Three Mediums, Three Artists

Feast on visual splendors by three women artists during November at Blue Heron Gallery: acrylic on canvas by Allison Crain Trundle, paper and acrylic baskets by Dorothy McGuinness and hand forged sterling silver jewelry by Zuzana Korbelarova. Join us for the Gallery opening Friday, Nov 4, at 6 pm, with live music by Cinq á Sept and complimentary appetizers.

Trundle, Islander since 2003, grew up in Tennessee. Her life path, colorful as her vibrant abstract canvases, include working as a private chef (she reads cookbooks for fun), social work, touring musician and preschool teacher but foremost--artist.

She studied anthropology to make her parents happy and landscape painting for herself at University of New Mexico. She landed back in Memphis where she played mandolin as a street musician for a time. She eventually toured with an alternative band and settled in Seattle, where she ran a transitional housing program and earned her fine arts degree from UW. When she met her husband, the couple chose Vashon to raise their two young children. "I’m a country girl at heart," Trundle admitted.

An oil painter for years, Trundle says, "I use it (acrylic) like oil with a lot of spray water on canvas," she says. "This show is all about line, color, movement and life; I’m interested in layers and markings."

Circles, Trundle’s central theme, represent the merging of outside and inside worlds. "It’s about us as human beings connecting."

Zuzko jewelry captivated collectors last spring during her Trunk Show. Now, this self-made jewelry maker, originally from Prague, Czech Republic, says she started making jewelry several years ago because she struggled to find jewelry she liked. Her husband bought her tools and a class to learn to create her own. Her work was recently featured in the September 2011 Seattle Magazine.

"I’ve been in love with rings and bracelets lately," she says. "I’ve also been making more one-of-a-kind pieces." Her current favorite stones are rutilated quartz, a clear stone with long, thin shots of color enclosures and London blue topaz--stones that become centerpieces in many of her architectural forged silver designs.

Her newest collection will feature earrings, bracelets, necklaces and rings, both limited editions and one-of-a-kind pieces. Industrial, yet feminine, Zuzko’s work may also be seen at Bellevue Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum and Tacoma Art Museum.

"I would like to explore gold more and bigger one-of-a-kind pieces," she says. She hopes to participate in the Spring Art Studio Tour.

Dorothy McGuinness, research scientist by day, took a basket making class 25 years ago and has been making basket forms ever since. "There was no going back," she says. "After that I took every class I could find."

Approaching the work mathematically, McGuinness realized she found her niche when she started painting acrylic on watercolor paper, then making strips of varying lengths and widths with a pasta maker.

The sculptural forms are strictly decorative and take up to 40 hours to create. She cites Japanese techniques as her greatest influence. Using waxed linen thread to wrap the rim, McGuinness says she usually knows where she’s going before she starts a project. "I have hundreds of ideas," she says. "Making basket forms is part of my mental health."

Member of Northwest Basket Weavers Guild and National Basketry Organization, Inc., her baskets may be seen in galleries and juried shows internationally.