Opening Reception

Yay! A well-attended opening reception today. So many students, parents, and friends came by to see my work. It is a scary feeling to put myself (my artwork) on display to be viewed by the public. It is So Much Easier to be vulnerable to the public with the support of good friends and students who gave me confidence to hang my latest exhibit.

And so, the opening is over. Back to work in the morning. What now? What's next?

Simple Style, Clean Lines, Minimal Design

As it often the case, I spend early Sunday mornings captivated by The New York Times and CBS Sunday Morning. It is on these lazy mornings that I frequently learn about an artist or an exhibition that piques my interest and obsession! Today on CBS Sunday Morning, I was introduced to the work of Charles Harper via Todd Oldham, designer. Wonderful, just wonderful.

Vanishing Point

Without any pressure to produce for a show, I am just playing these days...

Counting down the days...

Who would have thought that one full year's worth of creativity would be reduced to 22 wrapped brown paper squares and rectangles? Yep! That's it. My show is ready to hang at the Chapel Hill Public Library and I am pleased. The framing is fantastic! I have edited my artist statement and updated my biography. The identification list of titles, mediums, prices, and dimensions is complete. 250 postcards have been addressed and mailed out. I have a guest book and a new supply of business cards. Desserts and punch are planned for the reception on February 10 at 2:30 PM.

All that is left to do is to wonder...Was it as easy as Kevin Costner portrayed in Field of Dreams when "he built it and they came?"

Chipping Away

To do for my next show:



1. Finish art work

2. Deliver work to framer

3. Create postcard

4. Mail postcards

5. Write artist statement

6. Update bio

7. Check on press releases

8. Create title and price list

9. Plan reception

10. Pick up work from framer (hope to have enough funds to cover framing!!)

11. Drop off work at Chapel Hill Library

12. Pray for good response by viewers.

Reflection

Elizabeth Murray

Sol LeWitt

The contemporary art world was saddened this year by the deaths of Sol LeWitt and Elizabeth Murray.

New Year's Resolution

"But I have attached great value to drawing and will continue to do so, because it is the backbone of painting, the skeleton that supports all the rest. I like it so much, Theo..." Van Gogh's letter to his brother, Theo, 1862.

For the past two years, I have been obsessed with collage and the intrigue of integration of elements on a two dimensional surface. I resolve in 2008, to return to, and to develop better drawing skills. Van Gogh saw the value in the 19Th century. I see it in the 21st...

Happy New Year!

Welcome Holy Child

Titian, The Holy Family and a Shepherd

I love color and texture! I love abstract modern art! I can "disappear" in a Rothko with ease and great pleasure and return groggily to the "real world." I also love the works of the Italian Renaissance Old Masters. There is something magical about Titian and his use of color in the 16Th century. Until last week, I considered my loves very different and completely disconnected in any obvious way. I tend to have wacky taste in many areas of my life, including art.

However, last Saturday, I was browsing 2nd ed. Booksellers, a used bookstore in the RDU airport, and responded to a book calling my name: Matt's Old Masters. David Sylvester, the late British art critic and curator said of Matthew Collings:

"One of Collings' great strengths is his insistence that
in art things are not either/or but both/and."

Matt's Old Masters focuses on Titian, Rubens, Velazquez, and Hogarth. I found myself fascinated by Collings writings about Titian during a short airline flight, followed by a LONG drive in a tiny rental car to my husband's family home in Montezuma, GA. Collings adeptly makes a connection for me between Italian Renaissance and modern abstract art as follows:

"Titian-style color isn't just bright colour,
which is what people usually think 'colour' means in art.
It's colour worked and organised and constructed,
so it's doing something more than you would get
if a modern designer chose some colours from a colour chart.
It's producing something symphonic and harmonious
out of a lot of differences so
there's a sensation of surprise and delight.
This description would fit a Paul Klee or a Matisse,
or a Pollock or a Rothko--which is right,
because that kind of modern art, small like Klee or vast like Pollock,
harks back to the sparkle and suavity of Venetian painting."

Ahhhh, sparkle and suavity; my kind of art!

Jingle All the Way

Merry Christmas!

Beauty in Unlikely Places

After a week of watching focused students making great art in the artroom, I was cleaning brushes that had been sitting in what appeared to be a bottomless wash tub for several days. Soaking brushes for days is not recommended care for brushes; however, if I have to choose between working with students or washing brushes, I choose students EVERY time! As I washed and rinsed and washed and rinsed and washed and rinsed, I eventually found the bottom of the tub. The remaining paint swirled and flowed and made me smile. Art is ALL around us...even in the bottom of a tub of dirty paint brushes.