West Texas Art

So we are driving along in this West Texas barren landscape, I was reading and my daughter was not paying attention either, when Bill says " that was weird, a Prada shoestore out here in the middle of nowhere" and Katherine and I yell "turn around! that's an art project, not a store!"

reflection of the sunset and the west Texas landscape on the Prada shoes and handbags

Prada Marfa, an art installation, which cost $80,000. was made of adobe and was meant to just fade into the landscape and not be kept up. This plan was thwarted when 3 days after completion, it was graffitied and windows broken and the shoes and purses stolen. So it was repaired and now there are signs that say you are under surveillance.

Bill took that hat off the wall in the motel and poses in front of an art work.

A chapel? next to the motel in Marfa.

Chinati Foundation, Marfa Tx.
When I have more time I will come back here for the tour which takes 4 hours!

Georgia O'keefe Country

Perdernal "is my private mountain," she said frequently. God told me if I painted it often enough I could have it.

This wasn't a planned stop on our trip but when I looked at the map for the next town (we were all getting quite hungry) I saw Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu. This is were Georgia O'Keefe lived and painted in New Mexico. I have always wanted to see it. We never did find the town of Abiquiu. Not sure how we missed it. But we did get to stop at the Ghost Ranch visitors center, and lunch just had to wait.

1934- First Summer at Ghost Ranch

"When I got to New Mexico, that was mine. As soon as I saw it, that was my country."

Inspiring flowers

A tale of two art stories in Durango

My daughter and I stop for a break to look at the overview of Durango.

Whenever I arrive in a new town, one of the first things I like to do is get the local alternative free paper and see what is going on and get a feel for the town. We drove into Durango yesterday afternoon and I picked up the Southwest Colorado Arts Perspective. The cover was Christo and Jean Claude's Valley Curtain from 1970. This caught my attention as I had designed a class project a few years back and had it published in School Arts Magazine. Wrap Up the Year with Christo and Jeanne-Claude May/June 2007. And also presented the lesson at the National Art Ed. conference in NYC that year.

When I read the cover article, I was shocked to discover it was a memorial piece for Jeanne-Claude. She had died from a ruptured brain aneurysm last November, over 6 months ago...and I had not heard. The author of the piece is a manager at a local gallery in town. I went down and met him and talked with him. I told him that I had talked with Jean Claude back when I was getting permission for publication. We swapped stories and he told me that Christo is still going to continue with the Over The River Project. It will run for 2 weeks near Salida CO. Summer of 2013 at the earliest. I was glad I popped in to meet him and the work in his Gallery Open Shutter Gallery was just beautiful.

The second art story involves an art store (http://www.goodmansartbin.net) I saw advertised in the same paper. It was located down the block from the gallery hidden in the back of a mall. If I wasn't looking for it I would not have found it. It was small but packed with all kinds of goodies. The owner, Ellie, was in the back of the store restoring an old oil painting for a customer. As we got to talking, I found out that her husband of 35 years had just passed away but she wants desperately to continue on with the business. It has been in her husbands family since 1879! But times are hard. She asked were I was from and she commented, oh you must have wonderful art stores there and I said unfortunately that oldest and most popular one had just closed down. She said well I will ship for free! tell all your friends. I told her I would mention it on my blog and she gave me and my daughter a great big hug!

Mothers Day on the Snake River

Mothers Day- the only day of the year, besides my birthday were I get to say what I want to do and everyone has to do it with a minimal of grumbling. I had heard about this quirky roadside attraction/historical site/nature walk/museum ever since I had moved to Idaho and then was reminded about it at a recent docent meeting. Katherine will be moving back to Texas soon and I thought it would be a lovely way to spend the day, as she is into quirky art stuff too. Bill came along and enjoyed the trip as well. We had a nice brunch at the Blue Canoe. Free champagne and flowers for the moms too.

Then it was down the road to Walters Ferry:






lWhen we dropped Katherine off at her apt. she surprised me with a dozen roses. The only thing that could have made the day better was if my other daughter and my mom could have joined us. When mom does come to visit us, we will have to make another trip out there.

Modern 2010 recap

It was a cool but beautiful sunny afternoon at the Modern Hotel in Boise Idaho.
The table was set and the fun was about to begin and would last until well after dark.

