Threshold is a point of crossing over. It is a moment that connects to the moment before, yet it represents a substantial change; a new normal. The crossover can be in imperceptible or thunderous. In our time we are experiencing many thresholds. We have an environment that is stressed to the point of no return. Our shifting values are changing the cultural landscape. We are experiencing an era of political authority that changes the balance of power in the world. In this series of work, the artists seek to offer a glimpse of a variety of current environmental, cultural and political thresholds.

Painter, Sally Graves Machlis, and graphic designer, Delphine Keim, combine their skills and sensibilities to create mixed media works and installations that allow the viewer to contemplate important current issues. While the issues are complex and often overwhelming, the artists invite you to learn, experience and reflect through the beauty of the media and text.

Sisters In Migration

Women (sisters) are a force for justice and beauty. Each piece represents the patterns of a country from which we see a large number of immigrants. The form of a child’s dress addresses the separation of children at the border. We are reminded of innocence, while the vibrant patterns evoke the aesthetic sensibilities of each culture. We seek to contribute to the conversation on immigration—we want our work to serve as a reminder that there is strength and beauty held within the migrating groups of people.

Water is beautiful, useful, necessary, powerful, healing, cleansing, destructive, endangered… it is essential and life sustaining.

The mixed media ink paintings in this series allude to water – its color, motion and marks left by water’s presence and absence. The lines of text connect to water, and function as metaphors that explore human experience.

With this body of work the artists invite you to explore our connection to water and to each other. From everyday encounters, to the experiences we go out of our way to find, to the experiences we take for granted – we are connected.

Have you ever been stunned by the awesome beauty of a swarm of aphids? Ever wondered about their niche in the agro-ecological system? Inspired by mathematical models of insect swarms buffeted by minute turbulence, this project combines painting and graphic design to suggest the presence of barely perceptible insects in Palousescapes we view every day in northern Idaho. We can be stunned at any moment by something we think we understand.

Project Statement by Scott Slovic

University of Idaho feature story: The Beauty of Science

University of Idaho produced a video about the project:
Visualizing Science | Sanford, Delphine and Sally


Triptych
side panels – 27 × 53 inches
center panel – 53 × 53

Milagro Bowls
lacquered birch, 3D prints, metallic paint, brass nails

Aphid Garlands
laser cut polyester organza

Panels
44 × 76 inch panels
mixed media
(ink, acrylic, metallic spray paint)
on Arches cover paper

Abundant, 2017, Vandal Ideas Project, Visualizing Science, developed in collaboration with Sally Machlis and Sanford Eigenbrode.

This exhibition focuses on the relationship between humans and animals – the emotional connection, the spiritual grounding, the unconditional love. Animals keep us connected to our best qualities.

Brightly colored ink washes serve to ground descriptive images and words on large paper panels. Image and word combinations are purposefully ambiguous, provocative and playful.

The language of this work invites the viewers to make connections based on their own experience with animals. Animals we know well – animals we encounter by chance – what gifts have been exchanged in our interactions?

All Panels
42 × 71 inches, mixed media (ink, acrylic, crayon) on Arches cover paper.

A road trip is a journey. We travel, riding in an automobile with family, friends or alone, and our experience is as much a function of the plan as it is of the unknown.

As the terrain changes to that which is less familiar we notice things. We consider our own condition. We reconnect to ideas we care about. We reconnect to each other. Or we don¹t. If we listen to music it becomes a soundtrack. If we listen to a story we lose ourselves. If we are driving alone an internal dialog is set in motion. These are things that other people probably experience. Or maybe things that are completely unique. And when we arrive at our destination we might be asked, "How was your trip?" Some of the stories we remember, tell and retell. The journey on the road becomes a metaphor for our life¹s journey.

Road Stories is a mixed media installation/presentation that invites the viewer to participate in a journey that takes place from behind the wheel and within the gallery. The mixed media project includes ink painting, stenciled vector graphics and projected text and estate images. Stories are collected verbally and depicted through text and image in this project.

This body of work is the result of spending the autumn of 2007 in Taiwan as a guest artist. While there, I attended classes and studios in traditional Chinese ink painting and calligraphy. These skills are not acquired in a short time but are often studied in Asia for a lifetime. Inspired by these lessons, I have used traditional Chinese materials—brush, ink and rice paper—in new ways to create my own abstract calligraphic paintings and books.

