This month, Village Frame & Gallery is featuring the artwork of the seven talented Bridge City Artists! Plus, we are hosting a trunk show of Amerinda Alpern’s jewelry.
Artists’ Reception – Bridge City Artists at Village Frame & Gallery
Friday, November 4th, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Trunk Show – Amerinda Alpern at Village Frame & Gallery
Friday, Nov 4th, 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Saturday, Nov 5th, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Meet the Bridge City Artists
Marlie Ranslam
I was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin. After attending the University of Wisconsin, I spent four years living in Germany, traveling Europe and seeing art I had previously only read about. It was during this time that my interest in art and architecture became immediate and alive– and I began painting. I was hooked! When returning to the States, my curiosity about art and art history continued and led to Portland State University, bachelors and masters degrees, followed by post- graduate classes at Pacific Northwest College of Art. Throughout a 20 year practice in psychotherapy, art was a constant presence. At this time, still curious and inspired, I’m painting full-time and remain involved in art community.
Karen Story
Painting with encaustic and cold wax medium (pigmented beeswax) is my foremost means of expression of emotions, experiences, images, and interactions with others as well as nature.
The encaustic medium is process-oriented. Much time is dedicated to heating, scraping, layering, preparing the substrate, and mixing medium. The painting construct of revealing, covering and re-revealing with an often surprising and different consequence. The fluid nature of the encaustic process lends itself to exploration of forms and patterns which combine structured and unstructured shapes. The medium allows the application of translucent and opaque layers, building a complex and varied underpainting. The process demands flexibility, using a heating process which accounts for unexpected changes in composition, form, and color.
Other than relationships with people (hence the focus on figural work), water is my life’s common recurring theme. It has appeared in vivid dreams since childhood, and in my adult reality it rules my life as I swim, kayak, snorkel, boat, do underwater photography, and live part-time on 2 islands. Water is a challenging element to capture artistically, since it istranslucent / transparent / reflective. Its ever-changing nature distorts elements within and reflects elements without. The translucence of encaustic wax lends itself admirably to this element.
My paintings reflect my connection to water as well as the figure. My two recurring themes. Color, shape, form, value, texture, and line work together to achieve the depiction of both, using the demanding medium of encaustic and cold wax.
Eileen “ikie” Nolan Kressel
I’ve delighted in creating art in one form or another, since my drawings-on-the-wall at home in Brooklyn at age five. The wall was blank and I had something to say. I may not be far from that, these many years later.
Art is a good and constant friend, a place to be, providing a voice that gives expression to relationships, challenges, joys, whimsies and sadness. To not create, would be to silence a part of me.
My portfolio includes whimsical paintings and linocuts, along with black and white etchings. I’m fortunate in being part of No. 2 Print Shop in Portland, Oregon where printmakers share ideas, inspiration, perspiration and presses.
Kay Henning Danley
My work is multilayered, beginning with a freely painted drawing, each layer of transparent paint and collage paper shape informing the next, even when the earlier layers are ultimately painted over and become visual history. I attempt to leave the marks of the initial drawing, as well as the transparent visual history as part of the surface. This layering creates luminosity and richness. This allows my understanding of the image to evolve — it is a dance between the additive and subtractive elements.
I like the physicality of paint, the tools that apply it, and the energy necessary to apply it to the surface. My work is a personal interpretation expressed through imagery. I seek to create a work that is intriguing, enables a viewer to make discoveries with each viewing, and to ponder meaning and connection to their personal world.
Helaine Hart
The Kemet/Deshret series of paintings emerged after six trips to Egypt. I was intrigued by the obsession of the ancient Egyptians with duality. Their dualistic perspective emerged in their view of the universe, their religion, the concept of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the nature of their land as Kemet, the rich, fertile border of the Mother Nile, and Deshret, the barren desert beyond. The paintings in this series reflect my meditations on the starkly dualistic beauty and profound influence of the land of Kemet and Deshret.
Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists used psychic automatism, a type of automatic drawing, to evoke pure, visual essence from their subconscious minds. I have appropriated and modified their method in my own work. My paintings often begin by pouring color and making marks on a pigmented and textured ground. I allow the emerging shapes and overlaps of color to urge my subconscious to participate in and respond to the serendipitous interaction of gravity, atmosphere, absorption, manipulation, and the addition of other media. In this manner, my paintings seek a balance between accident and intention. My non-objective, mixed media pieces are created with a variety of materials, including acrylic paints and gels, metal leaf, Japanese papers, fabric, dry pigments, and plaster to enhance visual impact and to create unique textures. In my work I use color, texture, rhythm, transparency, and luminosity seeking to express that which is ephemeral, profound, and universal.
Karrie Kaiyala Amiton
I am a painter in Portland, Oregon and growing up in a musical family exposed me to the arts as a way of life. My work has the look and unmistakable color of the northwest. I am heavily influenced by my many years spent on the east side of the Cascades where the sky is blue and the land is golden. I am not as interested in realism as I am in creating an emotional response through color. Although I paint from memory, it is a thrill to have someone look at one of my paintings and tell me they know the exact location.
Recently I have been working on a body of work called “The Space We Share”, a nod to the accomplishments of astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly and the exploration and wonder outside our world. This series has a different style and message so it has been fun for me to experiment with mixed media and sumi ink.
When I am not painting I am usually thinking about it, the wonderful artists I’ve met along the way and the anticipation of creative times ahead.
Dianne Jean Erickson
I am a painter and printmaker. I allow myself the freedom of indecisions, improvisations, and impulsiveness in my work, and that leads to exciting discoveries. I have worked extensively in acrylics and oils. My most recent medium is encaustic and its very different technique of painting with wax and heat. This medium has given me a new way to explore my art.
I am interested in line, color and how movement is portrayed in a two dimensional space. Process is an important part of the work. I make my own medium and pigmented wax. The texture and translucency possible with this medium has allowed me new explorations. While working on the substrate and exploring color and design, a conversation begins to form between myself and the creative act as it happens in real time. Images form and transform as I work, sometimes figurative, sometimes non-objective or abstract. When the piece is done, hopefully the conversation has led to a work of art that is both personal and universal in nature.
Jeweler Amerinda Alpern
Artist’s Statement
Inspired by the beauty of the northwest, this jewelry collection features my interpretations of plants I found growing in Portland Oregon coupled with nature’s geometry and reduced to classic mid-century shapes and designs. I am fascinated with how nature grows, whether it’s the slight difference between leaves on a tree or the subtle variations in the human form. Geometry continues to hold my visual and emotional attention.
About Amerinda Alpern
Amerinda Alpern holds a MFA in Sculpture from Colorado State University and a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts. She also trained with Alan Revere, founder of the Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts.
Jewelry by Amerinda Alpern
