The Island’s visual art spaces will be open this Friday evening for a gallery cruise. Highlights will include new work at the Blue Heron, Café Luna and VALISE.
Blue Heron show explores the meaning of house and home
Blue Heron Gallery’s January show will showcase mixed-media sculptures and jewelry by Penny Grist and Larry Muir.
An opening reception, scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 8, at the gallery, will feature music by jazz pianist Maggie Laird.
Grist will show a new body of work — almost 35 pieces based on the broad theme of “House.”
Grist’s chain maille bracelets and pendant necklaces, made in collaboration with Muir, will also be on display.
Muir taught high school chemistry, physics and jewelry at The Bush School for 30 years and now makes jewelry full time.
Muir’s pieces may begin with a sketch; several are inspired by Grist’s sculptures. Incorporating Asian-inspired design elements, his favorite pieces, he said, are pendant necklaces he combines with Grist’s chains.
VALISE show celebrates mysterious artists both real and imagined
VALISE Gallery will launch Victor Monchego’s posthumous parody, “A CIA Field Guide to Foreign Undergarments,” from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 8.
The show is an assembly of broody vignettes, featuring estranged ex-pats, spies and quixotic nomads.
The trick to the exhibit? It’s all the creation of VALISE artist Warren Maierhofer, who made up the character of Victor Bravo Monchego, Jr., almost three years ago.
Maierhofer has created a bio and Internet presence for Monchego, stating that he was born in Colorado in 1953 to an unwed pair of fur trappers. After immigrating to Canada, Monchego supposedly labored as a carpenter, soldier, mining engineer, snake handler, poet, brewery worker, crop duster, produce clerk, sweatshop inspector and security consultant.
Another part of VALISE’s January exhibit, the Cold War Safehouse installation, will include the work of real-life photographers Irene Stroganova and Rollin Geppert.
Islanders are urged to come to the opening reception to enter the gallery’s Safehouse Lottery to win a night’s lodging and a hot meal inside the installation on on Saturday, Jan. 16.
A talented teen shows at Luna
Alex Soriano, a ninth-grader at Vashon High School who has been cartooning for about six years, will have a show at Café Luna with an opening from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, Jan. 8.
Soriano has been mentored by Islander Bill Jarcho, who is a professional animation director.
Jarcho said, “I am always awed by his talent, even jealous at how he can take an idea and in seconds portray it clearly in a comic.”
Soriano said of his work, “Drawing is like making a simple movie within the page. The energy in the hand and pen gives the image life. In many of my early drawings, the early history of the United States, Gary Larson, ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Godzilla’ share the page.”
Reptiles, amphibians and dragons have been featured prominently in Soriano’s work for years. Other details in his early drawings included clothing, cars and architecture.
More recently, his drawings occupy a space outside of time, where the Revolutionary War meets themes from “Star Wars” and “The Lord of the Rings.”
Soriano is now creating graphic novels.
Books by the Way will host a family craft night, featuring a sing-along and supplies for making paper snowflakes.
Duet will feature a triple billing: Michael Spakowsky
and his collectible marine watercolors, Lenard Yen and his Tree Series in acrylics and Shawn Hair and his impressionistic oil paintings.
Good Merchandise will show work by Vashon photographer Joshua Manwaring, knitted works by Islander Alison Bucklin, silkscreening and metal art by Islander Karen Carston and jewelry by Sandy Herrara. The shop is located behind Duet and next to Movie Magic.
Heron’s Nest will show Marilyn Moore’s copper weavings, Polly Adams Sutton’s baskets, Carol Godwin’s Kumihemo weavings, Kathy Johnson’s beads and Lael Schmid’s dichroic fused glass.
La Boucherie will feature “Balkan Echoes,” a show of photography by Martin Koenig, from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
Silverwood Gallery will continue its “Shake the Tree 15” show, with new work by Ted Kutscher, Joanne Bohannon, Gretchen Hancock and Ivonne Escobar de Kommer.
Vashon Senior Center will display work by watercolorists Wally Fletcher, Jo Goforth and Ellen Trout. The show will also include work by Geri Peterson.
