Saturday Night at Artomatic

We had dinner with friends near Capitol Hill last night and headed back to Artomatic for a few hours.

I was able to focus a little more on the other artwork than I was on opening night.
I will post links to these artists as we go through the Five weeks, but last night I was particularly impressed with Pam Roger's work, so take a visit to her site.

And this was rather amusing. "Carl" has painted his wall, but this was the only thing on it.
Hey, Carl, way to perpetuate myths about artists!
(ad. note Barry's comment below)



I had been warned by other participants on past Artomatics to expect some rude or ridiculous comments in guest books, but I wasn't expecting a pornographic drawing, so that was disappointing. And why is it that detractors never leave their names? I wonder why. I saw one woman write what appeared to be a lengthy comment in the book which turned out to be a lovely story. So, she really made my night by entering into the work at my invitation to viewers to write a story of their own about the paintings. I wish she had left her name!
And, business cards are going fast, so despite the cowardly and disrespectful word (and drawings), I was greatly encouraged.

with my friend, Elisa.

Artomatic: Opening Night

There was a great turnout for the opening night of Artomatic. We had a great time meeting other artists and seeing (and hearing) their work. I took a lot of photos, so I have uploaded them to my Flickr page.





55 M Street. All the floors lit and packed with art and people.

Why do art critics hate Artomatic?

Local artist, dealer, and curator extraordinaire, Lenny Campello, posted a great commentary on Artomatic, which opens today.

Collage Kits

Don't you hate it when you get to a class and realize that you don't have enough stuff to choose from or what you brought is not what you really want to do? Well, I am happy to provide an option for people to supplement their stash, I have made these fun kits for my Mixed Media Copper Book retreat in August.

I have made six different theme packs containing 3 pages of vintage black and white images, two sheets of tissue weight art paper, a printed color paper image and several color image transfers printed on Lesley Rileys's TAP transfer artist paper.

Thoughtful Thursday

Over a period of a few years, the figure has disappeared from my painting. I have thought a lot about this over the months wondering why animals have become the centerpiece of my life's work. In my artist statement, I speak of a love affair with animals from an early age:

"As a child, my three-ring binder full of drawings of horses was a prized possession. In my mind, horses have a mystical, almost phantom-like quality that I became drawn to from an early age. I became transfixed just seeing one in an open field. Today, I recognize this mark in all animals as the fingerprint of the infinite imagination of the Creator. There is a kind of communion that takes place between me and God when painting or in the presence of animals."

Even reading it now, there is a sense of incompleteness to those words, something deeper that I cannot seem to excavate. I suppose it is a journey of sorts and as I find out more about myself, which I believe is expressed in choice of subject, I then understand the connection increasingly. It is very much like peeling an onion. The intimacy with which I feel connected to the work can be very overwhelming. Why? Such mysteries of the human soul.......

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night after seeing a film short about the fate of racehorses once their careers are over, and I feel rather heavy-hearted and introspective today. I see inconsistencies in myself and asking some very hard questions has been a long time coming. Information is power, but it is also often quite painful.

With Dunny

I did not drop off the face of the earth

just cyberspace and I am happy to say my laptop is finally fixed, yay! I kept thinking the problem was resolved, then a day later my computer would run really slow and then freeze up after going to sleep. When I would start it up again I would get a flashing folder with a question mark on it and I would have to return to the Apple store.

I went back 5 times over three weeks, thank goodness for Apple care because it never cost me a penny. They replaced the logic board, the operating system software, the hard drive, a cable connecting the hard drive to the ram and it still had problems.

Then they replaced the new logic board with another one and the problem was finally solved. It seems the second logic board had a faulty port, so all the other stuff was replaced for nothing. It was a pretty unusual problem and not easily figured out. The tech help I got over the phone and at the Genius bar was always prompt and courteous, excellent service even though it was terribly frustrating.

Now I am reinstalling software and files and trying to catch up with soooo much.

New Painting on the Easel

Today's work. Laying in blocks of color and getting the drawing correct. This one may have a more surrealistic feel in the end.