Continuing On

The four of us met because we all rented our studios in the Contemporary Art Workshop. The Workshop housed 22 individual artist studios and was owned by Jack and Lynn Kearney, Jack a well known Chicago sculptor, was one of the original founding members of the CAW in 1949. The building was sold in 2008, and all 22 of us had to relocate our studios, with almost everyone in a different location around the city. The loss of our artist community was hard, and many of us tried to maintain the bonds by meeting together at coffee houses at least once a month. The four of us started meeting regularly, and even though our work varies greatly, we are very similar in many ways - one being a common love for Van Gogh and his desire to create his own artist community in Arles in the yellow house that he lived and worked in.

The title of our show, "Continuing On" was to celebrate our continuing on after the CAW, but I would also like to think we are continuing on, in the teeny tiniest of ways, Van Gogh's dream of artists working together, showing together, and helping each other out. And of course the sunflowers in the entry are for Van Gogh.

Kate has quite a fantastic group of paintings in the show, 4 large canvases and 10 mid to small size. Her paintings show the viewer gorgeous interiors, all with her signature drips and washes of color, and loaded with interesting lines and brushstrokes all over the canvases.

Neha has been working this past year on 3d pieces and what she has in the show are several great new works created while in a recent residency at Anderson Ranch. Through the door you can see a glimpse of her installation of diaphanous forms created from paper which are suspended over a floor of turmeric. She also created several transparent ceramic pieces that are shown with a light box.

Joanne has 4 paintings and one large drawing in the show. I think of Joanne's work as almost dream like, she references and explores ideas of memory. The use of text has always been a key part of her paintings but her new canvases are so highly textured that the evidence of lettering is almost buried, which really pulls the viewer in.

Lots more pictures of all of our work can be seen on our Facebook events page, Our show will continue through the first week of May and will be open during Art Chicago's River North Gallery District Reception and Party Evening, next Saturday, May 1st from 6 to 9pm. Please stop by if you live in the area, should be fun!

Here are a few pictures from our opening reception night.

We were thrilled to have as our very first arrivals Jack and Lynn Kearney, what an honor!

I was so excited to have these four ladies come to the opening. A couple of months ago, I had been invited to speak at New Trier, a local high school, for their annual "Career Day." Mark Bowers, remarkable artist and teacher, invited me to speak with his classes, and at the time, I didn't realize it would be the day before our Friday night reception. The entire career day experience was an amazing honor and treat for me, and these four seniors were kind enough to take time out of their Friday night, to see the show! I was blown away!

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to the show, and those who emailed congrats and best wishes. I can not tell you how much I appreciate your comments, feedback and encouragement! Thank you!

Show Pics

It has been a crazy, constant flurry of activity since the four of us began to install our artwork for the show. The four being, me, Joanne Aono, Kate Lewis, and Neha Vedpathak. There are so many pics to show and so much to talk about, I decided I better make several posts. So I'm starting right before the show opened with a look at my portion of the show. More pics soon of the entire show, how it all came about, and the excitement we all had for our large turn out!

This is the entrance, with a pile of white bows to hint at what's to come.

The view as you enter and see the main wall. Now you can see where all those 400 pink bows were going!

Opposite wall with smaller paintings grouped together. From left to right are, "Cream Soda" 8x8, "Melt" 10x10, and "Cherry Bomb" 8x8.
"Joy to the World" 14x18
"Sugarcoat" 20x20, the long awaited painting is finally finished! I wish I had gotten a better picture before the show, but I literally put the last strokes of paint on only days before I installed. The variety of grays, blues, and pale violets are not showing in the photo. This painting has areas of thin and layered paint, especially in the paper sections, and super thick juicy paint in the loops of the bows. I am so extremely happy with this painting!!
Sorry for the glare here too, same story, finished in the nick of time. This painting actually has wonderful movement in the background that the photo doesn't show. There are small marks of turquoise, pale blue, and magenta that radiate out around the bow. The title is "POW" (a reference to pop art comic paintings) and it is 36x36 and in person this painting glows like it's on fire :)
And my excitement overflows for this piece "O+"

More to come!

Here comes the Show!

400 pink bows arrived just in time.
Frames, 100 white bows and more pinks, plus show postcards which look fantastic! I'm getting excited!
Last minute tweaks on paintings and the heart installation pre 400 bows. I've been power painting non stop trying to get everything ready, and I am so pleased that both big paintings are ready in time for the show!! The opening is this Friday, below is the evite! Anyone in the area, please come!! I'll be the one dazed and exhausted :)

Cream Soda

Yummy!

Spring is early

Seems like only yesterday I posted a snow heart. Now, flowers I didn't even know I had are popping up all over my new yard! What a wonderful surprise! But of course, this can only mean one thing ..........COLOR!
It all started with the melting snow and seeing the wonderful earth again, and the most fuzzy, pale caramel, velvet ribbon insisted on my attention.
Then feeling the sun once again reminded me of this huge painting I started and never completed during last year's studio move. So out from storage came the painting and the present. Yes, I kept the present for over a year, just couldn't give up on it.
Green started appearing and so did this bronze mouse from sculptor Steve Worthington. He has been recruiting painters to help him with a book project to raise money for animal shelters.

And the news of an opportunity to have a show with three of my friends - in the gallery district this month (which is the big Art Chicago month) has my heart about to burst from all the excitement! More on this installation piece, the painting projects, and my show soon! In the mean time, Happy Spring! And no, this is not an April Fool's joke :)