Shell we go?
Manzanita’s Hoffman Center for the Arts will feature works by David Cohen, Tallmadge Doyle and the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild through September.
A reception will be held from 3 to 5 pm on Saturday, Sept. 7, during which the artists will speak about their work and answer questions.
After graduating from art school, Cohen spent nearly three decades assisting artists with the promotion and exhibition of their images and ideas. Working for a range of institutions, he was able to find unique ways to highlight and celebrate the wealth of creativity in the community. In 2009 he began drawing again, leaving an approximately 25-year gap between attempts at serious art making. Inspired by a rediscovered connection with nature, a lifelong love of books and strong interest in history and science, Cohen discovered ways to connect all these in his current explorations. Developing his own technique for applying layers of watercolor, the work continues to evolve as he explores myriad ways to depict the natural world. The pieces in this exhibition share his latest interest in abstracting images by simulating historic mosaics and stained glass. The recent mosaic paintings are his attempt at celebrating nature’s beauty and mystery, conjuring up symbols for reverence as the ancient Romans did when they created their nature-focused objects and mosaic floor designs.
Doyle begins her process by investigating scientific research on her subject matter, which involves her physical presence in the landscape to absorb the colors, smells, sounds and light qualities of an ecosystem. She works to collect sensory information and combine this with both real and imaginary cartographic elements. The invented imagery is a mapping of sorts, an approach that allows Doyle to reference both visual source material and scientific data. She brings this information into the creative realm of her imagination for the purpose of making art that will speak to our pressing environmental issues related to climate change. Doyle’s artistic output encompasses the traditional mediums of printmaking, painting, permanent public art installation and relief sculpture.
“Broad and Boundless — the many waves of weaving with the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild,” highlights the work of 17 guild members. This show is special in the variety of styles of weaving the members utilize and the wide range of materials they use. Each artist puts a part of themselves into their baskets, connecting their inner self with their skills and unique materials they use to create beautiful objects. The guild began with a small group of weavers in 1989 and has grown to more than 200 members of all levels of skills and experience.
The Hoffman Center is located at 594 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita and is open Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 pm. For more information go to hoffmanarts.org or call 503-368-3846.