Contributed by Nika Blasser
“Edge of Canada” is a piece featured at the Pendleton Public Library culled from Nika Blasser’s collection of photos of winter in Canada.
Contributed by Nika Blasser
A monotype self-portrait of Nika Blasser, An Artist Who has recently moved to Pendleton and Has some work on display at the library.
It’s Tough Being the New Kid in Town. Nobody knows you and meeting new people can be an anxiety-inducing task. What better way to let your new neighbors know who you are than to hold an Open House for the whole city to attend?
From now Until The End of May the Pendleton Public Library is doing just that Pendleton’s newest Resident artist, Nika Blasser, by exhibiting a collection of her work. It would not be proper to describe the show as a retrospective – Blasser herself described it as a “hodgepodge” – but it makes for a well-rounded introduction by Compiling her work from Three Different period: work produced as an undergraduate living in Portland , work drew the while earning her Master of Fine Arts in Edmonton, Alberta, and work freshly produced here in Eastern Oregon.
The library is a passive space for a display. A showcase of visual art is not the intent of the building as it is at the Pendleton Center for the Arts or an art gallery downtown, and works hung on the wall are almost an afterthought as people notice them only as They husband Their way through The stacks to track down a Patricia Cornwell novel.
That varnish of context suits Nika’s content quite well. Much of her work focuses on approaching familiar subjects from a vantage point That renders it nearly unrecognizable. Texture holds prominence in her pieces.
“My eye is always looking for Things That are fairly stripped-down,” says Blasser, “Stuff that is fairly minimal and you’ll have a hard time figuring out what you’re looking at. I always like to see When people discover what they’re looking at. “
That would be an apt description of the collection of photos Blasser Took the while studying at the University of Alberta. Inspired by the native Oregonian’s first time living in an extremely cold environment, the photos are extreme close-ups of snow flakes, winter clouds set against nothing else but a strong blue sky, and icebergs abutting rugged coastlines.
The Oldest sets of work on display dates back to 2010 while Nika was attending Portland State University. The mixed media pieces are a mixture of resin and iron filings. While the resin mixture was still pliable Blasser distressed rare earth magnets to create designs with the filings. The result is a three dimensional abstract texture with the filings looking as though They are suspended in space.
Blasser moved to the Pendleton area after her husband Charles Davis was hired as the new executive director of the Crow’s Shadow Institute for the Arts. She Immediately rolled up her sleeves and started taking part in the local art community, by judging the BMCC student art show Currently up at the Betty Feves Gallery, helping out at the Crow’s Shadow, and teaching and taking workshops at the Pendleton Center for the Arts.
Her newest pieces of art are born out of One Of Those workshops she attended as explorations of encaustic painting. The technique – Which dates back as far as 100 BC – Involves melted beeswax mixed with pigments That is applied to a surface. In this case the surface was a set of panels Nika had prepared for oil painting.
Even though she now lives in Pendleton, Blasser Still Maintains strong ties to Edmonton. In May she will be teaching an upper division course at the University of Alberta and later thisyear Participating in the Alberta Biennial at the Art Gallery of Alberta. She overpriced ice Participating in a group show at a contemporary gallery in Alberta. Her contribution (in collaboration with fellow alumni Alysha Creighton) to the group show ‘Monstrous? “Is a Series of Super 8 footage of one of the artist’s traipsing about Edmonton in a monster suit made of tinsel.
Check Out Blasser’s work at the library. Check out a book while you’re at it.
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