Have yourself a Merry little Christmas

Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion, 2011 Fremont Arts Council Solstice celebration "Winter Feast 2011"

Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion, 2011 Fremont Arts Council Solstice celebration "Winter Feast 2011"

Photographer Jini Dellaccio

Jini Dellacio (left) greets gallery visitor Samantha Bailey at the opening of Dellaccio's one woman exhibit on Nov. 10 at Photo Center NW in Seattle.

I attended the opening of Jini Dellaccio's one woman exhibit at Photo Center NW a few weeks ago.   In her ninth decade and sitting upright in a comfortable walker, the photographer flourished in the sixties. She told me her favorite camera was the Hasselblad and favorite lens, the 200 mm. Dellaccio delighted in taking rockers of the day outside for shoots and her work includes many musicians of the day like Neil Young and The Who. Watching her greet and engage with each admirer was a true pleasure. Dellacio's collection of musician portraits hung at The Crocodile for the last few years and will travel again after this exhibit ends on Dec. 16. A limited edition monograph of her work “Rock & Roll” accompanies this exhibition and is available through the Photo Center.

Hair

"Joni's braids" photo by Ann-Marie Stillion, 2011, all rights reserved

Last week I started exploring the small space of my studio for portrait shooting. The lovely Joni and her amazing head of explosive braids dropped by for a few hours of fun. I am pretty excited about the possibilities. Natural light with a simple hot light. Pretty cool.

Fall afternoon at Green Lake

Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion, 2007

Any afternoon, depending on the season the time may change, but any afternoon there is this timeless moment at the edge of Green Lake. Such a remarkable place.

Happy Fourth of July

"Georgetown, Seattle, an artists' trailer park, 2011" by Ann-Marie Stillion.

Longshot 2011 - get going

 

Lumber, a dog from West Seattle, makes a plea for donations. Visitors are encouraged to go to http://pcnw.org/l... and pledge - a few dollars. Lumber's friend, photographer Ann-Marie will be shooting on the Longshot. You can make a flat donation or pledge an amount for each hour she shoots. It's a 24-hour shoot, so who knows.

churn 2011

"Subject two," by photographer Ann-Marie Stillion, 2010 from the ongoing project, churn, about American technology

For more about churn, visit my web site.

Push Pin Show at PCNW -- through April 17

"On the beach - dog," digital archival print, 2009 by Ann-Marie Stillion

 

 

 

 

One of a series of three prints on exhibit.

Photo Center NW
Push Pin Show
900 12th Ave, Seattle, Washington 98122, (206) 720-7222

Visual abstraction

"Winter, 2010" @Ann-Marie Stillion, all rights reserved, 2011

Abstraction in visual art hovers somewhere in darkness these days. Often images are called abstraction when they are merely not well understood or don't seem to be a picture of something. I offer the idea of abstraction as being an image which brings the viewer to the same place as the artist. An abstract brings our busy minds to a pause and we breath in and out more slowly. --ams

New Work

"Truth and Beauty Redux," mixed media on wood, 12'x24", 2010 by Ann-Marie Stillion

So long to 2010, no regrets. 2011 already looks better to me.

On to new adventures. Began combining photographs and painting in late summer. This rose above pulled me into the process. Others to come. Looks like encaustic but is acrylic based and less toxic.

Rally to Restore Sanity--Seattle

(Photo by Ann-Marie Stillion/arttrek.com, 10-30-10, "Laugh More")

I met up with excellent editor and beautiful friend Sherri Schultz at the Rally to Restore Sanity in Seattle. When we got to Westlake the plaza was filled (more than 6,000 by the rally organizers count) and the mood was high. We laughed while standing for sanity and articulate and thoughtful debate. When the rally broke up at noon as the rain poured down, the "protesters" scattered and one lone sign remained leaning against a retail shop, a lost balloon bobbed nearby. The sign called out "Laugh More" and the yellow balloon's message, "Enough," fell with a whisper to cold blue pavement.

