Stacy Annon

When we first saw Stacy Annon's work it was in a little gallery in Tacoma across from the Tacoma Art Museum, itself right next to Dale Chihuly's Museum of Glass. Ok, it's not actually Dale Chihuly's Museum but it features his work and he sometimes works in the hot shop but you get the idea.

Called BKB & Co. it's really a fun, high class place run by a couple of really nice ladies. And they have a lot of beautiful, wearable art that's accessible and affordable.

Stacy had a couple of gourds in the case at BKB and I was looking at them for a long time. They were colorful and smooth and looked very pleasant. That sounds a bit strange but I really got into the shape of the gourds that was symmetrical but not really regular. The colors were vivid and I just really enjoyed them.

Stacy carves, paints, and burns on gourds and many people do but I like the bags, or purses, or carrying cases, or well...gourds you can put things in.

Here is a perfect example. Click on the image to see a larger picture of it. The ginko leaves are hand carved (well, I guess they would be, wouldn't they) and then the texture is burned in with a "Razertip" wood burning tool. The color is applied with inks or dyes which accounts for the translucent nature of the color.

Stacy says that each leaf can take a half-hour or more to do. Assuming that the pattern goes all the way round the gourd, there has got to be a couple of days just making the leaf design. I had to look twice to notice the tiny dimples in the upper half. they add a subtle but cool dimension to the piece.

But look inside. It looks like some sort of liquid metal or something. I think it looks like the surface of the sun in those pictures from NASA.

The pink edges are done with dyes but Stacy tells me that the lining is tissue paper. At least it starts out as tissue paper. She lays it out flat and applies the color to it. Jackson Pollack is smiling I'm sure. The paint has ground mica in it and that is where the luster and metallic look comes from.

Stacy uses the Orbital Easel to lay out and control the colors on the tissue. She uses the unique tilting and rotating features to steer washes and drops of color over the medium.

Thanks to Stacy Annon for sharing her fine work with us. If you are in Tacoma, down on Pacific Ave., The Museum of Glass is right there, The Tacoma Art Museum is streetside, check out BKB & Co. and look for Stacy's work.