New Display Space

I am so thrilled with this new space to display some of my work…

It’s at CrossRoads Art Center.  A wonderful place to go hang out, take a class and look at a lot of great art.  An added bonus is it is right by one of the best antique store in Richmond!!

Thanks so much to Jenni Kirby and the gang there for making me feel so welcome!

Valentine’s Day Passion

“It’s a good thing I have my library card, because I am checking you OUT…;)”

This is the cheesy valentine devil that makes an appearance in my art room every February 14th.  He is a great way to celebrate, whether or not my students have that "special someone”  (in fact it is really good if they think they don’t and are feeling left out)

some other cheesy V. D. sayings...

“Well, here I am.  What were your other two wishes?”

But what does this have to do with art you may ask? Well doesn’t art help us to tap into our passions?  Either as a viewer or participant?  

“Do you have a license?  Because you are driving me crazy!”

Hope this is a wonderful non-overated Valentine’s Day for you and that you get to indulge in your favorite creative passion!

Let me leave with this final closing V.D. ditty…

“if I could re-arrange the alphabet, I would put I and U together…”

Makin’ It Happen at Boka Tako Kantina

So my husband and I went to this cool place for lunch a few weeks back.  I already knew the food was incredible without having even stepped inside the place (and not just because it is getting rave 4 star reviews from many sources) 

Just how is that, you ask?

Well because it is also one of the food trucks downtown at just about every fun event.

If you want to see a fantastic menu hit this...Boka Kantina. Richmond, Virginia

First thing we notice when we walk in is … bland walls, meh.  Of course, no wonder since food trucks do not have to ever worry about decor!  Which then prompts me to ask Patrick Harris, the owner, if he would just like to display some of my art.  To which he responds, 

“Sure.  Do you do murals?"

Next thing I know we are planning on a series of three of them and the rest is (unfolding) history…

First the rough sketch for approval of mural #1…

Then marking off the space 

(Patrick was beginning to wonder if paint was ever going to hit the wall)

But don’t want to paint it crookedly or not space it right…

Slowly but surely the paint finally did appear...

Every heard of “measure twice, cut once”?  

Well my take on that as a painter is to gesture in and rework easily.  Yeah I know it does not flow like the first saying but I think you get the idea...

Chalk transfers really help with readjustments and composition...

In the end Patrick persuaded me to go darker than I thought would work (I was wrong, he was right).  

A combination of dark rust and tinted highlights help to make the rusted screw “pop” away from the sign

The rust and corrosive metal look was more successful than I had even hoped for

FINISHED!! (I think, guess I should check with Patrick on this)

Now onto the next one…

Disorganized or Just Organic?

Organic or Organized..What Works Best in Making Art?

I have been knocking this concept around the old noggin for quite sometime, just like the "Competition vs. Creativity" deal I blogged about earlier this Fall.  It was really on my mind over the holidays, having just moved houses, not getting into my studio as much as I would like to and stuff like that.

So as my usual first step in contemplation of such matters, I turned to the dictionary to help me wrestle with this...

Even more enlightening than the actual definitions was the associations made with each word.  For instance,  with the first word below many ads for ADHD meds came up and with the second, "organized crime" was used as an example.

Hmmmm......

dis·or·gan·ized

[dis-awr-guh-nahyzd]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

functioning without adequate order, systemization, or planning;
uncoordinated: a woefully disorganized enterprise.

2.

careless or undisciplined; sloppy: too disorganized a person to be an 
agreeable roommate.

Origin: 
1805–15; disorganize + -ed²

Related forms

un·dis·or·gan·ized, adjective

Can be confused: disorganized, unorganized.

NOTE:  Not my personal living area. Computer file image, really.

Also computer file image, but in all honestly could be my desk any day of the week. 

Except I take my coffee with lots of creamer...

or·gan·ized

 [awr-guh-nahyzd]  Show IPA

adjective

 Computer file image, definitely

1.      affiliated in an organization, especially a union: organized dockworkers.

2.

having a formal organization or structure, especially to coordinate or 
carry out for widespread activities: organized medicine; organized crime.

