Black is on fire

Visual Edge: jennifer combe brightens the black front gallery

published in the Weekly Volcano March 29, 2007

pictured "Pink Corner" by Jennifer Combe

Jennifer Combe's paintings at The Black Front Gallery are ablaze with color.

Anyone who has studied basic color theory knows that temperature is a primary element of color. Blues and greens are cool; reds, yellows and oranges are hot 3/4 all due to associations. For instance, we associate red with fire, and blue with water to put out the fire. It would take a lot of water to put out the fire in these paintings by Combe. Even her blues and greens look hot.

Combe works in series. If you look at her Web site (www.jkcombe.com), you will see a series of paintings of animals, a series of paintings of small squares, and yet another of flower paintings. In this show, she presents a series of paintings of flowers. They're not the same flowers shown on her Web site. They are better. They are abstract and barely recognizable as flowers, consisting of groups of large circular forms that look like roses and clumps of different circular forms that look like snapdragons, all in fiery tones of red, yellow and orange on a background of loosely brushed square and rectangular shapes in a variety of blue and green colors dominated by a hot yellow-green.

It doesn't matter that the subject matter is flowers. In fact, the less they look like flowers, the better the paintings are. That's because Combe's real subject is color and surface, and the more these pictures look like flowers the more distracted the viewer is from the real subject.

The best painting in the show, by far, is a large painting called "Big Red Composition." The flower motif in this painting is almost nonexistent. It is painted on two panels and is approximately 5 square feet. The paint application is gutsy, raw, sloppy, and painterly with great depths of overlapping transparent brush marks. The dominant color is red. This painting is on fire.

Next to "Big Red Composition," I think the best painting in the show is "Blue," a painting that is very stingy with the title color. To the left is a stack of circles in various tones of red and red-orange. And to the right is a big red rose petal with scratched lines in the center. These forms rest on loosely brushed, chartreuse squares and rectangles. The flower stems are streaks of baby blue. I suspect this painting may have greater public appeal than "Big Red" because it is more decorative and more easily recognizable as a flower, which is, of course, why I like the other one better.

It takes only nine paintings to fill the tiny space to capacity. There are four large paintings, approximately 5-by-5 feet; three smaller paintings, about 3 square feet; and one odd rectangular painting. All utilize similar forms and colors. The larger paintings are much stronger than the smaller ones, allowing the hot, hot colors to breathe more and allowing for much greater depth and variety of surface markings. The smaller ones tend toward the overly decorative look of flowers painted on cheap ceramic plates 3/4 saved only by Combe's excellent manipulation of color and surface. She displays a sophisticated grasp not only of color temperature, but also of the tricky use of value keying 3/4 meaning keying all colors to a narrow range of dark and light 3/4 and an equally sophisticated understanding of how to handle varying degrees of opacity and transparency.

Take note: If you read this column on the day this fine rag hits the streets, you have only two more days to hurry down to The Black Front Gallery and see this show.

Showing in the adjacent "Black Front Boutique" are paintings, sculptures and various arts and crafts items by gallery artists Ann Ploeger, Bethany Hays, Comrade Clothing, Diane Kurzyna, Jenny Macc, Koko Jamison, Mary Cecelia Sieling, Molly Wolfe, Patrick Amarillas, Susan Shafroth, Susan Christian, Taryn Hammer, and Combe.

[The Black Front Gallery, through March 31 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., 106 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, www.theblackfrontgallery. com]

My Name is Rachel Corrie

Yesterday we saw a matinee performance of “My Name is Rachel Corrie” at the Seattle Repertory Theater. The one-woman play starring Marya Sea Kaminski is a look at the life of Corrie, a young woman from Olympia who was killed by a bulldozer in the town of Rafah in the Gaza strip while trying to trying to prevent a Palestinian home from being destroyed.

This is more than just a political play. It is a glimpse into the heart of an idealistic young woman of talent and vision. Corrie was an aspiring artist and writer who went to Palestine because of her commitment to peace and her compassion for the Palestinian people. Taken from her own writings in journals and emails, the play presents Corrie, in her own words, as a young girl, as a student, and as an activist.

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” was the winner of the Theatergoer’s Choice Award in London, where The Guardian wrote: “Theatre can't change the world. But what it can do, when it's as good as this, is to send us out enriched by other people's passionate concern ... you feel you have not just had a night at the theatre: you have encountered an extraordinary woman.”

The play was co-edited for the stage by director Alan Rickman, best known for his roles in the Harry Potter series of films and New York stage productions of “Les Liasons Dangereuses” and “Private Lives,” and Katharine Viner, features editor of The Guardian newspaper in London.

