Welcome to Viz City, KLCC’s arts review program! Second Friday is coming up, and Dot Dotson Gallery has an intriguing new show called “Collaborators.” Tim Shields is the photographer mostly of lichen, and Rocin Grace is the textile artist who turns the photos into textural multi-media pieces by attaching ephemeral, intricate knitted elements. Here’s Robin, who will be on hand for the opening Friday evening 5-6.
"Tim is a biologist, and I’m a psychotherapist by profession and very emotional, so we think in different ways. He’s more concrete, and I’m more emotionally oriented, just naturally."
The fascinating images you’ll see at the show are of lichen. Why lichen?
"Unbeknownst to either one of us, we were both infatuated with lichens. Tim for the cool way they looked as he hiked across the desert tracking tortoises, and me looking at the explosion of them in the woods at our home in Alaska and here in the Pacific Northwest. I was looking at them in terms of abstract art pieces."
NARRATOR: This unusual art form emerged from a conversation on the beach when Tim showed Robin some lichen photographs.
"The next day, Tim came to my home while I was actually working on a couple of what I called ‘lichens,’ lace, abstract pieces capturing the colors of lichen on rock right outside my deck, and Tim came with a photograph of the same-colored lichens. I thought that was really cool--serendipitous!"
You can see the magical results of this serendipitous meeting between two artists who became collaborators in a new art form at Dot Dotson’s, 1668 Willamette from the opening event this Friday, Jan. 10 at 5:00 pm for the entire month to follow.
Viz City is co-produced by Sandy Brown Jensen and Terry Way.