Hyperspacial : Mini Retrospective
Group Art Show
One of 2024’s highlight’s was being a part of this show. Hyperspacial was a group art show held at The Sheehan Gallery of Whitman College located in Walla Walla, WA. I regret not writing about this show when it was actually happening. I was smack dab in the middle of the house sale and move out and preparing like mad for the artist talk and workshop I was doing in connection with the show.
But what made this personally special was that I could showcase the past work I was most known for, many originals works I hadn’t made available for public exhibit before, and also present the book arts I’m diving into currently. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to show how they connected. In many ways, it usually it feels like my illustration career and my book arts life are 2 different worlds travelling on parallel orbits. It was nice to be in a position to kinda zoom out and share these worlds as part of a larger cosmic body.
I felt very proud to see my last decade of work featured so beautifully. I got a little choked up. I want to thank curator and Gallery Director, Kynde Kiefel and her team for being so thoughtful, enthusiastic, and kind towards me and my artwork. Thanks to Tara for the wonderful photography and care towards installation. And to everyone who came out to support the show.
Art Talk + Workshop
I met a lot of great students, parents, educators, and creatives during my stay in Washington state. Being around young artists with fresh perspectives and open minds always gets me jazzed up. Also refreshing was being able to speak to so many supportive parents. It all felt very inclusive and safe and spirited with possibilities.
For my artist talk, I shared a lot about my background growing up with artists for parents and all my inclinations towards creating things from a very young age. I shared college and early career experiences and the intentions, goals, and motivations I had along the way. I talked about what it meant to be multidisciplinary in my art practice and how that has served me beyond skill development and technique.
I think it was important to me to really show how all this lead me to book arts and my overall personal growth. It was also great to put this into practice in the student workshop. We started with experimental abstracts, rearranging them into collages, and combing that with expressive self portrait drawing. I loved this group. Very willing to explore, give things a go, and examine the results without harsh self criticism or stress. Discoveries and new friends were made. Good time.
