Postcard show returns to SPSCC

The Weekly Volcano, Jan. 23, 2014

installation view

Once again the gallery at South Puget Sound Community College is filled with well over 200 artists’ postcards. This year the theme is “It’s the Water,” the old Olympia Beer slogan.

About a third of the show is made up of trite photos, watercolors, and other images of water, with quite of few of those depicting the Deschutes River or the waterfall at Tumwater Park — the very water that gave rise to the slogan.

Postcard by Susan Christian

Another third consists of clever joke images, many of which play on the theme, such as the photo of a line of urinals in a men’s restroom and the cartoon image of three pregnant women standing by a water cooler. The final third would be abstract art, about a third of which is very well done.

Postcard by Carol Hannum

It appears that everything entered was allowed in the show, but maybe not. The press release said 76 artists submitted nearly 300 pieces. I did not count them. Many of those 76 artists (I want to sing that to the tune of “76 Trombones”) are represented by three to five pieces. I counted 10 by Carol Hannum, an art teacher at SPSCC. They are all very nice pieces that look like colored wood cuts.

None of the works are identified by media.

Postcard by Joe Batt

Juanita Moody has five pieces with dramatic images in contrasting red, black and white. They have the powerful feel of poster art.

One card that I found to be particularly appealing for reasons I can’t begin to understand is one by Mark Holland that has a hand-drawn postmark partially covered by a 33-cent stamp with a picture of an apple. Glued onto it is a piece of paper with the words “I Love You.”

Devon Damonte’s pieces have the look of some kind of resist technique using wax crayons. They are strong images with lovely texture.

As a group, I think my favorites might be Susan Christian’s group of images of mountains painted on banded strips of wood. I love the soft, peachy orange color on the one labeled #2.

Another favorite is one by Joe Blatt that has a haunted looking pink face and other imagery that I could not quite make out. It was hung too high for short people like me to see the details.

Another of the more clever images is a landscape by Patrick Cavendish with a hillside by a body of water. Look closely. The hill is a face.

[South Puget Sound Community College, Kenneth J Minnaert Center for the Arts Gallery, Monday-Friday, noon-4 p.m. and by appointment, through Feb. 21, 2011 Mottman Rd. SW. Olympia, 360.596.5527.]