I believe that we develop symbols, signs, and images to find our way and to communicate diverse truths. I have long used these symbols of human organization in my artwork. Learning the history and practice of calligraphy or "beautiful writing" has enriched this exploration for me. I am in awe of this ancient language developed from graphically beautiful symbols.

With my past artistic focus on visual story telling, it has been a natural progression to increasingly view my work as a metaphor for books and collected knowledge. In this work, I am continuing the "books of knowledge" metaphor by disassembling actual books and creating sequential wall pieces that are meant to be viewed as "book paintings." I have also created books as memories of my time in Taiwan and other small books entirely of calligraphic marks. The large ink paintings are "pages" from an imaginary sketchbook of personal and expressive ink studies. Many of these works are meant to be read only by the beauty of the line.

I have long been interested in maps, charts and other symbols of human organization and have integrated them into my mixed media collages. These collages often address issues of place, progress, and personal travels---both real and imaginary.

Subsequent travels and the addition of more maps, graphs and images in my work led to an in-depth look at the way we as humans attempt to organize information in our lives. We develop symbols, signs, and charts to find our way and to communicate diverse truths. As my collection of artifacts for inclusion in collages grew, I re-visited a box of old family photographs and began to incorporate them in my collages on handmade paper. Using these photographs, notes and letters, I combined memory and imagination; family fables, whispered rumors, traditions and fictions were mixed.

I have recently added text to my work, including words of wisdom from my grandmother and other family members. These pieces contain not only photos and mementos but also the language of family folklore. The advice, folklore and superstition passed on through families and cultures are the catalyst for this exhibition. Why do I knock on wood for good luck and why do I still wait a half hour after eating before going swimming? These are the truths and fictions that have inspired Truths and Fables.

In the Jewish faith, all lives are inscribed and then sealed in The Book of Life. Recorded in it are our deeds both good and evil. The Book of Life tells our story, and is signed yearly by the hands of each of us.

Artistic expression often begins with personal recollection, and exploration of family biography has led to this body of work. My family can be traced back to the Mayflower, and headed out west on the Oregon Trail. My great great grandfather ran the stagecoach, post office and general store in Arco, Idaho before moving on to Oregon. My former husband's family came to America much later from Russia and the Ukraine. They moved to the west in the early 1900s. We are both a part of truly American families.

Many of the images in these collages are family photographs, records, notes and letters. Some are known to me; others are strangers. Memory, imagination and objective reality are combined in these pieces — family fables, whispered rumor, traditions and fictions are mixed with formal geographies such as maps and charts. The resulting mixed media collages have become pages from The Book of Lives.

Drawing is one of the most basic tools in artistic practice. Regular drawing enhances observational skills, improves hand eye coordination and allows the visualization of creative thinking. Because sketches are not necessarily precious, they are often more authentic. They can become the foundation of later artworks or valued as final works. 

I have always carried a sketchbook to record ideas and visual images for my artwork and teaching. With more time to travel in retirement, I am filling sketchbooks with visual images and memories of these travels--both real and imaginary. I use graphite, ink, watercolors and often a combination of a mixed media.

I have always taken a sketchbook to draw, paint and write when traveling. I usually packed only graphite and transportable watercolors. Traveling to far-away places and different cultures is a feast for the senses. The smells, sounds, food, language, landscape and sights are all thrilling. These experiences allow us to see the world in a new way. Recording travel visually is a rewarding way to experience the place and remember the adventure later. Observational drawing and painting require us to really see what is in front of us.

Upon retirement with more time to travel, I have started to paint in the Plein Air tradition when I am on the road. Artists in the mid 19th century left their studios and painted directly in the presence of nature forgoing sketches and preparatory drawings. They attempted to capture the impression of the place and light, finishing a painting entirely on site. The tradition is still popular today.

Thriving on the change of pace and scenery, from exotic locals to the mountains and rivers near home or my own backyard, I find painting inspired by place an immersive experience. I am using watercolor, acrylic or oils depending on the circumstances of travel. Completing a painting in a short time on location necessarily requires a faster, less conceptual, and intuitive method of painting.