HI

SPECTACLE

IMAGINED DEVISING

You have an idea for a live show. No text, no pictures. Just an idea.

You need to learn how to express this idea.

Like an artist assembling a show in a gallery, you need to create single images, single objects in response to these ideas in your head. You can’t think about filling the whole room at once. It is important that you translate these thoughts into something physical – a sketch, a phrase, an installation, a game, an interaction, a piece of clothing. Make it simple.
Some of these single responses will work and some of them will not. You will develop a theme and variations. Maybe a narrative will unfold.

When you have enough images and objects you can start to fit it all together. Over time you can connect the dots. You work out a natural progression. The details. You can now imagine what kind of room these images and objects should go in, where they will be placed. Where should people stand to view them? How should they be illuminated? What is the dress code? What music will be playing? What snacks will be served?
Get to work. And don’t give up.

SEPTEMBER 3rd

August 27th

Squash, patty pans, zucchini, carrots, greens, torpedo onions, purple broccoli, eggplant, tomatoes, basil. Late summer is heavy on the nightshades.

FRIDAYS AT NAVARRE

AUGUST 20th


For the past year and a half I have worked the Friday day shift, when all the deliveries for the weekend come. The most exciting and volatile of these deliveries is from 47th Avenue Farms, our CSA. What we get is always a surprise, and we must figure out what to do with it all Quick. The shipments have been documented on the Navarre website by Giovanna, John and I, but I thoughts I'd share some more photos. I like Friday days because it is a little bit crazy and a mess but also special - come visit me, 11:00 - 4:30, you can always help pluck basil.

Thanks, Eloise.

LOUISE

At the beginning of the summer I was searching for

ways to express my ideas for Hansel and Gretel. I kept returning to images by Louise Bourgeois: the small enclosures, the cells, the rooms surrounded by fence. I began to imagine a small set, sort of like a puppet theater, that the two actors could manipulate themselves and alter as the story unfolded. Sometimes it might be like a house and sometimes it might be like a cage. Maybe there would be arms that extended from it with mirrors, with lights.

Last night I watched the Louise documentary The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine, picked up randomly at Movie Madness when I was returning the Valentino documentary. Although I wouldn’t call it a great film, it was wonderful to see her work and to listen to her discuss it, and there were some great scenes – notably a description of the titular tangerine, shots of the spider sculptures set to Laurie Anderson and Louise in a hot pink fur coat and a sparkly baseball cap.

The Candy House of the witch, perhaps?

I was most struck by how the narrative of her work fit with my intended use of her imagery. I was unfamiliar with her biography. Overarching themes of abandonment, of physical pain, betrayal, destruction of the parental figures, seclusion… I believe it is meant to be.

GENE

This is my favorite stand at the Saturday Farmer's Market. So carefully arranged, each mushroom like a precious gem.
Gene and his son Patrick are farmers in Joseph, Oregon - about six hours away to the east. They drive out every Friday in their van and make deliveries to restaurants, spend the night, Gene works the market on Saturdays and Patrick continues deliveries until they drive back that night. Every single week.
They only grow to sell potatoes, carrots and beets, but they forage for mushrooms and have a secret wild plum supply. Those little plums, like small jewels, are very tart yet make excellent galettes if you add enough sugar. At Navarre we make jam and pies with them. Gene will tell you the best thing for those mushrooms is to catch some trout (like he does) and saute the mushrooms in the pan with the fish. Indeed.

GOOD HERB

Fontanelle Gallery is lucky to host the first solo show of the talented and prolific Jess Hirsch, whose work I am lucky to have a career-spanning collection of in my apartment... full disclosure, we're friends. Her personal fight for physical wellness and resulting explorations into the world of alternative treatment - historical, mythical, homeopathic and otherwise - are documented and mused upon in the thoughtful, whimsical and totally covetable drawings, sculptures and art objects that amass Good Herb, running for the month of October. Coinciding with this show is her launch of the Portland Healing Project with Mariah Maines, a community resource for alternative healthcare information, which will feature a workshop at Fontanelle on October 17th. The show is so good that these are the rejects:


P.S. Bring money for a dimebag...