Suze’s art news and upcoming talks (April 2024)

Hi, I wanted to let you know about several near-term occasions as well as some that are more distant…

At 1pm on Saturday April 20, Dr. David L. Peterson and I will be giving a talk called Carbon Flows at the Museum of Northwest Art in La Conner, WA, as a part of the Silva Cascadia exhibit. (My 21-.5-foot-long burned tree painting is part of the exhibit.)

*The Magnitude of the Problem,* varnished watercolor on torn paper in seven ~49″H panels, mounted on shaped board.

On April 26 at 5pm the Northwest Watercolor Society will have a virtual reception for its annual members show, which includes my “Yellow Hill Twins” painting:

*Yellow Hill Twins,* varnished watercolor on torn paper, 52″H x 25″W x 2″D

On April 27 at 1 pm I’ll be giving a talk-and-tour at the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon where my fabric tree installation, “State of the Forest” is on display. My talk will be part of their annual fire preparedness weekend. While the installation is usually part of David J. Wagner’s Environmental Impact II exhibit, it is having a solo detour there through the end of April. World Forestry Center’s mission, beautiful setting and dramatic presentation of my work could not be more apt, and I’m honored to be there. They made a thoughtful short video interview with me and collaborating author, Lorena Williams, that is available on YouTube and their exhibit web page.

*State of the Forest* installation at World Forestry Center Discovery Museum (Mario Gallucci photo)

Cedar Visages is part of the annual ICON show at Lynn Hanson Gallery in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. There is a reception on Saturday April 13 from 2-4pm.

*Cedar Visages,* varnished watercolor on torn paper, mounted on shaped board, 52″H x 31″W x 2″D

There will be a virtual reception for members of the National Watercolor Society on May 4 of their annual members exhibit. Logged, Drifted and Burned is part of it.

*Logged, Drifted and Burned,* varnished watercolor on torn paper mounted on shaped board, 52″H x 24.5″W x 2″D

Ars Datum Est, Volume 14 and one of my favorites in my bark beetle book series, is part of the show at Dakota Gallery, the first art exhibit to accompany the Cascadia Film Festival in Bellingham, April 5 – May 31.

I will be part of SPACE-Plein Air Painters of Washington’s exhibit and paint out on June 1. Cross your fingers for good weather!

Later on this summer Puget Sound Book Artists’ annual exhibit at the University of Puget Sound’s Collins Library begins June 5, with a reception from 4:30pm-6:30pm on June 6. It runs to August 1; then it will travel to The Evergreen State College for September 29-December 20.

**Top:** *A Brief Bestiary of Bark Beetles,* back, front and side view of artist book 38″H x 11″W x 13″D. The lumber was given to me by cabinetmaker emertius Kurt Roheim who logged and milled the boards himself. The lines from the mill reminded me of children’s handwriting exercise sheets and from there the idea of a rhyming alphabet book of bark beetles arose. I realized that an illustration of each species’ gallery could stand in for the usual initial capital letter.
**Middle and Bottom:** *The Magnitude of the Problem*, artist accordion-fold book 10″H x 7.5″W closed, 60″W open. The pages are formed by the panels of the original painting and their backs have the story Lorena Williams wrote for the large fabric installation.

Much later — October 17 — I’ll be giving a virtual talk for the McMillen Foundation on “the art of collaboration.” Registration is already open!

I’ll hope to catch a glimpse of you on one of these occasions!

P. S. If you’re curious about my February artist residency in Great Basin National Park, I wrote a blog post here and the Park has an archive here

Great Great Basin

Apr11

I was privileged to be Artist-in-Residence at Great Basin National Park this winter. Even though working and hiking conditions would certainly be less restrictive in other seasons, I loved the quiet solitude. Whenever I veered off the few closed access roads or often-used trails (one!), I crossed no other human tracks. The first couple of weeks offered some beautiful backcountry skiing, although for a sea-level inhabitant, it was strenuous to break my own trail at high elevation. It was inspirational to experience such expanses alone.

*(That’s a deer track, climber’s right, not another ski track : – )*

Happy as I was to have heat and hot water in a small Park Service cabin, not being able to work outside for very long meant concentrating on smaller rather than larger paintings. So instead of my typical residency agenda of large pieces requiring prolonged concentration, I went hunting for endemic landscapes, explored areas of recent burns, and let the place speak to me in its own language. (I also found the surfaces of Lehman Cave to be even harder to paint than the char textures of burned trees!)

