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Sandra Stowell

Art in Progress: the blog

The Art Gallery

Artist's Statement: I am a mixed media artist with a particular interest in drawing, digital transformations, and sculpture. I use pencil, water soluble graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, pastels, Conte crayon, ink, paint, along with found objects, silk threads, cheesecloth, beeswax, driftwood, my computer, and more. I save and use my own work as elements in both physical and digital collage; I use a computer, scanner and archival ink jet printer as artists tools to modify and create new images. I especially enjoy the layering and combining intrinsic to print making and collage. As I work, I draw upon a backlog of my own drawings and prints: I may incorporate or transform older work in new projects.

I don't start with a detailed plan, rather I explore an idea & appreciate the element of surprise. At some point a plan “happens” and I find myself working toward a finished piece. I love to improvise (think Jazz). I try to balance a need for control, which requires technical skill and practice, with a sense of play and exploration. Despite an emphasis on play, I take my explorations seriously. I am not interested in following techniques and trends in the art world, however I love to see the work of other artists and to explore new techniques. It is a delight when I encounter a technique that will help me express my own visual “thoughts”.

I make art to satisfy myself, and to share my experiences. Art is self expression: a visual journal of my experiences and emotions. At times I want to communicate the sense of mystery and delight I feel when I look around at natural and man made objects. At other times I may express the angst & pain I observe around me, or experience in my own life.

Background: I liked to draw as a child, but disliked art classes and abandoned a college art major for computer science and a 25 year career in that field. "Making things" was a weekend hobby until I moved to Port Townsend in 1998. Here I found time for making art, which became important and satisfying. Art has been my daily work for some years, in my art studio next to my home. I surround my studio with assemblies of found objects and odd creations: my yard art.

I have benefited from regional art classes as well as painting and sculpture classes in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I participate in a weekly art seminar that has fed the artist in me for many years. I am a member of Corvidae Press, a fine art printmaking guild, and participate in our annual print exchanges. For four years I have participated in the Brooklyn Art Library Sketchbook Project. I enter work in regional juried art shows, when the wind is right! I volunteer at Northwind Arts Center, a non-profit art gallery and event sponsor in Port Townsend.

Shows:  Exhibiting is less exciting than it once was: I don't get much feedback or satisfaction from juried shows. Working is where the satisfaction happens. I do want my work to be seen, but ... I prefer exploring new materials and ideas (sculpture) over making shows happen! Exhibiting is not free: it is so much work under the best of circumstances.

 

Selected Exhibitions
2017 Just couldn't be thinking about that!
2016 Flotsam & Jetsam, group show in Port Townsend, WA
2016 Momentum, group show in Port Townsend, WA
2014 Community Reflections, an invitational exhibit at Tashiro Kaplan Studios, Seattle, WA
2014 Earth Matters, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA

Clear plexi LED & drawing sculpture

Shattered
(mixed media w/LEDs)
2013 Small Expressions XII, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2012 Spirit of Place, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2011 Into the Woods, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2011 CVG '11, Collective Visions Gallery, Bremerton, WA
  The Sketchbook Project 2011, 2012, 2013 & 2014 tours, The ArtLibrary, Brooklyn, NY
2010 Alchemy of the Abstract V , Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2010 Shape of Water, Northwest Maritime Center, Port Townsend, WA
2010 Linear Thinking: Expanding the Limits of Drawing, Northwind, Port Townsend, WA
2010 Close to Home, Tyler Street Cafe, Port Townsend, WA
2009 Printmaker's Hand, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2009 Tashiro Kaplan Studios 5th Anniversary Open House, Seattle, WA
2008 The CVG Show '08, Collective Visions, a Gallery of Art, Bremerton, WA
2007 Art Port Townsend 9th Annual Juried Show, Port Townsend, WA
2006 Vessels, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
2006 Figures, solo exhibition at Belltower Art, Port Townsend, WA
2005 Contemporary Collage, Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA

More about the artist

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