New Cool Artistic Outlet in Town

I have just heard about this from a great friend, Charity Stevens and am hoping to find out more about it in the near future....

Stuff Redux

Two years ago when I found out that there is a big mass of plastic junk floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean about the size of Texas or Brazil.  This idea of re-use and plastic pollution has been on my mind.

The Pacific Garbage Dump or Trash Vortex


Not that one little start up community arts cneter like this could make a difference, but what a great way to start....

Portfolio Preview

 In The Village

Sold: Private Collection

2011

Acrylic paint, pigmented gesso and colored pencil on board; 32"x24"

Beside the Big Tree
Sold: Private Collection

2011

Acrylic paint, colored pencil and pigmented gesso on board; 26"x30"

 Toomey's Barn
Sold: Private Collection 

2010 

Acrylic paint, colored pencil and pigmented gesso on board; 24"x32"

 Columbia II
Sold: Private Collection

2010

Acrylic Paint, colored pencil and pigmented gesso on board; 30"x24 1/2"

 Columbia I

2009

Acrylic paint, colored pencil and pigmented gesso on masonite; 24”x30”




Cycles
2010
Acrylic paint, pigmented gesso, and colore pencil on board; 24"x24"

VisArts Collector’s Night THIS SATURDAY

I am really looking forward to going to Collector’s Night at the Visual Arts Center in Richmond to help them celebrate their 50th birthday but also honored that my artwork is going to be displayed beside some of my VCU professors like Amie Oliver and mentor Michael Pierce

I even have a dress and everything...

Anyway here is my piece I am donating and a little blurb that will be displayed with it 

(I think)

Fire Hydrant, 2012

12”x12” acrylic and pencil on board

Kathy Calhoun is the once and future VisArts studio tenant, currently enjoying her space in mid row but way back in 1990 she was in the spot where the Richmond Film Festival people now reside.

This donated piece was part of an en plein air series created last summer to finish up Kathy’s graduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Fire Hydrant was painted between 5:30 and 7 AM in an effort to avoid the heat wave wilting RVA that week.

http://artspacegallery.org/artists/kathleencalhoun/index.shtml

VisArts + Capgrossos = Awesomesauce Field Trip

1.	Awesomesauce	797 up, 165 down
	Something that is more awesome than awesome. It is a modifyer of your basic awesome into a more awesome version  (courtesy Urban Dictionary) Gestalt- |gəˈ sh tält; -ˈ sh tôlt|  Psychologyan organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts. (courtesy Apple Dictionary)

Wow I just love the synergy, gestalt that RVA has with the arts and the people who create!! 

To show you what I mean let me describe a slice of awesomesauce that happened to me and my students just last Friday

I took my students to see my studio (which honestly I think was a bit of a yawn for them, maybe I should NOT have cleaned it up) and to see the exhibit at VisArts  Substitutions for A Game Never Played  an strong collection of still life, portraits and capgrossos by Megan Marlatt.  I would highly recommend it but unfortunately her exhibit just closed, bummer.  

Click on her name above or see the photos below to view her dynamic, vibrant work.

Obviously and thank goodness her work is nowhere near a yawn, but this is where it greats really really really GREAT...

Who do we run into on the stairs?  

Why just the artist herself, Megan Marlatt, and yes she is so cool that she gives an engaging, witty elevator talk about her work, process and inspiration to my students right there.  It was like Megan was just waiting there for us and had all the time in the world.  Nada pretensions..

Would that ever happen in NYC?   Doubtful.   LA?  Unlikely.

But wait!! It gets even GREATER...

Megan’s work with capgrossos (aka big heads) brings a capgrosso Spanish artist  (David Ventura) into town thanks to a wonderful NEA Fast-Track Challenge America grant.  So, they are hanging out working near my studio....  

Capgrosso plaster molds

Bummer that they do not speak English because it would be just amazing to hear from them.

  

So how zen is it that I happen to have a student fluent in Spanish?   She is able (with just a little nudge) to translate for us.... yet another unplanned for non-yawn art moment.  

Complete awesomesauce.  

Thank you once again VisArts for doing your part in making RVA such a zen-awesomesauce-gestalt place for creativity.

Wall of Sounds Meets Wall of Color

For those of you of a certain age...

remember Phil Specter the music producer who created the "wall of sound"  with his revolutionary way of sound mixing?

Well, I do not think my "wall of color" is anything revolutionary, but I really enjoyed listening to his work while creating this piece in my studio.

 

Like the kid with the new box of 64 crayolas (the box with the sharpener), I just got a box of 48 paint tubes from Liquitex and had to experiment!

The swatches will come in handy when making palette selections for future paintings...

Vis Arts Studio

My (somewhat new) Studio Space at the Visual Arts Center

1812 W Main Street

Richmond, Virginia

Heating!! Air Conditioning!!!  Oh MY !!!!!

To be near other artists, other art classes, galleries...   WONDERFUL!!!


A great supportive community for teaching,  learning, and creating....


I am one very lucky artist!

One of the creative challenges of my new space? 


How to hand my work on this brick wall...

done with hooks in the ceiling joists and lots of wire and eye hooks... 

Summertime Sketches

There is absolutely nothing like the lazy days of summer to brush up on some laid back drawing....

and some note taking...

and some olympic watching...

and some grocery shopping...

and traveling...

and snacking...