*Clearing at Meadow Views*, watercolor on paper, 11″ x 15″. The Park has an archive of my paintings here.

While there I read William L. Fox‘s the void, the grid & the sign, which profoundly enriched my sensory experience of the vast spaces I was seeing and my understanding of the area’s history — not only as factual narrative but as aesthetic and epistemological treatise mixed with personal reflections — fancier than my efforts but not dissimilar to my residency.

On trips outside the Park, as the snowfall of my first weeks melted and shrank, while watching where to place my feet, I began picking up small, typical human detritus–rusty tin cans, beer bottles, etc. and pairing it with natural scraps–pine cones, cottonwood leaves, etc. I could set them up on my small table and thus began a new series: Nevada Still Lifes.

Left to right, top row: Turkey feathers, shot-up can; Can and pinon cones; Coffee can and cottonwood leaves. Bottom row: Beer bottle and Douglas fir cones, Rebar and trilobite shale, Sardine can and spruce cones.

I am at work crafting a human/nature book form for them — stay tuned for updates!

Besides helpful Park and Great Basin Foundation staff, a shout-out to Bristlecone General Store/Stargazer Inn for helping fill in missing supplies, book nook and folding me into such community events as Book Club, Knitting Club, Moonlight Hike, Mardi Gras parade and the warmth and interest of the Baker, Nevada citizens I met there.

Both the landscape and the people make me eager to return!

Suze’s Art News January 2024

Jan15

Apologies for a lack of communication in the last few years, there have been so many challenges. But I am so excited about several upcoming items I had to share them!

The World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon is hosting an exhibit of my large fabric tree installation, “State of the Forest” as well as another suspended fabric piece “Core Values.” (See What’s Inside Our Museum – World Forestry Center.) The opening is January 31, 5-7:30 pm and I will be there in person. The exhibit runs from then to the end of April, and I’ll be back to give a tour-talk for the Wildfire Preparedness weekend of April 27-28.

Image above: “State of the Forest” Installation Photograph, Environmental Impact II, Produced by David J. Wagner, L.L.C. (Photo Courtesy of The James Museum, St. Petersburg, FL)

Image above from Olympic National Park’s glacier memorial site: Terminus: Bretherton Snowfield by Suze Woolf.

I could not have completed this project without the help of Arisa Brown who dyed and quilted the sediment cores (middle) and Janet Stone who wove the ice cores (left), not to mention the many scientists, artists and others who gave me input.

Image above: The Magnitude of the Problem, varnished watercolor on torn paper mounted on 7 panels, 21.5-feet long

I will also be part of Museum of Northwest Art’s Silva Cascadia exhibit Silva Cascadia — Museum of Northwest Art (monamuseum.org) opening soon. There will be a panel discussion and reception at the opening February 3, 3-5pm that I will attend. I’ll also be back April 20 for a 1 pm talk Carbon Flows with my wise and accomplished forestry expert, Dr. David L. Peterson. (La Conner, Washington)

There are several other events I’m delighted to be part of: Studio 103’s collaboration with civic poet Shun Yu Pai for “Art in A Poem”. I plan to attend the reception there on January 20. (Seattle, Washington)

Gallery 110’s February annual competition includes one of my burned tree portraits, see Upcoming Exhibitions. (Seattle, Washington)

Port Angeles Fine Arts Center has a book arts show on collaborations with 3 of my pieces: Strong Together- An Artist Book Collaborative, February 9 through May. (Port Angeles, Washington)

The Center for Urban Horticulture’s also has a Puget Sound Book Artists exhibit for the month of January, see Elisabeth C. Miller Library. The weather-postponed reception will be January 20 at noon. (Seattle, Washington)

There are a number of in-person openings I’m going to miss in February, but I’ve got a good reason: I will be artist-in-residence in the remote high-elevation Great Basin National Park in Nevada (brr!). I’m hoping my backcountry skills will allow me to visit their ancient bristlecone pines.

If I don’t catch you in January, I shall hope to see you in March!

