A cut: 'the'

Twenty-four 'thes' covered the front display wall at RiskPress during the month of October.  Six additional black textural 'thes' were displayed elsewhere in the gallery.  I loved watching people walk through, look at the work and discover the 'the'.  Many comments and discussions followed about this ubiquitous word in the English language.  And there were many who asked "Why the 'the'?"  Rather than answer the question I preferred to talk about the word. 1) 'The' can be pronounced with a long or short 'e' sound depending on its usage.

2) 'The' is the most commonly used word in the English language.

3) As an adjective or adverb, it is a part of speech; it is also needed to mark a noun.

4) As an article, it is a determiner that makes the indefinite definite.  So 'the' matters a lot!

5) In the English language, it matters a lot.  However, many Asian languages* do not have articles.

*And other languages of the world, not mentioned here.

A Eureka Fellowship Nominee and Applicant

Lots happening this fall:

Recently I received a letter from the Fleishhacker Foundation inviting me to apply for the 2014-2016 Eureka Fellowship for the Visual Arts.  I was one of 118 Bay Area artists nominated from which twelve will be awarded the fellowship, a $25,000 unrestricted grant.  The twelve will be selected in the fall by a panel of noted visual arts experts from outside the Bay Area and awards will be announced in December.   I am honored to have been nominated!

By the time you read this, the exhibit 'Cuttings'  will have closed.  As with most of my shows, I  love  the interesting discussions and interactions I have with those who come and look. I'm  often left with more to ponder.  Thanks to all who attended!  Look for more postings on sections of this exhibit.  And I will be looking for other venues to exhibit this work.  If any of you have any suggestions or leads, please let me know.

And now that the exhibit has closed, I can start work on a project/ collaboration with musician, Jesse Olsen Bay.  In August I met with him about his project, "Makings"; he set music to his grandmother's,  Tillie Olsen's  journals  that she called the 'blueys'.  He has commissioned me to make artwork for the CD cover.

'Cuttings' Opens

I was touched by all of you who came to celebrate the opening of Cuttings.    A festive evening and many thank yous are in order. Special thanks to Lin Max for her support, many hours of help with the installation and opening festivities.  Also thank yous to Eric for his assistance with lighting, Hope, Deborah, Sean, Sally, Laurie, Steph, Satri and Rich for their help with and at the reception. And finally to Charlie and Kevin, proprietors of RiskPress, for offering an alternative gallery space to artists in this county.  We are fortunate for their patronage and generosity.

The work is up. Some have sold and still many days left for viewing, walks and talk.  Here are a few glimpses of what you will see.

You can learn more about this exhibit on Satri Pencak's blog at www.satripecak.com/

And finally come to the first walk this Sunday, Oct 13th  at 1:00.  Note the prompt for this walk:  walking like reading like constructing If you can't come to this walk, there will be others on Sundays,  Oct 20th and 27th.

RiskPress Gallery is located on 7345 Healdsburg Avenue Sebastopol, CA 95472.  Gallery Hours: Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun.  11-6  & by appointment 707 494-8534