Today’s Panel Discussion on Yesterday’s Tomorrow

work by Rik Allen currently on display at the Museum of Northwest Art

The New Year is off to a great start with the opening of Yesterday’s Tomorrow at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, WA. This afternoon, I attended a panel discussion that kicked-off the opening of the exhibition. Nine artists from the show spoke at the panel: Fred Birchman, Nathan DiPietro, Blake Haygood, David C. Kane, Douglas Loewen, Joseph Park, Jonah Samson, Evelyn Woods, and Mark Zirpel. The artists spent the hour sharing their inspiration, studio practices, and their relationship to the Northwest. Many of them drew from science fiction, or “speculative fiction” as phrased by Blake Haygood.  Upon entering the museum, visitors are introduced to a large mechanical installation built by Douglas Loewen. With the help of the museum, Doug received a grant to construct Maneuverings, a machine designed to drag branches fixed with lead weights back and forth, creating drawings on sheets of paper.

Wizard by Joseph Park

During the panel discussion, Joseph Park surprised me with his description of his painting Wizard. The work is based on Velázquez’s painting Las Meninas; Park explained how he uitlized Google Earth to study even the smallest details of the painting. By using the Internet he could examine the canvas more closely than if he’d traveled to Madrid. Wizard closely resembles the original Las Meninas with two clear abstractions: first, the artist slices the image with geometrical “prisms” creating an almost cubist representation Park called Prismism. The second alteration of the image is the addition of lightening bolts emanating from a figure in the doorway (maybe the Wizard?) creating electric halos around the other characters. A glass crystal hanging in front of the painting casts slivers of light onto the canvas. Park said he thinks of the painting as backdrop for the prism effects achieved with glass and light.

Another piece that caught my attention was Mark Zirpel’s Weather Station. Using a glass piece as a starting block, Zirpel explained how he attaches one piece to another with functional intent. Weather Station combines glass toilet parts to create a device that detects earthquakes, wind direction, and barometric pressure. Zirpel is fascinated by the way glass has served to advance technology as lenses for microscopes, semi-conductors in computers, even eyeglasses.

The panelists discussed how their work developed in reaction to their environment, specifically “the Northwest’s rich history of embracing the traditions of industry and the innovations of technology. From timber, fishing, agriculture, and aerospace manufacture to internet startups, grunge music, coffee, and tourism, our region has supported both ends of the spectrum of creativity, looking back and forward.” Yesterday’s Tomorrow runs through March 14^th, 2012.

For more information visit the Museum of Northwest Art online.