The first Downtown Art Walk Roving Reception of the year is this Friday! Come down and check out the numerous locations participating with various art exhibits, live music and refreshments. Both the Gallery/Studio location and the Boutique for The HIve Artists’ Hub will be open. Come and check out our group exhibit. I’ve got four small pieces submitted to the show. Here’s a peek at one of them.
When we were going through her things after her death earlier this month, we came across a zip-lock sandwich bag that had several pages torn from a small coiled notebook, all with a sketch of a lady in profile on them.
This is one of them.
Wendy Struck, one of my studio mates at The Hive, did this interview with me last month of the February issue of Spotlight Magazine. It was a really fun interview. Wendy ended up with 6 pages of notes from our conversation (yes, I talk a lot!), and had to edit it down to the version above.
The latest piece in my In the Style of… series is a bit of a departure from the typical “portrait” the rest of the series involves. It was created for a group show that opened at The Hive Artists’ Hub on Friday September 28, 2012 entitled Let’s Do It Downtown. This is intended to be the first piece of a mini series with in the over all series, which will be all be in the style of Edward Hopper, and be set in various locations around Medicine Hat.
Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist known primarily for his oil painting, but also worked in watercolour, printmaking and etching throughout his career.
Hopper’s most systematic declaration of his philosophy as an artist was given in a handwritten note, titled “Statement”, submitted in 1953 to the journal, Reality:
Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skilful invention can replace the essential element of imagination. One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the human intellect for a private imaginative conception.
The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design.
The term life used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it.
Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature’s phenomena before it can again become great.
(source)
The making of “In the Style of Edward Hopper” from Susan Knight on Vimeo.
A tiny sneak peek at my latest piece in my In the Style of… series. It will be part of The Hive Artists’ Hub’s “Let’s Do It Downtown” exhibition opening on Friday September 28th as part of the roving art reception hosted by the Downtown Medicine Hat Artwalk in honour of Alberta Culture Days. Be sure to come down and check out the finished piece!
Eager presented their Follow the Red Line project at Kaunas Photo 2012. I had the honour of being one of the artists selected to have a photo included in the exhibition. She more photos from the event on Eager’s facebook page.
Petra Oldengarm
Eager is trying to reach 2012 photos in the Follow the Red Line series before the end of the year. Take a look at the submissions so far, and consider submitting a photo yourself!
There are conversations that I seem to have over and over again with people viewing my In the Style of . . . series. They generally start with the person doing a double take in the gallery after looking at one of the pieces and then at me, and making the connection.
“That’s you!”
Sometimes this is said as a revelation, sometimes a question, but often with awe.
This usually turns into an explanation of the series, and what it involves in terms of research and process. There are usually a few questions and sometimes they will even suggest an artist for my list. The most common questions I get are when I explain that all of the pieces are photography based. People seem to have the biggest problem with this idea. I usually save images of my process and have made several stop motion type videos of different pieces showing the answers to questions like ”how did you do that” or “that started from a photography?”and I thought I would post a couple of them for you to see.
The other three are available in the gallery at The Hive!
This gallery contains 26 photos.
Portraits of dysfunctional garages in back alleys. The soon to be forgotten history of a past status symbol that has declined into disrepair and will soon be a thing of memories.
Follow the Red Line - 2012
Back in January I submitted a portrait to an on-line photo project organized by EAGER: Follow the Red Line.
Jessica and Petra of EAGER have been asked to present Follow the Red Line at the Kaunas Photo Festival, and they have selected my submission to the project to be part of the exhibit.
The presentations will be help September 6th – 8th, 2012 and will include:
The festival runs September 4th – October 14th, 2012 in Kunas, Lithuania