Article in the Kiowa County Signal

During my Closing Reception at the 5.4.7 Arts Center last week, I was interviewed for an article in Kiowa County Signal paper. Please check it out!

If you'd rather copy and paste, here is the URL: http://www.kiowacountysignal.com/news/20160316/artists-work-recognized

Successful Art Opening at Strasser Plaza!!

Yesterday was my art opening event at Strasser Plaza, a newly opened public meeting space in Manhattan, Kansas that can be reserved through the Strasser Village Leasing Office. The space was excellent, and the event was an absolute success. I had at least 64 attendees, 13 of which I did not know. The reaction to my work was great, and I made four sales [Cello Playing Spider; Flint Hills Sunset II; Thin Yellow Line (Prairie Burn Afterglow); and Harvest Moon]. I had 16 paintings properly displayed, and another four that were not-so-properly displayed. This translates to a rate of sales of 25% if you just count the properly displayed paintings, or 20% if you count all paintings. Either way, that's a winner!

Thank you to everyone who attended, everyone who helped with set up (including the great call for easels of 2015), everyone who gave moral, emotional, and rational support along the way, and, of course, to the people who got the conversation going to begin with (you know who you are...).

This is a photo of me talking with two of my guests, taken by Susan Rose.

Three of the paintings from the opening are currently hanging in the Nano Gallery at Strasser Village, and four are hanging in the Strasser Village Leasing Office, including one in the small conference room in the back.

Harvest Moon

I kept this painting a secret until I had my art opening for the Nano Gallery and Strasser Village Leasing Office yesterday. My plan was to then hang it in the Leasing Office with the art that will hang through August 15, 2015, but it already sold! I'm very happy about that, and since I had another painting done to hang in the same space if this one ever sold, I decided to let the client have it this week.

Harvest Moon. 36 x 48 inches, acrylic on pre-stretched canvas.

Fun while hanging an art show!

I am a member of the Columbian Artists Group out of Wamego, Kansas, and one of our activities is to hang art at the Radiation Oncology Waiting Room in Manhattan, Kansas (I believe the actual name is the Central Kansas Cancer Institute, although I forgot to confirm...). We rotate one artist a month, and the main goal is to give patients something interesting to look at while they wait for their treatment appointment.

I didn't expect there to be anyone in the waiting room at the time I went to hang my show, but I miscalculated! I ended up with a bit of an audience by the time everything was situated. The lady who arrived first even pitched in to help me and my art colleague by giving objective feedback about which pieces could hang together successfully. I had a pretty fun time hanging my pieces and answering questions about my art, including what media am I working in, whether the work is for sale (yes!), where do I get my inspiration, etc. There was a lot of interest in what was going on, and that was energizing.

If you find yourself visiting the Radiation Oncology Waiting Room this month for whatever reason, I hope my bright colors and undulating abstractions make you smile.

(Pictured here: Thin Yellow Line, also known as Kansas at Dusk. If you flip it over, you get a nighttime seascape...)

Finally returning to a larger canvas...

This work in progress is inspired from the early Spring landscape of the Kansas Flint Hills. My ultimate goal with this is to reveal what I consider to be Kansas' base colors (beige and light blue). I'm a little off at this point, but stay with me!

The base layer is roughly one part titan buff mixed with regular gel (semi-gloss). The paint layers so far include variations of mixtures for titan buff, titanium white, raw umber, and dioxizine purple. I like the effect, but it wasn't quite what I was going for, so I may brush a layer of titan buff over the whole thing and just let the current colors shine through as a layer of underpainting. The horizon lines also have a little bit too much color [including carbon black, raw umber, dioxazine purple, and phthalo green (yellow shade)], so I may go over those with just raw umber or just carbon black. The sky will be some form of pale blue, most likely phthalo blue mixed with titanium white, although prussian blue might be a better option.

The content itself is an abstracted mental image from freshly burned prairie in Wabaunsee County on I-70 back when the 2014 Tulip Festival was happening. Sans tulips, but that's Kansas for you. As I drove over a hill, I was struck by the layers of unburnt and burnt prairie that alternated across the plains.

Acrylic on prestretched canvas (30 x 40 inches).

Sales motivate me to keep painting... Flint Hills Sunset: SOLD!!!!