UPDATE:

Due to the January storms in Portland, the State of the Forest reception has been delayed until February 27, 2024, 5:00 – 7:30pm. I still plan to attend; the World Forestry Center asks for RSVPs, see https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf0Nai2inTlgLQmCB4IsiXSH1rXIZwblSavp1TccZzGEaseOA/viewform. Here is their new invitation:

Suze’s Art News September 2022

Sep7

Suze’s Art News September 2022

“Art ought to be a troublesome thing, and one of my reasons for painting representationally is that this makes for much more troublesome pictures.” David Park (posted on the wall above his paintings in the Oakland Museum of California.)

Carbon is a show at The Vestibule gallery in Seattle. I hung one of my burned tree paintings on the wall and installed a “fire pit” on the floor below it. The stone circle contains objects evoking the top carbon-emitting sectors: energy production, transportation, and agriculture, with a chunk of concrete for the built environment as one member of the ring of stones. There is an opening/performance 9/10 starting at 6 pm that I will attend.

*Carved Out*, Varnished watercolor on torn paper, 52”H x 10”W (shown rotated)

*Fire pit*, installation, ~30” in diameter (that is a gas pump handle, not a pistol!)

I’m happy to be in Lynn Hanson Gallery’s annual ICON show again with both a burned tree painting and a bark beetle book. There is a Seattle reception there 2-4 pm, also on 9/10, that I plan to attend.

Left top and bottom: *Bark Beetle Book Volume XXXIII: Hyphae* Half-round log, handmade and commercial papers, abaca fiber; 14”H x 6”W x 8”D plus. extended fibers
Right: *Twisted*, Varnished watercolor on torn paper, 52H x 21”W

I gave a virtual talk for The Bug Society (aka “Scarabs”) in July and have several coming up: Seattle’s Book Arts Guild at 7pm on 9/8, and, together with Lorena Williams, “Wildfire in Beloved Places” on 9/15 for the Wildling Museum’s Fire & Ice exhibit.

*The Magnitude of the Problem*, digitally printed on fabric in three layers: solid, transparent (left, seen from the front,) and text on black (right, seen from back). The text is Lorena Williams’ story of visiting the threatened Mariposa Grove.
(In the background is one of Amiko Matsuo’s innovative Phos-Chek paintings.)

I had the pleasure of being a resident at the Mineral School in early August. I finished two new burned tree paintings and still managed to get out to nearby Mount Rainier for hikes and seven small landscape paintings.

*Patrol Cabin at Lake George*, *The Mountain from Mineral Lake* and *The Mountain from High Rock*, all watercolor on 11” x 15” paper

In June I gave an in-person talk in Twisp, WA, as a 2022 Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship recipient. In September-October I will be heading back to the Methow Valley to begin my listening project: to community members, naturalists, and activists about the 2021 fires. I will also explore the burns themselves. I expect hearing from the people most involved and affected to influence my future artwork.

“Art that Matters to the Planet” continues at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute in upstate New York, and “Environmental Impact II” will move from Michigan to Southeast Missouri State University.

At the end of October, I’ll be installing the Magnitude of the Problem painting in the Shunpike Storefront window at Mercer and Terry Streets in South Lake Union, Seattle, where it will be until the end of January 2023.

Here it is during my *Six-fold Increase* exhibit at Plasteel in July-August.

After that I’m looking forward to a quiet spell into early 2023 where I can focus creating on new work!

Suze’s Art News July 2022

Jul1

Coming up very soon and somewhat later …

Six-Fold Increase: I’ll show burned tree paintings, including a number of new ones and the 21.5-foot Magnitude of the Problem, at Plasteel Frames & Gallery in the Design Center in July-August. There will be an opening reception July 14 from 5 – 8 pm. (Seattle WA)

*Larger than Life*, varnished watercolor on torn paper, 51.5”H x 28”W; 2022
(Shown rotated)

Carbon: The Vestibule Gallery is assembling a topical exhibit for September; I will be showing both a burned tree painting and a small installation about carbon emissions. (Seattle WA)

*Carved Out*, varnished watercolor on torn paper, 51.5”H x 10”W; 2022.
(Shown rotated)

Kirkland Arts Center will be showing 3 of my bark beetle books as part of The Truth is Out There August 24 – October 29, with a reception August 26, 6-8 pm, including the recent collaboration with composer Aldo Daniel Rivera Rentería, who composed a short suite for “What the Beetles Sang.” Listen to it here! (Kirkland WA)

