Hello Cul-De-Sac!

Last Friday's opening was great - big thanks to John of ADA, and Kiersten and Sandra too. I'm happy with how the show looks - I'll show more close ups of the actual work in the show as the month goes on. Some ofthe work I've shown before, but there's a few new pieces, including two new 3D drawings. We had a good crowd and there's another reception this coming Friday for First Friday which should be packed.















The other artist in the show is Tricia Keightley - really nice paintings. Again, I'll have more close-ups later...






In the back area there's work by three artists:


Jared Clark - Semi-abstract shapes on found "art".


Heather Harvey - A ghostly plaster form.


Jason Coates - Half-abstract acrylic paintings

This is why I've been neglecting my blog

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WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT
Drawings from unexpected points of view
Curated by Heidi Neff

February 20 - March 16, 2006

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, February 21, 6:30 to 8 PM

Chesapeake Gallery
Harford Community College
Bel Air MD, 21015

I'll have 3 collage pieces and 2 paper sculptures in the show.

more slaps

The trick for me is to always have some stickers in my wallet. You can download some of my stickeres here.

Drawing from Willms

Jewellery Store, Rob Willms

This weekend I got this great drawing in the mail from Canadian sculptor Rob Willms (see his work here and his new blog here).

He included a story about the drawing:

"Jewellery Store" is an early drawing in what is becoming an extensive series exploring blind contour with sharpie felts.

At a mall in Medicine Hat, Alberta, I sat to draw this particular retail shop after completing one or two of the mall proper.

As I finished and stood up to go I was confronted by the mall manager who asked that I not draw or photograph any of the jewellery stores, "for security reasons." I got a little indignant but finally acquiesced after confirming that I could continue drawing anywhere else in the mall. I didn't, but nearly stopped to draw the bank on my way out.

Two weeks later, 600 km away, I learned that the mall jewellery store had indeed been robbed shortly after. I had nothing to do with it, but am now wondering to what extent I am living on the lam.

Picasso online

This might be old news but I just stumbled across this extensive library of Picasso images organized by year. There's lots of crazy stuff in there...

8 months old!

Cupidity

Hello, 12 x 12 inches, mixed media on paper

Here's my contribution to Gallery Neptune's Cupidity show. I took an "I saw you" ad:

V.P. don't know if you remember but I talked to you saturday and complemented your bike (sounded dumb, I know, but I didn't know what else to say) I Really like your look, distinguished (I like older guys). I hope I didn't stun you (ha!). Still have your card, but don't really think I get it and theres no number. Maybe you can explain to me over a nice candellight dinner. L.S.

Then I made the above collage based on it. Then I sent Roger Noyes the image (but not the original ad) and he wrote a new, fictional ad:

V.P.: Remember me? I was but a waif, left astray in the scrappy wayside alleys of northern Istanbul. Not a word of Turkish did I know, nor a soul in friendship, until you spotted me, a child weeping in the dust beside a broken bicycle. You must remember it, no? Or is kindness so ordinary a part of your nature that the beneficiary alone will bear its extraordinary memory? Am I to remain forever a hapless victim of unselfconscious good? Please let yourself remember how, kneeling in the dirt to loop the wild chain, you rebuked the dealers for inventing prices they would not let me afford. My work here is almost finished. I must see you again before I leave. You gave me your card, but I do not dare follow the address. I know it is not a place for such as me.

This was a really weird and fun way to make a piece...

What is happening!

I've been AWOL from this blog because of the usual - Lady V, work deadlines, lack of sleep.

But I've also been super-busy with 3 shows opening this month. I'll be blogging about them each as the month goes on, but here they are quickly:

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Cupidity at Gallery Neptune.
02.09.06 - 03.04.06, Opening Reception 02.12.06

I have one piece in this show - the idea of Cupidity is that several artists chose "I Saw You" ads from a newspaper and made works based on them. We artists then passed along the images of the work we made a group of writers who wrote new fictional "I Saw You" ads based on the artworks. I worked with my old partner-in-crime Roger Noyes.

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When You Least Expect It at Chesapeake Gallery, Harford College, MD
02.20 - 03.16, Reception 02.21

I have 5 pieces in this show - 2 collages, a group of small collages and drawings and 2 sculptures.

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Hello Cul-de-sac! at ADA Gallery
Opening 02.24

This is a small solo show I'm having in Richmond. ADA has some work up of mine in their back room now, but I'll have newer stuff for the actual show.

still slammed

more content next week, and an explanation for all this inactivity online...

Tupelo+ Samoheyl in eyeshot

Sean Samoheyl sent me this link to some work that he and Rachel Summer Tupelo did - 15 great illustrated short stories beginning with 'Once upon a time.." that she wrote and he drew. The image above is from "In The Swamp":

Once upon a time in the swamps of Mystoesia I pulled out my folding chair and watched a portly broken bottle -- no label, clearly astute -- have an argument with a passing brown hop-toad. They began by skirmishing over right-of-way logistics but five minutes in they were screaming, neck veins bulging, about swamp dialects, country music, the weight of cloud formations, pinochle moves, basic chemistry, you name it. For awhile the air was heated and burnt smelling the way it is when I spend too long in the toaster, but after a bit things cooled off as they turned to discussing water-saving shower-head devices, a topic on which there was much common ground to be shared. It seemed like they'd both needed the fight, and felt the better for it, but it left me feeling anxious and jaded. I walked slowly down towards the edge of the swamp and sat on a stump of a long-decayed cedar.

"If only I had an accordion," I thought.