my students' work!

This semester, I have had the pleasure of teaching 3 young teen girls, 8th and 9 th graders, drawing and painting. Today was their last class of the semester, and I thought I would honor their hard work by putting some of their pieces on my blog.

The work here is charcoal, pastel, and acrylic paint.

Exploring How to be Considered for Public Art Sites

Today I went to a lunchtime talk hosted by the New England Foundation for the Arts, concerning the topic of presenting your work for potential public art commisions. The focus was on photographing your work. If you can find out who is on a certain panel that will be looking at your work, it can help you to tailor your presentation.

Generally, it was everything we all should know about presenting artwork - professional photography and presentation are really important. It really does pay off to have a pro take your photos if you want to enter this venue. Since architects and landscape designers have entered the competition for public art, and are used to doing very clean and professional presentations to get clients, artists have to work especially hard to be competitive in this field.

But my take away is if you really want to go this route, try hard to get a small beginning commission or do a temporary piece in a local building or neighborhood, get really good photos, and look for the right artist calls in which your work seems to fit. If possible, connect with a landscape designer or architect to lend more credibility to your work.

lessons learned

I went back into some pieces that I had thought were complete that did not go into my recent exhibition - reworked them to simplify and strengthen color. Here is one half of a diptych that I have been thinking about for a while. I like the introduction of more solid shapes of color.

Based on seeing my work all together at the Bromfield, I can see that I can hold back a bit. What does that mean exactly? Simplifying, I think.

I want to look into presenting my work as public art, because I think that the wall constructions would be wonderfully whimsical in a public space.

I am excited to create more site-specific installations, as I did in the bathroom at the Bromfield Gallery. That was so much fun! And shouldn't we all try to have more fun?

Can I just say that it is important to have humility in this world? Thank you to all of my friends who make me laugh and show me that the art world is just a small small slice of the big picture.

back in the saddle

I had a great day in the studio - the first solid day since before my show. I am working on a couple of new wall sculptures. Yes, very playful!

Ok now what?

Thank yous to folks who have visited the exhibit. I gave a short gallery talk on Saturday and had a young videographer do some taping. He and I will pull together a five minute video that I plan to post on YouTube and also send out on a CD with future press and gallery mailings.

Having an exhibit takes an enormous amount of energy and pretty much consumes one's time in the studio for perhaps months. Now that the show is up, it has given me the chance to digest where I have been and think more about where to go next.

The most fun I had was installing the bathroom wall treatment, and after I had finished I wished that I had taken over an entire gallery wall, too. That tells me that there is a direction I need to visit! Also, lots of good feedback on the wall sculptures... and I can see doing an installation of smaller pieces.

I made myself go into the studio yesterday morning and work, for the first time since about a month ago, pre-show. I started back into some sculptures I had started and also went back into two paintings that I had thought were complete.

No excuses, practice your studio practice - use it or lose it!

Artscope Magazine review

My exhibit, Glyphs, was reviewed in the November/December 2009 issue of Artscope Magazine.

You can read it here!

Exhibit is up!

My big event, the opening reception at the Bromfield Gallery, is up, and the opening reception was Friday evening. Thank you to all of my friends, family, and colleagues who visited that night - I really appreciate your support. Thank you also to Vermont Studio Center for the residencies providing time and the support of other artists. Thanks especially to my son Josh, my muse for this body of work.

Artscope Magazine did a two page preview of the exhibit which you can see on the Bromfield homepage.

Do you know Ellen Harvey?

Now that my exhibit is up, I am in the process of networking and sending people info in the hopes of generating more publicity. It is a conceptual art project, really. In the process of researching publicity and contacts, etc etc, I ended up on Joan Mattera's blog which led me to Jackie Battenfield's blog which led me to an artist I had never heard of before but who I think is absolutely fascinating in her blending of the conceptual and realist painting. Check out Ellen Harvey, and down the rabbit hole you'll go...

Sneak Peak - photos from the gallery!

I'd love to see you at the opening - this Friday evening, Nov. 6, 5:30 - 8 pm.

I will be talking about the work in the gallery space on Sat. Nov. 14 at 3 pm.

AND, gallery will be open on Sunday, Nov. 22 from 1-4 pm.

Regular gallery hours are 12 - 5 pm, Wed. through Sat. or by appointment.

Let me know if you want a private showing!

Bathroom Installation - Glyphs Crawl on Walls

Here are pix of the highly anticipated bathroom installation. This will be part of my exhibition at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston, opening this Friday night!
Materials used here are silkscreen, latex paint, and sticky vinyl.

My son helped me complete this installation. Since his doodles are the main source of imagery for this exhibit, I felt it was fitting that he give some input. Josh was a great help with the silkscreen part, as well as suggesting when to leave well enough alone! Thanks, Josh.