*Bark Beetle Book Volume 39*, Laser-engraved log slices with Douglas Fir pole beetle galleries (Scolytus monticolae), antique wooden violin clamps

Art that Matters to the Planet is an exhibit at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute July 27– October 30. I assumed they would pick one of my submissions and they asked for six: three burned trees and three bark beetle books! (Jamestown NY)

In Magnuson Park there is a second annual plein air festival. I have two paintings in the exhibit (second floor of the administration building) and will give a demonstration outside the Building 30 front door at noon on July 2. (Seattle WA)

*South Park Crane,* watercolor on paper, 11” x 15”

The Anacortes Arts Festival juried show has again chosen some of my burned trees, including the complex Deep Creek Triplet and the recent Montana Sandblasted. The Festival runs August 5-7 but the juried gallery opens July 30. However, I will be at a Mineral School residency then and not present for the reception. (Anacortes WA)

*Deep Creek Triplet* with detail view, 51.5”H x 31”W; varnished watercolor on laser-cut polypropylene, 2021.

The Puget Sound Book Artists’ annual membership exhibit includes What the Beetles Wrote and Below the Bark, in which I used padded fabric printed with my painting of Ponderosa bark as a metaphor for the structure of trees. The show is currently on at the Collins Library, University of Puget Sound, until August 5 (Tacoma WA).

*Bark Beetle Volume 38:* Ponderosa branch, sticks, custom printed fabric, quilt batting, embroidery, grommets, screws, magnets. 12″ x 19″ long fully open, ~3.75″ diameter closed

Science Stories, a traveling book arts show curated by Lucia Harrison, will be opening at Whitman College’s Penrose Library in August, then travels to The Evergreen State College January-March 2023. (Walla Walla, WA then Olympia WA)

*Bark Beetle Volume 34:* *Resource Competition* Branch with galleries; “blue-stained” dimensional lumber, laser-cut Baltic birch plywood, with laser print transfers, Kevlar thread. 5″H x 12.75″W x 4″D.

Based on a remark by entomologist Kenneth Raffa, that both humans and beetles
like to make their homes from wood, thus we are competing for the same resource.
This video about the book shows its morph from beetle-galleried-branch to dimensional lumber.

Also current, The Wildling Museum continues Fire and Ice until September 26. My co-collaborator Lorena Williams and I will be doing an online talk September 15. The registration link isn’t posted yet but check in mid-August. (Solvang CA and everywhere).

The State of the Forest grove of fabric trees, which has been touring with Environmental Impact II since 2019 just opened at Northwest Michigan College. It will go on to two more stops before finishing at the Detroit Zoo in 2023. (Traverse City MI)

In other news, I’m looking forward to a brief residency, postponed from 2020, that is a joint project of Parks Canada, the Alpine Club of Canada and the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre in July — and likewise at the aforementioned Mineral School in early August. In September/October I am truly excited to begin my stay in the Methow Valley for the Mary Kiesau Community Fellowship.

The online ecology magazine terrain.org featured my burned tree paintings in June.

My head is spinning — I’ll report back how it all turns out!

Collaboration also = Inspiration

Jun19

A while ago I wrote a post equating iteration with inspiration, but I have an additional candidate.

My friend Ellie Mathews of The North Press recently wrote a post about the pleasures of collaboration, based on a project we worked on together– one of my bark beetle book series, with a poem by Canadian poet Murray Reiss.

Photo of Suze Woolf Bark Beetle Book #37 — *Bark Beetle Book Volume XXXVII: Emergency Brake*

In the back-and-forth process of ideas and versions, she suggested I paint a portrait of some Ponderosa bark in the absence of any available locally. I did so and the suggestion continues to bear fruit (cones?) …

First I used it printed on fabric for the cover of a book earlier this winter:

Photo of Suze Woolf Bark Beetle Book #38 — *Bark Beetle Book Volume XXXVIII: Below the Bark*
*The padded fabric is a “quilt” cover on the wood, with beetle galleries visible through the “title window,” as if it were a school paper in a folder.*

More recently I’ve been working with a young composer on the East Coast, Aldo Daniel Rivera Renteria; I was referred to him by the office manager of the laser cutters I usually work with, Laser Fremont in Seattle. I wanted to do something with these mysterious wooden clamps we found:

Photo of Suze Woolf Bark Beetle Book #39 — *Volume XXXIX: What the Beetles Sang*

They turned out to be violin clamps. If you’re out in the country in Norway, you make your own folk violin, doesn’t everybody?!? I knew of book forms in India that use large wood screws to hold sheets of painted wood in boxes, so I felt totally legit using them as a binding.

