So I recently read How the Dead Dream, by Lydia Millet. First piece of actual literature I’ve read in a while – and it was intense, sad, wistful, and ultimately satisfying. My awesome friend Sarah, started an online book club – and this is the first selection. I’ve already posted my comments about it on her blog, so I won’t go into details here – but it spoke to me on several levels. The other book I’m still reading is Poemcrazy by Susan Woolbridge – I’m actually rereading it – I love it so much and can open it to any page to get a little inspiration to get me through the day.
So here’s by piece inspired by both of these books.
little shell – do you see me?
does your soul feel my compassion,
can your husk hear me weeping,
the walls are covered with rusty tears
upon learning of your passing,
take care little shell
i bid you peace
-and dreams of ocean blue skies
This poor bird was tied to the bars of one of the cells at the old state pen – this was in the area where the really bad stuff in the riot went down – things I can barely stand to think about. It was already a spook-filled place – and this little creature’s death was more than I cared to see – but I did. His tether was rather long with lots of room to move about – I can imagine him flying back and forth – trying to break free.
Gearing up for our next show at the Wooden Cow (this Friday!) has totally drained me. Saturday we had Will’s b-day party and Sunday I was at the gallery all day doing “the hang” as we in the art biz call it (or at least we at the Cow call it). One of the things we strive for at the Cow is variety – and one of the ways we achieve that is by rearranging the entire gallery at the beginning of every month – this is a huge undertaking – and we did almost all of it in about 10 hours – not bad. We have 40-50 artists in the gallery plus our theme show plus two “featured artists” and we just increased the size of our gallery space by opening up a space that’s been siting idle – I’ll take pics and share them later – it looks fabulous! This week we have the opening on Friday and our awesome friend and neighbor is getting sworn onto the NM Court of Appeals – and we’re going to both – bus, busy, busy.
Will’s party was great too – we had a lot of fun and got to mingle our extended groups of friends and get them all together – I love that kind of stuff – and he had a blast which is the most important thing!
The next show at The Wooden Cow is going to be awesome! Our theme is “The Art of the Shrine” and we have two featured artists – Francisco Bussetti and Monica Francisco DeKam. The opening reception is Feb. 6 which also happens to be the American Heart Association’s “Wear Red Day”. This event helps raise awareness about heart-related health issues in women. Heart disease is the number one killer of women in America. Go to their website to get educated on reducing your risk of heart disease. So we will be participating in that as well. Anyone who wears red, donates money to the American Heart Association, or fills out a registration card for Go Red for Women will get entered into a raffle to win heart-related artwork.
And we will have tarot readings and a caricature artist on hand as well! Plus scrumptious food as always!
We went to our local gallery Artscrawl last night. I love Artscrawl and we made a plan to go to three different galleries. First on the list was Chroma Studios Gallery. Their featured artist this month is Nick Harmon of FHAB Concepts.
Nick’s work is amazing and really needs to be seen in person to be completely appreciated. He did their floor and also filled the main gallery with his amazing acrylics. He uses materials and techniques that just vibrate – they are so gorgeous and light-filled. And he is adorable (I should have gotten a picture!) and cool and sweet also. And he is so excited about his craft and you can see that he is constantly thinking of ways to expand and innovate his work. His enthusiasm made me want to run home and turn on my encaustic griddle!
Next we went to Matrix Fine Art and New Grounds Print Workshop & Gallery – Matrix/New Grounds is my favorite gallery in town (I should say galleries as they are two different entities – with the same owner). As usual it was a visual feast. They always have new work, always have a great crowd, and always have printmaking demos which amaze me. I love printmaking – but don’t think I have the patience or attention to detail to delve into that medium. Will and I swooned over the work of Shinji Ando who had a solo show in September – I’ve been visiting his prints ever since..
Our last stop of the night was Arthaus 66 – a relatively new gallery that we had never been to before. I had bought two of the owner’s prints through a silent auction at another gallery in December and wanted to check out their featured artist who I had heard about. There was no one else in the main gallery when we got there. We walked in and the owner poked his head out from a back room and without saying anything to us – immediately ducked back into the back room. Apparently a family with two little kids and a minivan were not considered prime art buyers to him. After that fabulous unwelcome we quickly cruised the gallery and left.
