PAM INGALLS: AH LIFE!

MARCH 31 '"JULY 31, 2008

JUNDT ART MUSEUM • GONZAGA UNIVERSITY

PAM INGALLS: AH LIFE!"So then, we walked up and down the platform of the station, an ordinary world, but we were animated by thoughts that were notordinary Such moments do not last long, and soon we had to part."Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh

Isleworth, 18August 1876

Vincent Van Gogh had a remarkable ability - both in painting and in writing - to recognize a moment. Life,

fleeting and crowded with ordinary tasks and objects, held an indelible magic for Van Gogh, and in the act of preserving

such transitory moments with pencil and paint, he made them timeless.

The urge to capture such in-between moments is something Vashon Island artist Pam Ingalls knows well. Her

paintings suggest rooms where something is about to happen or something has already taken place; chairs are pushed

back from breakfast tables, a bathroom sink stands unoccupied, the chrome belly of a teakettle reflects the walls and

windows of the room it inhabits. Her portraits also suggest moments of moving from one state to the next; a young

woman seems poised to speak (or even sing), an older man looks about to break into a good-natured chuckle. Warmth

and light suffuse each frame and it is as if, in the moment of being paid attention, everyday places or people we might

Fig. 1

take for granted become extraordinary.

Following on the heels of an art career punctuated

with stints of volunteerisrn and peace walks, with

time spent building a home by hand and becoming a

part of the communities in which she's lived, Ingalls

is coming full circle in An Life I - an exhibit of her work

at Gonzaga University's Jundt Arl Museum. ot only

did her father. Richard, establish the art department

at Gonzaga University, Ingalls herself attended

Gonzaga, spending her junior year in Italy at GU's

Italian campus in Florence and at the Accademia di

Bella Arti before earning her Bachelor of Arls degree

Fig. 2 from Gonzaga in 1979. Her father was one of her

earliest teachers, and the bathroom sink in Privy, (cover) a through-the-doorway view of sink, hanging towels, liquid soap

dispenser, gleaming faucets, and even extra toilel paper, is an unintenlional homage to her father, who had his students

paint an old sink as an assignment. The painting is homey, all sunny oranges. popping blues, and a minty pale green

that both conjures up the shadows in the room and makes the viewer momentarily think she's smelling toothpaste.

Other paintings in An Life! offer a similar sort of visual homecoming. Ilene's Kitcnen, (fig. 4) is taken from a

friend's kitchen in Vinegar Flats, the girl in Divine (fig. 2) works at one of Ingalls' regular haunts. The Hardware Store

restaurant on Vashon Island, and Dinner's Almost Ready celebrates the felicitous, chaotic clutter of that moment right

before everyone gathers for dinner. In fact. the area outside each painling seems just as significant as what's depicted

inside the pain ling. Viewing these images it's not hard to feel the steam from a big pot of soup, to hear diners laughing

and talking, to smell the richness of garlic and red wine.

In both subject and technique, Ingalls finds inspiration and instruction in the work of the Russian impressionists.

Although art historian and State Russian Museum curator Vladimir Kruglov once wrote that Russian impressionist

painting is "an unknown and underrated phenomena," it is not without its admirers. A small cadre of galleries, museums

and painters here in the United States have discovered the tradition's deeper colors and more proletarian subjects,

and Ingalls was introduced to Russian impressionism through her master teacher, Ron Lukas (a Seattle painter who

now works with Dream Works Animation). In studying the works of Soviet artists such as Sergei Bongart and icholai

Fechnin, Ingalls began to cobble together her own working definition of Russian impressionism and describes it as

"more focused on the story within the painting" In addition to a stronger emphasis on narrative. Ingalls notes that

Russian impressionism veers back towards the academic underpinnings that the French impressionists rejected, and

that Russian impressionism rests on strong, sound, drawing

Drawing is vital to Ingalls' current paintings; the impressionist blocks of color and thick daubs of paint benefit

from the precision of their initial outlined renderings. A shiny teakettle, up close, has rough, diffuse edges right where

the painting's light source hits the kettle's round sides. From twelve feet away, however, the chunky bits of paint become

a brilliant and reflective gleam In this, and in the shiny Spic-n-Span surfaces of Ilene's Kitcnen, (fig. 4) it's the artist's keen

attention to structure and perspective that makes the tricks of color and application work.

What's also key to Ingalls' work is a respect for ordinary pleasures and the deep delight of coming home (even

if "home" is somebody else's) Her artistic reverence for rustic domeslicily is no doubt informed by a full and varied life

Sheri Boggs

Freelance Art Writer, Olympia,Wasnington

_'" ' g from Gonzaga University, she and her then-husband worked with Seattle's inner ciLypoor as part of the

_--eer Corps In the ensuing years Ingalls took part in a peace walk that wound from Seattle to Bethlehem.

collective, and produced graphics for her parents' tour map business. After several artistic stops and

_, g both several solo exhibitions and a few periods of intense soul-searching) Ingalls returned to painting

ne mid-J990s, working with nOLonly Ron Lukas, but also Richard Schmid and Burt Silverman.

- ngalls painted the chrome fixtures, table settings, wineglasses and even condiment dispensers of her

_ and favoriLe restaurateurs, she quickly gained recogniLion in galleries and shows in the orthwest and

. try. She has since exhibited in more than one hundred and twenty-five naLional and international

5 and won more than siXLYprizes for her work. Most recently, she was inviLed to participate in the 2007

= "'-. ale and had an exhibit of her paintings at Vashon Island's The Hardware Store. With plans afoot for a

portraits painted during travels to developing nations, Ingalls is returning to her social justice roots while

•.• """'---=-' -g 'ith new subjects and techniques. If one thing is certain however, it's that no matter what direction her

- er next, there is no doubt that her pain Lingswill conLinue to invite the viewer to pause, to pay attention,

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

PAM INGALLSEDUCATION

1992-951975-791977-78

Apprenticed with Ron Lukas, Russian Impressionist Painter, Seattle, WABA, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WAAccademia di Belle Arti. Florence, Italy

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS2008 An Life I , Jundt Art Museum, Spokane, WA2007 Scottsdale Fine Art. Scottsdale, AZ2006 Arslonga Gallery, Folsom, CA2005 Powel Street Gallery, San Francisco, CA2005 Argosy Gallery, Bar Harbor, ME2004 Gallery One, Ellensburg, WA2001 Annual One Person Snow, Isis on First. Seattle, 'vVA2000 Latest Paintings, Southern Vermont Cultural Center, ManchesLer, VT2000 New Works, Merrill-Johnson Gallery, Denver. CO2000 New Paintings, Rebecca Toolan's, Vancouver, BC Canada

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS200720072007200720062004200220022001200120001999199919991999

Howard-Mandville Gallery, Kirkland, WAFlorence Biennale, Florence, ItalyOil Painters of America, WhisLie Pik Galleries, Fredericksburg, TXOil Painters of America, West Waterhouse Gallery, Santa Barbara, CAMeyer Gallery, Santa Fe, NMExpressions West. Coos Art Museum, Coos Bay, OR (Merit Award)Four Divas, Long Gallery, Scottsdale, AZRising Stars, Deser Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZHome al1d tne Range, Robson Gallery, San Diego, CATne Cnicken and tFie Egg, Roby-King Gallery, Bainbridge Island, WAAmerican Womel1 Artists, Sorrento, ItalyDail'd Rituals, Clymer Museum, Ellensburg, WAMilleniLfm 2000, Kuwait and America, KuwaitMilieniLfm 2000, Ireland and America, Belfast. &- Northern IrelandOil Painters of America, Scottsdale, AZ

SELECTED AWARDS2001 Epic Passages, Nordic Heritage Museum, Seattle, WA

First Prize1999 American Womel1 Artists, Total Arts Gallery, Taos, N M

Purchase Award1998 33rd Annual Motner Lode National, Placerville, CA

Best of Show, Award of Excellence

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONSCity of Sea-Tac, WACity of Kent, WACity of Redmond, Washington CollectionSeattle University, Seattle, WACatholic Community Services, Seattle, WA

IMAGESCover Priv'd, 2007, Oil on board, 12" x 9"I. Nina's Kettle, 2007, Oil on board, 8" x 10"2. Divine, 2007, Oil on board, 16" x 20"3. Interior, Queretaro (detail) 2007, Oil on board, 5" x T4. Ilene's Kitcnen, 2007, Oil on board, 12" x 9"

PUBLICATIONGussie Fauntleroy, "Pam Ingalls, Finding Uncommon Beauty in Common Things," Soutnwest Art Magazine, May 2007

This publication was funded by The Jundt Art Museum's An I'lL/a I Campaign, 2007-2008.©Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258-0001