A pleasurable a(side) trip to DC

Elisabetta Gut, L'uccello di fuoco (Da Stravinsky), 1985

Well, even in a busy season of making art, shipping it to and fro … it is so good to take a breather.  So, this past Sunday, I spent the day in DC. We went to the National Gallery to see two collections of German Drawings and to the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

The German Drawings were fabulous and I ended up wishing my students were with me. Well, maybe NOT. But I did wish they could see the work.

After a nice lunch by the waterfall “wall,” it was time to head over to the NMWA. My wife had never been there before so it was a treat to share it with her. My daughter wasn’t along for this trip but I had made Kate a founding member shortly after she was born.

As usual I was really blown away at the NMWA. The permanent collection was wonderful. The exhibition (A Life in Vibrant Color) honoring the life and work of the Howard University Art Professor Loïs Mailou Jones was a visual feast. But the totally unexpected treat that we really enjoyed was the small but stunning show of the work of Elisabetta Gut. Her exhibit presented 22 artists’ books, collage-poems, book-objects and object-poems. An Italian artist born in 1934, Ms. Gut’s work is a delicious balance of delicately controlled craftsmanship and exuberant, passionate playfulness. The show, titled Books Without Words: The Visual Poetry of Elisabetta Gut, will be on display until January 16, 2011. WOW!

We topped the day off with a wonderful drinks, dinner, and a decadent dessert at an Irish style pub. All in all, a great and refreshing respite.

New work on Ohio walls!

Entente Cordiale

They are UP on the wall.

Both shows … the mylar drawings and the small panel          paintings too.

Many, many thanks to both Dennis and Margaret!

Well, I have to get back  to the studio and the classroom … so …  ’Nuff said for now.

Landscape Revelations show

Delayed, As If In A Thicket

Have Art, Will Travel

Later today!  Yep, work for my two exhibitions in Chillicothe, Ohio will be headed out the studio door later this morning. I am excited.  As usual … there are a few pieces that I am not sure won’t get reworked (maybe significantly) after they get back into the studio.  But by and large, I am very happy with the pieces. Now I am SO looking forward to seeing them hung!

Here is one (on the right)  … and some sketches for it too.

The sketches and mock ups keep getting piled up on the board.

Ready or not!

NEW DRAWINGS!

My show at the University in Chillicothe, Ohio is almost ready! Now I just need to finish the last two drawings and take them and the other new pieces to the photographer. After that its time to prep them for traveling. Normally after getting a show out the door, my studio looks quite bare for a while … but this time I have to finish 2-3 more large pieces for the next show at the Greer Museum at Rio Grande University too, So the space will probably look messier … even more frenzied during October. Both of these shows feature the large Mylar based drawing series I started in 2007. Check back after a few days … I will have pictures of the new drawings posted!

After finishing the work  … and they are installed, I will be happy. And happy to resume my more balanced work mode, dividing time between aqueous media on panels/paper and these drawings. As the delivery date approached, I have had to put several major paintings on hold. I am really excited to get back to the watermedia pieces; I even have several ideas for some new assembled panels as well. I think I will post some of those as they “come off the press.”

Cheers! John

IT IS DONE! Well, mostly.

I spent six years making art in a wonderfully well lit studio in a very accessible location. The high ceilings and tall windows looked out over the townscape and the surrounding hills and mountains too.

And while I was done in that space by the end of december, the vagaries of winter weather were slowing down the renovations and construction projects in the new space quite a bit. Nothing like close to 50 inches of snow that won’t melt to keep excavations from taking place. Everything was stuffed in all the nooks and crannies or piled in the middle of the floor!

Well, construction is done … and the spaces have been outfitted and arranged pretty well. I am even making large scale works again.

To be sure, the studio will need some electrical and lighting upgrades as time goes along. But for now, I am really excited. Next time I will post some new photos and some art works too.

Working on the Studio Expansion

Sorting. Sorting and shifting. Moving things about and trying to get a sense of where things fit best.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t arrange furniture, equipment, and supplies like I do my art … with lots of experimentation and repeated and prolonged contemplation. Everything is a bigger mess now that the space has been expanded then last month when everything was crammed into storage spaces. Now it’s all around me as I try to figure out if my original plan was the best … or if some other way is better. That is so typically me and my purist/perfectionist dilemma. Oh well … it IS coming along nicely and I shouldn’t whine so.

The best part is that I will have enough space to finally put in some flat files. I just need to find some that are large enough to handle 30+ x 40+ sheets of paper and museum board. They are SO very old school that many companies are getting rid of them and I should be able to find some good ones that are available locally. And while I feel a bit silly, I am thinking some more shelving too … to store the cans and jars of paint more vertically rather than all along the wall. In my next post I will include a phot or two of the new part of the studio!

The eyes and brain were SO engaged …

Last evening I was standing on a hill overlooking a friend’s farm at sunset. The rows of trees, budding but still with very few leaves, divided the fields … some with freshly tilled reddish soil. The valley beyond hid the rocky track of the rain swollen river we had driven beside on our way there.  The hills and the mountains to the northwest were sliding from golden red into blue and violet. I quietly marveled at the vista … and vowed to be back for drawing later this week.

So I really had better finish clearing that mess in the studio!

Good evening

Well, for a first blog entry this will probably be a little lame. You know getting started in a new space is not always easy!

Today I have been working on my website pretty intensely. Fortunately I also feel the pull of finishing the walls in the new studio. I need to get that done soon because no matter how creative or necessary what I am doing is, I really wish I was in the studio making art today. The weather was nice and a few hours outside capturing images and few hours playing with them would have been such a tonic to the frenzied and frantic last few weeks.

I have to travel with my daughter tomorrow, so photographing or sketching will probably be on the back burner then too.  Oh well, perhaps I will just have to steal an hour or so somewhere.  With the weather being cooperative, I could actually get some good light for drawing too.  Frankly it is beginning to sound visually yummy already.

The Summer of Asian Dogwood Pods #1