UNCOMMONWORK / SHANE MILLER

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I am excited to be the featured artist at THE GALLERY AT DUNGENESS DESIGN, for the months of May and June. Karla Forsbeck, architect and owner, did an amazing job turning a circa 1900 house into office space for her architecture company with an entryway which includes a beautiful gallery space. The kind of space I love .... reclaimed wood floors ... white walls ... and natural light from windows in addition to gallery lighting. The gallery is located at 520 N. Sequim Ave. in Sequim, WA, and my show UNCOMMONWORK will be exhibited from May 4th - June 29th. The hours are Tuesday - Saturday 11 to 5 pm. There will be an artist reception on FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK on May 4th and again on June 1st. If you get a chance come by and see my NARRATIVE BOXES....BOATS ....and JEWELRY. A big THANKS to Karla for this opportunity.

Here is the press release about the show.

UNCOMMONWORK
SHANE MILLER
NARRATIVE BOXES...JEWELRY...BOATS
Exhibits at The Gallery at Dungeness Design
520 N. Sequim Ave.
May 4th through June 29th, 2012

REMEMBERING THE NIGHT GARDEN

Artist Shane Miller thinks of her narrative boxes as ...having a head, heart, hand connection...

"There is the original idea which might come from a single word or an overheard snippet of conversation that swirls in my head....until I give it some attention. There is the heart part of the equation....figuring out what motivates my characters. And finally, there is the hand work....etching the metal, building the box and assembling it all together. All these factors are motivated by a love of narrative and story-telling, an appreciation of biology and the natural world, vintage photographs and the mysteries within those images, an aptitude for tools and by the beauty of a dark patina on etched metal."

Shane Miller’s own life-story begins with being raised in Arkansas where even as a child she “wanted to make things, a trait that I am still blessed with”. Shane received a degree in fisheries and worked for Arkansas Game and Fish, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife as a biologist. Another chapter includes 3 years as a kayak guide in the Baja. Her love of sea-kayaking brought Shane to the Pacific Northwest in 1993 and eventually to her home just outside of Port Townsend with a barn studio, a 1952 Farmall Cub tractor named Bliss and a 1952 Dodge pick-up named Baladeuce. Shane says of life now..."I have put down a deep tap root and planted bulbs...a sign in my family of staying put. Landing in Port Townsend has been such a blessing. It’s the first time I have no need to look for a greener pasture somewhere else."

Most recently Shane Miller participated in “Schmoozing with the Jewelers” at The Gallery Bainbridge Arts and Crafts and exhibited in “Story/Lines” a two-person show with artist Kim Kopp at Northwind Art Center in Port Townsend.

An opening reception for Shane Miller’s exhibit UNCOMMONWORK will be on Friday, May 4th, 2012, 5-8pm at The Gallery at Dungeness Design in conjunction with Sequim’s First Friday Art Walk. A second reception for June’s First Friday Art Walk will be on June 1st.

BUDGIE SOCIETY

AFTER THE SHOW

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It's been just over a week since the jewelry event at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts and I wanted to share some images from the show. It was a grand day and evening....visiting with the other jewelers....having an opportunity to talk about my work .... explaining what a FIBULA is....dinner with friends....and a gallery packed with people for ART WALK.


I had a good time creating my display. I own several hands....two wooden articulated artist model hands and several vintage glove mold hands. Being a craftsman and working with tools all the time I have realized that my best tools come in a right and left version....my hands. They do almost everything I ask of them. I knew I wanted to show some of the tools of the trade....hammers....dapping blocks and punches....small pliers....jewelry saws with their tiny blades, etc....but I also wanted to honor hands.


When you are creating a new body of work....alone in the studio with no immediate feedback....it's not always easy to know if you are on the right track. I was pleased to receive such a warm response and interest in my newly created jewelry. The next morning a friend sent me a link and said, "Have you seen this?" The link was to the Bainbridge Arts and Crafts blog and the title of the post was SCHMOOZING WITH SHANE....what a fun surprise.


5 BEAD NECKLACE (handmade sterling silver photo etched beads)


STERLING SILVER FIBULA (handmade photo etched beads)


FIBULA (with purchased beads)


3 BEAD ORGANIC SHAPES NECKLACE (sterling silver photo etched beads)


PERCEPTION NECKPIECE (sterling silver, mica, vintage photo)

SCHMOOZING WITH THE JEWELERS

Bainbridge Arts and Crafts has put together a unique event. On Friday, April 6th, I will be one of six jewelers who will be at the BAC gallery from noon until after FIRST FRIDAY'S ART WALK....about 8pm. We, the jewelers, will be talking about our newest work and, in some cases, demonstrating. It is a great opportunity for the public to be able to ask questions and see the different processes involved for each jeweler. On both Saturday and Sunday their will be 6 different jewelry artists. Participating jewelers include...Joanna Beachy, Kristin Carman, Annie Huntley, Poppy Knopf, Carolynn Lancaster, Julia Lowther, Barbe Martin, Michele McCarter, Shane Miller (that's me), Shirley Moss, James Powell, Glynn Schultz, Lisa Ronay and Passiko True.

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Here is my artist statement for this jewelry exhibition.
"I am drawn to texture and pattern...whether that be found in the collective round holes of a wasp nest...the steel grid on a man hole cover...the white dots against black on a guinea feather...or the designs found inside a security envelope. Through the process of photo etching I am able to translate these patterns and many others on to sterling silver.

The sterling silver beads in this exhibition are new for me. They began as bits and pieces of etched silver that I had saved from other projects. Most of these 'scrap' pieces were too small to use in any of my typical jewelry designs. What started as bits of metal...housed in a yogurt container and destined for a trip to the refinery...became small silver nuggets in the form of a bead... small enough to nest in one's palm...coin like...my new currency."