It was a fabulous night, I don't know the official count but I would say in the thousands. In case you haven't heard of this event, the motel rents out every room to an artist on the first Thursday of May. It is a juried process. Then every room is open to the public to come see what it is they do from performance art to mini galleries.
Molly's was one of my favorite rooms. The theme was Oregon Tidal pools - photos on the walls and she created tidal pools out of clay in the sink, shower and even the toilet.

This is a shot of just how crazy crowded it can get. This was our room 227.
One of the 5 Exquisite Corpse/collaboration pieces we all worked on.

We removed the towels from the shelves in the bathroom and Kevin displayed his pottery.

The headboard displays some of my assemblages and the bed holds
Kevin's pottery and Mariannes prints and my cards.

Kay Seurat and Friends had the Elvis Wedding Chapel.

The mime points the way to ...

The tub is transformed into a work space for making artist trading cards.

It was quite the popular activity.
You could make one and then trade it for one of the ATC's on the tree that Zella made.

hmmm, which one should I pick?

My assemblage displayed in the living room.

Finished collaboration piece made by members of the Treasure Valley Artist Alliance.

The 4 of us...Marianne, Pam, Kevin and Zella.
See you next year!

Spring is here?

After some nice warm weather, we are back to some cold, windy, rainy, hail and even a few snow flurries yesterday. (no this isn't Boise in April, this was Clear Creek at New Years)

This has been a very busy week for me:

1. I completed the last of my school tours at the Boise Art Museum this week.
2. The Treasure Valley Artist Alliance board met at my house on Tuesday. Lots of plans in the works there.
3. I am getting ready for First Thursday at the Modern Hotel and met with my fellow artists, Zella, Marianne and Kevin this evening to go over last minute details.
4. I dropped off my Idaho Triennial packet at the museum yesterday and hope to be included in their showcase of Idaho artists this fall.
5. I am sorting work to bring to the C.W.Moore Building, a Gypsy Gallery Show which will hang for 6 months.
6. I am also sorting work to bring to The Art Source Gallery for jury into the Gallery.
7. I was asked to be a guest speaker at a local elementary school and this afternoon I brought my art and did a "show and tell" with 45 first graders. They were so enthusiastic and lovable. After I brought out my first piece, they all broke into a spontaneous applause! At the end when I took questions, one little girls said, "when I grow up I want to be an artist." made me proud.

A busy and exciting time.

For a break and to celebrate the last bit of winter- we decided to drive up to McCall tomorrow to go skiing. 12" of new powder has fallen with that much more predicted, should be a good ski day on Saturday and a nice change of pace.

The Grass Is Always Greener....

my wonderful town nestled against the foothills of the Boise Mountains

A story tells of a man who is oppressed by his family. His wife dominates and torments him. His children make fun of him. He feels a victim, and thinks the time has come for him to go away and find Heaven. After much searching, he meets an old sage who gives him detailed directions on how to go there: You walk for a long time, but eventually you will arrive. The man sets out. During the day he walks, and that night, exhausted, he stops at an inn to sleep. Being a precise and methodical man, he decides before sleeping to place his shoes pointing toward Heaven so as to be sure not to lose his way the next morning. But during the night, while he is asleep, a mischievous little devil sneaks in and turns his shoes around the opposite way.

Next morning the man wakes up and sets off, this time in the direction opposite to the day before-toward his starting point. As he walks along, the scenery looks more and more familiar to him. He arrives at the town in which he always lived, but he believes it to be Paradise: "How much like my old town Paradise looks!" But since it is Paradise , he feels good there and likes it immensely. He sees his old house , which he thinks is Paradise: "How it looks like my old house!" But since it is Paradise, he finds it very enjoyable. His wife and children greet him: "How they look like my wife and children! Here in Paradise everything looks the way it was before." However, because it is Paradise, everything is beautiful. His wife is a delightful person, his children are extraordinary--they are full of qualities that he , in his daily life, never would have suspected to exist. "Strange, how here in Paradise everything resembles so precisely what was in my life before, and yet everything is completely different!"

I read this excerpt in a book I picked up at a book exchange in Mexico. Written by Piero Ferrucci, "The Power of Kindness" I think it is a powerful two paragraphs.

In Loving Memory of my Dad

Me and Dad
Bloomingdale, NJ 1960

Edward Harold Spreen
June 2, 1936 - April 15, 2010

Investigative Art

"Can You Hear the Footsteps?"

detail of tags on base

detail of top

first step in making the tags- smoked edges on a candle

2nd step of making the top part-adding wax to the collage

1st step of making the top-attaching the metal stand to the tin with
Dap Quick Seal Plus
and adding alcohol inks to the metal.

It all started with a wooden clothes hanger that my husband gave me to do something with. I said "were did this come from?" He said I think it was my dad's he must have stayed there sometime in the 50's or 60's. So this hanger has been hanging (no pun intended) around my studio for about 6 months or more. I found these old wooden shoe inserts at a thrift store and hung them on the hanger in my closet. Then one day I found this wreath hanger that I thought would be perfect for hanging the hanger on. I was thinking that this was going to be called "These shoes are made for walking" and it would be about the traveling salesman of a byegone era and his pounding the pavement looking for a sale.

I created the top part of the sculpture by collaging a tin box with a photo of an old typewriter keyboard, then added wax chunks and melted them 1/2 way to look like ice cubes, cause after a day of walking in Tuscon AZ, you would need to cool off. The frame for the top part is an old art deco light switch plate. The metal wreath stand is mounted on top of a carved wooden thing I found. The piece still seemed like it needed something. So I thought I'd google the hotel and see what I could find out. Was I in for a shock. The Tuscon AZ, Pioneer Hotel was the scene of a 2.5 million $ fire in Dec. 1970, started by a 16 year old arson. 28 people died in that blaze including the 82 year old builder of the hotel who lived in the penthouse with his wife. In 1977 the building was renovated and turned into offices.

The office building is now thought to have paranormal activity. The experiences in that building have been indicative of a residual haunting, or the playback of a recording of a past traumatic event such as the sound of running footsteps when no one is around. Perhaps the Pioneer building itself is replaying the events from the night of the fire. So needless to say this completely changed the focus of my piece. Somehow I had to honor the lives lost in that fire. I found the roster of those that had died in the fire and attached their information to tags that I distressed by burning the edges. Those tags are tied around the base of the sculpture. The ice now stands for the ice needed to cool the firefighters. The new name for the piece is: "Can You Hear the Footsteps?"

Living the Artists Life

The finished project being auctioned off.

Me starting on my "quick draw" piece for the Live Auction. I had 1 hour to complete it.

Susan working on her "quick draw" printmaking project
(she even brought a press) and me with the gesso.

4 "Exquisite Corpse" collaboration pieces that I was a part of all were auctioned off this evening for a good cause.

These were all created by Zella, metal artist, Nancy, painter, Marianne, mixed Media, Susan, print-maker and me. It was such a neat experience to be asked to be a part of this.

This was the start of my "quick draw" piece. Though I was not technically drawing but creating an assemblage. I started with this birdhouse, then
gessoed it and stained it with various acrylic paints.

The next step was to add collage items, and more paint.

The final project. "Every Little Thing" I used was something that was no longer wanted for it's original purpose. The metal hummingbird was from a broken wind chime. The Book spine was from a book taken apart by my friend Aimee, who makes journals out of the covers. The bird on the twig was from my artist friend Miriam, who gave me an old assemblage of birds that I have taken apart.I talked to the lady who was the highest bidder and she bought it as a wedding gift for a woman that loves hummingbirds, so it was perfect! I love to talk to the people that buy my art, because more often than not...they say it was as if the piece was made just for them (or for whoever they are purchasing it for.) So cool.

There has been some talk among my various artist circles about what constitutes a "real" artist. Well after this week and especially after the We Art Women Fundraiser tonight, I told Marianne...well I finally feel like a real artist.

This has a been a busy week for me with museum docent training, two museum tours, Treasure Valley Artist Alliance Meeting (I'm on the board), helping out with silent auction items for WAW for three hours on Sunday and three hours today and then returning this evening for the actual event.

The cool part is that I was chosen as one of 4 "quick draw" artists for the event, and these 4 items were the only live auction items. So I got to make art all evening and talk to those that came by my table with what it is that I do.

Oh, and last but not least I had a piece chosen for the 2 month extended exhibit. The juror Sue Latta said she could only choose 32 out of 190 pieces submitted, so that was quite an honor to be chosen.

I did not make any money myself this week but my art made money for those in more need than myself and if I can do good with my art, then it is all worth while. And don't worry, I'm not "starving." :)