March 2016: Marcia T Smith & Dennis Anderson

Dennis Anderson is rooted in the ”method” of genre painting, a category of painting in which domestic scenes or banal incidents seem familiar. He finds the Portland area, with its people and places, a great resource for his painting inspiration. “My desire is to elevate the activities of daily life, those mundane scenes where the moment becomes the subject. I like the balancing of what is familiar with the thought of what was seen. Whenever I venture out into Portland area, I take random pictures and make selections from this data. What I’m searching for in a particular scene is a feeling, some sort of place, or maybe its just happening upon the way sunlight defines and creates shadows But, my paintings are not recordings. These figures and elements can be ambiguous and remote like props on a stage. Often I’m interested in the way people interact with or detach themselves from one another. I tend to use local color for my characters and orchestrate a palatte of hues to capture a sense of place and time. By making these choices I’m hoping to bring the viewer along, finding something familiar or remembered.”

Marcia T Smith "Party" ceramic Marcia T Smith is an artist creating ceramic sculpture. She calls her cast of characters: “Phantasmagoricals”. “I like the idea of duality, or even of multi-dimensionality, and how so many of us have lived more than one life – or – are juggling several different aspects of our lives at different times during our journeys. I often feel today that, in life, we are living on an “edge”. These images, like dreams, are a composite of the dualities of life, evoking a place between the tangible and subconscious, the familiar and the imaginary. "Dreams are a source of my inspiration as are childhood memories, fairy tales, ghosts, snakes, animals, insects, circus events, games, etc. Dreams seem to compress and heighten reality. They can conjure up engaging pleasures or unpleasant fears."