Current Show
The Art of Communication – 100 Artist Show
February 1-March 3rd
Artist Reception: February 1, 5-7pm
This year’s 100 Artists theme was inspired by a First Day Cover stamp art collection found by gallery owner Mary Lou Zeek at an estate sale. All of the 1960’s first day of issue postage envelopes were addressed to Dennis Rowley of Snowflake, Arizona, with special artwork printed on the envelopes and an old school font style that only a ribbon-style manual typewriter could produce. This ephemeral collection conjured up ideas of pen pals and hand-written letters… a correspondence style that now seems a rare luxury in this modern day of email and short message texting.
With theme in mind and envelopes in hand, Mary Lou divided the 100 artists into pairs. She assembled a packet of instructions along with an envelope from Rowley’s collection for each artist. The artists were given the name of their correspondence partner and asked to use the blank sheet of paper included in a Rowley envelope to create a correspondence piece to mail to their assigned art pal. The message could be a letter, a poem, a drawing. Whatever the artist chose to do was fine as long as it was done by hand.
But the instructions didn’t end there. After creating their correspondence, artists were asked to mail it along with the Rowley envelope to their show partner. In return, their show partner would do the same for them. Then, in creating show artwork artists were asked to use correspondence that arrived in their mailbox as inspiration. To sum it up, artists were given a two-fold assignment this year:
1. Create a hand-written message and send it to the assigned art show pen pal.
2. Then use the correspondence received from their art show pen pal as a catalyst for creating their piece of artwork.
We invite you to spend as much time as you like viewing this show and it’s many layers. The artwork is displayed by names, and correspondence between the two artists is available upon request. We encourage you to become a part of the art of communication by writing down or sketching your thoughts and impressions of a particular piece of correspondence, the artwork created or the idea of communication in general. While visiting the gallery online or in person, we encourage you to “write” to one or more of our artists. Send or give us your letter and we’ll happily pass it along to them. We like the idea of written communication going full circle.
As is the tradition with each February 100 Artists show, proceeds generated from silent auction sales will benefit a worthy project. This year we will use funds to create Art of Communication activity kits for loan to teachers, after school clubs and home school programs, and perhaps even senior centers. Just think of the creative possibilities that an art pen pal activity can provide for all ages and skill levels and the interesting conversations it can provoke! Where would history be without the hand-written correspondence between John and Abigail Adams? Is cursive writing a dead skill that shouldn’t be taught anymore in school? How do you know that what you heard is what I meant? Shared meaning… necessary or possible?
Enjoy the show!
About the bidding… We will be listing all of the artists along with their partnered artist. We will have two lists, one with each artists listed first and in alphabetical order. If you see a piece you would like to bid on, please give us a call (503)581-3229, and we can take your information, give you a bidding number and place your bid. We can also answer questions that you may have about that particular piece.
At the gallery and online, all the artwork will be given a number. When you place your bid, you will also be given their number so it can be easy for you to call again to check. We are sorry that we can’t do a “bid now” like they do on EBay but we feel spending money on creating a complex system would take less from the overall giving. So… be patient with us.
We will have 4 different times when bidding ends… this keeps us sane (sort of) and will also give you the opportunity to bid on another piece if you missed out. When the show is up on the wall at the gallery, we will then know the numbers that correspond with the artist. We are still adding photos to this site as the work arrives to the gallery. Everything will be online February 1st.
To make things easier, we have all the works for the week listed on our blog. Click here or go to top of the website and click on Blog and you will see them listed in order. We hope this helps you view what is up for this week. Also remember, you may bid on all the higher numbers as well.
Numbers 1-30 February 10th 5:00pm (pacific time) closed
Numbers 31-60 February 17th – 5:00 pm (pacific time) closed
Numbers 61-90 February 24th – 5:00 pm (pacific time)
Numbers 91-120 March 2nd – 5:00 pm (pacific time)
If you are needing us to ship your piece or pieces, we will figure the shipping at the end.
Included Artists:
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Artist |
Partnered Artist |
Current Show
Get In Touch
DOWNTOWN GALLERY
Tuesday thru Friday 12 pm - 5:30 pm
Saturday 12 pm - 5 pm
335 State Street
Salem, OR 97301
GALLERY 2
Appointment only
1730 Fairmount Avenue South
Salem, Oregon 97302
CALL US
503.581.3229