1st Friday at Gallery Calapooia featuring Marilyn Lindsley and Nancy Anderson
Nancy Anderson is one of the two featured artists for November. She joined Gallery Calapooia in September 2014, and this year marks her ten-year anniversary as part of the cooperative. During November, Nancy will show work that she has created or shown in those ten years. Winter snow and the color blue figure prominently in a number of the pieces in the show.
Her artistic journey started with calligraphy pieces with lettering as the dominant element and evolved to her cut paper/ collage creations. Early in her artwork, she brought images and colorful backgrounds into her calligraphy. Her cut-paper art evolved from her calligraphy work when she decided to switch to building layers. She discovered that she could correct flaws if the lettering was on a separate piece rather than directly lettered on a one-of-a-kind background. With layering, there are opportunities to make corrections and still finish the piece. That in turn, led her to leave off lettering altogether at times and build layers.
In addition to her larger pieces of art, Nancy will display a wide variety of cards as well as small originals to fit standard frames.
Marilyn Lindsley is the other featured artist for November. Her features will include pieces made using the Sutton Slice technique and other art pieces made with polymer clay.
Polymer clay is a relatively new medium. The polymer clay known today has been around in one form or another since the late 1930s. The idea was born in Germany, where Fifi Rehbinder, a doll maker, faced difficulties finding her usual supplies due to the political upheaval of the time. Its artistic possibilities went unrecognized until the 1960s when a discarded lump of clay was sculpted into an elephant by an enterprising child. Marilyn discovered polymer clay in the 1980s and was captivated by the creative possibilities of the medium. She has continued to work with it, learning many techniques over the years and creating not only jewelry but also animals, human sculptures, vessels, tools, and ornaments.
For many of the jewelry pieces in the fall collection, Marilyn used a layering technique borrowed from Japanese metalworking, known as mokume gane, by which layers of contrasting colored metals are fused together and worked to produce a patterned mixed metal laminate. Opaque and translucent layers of clay are layered, compressed, textured, and then cut razor thin to reveal intense colors and patterns that give a sense of depth and movement.
Another technique Marilyn used is the Sutton Slice, named for Pete Sutton and developed about 20 years ago. Clay is pressed into a texture plate, the surface is shaved smooth, then covered by a contrasting layer of clay. When the texture plate is gently removed, the clay in the plate adheres to the contrasting clay, leaving a textured surface on a contrasting background.
Marilyn's winter mice are making an appearance, along with new snowflake designs and a new tree-of-life ornament. She has also been experimenting with 2-D clay “painting” and has enjoyed coming up with new designs for old techniques. She hopes others enjoy them as much as she does!
For more about this month's featured artists, their work, and other artist information please visit Gallery Calapooia.