Last Week For “Spirit Taking Form” SJIMA’s Registry Show

Tangled Up & Blue, Kim Bruder

If you have not seen the Artists Registry show, “Spirit Taking Form” at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art, I highly recommend you see it this week before the exhibit closes on Saturday, February 18. The San Juan Islands have a high per capita population of artists and over 90 of them are represented in this show. Most of the artists are from San Juan Island but Lopez and Orcas are represented as well.

Ke’ Nu, Phil Tate

The artworks include a broad range of styles from whimsical to classical and from minimalist to neo-primitive. Taken as a whole and considering the theme of the show, Spirit Taking Form, you can almost imagine the spirit of Morris Graves, guru of the mid-century “Northwest Mystic” school of painters, inhabiting the show. The show has a lyrical uplifting quality foregoing the brooding darkness the Pacific Northwest can sometimes evoke. The range of materials and techniques represented is stunning. Carved stone, wood, bronze, paper mache, porcelain, assemblage, mixed medium, photography, pastel, watercolor, oil, acrylic, textiles, gold leaf, leather and glass… are all represented.

September, Becky Kilpatrick

With such diversity it was a challenge to uncover a common theme beyond the elusive spirit of Morris Graves but one thing that serves to unite the work is our state of the art museum and the beautiful job SJIMA staff and volunteers did curating and hanging the exhibit. “Spirit Taking Form” is well worth seeing so please come this week before it closes. The museum is open Friday to Monday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, located at 540 Spring Street. Adult admission is $10, children 18 and under and members are free.

Link to: The Artists’ Registry

Link to: Related story with slideshow “Spirit Taking Form” SJIUpdate 12/12/16

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