Quiet Garden is about to get really loud

We have ourselves another Opening this Friday the 25th from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm 

Not to make a big deal of it, but it's Mari LaCure...and she is driving up from Kansas just to be with us. That's pretty nice of her. You know what would be pretty nice of us? To come on out. It'll be a hoot. 

 #7: detail of Quiet Garden 2010 Woodblock, Colored Pencil, Pen, Watercolor, Sewing on Paper 25”x37”

Mari has this to say about her work.

My recent work has been contemplative of the micro and macroscopic in nature.


In my drawings I layer and juxtapose images of both large scale and the minute to set up harmonious relationships between different structures. Dots, dashes, and repeated lines allude to sequences in nature such as branching systems, weather patterns, cellular structures, and constellations. 


The process of drawing for me is a meditative one. I work on thin paper that records and responds to my drawn marks by bending, stretching, and crinkling. The imagery is built up through layers of different media, including woodblock printed motifs, watercolor, pen, colored pencil, and sewn lines. The interaction of many different delicate materials in my work encourages the viewer to experience a heightened sensitivity and awareness to the visible and seemingly invisible in the world. Finding beauty in the connection between the living and the inanimate in the world inspires my creative process, and I hope that viewers will experience a part of this when looking at my work.

#4: detail of Waves 2009 Colored Pencil, Pen, Watercolor, Sewing on Paper 25”x37"

Team Nerd Opens During The Day Everyone Forgets How To Drive

This was our big Anniversary event. One year folks! One whole year of Baked good mixed with different types of art things. It has been awesome. 

We had some special guests - Ben and Josh from Ragged Records were kind enough to come on over and spin some pretty great tunes. Go visit them at 418 E. 2nd Street in D'port. It was an amazing addition to the Opening scene...much better than my Ipod Nano, which I have managed to leave behind at every Opening so far. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did because I am going to desperately try to get them to come back, when possible, to continue the DJ music orgy. 

Please feel free to encourage them as well in whatever manner you deem suitable. 

dj's, dancing and first guests. That Beadel... he's got fire in his pants.  

These posters are amazing and I want them right now.

Unfortunately the Opening also coincided with the first snow of the season - which was a doozy. We later found out that two of the roads to the Gallery were blocked off due to accidents. Joseph managed to barely get up a hill with the ol' trusty Van because some overly excited kids who had been sledding decided to stop and dance a jig in front of him. The slowing of momentum started to cause a bit of a slide. 

Anyway, for the first hour there were only nine of us. We were a bit depressed and pissed off that the weather had decided THAT day to take a dump on us. In fact we had resigned ourselves to closing early and drinking our sorrows. 

Alison somehow made it and back to Iowa City. That look she is giving... that's determination folks. 

The man himself in a very natural pose.

It was kind of amazing though. About an hour and fifteen minutes into the darn thing people started showing up. Not just a few, but dozens. Old regulars, St. Ambrose folk and as exciting as always some new faces to, hopefully, be inspired by what we're doing. We ended up with a good run of about 60 people. Which isn't so bad when you think that the first hour was only nine.

The power of the nerd

Because this is a show we believe in and Adam is the first artist we have shown who is local we have decided to add a Closing into the mix as well. You should come. Come on over even if you were around last time. Definitely come if you weren't. We'll be waiting for you. Smiling. Big like. 

Closing Info: 

Who: N. Adam Beadel and A Great New Start

When: Friday, January 28th from 7pm until 9 pm

Where: The Bakery Gallery at 1330 E. 12th Street in Davenport, Iowa 

Why: It's damn good

What else: More music, more food, buy the art and take it with you RIGHT THEN... Oh yeah it's also really cheap. 

Finally, we were having camera issues that night. Sorry for the lack of action shots and straight shots. We promise to try harder next time. 

Let us know what you think. 

Thanks. 

One Year Old Feels Older Than It Should

Happy Birthday to the gallery. What a special day for it. We remember when it was but a mere consideration in the backend mind of three little heads.