I asked around for music composition apps because it seemed necessary to reference the musical antecedents, but soon realized even if I could put notes on a stave, I was no composer or arranger. Aldo Daniel Rivera Renteria and I had a bunch of Zoom meetings. He wrote two pieces for me, a longer improvisation (Conversation, Improvisation No. 6 | Wood and Metal – YouTube) and a shorter composition (What the Beetles Sang | Bark Beetles Book Vol. 39 – YouTube).

I once again used the Ponderosa bark painting for a folio that contains the score, both a handwritten page (laser cut on the inside wood pages) and the “typeset” formal score:

Photo of Suze Woolf Bark Beetle Book #40 — Bark Beetle Book Volume XL: The Orchestration of Climate
The cover is printed paper over book boards, the inside wood pages were laser-engraved with some of Aldo’s handwritten notation,
*and the separate stitched folio is the formal score.*

It was a thrill to work with Aldo whose skills are so different than my own! Every collaboration, to date with with foresters, entomologists, poets, papermakers, letterpress printers and now a composer takes me down new creative paths – talk about a gift that keeps on giving!

Suze’s Art News April 1, 2022 – no fooling!

Apr1

Suze’s Art News January 2022: a new year begins

Jan7

Last month our holiday cards read “Merry Chaos and Happy Uncertainty.” Superficially we all knew Life Was Uncertain, but many more of us have come to a deeper personal realization of it, if not yet acceptance!

In this moment …
I am so proud of the Below the Bark exhibit at the Missoula Art Museum running through-Feb 26. Together with printmaker Tim Musso and painter/photographer/book artist Jim Frazer, MAM did a fabulous job displaying our widely varied works in complementary ways. We gave an online panel, together with scientist Dr. Diana Six, for the opening: Below the Bark – Panel Discussion – YouTube.

On the left below is one of Jim Frazer’s large wall-mounted “glyphs,” at the rear, one of Tim Musso’s large woodcuts, and in the foreground, 5 of my small bark beetle books in one room of the exhibit.

CoCA’s membership exhibit, Art in Pandemia, has been extended to mid-February. It includes my 2020 burned tree portrait Seamed. Artists in the show have been giving short talks about their work. (Seattle WA)

Photo of Suze Woolf painting of burned tree — Seamed, varnished watercolor on torn paper, 51.5” H x 9.5” W (shown rotated)

Patterson Cellars tasting room in Leavenworth has a selection of small Northwest landscapes until the end of April.

Below: Pahto (Mt Adams) from Loowit (Mt St Helens) from a ski descent in May 2021

The Louisiana Art & Science Museum’s show, “Iridescence,” runs until Jul 31, 2022, and includes my painting De-Limbed shown sideways below. (Baton Rouge LA)

As an extension of the 2019-2023 touring exhibit ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT II, a solo installation of State of the Forest will be on display at the Art Museum of East Idaho in Idaho Falls February 1 – April 1 before heading to the Detroit Zoo in June to be re-united with the rest of the exhibit.

A portion of State of the Forest at the Bateman Centre, Victoria, B.C. (Raymond Ng photo)

Lucia Harrison’s Science Stories closes soon at the Collins Library at University of Puget Sound but will travel to Port Angeles Fine Arts Center March1-June 1, Whitman College August 1-December 31 (Walla Walla, WA) and Evergreen State College Library January 1-to March 1, 2023 (Olympia WA).

Left: Resource Competition (Vol. XXXIV). Right: Obligate Mutualism (Vol. XXXII)

Next moments:
A majority of my burned tree work will be in a solo private exhibit, The Magnitude of the Problem, at Aljoya Thornton Place January 31-May 15. COVID restrictions mean no in-person reception or talk, but there may be some online activity, TBD (Seattle WA). Let me know if you want to be notified.

The Magnitude of the Problem (title work), 21.5-feet long in 7 panels.

I’m just thrilled that the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art will feature both some of my bark beetle books and burned tree work in their exhibit beginning in March, Boundless (Bainbridge Island WA).

