Accepted into a nationally juried show!!!

Yep. I'm excited! My 24" x 8" piece "More than merely ourselves" has been accepted into the national juried show "GALEX 44" held at our Galesburg Civic Art Center. The exhibit will run March 13th through April 10th.

Abstraction

I recently read a book about Melissa Zink and her artwork. I was really taken by some wall pieces of hers that were 3-D collages that came out/went back/came out/went back. I decided to do a canvas with the illusion of that out/back movement in space and to depict a rock formation we'd hiked along in Utah several years ago. (We'd climbed up a trail through rocks and scrub brush and were astonished to find a meadow growing on this high plateau with a high rock formation jutting up all along the far side.) I like how my rock formation has a feeling of depth and also the feeling of a building, giving it a bit of mystery. The meadow and the rocks almost look like a quilt, too (probably showing my love of Gee's Bend quilts and my friend Penny Gold's art quilts). I think I'd like to try some more of these abstracted landscapes, and I'd love to hear some feedback on them. If you have trouble signing in to post a comment, just choose "anonymous" and then type your name after your comment so I know who made the post. Thanks!

Assignment: Audubon

Since I love to watch birds and have done a number of bird-oriented collages, I decided to make some pieces to submit to an international juried art show in Chicago entitled "Beyond Audubon" which is seeking work that "applauds, challenges or transcends the bird illustrations of John James Audubon."

I'm submitting one piece from 2008 entitled "Super Bird Sees All" and two new pieces "Corvus Corax" and "Pine Warbler Notes." (The imagery wraps around the 12" x 12" x 1.5" canvases.) I'll find out in early March whether any of my submissions have been chosen by the juror....

New art and NEWS

In thinking about places in the west that I've found to be stunning, Oak Creek Canyon in Arizona came to mind. This is a view from the creek of some of the beautiful rock formations and vegetation. I added the ledger paper with some sketches to evoke a feeling of the first European explorer coming upon this magical place and trying to capture it in his notes.

NEWS: we have designed and uploaded a new website for my art and my husband Rob's sculpture. Check it out at www.reedstudios.net

NEWS: Rob and I will have a two-person show at the Galesburg Civic Art Center, Nov 19 - Dec 31, 2010!! We think we'll call it "Plains and Planes" and will feature my high plains art and his metal and stone sculptures that are very geometric and planar.

A Colorado scene

Since a friend is offering to deliver a portfolio of my art to Scottsdale, I wanted to make some additional work to put on its pages that evoke more of the western states. I found a photo I'd taken on a pass in Colorado in spring, I scanned it in, and ran several filters on it to make the meadow more painterly. I applied numerous art papers to the meadow, increasing the color fields of flowers and lots of lush grasses in the foreground (click on the photo to enlarge it to see the very fun grass). I'd taken the clouds out of the original photograph and just made a blue sky so that I could add my own rendition of those clouds that form over mountain tops. (This is an 11x14 canvas.)

Art Galleries

I don't have a post on new work for this week because I've been working on a portfolio to send to galleries. I ended up putting 34 pieces of work in the book with descriptions of what all is used in each collage and a short blurb about why or how I made the piece. I sent the first portfolio and CD of images off today to a Montana gallery owner who had met with me and asked me to send her more examples of my work as it evolved. In asking someone I know in Virginia if she and her husband would look at a PDF of my portfolio and give me their feedback, I ended up getting amazing input and an offer to hand deliver a second portfolio to their friend who is a gallery owner in Arizona!
I mailed off a CD of images to a juried show in Rock Island this week and need to submit images to the local art center's 44th annual national juried show, too. Busy, but exciting times.

First work in the new year

After tossing around several ideas for a title, I've decided to call this one "A Sign"... and maybe THAT is a sign that in 2010 I'm ready to move this new series of "high plains" mixed media pieces to a new level. My New Year's list of desires would include: 1. an art gallery in a western state will contract with me to represent my work in their gallery, 2. a gallery show of my work will be scheduled in Illinois or elsewhere, 3. an art consultant will want to show my work to some of their corporate clients. So, that's what I'm putting out there, and we'll see what pops up this year. We're in the middle of revamping our website to better reflect our current focus, and I'm putting together a portfolio of work to send to a Montana gallery owner who expressed interest in my art. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by to check my art blog!