Aaron Voronoff Trotter: AbZtraKt Synergy Last Thursday

Saturday, March 14, 2009

AbZtraKt Synergy Last Thursday

Images from Last Thursday at
Studio
1627
Alberta
Art
District

Very special thanks to
Chad Settlemeier
for taking these pictures!!

Visit Chad's flicker site

Featuring visual art by Shawn Christopher and Aaron Voronoff
Sound Art by DJ Mortal Engines

Electric Guitar by Andy Schmidt

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Artist Statement

“Art is born through action and inner need.”

~Wassily Kandinsky

Concerning the Spiritual In Art; 1913

Each artwork created is an evolution, a stepping-stone entry of progress, a process-oriented medicine for the individual in these technologically soaked times. My image-making is guided by the music and culture of past, present, and future. Music that influences my palette ranges from Rock to Jazz to Folk; from Blues to Hip-Hop, Classical to Electronic.

My artworks have shifted from one media to another in the last decade as I have grown and changed; creative tendencies leap between representations of the world around us and completely abstract, experimental dance performance. I have been profoundly influenced by 20^th Century Art and my independent travels abroad. I have gained inspiration from a host of past artists including: Picasso, Kandinsky, Pollock, Tobey, Rauschenberg, and Basquiat. I am also very influenced by Mayan, Cambodian, and Egyptian archaeology. Physics and mathematics, sacred geometry, ancient alchemy, and shamanism are also key interests in my ongoing quest.

Seeking new ways to express my chronic wanderlust, I have found the need for balance and acknowledgement of both extremes. On one side I seek out abstract forms found in the recycled refuse of our society; on the other side I seek to capture the beauty and harmony of the natural world of animals and elements. My work travels from painting on canvas to junk constructions; from street performance statuary to onstage collaborative jams with dance, music, painting, and poetry.

Throughout my life I have sought Spirit within Art, and I have discovered it again and again in fresh new ways.

Exhibition-Performance History

Art Education
1996-2000: The Evergreen State College {B.A. in Art and Culture}; Olympia, WA
1996: Graphic Cat Design School; Portland, OR
1996: Oregon School of Arts and Crafts {Photography Scholarship}; Portland, OR
1994: Pacific Northwest College of Art {Digital Imaging Scholarship}; Portland
1993-1996: Arts and Communications High School, Portland

Art Exhibitions

2008

March: Whimsy~Home Décor in Capitol Hill; Seattle

Art Party Seattle Group Show at Nectar in Fremont; Seatte

Group Show with Action NW; Downtown Seattle

2007 (In Portland)

November: Enterbeing father-son show
May: Village Building Convergence

2006
October: Enterbeing Community Center & Jack Of All Trades Gallery
August: MetaPoiesis: EcoDesign and Visionary Art
May: Alberta Art Hop Festival & Village Building Convergence
April: The Peaceful Soul Yoga Studio
February: Pala Lounge & Group Art Show at Collage Art Supply
November: Father and Son at the Silverton Art Gallery

2005
September: The CenterRing Community Center
August: Enterbeing Community Center & The Tin Shed Cafe
July: Concrete the Studio
June: Portland Coffee House & Alberta Public House
May: Tiny's Cafe, Squeeze the Bar, & the Cricket Cafe
April: Tribe Theater & Ford's Cafe
March: The Fuel Cafe
February: Concordia Coffee House & The Star E Rose Cafe
January: La Dolce Vita Cafe & Do! Hair Salon

2004
December: The Cup and Saucer Cafe & Bella Faccia Pizzeria
October: The Environmental Art Symposium at Lewis & Clark College
November: Halo Thai

2004 (In Tacoma)
May-December: RampART Co-Op Artist Gallery
June-August:Panamonica's Gallery and Restaurant
June: Shakabrah Restaurant
May: The Rosewood Cafe
April: Caffe Vita (Olympia)

2003: Big Show City at Capitol Theater; Olympia, WA
2002: Princess Jewelers; Skagway, AK
2001: Bandelier National Monument Visitor Center; NM
1999: Otto's Bagels; Olympia, WA
1998: Butoh Dance Festival Reception Installation (Director); Olympia, WA
1997: The Evergreen State College Library Gallery; Olympia
1996: Father and Son at the Justice Center; Portland, OR
Collections
2003: A Tribute to Rachel Corrie; Last Word Books, Olympia
1994: Self-Portrait in Chalk and Computer; PNCA, Portland

Performance History

2008

Ongoing~Street Performance

Pike Place Market in Downtown Seattle; Union Station in Tacoma

February: Seattle Art Museum Family Day

February: Hell’s Kitchen; Tacoma, WA

2007

New Year’s Eve at Sanford and Son; Tacoma, WA

Enterbeing Community Center; Portland, OR

2006 (in Portland, OR)
MetaPoiesis: Visionary Art and Culture Festival

SOAK! Regional Burning Man Festival
Strut! with Kaosmosis at the Wonder Ballroom
Alberta Art Hop Festival

