On Terese Nielsen's "Vulture"

Back in December of 2014, we hosted a solo show of illustrator Terese Nielsen's paintings and drawings, which included a set of "Creatures of Spirit". These were small 10 x 10" paintings of animals derived from moments of meditation, much like a shamanistic totem animal arises from dreams.

These were quite popular with our visitors, who enjoyed seeing the personal side of Terese, who is best known for her game art (such as Magic: the Gathering). All the work was gold leafed and she often experimented with mediums in her pieces as well. The result made each animal painting a little jewel in its own way.

Terese Nielsen -Vulture, charcoal, oil, pencil on 23k gold

We still have two of those paintings, "Buffalo" and "Vulture". The vulture is hands-down my favorite of all the set. I was sure it would be a harder sell to the average collector; I mean, who wants a vulture perched on their wall? For most people, its a reminder of death and decay. It's bald and ugly and gross.

Headdress of the Upper Egypt region

People forget that for the Egyptians at least, the vulture transcended beyond the everyday. She represented the protection and strength of the mother and was represented the goddesses Mut and Nekbet, the mother of the pharoahs. Vulture was the herald of Upper Egypt and was worn prominently on the headdress of the pharoahs. There is a belief in Asia (I forgot exactly where) that you should never harm a vulture; as they feast on the dead, they carry with them the remains of the local people (who in that area leave their dead out for vultures to eat). They are considered the purifiers of the earth in many Native American tribes, as they clean away the putrefied flesh that could cause disease. They never kill prey, only scavenge what has been killed. They are social, they share with each other, and they are excellent parents.

They are bald for a reason: it keeps them clean (can you imagine trying to dig around a dead body with a head full of feathers? Gross). Otherwise, they have a stunning body of feathers, sleek, black and lustrous.

The one stab of blue in the feathers immediately adds depth, hatching points back to the head.

Terese renders her vulture with tight, detailed line work on the head that terminates to feathers that are rendered far more loosely.  The hatched lines in the feathers point back towards the head, which keeps the eye from wandering off the picture plane. You literally can't stop locking eyes with the vulture, which is a compositional win. I love the flush red of the head; in real life its pure and vibrant and jumps off the page. Ironically enough, it's the gold leaf that anchors the red back in place and keeps it from becoming too strong a pigment choice. The result is intense and rich with an air of restrained tension.

Terese captures the strength of this bird in such a way that it appears as a shamanic creature, fiercely intelligent, ancient and wise. It embodies the archetype of the Wise Grandmother, the elder of the community the demands the respect of her people. She sees past the veil, she knows all, and she understands the cycle of the seasons. Her feathers are her shroud, and she appears hideous only to the uninitiated.

Disgusting carrion eaters? Ugly? Perhaps they don't live up to our standards of beauty, but Terese saw past the superficial connotations and drafted a stunning and regal piece of work. I personally think this is a really beautiful depiction of a vulture, and certainly the best I've ever seen of one.

"Vulture" and "Bison" are both on view at Krab Jab Studio and available for purchase.

~Julie

Sara Winters: Rituals

Sara Winters (nee Betsy) is a relatively new artist on the scene. She illustrates in the gaming industry, and although proficient with digital painting, the girl can paint traditionally like an old hand. Recently established as a coordinator for the local salon-styled artist cafe The Conservatory, she runs their life drawing sessions and is often among the packed house of artists, drawing and painting to her hearts content.

"Innocence - I", oil on board

Sara and Cynthia Sheppard are close friends and it seemed a no-brainer to have them come up with a two-woman show. They chose the theme of "rituals" and went to work on a series of personal pieces in traditional medium for this show. What emerged from both is a body of work that is dark, mysterious, and in many ways deeply mythological in terms of the feminine mystique.

For Sara, she chose the path of the ritual of the hidden. Her model is nude, exposed, and raw, with nothing but a white veil and a silver necklace. The figure is clearly struggling internally, her body and face twisting, searching, and although she does address the viewer, the viewer is more like a voyeur in her transformation. We are only given hints of the narrative, leaving us to figure out what is happening as the series of images play out before us.

