Joey KIRKPATRICK + Flora C. MACE TRAVER GALLERY
Joey KIRKPATRICK + Flora C. MACE a way is found
TRAVER GALLERY November 14–December 24, 2013
Flora C. Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick Kirkpatrick | Mace Studio, Seattle, 2013
An abiding sense of wonder permeates the work that these two remarkable women create together. A state of joyful curiosity is reflected not only in their sculptures and artistic process but in their lives, and their spirit. Flora C. Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick have been collaborative partners for more than 30 years and one wonders if it isn’t a shared quality of inquisitiveness that has carried them gracefully through this career-long relationship. We believe it is precisely this unabashed spirit that keeps us as collectors, admirers, and friends, in rapt attention as these two artists weave their personalities through and into new methodologies, materials, and concepts. Flora and Joey don’t often show in galleries. Theirs is a practice that is sustained quietly and modestly. To be sure, there have been many important exhibitions and milestones during their mutual career; museums collect their work, their names are found on the pages of nearly every essay written about the development of the American Studio Glass movement, and they are in most every prominent collection of contemporary American craft, but in the past 20 years there have been only a handful of exhibitions of new works. We are extremely proud to mount this important new show in our gallery, and to have the opportunity to introduce these extraordinary new botanical works, sculptures, and paintings to our collectors and community. —SARAH TRAVER and WILLIAM TRAVER, September 19, 2013
Art and nature are siblings, branches of the same one tree; and nowhere more than in the continuing inexplicability of many of their processes… John Fowles, The Tree
Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace are artists and naturalists. Since their meeting at Pilchuck Glass School in 1979, Kirkpatrick and Mace have worked collaboratively, exploring the creative potential of not only studio glass, but also sculpture, drawing, and, in the case of Mace’s most recent floral works, a hybrid methodology of preserving botanical specimens in three dimensions. Always, form follows idea. And for these past many years, Kirkpatrick’s and Mace’s ideas have evolved from their keen observations of the natural world. The installation Alphabet of Flowers (2012) consists of a wall of twenty-six blown vessels, a series that is typical of Kirkpatrick’s and Mace’s work in that it features the beauty of nature—flowers. But Kirkpatrick and Mace are not only observers; they are also participants. The artists have long been interested in the relationship humans have with nonhuman nature, specifically the component of language. It is a uniquely human impulse to name something—a meadowlark does not think of itself as a meadowlark, neither does a tulip recognize itself as a noun; those identifiers come solely from human thought. The discipline of collecting (for the sake of taxonomy) is also distinctly human. Kirkpatrick and Mace are fascinated by this intersection, and often their work conflates their intense examination of nature with their impulses, as artists, to recreate it, to reinterpret it, in some way. Source material for Alphabet of Flowers comes not only from actual examination of real flora, but also from other human documentation. Everything from flash cards and children’s lotto game pieces to field guides and botanical illustrations assist Kirkpatrick and Mace in developing their imagery. The methodology
for placing the imagery onto the glass cylinder is complex and requires highly developed skills from both artists. The flower picture begins with a pencil sketch by Kirkpatrick. Using the sketch as a guide, Kirkpatrick builds a drawing of fine-grained powdered glass, sifting the glass onto a metal plate with a thimble-size sieve, then pushing the colors into pistils, stamens, and petals with tools made by Mace. She is required to “draw” in reverse order, laying down the fine lines and details first and the background shapes last. Mace adds the name of each flower in black glass cane and occasionally even scribes a short, haiku-like poem written about the flower by Kirkpatrick’s sister, the poet Patricia Kirkpatrick. Mace is particularly adept at writing in glass cane, a practice going back to 1975 when she made cane drawings and text for Dale Chihuly’s seminal Irish Cylinders. The glass powder drawings and titles are then picked up on the alphabet cylinders in the hot shop. Kirkpatrick’s and Mace’s sculptural work very often incorporates glass elements, but glass in concert with other materials and only if glass can support the concept behind the sculpture. Every Soil Bears Not Everything (2008) is a wall-hung sculpture consisting of an alder-wood branch “drawing” of a horizontal log containing a shelf with five vessels, each container “holding” a concept identified by the word spelled out on the vessel’s surface. Each glass cup carries metaphorical contents: “Every” contains a handful of loose, chalk-white sticks, while “Soil,” “Bears,” and “Everything” contain colored glass chips, or jimmies. The cup marked “Not” is empty. Mounted above the log drawing and the shelf is another alder-wood “drawing” of a human torso and