The production opened at London’s Royal Court Theater to critical acclaim in 2005. More recently it was scheduled to open last March at the New York Theatre Workshop, but six weeks before opening night the theater announced it was indefinitely postponing production. They cited the current political climate as the reason for the cancellation. The production was later moved to New York’s Mineta Lane Theatre where it completed an 11-week run.

The play is 90 minutes long with no intermission. It runs through April 22. Ticket prices range from $15 to $48. For tickets or more information, call the box office at 206-443-2222 or go to the Seattle Rep Website.

After the play’s run at the Rep it will come to Olympia for performances April 27 and 28 at 8 p.m. and April 28 and 29 at 2 p.m. as part of the Evergreen Expressions Visiting Artist program. Tickets are $30 for general admission and $20 for seniors and students. They will go on sale at noon on April 2 at Rainy Day Records, The Evergreen College bookstore, online at BuyOlympia.com, the Communications Building box office, open from 12 to 3 p.m. daily, or by placing a phone order at 360-876-6833. A special preview performance will also be presented free of charge to Evergreen students. There is a $1.25 parking fee Friday only.

“We are very excited about bringing this professional production to Olympia, but also presenting it where Rachel’s story began,” said John Robbins, Performing and Media Arts Manager and producer of Evergreen Expressions. “In many ways she represents the quintessential Evergreen.

Ain't Misbehavin'

There are two fabulous shows running in Olympia right now -- Capital Playhouse’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Harlequin Productions’ “The Ladies of the Camillias.” I reviewed “Ladies” in my weekly column in The News Tribune (published March 23 and posted on this blog -- see below), but I was unable to review “Ain’t Misbehavin’.”

That’s a shame, because it is great. So great, in fact, that you should stop reading right now and call the theater for tickets before they sell out (360-943-2744).

Surely everyone is familiar with the music; many of you may have seen it at Tacoma Little Theatre last year; and if you’re like me, you might even recall excerpts from the Broadway musical that aired on TV way back in 1978. If you're really lucky, you saw it on Broadway. But believe-you-me, you’ve never seen it quite like this. Capital Playhouse has pulled together the perfect cast, set and orchestra -- featuring the one and only Troy Arnold Fisher playing all those great Fats Waller tunes on an upright piano.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’” celebrates the life and times of Waller and beautifully recreates stylized versions of the Harlem night life beginning in the late 1920s.

Starring are Geoffrey Simmons, Troy Scarborough, Marlette Buchanan, Antonia Darlene and Marisa Kennedy. They are all wonderful singers and dancers whose outlandishly comical gestures and expressions make this show much more than just great music. Readers may recall that I picked Simmons as Best Actor in a Musical in my Critic’s Choice column last year for the same role in the TLT production. You may also remember him from Harlequin’s “The Twelfth Night of Stardust.” Darlene was also in “Stardust.” Scarborough is a professional actor from New York who appeared in Olympia in the national tour of “The Full Monty.”

Simmons brings the house down on “The Viper,” aka the reefer song. He slithers, he slides, his tongue grows to enormous proportions as he dreams about “a reefer five feet long.” Scarborough’s mouth seems to stretch from chin to forehead and his eyes roll up to heaven on the rockin’ comic tune “Your Feet’s Too Big.” All three of the women are good singers. Both Kennedy and Darlene have powerful voices and great range. Buchanan is more of a classical jazz lounge singer whose voice lends itself to sultry ballads.

The Capital Playhouse is a small space with an intimate feel. The set evokes a jazz era nightclub with an archway in the form of piano keys. In a cabaret setting such as this you feel like you're right there with the performers sharing a drink or a piano stool. Both the orchestra and the separate piano are on rolling platforms, an innovation that enhances the feeling of being right in the action. I guarantee you'll be humming these wonderful tunes for days to come.

Performances continue Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 PM through April 7. Matinee performances are scheduled on March 25, and April 1. Tickets range in price from $21 to $31. Groups rates are available.

For tickets or information, contact the box office at 360-943-2744. Box office hours are Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Pictured above, left to right: Marlette Buchanan, Troy Scarborogh, Antonia Darlene, Geoffrey Simmons and Marisa Kennedy; photo by Glen Raiha.

Laughs abound with ‘The Ladies’

Published in The News Tribune, March 23, 2007

Theater at its best can be a transcendental exper­ience that lifts you out of your everyday existence and into a magical place where you see more clearly, think more vividly and feel more fully. That is the underlying theme of Harlequin Productions’ latest show, “The Ladies of the Camellias.”