"Escape - V", oil on board

Sara played out her series much like a storyboard, but deliberately leaves out conclusive connectors. We are left to our own devices of imagination, which plays out as either redemption or resolve. The veil represents that which is tucked away from the human ego, forcing us (or perhaps the figure) to seek out the truth of our existence, be it ugly or liberating. Much like the tarot's High Priestess (who sits in front of the veil of truth), there is a mythological thread that runs underneath Sara's work, an esoteric and magical reality that we often ignore in our everyday existence. If we could only see what is really behind the veil, we can see the real truth of ourselves.

Possession, graphite on paper

Sara is clearly a talented and skilled painter and her drawing skills are top notch. In that regard, she sits comfortably with many other skilled painters I come across. What pulls her ahead is her use of tension in her work, and her fearlessness of addressing the part of the feminine experience that isn't exactly a beautiful thing. It's dark without being overly literal, and there is a slice of hope in the darkness, the possibility of release. This kind of narrative is difficult to achieve, especially for a young artist. Sara nails it out of the gate.

"Rituals" opens Saturday, May 14th and runs through June 4th. Sara will be in attendance at the opening, along with Cynthia Sheppard. The online catalog goes live the evening of May 14th.

~Julie

Studio Visit with Tenaya Sims

It's not often I get to stop in to visit an artist while they're working on a show for me, so I took up the offer to come by and take photos of Tenaya Sims while he worked on one of his oversized paintings.

"Lysandra", oil and gold leaf

Tenaya is both an old hat and a rising talent. Inspired by his time with Jeff Watts (it seems that all of Jeff's young students move on to big careers!), Tenaya packed up his car and traveled from California to Washington to train under Juliette Aristides in her newly established atelier at Gage Academy. He quickly became a protege of hers - he even has examples of his work in her Drawing Atelier book - and soon after graduating her atelier, he struck out on his own and built up his successful school, the Georgetown Atelier, which takes up most of his time. The fact that he's been able to work on his monumental paintings, run workshops, AND teach classical drawing and painting is pretty amazing, but he's lamented that all this activity caused his pursuit with gallery work to come to a virtual standstill.

In his studio

I totally get it. Being an artist myself, I have to sacrifice my painting and drawing to keep running the gallery. When I get home, after I feed dogs, feed myself, interact with the husband, walk dogs, clean up some kind of doggie mess, go through mail, check messages...honestly I have little energy left to do my creative work. I'm spent, and as I grow older, I have less of that spontaneous up-all-night-painting energy I had when I was younger. Tenaya is younger and far more energetic, but he's also very devoted to his students and their education in the arts and willingly sacrifices his time to ensure they get good training. The resulting effect is twofold: his students are out-of-the-box engaged in their professional pursuits (many have proven solid in the art world), but he hasn't had a show in nearly ten years.

"Maquette", oil on panel

That's about to change for him.  He's actually shown with us a couple of times (his "Maquette" painting was part of our 2014 Pain show) and received a really positive response, but this show is a landmark solo show and he's put everything out there for it. He wants to prove that he's more than a good instructor, that he's more than just "talented" or skilled as a realist painter. He wants to prove he's more than just a realist painter, that he also has that genius qualifier called "vision". It's not just that his paintings are big and grand, that he can render out a beautiful figure, that he fully understands the science of composition; there are lots of painters out there that can do the same. In this show, he examines his own relationship with the feminine through the mythological looking glass, opening himself up in the process. The results are beautiful, and in some ways very raw and vulnerable.

Working on his newest painting. The painting transfer is at the left.

These are dangerous times for artists with vision. With public shaming at an all-time high and a make-it-or-break-it attitude of the general populous, it can be a career-killer for an artist to express themselves to society in an honest and authentic way. Being a male artist, and expressing oneself using the nude female figure in context, is even more daunting. Many realist painters go the safe route: they do figure studies in classical style, avoiding as much connotation as possible. Tenaya can whip those puppies out in a heartbeat, mostly because its a technical drawing from a live nude model, and he works alongside his students on a regular basis. While you can clearly see he enjoys the process and addresses the figure with respect and love, it's not his vision, just an exercise.

