PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend painter Karen Hackenberg will display work spanning from 2009-2023 in a solo exhibit at Tacoma Art Museum next month.
The exhibit, “Sea Change: The Art of Karen Hackenberg,” will open Dec. 7 and remain open until April 6.
Hackenberg described her work variably as cute, funny, beautiful and ironic.
In her painting “Orca Pod,” three plastic water bottles stand at dusk in the deep blue and mercurial waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Discovery Bay. Smooth gradient skies shift from pink to blue to darker blue, over a spit of land jutted out across the horizon. Text on the bottles reads “Laughing Whale Spring Water,” with the cartoon image of a cute orca whale, keeled over, fins to stomach and grinning, printed on each bottle.
To view her paintings, visit https://karenhackenberg.com.
Hackenberg said she’s not one to paint cloudy, rainy days.
“In terms of the color, living here on Discovery Bay, when it’s a sunny day and you’re on the beach and you see this stuff, Northwest skies are sort of the bluest blue you can imagine,” Hackenberg said. “When we get that weather, it’s real intense, intense light, so that’s somewhat reflected in my work. I think I exaggerate it a little bit.”
Hackenberg’s paintings situate trash washed ashore in Discovery Bay both in beautiful surroundings and as beautiful unto itself.
“For a while, I was painting straight landscape paintings because of my passion for nature and the wildlife that lived in nature,” Hackenberg said. “Those received quite a bit of attention and sold well, but I was feeling that it was not communicating the passion and concern I had for what we’re doing to the environment. Particularly as evidenced where I live on Discovery Bay, when I take walks and see various things washed up and degrading on the beach. ”
In a series of vertical paintings sized 72 inches by 36 inches, Hackenberg assembles modern totems, stacking and affixing found plastics in her studio before photographing them in the shallow waters of the bay. Then she paints from large prints.
One such totem features differently sized whiffle balls and another a grouping of toy characters, topped by a pterodactyl, with the word “China” on its wing.
“People are often so bummed out by images of the actual tragedy,” Hackenberg said. “The beauty and the humor in my work kind of brings people in to be able to laugh at themselves and what they’re doing. It’s a way to hopefully buoy people to consider the issue but not necessarily get totally bummed out by it, so there’s a possibility of changing one’s approach to consumerism.”
The exhibit will include about 36 paintings, mostly oil and some gouache. She also will exhibit hand-printed lithographs and ephemera from her studio.
Hackenberg said she finds bottle rocket tips scattered in the washed-up debris after Fourth of July or New Year’s celebrations.
“They’re really cute, but they’re really annoying,” she said. “Because they’re symbolizing our disrespect for what lives in the bay. It’s a reflection of the noise that disturbs the wildlife and the pollutants that are in the fireworks.”
These tips prompted some of her early found trash artwork. With 3D modeling skills from her time as an architectural model builder in the 1980s, Hackenberg built sea urchin-like sculptures with the bottle rocket tips.
One day while she was walking on the beach, Hackenberg found a Tide laundry detergent bottle, the subject of a 2009 painting, which started a new phase in her work.
“It suddenly occurred to me, it was a low tide and it was a red tide,” Hackenberg said. “Here there was this reddish orange Tide bottle sitting there. Out of frustration and impudence combined, I took the bottle and placed it in the seascape and took photographs of it with the beautiful scenery behind. My first painting was of that bottle.”
Hackenberg said the start of the theme reflected something in her personality.
“It was kind of ironic, kind of funny but sad,” she said. “I have this sense of joy in the human condition and sadness about the human condition. We’re all incredibly capable of making and doing wonderful things and at the same time oblivious to how we are destructive.”
As the new work entered her mind, Hackenberg found new and inspiring refuse every time she went on one of her regular beach walks. The objects often were too ridiculously ironic to be true, she said.
The theme has been steady and of sustained interest for Hackenberg, who paints for hours in her studio on most days. Hackenberg said the two galleries that represent her, one in Seattle and the other London, are eager to receive more work.
“My work takes a long time to make, so I’m trying to speed up the process,” she said. “I’m in here a much as I can be day in and day out for weeks on end.”
Hackenberg said she is taking a slight break preparing for her Tacoma show.
Hackenberg sells her work in the Patricia Rovzar Gallery in Seattle as well as the London-based Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, which has been showing her work in Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and London.
For more information about the December opening, visit https://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/exhibit/sea-change.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
