New Works at The Saranac

The Saranac Art Projects is currently holding a New Works exhibition featuring two of its artist members from the Northwest; Scott Kolbo and Jen Erickson. This exhibit features a series of new works, never seen before, by the two featured artists, and will be up for viewing throughout October.

Saranac Art Projects is a non-profit artists’ cooperative that is geared towards involving the community and other artists in a contemporary art culture. Kolbo and Erickson are members of this artist co-op and have chosen to share their artwork with the community and other practicing artists. This event and organization allows for the community to come and enjoy the work of local artists in a wonderful environment put on by the members of the non-profit artists’ co-op.

Scott Kolbo, an art Professor at Whitworth University, mainly works in printmaking, but also utilizes his skills in drawing, digital projections, and installations. All of Kolbo's works are inspired by the daily humors that he observes in the world around us; the tendencies that we fail to recognize as members of society. Kolbo steps back, observes these hilarious events, and then creates a comical story weaving reality with grotesque characters and boisterous events.

In his New Works, Kolbo’s series of prints and drawings are focused around a comical series of characters that he has created, and uses these characters to create his satires. Each character has its own unique background which is critical to interpreting each of his works. The staging of the events taking place in each piece is seemingly located in Spokane’s west-central neighborhoods. In studying and understanding his own environment, Kolbo treats the setting of each of his works to be a microcosm to the rest of the world.

Then we have Jen Erickson, who’s latest works have been inspired by the idea of loss and decay. Each of Erickson’s works goes through a seemingly similar process of having a painted surface, followed by symbols of decay drawn repetitively throughout each piece. What is interesting about her work though is that she makes you take a few steps closer to the piece; getting up close and personal in a sense. The size of each symbol are purposefully drawn small so to create an overall aesthetic appearance when looked at from afar—similar to the same idea schools of small fish use as a defense tactic. When observed at a distance, each symbol blends together to create one large object, but realistically it is only one small symbol drawn closely to the next. The symbols in each piece of work are systematically placed to create a decaying feel of the overall artwork.

I found that Erickson’s work reminded me of Amanda Knowles, in a sense that these two artists seem to work more formally than contextually. When observing Erickson’s and Knowle’s artworks, I felt as though I only wanted to see the formal quality of each piece, which I personally enjoy. There may very well be a contextual meaning behind their works, but I never found myself digging to find what it was. And, I think that is why some viewers are drawn to a formal piece, and why others may be turned away. I feel that some people may want more juice behind each piece than what is actually intended by the artist, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I mean art is meant to be interpreted by the viewer, right? An artist can only give the viewer so much before he begins to spoon food his/her message to the audience, but what if the viewer begins to add context to something that has no context? Or, the viewer doesn’t understand the context because it is so complex and can’t interpret the work?

Learn more about Saranac Art Projects by clicking here.

Photos by: Kellen Pacheco