Inquiring Minds Want to Know?

Well, you'll notice there's a gap of about a year since my last post. Hmmm where, oh where has Kay West been?

Mid-March of 2016 an opportunity inexplicably presented itself, and I leaped on it! I opened LITTLE DOG Art Gallery, a brick and mortar fine art sales gallery in Spokane, WA, along with my silent partner sister, Mel.

Everything moved very swiftly and before I knew it I was scheduling upcoming art exhibits, hanging shows, arranging for in-gallery activities and artist receptions, lots of bookkeeping and paying out of commissions, meeting people, talking with gallery visitors, up to my eyebrows in art biz, et cetera.

It has been an awesome, invigorating, growth experience! I've met so many cool people and talented artists here in Spokane! Initially I was only showing other artists' work, but in the last couple of months I've started exhibiting some of my own paintings. You can check out Little Dog Art Gallery on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, plus our website at www.littledogartgallery.com.

Yes, I've continued painting and taking photographs. I had a dozen of my Bondo Series photographs in a summer exhibit at Liberty Building Art Gallery in Spokane. I was invited to exhibit work in a December group show at Marmot Art Space in Kendall Yards, Spokane.

"Red Lamp" in Liberty Bldg Art Gallery, Summer 2016

"Golden Nut" in Liberty Bldg Art Gallery, Summer 2016

"Frontal, Bondo Series" Marmot Art Space, December 2016

"Golden Curve, Bondo Series" Marmot Art Space, December 2016

Yup, Here I am posing in front of my displayed work at
 Marmot Art Space, Kendall Yards, Spokane, WA

I've pushed forward with my painting, so my work is becoming more loose, playing more with movement and pattern rather than realistic rendering a specific object.

It's been a fun year, with more growth and exploration to come!

Top o'the Morning to ya, Spring!

Adjusted my clocks around the house as I slipped into Spring mode this morning. I am already enjoying this change, as everything seems to sprouting a little bit earlier this year. Is it just my imagination or am I experiencing global warming up close and personal?

It was rainy and dismal most of the day, but I had picked up some daffodils at the grocery store--mine aren't yet up--and they provided just the energy lift I needed.

So, with a tip o' my Tam to St Paddy's Day, here are a couple iPhone shots of the green!

Happy Spring!

Featured by @jj_colorlove (Instagram) on 3/8/16 

The path photographed but not taken

While out walking my 4-legged companion, I was drawn again to the river, something about moving water. What can I say? Maybe it speaks to the traveler in me. Moving. Going somewhere else. Restless staying in one place. This is a very nice place, don't get me wrong. But in any case, the river pulls at me. Who am I to struggle against it?

I'm shooting directly into the sun; flawed thinking, eh? Well, so be it. I played with a Poster Edges effect filter and I like the grainy, inky blackness of the image, with just the mere suggestion of shape and the rippling water.

I was up on Summit Drive, I think, and there are numerous paths down the hills toward the river. One was rather indistinct, maybe it hadn't been used in awhile, but I liked it. If I had better shoes on for it, I would have followed it to see where it went. I also liked the shape of the trees in the background, there's a geometric shape to them, a nice background for the feathery grasses.  Maybe it's the strong vertical of the tree right in the middle of the composition continuing the path upward.

Looking in the other direction I saw the path carpeted with newspapers that had blown down and were caught by the tall grasses. There was something fetching about the incongruity of the newspapers in such a natural setting.




The Path Not Taken



The Printed Path

So, these are my uploads for today.

I went to a thrift shop on Maple in North Spokane this evening, wait until you see what I shot there!

Influence of Surroundings



Birch Bay Sunset



Birch Bay shells, beach glass and pebbles

Like a lot of artists, I'm heavily influenced by my natural surroundings. Having lived in Birch Bay on the west coast of WA for seven years, I still feel the water sloshing around in m'brain!

A number of years ago I read a Barbara Kingsolver non-fiction "High Tide in Tucson" about transitioning from ocean to desert. If I remember correctly, she wrote of her hermit crab still moving through its cage in time to the tides.  (Her insights about nature and the desert are almost lyrical. I highly recommend this as a good read!)

However, I am planted here in Spokane for the present and this is where I have to find a new ebb and flow. It'll happen ... with patience.

It will be fun to see what new jewelry will result from this new environment!

Pine cone by Spokane River



Pine trees in Spokane woods



Project 365

Alas, my gaze fell today. But I got such luscious textures in these two driftwood, that I am unrepentant!

01-23-11

In keeping with my intent to "look up," the following are photographs of tree trunks I came across yesterday afternoon while out with the mutt. I was struck how one of them looks so much like a face. It made me smile. I wonder if I made the tree nymph smile at me. Hmmm ...

01-22-11