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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

BAM Boys

Last Friday evening was the opening art reception at Enso art space for the exhibition entitled, Five Corners.  I think it should have been called, The BAM Boys, because all five artists are either currently working or have worked at the Boise Art Museum at some time.

I work with Todd Newman, the preparator for the museum, and his work was the first you see upon entering the space.  All the pieces on exhibit are from his series called Sanctuary. 

Todd has developed a very unique technique for this series.  Layers and layers of different colored acrylic paint are applied to a board.  Then he starts to sand/grind away the surface to excavate the colors underneath.  Because the process is imprecise, he doesn't know what the results will be.  The process creates visual depth in certain areas while other areas remain almost flat.

In this series, otherworldly landscapes appear.  In all my years of looking at art, I haven't seen anything quite like Todd's process.
(photos posted with permission of artist)
 Leaking Planet #1 by Todd Newman

 Untitled by Todd Newman

 Untitled by Todd Newman

Although the above piece is untitled, Todd confessed to me that he thought he should name it The Dino-Chicken Nebula.

Another of the artists with whom I work with and know well is Dave Darraugh.  While Todd's artworks contain a multitude of color, Dave's work is quite the opposite with a total lack of color. Dave's pieces make use of found materials in neutral colors, such as a piece of notebook paper. Minimal marks are made with black and/or other neutral colors.  

Below is the largest piece in this exhibit.  

Floating Chair by Dave Darraugh

In this piece, the almost calligraphic black lines create the simple form of a chair.  But the floating nature and background texture call for further contemplation.  I think having a simple black chair sitting in front of the piece, as part of the piece, would be an interesting dynamic.

The other three artists worked as guards at the museum and I did not know them but by sight. Marcus Pierce had what seemed like one large piece in the exhibit, but was really a series of pieces entitled, the Moiré Series.

When I first approached this work from the side, the first thing that came to mind was a holographic card where you see one image, but when you turn the card at a different angle, you see another image.

Pierce used oil paint on clear acrylic panels that were then layered with a black background.  Not only do these layers create physical depth but emotional depth as well.  By creating different angles of the faces on different layers, we get a better portrait of the person rendered.

 MoirĂ© Series by Marcus Pierce.

Cody Rutty's pieces were paintings that have the feel of drawings.  Complex lines and patterns create an intricacy and shallow depth in the work.



























Catch by Cody Rutty

I thought I had taken a picture of each of the artists' work.  Apparently, I did not get any of Ben Browne's work.  Here is a link.  He had several small works with a relief-like texture to them that then had simple stripes of colors painted on top.  This made for an interesting juxtaposition.

Although there are five very different styles of artwork in the Five Corners exhibition, it still seemed cohesive.  The show runs until Aug. 31.  Go to the website to find out when the space is open.  They have limited hours. 


Saturday, July 28, 2012

Vibrant City

My friend and owner of Wingtip Press, Amy Nack, emailed me one day to say she was teaching a class of kids and was going to have them look at my traffic box design and then do a project with them.  She asked if I could give her any background about the work.  I did.

So the other day as we were walking around town on our "art date," look what I spy in the window of the Creative Arts Access building.





























I had to oversaturate the color in Photoshop so you could see the boxes created by the kids.  Fun!

Friday, July 27, 2012

Art Date

Yesterday I had an "art date" with three of my friends.  First, we went to the Boise Art Museum so that they could see the Nick Cave exhibition.  Then we had lunch downtown.  Afterward, we went to the Art Source Gallery to see the Annual Juried Show.  It was very hot, but it was a nice time.

My friend, Kathleen Probst, had two pieces in the Art Source exhibit.

 A friend of mine from book club also had a piece in the exhibit.  
Rachel Linquist.  
Frida Kahlo Contemplates Her Heart.

Here is another piece by Angela Neiwert.
Paper Doll Dresses.

The fountain in The Grove was out of commission. 

Lilies near the museum.



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

More Play

When I was done playing with my Neocolor crayons and white acrylic ink from the previous post, I had some extra ink on my palette (a reused plastic frozen food tray).  I thought I would try using it on some black paper.

