Ways of Seeing Installation
David Ubias
Double-Jointed Doves
Paper Pulp Paint on Canvas
2019
Artist Statement: This piece explores the importance of hand stencils found in parietal art as a precursor to figurative representation. Images found on cave walls compress time over a multitude of generations and encapsulate the creative developments of early humans. Double-Jointed Doves is distillation of these unassuming yet significant techniques developed throughout art history. It is also an homage to this enduring form of representation that spans from Paleolithic humans to Hollywood glitterati.
Description: Double-Jointed Doves is a 48” square format painting comprised of paper pulp “dyed” with acrylic paint on panel. The highly durable and textured surface alludes to low relief carving. It invites viewers to touch the imprints and place their hands in the outlines of the image. Highly stylized doves are drawn from hand imprints depicted in gray monochrome. The size of each bird is a tactile representation of the value changes in gray scale.
George Wurtzel
White Ash Burl Bowl with Bark On
White Ash Wood
Fern Stand/Lamp Table with Maple Wood Lamp
Wood, Glass and Lamp Parts
Oak Burl Bowl
Wood from rare Dire Oak Burl from Oregon
Oak Footed Box with Tray
Box made with quarter sawn white oak with flat sawn lid, tray insert and box joint corners
Oak Burl Bud Vase Burl with Bark and Lichen
All work: 2019
Artist Statement: When asked to be in an exhibition that would be accessible via multiple senses, George Wurtzel said “that is what I do”. The pieces included in this exhibition are an assortment of wooden objects that were created so that the grain of the wood could still be felt. The tactile nature of the pieces made them perfect for the exhibition. In some the texture is felt by leaving the bark, in others through sanding along the grain. The White Ash Burl Bowl with Bark On is one of the larges burl’s George has ever encountered. The Fern Stand/Lamp Table is part of his Craftsman-style furniture fits together like a puzzle and need no screws, wood fasteners, or glue. The precision workmanship and attention to detail makes it easy to disassemble and move when you do.
Description: The White Ash Burl Bowl with Bark On is a Bowl was created from an oak burl with bark texture and areas sanded smooth. The Fern Stand/Lamp Table with Maple Wood Lamp is made with interlocking wooden panels create a four legged table with a central support and glass table top. The burl lamp is a maple wood burl that contains a lamp fixture with glass lamp shade. The Oak Burl Bowl is made from rare Dire Oak Burl from Oregon. The Oak Footed Box with Tray is made with quarter sawn white oak with flat sawn lid, tray insert and box joint corners. The Oak Burl Bud Vase is created from a burl with bark and lichen.
Michael A. Williams
Spectrum
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
Transition
Acrylic Paint on Canvas 2019
2019
Artist Statement: Spectrum was created as part of the “Home Sweet Home” series and as a way of reflecting the importance of having your own place to come to after a long day at the office or dealing with other forms of stressful events. The painting was created in an evening setting where one can absorb the inviting setting of just getting inside and relax.
Transition was created out of imagination. I have the tendency to often paint whatever I see that seem to show up as a complete scenery in my mind. The process is a very intense remote viewing type of creativity where I am able to see and feel my surroundings. I am able to capture the pure essence of the scenery whether it’s peaceful or sometimes chaotic.
Description: Spectrum shows a red house in the evening. Lights reflect in the windows and the house is surrounded by trees. Light shines on the ground and there are clouds in the sky.
Transition is an image of a clipper ship approaching the viewer alongside a smaller cruise ship, moving away from a seaside town with red buildings rising in the foot of a mountain range. Yellow light pours from the light house.
Sallah Jenkins and Marguerite Woods
Allowing the Light Through
Ceramics and Mixed Media
2019
Artist Statement: Intense focus on a physical eye reflecting a state of “dis-ease”. And gradually giving way (turning cheek) to deliberately focusing on more satisfying reflections. Becoming aware, choosing and placing your focus on the things that lift your present mood, allowing the light in- A state of Well-Being! Finding out, that the improved “state of being“is asking to be expressed creatively. Thus, this collaboration of love has been created and is called: Allowing the Light Through. We chose this piece because it represents a tactile expression of our physical as well as non-physical journey to expanded clarity. While our work reflects my experience, going from physical sight to blindness, then finally choosing to align with the older wiser part of my being-I like to call my intuition.We have first hand knowledge of and agree, the journey to choosing expansion can be the bounce off from a variety of contrasting experiences. The main point is most definitely choosing to align with that higher frequency, whatever we might call it!
Description: Emerging from the “cracked eye” is the “Inner eye“ which is painted yellow. On either side are ceramic sculptures that have been “channelled”, the artists’ way of letting their spirits guide their hands. Between the eye and the channeling is two sets of creative hands: decorative extensions. One set of hands is turquoise and the second set of hands is orange. At the top and the bottom are two white canes. On the bottom cane the phrases: Love Amaze Inspire and Dream Dare Create.