On the way home I talked to Chris about the Shinji Andos prints again and we decided to go buy one!! Matrix and New Grounds have an awesome layaway program so I went back and agonized on which would be the perfect one and chose the one you see here, put my money down, and soon this lovely, lovely piece will be in our home! I had so many people congratulate me on my purchase as I went through the gallery with it- seeing the obvious bliss on my face. I felt like I’d won the lottery! This is not my largest art purchase dollar-wise – but it’s my largest gallery purchase and it feels important – important that I am buying something that I will have for the rest of my life – and that will feed my soul everytime I look at it!
Let there be light!
Next Friday, the 7th, is going to be one crazy day for me – I have two shows!
The first one is at Chroma Studios – another new artist-run gallery in town and is an all photography show!! WOOT! They are located at 1606 Central Ave SE, Suite 102 and it runs from 5-8:30pm.
The second one is at the Wooden Cow and is a Dia de los Muertos show. We are featuring three artists and have a juried show (I headed up the jurying and will be participating in the physical hanging of the show) and I will have a piece in the juried show. I’ve also created all the ads and collateral for the show – it’s been a crazy couple of weeks! And I don’t see it slowing down any time soon.
I’ll be starting at Chroma and then heading over to the Wooden Cow to end the evening. Two great shows – try and see them both if you can!
So last post I was talking about monsoons and here I’m talking about dry heat! The heat I am referring to is Dry Heat Photography, they are hosting a show at Art Gallery 66 in Bernalillo called “Ancient Voices Distant Storms” and I am one of the fourteen artists that will be having work at the show! The opening is July 18th from 5-8 – if you live in the Albuquerque are it is a must see – the show will be up for a month I believe. Here are the two images I’ll have in it.
So I went to the Photo New Mexico show at Matrix Fine Art last night – and it was fabulous! Will and I walked over (I love living where I can walk to great galleries) and schmoozed for a while. It was great to see such a large crowd for the show. I had several friends and aquaintances stop by including the lovely Regina, the ever rockin’ Alexis & Ramone, and my awesome friend Tony (love you Tony!). I stayed until the bitter end – mostly because there was a “People’s Choice” award that was voted on during the evening and announced right at the end. And guess what? I won!!!
This is from a press release prior to the show”
Photo New Mexico – A juried Show (Juror: Doug Fairfield, curator, ABQ Museum) opens at Matrix on Saturday night. Twenty-four New Mexico photographers, including David Antreasian, Carl Latino, and emerging artist P.D. Rearick, reveal their artistic vision in this first-ever collaboration between the curator of the Albuquerque Museum, Doug Fairfield, and an Albuquerque art gallery. Fairfield selected a range of works from traditional New Mexico imagery to abstract and figurative photography. Experience the pinnacle of New Mexico photographic talent in this must-see show. The show runs through July 26 with a gallery talk by juror Doug Fairfield, Curator, Albuquerque Museum on Saturday, July 19, 1-2pm
I didn’t win a car or anything fancy – mostly just a line to add to the CV. But it is so gratifying to know that my work touched a lot of people, my work is definitely more emotional than technical and I think it’s that emotional element that made people vote the way they did.
To all that stopped by to see my work THANK YOU! And to everyone who voted for me – thank you – I’m so happy to have shared my work with you!
Haven’t figured out a name for this, haven’t even figured out if I’m done with it yet.
So yesterday I received a letter in the mail advising me that I am one of 26 entries accepted into a photography show at Matrix Fine Art! Apparently they had 158 entries! And it was judged by the curator at the Albuquerque Museum. How cool is that? The show is opens in July. Will post more info about it as it gets closer. Here’s a look that the piece that is going in the show. It is of the railyard (of course, I can’t stay away from that place). This pic is particularly special to me as it is from the first time I actually went into the railyard (as opposed to just taking pics from the outside) with Leighanna.
