Posts

Showing posts with the label Roby King Gallery

Gabriel

Image
Gabriel, Angel of Communication, Oil on canvas over panel, 36 x 24 in. The English word angel, derived from the Greek ἄγγελος, means messenger.   No where in the Bible are these messengers described as winged nor are they represented in that way in early Christian art.   Sometime in the later part of the 4th century however, Angels appear suddenly to have grown them or at least artwork began depicting divine messengers complete with wings and another fashionable innovation of the period, halos.   My Angel imagery is primarily inspired by the paintings of the early Italian Renaissance artist Fra Angelico.   I have always admired his various depictions of the Annunciation and his rendering of Angel Gabriel's technicolor wings! Gabriel and other paintings in oil and monotype print are in my show about angel story August 5- 28, at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island.  Opening night is 1st Friday aug 5th, 6-8pm.

The Fox and Hare Fable

Image
My spin on Aesop's fable,  The Fox & Hare, (m onotype print, with 24k gold leaf), is one of my many fable based prints on exhibit in "On Being Human" at Roby King Gallery, 176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island WA, September 3-26. So the story goes-   One warm afternoon Fox napped and woke on a sun soaked slope to find Hare watching her intently. “Why do you stare little friend?” Fox asked. "Are you really as cunning, as smart, as others say?” Hare asked.  Fox rolled on her back and thought for awhile before replying, “Perhaps I could show you just how cunning I am little friend? You are cordially invited for early dinner, where we shall continue this conversation. Come as you are, come now if you like?” So Hare, filled with curiosity, followed Fox home. Fox though, had nothing at home to eat except? Now Hare exclaimed, “I have learned too late that your cunning is not about intelligence but unjust trickery that would sacrifice the innocent to fill you own belly.” ...

Friends or Foes

Image
  Friends or Foes, my monotype print (1/1) with 24K gold, will exhibit in ”On Being Human”,  at   Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, Sept. 3-26, 2021.   Although several of my prints in the "On Being Human" exhibit are my take on teaching fables attributed to Aesop, this monotype is more personal.  It's about those relationships that shape us because they are... challenging.  It also pays homage to truth as a bottom line we can agree or should agree to. Sometimes that challenging relationship is a close one and your friend is a friend because they tell the truth out of love for you.  Things you need to hear can still be difficult to hear, even from a friend!    Sometimes the relationship is less defined but you respect the other person's comments or actions because they act from integrity or... maybe they are relatives and believe wholeheartedly in what they share?  It would often seem that the mor...

Aletheia and the Bedtime Story

Image
Aletheia and the Bedtime Story, my monotype print (1/1), will exhibit in ”On Being Human”,  At Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, Sept. 3-26, 2021.  Link here to the gallery and more of my work on display at Roby King. Myths and Fables are often read and told as entertainment, but as we know, the truth is in the telling and the power of truth, we hope, wins out.   My print is a bit of a visual pun on the name Aletheia, who was the Greek Goddess of truth, truth revealed, the naked truth… she is more familiar in Latin as Veritas.   Aesop, who’s teaching stories inspired my latest “fable” print series, tells two fables about the Goddess of Truth, Aletheia. In one, a man traveling in the wild discovers Aletheia living alone, far from civilization and asks her why she dwells in the wilderness.   She replies, “ Among the people of old, only a few told and repeated lies, but now those who lie exist throughout all of human society! ”   From this fable we learn...

Sting Like A Bee

Image
Sting Like a Bee, monotype print with 24K gold, for the “On Being Human” exhibit at Roby King Gallery, September 3-26, 2021  Bees have existed for perhaps 130 million years. An estimated 65 million years ago some of them survived the meteor that struck earth, caused global temperatures to drop and brought the extinction of larger mammals. Some of those bees had already evolved a social lifestyle, like Apis mellifera Linnaeus, the western Honeybee. Along with hive mentality they also evolved a way to defend themselves, a sting. We, the descendants of smaller mammals who also survived destruction, are dependent for sustenance on pollinating bees.  My monotype print “Sting Like a Bee” depicts one of Aesop’s teaching fables that present flora and fauna as characters with human fallibilities. The Queen of the Bees could bear it no longer. Humans were forever plundering her hives of honey, so she decided to petition Zeus for justice and a means of defense. She gathered t...

Mind Walk

Image
  “Mind Walk”   is one of my monotype prints in the Black / White Show at Roby King Gallery, 176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA, May 7-30, 2021. Before Google or the printed page a trained memory was vitally important and the only way to retain and share knowledge.   Across cultures, but particularly in Greece and later Rome, humans created elaborate memory systems known as Mnemonics or memory devices named for the Greek Goddess of memory, Mnemosyne.   Based on strategies of association of "places" and "images" with the desired subject to be remembered, these techniques aided in the retention of information and its retrieval.    

Aphrodite, She's beautiful but flighty...

