You are invited to our art exhibit running the month of September, and to the  Opening Reception, Artist Talk, kulla kulla Creek renaming update, and/or the Wrap Up. (lots to choose from ;) Gallery hours are Thurs-Sun, noon-5 and by appointment! And I will be hosting every Saturday afternoon - 2:30-5pm, so come by for a viewing and a chat. Showing with Lisa and Julie, both responding to the flow and strength of water has been exciting. I have continued my work questioning the

human geometric overlay of mapping and measuring of the land.  A simultaneously elegant organizing system for what appears to be chaos, but is actually nature, with its own intricate organization.  Think of how much we have learned and how much our society has changed in the last 175 years. Come by,  you will find beauty and hope in all this work, because naturally occurring water is an amazing and resilient part of our world! I hope to see you.  Nancy

 

Getting Ready !

 

SAVE the DATE - Riparian Reflections - September 4th - 27th at Gallery 114

Riparian Reflections - Opening Reception September 4th 5-8 pm

Artists' Talk - Saturday, September 6th, 3-4:30pm 

Artists' Meet & Greet, a wrap-up reception - Saturday, September 27th 3:30-5:00 pm

 

Gallery 114 member Nancy Helmsworth with guest artists, ceramicist Lisa Conway and 

plant-based fiber artist Julie Johnson create work inspired by water. 

This promises to be an engaging exhibit, with multiple mediums with complimentary energies.

 

Nancy Helmsworth continues her work inspired by kulla kulla Creek, flowing alongside 

Lower Macleay trail in Forest Park and within the Bird Alliance of Oregon. 

 

She works to integrate the human history of the area, the desire to measure and control, 

as it collides with the beauty, resilience and powerful persistence of any body of flowing water. 

The more humans try to dominate nature, the more they interfere with the natural systems. 

In their desire to possess and extract, they simplify and destroy. 

 

 

 Nancy Helmsworth - Water worn stones creating the pool in the late summer, 36"x36"

acrylic paint on panel. 

 

 

Lisa Conway’s ceramic sculpture references water and nature from an intimate and sensual standpoint, 

rooted in our own physical bodies.  She is inspired by the ability water has to calm and slow the 

world around us, even as water itself as a material is continually in motion and in transition. 

 

Water can feel incredibly strong and even muscular, while still being utterly transparent and 

ephemeral. 

 

 

 Lisa Conway, “Body Water Drop”, 12x15x12.  Ceramic and glaze

 

Julie Johnson's sculptural works are made with plants she gathers in both urban and wild settings.

Each plant represents a particular place, season and ecological role. Her inspiration for this work

is kulla kulla ("bird" in chinuk-wawa) Creek Watershed of Forest Park - it's riparian areas, water flow

and quality, and some of the human influences in this uniquely urban setting. 

 

 

 Julie Johnson, “Turbulence”, 15”d x 11”h, wild willows, sculptural random weave basket.

 

Come see us - it should be a delightful show - 

Gallery 114

1100 NW Glisan St.

Thursday - Sunday noon-5pm and by APPOINTMENT  - contactgallery114pdx@gmail.com 

 

 

 

   

- 

New work in the "can" - you do know that means the photo film "canister" ...right?

 Working diligently to get ready for my September show at Gallery 114. 

My work was photographed by Dan Kvitka in October and I thank the Ford Family Foundation for the funds to pay for that documentation and that done by Stephen Funk, last spring at the 3/24 Mt. Hood Community College Exhibit.

Here are a few of the new images, supported by this grant.

First- are 4 of the larger "anchor" paintings for my exhibit. These are all 36"x36".

Then after making all these I made a series of smaller paintings that refer to other aspects of each larger painting.

Now to play with them in relation to each other via photoshop, which is how I will plan the layout for my exhibit. Just experimenting with arrangements - I can scale everything to the dimensions of the display space - so can get a pretty accurate feel for the set up.

MHCC:

 

Summer at the Bird Alliance of Oregon

Balch to kulla kulla creek

I continue to take my inspiration from Balch Creek in Forest Park, Portland, OR. 

As I find my imagery in the almost infinite views of this creek, I strive to capture the tension of the beauty and strength of nature with the intrusion of humans. We come to land, we measure and scheme on how to exploit. 

Are we bad? 

Let's say we are individuals, family-groups who are only trying to survive, but somehow balance gets lost time and time again. 

Anyway, I am pushing on to have this creek renamed to kulla kulla creek, "bird" in the chinuk-wawa language, the first language of the Oregon people, used by all the tribes in the region and beyond. 

Dan Balch was a colonist who received his land for FREE in 1850 via a Donation Land Claim. He and his family settled, but before long, in 1858, Dan murdered his son-in-law in a drunken rage, not approving of his daughter's elopement. 

 Dan was the first white man to be tried, convicted and hanged for murder in the state of Oregon. 

Continuing to refer to a creek with murder's moniker, is an insult to the original people whose land was stolen and to all people striving to live in a civilized society, past and future. It's not funny, nor quirky...it is unjust and was an act of violence that ended an innocent persons' life.

Here is a video of a portion of my kulla-kulla creek series.  

There is an abrupt spot where the creek is unceremoniously culverted into the storm sewer to be fed into the Willamette River, via a pipe, a mile down the way. 

 The painting is of the culvert, flanked by the diagrams of the newly engineered trash rack. 

The flowing silk ribbons represent the wild beauty of the creek, and contrast with the black burlap representing landscape cloth and the lights-out dark of entering the culvert. 

Movement vs static. 

 The bird sculptures remind us the creek is to be renamed kulla kulla, but also point out how humans appreciate nature but simplify it, losing so much of the intricate beauty. 

The complexity of nature is actually beyond us, but we honor these motifs as reminders of what is out there. 

Here you go:

more about the Map

 

 

Updated version of the Balch Creek Map

 

 

detail of the Balch property section of the area

 

 

 

 Detail of the tags reminding us that moving folks off the land is something that our society still does today - sadly.

Detail of Map - section with the Gunter chain - used to measure/map the plots of land across Oregon, Washington and Idaho...and across the whole country.

 

The show is up Nature, Once Removed

 And it's really dramatic, if I say so myself.

Lisa Conway and David Cohen are exhibiting some amazing pieces. The space is large and beautifully lit, so there is plenty to take in and enough room for the large work.

Here are some images:

a new arrangement idea and a few new paintings to capture other ways of experiencing the creek

detail

 

Balch Creek Map is continually getting refined as my understanding expands.