Lots of other signs made me laugh that day like "Hitler is Hitler" but "Laugh More" pretty much sums it up.

Loving Mr. Picasso

Visited the Picasso exhibit at SAM this weekend. I joined my friend's Don and Brenda Gray, up from Oregon.

I wasn't prepared to be struck so deeply by the power of his work. Never a fan or follower of the great Spaniard, I became one that day. I feel every artist must see this work, which is a collection of his own making. The quantity and collection stimulated dreams and new visions. Stumbling out the museum door at dusk I felt unwilling to look at anything for a time.

This exhibit is from the museum of his work in Paris. Above is a drawing from the room of sculpture. The day I visited a group of American girls were exploring the artist's work through drawing it. My drawing reflects one of those moments. The great monstrous women's heads were poised to devour us, at least so it seemed.

New Work @ Habitude in Ballard Extended

This just in. The exhibit of my work at Habitude will remain in the upstairs space until mid-November and then move back to the main floor until Dec. 10.

Go see it!

New Work @ Habitude in Ballard

You are invited to the artist reception for
ANN-MARIE STILLION "New Work"
on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010 from 6-9 p.m.
at Habitude Salon and Spa and Gallery, 2801 NW Market Street, Seattle.
Call 206.782.2898 for more information or visit www.habitude.com.

The exhibit runs Sept. 11 - Nov. 1o, 2010

The reception is also part of the Ballard Art Walk which is
held second Saturdays throughout the year.

Join us!

To find out more about the artist Ann-Marie Stillion, 

please visit www.arttrek.com or call 206-388-3363 --

currently booking portrait sessions, 

accepting commissions and seeking representation.

Churn :: American tech workers, a photography project

Visit the slideshow here
(Updated 8.16.10) Hiring workers while laying off others is defined as churn in the language of human resources. For tech workers, churn has long been a way of life, a undeniable fact of the global economy. For a few months now I have been photographing individual tech workers, learning their stories and documenting their too often silent journeys.

This photography project is meant to maintain the integrity of the broader tech worker story without compromising the individual job seeker: Each individual is photographed in a way to conceal rather than reveal identity. Anonymous text from photographic subjects will accompany the images.

Interested in participating as a photographic subject for Churn? Please contact me at annmarie@arttrek.com. At this time, the project is focused on the greater Seattle area.

If you or someone you know is laid off, or contracting with an uncertain future then consider participating as a potential photographic subject. If you are not in this geographic area but plan on traveling here and would like to be part of the project, please let me know. As support for the project becomes available, more subjects from other geographic locations will be included.

Shooting for a world record in Sammamish!

(Photo above by Anne Lindsay) On Saturday, July 17, 2010, the first annual "Largest gathering of people with natural red hair" will happen in Sammamish, Washington at the Skyline High School Stadium (1122 228th Avenue Southeast, Sammamish, Washington) - right across the street from Sammamish City Hall.

A fine artist, portrait photographer and chronicler of redheads, Anne Lindsay has decided to go for the title of largest gathering of redheads for the Guinness Book of World Records.

I am one of the lucky photographers to join her team for this event. And today Anne told me it's not too late to sign up and be in the shot if you're a natural redhead: just come early and get in line. Gates open at 2 p.m. and the record winning shot is scheduled for 3 p.m. Or if you're not a redhead and want to cheer on the wild ginger madness there is a $5 admission fee. Be there or be square.--ams

Happy Birthday Mr. Van Gogh

The image above was taken of Vincent Van Gogh when he was 13. Today is his birthday and he was born in 1853. The image itself is from the wikimedia commons, it is in the public domain by U.S. copyright laws.

Below is a short story originally copyrighted, Ann-Marie Stillion, 2004 and later revised as late as 2010. It is a story of my personal relationship to Van Gogh. I often think of him and was reminded the year I wrote this that he foresaw his own celebrity in his writings, that he would be famous and successful long after his death. In 2004 there was a big exhibit of his work at the Seattle Art Museum and his images hung from light poles all over town. Of course, his work can be found throughout the world now. From notebooks to the face of credit cards.