What does it mean. I think it means onward and upward. We've had a great first year with as top notch artist as I could ever hope for. Brett Colley, Liz Wolf, Matthew Hoffman, David Johnson, B. Ingrid Olson and Jonathan Stewart. A swath of art from different areas of the country and different areas of the genre. We owe a giant debt to these artists for supporting us by agreeing to have their work shown in a small, out-of-the-way place. A place that, while we love, was VERY lucky to get the likes of them.

We want to take the briefest moment and profess the sincerest THANK YOU that we can muster. As you all well know there isn't much of anything that means a whole lot of anything without the interest and support and girders of you, the people. You're the ones with the interest, you're the one with the desire to show up every other month or to drop us a note or just to LIKE us on Facebook and I promise you each and every one of those things means as much as a fistful of gold.

So what's next...

What is next.

How about some N. Adam Beadel.

Adam recently returned to Davenport after an absence of almost a decade. We take great pride and pleasure in being able to show the work of our first local artist (of which we hope there will be many more) Here is the postcard for Adam's show "A Great New Start"

and how about a little insight about the man himself:


Team Nerd is the hand-carved linoleum, woodblock, and letterpress printing of N. Adam Beadel.  Excessively bullied as a teenager in Iowa, Beadel set out for Seattle Washington in 2001 to find his feet.  He found a home in the world of self-publishing and graffiti, which morphed into a love for letterpress and relief printmaking. At 27 years old, Beadel set out for Knoxville Tennessee, to intern at the world famous Yee-Haw Industries, the best education of his letterpressing life.  Today, he’s scheming towards the future, carving woodblocks, and acquiring equipment to start his own press in the Midwestern United States.

Check out more of his stuff at www.flickr.com/teamnerd.

We are a year old. I hope we get older. Your continued support helps us do that. We're providing these exhibitions with only a 10% commission that goes to the owner of the East Side Bakery - Nikki. We're not here to make money, only to provide the Quad Cities with a space that presents the best Printmaking, Book Arts, Textual Arts and Paper Works that we can. This is a passion project. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your frenemies, but please tell.

Here's the technical info:

What: "A Great New Start" opening
Where: The Bakery Gallery at 1330 East 12th Street, Davenport Ia 52803
When: Opening is Friday December 3rd from 6-8 and the exhibition runs until February 4th. 
Why: I think you know why.
How: Shear sweat baby. 

Of note: We'll have a DJ on board for the Opening. Hear some great tunes.

Thanks again. Let us know what you think.

The Bakery Gallery.

The True Tale of a Tardy, Tawdry Trip

Hello.

This has been a long time coming. We did Mr. Stewart a wrong by not getting this up quicker, so for that we heartily apologize. That being said the Opening was great. We sold more pieces than we ever have in the past (with 90 percent of those proceeds going back to the artist and 10 percent going to the lovely East Side Bakery for allowing us to host in their establishment)

The day was comfortably warm, the response was charismatically swell and the food was quickly consumed. We did learn that the fancier the cheese the less likely it is to be eaten.

the throne: sat in by the invisible representation of Jonathan Stewart. I insisted all questions 

be directed to that chair throughout the night. 

WE LOVE BEANS!!!

Signing and looking. Dirty jobs for clean causes. 

Throughout the months we had several of the same questions pop up. The first one tended to be "Are there actual toys inside" and the second was "Did he print these on a computer" So here are the answers.

There are no toys inside. A few of them have magnets, but that is unrelated to anything that concerns anything really.

Jonathan did not print these on a computer. He screenprinted them on a flat surface and then cut them and scored them to allow the box forms to be made.

 the voyeur's view. Quit staring and come on in. 

Many artist's wept upon seeing these little boxes containing the dreaded form letter. "My work is to good for you anyway Connecticut College of Craft and Kreativity!!!" whoooaaa...

shaky bits and a baby

The east wall.

So there you have it. Our sixth show in the bag. You know what that means? We've made it one year!

Hoozah. I'd write more, but really I'm going to post something else in like a half an hour. (Months of nothing and then SHABAM... I know. ) 

Keep coming and we'll keep showing. 

It's a Behind!!!

