CORE 2024
Exhibiting compelling art created by local artists!
Gallery Hours:
Wednesday - Saturday 12 - 6
and by appointment
Solo Exhibitions
through October 26, 2024
Pioneer Square Art Walk & Artist
Reception:
October 3rd from 6-8pm
With generous support from 4Culture, CORE gallery has weathered the challenges of the pandemic. Our door remains open and walls filled with innovative art created by local artists! Thank you 4Culture!
CORE Gallery Artists
Stories We Tell Ourselves
Jessica Dodge
If it’s true that one of an artist’s most important tasks is to hold up a mirror to the world, this past year (or past several years) have been a fractured looking-glass indeed.
One of the defining characteristics of this current era, in my observation, is the way our differing narratives shape how our realities unfold; the way they bump into each other, repelling or entrancing others as we try to navigate the digital commons we all share,
The internet burps out memes, day dreams, news, nightmares and grand follies, sometimes this flotsam seems to be the only thing we all have in common, even if we’re looking from different ends of the telescope.
This show is made up of my response to some of the stories and nonsense, troubling tales and hard truths that caught my attention over the past year and sparked a response from me.
Many years ago, after we needlessly invaded Iraq, I deployed a circus full of characters to play out metaphoric scenarios in the spirit of the jester who can speak more truthfully behind their jolly mask.
Today, we are faced with, I believe, a variety of real dangers, like the degradation of our precious environment, and the struggle to preserve our ongoing ability to speak truth to power. Sometimes these ideas, fears and hopes are expressed across that vast (and yet too intimate) digital landscape in ways that seem almost comical , or absurd, as we humans so often have done.
So, once again, I’m sending in the clowns and performing beasts to gambol about for your entertainment, along with a few other non-carnival stories of uncertain origin, in order to to hold up that jaggedy mirror for us to see ourselves in.
Mid-life Crisis
Rob Droessler
A mid-life crisis can mean different things to different people. The stereotype of the mid-life crisis is the person who buys the fancy car they have always wanted or gets a divorce to marry someone younger in a vain attempt to recapture their youth. Some people go through a period of depression. Some try to act like they did when they were younger. Some get plastic surgery. I think everyone has some form of a mid-life crisis.
For me, the title "mid-life crisis" is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. My mid-life crisis is more about the inevitable changes that happen to many of us. Getting old has been a struggle for me. Not being capable of some of the physical activities of my youth, like squatting next to a pottery wheel for long periods of time while helping a student. Throwing my back out while sleeping, has been a favorite sign of aging. Realizing that there are fewer days ahead than behind as I watch my grandparents pass away one by one and watch my parents’ age. Realizing that the medium I have spent my life mastering just doesn’t bring me the joy and excitement it once did.
My mid-life crisis is about transitions. I have moved away from clay as my primary medium. Even though I still love to work it and instruct others about it I have fully embraced 3D printing and mixed media. My “fancy sports car” is my top-of-the-line 3D printer. My “trophy spouse” is the modern technology I am working with. I have spent the last year learning Fusion 360, a CAD (computer-aided design) software, which has become my main tool for creating objects that I then use to craft sculptural forms. I have also been using these skills to craft items which I sell online. I have even been dabbling in industrial design and have created some patent-pending projects.
This new exhibition is mostly work from my new life as a “3D print artist.” I am still exploring familiar themes in new, exciting ways. I choose to work with textures, colors, shapes, and lines. Inspiration comes from truss structures and nature. I like to look at how the shadows of a truss structure can fall over or interact with different surfaces. Bridges are some of my favorite things to use for inspiration. Some of my pieces were inspired by things like barnacles, which have such fascinating textures and shapes. Others were inspired by water and the way it looks in the wind, how it flows in a mountain stream, or breaks across the beach.
This show has many pieces built with old tool and parts boxes that have an amazing patina from use and age. I have been using 3D printing to create parts that I then put together. These printed elements are, in some pieces, mixed with other elements to create the work. I use paint to further expand the complexity of some of the pieces.
This show is a deeply personal one for me. Historically I have kept me, the artist, and what I create separate from me, the human. With this work I let my personal life influence the direction of the new work. I have enjoyed creating these works immensely. They are weird and emotional, and hopefully, other people enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed creating them.