Luanne Burke
Where I Live
Ceramics and mixed media
2019
Artist Statement: I have chosen to make the birds that sing in the spring where I live. Each spring the birds return, build their nests and mark their territory with song, calling their mates. Many birds mate for life. I am amazed at all their hard work protecting their eggs and then feeding their baby chicks. The Meadowlark is my favorite birdsong. It often calls from high trees or telephone poles, though it nests on the grasslands. When I run up the trails in the early morning, the meadowlarks call around us. It is an exceptionally joyful sound. It brings back many memories of childhood. I am always delighted by its song. These birds are a daily part of my life. They instill hope and anticipation as spring unfolds. One of the interesting things about birdsongs, quite often the birds with the most beautiful sounds are quite plain. The Meadowlark is dark brown with a bit of camouflage back and a yellow breast with a dark necktie. Having been a sighted person at one time, I was very stimulated by the visual world. I loved fashion, and maybe even more, fashion magazines, which embodied many forms of art in their creation, from photography, to fabric design to makeup hair, and human ideals of beauty. I still see in color in my mind, but I have become more attuned to what people are saying, and how they are saying it. With no visual cues, it can really ‘cut to the chase’, so to speak. In nature, or at least the bird world, the birds that have the most beautiful sounds, are most often, visually quite plain.
Description: The work is made of high fired clay and feathers. One sculpture is of a meadowlark with an audio component that plays when you touch the right location. The second is a mallard duck.
Dominic Terlizzi
Smudge Wall
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas
2019
Artist Statement: Smudge Wall is a painting created by leaving the negative space from items like crackers, bread, cookies, chips, etc. The imagery is reminiscent of Dominic Terlizzi’s other series, which utilizes the positive shapes of these consumables in acrylic mosaics. For this piece to be experienced through multiple senses, Terlizzi uses his usual style but adds a human element. Viewers are invited to help themselves to bags of snacks, which were used to create the painting, and then touch the work. The interaction between the audience and the painting will leave traces on the surface that will transform the work over the course of the exhibition.
Description: Acrylic painting created with crackers, bread, cookies, chips that is surrounded by bags of these items as a frame.
Jenny Callahan
All Dots Are Not Created Equal
Mixed Media
Sign of Love
Mixed Media
2019
Artist Statement: All Dots Are Not Created Equal is both a personal project and a community project. I chose this topic based on numerous conversations with Blind students who are trying to get adequate access to materials that would otherwise be printed in print. Something that happens is instructors don’t know braille so they assume that anything they give a student with dots that resembles braille is the correct representation of what they are distributing in print. A graduate student received her chemistry test in braille, but the numbers were written in a French braille system known as Antoine, which she had never before been exposed to. That’s why the center panel is written partially in French to represent what an English braille student was actually given as a realistic expectation that she not only know chemistry, but that she also know French. Another issue with accessibility and tactile literacy is the fact that many students have to decipher first what the author thinks they’re putting on the paper rather than the information that is actually there. In the community project panels that will be completed in a public workshop, participants will create their own mural by making tactile graffiti. They will investigate different uses of art and tactile graphics that impact blind students’ ability to get adequate access to information.
The reason I chose to include Sign of Love in this exhibit is because it represents the way I feel right now. I was texting my fiance using different emoji‘s, which included the “I love you sign” in sign language. I like that this sign is in a language that I cannot see, but could if I converted it into a tactile piece of art. I made tactile eyes on the fingertips to represent how blind people use the sense of touch to see the world. I think this piece is very symbolic of how as a blind person I may not know exactly what a picture looks like or what something is, but I still can use it to communicate my personality and understand other people. I had to ask someone who could see what this emoticon actually looked like. I had used it several times without even thinking about whether it was a hand or two hands or was it just one stagnant thing or some kind of stop motion diagram. When I understood what “I love you” actually looks like in sign language I thought it was a perfect example of how I’m feeling at this moment and how we use different senses to communicate and understand each other.
Description: All Dots Are Not Created Equal includes three panels. The side panels are created by community artists using various types of tactile graffiti. The center panel says in capital letters “deux mille sept cent cinquante trois k”. The bottom corner in much smaller print shows a large N with small numerals “2753 Calvin”. Sodium‘s abbreviation is N and it’s boiling point is 2753 K which was discovered by a blind scientist. 2753 is actually the critical point of sodium which means it’s the point where you cannot distinguish between gas and liquid. This was discovered by the blind chemist sir Humphrey Davy.
Sign of Love is a tactile sculpture of a hand making the “I love you” sign in American sign language. The fingertips have eyes to represent how a blind person uses a sense of touch to see the world. The bracelet is a tactile representation of Morse code where letters are represented by dots and/or dashes.
Cindy Cheng and Del Hardin Hoyle
Exquisite Corpse
Mixed Media Installation
2019
Artist Statement: Visual artists rarely get a chance to develop work while thinking about visually impaired audiences. We take sight as a given and vision is the access point for the work’s substance. Work is looked at, appreciated from a distance, one’s hands in the pockets or clasped politely in front or behind the body. This project aims to be both looked at and touched. Textures, sounds, interaction, feel, contemplation, exploration are all elements at play. The form and materials reference the designed domestic and exists as a playful terrain. As a person moves across the surface and around forms, they may access different moods and different levels of intimacy with the sculpture. As visual artists, the aesthetic is always important, but with this work we aim to draw people in through multiple sensory engagements; and through this we hope to seed moments of surprise and discovery.
Description: An exquisite corpse of connected parts from both artists. The structure is influenced by lived spaces, architecture and furniture. A continuous collage of material textures and interactivities clothing to run your fingers across, plants wired to synthesizers trigger on contact, feel through the streets of a scaleless architecture models, Cantonese opera songs playing just loud enough to jar you out of a reverie. We hope the work is a surprising auditory and tactile experience.