Working from reference, Tenaya makes his first pass on the painting of a lion-man

You can really feel his love for the craft in his work, but even more so, you can feel a deep love for the female figure. He really connects the viewer to the subject and it would be slightly uncomfortable result were it not for his incredible talent with the brush. He works very gingerly, mindfully, and engaged, each brush stroke thoughtfully applied. His figures are rendered with strength and while sexually alluring, they are not just bodies placed in space for decorative effect or titillation. He's telling their story and does it well, and he knows he could be scrutinized over it, especially by a female audience. He and I have talked about that many times over the years, about him walking that fine line. My advice is always to do what you love, the love will shine through. Sure, someone might toss the "objectifying the female" comment out there, but good art transcends, and folks, this is good art.

"Semillas", in the studio

"Semillas", oil on panel

I'm honored that he let me stop by and take pictures, that he lets me in to his thoughts on his work. I hope I can make this a habit with more artists in the future!

Poppy the cat approves

Tenaya will be showing his new paintings at Krab Jab Studio in June 2016, and will be lecturing on his process at a ticketed artist talk/reception June 10th (our website/social media will roll out more info on that in the next week).

~Julie

It's a New World...

I haven't posted in a while... I got really sick late last year, and anything not crucial to basic function was dropped for a while, including my posts. It took about four months to recover from the illness, and with a lot of help I was able to keep things running.


One of my personal issues is perfection; I like to do everything a certain way. The major problem with that is that nothing actually gets finished. I can't tell you how many abandoned posts I've made because I couldn't think of the perfect thing to say, or the perfect image to add. I hit deadline and I either abandon ship or push out a rushed article that I'm not happy with.

The reality is that nothing is perfect, and I'm certainly nowhere near perfection myself. People don't read my posts because they're looking for an example of perfection, right? No, I think people read what I have to say because they're looking for the method behind the madness. No amount of eloquence can upsell that.

Allen Williams - "The Warded Man", from Dream Covers

We just finished up a spectacular group show called "Dream Covers", curated by book designer Lauren Panepinto. It's a hard show to follow up, the work is so good. Cynthia Sheppard and Sara Winters are opening up this next show called "Rituals", in which both have created very personal oil paintings and graphite drawings. They dropped off their work today, and we lined it up along a wall and stood back and talked over the work. It was fascinating to look at, with all their art there. It reads like a surreal storyboard, something kind of fantastic and sci-fi in nature, very Stanley Kubrick. My eyes kept swatting left-right, left-right, my brain trying to make sense of it all. Its a very different feel from "Dream Covers": each piece in D.C. is perfection, a full statement on its own, but Rituals is like an exquisite corpse between two women, one story morphing into the next, not yet fully formed. The viewer has to figure out where it goes and what it really means.

Sara Winters

Cynthia Sheppard

I think rather than blather on and on about why this is a fabulous show in one perfect little blog post, I'm going to post more regularly, and make smaller, less perfect posts. Messy, thoughtful, possibly silly, but more true to form. I can handle that. I think the artists won't mind, either.

"Rituals" will open up on May 14 and run through June 4th. Sara and Cynthia will be at the opening reception from  6 - 9 pm. 

~ Julie Baroh

I'll Read You A Story: Children's Book Art

Children's book art may be the most important art in all of the art world. Here's why.

1. It's associated to literature, which is associated to reading. Whether we read to others or read to ourselves, the act of reading in itself is the connective tissue of our modern world. Our earliest experiences with reading can define our relationship to literature - and nonfiction - for the rest of our lives.

"The Coronation", watercolor, Gary Lippincott, from The Prince and The Pauper

2. It's often the first art we experience in our lives. Whether it's Eric Carle's hungry caterpillar or Maurice Sendak's monsters having a rumpus with Max, this is our first foray into western art. Colors, patterns, shapes and images are defined to us through our books, especially picture books. Our favorites tend to stay with us as we grow up and wind up inevitable "classics" as we read these to our own children and grandchildren.

"Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!", Maurice Sendak, from Where the Wild Things Are

3. It's keeping the paper publishing world alive. Okay, I don't know if that's exactly true, but reading to children typically feels more "right" with a physical book, and majority of children's books are in color and hard bound. There's a physicality to a child's book that addresses a child's needs beyond the images and sounds. There's touch, texture, even taste (who hasn't chewed a small corner of a book?) that the child's book fulfills to the child. They are loved and read again and again. I still can't imagine an iPad taking the place of the physical book. They sure don't taste as good.

Whether we care to admit it or not, children's book art has influenced all of us. As a child, I drew on my books, I drew what was in my books, I loved my books, and I still do love them. Illustrators such as Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak, and Mercer Mayer were huge influences in my art making; my work may not look exactly like theirs but I was in awe of the worlds they created with just a couple of lines and some watercolor.

Mercer Mayer's "Little Critter" character. Wonder why I related to him so much? ;)

In fact, part of the reason I created the "I'll Read You A Story" show had to do with my finding a Jules Feiffer drawing for sale. Jules was the artist behind the chapter book called The Phantom Tollbooth, which was my all-time favorite childhood book. It was about a boy named Milo who is bored with everything until he goes through a mysterious tollbooth (in a toy car) and enters a world that revolves around letters and numbers. The linework was simple, even a little sloppy, but very likeable and perfect for this story, which was written by Norton Juster in the early 1960s.

ToC Page, ink on paper, Jules Feiffer, from The Phantom Tollbooth. This is the actual drawing.

R. Michelson Galleries was selling the aforementioned drawing. I was exceptionally excited about finding it until I contacted them about it, only to find that drawing was well into the five digit price range, which was way too rich for my blood. I did note, however, they represented many living and deceased children's book artists, and after a few email conversations with Mr. Michelson, I managed to work out an exchange that allowed the majority of this show's art to ship to Seattle, which I knew would be a very difficult feat with the individual artists. Most of these illustrators no longer own or sell their published work, and some of them are very hard to contact (I learned that quick).

"Bagheera", watercolor, Jerry Pinkney, from The Jungle Book

For the most part, I chose work representative of picture books for children between the ages 3 - 7 years of age, although some of the book art is for children slightly older (such as Gary Lippincott's two paintings from "The Prince and the Pauper"). All of the art is from published books, and many of the artists have had very long and distinguished careers, such as Jerry Pinkney, Ruth Sanderson, and Scott Gustafson. A few are known not for their children's books per se, but for other projects: Tony DiTerlizzi is best known for his Spyderwick Chronicles illustrations, Marc Brown is known best for Arthur the Aardvark book (and cartoon) series and Barry Moser is an accomplished block print artist.

"Little Jack Horner", oil, Scott Gustafson, from Favorite Nursery Rhymes from Mother Goose

The work is accomplished, to say the least. Richard Jesse Watson's two pieces are quite large, with one in oil and one in egg tempera paint. "The Waterfall" is in egg tempera: it took him about a day's worth of work to paint approximately a square inch (tempera isn't easy to paint in), and the final result is a rich, complex painting at 19 x 34 inches. Now, just imagine an entire picture book of these! The result was The Waterfall's Gift, a picture book full of textures and colors almost too sophisticated for a child's mind, but he makes it work with his soft palette and strong object placement.

"The Waterfall", egg tempera, Richard Jesse Watson, from The Waterfall's Gift

 In contrast, Marc Brown's and Barbara McClintock's work seems almost painfully simple, but these artists are not catering to 40-somethings, but 4-somethings whose color and object comprehension is far simpler. Marc is Old School - he understands the psychological use of color and shapes and creates his early reader books with hot colored acrylics and mixed media collages, and the kids LOVE it (remember Eric Carle and his hungry caterpillar? That damned thing has been gorging itself for what, 46 years now?).

Image from Eric Carle's A Very Hungry Caterpillar. 46 years of overeating is clearly showing here, but the kids love it, so he keeps eating.

