Karey Kessler: intersection and connection

Time and geology—their intersections are frequent. Karey’s process is one that taps into her emotions, where she works in the moment, following along with the flow. Similarly, her lines are freehanded, reflecting the abstract expression that her pieces embody. In contrast, she utilizes stamps and stencils for the typography, because the weight of her words is important. When necessary, however, she does handwrite certain words. Karey takes aspects she enjoys from previous pieces and carries them on to her current work, establishing various lines of connections throughout her work, just like the lines in her pieces.

Karey has two works exhibited in our Small Works exhibit, before the memories, and timeless region. Both pieces were exhibited in an early September show, called “this underlying structure”, the theme being about what we can’t see and the essence that exists beneath and around us.

If you want to find Karey and her work, check out her website, her instagram @kareykessler, and her online publication in Interalia Magazine.

Small Works From The Artists of Building 30 West opened November 2 and can be viewed through December 16. Also come visit our Open Art Studios event on Saturday, December 2 from 12-4 pm at Building 30 West!

Ellen Rutledge: “Little Green Men” and other small things that populate her life

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that catch our eyes: a cupcake with a red cherry on top, a fork or knife on the dinner table, or a chair with a pair of gloves resting on the seat. Ellen Rutledge’s prints capture such objects against various collage backgrounds and bring attention to the details of objects that are at times overlooked.

Ellen’s piece, Little Green Men, is currently shown in our Small Works exhibit. Part of a series of 3, a grid of 9 evenly sized squares depict simple and ordinary objects, the last of which contains the namesake of the collage. As a mother, Ellen has tripped over these little toy men one too many times, and their prevalence in her life are reflected in their presence in others of her pieces, sometimes orange and sometimes red, but smiling happily all the same.

Ellen tells me that she likes things that are more ordinary, and how her pieces tell a story. Each object poses the question of why it was chosen. Her art process involves thought about layering, texture, color, and text, but each of her prints are unique and different, a quality of her art that Ellen enjoys.

Her start in printmaking began in art school. Ellen fell in love with paper, with both its texture and the feeling of drawing; she even suggests that there is a link between the hand and the head that should be studied. Her focus on paper and printmaking has stayed constant, but thematically, her pieces have evolved throughout her art career: Ellen finds that as she grows older, she includes more and more nature in her pieces.

Ellen taught at the Kirkland Art Center for 17 years, and though she no longer teaches, her experiences teaching are no doubt a strong influence on her life. Ellen remarked on how community reframes your thinking process, and how the community in classes helps one to grow in so many ways.

If you want to find Ellen and her work, check out her website and her Instagram @ellen.rutledge.

Small Works From The Artists of Building 30 West opened November 2 and can be viewed through December 16. Also come visit our Open Art Studios event on Saturday, December 2 from 12-4 pm at Building 30 West!

A Wonderful Exhibition Celebrating Seattle’s Living Artist Community

What does it mean to be an artist? The ability to draw and paint? Simply having the desire to make art? Whatever your definition of being an artist, you may or may not include the criteria that they need to be alive. That’s understandable—the masters are the masters for a reason, and you don’t need to stop appreciating your favorite Monet or Van Gogh painting. But, as the Living Artists Collective’s founding inspiration asserts, we should “support artists while they are alive; the dead ones don’t need your money.” Here, at Magnuson Park Gallery, we want to see Seattle’s very present art community grow and thrive.

This past two months, the Magnuson Park Gallery has had the pleasure of collaborating with the Living Artist Collective (LAC) in presenting 23 pieces by 21 different local visual artists in the exhibit: “Support Artists While They Are Alive”. Pieces were drawn with graphite and colored pencil, assembled with tin pieces, sculpted with epoxy clay and resin, and painted in acrylic, watercolor, and oil (just to name a few mediums utilized by these artists). The variety of mediums is closely tied to the variety of subject matter covered, which ranges from “the mystery of human emotion and behavior” (Joselyn Narvaez) to “the conflict between the joy of creation and the often painful experience of trying to make art into a career” (Jess Ray) to “the ideas of dying and legacy” (Moon Pelton).

In a time where the world can feel less and less connected, it is the candid, vulnerable connection from art that we need the most. While our “Support Artists While They Are Alive” exhibition has since closed, if you find that you want to support LAC and experience some of the art featured in this exhibition, you can purchase The ‘Big Pond’ LAC Interview Zine, available on the livingartistscollective.com website! It has interviews with 11 amazing local Seattle artists. Or if getting a zine doesn’t interest you, you can check the website out for a comprehensive digital catalog.

Click below to listen to an interview with Alaina Stocker, the Executive Director of Living Artists Collective on our podcast, The Magnuson Park Gallery Exchange.

The gallery will be closed from October 19 - November 1 to prepare for our next exhibition, Small Works by the Artists of Building 30 West, opening November 2. Please join us for an opening reception on November 18 from 2-5 PM and our Building 30 West Open Art Studios event on December 2 from 12-4 PM.

Blog post contributed by Chantelle Ma, Gallery Intern

Video provided by Tatyana Kurepina