PRESS RELEASE   Grand Impromptu Gallery, a contemporary cooperative 608 South Fawcett, Tacoma, WA 98402 (next to the Grand Cinema) 253-572-9232, http://grandimpromptugallery.com/ Dates: October 2 – November 1, 2008, Around the Corner, featuring Trinda Love Hours: Thursday & Friday, 4:00 – 9:00 PM Saturday, 2:00 PM – 9:00 PM Sunday, 2:00 – 6:00 PM Opening Night Invitational Reception, Friday, October 3, 2008, 5:00 – 8:00 PM Open for Third Thursday Artwalk, October 16, 5 – 8 PM Poetry Readings & Reception: October 25, 4:00 – 5:30 PM For viewing by appointment call 253-572-9232, or contact any one of the gallery artists.   In October, gallery artists respond to the theme “Around the Corner—a metaphor for life”, featuring Trinda Love. Also exhibiting are Bill Colby, Becky Frehse, Bea Geller, Dorothy McCuistion, Betty Ragan, LeeAnn Seaburg Perry, Peter Serko. The gallery welcomes new member Faith Hagenhofer, fiber artist from Olympia.   Around the Corner is a metaphor, which signifies a change in what life brings.  These changes might result in growth, surprise, delight or darker challenges.  Of all the things life has to offer, the “corner” is just the temporal or emotional occasion for revisiting things that may be old that you run into again with a resulting chance to experience redemption and reconciliation, or even joy.   Adding the written word element to this Around the Corner exhibition a poetry contest allows the decoding of the images. Poets and written word artists are invited to construct or construe a response to any work of art in the Grand Impromptu Gallery in October—paintings, photographs, drawings and prints, mixed media pieces, and sculpture, which may be gently touched. See prospectus for rules and details of Ekphrastic Poetry Contest after the exhibit description of this press release.   Trinda Love’s thick impasto oils propose to layer the psychological with the physical, the emotional with the literal through contrasts, including use of subject, texture, color, mood, quality of light and the local with the exotic. From Garbage Day on Court C, an after-the-rain view of a darkened Tacoma alleyway, and Woman Off Broadway, another Tacoma night scene experienced by Love while sketching on the street, life turns to simple local Pierce county rural roads. Love then moves on to the escape of cityscapes in European cities like Rome with almost look-alike architecture detail to our local street scenes.   Betty Ragan is always surprised at the variety of creative architectural decorations that she finds around the corner when she is exploring Pre-Modern architecture in a new city. Her three black-and-white collages from the Buttoned Down Series are examples of the surprises she found while visiting Salzburg, Vienna, and Chicago.   Dorothy McCuistion displays several paintings from her Disappearing Habitat series, a response to the Chambers Bay Golf course just around the corner from her home. Acrylic on wood panel, these paintings comment on the destruction of plant and animal habitat for the purpose of recreation. Dorothy has also created the Tacoma Cornerstones Puzzle, just for this exhibit. Made of 9 wood blocks, the pieces can be rearranged to create simplified images of six Tacoma’s defining architectural landmarks and unlimited abstract combinations. Viewers are invited to gently play with the blocks.   The sculpture “Leaving This Earth” is around the corner for all of us. In this marble sculpture by LeeAnn Seaburg Perry the upsweeping motion of this sleek piece leaves the viewer no doubt that our souls go upward.   Newest gallery member Faith Hagenhofer, a fiber artist from Olympia, is, in the words of area art reviewer Alec Clayton “among the more inventive artists working in the South Sound region. (Alec’s blog, July 2008)” The gallery welcomes Faith to the gallery and the Tacoma arts community.   Becky Frehse is showing some new and painterly oil paintings that use text elements as a focal point; poetic, mysterious, and full of metaphors for life. Bill Colby exhibits three prints including a new summer print titled "Pine Branch", a woodcut on gold splashed rice paper. Also showing are Peter Serko and Bea Geller.   In conjunction with this exhibit The Grand Impromptu Gallery presents the:   Ekphrastic Poetry Contest 2008 (poems in response to art) Around the Corner, a metaphor for life.   What:  An Ekphrastic Poetry Juried Contest.  Write a poem of 50 lines or less in response to any work of art in the Grand Impromptu Gallery Tacoma during the month of October 2008.  The October theme of Around the Corner includes paintings, photographs, drawings and prints, mixed media pieces, and sculpture. Contest will be juried by award winning author, Philip Heldrich, UWT Associate Professor. The Top 15 finalists will be asked to read their work at the gallery reception on Saturday October 25th and be videotaped for web streaming and a DVD, which will be for sale at the gallery. Selected poems may be chosen for a publication commemorating the event. After the reading, poems and artwork will be posted to the grandimpromptugallery.com website. Where: Grand Impromptu Gallery Tacoma, 608 S. Fawcett, Tacoma, WA 98402.  Gallery located next to the Grand Cinema, corner of 6th & Fawcett.   Contact Curator Trinda Love: trinda.love@grandimpromptugallery.com Phone: 253- 539-1551 Fees:  $5 entry fee, which may be redeemed for $5.00 off a DVD of the event. Additional poems are $1 each, with limit of 3 poems total.  Fees may be paid at the gallery when you come in both to register, and also to be inspired by the artwork in the Grand Impromptu Gallery October 2-12.   Important Dates: October 2-12th—pick up contest prospectus and register at Grand Impromptu Gallery, or online at gallery website: grandimpromptugallery.com October 3rd,   Friday--Opening party, everyone invited, 5-8 PM. October 12th   Sunday--All entries must be received by gallery (use mail slot if gallery closed) or, received electronically by October 12th in Word document format.  Send to: poetry@grandimpromptugallery.com October 20th, Monday—top 15 finalists list posted at www.grandimpromptugallery.com October 25th, Saturday from 4:00 to 5:30 PM, Reception & Reading by top 15 finalists.   Awards:  Multiple cash awards given, with a guaranteed minimum first prize award of $100.  Other awards determined by total fees collected. Top 15 finalists will be asked to read at the award ceremony on Saturday, October 25th from 4-5:30 PM.      Contest Prospectus:  There will be copies of the prospectus at the Grand Impromptu Gallery front desk and on the website, grandimpromptugallery.com              Format: Please submit two copies of each poem. One copy with all contact information at top left of page: Name, address, contact phone number and email address. Include the title of poem, the title of artwork and the artist who created it. Another copy to be used for judging with title of the poem, the title of the artwork chosen and artist’s name.  DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME OR CONTACT INFO ON THIS POEM.   Gallery Operating Hours: Thursday and Friday 4-9 PM; Saturday 2-9 PM; and Sunday 2-6 PM. Special added daytime hours for access to artwork: Thursday October 2nd noon to 4 PM, and Friday October 10th noon to 4 PM.   SPECIAL NOTE POEMS MUST BE WRITTEN ABOUT ARTWORK IN THE GALLERY DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER—OCTOBER 2-12TH 2008. FINISHED POEMS ARE DUE BACK OCTOBER 12TH BY MIDNIGHT. Poems may be sent by email or put into gallery mail slot if gallery is closed.   So come in, pull up a chair, gaze at the artwork, pet the sculpture, and be inspired.   The Grand Impromptu Gallery seeks to benefit the community through its mission of maintaining a gallery space to exhibit and sell the artwork of member artists, present exhibits of non-member artists, and provide a space for art to happen in both traditional and non-traditional ways. The Grand Impromptu Gallery’s members own and operate the gallery. GRAND IMPROMPTU GALLERY  608 S. Fawcett Tacoma, WA 98402 (253) 572-9232 www.grandimpromptugallery.com