Full circle back to BONFIRE
My collage work has returned to BONFIRE Gallery, this time for a good long while!
Installation artist June Sekiguchi with collage prints by Lisa Myers Bulmash
A little backstory: At the end of 2016, gallerist William Gaylord invited me to submit work to an art fundraiser he created to support “the resistance” to the 45th president’s administration. Half the proceeds would go to the artist, half to an arts and/or social justice organization. That event became “ARTRUMPS: Resistance and Action” in spring 2017.
When one of the original collages sold at the reception, that allowed Bill and me to donate to the Equal Justice Initiative. This month, Bill continued his support of my work: he bought prints of the original ARTRUMPS collages and had them framed. And now they live in the gallery.
BONFIRE gallerist Bill Gaylord points to his framed prints by Lisa Myers Bulmash
I’m happy to say I’m not the only artist Bill’s helped. During the worst of the 2020 pandemic lockdown, the gallery closed, like every other gathering space. Since he couldn’t do business as usual, Bill occasionally lent the gallery to artists who needed a larger, temporary studio space. Cool, huh?
My artwork is often very personal, but it’s also work work; I make things for myself and strangers. I’m glad to let them go to an art collector. They buy my art, every day it keeps speaking to them about something important, I have more studio space to make more art, and then a new piece speaks to another collector. Repeat as needed. It’s the circle of (an artist’s) life.
What does an artist "drawing board" look like?
People keep “going back to the drawing board”… where is this legendary place, anyway?
It was in Washington Hall this week, and on this drawing board were the first sketches of an upcoming art project/ apartment building in Seattle’s Central District. Curator Bill Gaylord went over the initial plans for 12th Avenue and Yesler Way. You might know the location as the old Seattle Curtain Manufacturing Company; some of its remaining fabrics will go into textile art created by the Pacific Northwest African American Quilters.
Civic arts leader Vivian Phillips then introduced the rest of the artist team: Marita Dingus, Juan Alonso-Rodriguez, June Sekiguchi, Romson Regarde Bustillo, Jite Agbro, Jonathan Clarren, Jeffery Veregge, Lawrence Pitre and me.
It’s super-early days for this two-year project. It still needs lots of input from the neighbors so it doesn’t end up just another big box of gentrified property. But I joined this project because I hope the building becomes responsive part of the historic neighborhood, like the Liberty Bank Building. Maybe that’s a high bar, but I think it’s possible.