Photographer casts eye to found objects

You’ve stuffed your belly with turkey and dressing. Now it’s time to fill your soul with nourishing art at the seventh annual Slightly West of Spokane Artists Studio Tour on Saturday.

More than 20 local artists, including painters, potters, leather workers and wood cutters, will show their works at seven venues along a 26-mile loop through the West Plains. The stops, which include backyard studios, private homes and a museum, will be open with free admission from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Among the participating artists is photographer Joe Nuess, a longtime Medical Lake resident who works out of his studio on the second floor of the Bennett Block building in downtown Spokane. His commercial work includes portfolios for architects, food shots for restaurants and mug shots for companies. He will be one of several artists exhibiting at the Medical Lake studio of Blue Heron Pottery, the fourth stop on the tour.

Nuess’ personal collection is an eclectic mix of digital and film processes, bright colors and black-and-whites, and subjects ranging from far-away landscapes to close-up vegetables. His inspiration often comes from found objects or plants.

One photo is of a rotting pear, bowed and twisting, with a digitally imposed face. “I had that pear sitting in my studio for two weeks, and it started getting funkier and funkier,” Nuess said. “I liked the way it looked.”

Several asparagus spears seem to march across another photograph. Another piece is a close-up of a garlic bulb, shedding a trail of peeled layers. “My idea was the garlic was undressing, leaving little pieces of clothing behind it,” Nuess said.

A current subject uses two objects he found in his backyard in Medical Lake: a gourd shaped uncannily like a bird, and a fallen nest. At his studio recently, he took pictures, twisting the gourd different ways inside the nest, again and again.

“This is the smallest space I’ve ever had to shoot in, but it works,” Nuess said. He used to operate the award-winning Brick Wall Photographic Gallery, where he exhibited photographers every month, until renovations caused him to lose the lease last year. A First Friday flag still stands in his office.

“We showed a lot of local artists and a photographer as far away as Mexico City,” Nuess said. He downsized the gallery but kept his workspace. “You’ve got to be flexible in this business.”

A sense of humor helps too and is present in much of Nuess’ work. The most obvious is a series of “inspirational” posters he started. His first is a close-up of a cow’s face, with a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Relax, in stupidity there is no anxiety.”

“I hate those inspirational posters with guys rowing and quotes about perseverance and all that crap,” Nuess said.

Nuess’ family first moved to Spokane from Southern California in 1967 when he was still in high school. “I hated it,” Nuess said. “I was a surfer boy from California, so after graduation, I got out of here.”

After getting an arts degree and gaining a wife, Nuess eventually felt drawn to move back to the Spokane area in the 1980s to open his own commercial studio.

“We were driving around one day (in California) on what used to be a two-lane road with no sidewalks … and we pulled up to a stoplight and there was a mall on each corner and I looked at my wife and said, ‘I don’t want to live here anymore,’ ” Nuess said. “And so we moved up here.”

Now Nuess is content to live on lakefront property on the West Plains. “One thing I learned about myself is I have to live on the water, or I can’t take it,” Nuess said.

One of the most serene photos on display in Nuess’ studio is of a solitary tree on a hillside by Medical Lake. “That’s my backyard,” he said.