16th Annual Spring Unveiling Arts Festival – May 6-8, 2016

Archimedes Gallery

Kelly Denato

What inspires Kelly is the beauty of optimism, and its inherent tragedy, just before disappointment. Her paintings are marked by darkness as well as gleeful exuberance, creating a surreal and fluctuating world. Her painting technique is characterized by meticulous and tiny strokes layered on a textured background. Her colors are glistening and candy-like. Her characters are often floating and tangled, drawn with a masterfully delicate illustrator’s hand and an eye for the whimsically sardonic.

Melita “missmonster” Curphy

She creates one of a kind handmade masks, dolls, and sculptures. Each piece is original with individual stories and personalities. Her favorite, and most satisfying to make, are dolls because so many disciplines go into making them: sewing, pattern drafting, sculpting, casting/molds, painting, anatomy, fiber arts, model making and more.

Lana Crooks

Lana loves the antique, the creepy, the cute, and the mysterious. She constructs creatures from fabrics and found objects, and is a purveyor of faux specimens and soft curiosities. She is sought after for her pattern-making abilities, and has frequently been spotted teaming up with other artists to breathe three-dimensional life into their illustrations. On an average day, you can find her in the studio surrounded by skulls, old books, model ships, faux fur, glass eyes, a menagerie of stuffed friends, and a cat named Tanuki.

Don Rambadt

Don sculpts because he enjoys the challenge of manipulating space and chooses birds as his subject matter because “they fascinate him to no end.” His work explores the relationship of positive and negative space and manipulates this interplay in mixed metals to give the impression of life and movement. His work, although somewhat abstract, is based on anatomical accuracy. He says, “I feel you should have an intimate understanding of your subject matter before you attempt to abstract it.”

Victoria Parsons

Any chance for Victoria to interact with wildlife in spirit, motion or daily life creates the inspiration for her sculptures. Her naturalistic style is enhanced by the use of unique specialty wood such as rare 1500 year-old bristlecone pine, found in the Colorado mountains as high as 12,000 feet. She also utilizes burl woods, which yield stunning one-of-a-kind creations because of their shape, age and rarity. Her talents extend into clay and wax sculptures which are cast for limited bronze editions. She is dedicated to making a connection with her subject, which embodies and transcends the essence of the animal.

Seth Vandable

Seth began his career as a commercial artist and painter in central Texas. He strives to capture the quiet strength and dignity of mankind in his compositions. His detailed working knowledge of human anatomy has eliminated the need for models, making each sculpture a truly original creation. He has participated in the National Sculpture Society Exhibition in New York and his sculptures can be found in private and corporate collections worldwide.

“A Compendium of Beasts”

The gallery is featuring “A Compendium of Beasts”, a juried exhibition populated with beasts of all kinds – real, mythical and fantastical.

This year marks the gallery’s 15th Anniversary, so they will be both celebrating and expressing gratitude by giving back to this amazing place we all call home.

Their group show: Wild Spirit, Conservation for Life…raising funds through the arts is inspired by their love for the environment and all that walks, flies, and swims, upon and through it.  They’ve asked their artists to express their own truth and gratitude for all we have and be a part of ensuring its preservation forever. 15% of gross sales from the show will be donated to the North Coast Land Conservancy. More than a dozen artists are taking part and all media will be represented, from metal sculpture to fused glass to mixed media. Unveilings will include a curated selection of Staff Favorites. A gallery full of artists will celebrate and demonstrate. The North Coast Land Conservancy will also be represented with a presentation and book signings.

Jeni Lee

The environments in which she’s lived and traveled have become the foundation of who she is as a painter. Her work captures the ways in which we experience our surroundings, the sea, the forest, and the desert, paths both taken and dreamed. With many paint glazes and color washes, marks of crayons and sweeps of pastels, she continually layers and works the surface, always pursuing the unexpected in both materials and methods.  As a painting emerges, she includes elements that draw the viewer closer, inviting both intention and chance, resulting in an engaging representation of transformation and beauty.

Joseph Kitzmiller

Joe creates simply out of the inexhaustible passion to make the next beautiful thing, giving a lot of authority to the mixed medium in his work, which allows for some amazing results. Painting mostly on wood panels, his work has multiple layers of paint, some so thick the paint splits and cracks as it dries and shrinks back. In some of his work he also uses soft pastels and compressed charcoal. Adventure and discovery drive his soul and the world of art is like an undiscovered frontier. Art allows him to bring into existence something new, something previously unknown to the world, a new creation. And so he paints, exploring, discovering…creating.

Richard works primarily in welded steel representing ideas, questions and cliches. He says he is always aware of the emotions and conundrums of daily life and his work may make you think, groan, or smile. He calls his figures in my sculptures “Almas,” which is Spanish for souls. The Almas are in context offering interesting questions, cliches, and emotions which are sometimes obvious and sometimes not.

Barbara Coppock

Barbara is a printmaker, but not the kind that executes work in media such as oils or watercolors, and then has prints made by a machine. With etching, the image is worked into a plate by hand, drawing with a scribe and biting the lines into the metal with acid. The prints are then made from this plate on a press. Her passion is architecture, history, and landscape, so this time honored media is a perfect fit for her subjects.