Image
My cut steel sculpture "Aphrodite" exhibits Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island in "A Trio of Print-makers".  Opening reception is Tonight, Feb. 7, 6-8 pm.  Aphrodite is the ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation.  
 I love the description of her in this version of “Give me that old time religion” made popular by folk musician Pete Seeger.
 Shall I worship Zarathustra 
just the way we use ta? 
 Be a Zarathustra Booster
 What a thing to be! Or maybe Aphrodite
 She’s beautiful but flighty
 and doesn’t wear a nighty, now there’s a sight to see. 
Or perhaps I’ll choose Apollo 
 a decent god to follow
 I’d grovel and I’d wallow
 Brought low on bended knee. 
Elohim or Yahweh?
 Allah or the highway? 
 I think I’ll just go my way.
 That’s good enough for me. 
Give me that old time religion 
Give me that old time religion
.... It's good enough for me!

Amphora Asterion, A Trio of Printmakers

Image
My monotype print “Amphora Asterion”, exhibits in "A Trio of Printmakers", ( Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve MacFarlane).  Feb 7- March 1, 2020 at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island. The opening reception is  Feb. 7, 6-8 pm. Amphora Asterion is a   Monotype Print,  29 1/4 x 21 1/2  in. depicting Asterion, the Minotaur of Cretan Myth. And the Queen gave birth to a child who was called Asterion. —Apollodorus   A mingled form where two strange shapes combined, And different natures, bull and man, were joined. —Euripides  

Perseus

Image
"Perseus" will exhibit at Roby King Gallery , Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with work by Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane.  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm. Check it Out! Perseus is the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty. His mother Danae was the daughter of Acrisius, the King of Argos. King Acrisius locked Danae in a room without windows or doors, open only to the heavens, to prevent her ever having suitors or a child after the Oracle at Delphi foretold his own death by Danae's son.  Zeus however saw and fell in love with Danae and visited her from above as a shower of gold and so Perseus was conceived and born. King Acrisius, now the grandfather of a demi-god, attempted one more time to thwart the prophecy.  He locked Danae and the infant Perseus in a wooden chest and cast them into the Aegean Sea.  Eventually, they washed up and were found by Diktys, a fis...

Medusa

Image
Medusa, my monotype print, will exhibit at Roby King Gallery , Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with work by Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane. So delighted to be part of this talented lineup!  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm. Check it Out! The Myths of Medusa and Perseus have been told and retold for time out of mind and the image of Medusa as Gorgon can be found in art and architecture for thousands of years.  Even today she appears on the flag of Sicily and ever since Gianni Versace adopted Medusa as his logo in 1978 her iconic image has become even more pervasive. 

The eighth century BC poet Hesiod, of Boeotia, composed a poem, the Theogony, about the creation of the world and the Greek gods.  In it he describes the Gorgons, the mortal Medusa, whose name comes from the old verb médô that means “I rule,” and her two immortal sisters, Sthenno or “strength” and Euryale “the one that leaps or wand...

Daphne

Image
My new cut steel sculpture "Daphne" will exhibit at Roby King Gallery, Bainbridge Island WA, Feb 7- March 1, 2020 in "A Trio of Print-makers" with Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve McFarlane.  The opening Reception is Feb 7, 6-8 pm.  Check it Out!   Ovid's description of Daphne's pursuit by Apollo, prayer to her father the river god Peneus and subsequent change into the Laurel or Daphne tree is context for my sculpture.  My inspiration though is Kathleen Raine's contemporary poem "Daphne After" and her Me-Too depiction of coping with violation and the victims emotional metamorphosis. 
 Daphne After by Kathleen Raine   In the absence of a heart grown stemwise, silent, slow Daphne drinks unremembering and unknown, in the manner of a laurel thinks in branches, sometimes blossoms.  Real forgetting is her secret, long detachment, no slit sense to heal. Only sentiment and song remember how she suffered, ran in terror, turning tree, an...

Theseus

Image
  "Theseus", 25 x 37 in. is my monotype print with 23k gold leaf exhibiting at Roby King Gallery, 176 Winslow Way E., Bainbridge Island, WA in "A Trio of Print-makers" with Lynn Brofsky, Brian Fisher & Steve MacFarlane. The opening reception is February 7, 6-8. Gallery Hours: 11am-6pm, Tues.-Sat. through February.

 If ever there was one "Once upon a time..." story, the Athenian foundation myth of Theseus covers all the the Jungian archetypal conquering hero motifs. He is tested, he is good, he slays monsters, returns with wisdom and is a unifying King. It's Greek myth so of course doesn't end all so well for Theseus but it's probably my favorite hero story!

Icarus

Image
"Icarus", Brian Fisher, Steel Sculpture My sculpture Icarus will exhibit at   Roby King Gallery Feb 7- March 1 Opening Reception Feb 7, 6-8 pm.   Icarus by Rebecca G. Bagget The story is so simple really. Imagine yourself gifted with wings, every child's sleeping and waking dream, imagine that you could defy that force dragging us all to heel, imagine every sweet safe green harbor below, laid out for your choosing like candies in their box. Then imagine that one gold coin, that fierce and pulsing point around which worlds dance, imagine the gentleness below and that wildness above, imagine that something in you echoed to the leaping of its flames, imagine how its one question beat in your veins, how you saw with perfect clarity that moment in which each of us chooses, forever. Imagine that voice far below crying: Come back      Come back   ...

