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77 Village Road
Lopez Island Washington 98261
click here to get driving directions courtsey of MapQuest to Bruce Bott's studio on Lopez Island
I have been producing prints for nearly 25 years and painting for the last five…a fact that reminds me that I am well aged for something undrinkable. Possessing not one, but two degrees in photography, I am acutely and sometimes painfully aware of the obvious…that which lies in front of my eyes. Unfortunately the camera does not see the image through my eyes.
I discovered etching one day when I wondered into a print studio and was mesmerized by the activity, and the process. I told the instructor that I had had never taken a drawing class before. It hasn’t seemed to matter after all.
What I see is annotated in the prints and paintings that I create. Through a variety of media and techniques, I deliver a world of strange and joyful vision. My world is filled with creatures great and small; with characters in chase of others and themselves. We love the circus that is life. We love nature and its hidden world. We love the magic of others both real and imagined. When someone enjoys my work, it is a glue of understanding between us that things are exactly as they seem. This affirmation pushes me further into creation.
Most artists insert a resume here. I have one of those…and most of it is actually true. But a resume cannot explain a relationship. That’s what the art is about. I work as much as I can, pushing myself into new worlds and new mediums whether it is an etching, oil painting on a board or the manifestation of a nesting area for flying friends in a birdhouse. I continue on the path in observation of all that amazes me, chronicling its existence through the content of my work.
I live in the San Juan Islands on Lopez Island with my wife Janis, a wildly accomplished glass artist, who inspires me daily with her brilliance in dealing with all things fragile. My two stepdaughters, Zoey, almost 20, and Ariana, 17, complete the fabric of my home life and always keep life interesting.
Janis and I constructed a building in our village which houses both our studios, a quilt restoration business, an exhibition gallery and invites the world in to eat through the front door of Vitas…an oasis of wildly delicious food and sumptuous wines for the perfect moveable feast.. Janis has created a beautiful landscape surrounding the building and on summer nights we show movies outdoors at dusk using our neighbor’s outside wall as a projection screen.
Please visit this website again as I will be posting new works in the near future. Mail comments and questions and be sure to visit my studio if you are ever on Lopez. Thanks.
You can see more of Bruce's work at the folowing galleries