Icefire Glassworks

What began as a five-year experiment evolved into a life-forming fascination with glass for Jim, who has been playing with fire for more than 40 years. His chemistry teacher’s observations about reality inspired him to enroll in art classes, so it is fitting that melting glass requires a grounding in both chemistry and physics. His Icefire Glassworks logo incorporates the alchemical symbols for Earth, Air, Fire and Water, honoring the obvious linkage of art and science. From that, beautiful pieces of blown glass emerge that seduce the senses and stimulate the spirit. He will show his latest work from his Embers series.

Suzanne was not reared to be a glass artist. It was her connection to the dream world that led her to become one at the age of 38. There were always hints, persistent nudges that would not be ignored, from favorite childhood words (horizon, crucible) to a vision of dancing in flames that led her to Cannon Beach and propelled her into the passionate world of soft molten glass. Inspired by the places she has lived, she makes blown glass pieces that express Nature in the tangled patterns of woodlands, the stark horizons of deserts, and the mysteries of deep water. She will be showing her latest work in her Emerald Forest series.

Mark began blowing glass in 2003.  His first experience with the medium was at Icefire Glassworks, and he now lives and works in Bend, Oregon.  His current body of work is focused on blending colors and balancing them with individual forms.  The challenge of combining colors in different ways, and working with a hot and fluid medium, keeps every day of working with glass new and exciting. He will be showing new work in his Murrini series during the weekend.

Jeffrey Hull Gallery

Jeffrey began his painting career more than 40 years ago in Cannon Beach, and it is from its coastline that he draws his inspiration. Today he is widely known for his ability to capture the beauty and moods of the places where water joins land, controlling the difficult medium of watercolor, often in very large paintings. Recently he has returned to painting in oil as well, and is rarely found far from the ocean’s edge. His deep love for the area is clearly seen in his original paintings and prints.

Sharon Amber

Jewelry artist Sharon Amber creates personal treasures using 14k, 18k, and 22k gold and exotic gems.  She is best know for her high fire enameled “miniature paintings”, and her carvings in local gems and beach pebbles. During Spring Unveiling, she will reveal work and designs inspired by thousands of miles of travel over the last few months.

Modern Villa Gallery

David Wight

David is well known for his innovative freeform glass wave sculptures.  He studied at the Pilchuck Glass School, founded by Master Glassblower Dale Chihuly. Studying under Therman Statom, it was here that his work with blown glass water fountains developed into an expression of water in the sculpted art form. He endeavors to create, by hand, a glass sculpture that embodies the essence of movement in water…each distinctly unique and individually created in his Seattle studio.

David Jonathan Marshall

With his imaginative style, bold use of color and dramatic perspective, David brings a fresh new look to the art world. His skill at capturing movement and animation in his art is a direct reflection of his own lifestyle and view of the world. He says, “I feel like I’m putting a puzzle together. I paint the pieces of that puzzle, but even I don’t always know what will be seen in the end.”

George Perrou

Inspired by mid-century animation and painted with retro and modern colors, George’s art evokes reminiscence to the giddy, Saturday mornings of “a better time” filled with the Hana-Barbara and Warner Bros. cartoons of our youth. Being drawn to these shapes and colors as envisioned by Calder, Miro and Kandinsky, he has re-imagined them onto the canvas with his own colorful versions of reality. “I find painting to be meditative, much like raking a Zen garden,” he says “it transports me as if traveling, but like stepping instead into another world.”

Northwest By Northwest Gallery

Georgia Gerber

Georgia’s bronze sculptures define many NW public spaces, including “Rachel the Pike Place Pig” in Seattle’s Pike Place Market and 25 sculptures surrounding Pioneer Courthouse in downtown Portland. Gerber won the 2010 Cannon Beach public choice award for Sculpture Without Walls with her “Tufted Puffins”. She typically works on two to three public installation commissions at one time using the traditional lost wax casting technique.

Christopher Burkett

Studying with Ansel Adams inspired award-winning, fine art color landscape photographer Christopher Burkett to redefine color photography as Adams had defined black and white. The Washington Post says, “Burkett has achieved in Cibachrome what Eliot Porter achieved for dye-transfer or Weston for black & white”. Each handcrafted photograph is a hand printed, hand crafted fine art original, solely created by the artist.

Skyscapes & Landscapes in oil reflect the artists most memorable and moving experiences with nature. Jeff paints the splendor of our natural world in the Northwest in pursuit of the ethereal & atmospheric light our region is known for.

Hazel Schlesigner

Hazel  discovered her passion for oil painting at an early age, inspired by her childhood on the Northwest coast. The shorelines, fields, and vineyards, and later the Mediterranean countryside, have supplied the scenes and subjects of her work. She paints from a palette of predominantly warm, vivid colors and large, rhythmic brush strokes, transforming landscapes into more contemporary or abstract realism.

