My Jazz paintings cozying up to two from my Deconstructing Frank Lloyd Wright series

As promised, here’s a photo of this month’s exhibit of my work at HYPE Gallery. The initial response has been good to this mixing of earlier and newer work.

Hanging a gallery show can be a challenge in the desire to keep the work consistent and not present a mish-mash of everything an artist has done.  As my sculpture prof used to profess about many things – you want something rich and complex, not complicated and confusing.

So I pulled smaller pieces from last time and added the two new ones. The first comment I heard was from a visitor who liked the arrangement and how the colors worked together.  That made my heart sing as, for me, it’s all about color.

The entire show this month with six women artists is rich and complex with color, and not one bit complicated or confusing. I’m delighted to be part of it.

As a side project, I’m also participating in the Postcards from the Edge exhibit this month at The Studio Door (our mother ship), a national project that benefits visual artists with AIDS.  The original, one of a kind, postcards created by artists all over the country will be sold and proceeds will go to the fund.  Because the postcards are exhibited anonymously, I’ll wait to post a picture of my entry until later this month.

Finally, I offer a couple of short passages from the 1923 book, The Art Spirit, by Robert Henri, artist and teacher.  His writings, nearly one hundred years old, stay fresh and inspire me every day.  He writes about visual art, of course, but his words apply to ever so many other things.

“Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. They can help you. All the past can help you.”

and

“We are not here to do what has already been done.”

Amen to that.  Amen to that.