Award!

Tonight was the opening of the exhibition "Contemporary Women Artists XV: Art As Activism" at the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles. All the work was well worth it. The show looked great, we had a big turn-out, and Yolanda Lopez's gallery talk was wonderful! She selected 3 works for the juror's choice awards and 5 honorable mentions. I am happy and honored that one of the juror's choice awards was selected for my installation piece, "Temporal, Cyclical."

It is so wonderful to have that sort of recognition for work that I love but that I sometimes worry isn't saying what I hope it says. I have to say that Yolanda is amazing and for her to choose my work for the show in the first place was quite wonderful. That was enough so receiving an award on top of that was like chocolate in my latte!

This morning I installed "Temporal, Cyclical," at the Foundry. Phew! Now I just need to finish the publicity for the show.

Sleepless

Tonight I got home a little before 9:30pm, with strong intentions of doing something productive. I had some papers to read, a class to prepare for, laundry to be done, and dishes to be washed. I also had a press release to write (including figuring out what the heck needs to be in a press release) and that installation project to work on.

I tidied up a bit while chatting on the phone for a short time. Well, really I just hung up part of the big pile of clothes on my bed. After that I sat down and diligently wrote my press release for Contemporary Women Artists XV, which you can read more about earlier in the blog. Before I knew it it was done, and it was quite late. I then decided to work on disassembling the installation in such a way that I can put the whole thing together at the right scale. I need to pack the whole thing up so that I can easily put it all back in its proper place at the Foundry when I install the piece on Monday.

I'm feeling better about this piece. I'm even excited for the exhibition. I am looking forward to installing it. I'm also looking forward to Yolanda Lopez's lecture at the Regional Arts Commission on Thursday, March 4, and then the opening on Friday, March 5. I think that Yolanda's gallery walk lecture will be really interesting. Oh, I'm also excited to spend some one-on-one time with Yolanda when I pick her up from the airport. She's kind of a big deal, so I feel a bit privileged.

Anyway, all of this has added up to it being 3:30am, which is just 4 short hours away from the setting on my alarm clock. I guess I'll bump it up a bit and go in to work a little later. Yes, perhaps. Although there will be plenty to do when I get to the office.

Until next time, enjoy yourself.

Sigh of Relief

I did it! I recreated my "Temporal, Cyclical" piece from last year and even made it bigger, per juror's request. For my next trick I will take it apart and rebuild it at the Foundry Art Center. I hope you can come to the opening. I'm putting some serious effort into my piece, and I believe I'm going to help install other work as well.

I'm less scared now, and more excited. I get to have brunch with Yolanda Lopez. How cool is that?

Photos of the work in progress will arrive shortly.

Art - The Good and the Bad

Uh oh. I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I recently had a piece of art juried into an upcoming exhibition. The bad news is, I’m having a difficult time reconstructing it.

Yes. I have to reconstruct it. The piece that was chosen by the juror is an installation piece that I created in the fall of 2008. It’s made of yellow ginko leaves and torn paper from a poetry book. After sending in my CD of digital images this fall, I gathered as many ginko leaves as I could. After all, my installation stood up well into January on its original go-round, so it should be fine being reinstalled in the winter.

Well, here’s the problem. It was a wet fall. I foolishly put my leaf collection in a bag and some jars without first letting them dry out completely. When I dumped them out onto the studio floor it was quickly apparent that they were molded. I was able to salvage a few, but in general, my art materials are decomposing and my studio (also my living space) smells like mushrooms. On top of that, I have only a few short weeks to find yellow leaves if there are any around anywhere. I need to find a solution that will be beautiful and not too far off from the original photos that I sent to the juror. Oh, and did I mention that she asked me to make the piece larger for this exhibition? She would like it “to have more of a presence.” Oh dear. Wish me luck.

If you have any suggestions, or have a collection of ginko leaves that I could have/purchase/trade for, I would be very grateful.

Contemporary Women Artists XV

I will be exhibiting in 'Contemporary Women Artists XV' exhibition at the Foundry Art Center from Feb 12- Mar. 26, 2010. The show is being hosted by the St. Louis Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art, and was juried by artist Yolanda Lopez.

The reception will be kind of in the middle of the exhibition rather than when it first opens, so that the juror's presentation can be the same evening. Come to both!

Friday, March 5, 2010
6:00p Juror's Presentation at the Foundry
7:00p - 10:00p Reception for Contemporary Women Artists XV Exhibit at the Foundry

The Foundry Art Center is located at 520 N Main Ctr in St Charles, Missouri.

Also, on Thursday, March 4, Lopez will be giving a lecture from 7pm-8:30pm, location TBD.

Painted Shoes

Here are a few photos of some shoes I painted at the TOMS event. The black pair has glow-in-the-dark stars!