Today, I went looking for an image of him and found this photograph on wikipedia. So much is visible in his young face and so much is different from his own, more mature paintings of himself.


Here is my story of the artist.


The man who wanted to be everywhere
--for Mr. Van Gogh


One day he was allowed outside the asylum. The long cool autumn afternoons in the olive groves added to his gathering madness. He watched intensely as the gray sand swirled into wild waves under his feet like a river escaping its bed. His thoughts began to appear as a vehicle of travel.

Horizons of gold kept him awake, even as the desire for sleep crushed every thought. What appeared erratic to the friends and the medical assistants sent to save him was the effect of the effort it took to align his imagination. He had decided to thrust himself into time.

He knew he must first witness the death of all his cellular life might offer. This almost kept him from his task.

The warmth of another’s touch and that of his own body sliced away for an eternity—this would go first he knew. He stood at the doorway of his dreams without entering and practiced silence.

Eternity had called to him since he first stared up into the alcove of the church in his childhood. Curves of light, glass, incense and the frozen tears of captive saints spoke to him alone he recalled thinking. He marveled at how color and prayer bound him to heaven with so little effort on his part.

His first steps had naturally been religious. But speaking over the heads of sinners deepened his sorrow until it bent in two completely perfect spheres of light. Then he began to paint.

Existing forever is what he meant to do from the first. He painted himself into time for no other reason than he wanted to see what tied each life to the earth. From that long distance it might make sense he told himself.

Now night throws itself over a dark street in Paris and the lovers will never kiss. Strangers glide the uneven cobblestone and never stumble, nor will they meet.  The cobalt black cape of flickering starlight melts into the alchemy of fate and fortune. Someone is coming now and someone will soon leave.

by Ann-Marie Stillion, 5.31.04, revised 8.16.04, 1.26.10. All rights reserved.

For inquiries regarding republishing, please contact the writer annmarie@arttrek.com.

Beautiful Sue

I met Sue Doupe over a year ago. Full of energy and a great photographer with an established photography business in family portraits and headshots for actors & business in Seattle, her beauty inspires great photography. Also a skilled actor who has taught and performed, her natural sense of drama comes out in front of the camera as well as behind it.

Of late, Sue and Lisa Ahlberg and I started getting go together for fun with our cameras for a few hours a week somewhere in the Seattle. Business, children and jobs mean we can not do it for long but actually good things don't have to last long to be meaningful.

I took this picture with the Mamiya 330s I got from another photographer, Neil Lukas. It feels both heavy and light, complex and simple. Somehow I am so comfortable and excited about it in ways that the digital doesn't always provide for me these days. There doesn't seem to be a way to easily use the flash for now so I am concentrating on natural light.

I am planning on using the medium format almost exclusively for an upcoming project, facelessness, which will talk about displaced American tech workers and their foreign counterparts caught up in the current global struggle for jobs. Not an easy subject but an important human one which impacts so many aspects of life now: can we live globally and locally? Can we leave these most personal decisions to the massive impersonal corporate decision makers who often choose profit over balanced living? Can the marketplace really work for individuals to help us mind the heart and soul we need to survive once the bills are paid?

Eva Washington: sweet are the uses of adversity, a video installation

This just in from the pr office at King County's wonderful art institution, 4Culture. Pretty cool to have won a national competition supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. I just talked to Eva today and she will be there in person.

Everyone is invited to the opening reception this Thursday, Feb. 4 from 6-8 p.m. There's a lot going on at these receptions as several artists are being featured. The electronic gallery actually faces the street towards Prefontaine Place. I will be hanging out inside and out, weather pretty much being the determining factor.

Gallery4Culture at 101 Prefontaine Pl S, Seattle WA 98104 at the corner of Third and Prefontaine. IF you are driving, remember it is ART WALK too, so prepare to scout for parking. I would park down by the piers and walk up. Or get there early and eat, drink and be merry.