Left: The Sky Cracks Open (Vol. XXXVI) Right: Scolytid Lifecycle (Vol. XXII)

The fabric version of The Magnitude of the Problem will be part of Fire and Ice at the Wildling Museum from April to September (Solvang CA)

Burned tree pieces will be featured at Plasteel Frames & Gallery in the Design Center in June, exact dates still being finalized. Likewise, the University of Washington Center for Urban Horticulture has bark beetle books on their calendar for June (both Seattle WA).

And even as I try to accept that it may all change, those exhibits are what is planned…
Hope to see you in-person or online in happy uncertainty!

Suze’s Art News September 2021

Sep16

Our pandemic days call for superpowers of persistence, patience
and kindness. Pass those gifts on!

In the Rear-View Mirror:
I’m once again happy to be part of Mighty Tieton’s 10x10x10 competition; it’s up until 10/10/21 (do you suppose that date was on purpose?!) (Tieton WA)

I’m pleased to have received an Honorable Mention in Lynn Hanson Gallery’s annual ICON show, the show remains up until 9/25 (Seattle WA)

In August, I taught a second weekend workshop for Gage Academy at the Bloedel Reserve with a great group of people. I’m planning on teaching an in-person indoor class in the second half of October, exact date still TBD—as is the in-person part…

*Bloedel Woods,* watercolor on paper, 11″x15″

Right in front of us:
As part of David Wagner’s Environmental Impact II exhibit, my installation “State of the Forest” has been touring locations around the US. It is currently at The Bateman Centre in Victoria, BC. I will be there to talk to gallery visitors and give a talk on 9/25, its last day. (Victoria BC)

https://batemanfoundation.org/exhibits/state-of-the-forest/

One of my favorite burned trees not only received the Festival Award at the Anacortes Arts Festival but sold. One of the several prizes it garnered was an exhibit at the Kirkland Public Library through a cooperative program with the Kirkland Arts Center. Last year I used lockdown time to paint a 21.5-foot burned tree, and I’m thrilled to finally have it in public view. The library has a reading list and a virtual panel with me and some of my collaborators planned for 7 pm October 19. (Kirkland WA)

*The Magnitude of the Problem,* varnished watercolor on torn paper, 50″H x 21.5′ W in 7 panels.

Coincidentally, the City of Auburn’s Art on Main program is showing a digitally-printed fabric version of the same tree, in a different orientation, in a downtown storefront. (Auburn WA)

The Art Gallery of SnoValley still has some landscapes of mine now through September. (Snoqualmie, WA) ART GALLERY OF SNOVALLEY – HOME. (Snohomish WA)

Gage Academy where I teach a weekend workshop once a quarter or so has an online exhibit by students and faculty called Portraits of the Pacific Northwest Exhibition & Art Sale now through 10/18 (online and Seattle WA)

On the book arts front, I have work in several exhibits: Puget Sound Book Arts membership exhibit at the University of Puget Sound Collins Library (Tacoma WA) and Movable Medley at the Art Students League until November 7 (Denver CO). After the PSBA membership exhibit, which ends Oct 1, Lucia Harrison’s Science Stories will occupy the Collins Library. All the pieces are part of my lengthy obsession with bark beetles—if their chewed trails look like an unknown script, what better form than a book?

The Louisiana Art & Science Museum’s show, “Iridescence,” runs until Jul 31, 2022, and includes my painting De-Limbed. (Baton Rouge LA)

Looking Ahead

I remain incredibly excited about Below the Bark at the Missoula Art Museum opening Oct 1-Feb 26, 2022. Together with printmaker Tim Musso and painter/photographer/book artist Jim Frazer, our exhibit will open on art walk night and we will also deliver a public lecture Oct 4. I’m excited that, among other things, it will be part of a statewide STEM/STEAM program for fifth graders. I will also be a Visiting Artist at the University of Montana Missoula, where I will offer a workshop for art and forestry students and faculty. Entirely coincidentally, State of the Forest will be opening as part of “Environmental Impact II” Oct 8 at the Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman, MT).

*Bark Beetle Book Vol. XXVII: Survivorship.*
Log with mountain pine beetle galleries; letterpress-printed text with inked-in galleries, handmade and commercial Japanese paper; brass binding post. 6″H x 9.5″ diamBased on a paper by Six et al.: ~7% of whitebark pines in a research tract survived mass attack by mountain pine beetles. DNA analyses of the survivors showed they produced fewer defensive chemicals (which the beetles perceive). The proportion of dark, low-contrast (“quiet”) to light, high-contrast (“noisy”) pages in the book is 7/100.