The original Flint Hills Sunset just sold! While I've thoroughly enjoyed hanging this on my living room wall for the past few months, I'm so glad to know it has a new home.

I'm probably not supposed to share this next part with you, but... I like it when my paintings sell. Sales motivate me to create more work. Sales inspire me to pick up the brush and get painting. Sales help me to feel a part of my value as an artist. To some artists and teachers, those are not the right reasons to continue making art. Some folks would argue that art created for entrepreneurial reasons - or for any reason other than creating art for art's sake - is misguided. I could sit here and state the same - because that point of view does have merit. I could claim that the urge to create art and express myself artistically are the only things driving me to produce artwork, and that sales are just a byproduct of such a dedication to art itself. But I'd be lying if I wrote that.

While it is true that what drove me to make art in the first place was indeed a primal urge to express myself and explore my creativity; and while it is true that I admire the artist that wholly embraces the conviction that art for art's sake is the only valid reason to make art; I have to admit that when I hit an artistic slump, selling a painting is the best way to invigorate me to dive back in to my craft.

I love it when you buy my work. I love it when you can't tell me exactly why you have to have it. I love it when you feel the value of the painting in the amount of money you paid me. I love it when you treat that piece of work like a treasure to be admired and cared for. I love it when you invite me visit the art you now own that I created and displayed in my home for a short while, before it made its way to you.

And I'm okay with this. I suppose that's what makes me a businesswoman as well, eh?

NOTE: Painting is no longer for sale; however, actual transaction will not take place until 2015.

Art and natural disasters...

Natural disasters happen, and art succumbs to its pressures just as much as anything else might. This concept gets me thinking... should it bother me to know that a certain percentage of my paintings will one day be destroyed in some sort of destructive event, such as fire, flood, mudslide, revenge, hurricane, tornado, or toxic mold invasion? I think it should bother me, but only if it serves to inspire me to paint more.

The world will always have a limited supply of Picassos and even the most protective of measures can't save all of them from the ravages of nature, man, or time. I suppose I'm no Picasso, but the template is the same. If I only paint a limited number of works, and a certain percentage of them can expect to be ruined or destroyed each decade, then eventually the event horizon will be met, right? This means that each of us artists should be striving to beat the clock a little bit, by making a little bit more and spreading our impact a little bit further.

Eventually, something is going to fall, and it may be your favorite piece or your best work and there will be nothing you can do to stop it from happening. I'll do my best to embrace this reality even if it is a tad painful to recognize...

Swogger Gallery Opening at The Columbian in Wamego, KS!

Last night's opening at the Swogger Gallery in The Columbian was a hit! According to my sources, it was our best opening ever. That's something to be proud of.

The art will hang through June 2014, so there is plenty of time to check it out. These three paintings of mine are currently hanging in the show, but they could rotate out if they sell, so check them out sooner rather than later if you want to see them in person. I think they make more of an impact in person.

SOLD!!! Phoenix Rising

I technically sold this back in late 2013! Just now getting around to blogging about it... The owner let me hang it in a show after-the-fact, which was nice.

Which direction?

I think I'm going to change the name of this piece from Kansas at Twilight to Orange Square in order to move away from influencing the viewer too much. While it's true that I love to talk about what inspired a painting, or what I see in the final execution, I suppose (to quote George) that that's not the point...

And now for more important issues: Which way to turn this thing? Really, whoever ends up owning this piece can turn it whichever direction they like (and, so far, three of the four orientations are a hit, including this one), but I have to hang it in a show (and, by extension, attach hanging wire), so that means I have to make a decision. I think I'm going to go with the original orientation (rotate this view 180 degrees) in order to create tension.

In other news, I received a high compliment the other day... from another artist, no less! Upon viewing this piece, I was told that, "I never got abstract art before, but this painting... just took it to another level for me. I had an epiphany, and I feel like I finally understand what abstract art is about." I'm paraphrasing, of course, but I just had to share. I was beaming from ear to ear, I'm sure.

Mini #3 (abstracted) continued...

55% titanium white + 45% cadmium yellow medium hue. Love where this is going; not sure what to do next, though...