legs, but drawn in three dimensions and formed like a basket. The human body is a vessel, too, a “container” of emotions, thoughts, and memories. Opposite the truncated figure is a pile of sticks, bleached, like a stack of bones. The title, Every Soil Bears Not Everything, is a proverb. Not every condition is fertile for every being; each of us is responsible for finding the environment that nurtures and supports us. But the adage is likewise a precept for Kirkpatrick’s and Mace’s approach to art making: no single medium can serve to express every concept. Other sculptural works by Kirkpatrick and Mace further explore the human experience, but again, within the context of how humans interface with the natural world. Carry Land, Carry Water (2011) and A Way Is Found (2012) are both assemblages in which the central figure is a whitewashed alder-wood branch, positioned vertically for an anthropomorphic effect. The tree limbs create human limbs. Often, as is the case in these two works, Kirkpatrick and Mace incorporate blown-glass elements—the white fruit and blue bottles in Carry Land, Carry Water and the milky, dreamy head atop A Way Is Found. The theme and titles of these sculptures frequently pertain to some sort of folk axiom—again, it is human nature to seek metaphoric content in natural processes. The title A Way Is Found, for example, stems from the truth that, of all the elements, water is unique in that it will always find a way. The “figure” of A Way Is Found can be imagined to be stepping into water. Almost all of Kirkpatrick’s and Mace’s creative output requires that they work in tandem, and one senses that the finished artwork concludes an ongoing
This exhibition celebrates the first time that Kirkpatrick and Mace have shown their work in concert with their friend the artist Dale Chihuly. Their abiding friendship goes back to the 1970s, throughout which time Kirkpatrick and Mace have been members of Chihuly’s team, creating the glass cane drawings found on Chihuly Cylinders.
Alphabet of Flowers, 2012 6 x 5 x 7½"
conversation taking place between these two artists in the studio. But both Kirkpatrick and Mace also produce work individually. Most recently, Kirkpatrick has been producing compelling cord wood paintings on paper, while Mace has devised a labor-intensive means to preserve a botanical specimen, trapped within a composite and glass plate block. But these solitary practices are intrinsic to their process of investigating the form a collaborative work will eventually take. Kirkpatrick’s cord wood paintings are deceptively simple arrangements of cut logs from different species of trees. These are still-life paintings that closely approach portraiture, as Kirkpatrick is creating an observed likeness of the scabrous textures of the logs’ bark. One can virtually imagine that each log section has an individual “personality.” Similarly, in Mace’s botanical series, even extremely delicate flowers, such as The Shooting Star (2013), are suspended in three dimensions, preserving the true colors and undistorted shape of each plant. The specimen is so literally arrested in time and space that the specimen has an almost hyperreal quality. What Kirkpatrick’s cord wood paintings and Mace’s flowers have in common is that in both cases, the artist is a patient and dedicated observer of nature and, through her artwork, invites the viewer to observe the subject in as great a depth. — Linda Tesner Director, Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art Lewis & Clark College Portland, Oregon
opposite: The Edge of Certainty, 2002 (left) 79 x 37 x 25" Carry Land, Carry Water, 2011 (right) 78 x 65 x 30"
A Way Is Found, 2012 58 x 22 x 14" What Water Carries, 2011 (right) 49½ x 35 x 4"
Botanicals, 2013 Kirkpatrick | Mace Studio, Seattle
Shooting Star (detail), 2013 18 x 9 x 1½"
Poppy, 2012 9 x 6½" Trillium, 2010 8¾ x 5½"
Alphabet of Flowers Series, 2010–12 Kirkpatrick | Mace Studio, Seattle
Cordwood Eight, 2013 60 x 40"
Flora C. Mace 1949 Born; Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA Education 1976 M.F.A. degree (Sculpture/Glass), University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, USA 1975 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA (graduate work in glass) 1973–74 Goodwill Ambassador to Norway on International Farm Exchange Program 1972 B.S. degree (Fine Arts), Plymouth State College, Plymouth, New Hampshire, USA Joey Kirkpatrick 1952 Born; Des Moines, Iowa, USA Education 1979 Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, USA 1978–79 Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA (graduate work in glass) 1975 B.F.A. degree (Drawing), University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