Ivan McLean

Ivan is a public sculptor working in steel, bronze, glass and wood. His work can be seen throughout Portland’s Pearl District and he has also created extensive site-specific installations within the Nines Hotel. His work is also well known in California where he has just installed a series of spheres of different sizes and colors on Hollywood Boulevard. His 108′ steel sculpture was also selected from 10 sculptors nationally for the Newport Beach Sculpture Park.

Primary Elements Gallery

Leslie Rankin

Leslie has spent her entire career trying to make glass “more livable, lovable, and warmer in feel.” She has gone beyond stained glass by carving and etching and also taught herself to sandblast, creating depth and textures. After eight years of experimentation with different paints on glass and many failures, she perfected a method of coloring glass without heating it, a process that was a giant leap for the industry. The mesmerizing qualities of the glass art led to Leslie’s appearance on the Modern Master’s Series produced by Home and Garden Channel (HGTV). Over the years, Leslie’s work has been featured in many local and national magazines, local television and newspapers. She won the 2005 ARTV National award as “Best Glass Artist” along with many other international and national awards.

Heather Soderberg

Heather’s father was a foundry worker and encouraged and supported her desire to sculpt. Drawing national attention as a child prodigy, her story was featured by Paul Harvey, People Magazine, Nat’l Geographic World, and “That’s Incredible”. In 2009 she bought the foundry she worked at and moved it to the heart of the Columbia River Gorge. Her “Sacagawea, Pompi, and Seaman” commissioned by the Port of Cascade Locks, has gained regional and worldwide attention. Currently, she is at work creating an eagle with a 50’ wingspan…the largest in the world.

Marianne Post

Because she is an avid outdoorswoman, Marianne’s subject is “naturally” the landscape. Using soft pastels in a “painterly” impressionistic style, her award winning work reflects quiet morning vistas, light glinting off the water’s surface and the grandeur of the Oregon high country. It also conveys her fascination with nature, light and color.

Rip Caswell

Rip is recognized as one of America’s major bronze sculptors. His artworks can be found in public spaces, commercial developments and private collections throughout the United States and abroad. His ability to capture emotion and tell stories through his sculpture is his most noted talent. His commitment to provide historical accuracy through in-depth study and research is evident in his finished projects. Through his attention to detail and artistic skill Caswell has gained professional recognition through collaborations with skilled architects, landscape architects, designers, engineers and other artists. Rip’s flexibility as a sculptor and his capacity to create work that embodies the theme of a specific site has been proven through the completion of many highly visible large-scale installations.

Travis Pond

This Portland artist is formally trained and recognized; showing many sculptures in public and private settings. He says that half of what he does is collecting materials. The objects have meaning and significance. They are part of our human history.

The seemingly random assortment of metal dictates its own future. The artist controls the welds, but the components refuse to be forced into form. The sculpture evolves through the mind’s eye as each piece connects to the next and becomes the final object of art.

White Bird Gallery

Rumi Tsuda

Rumi has been doing and exhibiting painting, performance, ceramics, sculpture installation and fashion design in New York, Oregon and Japan since the 1980’s. She received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NYC in 1986 and lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. During the week before Spring Unveiling, she will be unveiling a 54′ painting “At Play in Cannon Beach” that will be installed in the pergola adjacent to White Bird Gallery. Other works will be on display during the festival at White Bird Gallery.

Melanie Brauner

Melanie Brauner is a Seattle metalsmith, letterpress printer, bookbinder, and papermaker. Her VERSO jewelry is made from wire forms dipped into abaca paper fibers suspended in water. The fibers cling to the wire and shrink as they dry. A tight paper skin is built up on the form over successive dips. The paper-skinned forms are then sealed to make them waterproof and durable. You can get caught in a rainstorm or take a swim in the ocean wearing her jewelry.

Cynthia Miller

The Arts are Cynthia’s lifelong passion. She’s been an actor, director, member of the Actors’ Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of TV and Radio Artists. But her love for fine art has also drawn her to copper enameling because of the way it captures and celebrates light, color and depth that transforms any space. Many of her pieces are designed like musical compositions: colors overlay and peek through each other, revealing lush depths under a smooth shiny surface. Just as jazz and chamber musicians explore, dialogue, and trade musical themes from one instrument to another, so color moves from one area to another on the copper. It is exhilarating to explore the evolution of a composition as each successive layer adds luminosity and depth. Each composition is unique and intended to stimulate your imagination.”

Jacquline Hurlbert

It’s crazy out there, so Jacquline retreats to her inside world. The one where she can breathe and calm herself. Clay serves as the vehicle for her meditation; it speaks without words. Everything that she feels is automatically transferred to the clay through her hands. It is her voice, not heard but seen. She invites you to communicate with her through visual imagery, creating a dialogue between yourself and the work. Oversized feet symbolize the strength to stand alone in the face of opposition. The figures with outstretched, exaggerated hands beckon you to step inside yourself. The hands are presenting and offering, a gift of personal insight.

Many figures are in costume reflecting her ongoing investigation of the many personalities and attitudes that reside in each one of us. She’s not the same person she was yesterday . . . and yet she is. She is changed by each new experience but yet the essence of who she is remains. She enjoys playing this game of cat and mouse with herself.