NEW ON E4C (4CULTURE’S ELECTRONIC STOREFRONT GALLERY)

David Kwan: SOLARIS (Quartet Version)

Ann-Marie Stillion: Eva Washington: sweet are the uses of adversity


(Seattle, WA) – Dynamic new media works by David Kwan and Ann-Marie Stillion will be added to e4c’s rotation this February:

David Kwan

Kwan has adapted his work SOLARIS, a series of sound-generated video projections for e4c. Kwan composes soundscapes from live radio transmissions, related to the electromagnetic waves that form the basis for the ordering of matter in space and that continue to permeate the environment. These soundscapes are fed through a customized video imaging system to reveal their inherent patterning.


Artist Biography: Kwan is a media artist living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has presented work nationally and internationally including Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, Kala Art Institute, Headlands Center for the Arts, Artist Television Access, The Lab, and Mission 17 in San Francisco; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE); Jack Straw New Media Gallery in Seattle; Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart; and Baracke am Deustchen Theater in Berlin. He holds a BA in Art Practice from UC Berkeley and an MFA in Electronic Music from Mills College, where he also taught in art, music and intermedia. www.davidkwan.net



Ann-Marie Stillion

Ann-Marie Stillion will present Eva Washington: sweet are the uses of adversity, a project that combines photographs, film and audio to examine and share the story of Eva Washington, a 76-year-old woman who lives alone on the streets of Seattle. Each monitor of e4c will portray different visual aspects of Washington’s life. Stillion writes, “Eva’s personal story is the story of millions of people around the world who find themselves living without shelter.”


Artist Biography: Currently residing in Seattle, Stillion graduated with a BFA in comparative literature from Northern Arizona University and studied art at the Academy of Art College, California College of Arts and Crafts, Laney College and others. Her photographic and design work has been published in national magazines, books, websites and corporate publications. www.arttrek.com


New work by David Kwan and Ann-Marie Stillion join the ongoing rotation of work on e4c, currently featuring pieces by: Sabine Gruffat, Noah Klersfeld Laurel Beckman, Ann Oren, Tess Martin, Heather Dew Oaksen, Tina Aufiero, Stephen Hilyard, Perry Bard and Bennett Morris.


About e4c

E4c consists of four, large LCD monitors adjacent to Gallery4Culture at 101 Prefontaine Pl S, Seattle WA 98104 at the corner of Third and Prefontaine. e4c exhibits can be viewed from the street 6:00 am – 10:00 pm, daily. Eleven artists/artist teams were chosen for the inaugural year of e4c (2008/2009) from a competitive pool of applicants. Works will be added to the rotation throughout the year. Support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photographing People with Rosanne Olson

(Photo above by Rosanne Olson, www.rosanneolson.com)

The gifted Seattle photographer, Rosanne Olson, who also occasionally shares her talent and knowledge with the community at Photo Center NW has offered to put together an impromptu workshop. Preceding the upcoming Holiday Portrait fundraiser on Dec. 11 & 12 at which pros and students will produce portraits for the guests to take home on a cd, the workshop will cover the all important details of working with portrait subjects:

"How do you work with people to get them to relax and arrive at the best possible portrait? It is an art that takes skill, confidence and experience. In this three-hour workshop, Rosanne Olson will share tips and demonstrate how to work with subjects, including couples, children and groups."

Scheduled the week before the Holiday Portrait fundraiser at Photo Center NW, volunteers and anyone looking for a quick look at shooting great portraits will have the chance to experience the insight of a truly great portrait photographer. Rosanne Olson's three hour workshop begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5.

Call 206-720-7222 or visit www.pcnw.org to sign up for Photographing People with Rosanne.

Update: The cost of the workshop is $50. The center agreed to waive the cancellation fees for this workshop since volunteers for the Holiday Portrait Event may be attending.

Note: In case you are wondering, I am on the volunteer committee for the Holiday Fundraiser at Photo Center. So feel free to shoot me an email or post them here if you have questions and I will do my best to answer at annmarie@arttrek.com