Virtual Studio Tour 2011

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The SOMA studio tour was quite enjoyable this year - thanks to all who made it out last Sunday to say hello and look at my new drawings, as well as visit the rest of the artists on the tour. It really is an annual reminder of how thankful I am to be in a community with such support for the arts.  There were a lot of new (to me) visitors, and some of the familiar faces who make it out to do the tour nearly every year.  This year's virtual studio tour is below (2009 is here and 2010 is here). 

 

Well, that is all for the virtual studio tour 2011.  On the agenda this week is to get the next piece finished (the work in progress above - this involves gold leaf, pencil, watercolor, and garnet and peridot beads).  Next up on the drawing board is to start the 4 x 6 foot drawing using the War Paint portraits  - over a year in the planning and making - it is finally time to get it all pieced together.

Snowblind

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Here is the newest piece, entitled Snowblind. It consists of 4 separate drawings that form one continuous work.Each drawing is 19 x 19 inches - pencil on Arches hot press watercolor paper, the outer edges embellished with bone beads (literally beads that are made from bone, about 5,760 of them, but who is counting). The drawings will be framed separately and are intended to be spaced about 5 inches apart:

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Odds and Ends

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I have been so distracted by the last days and hours of finishing my four-panel drawing (not to mention the end of the semester) that I nearly forgot to announce a couple of upcoming shows and events. I have three drawings in an exhibition featuring four regional artists who work in pencil and pen at the Mikhail Zakin Gallery at the Art School at Old Church in Demarest, New Jersey. The show is currently on display and runs through May 31st, with an artist reception scheduled for Thursday, May 12th from 6 to 8 PM. I am really looking forward to seeing the other artists’ drawings in person – there is a splendid little flash player of the work on display on the gallery’s website.

The South Orange Maplewood Studio Tour is on Sunday, June 5th from 11 AM – 5 PM. I will be showing new drawings in my studio, and will happily answer questions about materials and techniques. South Orange and Maplewood have a remarkable number of accomplished artists and the studio tour is one of the few times when their studios are open for the general public to visit. Examples of the individual artists’ artwork are showcased on the Studio Tour website.

(And, I have to say that it is rather fortunate that I am too preoccupied with work-in-progress to panic about the fact that the Studio Tour is only a month away.)

That is about it for news and events.

On a complete tangent, last month I was saddened to learn of the death of George Tooker, THE magic realist extraordinaire. I vividly remember picking up the Thomas H. Garver monograph of Tooker at my local mall bookstore when I was in high school. I simply love that book: it is one of the few artist monographs that I still enjoy 25 years later. I think I am so moved by his artwork because it demonstrates such a remarkable sense of humanity – sometimes a dark view of the world, but not one that is tainted with cynicism and irony.

The New York Times obituary is wonderful, and I will end with Tooker’s words about reflecting on his own work:

“I don’t examine it myself, and I don’t want to.”