Yes it is organized but will it help make art?  

both courtesy dictionary.com

On one hand with disorganization, it is annoying to be forgetting, and events, especially if it lets someone down-constantly looking for things is no fun.  Yet on the other (this is the creative in me talking), if things are too micro-planned out, then that creative spark and passion can get stifled or even snuffed out.

New Year + New Resolutions = EUREKA moment

While in my studio cleaning and rearranging this morning, it dawned on me.  You see I went into work but nothing was happening creative-wise so I just intuitively starting cleaning and putting things in their "home".  Whoa! I started organizing when I didn't want to.... I wanted things to just flow.

Why did I do that?

Because good art production needs an organized base. 

Only then can the creative juices organically flow and not be halted by having to look for that misplaced brush or to clean up the paint accidently spilled because it was in the wrong place.

So disorganization and organic are NOT the same in my book. Organic good.  Disorganization, bad.  The fact that confusion is listed by dictionary.com as a related word does not help disorganized's case.

As I have heard before..plan excessively but then be in the moment.  It is the planning but just as importantly the letting go of it that lets us truly be in the moment of creating...

Happy New Year!  May 2014 be the perfect balance of planning and creating for you!

VisArts Art Supply Drive for the Holidays

What a great way to brighten a little one's holiday! 

 The VisArts Center of Richmond is having a 

holiday art supply collection for needy kids.

It is so wonderful to see the bin filling up at the center, but let's get it overflowing!  If you remember the next time you are picking up a little something at a drugstore or even grocery store swing by the school supply aisle and spend an extra couple $.  Then either send it my way and I will drop it off next time I am there or bring to them at 1812 W Main St RVA.

Thanks for considering it!

Kathy

Thankful for Art

What a hokey post title, huh?

But I am. Not only for the opportunity to produce, share and teach it but for the way art can bring people together.

Especially this season, thanks to one of the sweetest and strongest art teachers I know,  Mrs. Ashley Cogbill.  (BTW she was also one of the sweetest art students I ever had. Wish I could remember her artwork but honestly that so long ago and I think I was teaching about 12,000 students at the time.  Love her stuff now though)  Anyway, Ashley graciously invited me to come be an artist-in-residence at her elementary school in Henrico County this past month.

I had an absolute BLAST working with her inquisitive, flexible, energetic and creative students.  

24 bundles of enthusiasm greeted me each Thursday as we worked together to create a 10'x5' mural, titled "Water Is Life" as part of the Wyland Art Foundation National Art Challenge.  

Though Ashley will not take the credit, she made my job so much easier by getting the kids prepared and working though a lot of the decision making before I even showed up. 

 She really spoiled me.... Ashley even served me tea while we were working!

So I got to do all the fun stuff like teaching chalk transfer techniques, making individual studies and splatter painting.

Not only were these kids and their art teacher a complete joy to work with but the whole staff at Springfield Park Elementary did so much for make me feel welcome.  I was especially impressed by classroom teacher, Melanie Moore, who was so giving and flexible with the class schedule.  Without her support and so many other teachers willing to switch around their schedules this mural just would not have been able to happen.

So this Thanksgiving as I tuck into my turkey I will be thinking of that kind art teacher, those 24 adorable artists and that caring faculty who helped to remind me how creating, sharing and teaching art are some of the most wonderful things that people can do for each other.  Thank you Ashley for making this happen!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Kathy

Is Art Life?

Yet another great article that really hits the mark about the timeless and universal way art can really sustain us, whether as artist or viewer.

 Alain de Botton has makes a few great  points in this essay, like the one below...

 In 'At the Linen Closet', a modest domestic scene by the 17th-century Dutch painter Pieter de Hooch, we see a couple of women putting the household linens in order. His painting suggests that the big themes of life—the search for prosperity, happiness, good relationships—are always grounded in the way we approach little things and ordinary routine. Peter Horree/Alamy

Just make sure you can pull up the artworks he references, otherwise it is just a touch annoying.   Reading about the influences these paintings had on him without being able to view them can be frustrating.


Otherwise, happy Reading!

Kathy