"High-Fiber Diet" and Other Art

A few weeks ago, a couple of friends and I visited the Bellevue Art Museum on December's First Free Friday. In addition to viewing the three current exhibits, we also listened to a talk given by one of the artists, Nikki McClure.

We perused pretty thoroughly two of the exhibits, but because the museum closed at 8:30, we kind of rushed through the third.

In order to take more time with the third exhibit, and also because I thought my husband would like to see all the exhibits, we went down there today.

We started out looking at the bamboo art. One piece barely looked like bamboo. It had been daubed with clay, and then the excess clay wiped away.

Most of the pieces were symmetric . . .

. . . and elegant . . .

. . . but not all.

All the pieces, however, showed a high degree of artistic vision and mastery of the technical challenges of the medium.

The second exhibit featured cut paper artworks by local artist Nikki McClure. As someone who has spent her share of time wielding an X-acto knife, these pieces are amazing in their detail. She must buy blades by the case, because I know from experience that they don't stay really sharp for very long, and these pieces obviously require a blade with a really sharp point.

 

Some more than others.

The third exhibit, the one I had kind of hurried through, was more of a mixed bag, but there were still some interesting pieces. This one I found very poignant. According to the accompanying plaque, it is a collection of objects found in the artist's father's bedside table after he (the father) died, and the children were cleaning out his apartment.

Rather than simply dispose of them, the artist took them and encased them in tiny white seed beads. Their functionality thus removed, they take on an otherworldly, ghostly appearance.

This piece had the baskets arranged in sort of a line, so that one sort of flowed into the next, in descending order by size. It was more effective than the jumble in the photo. I had thought of taking a picture. Now I wish I had.

 This next piece is woven from paper. The artist cuts the strips using a pasta maker.

 These pieces appealed to me as a quilter.

While I was looking at them, and taking a few photographs, a docent approached me and showed me a smaller piece that used the same motifs and design as in this piece. She showed me the back of the piece, and how the machine stitching was very neat and precise, and nearly as artistic as the front.

Here are some other close-ups.