We dedicate this exhibition to the late Italo Scanga, our friend, mentor, and muse, and to Dale, who’s example and generosity inspired and enriched our journey as artists. with love, joey and Flora
Honors and Awards 2009 Neddy Artist Fellowship Finalists 2005 Elected to American Craft Council of Fellows 2005 Seattle Design Achievement Award, Seattle Design Center and Seattle Homes and Lifestyle 2001 LibenskĂ˝ Award, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Woodinville, Washington, USA Solo Exhibitions 2012 AMK Gallery, Toledo, Ohio, USA 2011 Freisen Gallery, Sun Valley, Idaho, USA 2005 Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA 2003 Hawk Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, USA 2002 Habatat Galleries, Chicago, Illinois, USA 2000 Habatat Galleries, Boca Raton, Florida, USA 1999 Ledbetter/Luck Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee, USA 1998 Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA 1997 Tempe Arts Center, Tempe, Arizona, USA 1995 Foster / White Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, California, USA 1994 Riley Hawk Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, USA 1993 Brunnier Art Museum, Ames, Iowa, USA 1992 Riley Hawk Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, USA Foster / White Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, USA 1991 Valley Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, Washington, USA New Art Gallery, Paris, France 1988 Kurland / Summers Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA 1986 Habatat Gallery, Lathrup Village, Michigan, USA Heller Gallery, New York, New York, USA 1985 Foster / White Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA 1984 Habatat Gallery, Lathrup Village, Michigan, USA 1983 Kurland / Summers Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA Foster / White Gallery, Seattle, Washington, USA 1982 Heller Gallery, New York, New York, USA 1981 David Bernstein Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Galerie der Kunsthandwerker, Hamburg, West Germany
Selected Public Collections Art Museum, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA Broadfield Museum of England, London, England Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin, USA The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York, USA Davis Wright Tremaine, Seattle/Bellevue, Washington, USA Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, USA The Detroit Institute of Art, the David Jacob Chodorkoff Collection, Detroit, Michigan, USA Hokkaido Museum of Art, Hokkaido, Japan Huntington Galleries, Huntington, West Virginia, USA International Glass Museum, Ebeltoft, Denmark JPMorgan Chase Art Collection Kitazawa Glass Museum, Kitazawa, Japan Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum. Wausau, Wisconsin, USA Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, Florida, USA Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, USA M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, USA Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington, USA Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama, USA Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Montgomery, Alabama, USA Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California, USA Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, Washington, USA Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, USA The Prescott Collection of Pilchuck Glass at U.S. Bank Centre, Seattle, Washington, USA SAFECO Collection, Seattle, Washington, USA Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, USA Sheraton Collection, Seattle, Washington, USA Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington, USA The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA
Inside front cover Every Soil Bears Not Everything (detail on cover) 2008, 50 x 27 x 5" Stump, 2012 22 x 29 x 3¼" Kirkpatrick | Mace Studio, Seattle
November 14–December 24, 2013
110 UNION STREET #200 SEATTLE, WA 98101 206.587.6501 INFO@TRAVERGALLERY.COM TRAVERGALLERY.COM
Photography: Scott M. Leen Printing: Colorgraphics, Seattle
“Joey Kirkpatrick and Flora C. Mace are artists and naturalists. Since their meeting at Pilchuck Glass School in 1979, Kirkpatrick and Mace have worked collaboratively, exploring not only the creative potential of studio glass, but also sculpture, drawing, and… a hybrid methodology of preserving botanical specimens in three dimensions. Always, form follows idea. And for these past many years, Kirkpatrick’s and Mace’s ideas have evolved from their keen observations of the natural world.”—LINDA TESNER