I can’t imagine how anyone can see this wonderful play and not experience at least a moment of that transcendental magic. Plus, it will make you laugh uproariously.

“Ladies” is a period comedy written by Lillian Groag based on actual events that took place in Sarah Bernhardt’s Theatre de la Renaissance in Paris in 1897. At the time, both Bernhardt and her archrival, the Italian actress Eleonora Duse, were superstars. Each was famous for her portrayal of Marguerite in Alexandre Dumas’ “La Dame aux Camellias.” As unbelievable as it may seem, the two divas had the same agent, and Bernhardt agreed to let Duse perform in Dumas’ play in her theater. The two were going to play the same role in the same theater on two consecutive days. They were in the theater together, along with Dumas, who was frustrated by both divas because they refused to play their parts as he wrote them. (Duse argues, “You only wrote her. I invented her.”)

Until this point Groag’s play is historically accurate, but here Groag’s imagination kicks in to invent what she calls a divertissement – a wild flight into absurd comedy mixed with heady philosophical arguments on the relationship between art and politics. This divertissement arrives at the theater in the person of Ivan, a Russian anarchist with a gun and a bomb who threatens to blow up the theater unless two of his fellow rebels are released from the Paris jail.

This poor, discombobulated anarchist doesn’t understand or appreciate these theater people who seem to live in a make-believe world where guns and bombs are mere theatrical props, and where the desperate anarchist’s threats amount to little more than bad acting. But there’s much more to it than that: Ivan the anarchist, it turns out, is not who he seems to be. But that is a plot twist I shall not give away.

Director and set designer Linda Whitney, her technical crew and her entire cast do a wonderful job with this complicated and demanding show. The interior of the State Theater is transformed into a believably ornate turn-of-the-century theater. Bernhardt’s and Duse’s costumes are gorgeous. The lighting (Nat Rayman) and sound (Gina Salerno) are impeccable. And seldom if ever in the South Sound area have I seen so many top-notch professional actors on a single stage.

Becky Wood, in her Harlequin debut, plays Sarah Bernhardt as regal and imperious – but believably gracious despite her self-absorption. And Mari Nelson – who has performed on Broadway in “Six Degrees of Separation” and “Guys and Dolls” and in the New York Shakespeare Festival in “Twelfth Night” and is well known to Harlequin audiences for her roles in “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” “The Constant Wife,” the “Stardust” series and other productions – is a commanding presence on stage as the beautiful but aloof Eleonora Duse. Both actresses make their characters lovable despite their haughty eccentricities. Through them, we see why Bernhardt and Duse were so loved throughout the world.

Harlequin veterans Russ Holm and Brian Claudio Smith are hilariously physical as the competing male actors Gustave-Hippolyte Worms (Holm) and Flavio Ando (Smith). These two would definitely steal the show if the other actors on stage were not so good. Smith, in particular, does pratfalls that I would not have believed humanly possible if I hadn’t seen them.

Jason Haws is perfectly cast as Ivan the anarchist, and Amy Hill is sweet and sassy as the young actress Gabrielle Réjane.

Mark Bujeaud’s athleticism is quite impressive as he swings in on a rope as Benoit Constant Coquelin playing the part of Cyrano de Bergerac; Steve Manning plays a blustery and indignant Alexander Dumas, fils; and Phillip Mitchell holds everything in check as Benoit, the only calm presence in the play.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through March 31
WHERE: State Theatre, 202 E. Fourth Ave., Olympia
TICKETS: $12-$33; rush tickets available half-hour before curtain
INFORMATION: 360-786-0151

Glass eye

Jeremy Lepisto's kiln-formed glass

Published in the Weekly Volcano March 22, 2007

pictured: "Clearing the Way," kiln fired glass

I could criticize Jeremy Lepisto's kiln-formed glass blocks at William Traver Gallery for being gimmicky, but I won't. They're gimmicky in the way of snow globes and flies in plastic ice cubes and other such curios sold in gift shops. I can even envision them a few years from now being mass-produced and sold at Target. But they are not mass-produced. They are individually and exquisitely crafted with an artist's sensitivity to light and space.