"Dinoslide", acrylic, Marc Brown, from Buying, Training, and Caring for Your Dinosaur

Barbara is Old School but in a truer old school way: her work is reminiscent of the great Randolph Caldecott  and his classic nursery rhyme illustrations, utilizing simple subjects and a lot of gesture and humor. Kids call it "funny" and "silly", and we call it "whimsical", our way saying it's both likeable and nostalgic. We all like it, and therefore, books with art like Barbara's is bearable to read over. And over. And over again.

Randolph Caldecott illustration from A Frog He Would a-Wooing Go

"System", watercolor, Barbara McClintock, from A Child's Garden of Verses

This show has 14 illustrators and nearly 30 pieces of art, each from a page in a book, each with a story, each impressing into the minds of literally thousands of little ones (some now Big Ones like me), coloring their sleepy minds with dogs and cats and dinosaurs and rueful little children much like themselves. In a quiet way, this show is probably more important that some of our regular signature shows: this art is shaping our children, and shaped us. This art is the stuff that inspires little artists to grow up into big artists that eventually get big shows at places like Krab Jab Studio. This art gave us our first connection to abstract concepts and to storytelling, and allowed us the green like to go off and create our own stories.

"It Couldn't Be Done", watercolor, Jon J Muth, from Poems to Learn by Heart

So you see, this is very likely the most important show we do all year. It's not sexy, it's not going to blow your mind. In fact, you may just sort of pass it over. But give it another go-over and if you feel like little soap bubbles are blossoming in your chest, just let it happen, that's what this art is meant to do.

Title Page, watercolor, Barry Moser, from Cat Talk

"I'll Read You A Story" features the following artists: Marc Brown, Tony DiTerlizzi, Scott Gustafson, Cory Godbey, Ruth Sanderson, Barbara McClintock, Jon J Muth, Jerry Pinkney, Gary Lippincott, Barry Moser, Diane deGroat, Mordecai Gerstein and Richard Jesse Watson.

Show runs through September 5th, with an art walk opening August 8th, 6 - 9 pm. Richard Jesse Watson will be in attendance!

~Julie Baroh, August 2015

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law: Immortal Ephemera

I'll be honest with you: I don't know what "ephemera" means. It doesn't really come up in daily conversation for me. In fact, I think Stephanie may be the first person I know that actually used the word in my presence, or rather, in an email sent to me about four or five months ago.

After her wildly successful show in March 2014, I asked her to show again for 2015, and she readily accepted. Neither of us had any idea what she'd do this time around, but I knew she'd stew it over for a while and something would pop up.

Towards the end of January, I shot her a quick email asking if she finally
decided on a theme for her show. She wrote me and said yes, and then dropped the e-bomb on me. "Ephemera".

It means "things that are enjoyed or used for a very short time". It also means things that last no more than a day. In the case of Stephanie's collection of work, she was clearly meditating on the comparatively short life of insects, one of the Earth's most ancient of creatures. Insects are literally everywhere: earth, air, water, fire (well, maybe not fire). Many of them live in complex societies, produce fibers or honey, weave or build geometric homes and often live such short, basic lives. They are so lowly, yet feature so prominently in our myths and legends.

Immortality, Watercolor

Stephanie pulled and stretched and magnified the insect, often to sizes over 200% larger than life (such as in "When Flowers Dream'). Its as if she meditated on her subject's very soul, dipping into the ink of Life and quilling the results in watercolor pinks and blues. Labyrinths and ghostly trees dapple the landscapes, signifying the mysteries surrounding these critters (what signals their rise and retreat? what is their purpose? who guides them?). Elfin figures appear and recede from sight. There is clearly a magical element being expressed within these compositions beyond just the beauty of these insecta subjects. Stephanie teases out the transcendental qualities through color, texture, and intent.

When Flowers Dream, watercolor and gold leaf

True to form, Stephanie did not abandon her fairy world and created a small series of fairies called "The Hidden Ones", painted on birch wood. Her discovery of absorbent ground (a type of medium that allows you to paint watercolor on any surface) opened up a whole world of possibilities, including  painting on wood, metal, pretty much anything she fancied. Additionally, this medium has enough body to create textures, giving her pieces an extra dimension and allows play with light and shadow (such as with "Immortality" - the butterflies are built up in absorbent ground).

