- Courtesy of the artist and Cullom Gallery
- Juliet Shen's Confluence 4 (2013), ink drawing over cardboard relief monotype, 15 by 22 inches. More of her work is at Cullom Gallery's web site here.
The swirling, tunneling print you see above was one of the pieces Beth Cullom displayed last week at her first-ever open-air-art-dealing stakeout experiment, a gambit I wrote about in this week's paper.
Juliet Shen is a typographer by training—she's designed fonts for the Tulalip Tribe and others. The influence of typography is striking in this print, which feels part-written, part-painted.
Meet the local project that inspired Shen: an informal summer artist residency on the Duwamish River.
The residency was started in 2012 by artists Fiona McGuigan and Sue Danielson. The Duwamish is too environmentally, socially, and historically fascinating to sit there unreflected by the artists living in its midst, they thought.
Remember the amazing old FBI building down on the banks of the Duwamish—the one that used to house artist studios and infuse so much of Seattle's new art with the river's constant presence?
This new residency picks up on that legacy around representing Seattle's much-abused but eternally surviving body of water. This summer, 11 studio artists worked on the shores of the river for 8 days. The results are on display at North Seattle Community College. The show closes after Friday, but they're open late, until 8 pm, tonight and tomorrow.
Check out Shen's work here, and watch for details about the next appearance (October 29) of Beth Cullom's stealth pop-up gallery here. And click on the photo below for the story "Open Air Dealer."