John Anderson
Untitled
2008
Wood and metal
78 x 36 x 36 inches
Courtesy Allan Stone Gallery, New York, New York

Although John Anderson has lived in New Jersey and shown in New York since the early 1960s, his sculpture remains deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest. Anderson's assemblage is rich in associations. Skinned of their bark, each single piece of wood evokes at first sight the smooth roundness of the driftwood beached along the Pacific coast. Untitled is at once vast and dynamic: the suspended body of wood suggests mass and pull and yet with the accumulation and layering of strings comes a sense of fluidity and movement. Last but not least tactility and a warm feeling of familiarity win over all other impressions.

Janice Arnold
Luminarium
2010
Handmade felt: wool, silk, lyocell, flax, bamboo, soy
Courtesy of Janice Arnold

Felt is believed to be the oldest type of fabric. It is non-woven and made predominantly from raw wool. The principle elements of felt-making have remained the same for thousands of years: moisture, agitation and pressure. To create traditional felt,  raw wool fibers are layered together. Hot water is applied to saturate the fibers, the moist heat opening the small naturally occurring scales in the wool fiber, and through agitation (rolling or rubbing the wool) along with  pressure, these fibers irrevocably entangle. Repeating the agitation and pressure through hours of  manipulation condenses the fibers, shrinking them into the resulting felt, which is approximately 40% of the original lay-up size. It is the entanglement and density of the fibers that give felt its inherent strength and texture.  

During the early part of the month of June 2012, Janice Arnold used the Forum of Bellevue Arts Museum as her "dry studio," and laid-up the individual pieces in full view of Museum visitors for a rare glimpse into the process of large-scale felt-making. Visitors were able to observe the implementation of the artist’s design, her complex mapping and planning system, and the raw materials she incorporated as they were layered together in preparation of felting. Once a set of lay-ups were completed at the Museum, the artist carefully transported the "works in progress" to her studio where the felting and shrinking process occurred. Felted and dried, the pieces returned to the Museum where they have been assembled in the site-specific installation Luminarium, created for the Museum’s front window. 

Photo: Bob Iyall

Frank Connet
Veil #3 & #4

Inspired by its capacity for subtle layering of color, Connet began exploring the potential of indigo dying about 16 years ago. The imagery in Connet's work is created on wool cloth, using a technique called “shibori,” a Japanese dying approach to embellish textiles by shaping cloth and securing it before dying. The specific shibori technique Connet applies is called “mokime shibori” (wood grain shibori). Parallel rows of hand stitches are used to “draw” the form. The size and placement of the individual stitch and the distance between lines of stitching allow the artist to control the movement of the lines. These lines of stitches are then pulled tight, creating a compressed bundle which is then dyed. The exposed edges of the bundle readily take the dye, while the interior remains untouched. "I often think it is as though the patterns might have been produced by waves on sand." says Connet. "This is appealing as it reflects my interest in natural phenomena, such as growth and decay, the effect of light and wind on form, and balance and instability."

Lia Cook
Berkeley, CA

Big Richard
2005

Big Susan
2005

Cotton, woven, Jaquard power loom, doublecloth
All works lent by the artist

Etsuko Ichikawa
Traces of the Molten State
2008
Glass pyrograph
25' 7" x 51" each
Courtesy of the artist

Christian Burchard
Fragments #9
2005
Pacific madrone, bleached, sandblasted
Lent by the Artist

Fragments #9 exploits the multiples concept with intriguing results. Assembling thin slices of warped madrone timber into a grid like composition, Burchard creates works of variety and visual character. The language of the wood, including knots, color grain, texture, warped surface and contour, along with the relationship of individual pieces to each other and to the whole, offer a provocative visual experience. ---Mark Richard Leach

Peter Pierobon
Chair Stack
Bronze

Peter Pierobon is a sculptor inspired by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the art of the Inuit, African, Northwest Coast Indians, and the Aboriginal Australian cultures. His goal is to create objects that are delightfully functional and at the same time sculptural in focus. The chair literally mimics the human form as it offers support to the human body. The chair also departs from this function through exaggeration (four legs) as it engages it metaphorically.