Mini #4

12 11/16 x 17 5/16 x 0 inches (acrylic on watercolor paper). I need to strengthen one of the dark lines and then this one just needs to be signed and framed...

Only one layer of gesso used here.

Mini #3 (abstracted)

18 x 24 x 1.5 inches. This one is a work in progress. I like where it is going so far.

There is a Mini #4 but I have not photographed it yet. I painted it on watercolor paper so it needs to be taped to the wall in order to get a decent picture and I don't have the energy to do that tonight...

Mini #2

16 x 20 x 7/8 inches. I think the double halo in the sky needs to be softened.

Mini #1

11 x 14 x 1.5 inches. I think the hills need some more layering of darks.

Assembly line production...

I'm enjoying this process more than I thought I would...

The main difference in execution is brush size. Although I did apply the base coat with my #16 flat brush, the horizon line was done with my #1 white taklon round brush and the hills painted in with my #12 Utrecht 206-B tuscan series brush. The canvases are all Blick Premier canvases. The 11 x 14 inch and the 18 x 24 inch canvases are both the gallery depth of 1 1/2 inches. The 16 x 20 inch canvas is the traditional depth of 7/8 inches. Three layers of gesso were applied on all three canvases, as was the regular gel (semi-gloss) mixed with quinacridone violet and applied with the #16 flat brush.

I dare you to rotate this 180 degrees...

Kansas at Twilight is coming along nicely. But I'm feeling torn. If you rotate this 180 degrees, it becomes a Kansas thunderstorm, and I almost like that better... I'm not sure how to proceed.

Kansas at twilight

I've started the fourth painting referenced in this post. I applied 50% paynes gray + 50% titanium white mixed with eight parts regular gel (semi-gloss) with my size 16 brush in a loose manner to this 36 x 36 inch canvas that had three layers of Utrecht medium viscosity gesso applied to it. The horizon line is paynes gray. The square is a mix of c.p. cadmium orange and primary magenta, applied thickly with my #12 Utrecht Tuscan Series brush, sans media and lined with a thin line of quinacridone violet.

Next, I plan to add the snow and the vibrating purples and grays on the horizon. I can't wait to finish all of these large landscapes and see how they look together!

Kansas at Dusk

I started this painting a few months back by simply mixing phthalo blue with mars black (about 50%-50%) and brushing it on the panel board loosely with lots of water using an Essex Series 542 bright size 10 brush. I believe three layers of gesso had been applied beforehand. I let the board sit for a few months because the blue-black was so entrancing I really didn't want to ruin the effect, but eventually I knew I had to move forward with the initial vision, so I sat down to paint some more. Using the same brush, I painted straight mars black across the bottom, trying to mimic the undulating landscape of the Flint Hills to the west while traveling north on Tuttle Creek Boulevard past the hog farms about an hour after the sun has gone down. To capture the light still echoing in the air, I mixed 60% titanium white and 40% cadmium yellow medium hue and applied the mixture with a small round brush above the black. This light yellow mixed with some of the black, so I brushed it in and blended down from the horizon. The makeup of the panel board allowed for this to happen with little frustration. I ended up throwing in some phthalo blue at the very bottom for good measure.

The inspiration for this painting came as I was driving out to the lake on a clear October night to attend a concert that I ultimately did not go see because of how late I arrived. The thin line of yellow contrasted against the pitch black of the hills was ultimately so inspiring that I forwent the concert to go back home and paint. But before deciding to do this, I paced back and forth outside of the house where the concert was being held, trying to weigh whether the price of making a late entrance would be worth the glares and continuing to stare dumbstruck at the dark hills against the midnight sky. The beauty of the light against the landscape proved too powerful (and the cost of the glares did not seem worth the price of admission), so I went home to blast some Tom Waits, drink an IPA, and paint this and other things.

I highly doubt I'm done with this, but I'm honestly stuck for what to do next. It is interesting to note that if you rotate this photo 180 degrees, the image changes to a night at sea after the sun has gone down. Beautiful.

Size is 16 x 20 inches.

Planning

I love how the horizon line came out! I mixed 60% phthalo blue with 40% carbon black to get this nice, deep blue-black color.

I sketched out the alignment and color scheme before starting this painting; it's been fairly easy to reproduce on the main canvas, so far...