Thank you to ALL the HEARTBREAKER fans and artists. My curatorial debut was a blast and huge success thanks to you! Thanks also to Teresa Verraes-Landis and her beautiful space at AOT. Farewell HEARTBREAKER!
HEARTBREAKER press release:
Ever lost in love?! Betrayal, jealousy, unrequited, love/lust, unattainable, unapproachable, unresponsive objects of love/lust, tainted, tortured, led-on, let down . . . . it’s a HEARTBREAKER.
HEARTBREAKER is Artisans on Taylor’s inaugural group exhibition. Conceived of by painter
Counsel Langley and co-curated by Langley and gallery owner Teresa Verraes-Landis, HEARTBREAKER brings together paintings, prints, photography, jewelry, and sculpture by more than twenty-five artists from across the region, up and down the West and East Coasts and points in between.
Read on for a taste of what’s on the menu this
January through February 15th: “The pleasure of putting together a themed group show is asking the question. In this case the question was ‘Dear Artist, What is Heartbreak?’ It is interesting not because you know what you’re going to get, but because you don’t know how they will answer, how they will interpret the theme,” says Langley. “The diversity of response to the HEARTBREAKER call for artists goes far to prove that the human heart aches in many ways.”
There is the deep ache of childhood lost as reflected in an intimate ink and watercolor by Mike Biskup. “My Two older brothers moved out & away when I was about 17. I lost my nice country home in Fresno to smoggy air & suburban sprawl. My dog, Misty, got hit by a car. My brother permanently “loaned” my skateboard to one of his stupid friends. I lost religion. I lost my dream of being a bird flying. I lost the moon & stars.”
Heartbreak is also to be found in the claustrophobia of roles assigned by society. One of a handful of HEARTBREAKER jewelry pieces, Ring of Heartbreak by Brooklyn-based filmmaker and activist Corey Tatarczuk, depicts a woman trapped in the heartbreaking world of the Victorian daguerreotype. “She is sewn into her elaborate, uncomfortable clothing, doing needlepoint—thankless work. The film is mounted on mother of pearl, allowing light through. Mother of pearl also alludes to some of the classic materials of ‘women's work’ and attire.”
Several HEARTBREAKER artworks are intensely personal. These daringly place taboo private moments into the public sphere. One example is Amanda Marshall-Kapp’s unembellished self-portraits, photographs taken the morning that she “ingested an overdose of prescription drugs shortly after [her] son and his father left the house . . . .” Another is The Read Letter, an acrylic painting by David Nixon, Philosophy Doctorate cum Rock Star member of up-and-coming Seattle band “Awesome.” Nixon depicts himself sobbing as he reads a letter, a moment of emotional breakdown that is normally kept safely private.
Other works are more documentarian, but no less poignant. Photographer David Conklin presents sensitive images from his hospice project in which he has captured the moments at the end of a person’s life. “This [project] is through the local hospital. I am taking portraits of people in their last stages of life. I am trying to show people in an environment that is meaningful to them, in a positive light.”
Some HEARTBREAKER works, the photography of Bainbridge Island’s Harry Longstreet for example, verge on voyeurism. “I almost always shoot with available light and avoid staging or posing a shot.” Longstreet’s two HEARTBREAKER images are of couples he does not know in public places who, despite being in an embrace, are clearly and sadly no longer on the same page.
Heartbreak on a political level is acknowledged by painter Jason Gould. His peice, G.W. Love, is his “attempt to bring more love and compassion to [George W. Bush], to try and break his heart. Every time your heart breaks, it breaks open, allowing the love within to flow.”
Myth is rife with heartbreak, and is manifested here by Edmonds ceramist Pamela Mummy with her sculpture entitled Daphne “after the Greek goddess who was pursued by Apollo. He was frantically in lust with Daphne, due to an unfortunate arrow from Eros, but she would have nothing to do with him. To help her escape Apollo, her father turned her into a laurel so she would be protected from his embrace—a classic heartbreak.”
Of course, HEARTBREAKER would not be complete without the knuckle biting heartache of the pin-up. The I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendar fills this role by delivering twelve decades of heartbreaking beauty—at your fingertips, yet always beyond your grasp.
Finally, Brooklyn painter Jorden Haley goes straight to the human organ that has been deemed the seat of emotion. With In This Together he simply says that to be human, to have a beating heart, is to experience heartache.
Heartbreak is not comfortable and is mostly avoided by polite society. All of the HEARTBREAKER artists have shown a deep compassion for human nature with all its vulnerability. They have, as well, shown bravery in their enthusiastic willingness to work it out and show it off
HEARTBREAKER artist list:
Buick Audra New York NY
Mike Biskup Port Townsend WA
Stacey Bott Bellevue WA
Jane Champion Port Townsend WA
Rena Coen Boston MA
David Conklin Port Townsend WA
Dan Daniels Portland OR
Michael DeMeng Missoula MT
Nicole DePonte Revere MA
Lauretta Frost Port Townsend WA
Jason Gould Port Townsend WA
Jorden Haley New York NY
Zachary Hixson Salt Lake City UT
Newel Hunter Port Townsend WA
iheartbrooklyngirls New York NY
Andrea Lawson Port Hadlock WA
Harry Longstreet Bainbridge Island WA
Deedra Ludwig Port Townsend WA
Amanda Marshall-Kapp San Fran CA
Pamela Mummy Edmonds WA
David Nixon Seattle WA
Orpheus Chocolates Lopez Island WA
Jackie Pallister Port Townsend WA
Ken Parker Ireland
Sharon Pollard Bothell WA
Jonathan Safir Port Townsend WA
Joshua Sage Port Townsend WA
Erin Sherry San Diego CA
Corey Tatarczuk New York NY
AND MORE . . . .
