On Tuesday, Nov 19, 2024, at 11.30 a.m. Joseph Gallivan interviews two artists, Tom Cramer and Paige Wright.
Cramer talks about his show at Augen Gallery called “Super Planet and other new wood reliefs”
which closes on November 30.
Wright talks about her show at Chefas Projects called “Swimming with a Melting Crown” which also ends November 30.
Both artists talk about their approach to three-dimensional art, their use of color and their technique.
This edition of Art Focus was recorded on an iPhone 14 on Nov 13 and 14, and edited by Joseph Gallivan.
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From the press releases:
Tom Cramer
https://www.augengallery.com/exhibitions/
My current work emerged in the later 1990s and is an attempt to merge painting and relief woodcarving. The labor intensive aspect of the recent work is intended to be consistent with their content. I am therefore especially influenced by recent trips to India, Egypt, and Europe. I am attempting to avoid the facile, faddish, and superficial aspects of current American art and culture. I would like to think that the wiser and older cultures to which I fortunately have been exposed have helped me towards the more timeless goals of what all art should be about: An art driven by emotional content.
I prefer my work to be experienced rather than explained. Be that as it may, I like Picasso's statement that art is what nature is not. My work attempts to deal with what is not. What is, bores me. What is not is where it's at for me. Therefore, I am interested in sincerity, not irony. My work is strictly apolitical and idealistic. Instead of viewing such a position as an escape from reality, I view it as an exploration of the infinite nature of reality, or to put it into more prosaic terms, my recent work tends towards purely aesthetic, erotic, idealistic considerations. The idea of the picture as a door to a higher state of consciousness appeals to me. Towards that end, my work has numerous visual, cultural, and literary influences. Influences on my work include: everything, nothing, Buddhism, romanticism, irrational mental states, insanity, order, chaos, music, East Indian art, organic patterns, industrial forms, Hinduism, randomness, things with no apparent reason, Alan Watts, Nietzsche, Blake, Beethoven, Bach, Klaus Shultze and others. I prefer the work to be about the work, and not about me. One of my goals is to turn the viewer on to an expanded view of themselves.
Paige Wright:
https://www.stephaniechefas.com/paige-wright-swimming-with-a-melting-crown
Chefas Projects is delighted to present Swimming with a Melting Crown, the second solo exhibition by ceramicist Paige Wright. With her latest collection of sculptures, Wright weaves together themes of fluidity and transformation, exploring both the metamorphosis of ceramic glazes and the limitless possibilities of human expression through decoration.
For Wright, the concept of melting represents a liminal space where change occurs, revealing beauty in the ephemeral. Under the kiln's intense heat, the powdered minerals in glazes transition from dull solids to molten liquids, ultimately becoming radiant adornments.This alchemical process dependent on the melting point reveals the essence of ceramics: an embrace of experimentation, science, and play, from which Wright takes great inspiration. As a result, rarely do two glazes come out the same– the material requires an embrace of uniqueness. Wright likens this to the human face, applying vibrant and textured glazes to her portraits to amplify and celebrate individuality.
Wright’s glazes are not meant to mimic the natural world, instead she uses it to perform a very human tendency – a tendency to decorate and adorn. She views this impulse not only as ancient as ego, but also as rooted deeply in an ongoing desire for knowledge of self. Equally inspired by the power of drag makeup, stripes of rich color and washes of lush texture both highlight and contrast features of the face.
Swimming with a Melting Crown invites viewers to consider how identity, adornment, and beauty intertwined in our shared human experience.
Paige Wright (b. 1982) is an artist who primarily works in clay. Known for her expressive faces and versatile building techniques, she conducts workshops, lectures and exhibits around the country. She received her Bachelors in Fine Arts from The University of Montana in Missoula in 2006, as well as receiving her Masters in Fine Arts with emphasis in ceramics from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio in 2012.
Paige was brought back to her hometown of Portland, Oregon in 2013 to help start and run the vessel design and production house Mazama Wares. She has held positions at Ohio University, Grand Valley State University, The Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, Clark College, Radius Art Center, Idyllwild Arts Academy and Pratt and Larson Tile.
Chefas Projects is located in Portland, Oregon, at 134 SE Taylor Street on the first floor of the Taylor Works building.
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Art Focus on K-B-O-O Portland is the show where artists talk about their work.
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Joseph Gallivan has been a reporter since 1990. He has covered music for the London Independent, Technology for the New York Post, and arts and culture for the Portland Tribune and for Axios Portland. He is the author of two novels, "Oi, Ref!" and "England All Over" which are available on Amazon.com
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