THE VOLCANO'S VISUAL ARTS CRITIC CHIMES IN >>>

OMG, what a problem to have! There's just too much art going on in the South Sound. There's no way I can cover it all - not with only a single column per week in the Weekly Volcano and one little Spew per week, not with me being old and decrepit and lazy. I want to see it all and then report on the good stuff.

Here's some stuff that promises to be good, which I may or may not get to review.

First, Susan Christian and Ron Hinson at Childhood's End in Olympia. OK, I have every intention of reviewing this one, even if I have to give up on the new Dale Chihuly show at Tacoma Art Museum - even after driving up I-5 from Oly for a special press preview with the man himself. One other aside about Chihuly before I get back to the Christian-Hinson show: Chihuly is going to be showing, in addition to his own work, Native American art and artifacts he has collected. That should be fascinating even if we have been inundated with Native art lately, what with the current show at the Washington State History Museum and the recent shows at TAM and B2 Fine Arts.

Now back to Childhood's End. The show features paintings by Christian and sculpture by Hinson. I've never seen sculpture by Hinson. He's primarily a painter, and a great one, although his most well known paintings are three-dimensional wall hangings that obliterate the boundary between painting and sculpture. The photo of his piece on the invitation is like nothing I've ever seen from him. I'll be interested in seeing what else he has to show.

Christian does minimalist landscape-based abstract paintings that sometimes hit and sometimes miss the mark. When they do hit they are marvelous. The very best painting I saw in Oly's last Arts Walk was one of hers. I plan on seeing this show soon. You can see it through July 24. Childhood's End is located at 222 4^th Ave. W. in Olympia.

Another new show I'm looking forward to is Hot Fusion: Exploration Into Abstraction at B2 with works by Todd Clark, Judy Hintz Cox, Scott J. Morgan and Yvette Neumann. I don't know these artists, but so far in its young lifetime as a contemporary art gallery B2 has done nothing bad, and the picture on the invitation, a painting by Morgan titled "Clave," looks as hot as the title implies this show is going to be. It runs through Aug. 6 at the gallery at 711 St. Helens Ave.

Pierce College Fort Steilacoom is showing paintings by Seattle artist Marsha Glazière. I haven't seen a lot of Glaziere's work but what little I have seen has been impressive. I wrote of her painting "Schuster Parkway" in last year's juried exhibition at Tacoma Community College that it "fairly leaps off the canvas and grabs you by the throat." This should definitely be a show worth seeing. It runs through Aug. 11. The gallery is on the campus at 9401 Farwest Drive SW in Lakewood. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon Friday.

Yet another show that should be fascinating is the exhibition of wire sculptures called "memory trees" by Chris Wooten and Vladimir Shako's silver gelatin, selenium, gold-toned photographs of female figures draped in shimmering fabrics at Sandpiper Gallery. The one preview photo I saw looked great, especially Shako's satiny photo. This show doesn't open until July 23. Mark your calendars. It's at 2221 N 30^th St., Old Town Tacoma.