October 6 - 27, 2006

Opening Reception 5 - 7pm on Friday, October 6.  

Southeast Alaska’s scenery, with its islands, rainforests, rocky beaches, and dramatic colors provides endless inspiration for artists. For local artist Joe Piston, inspiration is found more easily in what Southeast Alaska is not.

In Something Interesting to Look At, Joe Piston’s acrylic works respond to the qualities of a nature found within his imagination. Piston attended the Seattle Art Institute majoring in Visual Communication and Applied Art and moved to Ketchikan 17 years ago. Now the owner/operator of a busy screen-printing studio, Piston finds little time to paint in the spring and summer. “I paint a lot in the winter, usually every day,” says Piston, “and usually have 4 or 5 paintings going at one time.”

Piston’s works are straightforwardly organic, repeating circles and other curvilinear forms. “I paint the curves found in nature, mostly from the female form, but also of animals and plants. I would probably paint more abstract landscapes if I could get outside in the day in summer.” His works are also astoundingly sculptural, using thick outlines to convey three dimensionality and choppy and broad coloring to invoke the idea of textures like fur and feathers.

In speaking with Piston, what is most remarkable about his work is that while the forms are organic, each work does not directly respond to anything found in nature but from Piston’s imagination and are truly abstract. “Sometimes they’re from my sketchbook, but mostly they’re from my imagination and drawn directly on the canvas, without a plan or model.”

From a screen printer by day, Piston completely departs from the rigid guidelines and formats of commercial art and creates acrylic works that are dynamic, fanciful, and shockingly colored with electric blues, magentas, and yellows- not your typical Southeast Alaskan palette. “I like to contrast with the grey winters around here – brighten the place up. Fishing lures have probably influenced my color. If I lived someplace sunny, I’d probably paint in black and white.”

Something Interesting to Look At will be on display throughout October.