Village Building Convergence

Jack Of All Trades Studio and Gallery
Ignite: the Burner Weekly at the Pala Lounge
2005

The CenterRing Community Center

Black Rock City Post Office
Enterbeing Community Center

SOAK! Regional Burning Man Festival
Concrete the Studio

The Crystal Ballroom

Alberta Art Hop Festival
Tribe Theater
Fuel Cafe
Concordia Coffee House
2004 (in Tacoma, WA)
Proctor Arts Festival

ART in the Park Festival

Panamonica’s Art Club
RampART Co-Op Gallery
Art On the Ave Festival

An Abbreviated Life Story

One of my earliest memories is painting blue on canvas with my father. Born in Milford, Delaware on August 14, 1978, it seems I came into the world knowing I was an artist. My father is a sculptor-painter and my mother heals with her deep-muscle massage. At the age of three, our family transplanted from the Mid-Atlantic beach to the dry desert vistas of El Paso, Texas. In the desert southwest I first encountered Native American and Mexican people; new languages and food that opened my eyes to the larger world awaiting me.

When I was five we moved further west to Portland, Oregon. I was fortunate to attend an alternative high school called Arts and Communications where I learned new ways to express myself through visual art, writing, music, Japanese, and Spanish. Graduating as valedictorian of my class, I walked away from high school with a plane ticket and a rail-pass bound for a month-long adventure in Europe. Visiting Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden with my 14-year old brother, I met an international cast of characters who planted the seeds for future adventures abroad, launching my imagination onto a global scene.

In the Fall of 1996 I began studies at the forested campus of Evergreen State College in Olympia. My undergraduate studies included Art History, Comparative World Mythology, Buddhism, Mystical Physics, Jungian Psychology, Pre-Columbian and Asian Archaeology.

In January of 1999 I traveled to Belize, Central America with a small group of students. Surrounded by friends studying medicinal plants and ethnic music, I focused on my interest in the Pre-Columbian Maya and taught basic drawing classes to the children of the Modern Maya. On the way home, I traveled solo through Guatemala and Mexico. Along the way, I visited the ancient Mayan pyramids of Tikal and Palenque, and lived with the descendants of the same people who carved those stones.

Six months later I set out on a seven-month odyssey beginning in New Zealand and traversing Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. My faculty-sponsored, independent contract stated that I would travel, experience, document, and share what I learned along the way. I visited famous archaeological sites, volunteered with Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF), stayed in guesthouses and hostels, and camped out in the wild.

In Bali I encountered for the first time Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim cultures. After a month in Indonesia I flew to Bangkok, Thailand and spent the last two months of my adventure visiting as much of Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos as possible. The highlight of my 7-month trip occurred in Cambodia when I visited Angkor, the 9th century Hindu city-temple complex of the Khmer Empire.

In 2000 I graduated with a B.A. in Art and Culture. Since that time I have volunteered with Americorps and the Student Conservation Association at Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico and the Klondike Gold-Rush National Historic Park in Alaska. I have guided tours through ancient desert cities and illustrated 100-year old artifacts and structures. My skills have been put to the test in the challenging role of field-technician on a number of archaeological excavations and surveys in the Pacific Northwest. I am skilled in backcountry survival as well as savvy in this techno-age of computers. I have been an after-school art teacher, a restaurant busboy, a coffee shop barista, a taxi-driver, a landscaper, and a farmer. I consider myself to be a nomadic visionary-actionary.

Since March of 2003 I have been actively pursuing the spotlight that is offered by the international, national, and local 'art worlds'. My abstract paintings have graced diverse venues in Portland, Oregon and Tacoma, Washington; galleries, museums, churches, community centers, restaurants, cafes, bars, and alternative music venues have showcased my paintings, drawings, photography, writing, and multi-media collaborative performances.

In August of 2006 I turned 28 in Western Canada at the close of Shambhala, an international electronic music festival. Returning to Portland, Oregon, I gave away my horde of art supplies, moved out of my house, turned in the keys to my taxi, and arranged to show my accumulated mass of dusty abstract paintings in a double show on the Last Thursday Art Walk in the Alberta Arts District. For the last year I have traveled in the eight directions, across Canada and the United States, visiting family and friends.

Now that I have returned to the Northwest, my mission is to radiate as much creativity into the public awareness as possible. Collaborating with other artists, musicians, singers, and dancers, I have formed a collective called AbZtraKt Synergy. With the basic mission of uniting the arts in the 21^st Century, the group performs onstage in a chaotically improvisational, spontaneous explosion of creative impulse. When that is not going on, I am performing on the street as a statue-clown-mime, charming children and adults with whimsical dancing, frozen postures, and mischief-making.

After a summer in Alaska and Hawaii, I have returned to Portland to once again wage art....

Aaron Voronoff Trotter

Inside the Seattle Art Museum...