Trilobites at OWCA exhibition at Portland Center for Performing Arts September-October

Because of the honor to the late Madeline Janovec and the past presidents Joan Glebow and Una Kim, I plan to attend the reception on September 5 (see below). Madeline is an essential connection to the work I've done in Korea and was a good friend for nearly 20 years. We attended numerous conferences, worked on projects, shared meals and each other's houses. I'm so grateful for OWCA's efforts to expand awareness of feminist art and art history in the metro Portland area. The honorees are tireless organizers.

Alice

PS The complete title of my work is Trilobites: kootenia burgessensis from the series, The Book of Shadows. I'm so grateful for OWCA publishing my artwork image on their PR, including the printed announcement. The work is 50 (h) x 95 (w) cm, inspired by a visit to the Mt. Stephen trilobite bed in Yoho National Park near Banff, Alberta, part of the Burgess Shale.


Link to exhibition information

Here's a statement I made about this and the other work, a print, which will appear in the exhibition.

The Effect of Snowmelt on Past Cultural Landscapes and The Book of Shadows

 I like to explore different landscape representations to express my personal experiences and cultural interactions with geography. Seeking alternatives to the Western landscape tradition and its relentless desire for control, I currently focus on atmospherics and biological residues such as fossils and ancient human activities. With the approach of pattern and decoration, I can investigate and create a different language of varied traditions including maps, classical and middle eastern mosaics, decorative art, textile design, indigenous paintings and shrine technologies.
Currently I work with acrylic, encaustic, mixed media and printmaking. I like working with handmade paper and enjoy using simple print techniques such as relief and collagraph to express human mimicry of natural processes.
As an artist in residence at North Cascades National Park, I learned from archeologist Bob Mierendorf that to understand wilderness, we must be open to the existence of many past cultural landscapes.
Topographic maps appeal to me because they are created by physically active scientists and engineers who document the terrain directly by walking on it. Intimacy with a place affects our relationship to it. I try to see as much as I can most of the places I depict. Further, erosion and other natural effects reveal the evasiveness of geography to reinforce a static view of landscape. During my visit to Korea in June 2011, I experienced the dramatic landscape transformation from the increased intensity of typhoons, including Meari. There I was impressed by traditional construction and landscaping techniques to work with the effects of massive precipitation.
In the series, The Book of Shadows, I depict fossil residues to create an alternate reading of the landscape through geological clues to life’s effects on our planet.
Visual traditions and themes create a kind of language that exerts a powerful effect on social consciousness. Artists choose particular traditions and themes to explore and alter these ranges of expression. I want to create new narratives that reaffirm our ties to where we live, people who came before, the planet, nature and its cycles.
Alice Dubiel September 2013

Lights of Women: an international exhibition in Gwangju, Korea Fall 2012

As part of a delegation of women from the Pacific Northwest, I was invited to exhibit work in Gwangju Korea. Lights of Women featured work by over 140 women artists from around the world, was sponsored by the Geumnamro Gallery of the Gwangju Art Museum and opened during the opening week of the Gwangju Biennale.

WCA and CAA national conferences

Amazing to being in LA at such a time of great change and not as much in evidence in panels. Lots going on in galleries and private discussions. Advise you to check out some of my links, to be posted later.

International Exhibition in Portland

Join me and 83 other artists from 24 countries on August 5, 5-7pm at the Littman Gallery, Portland State University Building, 1825 Broadway for USA 2010: Her Presence in Colours IX, International Women Artists' Exhibition as part of week long events surrounding a conference of women artists.

The Oregon Women’s Caucus for Art (OWCA), a chapter of the National Women’s Caucus for Art, welcomes to Portland international visitors for the 9th biannual conference of the International Women’s Art Council (INWAC) based in Panang, Malaysia. This is the first such conference held in the United States and Portland will be opening its doors to welcome the artists during the first week in August. The public is invited to the week long series of free events, offering an opportunity to interact with the artists and to help promote world peace and harmony through communication and meaningful interaction.

Public Events:
Mon, Aug 2, 4 PM – MAYOR’S OFFICE WELCOMING RECEPTION
Location: Portland City Hall, 1221 SW 4th Ave

Tues, Aug 3, 10AM-4PM – INWAC International Artists’ Forum.
Artists from Asia, Europe, Australia, and Americas will give presentations, sharing their experience as artists.
Location: Ecotrust Building, Billy Frank, Jr. Conference Center. 721 NW Ninth Ave.

Thurs, Aug 5, 9AM-12noon – ARTIST TALKS
Location: Littman Gallery, PSU Smith Building, 1825 Broadway
1:30-4PM ARTISTS SEMINAR: Art Made Out of Desperate Need,
Location: PSU, Shattuck Hall Annex, 1914 SW Park Ave
5-7PM, EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION
Location: Littman Gallery, PSU Smith Building, 1825 Broadway
Note: Exhibition dates at Littman Gallery Aug 5-27, Gallery hours: Mon– Fri, 12-4PM


BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
 In 2008, OWCA members Madeline Janovec and Una Kim were asked in Beijing at the 8th INWAC conference, where they were participants, to host the 9th conference in Portland. OWCA agreed to host this important event. Previous conferences have been held in Australia, England, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Korea. The conference is the vision of
 Dr. Yuen Chee Ling, Director of the Conservancy of Fine Art of Malaysia and founder/president of the International Council of Women’s Art.
Her Presence in Colours reflects the cohesive spirit of women artists and their inner passion for life and art, their concern and awareness, their emotions and aspirations.