I didn't have anything in mind.  I just took the brush and started drawing.  Often when I doodle, I make up my own flowers and that is what I did here.  I think I will call this one Night Flower.  I would like to do more drawing on the black paper.  It was fun.


Monday, July 23, 2012

Play

I know there hasn't been much art here lately and I definitely need to work on that.  But I do have a little something to show you today.

The other day I drew a little sketch in my sketchbook and my mind envisioned it in paint.  That is very rare.  I haven't done much painting in my career, but I don't argue with the mind vision. So, I have been thinking about painting this little idea, but I don't have a canvas and don't feel like going out to buy one at this time.

So, I decided to play with my Neocolor II water soluble crayons.  I haven't used them very much.  I found a piece of Bristol paper and started coloring.  With the crayons, you can add water afterward to smooth out the lines and do some blending.

Here is the piece with the crayons, before water.

Here is the piece after smoothing with water.  And I went back in and added some white dots with acrylic ink.  It's not what I had envisioned.  My mind still wants paint.  So someday I'll go get a canvas, or maybe just try it on a piece of mat board.  Sometimes it's just good to play.


Saturday, July 21, 2012

Edinburgh

The last few days of our trip to Scotland were spent in Edinburgh.  We went to several museums, the castle, walked through several parks and did a lot of walking.  Here are a few of many photos.

We took a walk in Holyrood Park.  It had great views of the city.  It was my favorite spot in the whole city.



St. Giles' Church.


Edinburgh Castle.
 This is a view from the castle. Anna wanted me to use my toy mode on my camera and this is what it looks like.



Anna getting ready to strike her own coin, the old fashioned way, at the Museum on the Mound.


Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Mythology

I'm taking a little break from travel photos today to tell you that the Twelve by Twelve group revealed their latest artworks on the theme of Mythology last week.  Go to the blog and check out their interpretations (scroll down to see them all).  Once again, I did not get around to making a "play-along" piece.

Monday, July 16, 2012

More Scotland

Our hiking trip ended in Fort William.  We stayed there an extra day so we could take a day trip on the steam engine train that was used in the Harry Potter movies.  Then, we traveled by bus to Inverness.  We took a boat on the Loch Ness to the Urquhart Castle.  I'm afraid Nessie did not get the memo that we were coming and stayed in the depths.


 We did not have seats in a cabin like this but we went to see the ones similar to in the movies.


Inverness
 This is the pedestrian bridge over the river.  We liked walking on it because it would bounce.

This is about as close as we will probably ever get to seeing Frank in a kilt.  It's the Ross hunting plaid he's holding.

When we arrived in Inverness the weather was so nice we decided to talk a walk along the river.

 Our boat ready to take us out on Loch Ness.


 Urquhart Castle.


Friday, July 13, 2012

West Highland Way - Last Day

Day 5 was our last day hiking.  The rain gear came back out as it was cloudy and rained on and off throughout the day and then a lot toward the end of our hike.  There were some steep up and downs at the beginning and end of the hike, but the middle section was more rolling.





A few sheep crossed our path.


A look at the trail.  I would say the majority of the trail on all our hiking days was uneven rocks.

We came across some ruins. (These two pictures were taken by Anna. We think she has a pretty good eye.)


Toward the end of the hike, we went through another logging area.  It was kind of eerie as there were lots of beautiful foxglove flowers blooming around the many stumps.


 The West Highland Way ends in the town of Fort William.  Here is a sign marking the "original" end.  It is on the edge of town.

But some marketer must have gotten it in his head to make a new end.  So now you must walk through town, past all the shops to come to the "official" end.  I was quite satisfied with the original end.  We did go to the official end after we had taken a shower at the B&B.


Wednesday, July 11, 2012

West Highland Way - Day 4

I hope you aren't tired of my pictures yet.  Day 4 of hiking was our shortest.  We hiked along a road for a while, then turned to climb up Devil's Staircase, up over a pass and then a long descent with a few steep descents into our next town.

Starting off.

Looking back at our B&B.
 On the way, up Devil's Staircase.


 The only picture of all three of us on the trip.  At the top of Devil's Staircase, taken with Frank's iPhone by another hiker passing by.




A carnivorous plant in the wild.