Made In The Northwest -- Bellevue's Show Heavy On Crafts

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1995 Pacific Northwest Annual, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue Square, through Sept. 10. Mondays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., until 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays; Sundays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults. Artist William Cumming discusses his life and work, 5:30 p.m. Aug. 11. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Given that the Bellevue Art Museum's annual juried art show opens the same weekend as the popular arts and crafts festival it sponsors each year, it is perhaps no wonder that the art show has a distinctly crafts feel about it.

Of the 144 works chosen for this year's art annual, at least one third have their origins in craft. There are ceramic vessels and sculptures, lots of jewelry and a big, fanciful rug, along with numerous mixed-media constructions.

The 1995 Pacific Northwest Annual, which was open to artists from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Montana, was juried by Prudence Roberts, curator of American Art at the Portland Museum. In describing her selection process, Roberts said she "aimed for a range of style, scale and use of materials, an approach I thought would reflect the diversity of the Northwestern states" and their artists.

Glass art underrepresented

Roberts succeeded in drawing attention to the established traditions of craft in the Northwest, despite the near total absence

of glass art. (Which is being shown everywhere else in the area anyway in conjunction with Pilchuck Glass School's 25th anniversary.) On the other hand, those who like painting and sculpture might have hoped for a bit more diversity in those areas. Still, there are a few appealing examples of both included in the show.

Seattle painter Gloria DeArcangelis' lovely oil on wood painting of a naked, sleeping young man evokes the lushest qualities of Renaissance painting. It is varnished, luminescent and rendered with masterly technique. DeArcangelis is a young painter whose signature classical portraits and renderings of the human body are already being collected by Microsoft, among others. Not surprisingly, her painting won one of the seven $1,000 merit awards given in conjunction with the show.

Other awards went to Laurie Balmuth of Portland, who used painting and mixed media to create an ironic, feminist narrative called "Lady Byron Vindicated"; Carl T. Chew, the Seattle printmaker, painter and art entrepreneur known for his one-of-a-kind rugs (a fanciful rug depicting an abstracted Carmen Miranda is his entry in the show); and Pamela Gazale, a Seattle sculptor who entered some of her highly original sculptures made of salt.

The three other merit winners were Susan Kunimatsu of Seattle, whose sleek, woven silver jewelry was some of the best in the show; Saya Moriyasu, a Seattle artist who created an enigmatic mixed-media work; and Jeff Shay, a Portland photographer.

Ceramic "buckeyes" irresistible

Some of the Northwest veterans and gallery regulars in the show include Joan Ross Blaedel, Drake Deknatel, Gail Grinnell, Carolyn Krieg, Royal Nebeker, Gary Nisbet, Nelleke Langhout Nix, Elizabeth Sandvig, Robert Yoder and Robert Calvo. Particularly compelling pieces included a dozen big, warm brown ceramic "buckeyes" by Seattle ceramic artist Liza Halvorson. These big pieces are so inviting you want to touch them.

Other standouts: M.J. Anderson's travertine sculpture called "Chambers of Passion," which looks like an elegant column of vertebrae; Andrew Cooperman's spare, modernist jewelry; and the gut "canoe" by Peggy Van Bianchi and Emily Standley - which, suspended near the entry to the gallery, is a fine welcoming piece to the show.

Also on display are eight mostly recent paintings by Northwest elder statesman William Cumming, one of the remaining members of the "Northwest School." The museum each year honors a senior artist for lifetime achievement. In his paintings, Cumming sticks to his trademark bright tempera palette; his subjects are people and children at play, at rest, usually outdoors and on sunny days. More interesting because they are less commonly seen are a few drawings that date from the '30s and '60s. A drawing called "Double Portrait" is particularly lovely, sketched with a light, suggestive line and a romantic flair.