Garden

Artists:

Dale DeGabriele, David Fishman, Janci Mannington, Chris Maynard, Patri O’Connor

In the gallery from April 23rd – June 8th, ArtsWest presents Garden, which features artists David Fishman, Chris Maynard, Patri O’Connor, Janci Mannington, and Dale DeGabriele. The reception is in conjunction with the West Seattle ArtWalk on Thursday May 9th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. The reception will include an artist talk, where each artist in the show will speak briefly about their work and visitors will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in conversation.

David Fishman creates hyper-detailed photographs of plants that reveal them as monumental, intricately populated worlds of their own. He uses digital photography processes to accentuate his subjects or sometimes to carry them into another world. Space Buds began with his observation that Mayapple buds emerging in Spring look alien-like. He writes: “I thought it would be appropriate to place them on an alien planet and space scene which I created digitally.”

Chris Maynard’s shadowboxes are based, literally and conceptually, on feathers. Using surgical tools and magnifying glasses, he makes detailed cuts in naturally shed feathers to tell the story of the birds they came from as well as new narratives of light and shadows, negative and positive space.

On view in the Alternative Media Platform, Patri O’Connor’s animated video was based on her paintings of local places, many in West Seattle. She writes: “I would love if people would look at my paintings and make up their own stories, and maybe they do, but for this time it’s my turn.”

Janci Mannington’s paintings of flowers pay homage to Georgia O’Keefe with their grand scale, dramatic color, and compositions that are as much about the abstract space around the subject as the subject itself.  She writes: “I enjoy translating an image in my own language, finding shapes in form and shadow and then exaggerating them.”

Pairing recycled manmade materials with natural materials, Dale DeGabriele makes assemblages that he then photographs. Flowers and egg shells tell a visually surprising story when placed purposefully next to discarded industrial parts. He writes: “By combining these found elements, I attempted to create that balance of ‘hard-edge vs. delicate’ and also to form the relationship that man’s influence has had on our environment.”