PORT ANGELES — A pair of Pacific Northwest sculptors will mount a new exhibition, “Earthen Forming,” at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center today.
Carole Murphy, a studio artist and the director of the New Sculptors Gallery of Portland, Ore., and Matthew Allison, who teaches visual art at Shoreline Community College, are the creators behind the show.
They will give a short presentation on their work at 4:30 p.m. Friday and stay for the opening reception from
5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Admission is free to the public at the fine arts center, 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., where “Earthen Forming” will be on display through July 12.
Murphy began sculpting in clay 15 years ago and moved on to wax, bronze and glass, only to find herself drawn to another material: autoclaved, aerated cement.
“My work is leaning at this point toward sensual, organic forms,” she said, “and this material has assisted me in traveling far from the genre I began with.”
Allison started out focusing on painting and drawing at Tacoma’s University of Puget Sound.
Then he discovered Japanese ceramics, and after earning his Master of Fine Arts at Southern Illinois University, he traveled to Japan and worked toward a doctorate in ceramics at the Tokyo National University of Fine Art.
These days, his clay pieces meld a Japanese aesthetic with a naturalist, eroding-earth feeling.
Art lovers can see the “Earthen Forming” exhibit at the fine arts center’s indoor gallery, open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays.
Also open is Webster’s Woods, the 5-acre art park surrounding the center. Visitors are welcome there from dawn till dusk 365 days a year.
For more about the center and its activities including the Solstice Festival on June 20, see www.PAFAC.org or phone 360-457-3532.
