Another visit to the MacGown studio by some local artists

This past Saturday was gorgeous! Following several days and nights of frigid temps, we were rewarded with mid 60's temps on Saturday. After lunch I got a call from the wild and wacky abstract painter Paul Buckley, whose studio I had visited a few weeks back. He wondered if he and Libby Pollard, another awesome local artist, could come by and visit a while. Joseph and I were just hanging out, so that sounded great. We gave them the tour, starting in the house.

Libby Pollard! 

Yep, those two wandered around looking at both my art and Joseph's. They both particularly liked Joseph's painting/collage piece that he did on wood. Looks crazy and super cool framed. That's it in the above photo on lower right. Libby also appreciated my loose mosaics made with bits of fossilized shells, such as the one above Joseph's two pieces in the above photo. Libby, like Paul, does fantastic abstract paintings, but also creates beautiful mosaics with pieces of glass she cuts herself.

One of Libby's colorful paintings

After checking out various things in the house, including several of my collaborative pieces, we headed down the hill to the studio. Along the way, I showed them my cedar tikis that I carved a few years back. Then, we hit the studio! Man, let me tell you, our studio is full! Anybody want to donate a 3000 sq. ft. building to the cause?

Studio! 

Lots to see in here for sure. We showed them some highlights, mostly relatively recent pieces, and talked a bit about techniques and stuff.

A watercolor and ink picture that I recently started. Its about 40 inches tall. Coming along.

Some of Joseph's recently matted pieces. 

Anyway, it was a pretty cool visit! Its is always inspiring to talk with other artists. We are now trying to figure out ways of putting on some local art shows. Tentatively, it is looking like Joseph and I will have a small exhibition with Laurie Burton at her gallery space on Jackson Street. Thinking about early May! If this works out, then hopefully we can match up others to have some rotating shows. We also talked about a potential outdoor afternoon show, perhaps in my yard when the flowers are blooming in the spring. Could be interesting. 

In other art news this weekend, Joseph had a one on one art portfolio scholarship interview with some folks at Millsaps University on Friday. He said he felt like it went well. Guess we will see. Millsaps is one of the colleges he has been thinking about. At this point, its a matter of putting together various scholarships and deciding which school would be the best fit for him. This particular interview was pretty cool in that he got to talk to the interviewers in pers rather than simply sending in digital images. This is an awesome way to do it! He not only showed them framed and matted images, but also several photos, a CD that he designed and made the music for, and an short film that he made with his own music in the background. 

Blue Joseph, self portrait by Joseph MacGown

Saturday morn was a continuation of sorts for Joseph, as he attended an Academic Insight event at MSU at the College of Art, Architecture, and Design. They had some folks talking about the program here and various opportunities that are available. Unfortunately, the visit did not include a comprehensive tour of the facilities, nor were many of the faculty on hand for the visit. Even so, he said he enjoyed it. 

Joseph has lots of ideas, and has been making the most of his free time lately creating music and art. He is talking about writing a couple of books, one a poetry type deal, and the other an art book. Cool. He is really starting to develop his own style lately, and is sketching and otherwise engaged in doing some type of art much of the time. I like the way he is going. He is not trying to do things in somebody else's style, and he is not worried about trying to making something look exactly like reality. His art is more emotional, visceral. Get a feeling of something, get it down. And weird, he is a weird dude. I can relate to that. 

One of several of Joseph's quick weird sketches