Oedipus Rex

Image
“Oedipus Rex”, my rust monotype on vintage linen is now on exhibit at Roby King Gallery , 176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA. Jan 3-Feb 2, 2020. Oedipus was born to Laius, King of Thebes and his Queen Jocasta. At his birth, it was prophesied that this child, Oedipus, would murder his father and marry his mother.  So Laius, frightened, sent Oedipus to be exposed to weather and wild beasts on Mt. Cithaeron.  However, Oedipus did not die, instead he was found and adopted by the King Polybus of Corinth and his Queen.  When Oedipus is called bastard as a young man and told that King Polybus might not be his real father, he left Corinth and journeyed to Delphi and its’ Oracle in search of an answer to his true parentage. The Delphic Oracle does not tell him who his true family is but does tell him that his destiny is to kill his father and marry his mother.  In order to thwart the prophecy, Oedipus decides never to return to Corinth and his eventual inherita...

"Vashon Island Connection" Opening at Roby King gallery

Image
The Vashon Island Connection   -Brian Fisher, Pam Ingalls, Susan Lowrey opened last night at Roby King Gallery ,  176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA.  Jan 3-Feb 2, 2020.   Thanks Andrea Roby and Wes King for a wonderful evening!  So much fun!

The Vashon Island Connection at Roby King Gallery

Image
The Vashon Island Connection   Brian Fisher, Pam Ingalls, Susan Lowrey show at Roby King Gallery ,   176 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA.  Jan 3- Feb 2, 2020.   Join us for the Opening Reception: First Friday, January 3, 6-8 pm. "Warriors Waiting", monotype with 23k gold, is one of my many prints in this show.

The Minotaur, Roby King Gallery, January Exhibit

Image
My Monotype "The Minotaur" will exhibit in Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island, January Jan 3 - Feb 2 with work from two other Vashon Island Artists, Susan Lowery and Pam Ingalls. Check us out! Crete’s mythic history begins with the abduction by Zeus (as bull) of Europa, a princess of Phoenicia and a long swim to the shores of Greece's largest island.  With their union, Europa became the first queen of the island kingdom of Crete, powerhouse of the Aegean and subsequently the namesake of Europe.   When Minos, a descendant of Zeus and Europa, defeated his brothers to become King he prayed that Poseidon, God of the Aegean Sea who's waters surrounded Crete, send him a gift/sacrifice in recognition that his Kingship was divinely sanctioned, his prayers were answered (kind of). Poseidon’s gift, a beautiful pure white bull, The Bull From The Sea, appeared as petitioned but Minos decided instead of sacrificing the bull to substitute another as tribute and kept...

Dryad

Image
This is "Dryad", a collograph print depicting my vision of a wood spirit or nymph.   In Greek drys signifies "oak". Thus, dryads are the nymphs of oak trees, though the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general.   Traditionally dryads are female and in myth are often pursued by another woodland creature, the Satyr.  But I thought why should they have all the fun, or unwanted attention, so my dryad is male and experiencing a seasonal change.  "Dryad" is currently showing at Roby King Gallery on Bainbridge Island Washington, November 3-27, 2017.

Spirit of the Woods

Image
"Spirit of the Woods" monoprint with gold leaf,  8 3/4 x 25 in. My Monoprint “Spirit of the Woods” shows at Roby King Gallery , November 3-27, 2017, when Denise Kester and I exhibit our personal interpretations of myth in print and paint.  My work is about the myths I’ve been exploring: vegetative deities like Europe's “Green Man”, Japan’s “Kodama” and the Greek myths about Goddesses Demeter and Persephone. I grew up on the high plains of northwestern Kansas.  Demeter would be at home there where grain (wheat and corn) rules, but unless they are planted and nurtured, trees there are rare.  Perhaps that is why I've always recognized what is special and sacred in trees and why I am drawn to these ancient vegetative stories that exist across cultures. "The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it afford...

Midsummer's Day Dream

Image
“Midsummer’s Day Dream”, Monotype Print with gold leaf I live in a forest, a wood, a copse, or something like that.  Maybe it’s a wield?  It’s not quite "Forest Primeval."  The Cedar and Douglas Fir that surround my home/studio are only a century plus old but they are magnificent.  I admire their green, their grey, their loft and all year long I listen to their voices.   They are vocal!  They are often even musical, though I fear those voices in Fall and Winter when the seasons bend and break them.  In Spring when the wind is constant, so are their soothing voices.  In verdant Summer, they are heavy, still, can sigh and sometimes they snore.  I imagine they dream. My Monotype, “Midsummer’s Day Dream”, will show at Roby King Galleries, November 3-27, 2017, when Denise Kester and I exhibit our personal interpretations of myth in print and paint.