Amidst the Brambles, from "The Hidden Ones" series, watercolor on birch

I always say that art must be seen in person - as difficult as that can be for most of us - and Stephanie's work is no exception. Her work changes with the light, when seen close up or far away, and at different angles. It's luminous and vibrant, yet delicate, like porcelain. She adds elements of surprise into her pieces, much like Easter eggs, and each time one observes her paintings, a new object, element, shape will pop up, giving the composition a whole new life and meaning. Much like "ephemera", I suppose!

Cicada, Watercolor and gold leaf

"Immortal Ephemera" will be open until July 3rd, 2015. Work is available to purchase online or direct, and the online catalog is available through July 4th.

-Julie Baroh, June 2015

Summertime, and the Living is...

We're about to hang Stephanie Pui-Mun Law's wonderful "Immortal Ephemera" show today, and as I sit here at the crack of dawn, cup of coffee in my shaking, tired hand (after all, it is literally the crack of dawn), I'm reflecting on the concept of "when does the hard work turn to easy work?".

I think that when we've thrown ourselves into a task that requires everything we've got, we all hit that point when we wonder when we'll get that break. For Krab Jab Studio, I always sort of fantasize that summertime will allow me to slow down a little bit. After all, for the second time this year we have a two month show ("I'll Read You a Story" children's picture book show starts in July) and this year I have an assistant, Kathryn, whose been busily snapping our operations together and turning us into a well oiled machine. We're getting more press now, which is a huge blessing. And sales seem to get better quarter to quarter of the fiscal year. So I should be able to kick back and put up my feet.

But I know I won't.

For example, I just wrote up an article for the blog Muddy Colors based on my workshop at this year's Spectrum Fantastic Art Live convention, called "Demystifying the Gallery World". The intention of the article was to elaborate on the bullet points of my lecture (which is available here as well as on our YouTube channel). In my Muddy Colors article, I tacked in a segment called "Finding a Gallery" which wasn't in my lecture but I get a lot of questions about. From there, I concocted a nearly 3k word article, of which I wasn't even halfway through the lecture segments. Clearly this was a two-part article; therefore, I will have to write the second part and turn that in for publication at a later date. Lord knows how long THAT segment is going to be!

Prior to Kathryn coming on board, I was behind in everything, me being only one person and all, running a business on my own. One of our priorities is getting caught up and back on track, whether its editing and releasing older Artist Talks to our YouTube channel, cleaning out our storage, or organizing our back room. We've made huge headway but I know we've got much more to do, much of it on my own head, like cleaning up my messy accounting books (we keep good records but I am living in piles of paper).

Meanwhile, I'm working on curatorial projects outside of our normal show schedule. I work with the crew that runs the Mythic Worlds convention, creating a space within the convention that embodies the heart of what the convention is all about. I'm working on travelling our fantastic "Lennon" show, which just ended this early June but needs to be seen by many more eyes. I have a few more irons in the fire I can't really speak about yet, but will take a good chunk of my energy.

Then there's my home life, which is just as busy. Family weddings are coming up, house needs to be repainted, backyard has a couple of projects, and I have a couple of trips to plan. House is always in need of cleaning and organizing, and our two Boxers need entertainment and exercising on a regular basis. I have my own artwork to make, mostly consisting of finishing a few large paintings which will likely take me all summer. I have an overdue commission to complete.

In all, I know that the hard work won't end. Really, it never does, especially when you're working in a field you really enjoy. It turns into an attitude thing: "hard work" doesn't mean "tiring, unsatisfying work". My plate is full, but it's full of yummy, juicy stuff. Granted there are some dull, not-fun things on my list, but when you run your own business there's always a few things you're not crazy about doing. You just dig in and do them. I am rewarded with a sprinkling of easy days, and when I get one, trust me, I really savor it. But it's okay if the entire summer isn't one big fun vacation. I'd probably get bored anyway. There's only so much sitting around I can do before I get antsy.

-Julie Baroh, June 2015