For more information: Contact: Co-Chair Karen Swallow, 503.231.7624, swallowtales@comcast.net
Co-Chair Una Kim, 503.358.8891 unakim1@yahoo.com

Biocenosis: An exhibition at Phinney Center Gallery

Exhibition on view April 8 through April 29, 2010

Phinney Center Gallery
Phinney Neighborhood Association
6532 Phinney Avenue North
Seattle WA 98103

reception April 9, 2010, 7-9 pm (part of Artwalk)
Gallery Hours

• Monday through Friday 9am–9pm
• Saturday 9am–2pm
• 206.783.2244

Biocenosis is the process or system of organisms and natural phenomena interacting within a particular environment. The works in this exhibition include paintings and prints from 1993 through 2006. Earlier ones, from the series, Re: Seeding Gaia, link the politics of industrial botany with women's reproductive rights. A few are from the series, Penelope's Web, referring to the Odyssey and caretaking for posterity. More recent works reflect on biocenology and our approaches to landscape representation. See the statement for the exhibition below.

Please see http://www.planetart.us/ for biography and curriculum vitae.

Here is the catalogue of works, grouped by series. Sales are handled by the Phinney Center Gallery and retail prices reflect accordingly. WA state sales tax will be added.

SERIES: TITLE OF WORK MEDIA DIMENSIONS (UNFRAMED) DATE PRICE

Crisis Management in Reproduction: Sustainable Post Germination acrylic on paper 30 x 44 inches 1993 2150
Crisis Management in Reproduction: Invasive Procedures acrylic on paper 30 x 44 inches 1993 2150
Penelope's Web: Skylla's Cliff acrylic on paper 15 x 22 inches 2000 725
Penelope's Web: A Great Wave acrylic on paper 15 x 22 inches 2000 725
Penelope's Web: Departing Skheria acrylic on paper 18 x 23 inches 2000 860
Re:seeding Gaia: Germination Impression puzzle piece collagraph 9 x 12 inches 1995 360
Re:seeding Gaia: Diversity Yields Stability multi-plate relief print 8.5 x 11 inches 1996 325
Re:seeding Gaia: Brown Earth acrylic on paper 22 x 30 1998 975
Re:seeding Gaia: (Flowing Consciousness) Enlightenment is a Social Responsibility acrylic on paper 22 x 30 inches 1998 975
Re:seeding Gaia: Creek Chum in Salt Water acrylic on paper 22 x 30 inches 1999 1290
Resistance/Resilience: Children of the Rivers acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2002 1290
Resistance/Resilience: Mountain Mudflow acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2002 1290
Resistance/Resilience: Fish resist acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2002 1290
Resistance/Resilience: Imagination resists domination acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2002 1290
Resistance/Resilience: Ross Lake Crows and Trout acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2003 1290
Resistance/Resilience: Pumpkin Mountain/Diablo Dam Crows and Trout acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2003 1290
Resistance/Resilience: Ross Lake: High Summer acrylic and mixed media, photocopy on paper 60 x 85 cm 2005 1290
Strategic Clearing: White Pass and Bumping Lake acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper, mounted on stretched canvas 60 x 85 cm ea 2000 3450
Strategic Clearing: Douglas Wilderness acrylic and photocopy on paper, mixed media 60 x 85 cm 2003 1290
Strategic Clearing: Mt. Rainier acrylic, photocopy and mixed media on paper, mounted on stretched canvas 60 x 85 cm ea 2004 2450
The Slave Trade Was Free Trade: A Tale of Money acrylic and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2000 1290
The Slave Trade Was Free Trade: Trade A Tale of Struggle acrylic and mixed media on paper 60 x 85 cm 2001 1290
The Transformation of the Landscape: Worm Flows collagraph and mixed media 28 x 19 cm 2001 290
The Transformation of the Landscape: Ape Cave collograph and mixed media 19 x 28 cm 2001 290
The Transformation of the Landscape: The Breach collagraph and mixed media 28 x 38 cm 2001 350
We Call It Columbia: Iyagathl Imathl Bridal Veil, Bonneville Dam, Hood River acrylic, photocopy on paper, mounted on stretched canvas 60 x 85 cm ea [triptych] 2000 3225

O Rubor Sanguinis A Statement

O rubor sanguinis
antiphon to St. Ursula
O rubor sanguinis,
qui de excelso illo fluxisti,
quo Divinitas tetigit,
tu flos es,
quem hiems de flatu serpentis numquam laesit.
Hildegard von Bingen

This series of paintings came about through experiment with coloring the backgrounds of the seed series. However, the formal element of the red opaque matte pigment revealed a not completely conscious interpretation very much related to profound changes in my physical and emotional cycles.

As a member of a women’s choir dedicated to performing medieval repetoire, I am constantly learning works by Hildegard von Bingen. One of the recurring images in her work is “O Rubor Sanguinis” the river of blood. This river sometimes appears as the blood flowing from Christ’s death wound, and sometimes as the Rhine in homage to the martyrdom of St. Ursula and her companions, the 11,000 virgins whose blood flowed in the river. Moreover, for Hildegard, moisture and high contrast melody are metaphors for life, for salvation. It is difficult for me to separate the power of these images as the result of religious vision from the fact that Hildegard’s visions began during her forties, when many of us physically experience rivers of blood. At a time when my reproductive system altered my capacity for procreation, I became very much aware of the multiplicity of possible children, possible lives which would not mature. Since we have our ovae from birth, which cycle each month during menses, which are left? Amazed at the variety and potentiality, I am grateful for the one who has matured and the environment which has nurtured him.

Alice Dubiel October 1999

In 2006 O Rubor Sanguinis: Tu Flos Es became the cover image for River of Red, the first compact disk recording of the Medieval Women’s Choir.

Alice Dubiel January 2009

this work is currently exhibited at the LIttman Gallery, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon