Heredity is the passing of traits to an offspring. Both Tim Solar (predisposed to the characteristics of his well-known local artist mother) and Fran Solar have a similar and unconventional way of looking at things.
Tim's photography focuses on subjects that are unusual or mundane, discovering interesting compositions that reflect ambience and mood. Fran's metal art encompasses gauged wire, junkyard treasures and bits found at the bottom of the tool box - all recombined into fascinating sculptures, vessels and wall pieces. The duo's styles are similar and far from opulent both tailored yet unassuming, engaging themes and materials could also be looked at as less fancy, a more masculine type of art.
Fran Solar has been weaving for more than 40 years, but she only started working with metal as a gradual shift in the past 15 and then began putting wire warps on her looms.
"Although I'm using the same weaving techniques as in earlier years with traditional fibres, I find my new work is more fun, more experimental and improvisational," she says. "I can weave a flat 'sheet' of wire cloth that then can be shaped into freestanding sculpture - it's transformed into something exciting."
Fran Solar, a contemporary artist, has taken the methods of a 6,000-year-old craft and merged it with modern style and innovation. She describes her broad inspirations: "Keep making 'cool stuff' - bigger pieces for walls and freestanding sculptural forms and still have fun doing it."
Her creative motivation for this "bits and bobs" series was to make a wall piece that was totally made of scraps. She describes how she went through all of her bags of leftovers.
"From previous [metal] quilts, plus odds and ends of heavy, beat-up chunks of sheet copper that I had never used because they were too heavy/dirty/stained/patina'd... I then linked them together. Assorted things were fastened onto these chunks such as old rusted springs, keys, coiled coloured wire, washers, etc. I really like the result. I want to do more of these."
Fran's recent work in her home studio in Garibaldi Highlands has evolved into creating larger pieces, with more colour and patterns. To contact her, please [email protected].
Tim Solar has been travelling the globe, constantly inspired by his ever-changing, cultural and ethnic surroundings. His work on international concert tours has provided him this rare opportunity to photograph ordinary people and routine places in exotic lands.
Tim's photograph entitled Stockholm Wall is an arrangement of texture, light and geometric minimalism. While his photograph entitled Spies might provoke thoughts of the Russian KGB, in actuality it is a light-hearted shot of two children peering through a window of painted louvered slats presented in soft sepia tones, the details undeniably from a far-off land. Hamburg Bikes is a maze of repetitive shapes and colour, creating simplicity and cohesion.
Tim's photographs are combinations of appealing characteristics, evoking emotion through the ease of everyday life, taking you on a trip somewhere else.
Although the majority of the time Tim's home is his suitcase, the rest of the time he resides in Portland, Ore. He can be contacted at [email protected].
The mother-and-son show Snaps and Scraps will be on display at the Library Foyer Gallery until Oct. 3.
