Local artist's work on exhibit in Tacoma

Mindi Katzman's "Preaching to the Choir,"
encaustic on paper on board, 2010, depicts
a scene that will be familiar to West Seattle
residents. Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

I dropped by Tacoma's Brick House Gallery, operated by my friend Peter MacDonald, last Thursday to check out the art of Mindi Katzman. Though I'd never seen her work before, there was something immediately familiar. West Seattle residents will certainly recognize Katzman's paintings that feature iconic totem poles from around the neighborhood, as well as another that includes the Alki Statue of Liberty, a work that is featured on her business cards and the home page of her website.

In addition to those, another painting of a Puget Sound scene in the show, titled "Another Point of View," seemed like a familiar sight. As it turned out, the landscape was painted from a viewpoint at the end of Waite Street, just a short walk away from Weisenheimer world headquarters.

Our cell-phone photos don't do the work justice. Katzman works with encaustic, applying colored wax to the surface. Marvelous, vibrant colors and an interesting texture result.  Many of her paintings feature birds who appear as curious about the scenes depicted as do we, the gallery patrons. Katzman also does some marvelous painted metal sculptures depicting tropical locales. One that had several beds of calla lilies on it particularly caught my eye; don't tell my mom, who used to have a bunch of calla lilies in the back yard, but my sister and I used to blow them up with firecrackers.

Katzman's "Road's End" depicts a
scene from a Waite Street viewpoint
not far from Weisenheimer world
headquarters. Photo: Greg Scheiderer.

Katzman is a delightful sort and we hit it off well. It helped, I'm sure, that she and her husband Michael Dupille, who also played guitar during the reception Thursday, had just returned to the Northwest from a visit to Kitt Peak Observatory near Tucson. Weisenheimer is author of the Seattle Astronomy blog, so we had art and the cosmos as common interests. She seemed interested in our post about the photography of Roger Ressmeyer, now on exhibit at ArtsWest gallery, and hoped to get over to see it before that show closes at the end of the month.

The Katzman exhibit is a celebratory one for the Brick House, which has been open for about a year now. Congrats to MacDonald on the first anniversary and on another excellent show.

You can see more of Katzman's work on her website, and on that of the Brick House Gallery.

Plenty of Whimsy at latest Brick House Gallery show

Proprietor Peter MacDonald writes that "Whimsy," the current show at his Brick House Gallery in Tacoma, was "conceived to make you smile" and to "feel a whole lot better about this crazy world we live in." MacDonald's whimsical show hits the mark, featuring the work of 18 artists, local and from up and down the coast.

Weisenheimer's favorite piece in the show is the one pictured at right, Galen Turner's sculpture "Funk-Bot-Three-80." It's described as a "deconstructed robotic kid toy with dead stuff, neon halo, and motion sensor." What's more, it dances to the Young MC tune "Bust a Move." We also loved Pat Schuman's bright, colorful paintings depicting junk drawers and cluttered refrigerators. Somewhat more disturbing was a painting by Alan S. Hopkins called, "Facts, Fantasies, and Fictions." It shows us a North Pole awash in melted ice cap, with Santa stranded on the rooftop awaiting rescue, next Christmas turned into mere flotsam among the walruses and polar bears.

Art lovers with a sweet tooth would appreciate a triptych by Judy Gilbert featuring candy corn, licorice ropes, and Smarties. Cathy Fields contributed a marvelous painting called "An Unlikely Parade." The marchers include monkeys, a tiger, a two-headed juggler, harem girls, a yak, and snake handlers. Monica Gonzalez has several jewelry pieces in the show, made of wire and various washers. And, had it not been already snapped up, Weisenheimer would have purchased Ellen Miffitt's drawing "Catbotage," of a naughty kitty shredding the toilet paper roll. My Sweetie, the official scorer, has a birthday coming up, and she thinks it's pretty cute when our cat does that!

Local photographer Steve Russell has a great shot of a T-Rex menacing the bridge of Glass in Tacoma. I bet he had to wait a long time for that shot! Last but not least, next to the gallery door is Frank Terrill's "In Case of Emergency," pictured at left. Duct tape is a good fix for anything!

The Brick House Gallery is open on third Thursdays each month, and by appointment. You can see all of the pieces in Whimsy, as well as the artists' statements, on the gallery Web site.

Outstanding Nancy Johnson retrospective at Brick House Gallery

Tacoma's new Brick House Gallery has opened with a bang-up retrospective of the work of Nancy Johnson. A long-time project of outstanding local artist Peter MacDonald, the charming gallery is in a restored 1900-era house at 1123 South Fawcett Street in downtown T-town.

A steady stream of visitors enjoyed viewing the paintings and meeting the artist at a reception Thursday evening. Johnson has been painting since the '50s, and this particular exhibit spans five decades of her work, from 1968 through 2002. Several artifacts around the cozy gallery underscored Johnson's long and successful career, including a 1982 "Pacific" magazine from the Seattle Times for which Johnson painted the cover illustration.

The painting at right particularly caught Weisenheimer's eye. Titled "Sonatina #14," the 2001 work is part of a series of spectacular abstract landscapes. Johnson says in her statement on the paintings that she does not have an image in mind when she starts, but yet "some people see in the paintings places they have been, places I have never seen." Indeed, when he saw me riveted to "Sonatina #14" MacDonald remarked that it reminded him of Wyoming. Interestingly, I was thinking just the same thing, as the powerful, roiling, bright cloud took me back to the thunderstorms we encountered while on our Pioneer League baseball tour last summer. The bright cloud is not a result of camera glare; I snapped it with my iPhone. No flash. It's even more spectacular in person in its full size, 30x30.

Many of the paintings in the exhibit feature water scenes, swimming and sunbathing or just the waves rolling in. They're spectacular. Go see!

Brick House Gallery is open limited hours, the third Thursday of each month from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. MacDonald will also open the gallery by appointment. Call 253-627-0426 or visit the Web site at http://www.thebrickhousegallery.com.