Another series, The Promise Land, explores the community of the eastern Oklahoma town of Boley. Founded originally as an African American town, in the late 1970s Boley became home to a new community of white Mennonites fleeing religious persecution. The two communities still inhabit the town, but live largely apart in the small town. Gulilat’s camera captures the moments in the life of this town: an all-black rodeo, a Mennonite picnic social, and many more. All in all, these photographs illuminate Gulilat’s thoughts on connectedness. “I question the notion of the things that separate us: Culture? Race? In the end, we are more connected than we think. There are something like 8,000 miles between Ethiopia and Oklahoma, but my presence here makes that distance visible.” Paul Bagley
Paul Bagley’s recent work continues his shift from commercial art to fine art with ease. While Bagley’s website also features one-of-a-kind furniture pieces, he currently focuses on installation and performance work, enjoying the personal directions that such projects may take.
ritual that I cared about was Halloween and so I’m still exploring the origins of ritual.” Evidence of this lies in part in his work for Tucson’s All Souls procession. Whatever the goal or idea, collaboration is quickly becoming a preferred method for Paul Bagley: “Without a synergistic collective effort, bold visions remain on the drawing board never to be funded. When people identify with the finished work it really makes sense to keep doing what I’m doing… I’ll keep pushing forward.” Lindsay Larremore Larremore’s deftly painted household tableaux also confront the boundary between artist and subject, although with a much different purpose. While her paintings capture everyday scenes of tedious tasks- unlocking a door, tweezing eyebrows- the fisheye lens perspective
characteristic of the artist’s Peepholes series underlines the fact that the view we see is not the artist’s own. Larremore and her house are magnified unevenly and seen from slightly above. Viewers become voyeurs in a strategy that makes the artist both object and subject of these paintings. “I began this whole series fascinated by reflections from objects and how it distorts the room that you are in.” Larremore quickly became interested in doorknobs, not only for their reflective qualities but as “metaphorical all-seeing eye[s] with in the privacy of your own home.” Now, the interplay between artist and viewer is a subject of great interest for Larremore, and she embraces the effect that her work has on audiences. It is a series that holds more potential promise for Larremore. “I really enjoy the fact that these paintings can make some people feel awkward when looking at them while others can relate.” continued to page 6
Some of Bagley’s current inspiration lies in his work with performance collectives. “My most recent push was within an artist’s collective, the Flaming Lotus Girls, whom I met in 2000 while doing interactive work at Burning Man.” Working with a group of artists with very different media specialties and areas of expertise was both a reward and a welcome challenge for the artist. Other recent work includes large sculpture, performance art, environmental art, and installations for community events such as the Burning Man festival and Tucson’s All Souls procession. In particular, Bagley has recently begun to focus on the place that rituals hold in lives and cultures: “There’s an element of ritual that I’m working towards, that’s my primary motive. Since I was a kid the only holy-day Lindsay Larremore, Tulsa, 3:58 PM, 2010, Oil on panel, 6.5” in diameter
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