Sunday at the Movies Or Where is Bruegs?

Today being Sunday, I too the day off from the studio to go to an afternoon movie. I think that is one of the most decadent things you can do. While the sun is shining to sit in a darkened room with the flickering light of the projectors. Hubby and I and a guest, Gail who is visiting us from VSC went and saw the comedy, very very black comedy In Bruges. You laugh and are horrified at the same time. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeso play the roles of two hit men, who after a difficult job are ordered by their boss to go and cool off in Bruges. They are immediately out of their element, not knowing how to be tourists, how to relax or even where is Bruges. Colin keeps calling it a shit hole and if it really had been someplace good it would have been in a country that everyone knew, not Belgium. In this the most well preserved medieval city in Europe the hit men start to question life, death and the morality of their occupations through interactions with a dwarf, tourists, pregnant hotel owners and indifferent minor bureaucrats. The stories comedy moves into tragedy with unexpected results. It was the perfect way to escape Sunday.

Then it was off to Whole Foods, or as we like to think of whole paycheck for our weekly supply of groceries. That place gets on my nerves, way to many type A people shop there. Here I am still hopping on a crutch and they are pushing me out of my way to get their organic guava or whatever. Still, I shop there, because I do like to know what is in my food.

A Dreary Day in Beantown

This is another painting from my work at Vermont Studio Center, on of my favorites. I think of these paintings as landscapes that are on the edge of the real landscapes. The places you pass, going to an fro from your destinations. Not places you stop at for coffee, or go for a walk with your dog, they are the places you try to pretend don't exist, but quietly nature starts to reclaim.

I had a very productive day in the studio, I love it when it is grey and rainy outside, then I am not tempted to do anything else. I started gold leafing my little panels for my hula hoop project and am about 50% done. I am doing 15 of them and am excited as I usually have only done 3 or at the most 4 at a time. Now I will have a nice group to send to Studio Rose in Chicago for a group show of Boston Artists. The gallery is run by friend of mine Ginny Sykes, a wonderful artist in her own right. The two other artists exhibiting will be Sand T and Kim Salerno a performance and installation artist. Studio Rose is located in the Ravenswood section of Chicago and next door to Spacca Napoli Pizzeria, 1769 W. Sunnyside Ave, Chichago, IL.  The opening will be on May 29, and the pizza place will be open. It should be a fun exhibit.

A Disappointing Day

This is another image from my work up in Vermont. Sometimes you feel like the seagull and sometimes you feel like the statute. Today is one of those statute days for me. I had been planing to show this work with my brother in DC, but the only reason I was going to show it was to see my brother, whom I have not seen since I was 4. He informed that he will not be able to come to the opening, so I pulled out of the show. I know, it sounds kind of childless, but it was to be in some nothing non-profit and it was going to cost me a bunch of money I don't have, and I don't need another go no where line one my resume. So I said no. But it still makes me sad, now I have 7 paintings which I am quite pleased with but the do not fit into my other work. I think I will have to make more and find another outlet for them, someplace other than my own backyard, It will take a little investigation and research, but what else is new.

On another note, yesterday, I mentioned that I was gallery sitting at my co-operative the Bromfield Gallery and there is a great show up right now. Charles Goss, called vertical life. His work is funny and

 sophisticated and comments on gender and power without being pedantic Here is a sample of one of his pieces, you can see more of his work and read his statement by going to the Bromfield Gallery Site

Gallery sitting at the Bromfield Gallery

This is my first day out in the real world, doing things from my real life. I am a member of the Bromfield Gallery, a co-operative gallery in Boston's South End. Each member is required to gallery sit about 10 times a year. I say this is my first day out because for the last six weeks I have been in heaven, the Vermont Studio Center, an artists residency where my biggest worry was when to do my laundry. If you are an artist and have never been to an artists residency, start applying NOW. It is the only place I know of where you can expand and fill up all the corners of your mind with art. You are in an environment where everyone is either a visual or literary artist, your meals are prepared for you, you have a studio of your own and a bedroom and you can work 24/7 and nobody, will bat an eyelash.

 I was able to accomplish 5 months worth of work in 6 weeks and I have a studio in Boston. A lot of people ask me, if I have a studio already, why do I need to go away to work. It is because, when I am away, I am away from my life. The minute I get to my studio in Boston, I am already thinking of when I have to leave to go to the market, buy the food, cook the food or whatever other errand needs to be accomplished to run my life and my families life. At a residency there is only one thing to think about ME. The experience is an incredibly self-indulgent, luxurious but necessary blessing for the soul of any artist. 

The image at the top of the page is one of the pieces I completed at Vermont Studio Center. It is of the underpass to Lechmere train station in Cambridge MA , which is also its' title, it measures 24"x36" and is acrylic on wood panel. It is also very different from my usual subject matter. I'll discuss more about that in later posts. I completed 6 of these urban landscapes and one of my more usual subject matter, I call them 'Noir' paintings. This paintings title is The Epiphany, acrylic on wood panel, 24"x36". I really love doing both types of paintings but I am torn, because I am told that the road to success is paved in consistency and I find that I really want to stray from that road

My First blog

Well, this is my very first post. I have been inspired by a two other artists to try my hand at blogging, one is Tracy Helgeson, an artist I met at the Vermont Studio Center and the other is Adria Arch, an artist who belongs  to the same co-operative gallery I belong to, the Bromfield Gallary. I love both of their blogs and their art. 

Today I had my first physical therapy appointment after having  knee surgery on March 20. I was feeling a little discouraged before I went, I thought I should be just about back to normal now, but my expectations are a little high. Evidently being able to walk up stairs using both feet is quite an accomplishment for someone so recently operated on. So I guess I will go easy on myself.  

Since the surgery I have been trying to paint at home. Which would be okay if I had a real room to do it in. But I have to make do with my dining room, which is smack dab

 in the middle of my house,. Essentially, it is the hallway for the house, can't get anywhere else unless you walk through the dining room. It is a recipe for distraction.  I

 did manage to complete a painting that I started up at the Vermont Studio Center. It is from a series of paintings I call the Redemptive Powers of the H

ula Hoop. The project began two years when I was a resident at Jental, an artists residency program in Wyoming. They had hula hoops there, for the fun of it, and just for fun I decided to take pictures of all the 

residents hooping. When I looked at the pictures, I noticed that after the first few attempts, the body and facial expressions would relax and a childlike posture would come over everyone. I think in order to hoop, or attempt to hoop, you have to access that child in you who first tried it out. From the pictures I started making these little icon paintings, they are white gold leaf, acrylic and gouache with swavorski crystals on wood panels, 4"x8". My goal is to complete a hundred of them, so far I have done abou

t 20, but I just took a lot of pictures of people attempting to hoop while I was in Vermont and can't wait to get started on the new Icons.

Of course I am really good at distracting myself and while I was in Vermont I got an idea for another way to use the hula hoop images. Which is the painting I just finished while I am recuperating at home. I call it Lana set free it is Acrylic on wood panel, with swavorski crystals, 18"x 24"  and was a lot of fun to do.