NOW Here’s a Find…

It’s a factory. What can you expect? Sometimes you stumble onto stuff tucked away in dark corners that is truly scary.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised a couple of weeks ago when, as I was clambering through some dusty shelving up on a mezzanine above the R & E department, I happened upon what at first I mistook for the scalps of shrunken long-hairs. Until I decided they were the My Not-So-Little Pony Tails of some kiddy Vampira.

Slowly I realized the hirsute hangings that had wigged me out were glass. I was transfixed.

Confession: after 35 years inside the glass bubble, what increasingly grabs my attention are those objects that ride the slightly disturbing twin rails of beauty and horror. These did it. I was awe-struck.

Once out of the attic, I tracked down the Responsible Party. The haunting and lovely wisps were, I learned, the work of Tom Jacobs, one of our studio instructors. They’d been tucked out of harm’s way, awaiting their upcoming exhibition in the group show of Bullseye teachers.

The show, titled NOW, and mounted in the mezzanine gallery of the Resource Center opened this Saturday.

NOW is a wow. Many of the works in this show could easily hold their own in the heady Pearl District gallery scene. From the elegant and simple Brancusi-esque studies in slumped texture by Bonnie Celeste to the chalky cubism of Nathan Sandberg’s urbanscapes, what strikes me most about this show is the variety and originality. Working with a common material, there are six very un-common and very unique voices here.

Some of my favorites:

Bonnie Celeste, Span 3

Nathan Sandberg, Big L

Christy Corbett, Coast Range 1933-45 1 and 2

Erik Whittemore, Curb Appeal

Ted Sawyer, Say

I didn’t have nearly enough time to spend with the work (or – obviously - with focusing my cheap little camera), as I’m packing for Pittsburgh and GAS. But I’ll be going back to spend more time at this powerful little show.

So should you.

I think you’ll find a lot of this work quite remarkable.

Tom Jacobs, Residue III

….as are the six teachers who just taught me what surprising things are to be found lurking in this little factory.