Ghosts of the Sea Artist's Reception August 14 12:00 pm-2 pm.

Readers who JUST want to come to an interesting artist  reception, please consider the following invitation:

Please welcome our new artist Tim Suchsland to UFM. Tim’s work can be found in the UFM  Social Hall for the next 3 months. Tim currently lives and works in Seattle, WA. His work tends to have an illustrative quality, and he works primarily in watercolor and sumi ink. Much of his art focuses on the impact of travel and the importance place and history play in our ideas, views and memories. He’s traveled extensively around the US, Europe and Central Asia, where he spent two years in Kazakhstan working in the U.S. Peace Corps—an experience reflected in the art on  display at the UFM.

 Tim's series; “Ghosts of the Sea”; will be on display at the UFM. It is based on  his 2009 journey to the Aral Sea in the distant deserts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The Arts  Committee will hold a reception for Tim on Sunday August 14th from 12:30 to 2:00 pm. Visit his website at www.TimSuchslandArt.com.

(RantWoman note: the art can always be viewed on Sunday Mornings 9:30-about1:30; for other viewing options contact the artist directly at the link above.)

Readers game for another exotic journey to Planet RantWoman are invited to the following hopefully insightful though opinionated observations.

RantWoman definitely recommends the videos on Tim's webvbsite for some thoughts that do not come through well at least to RantWoman about the exhibit.

RantWoman is two for two yesterday for going to art shows where the name and any descriptive comments about the work are condensed to a paper the size of a business card. Giant Frownie Face.

RantWoman is also vexed that many of the drawings in the exhibit are both small and hung more or less at RantWoman's eye level. This is fine for RantWoman who is tall but not so fine for people who are not as tall.

Consider a piece called Lada, in both English and Russian. The catual car i s only slightly larger than the pen and ink drawing, but the drawing is at RantWoman's eye level. RantWoman hesitates to suggest a descriptive page bigger than the actual artwork except well, for instance, the dead simple line drawing of the Lada begs for some kind of commentary. The Lada is a Soviet copy of the Audi. It has layers and layers of cultural associations and history. RantWoman has no desire to tell the artist what to say, only to suggest that maybe a few more words, say 300 at 14 point type might prove engaging.

RantWoman peculiarly finds this exhibit an interesting digression from all the #climatechange chatter connected with the #Rio2016 Olympics: the history of the ecological disaster that is the Aral Sea over the last century or so is climate catastrophe before climate catastrophe was fashionable. Massive mismanagement by Soviet and Soviet republic governments. Cotton production, agricultural runoff, terrible agricultural water management. Again, climate catastrophe before Climate catastrophe was the talk of the town.

The drawings in the exhibit illustrate many effects of this ecological disaster, but the drawings are pretty understated. Why are there beached boats and a dock in the middle of the sand? Is there any hope of resurrecting the ship stuck in the ship cemetery? Again, RantWoman is not certain that more words will automatically help, but apparently she is called to suggest that possibility!

RantWoman definitely recommends that readers view  the show themselves and thanks readers for bearing with possibly obtuse commentary.