Back in December I exhibited at a local gallery called The Boxcar Gallery. There I met a few more local artists and a gallery owner who owns a gallery in Putnam, CT. I learned that I was their first artist to be invited to their Tragic Love exhibit. Tonight I went out there to check out the space and have a few drinks. They were drawn to my ‘Smithsonian’ status (as it’s been lovingly called…) and it was the one of the many factors that went into inviting me to their show. A lot of work seems to have gone into the space and I guess this upcoming exhibition is like their “reopening”?! I don’t know!! But it has given me some thought as to how, where and the direction of my creative space will go. I’m intrigued by the idea of taking over empty store fronts for gallery and artist spaces (The Empty Spaces Project). There are some things that need to come to pass but for now I have to move out of my studio in Beverly and transition completely to Longmeadow.
Category Archives: Art
Tragic Love Exhibition – The Empty Spaces Project
So funny thing about this exhibition.
Back in December I exhibited my artwork in a new gallery called The Boxcar Gallery in Greenfield, MA. I drove up there one night to attend the reception. I began talking to a gallery owner in Putnam, CT. Which is about an hour from where I am stationed in Western, MA. The gallery owner wanted to fit me in their Tragic Love exhibition. The last I heard was they were going to put me into their November exhibition (perhaps they meant February)? Anyway, I saw these images on facebook this week and was like WHA! How am I in an exhibition I did not know that I was aware of that I am in!
The funny thing is… it is Venus retrograde now. It typically is a time when all kinds of relationships that are important to you and that are real go haywire (it’s like mercury retrograde but instead of communications and technology its love, friendships, relationships and romance). Venus retrograde ends this friday! (but takes a few weeks to settle down).
Monday night I’ll be driving out there to drop off my artwork that I’m going to be bringing back here to Western MA after the weekend.
In/Finite Earth Exhibition at Volkswagen Group of America
The In/Finite Earth exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution closed this past week and is now at the Volkswagen Group of America headquarters before going on a six month tour.
Studio Wrap Up #1
My first studio wrap up!! I’m sitting here in my studio after having coffee with a former high school teacher. We ended up talking for 2 hrs and I didn’t get to Beverly until 2 pm. I’m having lunch from Green Papaya, a Vietnamese food restaurant that’s downstairs and trying to figure out the best use of my time. I COULD set up the darkroom and spend a couple hours making negatives only to put everything away… OR I COULD sit at my computer and work on my schedule for next year. HMM. What to do? I do have tomorrow, so I am definitely planning on coming here early tomorrow to make negatives. I think I may just end up working on my calendar for next year.
My first project in the studio was a sculpture project for my art residency proposal which ended up being a TOTAL FAIL. I ended up submitting something, but it was only after much headache to finally toss this idea out. Kind of sad that my first project in my studio was a fail. But the first time you do anything you don’t normally get it done right.
To the right is a photo of the epic failness. The sculpture block did not solidify the way I expected it to and thus could not carve it the way I expected to. I think I didn’t buy the right type of plaster even though Dick’s said that it was a good plaster for carving. Phooey.
To the left is what I ended up submitting long with an explanation. It’s not that clear as a photo alone, but my project is to take an existing photograph and to translate it into a 3-dimensional sculpture of that photograph.
Studio 19 had it’s first opening reception! Which went very well and a lot of the people who showed up were interested in purchasing the artwork. I also established a partnership wit The Healing Center in Beverly. They want to use my process and I want to use their outreach and clientele for my personal projects on spirituality.
AND most importantly, the first ever paper negatives were made in my studio. The process isn’t perfect, but I now feel like I’m going somewhere with this space. Everything is coming together and I’m producing things!
Next, I made my In/Finite Earth experience memo board. I’m hoping to, as I gain more experiences in the art field, to make more of these. I used encaustic board so the paper is a bit thicker and I can nail it to the wall if I wanted to as a base. Then covered it with print outs of the postcard that had everyone’s art on and printed out pictures and bought scrapbook materials that reflected the trip. I really enjoyed this project!
And last but not least, Cabot Street Studios has its’ first Holiday Open Studios!
What’s coming up:
Exploration in Papermaking
– Using the dried flowers from my kirlian photography and the recycled paper from work to create a work of art.
– Oceanic Kirlian Photographic Prints. Using organic materials from the ocean to produce kirlian photographs
– developing a portable darkroom…
– and much more to come! 🙂
Digital Art
Two of my artist friends inspired me to make more photo manips after I changed my cover photo to the first one I listed here. I forgot how fun this project was. Creating scenes using images of earth to create another world entirely. I need to do more!
The Boxcar Gallery Reception
Friday I drove back to Western Ma to attend The Boxcar Gallery’s Opening Reception. This gallery is literally in an old boxcar. The gallery is located in downtown Greenfield, Ma. It is also part of The Empty Space’s Project. Kim, the owner of The Boxcar Gallery, had the opportunity to also exhibit some of Joseph Mallord William Turner, a painter from the 1800s. It was really nice to meet some of the artists in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. I also met the owners of a gallery in Putnam, Connecticut and they were interested in showing my work as well. First venture out in Western Mass, a success I’d say.
