromptu Gallery opens the month of December with a gallery full of gift-giving treasures.

Guest
Joni JoachimsFaith Hagenhofer’s one of a kind pillows offer comfort and joy.  Pieced and embroidered handmade felt is matched with exquisite silks, linens (some hand-dyed) and lush upholstery fabrics. The pillows are bright, detailed, inviting, and affordable pieces of art, whether they grace your home or are your gifts for special friends.

Remember that gorgeous, little baby slipper painting by Becky Frehse that you wanted last year? Becky will offer many small treasures such as those; oil paintings, mixed media, and drawings. All are framed or ready to present and display as they jump out of their holiday wrappings!

Bill Colby brings new work in the Rain series, Fish series and nature miniatures. There is a new Spring rain, a new Winter rain and two new small fish etchings with watercolor, perfect for appreciating our ubiquitous northwest rainfall year-round.

Leann Seaburg PerryTrinda Love, artist/designer, brings one of a kind hand-knitted, crocheted and felted purses and scarves; simple matted photographs of local scenes; packaged gift sets of her cards in various themes; and of course her lush oil paintings of various sizes.

Winter is here and LeeAnn Seaburg Perry shows off her icy and romantic “Winter Stroll”. With it is a new piece called “Inner Glow”, placed by a window the rays of the sun warms up the viewer. A peachy alabaster is the perfect stone for a sculpture called “Lady Fair”—she is lovely and restful to behold.

One of Betty Ragan’s treasures is “Hidden Window”, a black-and-white photographic print from the interior of a cathedral in Southern Germany. This image is a Baroque treasure. It contains paintings, sculpture, and the ornate and rhythmical shell and acanthus leaf motifs that are so typical of Baroque architectural decoration.

Becky Frehse Re-discover several of Dorothy McCuistion’s favorite monotype prints from Impromptu Gallery exhibits over the past year. The whimsical “Over the Rabbit Hole”, the stately “Bicycles #1: Green” and the dreamy “Reverie” are a few of the selections that are part of Treasures.

Select a treasure for your loved one at the Grand Impromptu Gallery in December and January—a gift that will continue to bring joy long after the holiday magic fades.