Yes I'm late... I know. I want to show you the opening for Jonathan Stewart's show. It was awesome with sales and everything.

But I cannot find my camera. This is not the excuse for a failure to post for the last month, but it is an excuse for failing to post at this very moment. I looked everywhere. I promise.

Anyway, prepare for a deluge of updates this week. We're up to our year anniversary, we're having a show with Team Nerd, We have some updates of previous exhibitors.

OH BOY It's going to be a week of awesomeness... assuming I can stick with it.

Thanks for following and supporting this endeavor. Please come to the Big Year Opening.

More news soon.

In the meantime.

A Tiny Droplet of Things To Come...

We're really excited to have the next Bakery artist grace are walls in October. 

Young Jonathan Stewart will be here (in art form only) throughout October and November displaying his amazing Screen Printed boxes in his solo show entitled Blockism.

Jonathan is currently located down near the Dallas / Fort Worth area finishing his Masters degree at the University of Dallas. It's a swell program with great facilities, a top notch Instructor (one Mr. Juergen Strunck) and talented candidates. Honest truth, We saw it with our own eyes!

I apologize in advance for the tiny images, but we here at the Bakery are having some minor technology glitches. Needless to say if you come over and see these suckers in person you will not be disappointed (unless you're THAT type of person in which case there is just no pleasing you.) 

                                                                                  

     

(imagine these as three dimensional objects) 

Now imagine that they are funny...

     and then you realize they are heart-wrenching.

Now don't you want to share that feeling in a large group during an Opening surrounded by Stewarts work? You better believe you do! (If you were asking for our two cents.) 

Here's a few brief words from Jonathan himself:

I am primarily concerned with how history, experiences, and emotions are packaged for consumption.  My boxes point toward a marketplace where these characteristics are bought and sold.

So by now you are saying "Enough Jibber Jabber!" and we agree. Here's the dirty details...

Where: The Bakery Gallery: 1330 E. 12th Street Davenport, Ia 52803

When: Friday, October 8th from 6 pm until 8 pm

Who: Jonathan Stewart's Blockism

Why: Because It Rocks

How: Because We Bring You The Rock

There's one last reason for you to be at this show and it is best exemplified by one of the pieces that will be on display. Why shouldn't you go? Because you have "Nowhere Else To Go" ($30.00)

Face-Planting Double-Takes Left and Right

the set-up has begun and the gauntlets been thrown

Oh man, we did it! We so did it! Push Ups, the exhibition by B. Ingrid Olson ended up to be a rousing (one may say riotous) event. * The big downer is that Ingrid herself was unable to make it. (Due to Airport type things -- you know, complicated stuff) Despite this upset the people still seemed to have a good viewing. 

It was also the first week of St. Ambrose being back in session and it was good to see some students wander back into the space. Of course, much like Billy Idol, we want more, more, more. 

One of the things we like most on these Opening Nights is seeing new people wander in. That happened. There was roughly 1/4 new faces and that, to us, is awesome. PLEASE COME BACK!

Soooo... much good food! Only three people busted a gut (from eating, another two from frivolity and laughter) 

As always the deliciousness was provided by Nikki, owner of the Eastside Bakery, and her sons. I think there are VERY few people who can walk away from the tastiness. More and more people are leaving with pizza's and such under there arms. It's an excellent way to support a small local bakery. 

doublemint

Emulation is flattery

I think Renee wanted to prove that she could be hunchy too. One of the key elements to this set of Ingrid's work is how they are hung on the wall and the interaction the paper has with it. Lots of questions and discussion sprung from this. 

The part of the night where the hosts put everyone in pairs to discuss the impact of such things

sitting on sitting on sitting

The December artist creeps into frame

Local artist Adam Beadel plans his nefarious release upon Winter. You can tell that he's up to something. (I think you can tell...can't you?)

I'm pretty sure this is a physical push-up challenge being thrown down

So many discussion in such a small place. We think things were getting serious for awhile. 

you can read this right?

The show is up through September and comes down the first week of October. We highly advise you to stop by and see for yourself the greatness that is B. Ingrid Olson. It's worth the time. Until soon (sooner and sooner)