June 2020 Virtual Art Walk at Make.Shift Gallery:
“The Work is Never Done”
Make.shift presents “The Work is Never Done,” and atemporal multimedia exhibition that guides us through a timeline of experience. In June we proudly feature five different artists using five different mediums, with themes spread throughout centuries of perspectives. All five of our featured artists are women based out of the Pacific Northwest. Some of them deal with contemporary concerns and hardships and some peek into our uncertain future.
Sarah Newsome is a Cross-disciplinary artist based out of Portland, Oregon. Fueled by the desire to cope with a body that, at times, feels alien, her work explores the use of artificiality as a means of authenticity.
Allyce Wood, a tapestry artist with a well-traveled educational background, speaks on the ideas of transformation and seclusion we experience on a daily basis.
Jessica Earle is an art educator from Eastern Washington. Her work lives at the intersection of sculpture, video, sound, performance, and installation. She focusses on a speculative future.
Anna Graham, a mother and a teacher living in Birch Bay invites us to experience the beauty in discarded objects.
Erika Jensen is a feminist/body positive artist living in Bellingham. She aims to spread the ideals of the acceptance movement and empower female bodies through her work.
Join us on Friday, June 6th, and join the conversation on bodies, modern distractions, and future concerns.
Sarah Newsome
Sarah Newsome
(She/her)
“Afterglow”
Iridescent fabric, house paint, resin, cardboard tubing, glue
22 x 14 x 31”
$900
Sarah Newsome
(She/her)
“Haute Flash”
Synthetic hair, fabric, thread, acrylic, glue
50 x 24 x 9”
$1300
Bio: Hailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, Sarah Newsome is a cross-disciplinary artist living in Portland, Oregon. She received her MFA in Craft from Oregon College of Art & Craft in Portland, OR in 2019, and her BA from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2015. Newsome has exhibited work in Oregon, Washington, California, North Carolina, New Jersey and Idaho. She was the inaugural student member at Gallery 114 in Portland, Oregon and is a regular visiting artist/critic at Pacific Northwest College of Art and Clark College.
Artist Statement: “I make jokes about it, but it’s the truth that I kind of patterned my look after the town tramp. I didn’t know what she was, just this woman who was blonde and piled her hair up, wore high heels and tight skirts, and, boy, she was the prettiest thing I’d ever seen. Momma used to say, “Aw, she’s just trash,” and I thought, That’s what I want to be when I grow up: trash. And that is how I look.” - Dolly Parton
Initially fueled by the desire to cope with a body that, at times, feels alien, Newsome’s work explores the use of artificiality as a means of authenticity. Rooted in object investigation, her sculptural practice privileges both materiality and context, weaving together ideation and form through haptic making and exploration. She sources her research, form, and materials from personal stories, historical and contemporary beautification processes, humor, and camp theory.
Allyce Wood
Allyce Wood
(She/her)
“Known Hand”
Installation of digital jacquard tapestries, metal hardware, rope, dimensions variable
Price upon request
Bio: Allyce Wood (b.1988 Seattle, USA) received her MFA from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) in 2018 and her BFA from Cornish College of Art in 2010. She expanded her education by studying Digital Jacquard Tapestry KUNO at the University of Bergen in 2018. She also studied abroad at the Glasgow School of Art's Environmental Sculpture program in 2009. Wood uses digital and handmade processes to make installations, works on paper, and textiles with a focus on digital Jacquard tapestries. To her, the loom acts as a mediator between traditional and computerized technologies, offering a unique way to combine her online and offline experiences into images in cotton and wool. She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows locally and internationally in the Pacific Northwest, Glasgow, Milan, Caracas, and Oslo. Her work has been featured in New American Painting, The Stranger, and The Makers Podcast (USA) and reviewed by Kunstkritikk, Subject, and Dagsvisen (Norway). Wood is the gracious recipient of the City Artist Award, 4Culture GAP Grant, and City Art Walk Award in the USA, and the Diversestipend For Nyutdannede Kunstnere from the Arts Council Norway.
