Tag Archives: review

Alyson Provax at Wolff Gallery

Wolff Gallery is featuring the print work of Alyson Provax through the month of June. This is a show you need to see in person because photographs of the prints don’t do them justice.

The show is “a meditation upon the expansiveness of the universe and eerie encounters with the unknown.” There are a number of marbled prints that have a planetary vibe interspersed with some text prints with found phrases such as “I felt the sound more than heard it”. Sounds a bit odd, but when you’re in the gallery it all just works together.

The two highlights were Diagram 50 and Diagram 51, both hanging in the front room. Both are silkscreen monotypes, one on Khadi, the other on St. Armand. Instead of being framed or mounted on birch, these free hang slightly away from the wall with the use of magnets. The papers have a wonderful texture and with the cut outs and layering of the marbled print underneath it creates a floating effect.

The show is wonderfully cohesive without ever seeming too saturated. The variety in the papers and mounting techniques holds your interest as you move through the space and there are just enough of the small text works to shake it up.

Wolff Gallery is located at 618 NW Glisan Street in Portland, Oregon. They are open Friday and Saturday from 1-5 pm. The ALyson Provax show runs through July 3.

Sherry Markovitz at Greg Kucera Gallery in Seattle

Polar Bear head by Sherry Markovitz at Greg Kucera Gallery

Polar Bear by Sherry Markovitz at Greg Kucera Gallery

I recently had some time in Seattle and was thrilled to visit the Greg Kucera Gallery while I was there. Time to Take a Walk by Sherry Markowitz has just opened and is perfect for an early summer show.

The show is split with a number of large gouache on cotton paintings featuring dogs and three dimensional beaded animal heads. The loose painting style is complemented by the unstretched and unframed cotton, which gives each work a light and airy feeling. The beaded animal heads anchor the show with a feeling of heaviness compared to the breezy paintings.

Welded steel balloon by Edward Wicklander

Edward Wicklander at Greg Kucera Gallery

Don’t miss some gems also currently on display in the back and upstairs. There is a fabulous pair of Edward Wicklander welded steel balloons upstairs, positioned to look like they’ve just floated up from the first floor.

There’s also a great Margie Livingston entitled Crumpled Silver Painting on Shelf in the back room. I love paint as a sculptural material. This one reminds me of the Nancy Lorenz pieces at PDX Contemporary this past month. Livingston has the next show at Greg Kucera Gallery which runs July 7 through August 20. The Seattle Art Fair will be running August 4 through 7 and would be a great weekend to visit.

Greg Kucera Gallery is located at 212 Third Avenue in Seattle Washington and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 to 5:30.

Ellen Goldschmidt at Blackfish Gallery

Bad Seed, 2016, charcoal and ink pastel on paper

Surrounded by Feeling is the current show by Ellen Goldschmidt at Blackfish Gallery. At first glance I wasn’t too interested in a show of portraits but as I moved through the space to the back of the gallery I was drawn in more and more.

I’m not always a fan of artist statements because they can be overworked to the point of making the art stand in the background. Goldschmidt’s statement, however, completely made this show for me.

While working on “privileging emotion” in a series of portraits she was working on Goldschmidt was reminded of the 2015 show Gods and Heroes at the Portland Art Museum. It featured a section of works from the Expressive Head Competition from the Paris Academy in the 18th century, works that are attempting to depict emotion rather than Goldschmidt’s attempts to inhabit emotion.

I love connections like this. I would never had viewed this show and thought back to the Gods and Heroes exhibit but once she mentioned it my brain was ready to make all sorts of new comparisons and connections. What a difference 250 years can make.

Toward the bottom of her statement, almost as an afterthought, Goldschmidt mentions that many of the drawings are “concerned with my relationship to my older sister and the sibling rivalry that consumed our childhood”. Well then. There’s a story there, but we don’t know it, and now the drawings have a heightened tension as titles like Bad Seed and Sister’s Arm take on a whole new meaning.

Surrounded by Feeling stayed stuck in my head for days and writing about it now I already have Bad Seed back in mind and those questions and connections that make life interesting.

Blackfish Gallery is located at 420 NW 9th Ave in Portland, Oregon and is open from 11-5 Tuesday through Saturday. Surrounded by Feeling by Ellen Goldschmidt runs from May 3-28.

The Great Vegan Grains Book Review

I consider myself lucky to have received a copy of The Great Vegan Grains Book recently. Just published, it is the latest from vegan masterminds Tamasin Noyes and Celine Steen. You may remember them from such blogs as Vegan Appetite and Have Cake, Will Travel. Both blogs are fairly quiet these days, but both were around back in the days when vegan blogging was new and exciting.

I’m in my busy season right now with craft fairs galore but wanted to try out a couple of dishes and get a quick review up. Tami and Celine are two of the nicest vegans I know from the internet and I love using their cookbooks. In full disclosure, this book came to me for free but I haven’t been paid nor asked for a review.

The Great Vegan Grains Book features Celine’s gorgeous photography and an eclectic mix of recipes that feature grains ranging from the familiar rice to the more exotic einkorn. There’s a solid introduction with information on a variety of grains that includes cooking times and liquids for every one used in the book.

First up, I made the split pea and rice artichoke mujadarra (seen above) which was fabulous. I never use split peas except in split pea soup and this dish was so light and fresh I loved it. I also had the roasted corn and barley chowder, which was again light and fresh. I’d make this next time in the late summer when the fresh corn is high, but the mujadarra will be a winter staple.

I just received a bottle of Bar B Cutie bbq sauce from the man behind the I-40 Vegan (another blog from back in the day) and can’t wait to try the BBQ Bulger Burgers next. I’d highly recommend The Great Vegan Grains Book to anyone interested in expanding their bulk bin adventures beyond rice and quinoa.

Vegan Finger Foods Review Now With Cookies

I recently got the new Vegan Finger Foods from my local public library and tried out a few dishes. The book is by the fabulous duo of Tami Noyes of Vegan Appetite and Celine Steen from Have Cake Will Travel. They are two of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of meeting through the internet.

The first recipe I tried were the buckeye balls and they don’t disappoint. Buckeye balls never disappoint. These are slightly different than my usual recipe with the addition of cinnamon and it added a little something extra. I took a bunch up to my friend Amy at Herbivore and she noticed the cinnamon as soon as she tried one. Excellent.

I also chose two vegetable dishes, the small plate Brussels sprouts and the green beans jalfrezi, pictured above. The Brussels were good, but I thought the green beans were the star. Next time I would add more tomato because that really made the dish for me. I’d also like to increase the saucy part to cook lentils in, because I think that would make an excellent addition and create a one pot meal. We had leftovers and they were equally good the next day. This is the perfect season for this dish, as tomatoes and green beans are popping up in your garden or local farmers market.

My final recipe was the chocolate orange cookies which I made for a bake sale to benefit the Out To Pasture animal sanctuary. These are good! The orange is very subtle, which I enjoyed as I don’t like a heavy chocolate/fruit flavor combo. The base was quite nice and I thought they made an excellent, light summer cookie.

Vegan Finger Foods is filled with Celine’s lovely photography. There are a number of dishes I would probably never make as is (panda is not cutting out cute cucumber cups to stuff) but there’s no reason some can’t be easily modified if you don’t need a party friendly appetizer. And if you do need that fancy presentation, this book has it ready for you. There’s a wait list for Vegan Finger Foods at my library so I had to return it but I’m looking forward to checking it out again and trying the corn fritters with tomato thyme sauce and more desserts. Celine has a way with cookies and panda does love cookies.

Full disclosure! This book was not provided by the publisher and I received no compensation for my review.