Transformations 
Upcoming exhibition by Palo Pallas
This exhibition of totally original, unique local art is at Avondale Bricks Gallery, 130 41st Street in Avondale, open by appointment. Write athensimports@gmail.com to schedule a viewing.
TRANSFORMATION: To change the form or outward appearance of. To change the condition, nature or functions of. In Physics, to change (one form of energy) into another.
Palo Pallas is fascinated with transformation: most particularly in how transformation relates to individuals and life experience. Pallas also believes that thought is energy and as energy cannot only be transformed but transferred. These concerns are the basis for an exhibit of the artists’ work at Avondale Bricks Gallery opening August 30.
While Pallas has worked in a myriad of styles and mediums, it was an encounter with a pile of sticks that began the path that has led to her current method of creating. She relates the story of repeatedly passing sticks on the side of the road that had been stacked for pickup until their attraction finally compelled her to stop and retrieve them. After several years passed with Pallas looking at the sticks every day, their purpose was revealed. “The Beings they were meant to be, at that given moment in time, began to reveal themselves to me: the who, or what they were.” Thus began the Spirit Stick series.
The sticks may have announced their presence as Beings, but it is Palo’s long interest in the Tarot that guides them to their form. The sticks must be dried and the process may include sanding and sealing them for strength. The wood itself suggests the direction. A dialogue begins. Imagery and color emerge based on the ancient symbolism of the Tarot, but filtered through the present, the moment. The resulting objects, augmented with heads, shields and masks are Totems; guardians and guides of the spirit world offering aid to the receptive viewer.
Another type of transformation came about as a result of Pallas’s initial encounter with sticks. So strong was the connection she felt with these sticks and so certain was she of her ability to use them as a means of exploring her own Divine spirit, that the artist formerly known as Paula Stallings became Palo Pallas. Palo from the Spanish for stick and Pallas from Pallas Athena, goddess of wisdom, courage inspiration and the arts, to name but a few of her attributes.
In 1995 Pallas was invited to participate in an exhibit in which the artists were asked to decorate chairs. Engrossed, as she was, in the creation of the Spirit Sticks, this idea did not appeal to her as an artistic challenge. One day, during a break, a casual glance at an opened book whose pages suggested chair cushions offered a solution to the problem of meeting the exhibitions theme while satisfying her need for artistic challenge. Pallas submitted a diminutive chair, the frame made of here beloved sticks, the cushion fashioned from reclaimed pages of a tattered book. It was at this time that Palo began experiencing problems with her wrists. The effort necessary for the construction of Spirit Sticks became so painful she had to stop. Construction of what had come to be called Reading Chairs, however, was still possible and these became her focus.
The first of the Reading Chairs were made from random books and were numbered. While standing alone as beautiful objects, the intent was to express a love of learning and to encourage reading. Later, as with the Spirit Sticks the material itself began to offer direction. Pallas began to consider the content of the books she was using. In high school Palo had begun to learn portrait skills. Becoming proficient in rendering subjects physical likeness, she became interested, as all good portrait artists do, in capturing their spirit. So the chairs became symbolic portraits of the authors of the books used in their making and bear their names or the name of the book considered. The reading Chairs have been a great success, exhibited and collected across the U.S. including the University of Washington’s Special Collection perhaps the premier book art collection in the country.
The third and most recent series represented in the Avondale Bricks exhibit is Think Thoughts Thoughtfully (or TTT). In creating both Spirit Sticks and Reading Chairs great attention to detail is demanded. Wood must be sanded, sticks must be joined, wire must be wrapped, paint applied, paper cut, paper folded; the process is lengthy but purposeful. Such a process allows time for thought and Palo says, may result in a sort of meditation state. At some point during the Reading Chair series, Pallas says her attention shifted to the concept of “Intention”. She began writing her intentions on parchments and framed them within, yes, the sticks. Pallas states, “As I first created these intentions, now as works of art: intentions written over and over, forming patterns, I recognized it was inevitable that the thought energy upon which I focused, acting as energy does, had to be permeating the papers on which I wrote…..there could be no other option according to my studies and the laws of energy: …all is energy: energy is always in motion; and the fastest energy known to man is thought.” Taking into consideration that her intentions are being projected outward toward the viewer, Pallas uses legible word definitions that, taken together, form short statements of intention. Designed to be read, TTT’s allow the viewer to participate in the work, share intention and, hopefully enact a transfer of energy.
“Through my works of art, and studies necessary for their creation, I’ve come to understand that all which is believed to be seen, touched and experienced is simply the experience of energy transformed.”
Palo Pallas
Opening Reception
Thursday, August 30, 5:30-8:30
Tapas by Cosmo’s, live music, and an Indian fashion show
Avondale Bricks Gallery 130 41st St S in Avondale 205-991-4440
or bhamweekly@gmail.com for information
Free admission
This exhibition of totally original, unique local art is at Avondale Bricks Gallery, 130 41st Street in Avondale, open by appointment. Write athensimports@gmail.com to schedule a viewing.