Artist Statement: My work often begins with what materials mean to me and how my general outlook focused on interpretations of language and softness. My fascination with digital jacquard tapestry, for example, stems from its place between traditional handicraft and computer programing, two systems with their own languages. For me it is a way for our online experiences with to become tangible, remade through a warm material. When working with texts, drawings, or sculptures, they are always made with the intention of being a soft way to include any viewer; a window on the page, a body amongst objects. When I was on a residency in Iceland, I was alone in a new way. Partly an explorer, partly a craftsperson, I fell deeper into work by Hannah Ryggen (Norway) and Claire Barclay (UK), as well as my online life. I began to analyze my surroundings, the frozen landscape outside the window that encircled me and my methods to keep social windows open. My phone, a usual nuisance, became a way to stay connected. I compiled screen-grabs, texts, and other ephemera sent to me during this time, sorting through what I made and what was sent to me. This was all flat, behind a sheet of glass. The flatness inspired drawings, digital landscapes, and new poetry. I found a way to respond to these fleeting words, blips, and the micro-speeches, changing them into something slow, methodical, and soft. There is a potential to let these moments spiral out before us but by taking the time to reflect, we can stitch these patterns together to allow us to see deeper truths about our relationships with others and ourselves. This is how I can speak to the ideas of transformation and seclusion we face daily. It depends on being able to ask ‘where are we when things get cold?’ and ‘what happens when are we taking in too much screen-based content?’
Jessica Earle
Jessica Earle
“Domestic Blue”
Three Channel Video w/ Sound
4:00
NFS
Bio: Jessica Earle is an emerging video and sound artist currently living in Spokane, WA. Raised in the mountains of California, Idaho, Montana, and Washington; the impact of these places vibrates through her practice. She has shown and performed nationally and internationally, including a museum show in Zhangzhou China. She received her BFA from Eastern Washington University, where she focused on digital media and sculpture, and went on to graduate from Alfred University with an MFA in Electronic and Integrated Art. While in Washington, she ran Lacuna, a pop-up galley that utilized abandoned storefronts in an effort to revitalize the downtown area of Spokane. She held the position of Research Associate for the Institute for Electronic Art at Alfred University for a year following receiving her MFA. There she interacted with internationally recognized artists and researchers and implemented new technologies for the Institute’s residency program. She currently teaches at several universities in Eastern Washington. In addition to her independent practice, Jessica collaborates with mixed media sculptor Morgan Rose Free, creating experimental site specific installations which explore the vast potential of cross-disciplinary relationships between video and sculpture and challenge traditional divides between disciplines; resulting in a dynamic hybrid of video, sound, sculpture, performance and installation.
Artist Statement: My focused is on a speculative future where nature is no more. Through the lens of science fiction while simultaneously referencing my own lived experience I aim to bring to life an imagined future where we use technology to bring the myth of the natural world back to life in our homes and public spaces. In my installations viewers are encouraged to talk to plants, meditate, self reflect, and heal. My video sculptures act as objects meant for the home. These future-objects create intimate moments in an intimate space; a sunset for you and your lover to hold hands under, flowers for the mantle, and clouds and a forest to daydream under. Ultimately she hopes this future can be avoided and that this work evokes conversations around our current climate crisis.
Anna Graham
Anna Graham
“Wasted Things”
Deer hide, test tubes, mouse bones, antique hardware, animal hide, copper sheet, clock parts, vintage lenses, birch bark, old photo
$250
Anna Graham
“Loose Ends”
Antique hardware, fibers, clock parts, test tubes, antique photo, vintage lense, antique keys, animal hide, cigar box, rusted gauge
$325
Anna Graham
“Vinegar Aspect”
Shed antler, fossilized mammoth ivory, deer hide, antique hardware, mouse bones, vintage lens, cigar box, fur scrap, watch parts
$350
Anna Graham
“Artifacts”
Antique hardware, mouse bones, horse hair, cast iron, watch parts, driftwood, pine wood
$250
Anna Graham
“Structure”
antique rulers, geodes, vintage stamps, watch parts, fur scraps, vintage lenses, antique hardware, test tubes
$250
Anna Graham
“Moving Parts”
Vintage keys, deer hide, antique hardware, clock parts, watch parts, test tubes, pine, vintage lens, copper sheet, botanical specimens
$275
Anna Graham
“Estimation”
Electronic display, deer hide, horse hair, fox bone, test tubes, watch and clock parts, vintage lens, cigar box, antique hardware, old drill bits, Topaz sand, antique paper
$325
Anna Graham
“Examination”
Vintage lens, sea urchin shell, dental mold, antique stamps, porcupine quills, feathers, antique drafting tools, test tubes, deer hide, vintage postage stamps, mouse bones, fibers, fur scraps, shells, driftwood
$375
Anna Graham
“Remnants”
Vintage keys, antique buffer, radio tube, antique hardware, mouse bones, watch and clock parts, egg shell, feathers, mica, antique photo, vintage postage stamps, test tubes, deer hide, antique player piano paper, old fishing hook
$300
Anna Graham
“Room With A View”
Cigar Box, jawbone, vintage lightbulbs, vials, antique hardware, old slide, mouse bones, eggshell, fossilized coral, rabbit fur, watch parts, fossilized walrus ivory fragment
$350
Anna Graham
“Introspection”
Driftwood, rusted gauge, clock and watch parts, vintage lens, old photo, deer hide, antique hardware, test tubes, copper sheet
$350
Bio: Anna Graham is an award-winning visual artist from Alaska who works in assemblage, stained glass, mixed media, graphic design, photography and acrylics. Her varied interests and love of the natural world inspire much of her work, and she often incorporates natural materials and found objects in her designs. She also teaches math and physics and writes for ponderingstar.com, her personal blog. She lives in Birch Bay with a young feral princess, a labrabull named Shadow and a fuzzy poop machine (hamster) named Maria.
