950 Pacific to Feature ‘Bloodlines’

Three sculptors explore the influences of cultural and creative inheritance in Bloodlines, a collaborative installation slated for the Commerce Building at 950 Pacific Avenue. The work includes Motherland, a wall/pedestal installation by Mary Coss; You Never Listen, an audio/hanging installation, and Where Did You Go, a wall sculpture, by Pamela Hom; and Family Portrait, a hanging sculpture by June Sekiguchi.

Mary Coss, Motherland from Bloodlines, plaster, copper patina, installation 8'x10'x5'

Artist Team Coss, Hom, Sekiguchi, installation view of Bloodlines, dimensions variable

While the artists worked independently, their proposal describes how intersecting influences and themes resulted in a cohesive body of work. Coss examines the hidden world of the unconscious, inspired partly by research into her genealogical roots. Hom’s sculptures reflect the thoughts and emotions connected with the death of a parent. Sekiguchi expresses her “fierce” instinct to protect her children with a metaphorical portrait of three eggs shrouded by ancestral bones.

After the work is installed at 950 Pacific, the artist team intends to expand Bloodlines and “integrate the pieces in response to the Tacoma site.”

Artscapes on the Horizon at 906 Broadway

The first group of artists selected for the Artscapes track of Spaceworks Tacoma will begin installing in the last week of June at various locations in downtown Tacoma. These site-specific works will be on display through September 30th.

A complete list of selected artists will be posted soon. In the meantime, here’s a preview of artists Michelle Acuff, Ben Hirschkoff and Tory Franklin, all of whom will be featured at 906 Broadway—across from the Pantages theater and on the same block as the Tacoma Farmer’s Market (open Thursdays).

Michelle Acuff is Assistant Professor of Art at Whitman College, and a 2010 recipient of the Ragdale Artist Residency and an artist residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Michelle Acuff's Artscapes installation will include this blue deer

In her proposal, Acuff describes an installation that will juxtapose objects of nature with synthetic materials in exploration of “our tenuous liaison to the natural world.” Acuff plans to contrast “the hand-made with the mass-produced, the phenomenological with the cerebral, and the natural with the synthetic, in colors, materials and objects that are surreal, saccharine, and dystopic.

Artist Ben Hirshkoff, who exhibited at Telephone Room Gallery in Tacoma earlier this year, will suspend an arrangement of cloud forms created from fused pieces of cut acrylic sheeting.

Ben Hirschkoff: Cloudscape (installation), salvaged acrylic sheet

Hirschkoff’s proposal describes his continuing fascination with the archetypal cloud motif, and its de- and re-construction, using wire, pipe, or other building materials. The artist writes: “In my mind, this represents a reflection of the fragmented way in which we perceive nature, as a resource and a utility.”

Ben Hirschkoff: Partial Cloud 1, steel pipe, acrylic and rubber sheet, 26"x57"x8"

Tory Franklin, an artist whose exhibition history includes a solo show at Tacoma’s Commencement Art Gallery in 2002, is currently working on elements for an installation based on fairy tales. Referencing original paintings, the artist will reproduce her work in vinyl to fit the space at 906 Broadway. The vinyl will be backed on PVC plastic and pieced together like a puppet. Onion dome turrets fashioned of Tyvek will hang behind the central figure. Franklin is also writing text, to be featured on the storefront window, laid out like illuminated manuscript with ornate motifs.

This painting by Tory Franklin will be reproduced in vinyl to form part of a multi-layered installation based on fairy tales.

Please note: images reflect works in progress, or past work (submitted with artists’ applications).

‘fly’ craft boutique coming soon

“Craft” means different things to different people. To Jennifer Adams, an artist, teacher, mom and creative entrepreneur, it encompasses everything from beauty, utility and re-use to irony and eclecticism. Later this month, Adams is opening fly, an indie craft boutique at a Spaceworks Tacoma location to be determined.

Fans of renegade craft, and all things DIY, may already know Adams from her popular craft fair, “Tacoma is for Lovers,” founded in 2008. “This opportunity with Spaceworks Tacoma will allow me to expand the limits of the one-day fair,” she explains.

Jennifer Adams is expanding her craft fair model with an experimental retail gallery opening soon. Photo: Virginia Bunker

While she is still confirming the roster of artists who will exhibit at fly, Adams says that several will be favorites from TIFL: boutonnieres and corsages by Laurie Cinotto, jewelry by Miranda Pollitz, overdyed vintage napkins by Jessica Bender, and embroidered patches from Shannon Eakins, to name just a few.

Adams promises an assortment of handmade craft that you won’t see anywhere else. Mostly locally made craft—but not always. “The big thing is uniqueness and quality: I’m going to be picky,” she says. “And I’ve been hoping to get a kids’ line going, so we’ll see about that.”

Laurie Cinotto, an artist who makes pins, bouttonieres and corsages out of ribbon, felt and spun cotton, will be among the featured artists at fly boutique. Photo: Laurie Cinotto

As opening day approaches Adams has a lot on her plate, but she seems to handle it all with humor and to enjoy the hectic pace. Running an experimental retail gallery may even give her a chance to sit down for a second. She’s planning a casual hang-out area with a couch and a table in the back of the space where she, and other artists who work at the store, can focus on ongoing projects and be productive.

A big smile crosses her face as she maps-out the vision: “I have all of these ideas that will move forward as soon as I get the keys and start setting up. I can’t wait.”

Pilot program launching soon

Photo: Virginia Bunker

Greetings! Welcome to our new blog, and to the launch of an exciting initiative called Spaceworks Tacoma. Applicants for the first phase of the program have been accepted. Stay tuned for updates on participating artists and their plans for activating vacant space with art and creative enterprise in downtown Tacoma.