Holiday Open Studios at Cabot Street Studios
Thursday I came home from Enfield to attend the Holiday Open Studios at Cabot Street Studios. We had really bad weather so we think that that kept some people at home. We had a bit of a turn out, but there was definitely food left over. I was able to show my studio and do some positives of the paper negatives I had already made. Unfortunately my device stopped working again and my Dad has to work on it. Also the paper negatives did not completely develop so the positives came out grey and not black. Process still not perfected, but soon it will be! But overall, I was glad to have been there and socialize with the artists that were there.
Haymarket
Tonight I drove out to Northampton, Ma and met Kim the owner of The Boxcar Gallery – (yes this gallery is really in an old boxcar) at the Haymarket Cafe! I had their hot chocolate and their Fried Egg and Mozzarella sandwich. The sandwich was a little too much food than I expected but I enjoyed it overall. Kim asked me about my photographic process and I asked her about the arts in western Massachusetts. She had also asked me for a tarot reading and I gave her one at the end. Never been to Northampton (or “Noho”) before and it reminded me of Bethlehem – but holy shit did I feel at home in Northampton! It’s definitely a city I’d like to explore more. The funny thing with meeting Kim is that she had seen my artwork in Pomfret before I submitted my work to her as she grew up in Pomfret. It was a cool moment for me because I was all, “WOAH! MY ART IS GETTING RECOGNIZED!” I seriously hope this job in Enfield continues because I’m falling in love with this area.
The Healing Center in Beverly
Today I visited Joanna at the Healing Center in Beverly and we talked about a future partnership with my Kirlian Process and my studio space at Cabot Street Studios. We talked about potentially getting my research into workshop format and using the Healing Center space as well as Studio 19’s space for workshops and presentations.
We also talked about literally working with the life force energy as well, since Joanna is a Reiki Master and knows how to work with the energy we thought about trying to capture and visually express the differences of a charged object with Reiki energy and a regular object. I also talked about some of the things I had been struggling with and we decided that Reiki should be the next stage in my healing process as well.
Artiste Marketplace and a New Calling
This weekend I participated in the Artiste Marketplace sponsored by Artiste Art and Craft Studio. I didn’t sell anything but I gave away a lot of marketing material which is always a good thing. As usual, people were generally interested in my artwork and spent time asking questions and looking through the portfolio. I’m glad I had that experience. I even met someone who wants to do a trade – teaching her photo processing and her teaching me Reiki. In the past week that was the second time my artwork has attracted Reiki practitioners. I met the Owner of ‘The Healing Center’ in Beverly at my reception last Tuesday who is also a Reiki practitioner. It makes sense that I’m attracting these type of people because Reiki is all about using the life force energy to heal people. The owner of ‘The Healing Center’ wants to do a collaboration with me and my process which I mentioned in my post about the Studio19 reception. I went on their website and I found a class about plants – too perfect for my usage! I’ve been wanting to use the medicinal properties of plants in my artwork some how. And I love that it’s only one Thursday a month. I signed up for the December class since next week is a little to soon for me. I’ll have to leave work early, but that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m excited to see where my artwork is taking my professionally and spiritually. 🙂
Studio19 – Opening Reception Recap
On Tuesday evening I drove over 70 miles to attend my reception on the Northshore coming from Enfield, Ct. During work that day I learned that both my photographer and production crew (Estrada Productions) that I had booked for the reception fell through! My parents ended up taking pictures. But the fact that I have never put on an event like this before I thought the reception went very well. Several new people showed up and showed interest in buying my artwork! Some of the artists from Cabot Street showed up as well which I was very thankful for. It started slow, but ended well. There was definitely more people than I expected, which is always nice. I was even publicized in the Wicked Local: Wellesley. And Beverly Main Streets did a social media blast and my landlord posted the reception on the Cabot Street website. I put posters up around town which seemed to be the most effective. I even got interest from a Healing Center located down the street to do a partnership with my process and capturing people’s energy with it because they do Reiki. I’m pretty excited about that. I have to do some more research on that, but that won’t happen until I finish my proposal for my artist residency. I think in the end I’d definitely do it all over again, but I may focus on promotion next time. But it was difficult to work on getting the studio setup and do self promotion and starting a new job all at once. Now I just have to make a whole new body of work and have another one!
Minuteman Press Recap
So it’s been my first 7 days at my new job as graphic designer at Minuteman Press New England. It’s been fantastic! The work is cool, my boss is great and my co-workers aren’t too bad either ;-). I kinda enjoy the fact that some of the work I do isn’t always considered design. For example, sometimes its’ editing copy on excel or recreation of previous artwork for a new customer. I’ve also been able to use my psychic abilities too which always makes for a good time. I had made a comment the other day about my monitor not being as big as what I’m used to and my boss asked what size I was used to and I said about the mac that was sitting on the desk to the left. He was like, ‘you know you aren’t getting a mac’. I was like aw shucks, lol. But he bought me a new monitor the same size during lunch and its’ supposed to be of similar size – so we’ll see. I had a really rewarding experience so far where I had a design project to create a new design for a business card for a local frame shop. They wanted ornate scrolling full bleed and a golden frame in the center around the logo. I just went with what I was seeing in my head and she ended up really liking it as it matched her ‘vision’. She just didn’t like the typeface I used, which was OK with me because I had mixed feelings with the typeface anyway. Another design project I did lately was a letterhead for a local Grammar School which I included in this post. It’s still a bit surreal to me that I’m finally working in my field – a position I’ve coveted for so long.