The Confluence Gallery has an upcoming show, “Something in the Wind” Oct 2 – Nov 13. It will include two of my burned tree paintings. (Twisp WA)

*Stehekin Sentinel* (rotated), varnished watercolor on torn paper, 52″H x 20″W

Also ahead, CoCA’s membership exhibit will include my 2020 burned tree Seamed Nov 4 – Jan 15, 2022. (Seattle WA)

*Seamed* (rotated), varnished watercolor on torn paper, 52″H x 9.5″W

And finally I am supposed to be an artist in residence at Centrum in November. (Port Townsend WA)

And then again, who knows in what form these events will take place?
Whatever form they take – as-planned, virtual or postponed – I wish you all good health!

Suze’s Art News June 2021

Jun17

I feel so profoundly grateful to be reporting on some in-person experiences after 15 months of virtual ones.
I hope you are finding reasons for optimism, too!

In the Rear View Mirror:
In May I had the honor of teaching a workshop on a river trip for Great Old Broads for Wilderness, with a terrific group of guests and guides. What an experience! (San Juan River, UT)

Photo of Suze Woolf teaching watercolor on San Juan River trip — *Starting a demo (Susan Kearns photo)*

In June I taught a weekend workshop for Gage Academy at the Bloedel Reserve. It’s a beautiful destination, and I am going to be repeating it August 14-15. (Bainbridge Island, WA)

*Bloedel Woods, watercolor on paper, 11″H x 15″W*

Right in front of us:
My most recent burned tree painting—and arguably the most complex one yet—is currently part of The Schack Center’s 22nd biennial juried exhibit, June 17-July 24. There will be an in-person closing awards ceremony 7/15 5-8 pm PDT. Judging by what I saw at drop off, I am in excellent company! (Everett, WA).

*Deep Creek Triplet, varnished watercolor on laser-cut paper and polycarbonate, 52″H x 31″W*

From May-July, Space at Magnuson Gallery has a plein air exhibit with two pieces of mine in it. (Seattle WA)

*The Wilcox Bridge (Washington Park Arboretum), watercolor on paper, 11″H x 15″W*

The Art Gallery of SnoValley has some landscapes of mine, now through the end of September. (Snoqualmie, WA)

*Mt. Rainier from Mailbox Peak, watercolor on paper, 11″H x 15″W*

Looking Ahead:

I was pleased to be accepted in Manifest Gallery’s “Pattern” competition, especially once I heard the acceptance rate was less than 3%! There will be a limited in-person opening July 8 and a virtual artist talk August 5, 6-8pm EDT (Cincinnati, OH)

*Winter Rim (rotated), varnished watercolor on torn paper, 52″H x 16″W*

In August my 30-set fabric-tree grove installation, “State of the Forest,” will be on exhibit at the Bateman Centre. My fingers are crossed that our countries’ pandemic situations improve enough that I can cross the Canadian border to see it! (August-September, then as part of Environmental Impact Sequel in Victoria, B.C. Canada)

From October 1, 2021 to February 26, 2022, together with printmaker Tim Musso and painter/photographer/book artist Jim Frazer, our exhibit “Below the Bark: Artworks of Disturbance Ecology” will open at the Missoula Art Museum. I’m excited that, among other things, it will be part of a statewide STEM/STEAM program for fifth graders.

Bark Beetle Book Volume XXXIV: Resource Competition. One-of-a-kind Artist Book: Branch, dimensional lumber with blue stain, laser-cut wood with laser print transfers. 5″H x 12.75″W x 4″D Both bark beetles and humans like to make their homes out of trees, so in some sense we are competing for the same resource. This book interpolates the gallery-covered branch into a piece of 1×4 dimensional lumber. You can see a video animation of the pages here: https://vimeo.com/468773992

I will also be a Visiting Artist at the University of Montana Missoula; entirely coincidentally, “State of the Forest” will be opening the second week of October as part of “Environmental Impact Sequel” at the Museum of the Rockies. (Bozeman, MT).

I hope I will get to see you at an in-person event in the future!

suzeart

aesthetic musings and processes by artist Suze Woolf