Artist Statement: The Work Is Never Done. The rusty nails, chipped lenses, stoppered vials and lengths of chain I incorporate into my found-object reliquaries no longer serve their intended purposes. The jobs they were made for are over, but they have been assigned new ones: carefully pieced together with scraps of hide, filled with old watch parts or soldered together with other bits of discarded hardware or salvaged glass, they become shrines to our oxidized past. Their utility is diminished, yet their beauty is increased. They have transformed from trash to something worth pondering, something interesting to examine, something worth keeping. As an artist, as a mom or as a rusty nail, our work is never done, it only transforms. Our work as human beings never ends, it only changes. It is up to us to choose work that is meaningful, beautiful, instructive, enriching, thought-provoking, or empowering. I hope my pieces inspire my viewers to see the beauty in discarded things, the use in things that have outlasted their purpose, a curiosity about their origins and an awareness of how many things are accumulating around us.
Erika Jensen
Erika Jensen
(she/her)
“Dancing Uterus”
Acrylic
$80
Erika Jensen
(she/her)
“Dysphoria”
Colored Pencil
$230
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“Gym Gals”
Pen, marker, magazine clippings, glue
$55
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“Menarche”
Ink
$70
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“On the Rag”
Pen, Acrylic
$115
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“Proud”
Acrylic
$40
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“Stain”
Pen Acrylic
$40
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“Tampon Instructions“
Pen, Acrylic
$50
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“The Great Goddess”
Acrylic
$175
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“Under the Mask”
Pen, marker
$105
Erika Jensen
(She/her)
“Untitled”
Acrylic
$50
Artist Statement: “Are You in Charge of Your Own Body?"
This notion that our bodies are our own has been around since second wave feminism(1920-1970), and now as we define this fourth wave, we still are asking the question, "Are our bodies really our own?"
In my art I express themes of women’s bodies, femininity, menstrual cycles, identity and self expression. Through my art-making process I display young women in stages of body acceptance, first periods, depression, shame, and pride. Messy and unedited stages that come and go like the tide. Gleeful and loving embrace of their bodies and others. I create with different mediums and styles in an effort to not be stuck in one particular style and reach a range of audiences.
I’m striving to create a conversation for everyone, women and men, non-binary, young and old. A conversation for people to tell stories of their first period, their first sex-talk, their struggles or non-struggles with menstrual products and bras and makeup, etc. I personally have struggled with my own femininity as my friends, coworkers, and complete strangers have tried to define my own femininity. When I shaved my head I was asked if I was lesbian, if I was a different person now. I was told that I needed to wear more makeup now that all my hair was gone, that I wasn’t “girly” enough. But after this inquiry on my hair I started to gaze into the mirror regretting deeply the choice that I had made. My thoughts included: “I look like a boy” and “I’m not as pretty as women with long, flowing, healthy hair”.
It took me a little bit to fully accept my body and it’s changes and this leads to the expression in my art making process. I wanted to create real stories of body shame and body acceptance. Relatable stories of menarche(the first occurrence of menstruation) so that young women could find solidarity if not pride in bleeding, even if it hurts like hell sometimes. Also I hope that by creating real narratives of menstruation, that leads to acceptance for people unaware of these experiences.
When I was in high school I would very discreetly stuff pads into my coat pocket on the way to the bathroom, because there was no way in hell I was going to accidentally flash my bulky, uncomfortable pad to the class of 25 strangers. The shame I felt in carrying this piece of cloth between my legs would continue for many years before I became proud of the bleeding from my vagina every month. What changed? I actually started talking about and expressing through my art what I was going through, not paying any attention to how “taboo” it was to everyone else around me. I started to ignore comments that were designed to define my femininity for me. I am the ONLY one in charge of my own body, thank you very much.