Acrylic analysis

Quiet and reserved, Marcia Dukes lets her art express her quirky and curious nature.

“Sometimes my work is paying homage,” she said. “Sometimes it is a question to God or a statement, a feeling or fear, or even standing on my tiptoes waving frantically saying, ‘Notice me.’ ”

Her work ranges from acrylic paintings of an inquisitive cat or a bee to more curious studies of strange figures at a tea party or bright elaborate doodles.

One painting called “4 a.m.” shows a young girl who seems to be pointing at something. An empty cage lies on the floor, its lock tossed aside. A bear, the size of a stuffed toy, stands watching from a doorway. In one hand he has a piece of bread and in the other a big knife.

“That piece is from a dream I had,” Dukes said. “Some people think the knife is a weapon but really, he was just making a sandwich.”

Certainly her work can be perceived in many ways. From a scarecrow buried in an Egyptian desert to a piece that she says is a family portrait that includes the booted feet of a young girl balancing on a high wire and a dozen other unexpected things, her work screams “analyze me.” Still, things are never exactly what they seem.

Dukes is a perfect example. She grew up in Japan. Spending 20 of her 31 years there, she feels very Japanese on the inside. “At home I use chopsticks and prefer sitting on the floor. Outside I look very American with blue eyes and blond hair,” she said. “So there is a constant struggle of accepting mirror image and what’s behind it that plays out in a good deal of the work that I do.”

Her parents are missionaries in Japan and Dukes speaks the language fluently. In her youth, she would sit in the art room and draw or read books. Often she felt like an outsider and she found solace observing, daydreaming and creating. Dukes met her husband in Japan. The couple ended up in Spokane when he chose to be stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base about 9 years ago. Now, Dukes is a freelance Japanese translator, a member of a local Japanese Taiko drumming group, and is learning to play the sanshin, a Japanese banjo.

In a quiet room that she rents in the Cat’s Eye Gallery, 1 S. Washington St., Dukes paints or plays music. She met Conrad Bagley, the owner of the gallery, shortly after she moved here.

“He’s helped me get a little more social and he’s trying to get me to paint bigger,” she said. Bagley has turned the gallery into a hub of activity where visitors and artists can find inspiration.

Through April, Dukes’ work will be featured alongside artists Elizabeth Collier and Bagley at the gallery as well as an exhibit of masks created by sexual abuse survivors from Lutheran Community Services.