Lepisto forms his glass blocks by fusing anywhere from 10 to 16 thin sheets of glass in a kiln. Parts of images are rendered on each layer in a process that can best be described as printing with enamel on glass. For example, he may print contour lines on one sheet of glass and shadows on another. Various elements of a scene - stars, clouds, figures, buildings, telephone poles - are printed on separate layers. When fused together, the result is a constructed illusion of depth that walks a fine line between artistic inventiveness and optical trickery.Lepisto spreads the various parts of his scenes across a series of blocks that he puts together in various configurations. Typically they are connected in a long horizontal line, but in one called "The Stories" they are stacked vertically, and in one called "A Bit of Clarity" (one of my favorites) eight blocks are stacked together in a square. The image in "Clarity" is an urban scene with industrial buildings, one with a water tower on the roof. Seven of the eight blocks are a smoky gray, but right in the middle is a block of clear glass - the bit of clarity from the title - with an image of a single window. Very effective.

Most of Lepisto's scenes depict warehouse or industrial districts of small cities. Some are more rural. Buildings, railroad cars and light poles being strung across the countryside are common. Some are historical illustration showing how things used to be. People play a small role in these scenes. Most of his streets and buildings are empty. A haunting sense of loneliness abides. In one piece there are scenes of loggers at work printed in cloudy blocks of glass on wheels that are connected to create a long train with scenes painted on the side of boxcars. I like this piece despite it being the most blatantly commercial piece in the show. And I love the coincidence that a train track can be seen through the windows behind it and that trains on that track, so I'm told, pass within a few yards of Lepisto's studio in Portland. Talk about serendipity-doo!

A different group of works consist of four wall pieces Lepisto calls "sliders." Each is a two-part picture connected by a bar with a sliding figure on it. Viewers are invited to slide the bars to create different configurations. One of the most intriguing of these is called "Toward a Greater Union." It shows two cities, each on an island. On the slider bar that connects them is a picture of a bridge. Viewers can slide the bridge to connect or disconnect the two cities. Cleaver, huh?

Conceptually, these works may wear thin in a great big hurry, but visually they keep yielding new treasures the longer one looks at them. Lepisto's use of space is excellent, not only in his use of illusory depth, but in his sensitivity to interspersing space between images. He also shows a good feeling for combining line and mass and an intelligent use of positive and negative shapes. Especially interesting are his use of white cast shadows or negative contours. Viewers should take their time and study these pieces carefully. Study them from all sides and play close attention to cast shadows and reflections, some of which are drawn into the images and some of which occur naturally in the gallery setting.

Lepisto's work is full of visual surprises that reveal themselves only upon careful scrutiny. I think they definitely deserve that careful scrutiny.

[William Traver Gallery, "Jeremy Lepisto: A Place In Between," through April 8 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, 1821 E. Dock St., Tacoma, 253.383.3685, www.travergallery.com]

More opening photos

I forgot to bring a camera to the opening of my show at South Puget Sound Community College. Luckily, others did bring a camera. These shots are courtesy of Catherine Swanson and her husband, David Goldberg, owners Art on Center Gallery in Tacoma.

Jason Seiling from Black Front Gallery, left, talking to me; my son Noel, far right. In the background are actor and director Pug Bujeaud with Cassie Welliver, manager of the Fine Arts Center at SPSCC.

I think this is painter Bill Fleming sitting with me. I met him at the opening, I'm not sure if I remember his name correctly. If I'm wrong, somebody please correct me.

Artists June Kerseg-Hinson, Catherine, and Ron Hinson.

June being playful.

Photos from my latest exhibition

The installation shots (above) of my exhibition at the gallery at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia were sent to me by Jane Stone, head of the art department at SPSCC. Thanks, Jane. She included a number of shots of individual paintings but of those I am posting only one, "Window Bill" (see below). Each of the other paintings are posted on my website.

The exhibition continues until March 31, so if you haven't seen it yet, please do.

"Window Bill" and the golden mean

It was Christmas morning, the winter of '88, our first year in Olympia. It had snowed the night before. The boys got up early. We were waiting for our friend Catherine to arrive before opening the Christmas presents. Our youngest son, Bill, started wiping the condensation off the window in a sweeping motion as if his hand and arm were a large windshield wiper. Gabi grabbed her video camera and filmed him, and later she used that footage in her senior project film at The Evergreen State College. She titled the film "Window Bill." It combined live action and animation.

images from Gabi's film "Window Bill"

Years later, I was invited to participate in an art exhibition based on the idea of the golden mean, a formula for proportions the classical Greeks considered the ideal. I think it was the only time in my life I ever painted a picture specifically for a show. I drew a grid on the canvas based on the golden mean and painted to the grid. The final result reminded me of the windshield-wiper motion of Gabi's film -- thus the title.

"Window Bill" oil on canvas by Alec Clayton