Julie Ann Smith, oil paintings
David Strough, mixed media constructions

April 24-May 27

Julie Ann Smith creates small intimate paintings. She works in oils using a classical technique of under-painting in brown, black and white before adding color. She is a fan of 17th century Dutch painting and surrealism. Smith works from a “set” for her paintings. This “setting up the still-life” can be a slow process involving several days or weeks. An idea usually begins with a “charged object”, an object infused with meaning or metaphor. “It’s a process similar to what an art therapist might use to illicit memories or subconscious thoughts from a patient. I let my intuition take the lead”, says Smith. “During the process, the meaning of the painting becomes clearer to me, but not always. It is a little like reconstructing dreams, then analyzing them.” The paintings in this show are a continuation of her “family ties” theme. Personal and introspective, Smith is delving into her experience of growing up in Portland.

Pictured Right: "Girlish Dreams" oil painting

David Strough, aka Bouche de St.Rough, creates multi faceted mixed media constructions. In this show he concentrates on ”walls on walls”. His pieces look as though someone went into an old abandoned house and tore out a section of the wall and whatever was hanging on it. The usually hidden lathe and plaster is also exposed, along with the wallpaper de jour. Behind the wall is the often invisible, but quite powerful nature of walls. Bouche’s “Whole pieces” is a series of wordless narratives; walls hanging on the walls. “I‘ve always had a fascinatio n with objects out of time. I have always wanted to be the guy responsible for all the cool stuff in the attic: stuff that is no longer needed or wanted but is too cool to get rid of. That irrational connection between anonymous stuff and your heart has always felt like my home, my native land. And oddly I am not much of a collector. I think it has something to do with joyful reverence for something I’ve not found yet.”


Pictured Left: "I.F. Yukon, Icon #2" mixed media