As always we have been super busy the last few months! We ended October off with a Sunday Funday artwalk in downtown Starkville on Halloween! Met some cool folks and sold some art!
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| Part of our Sunday Funday setup |
December 4th was a busy day as I set up our artwork at the Tupelo Christmas Bazaar during the day, then later joined Joseph at 929 Coffee in Starkville for the MS Made show! 929 always has great attendees and this evening was no exception!
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| Joseph selling our art at 929 |
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| Our setup in Tupelo |
For the winter solstice, we hosted an awesome drum circle at our place in Sessums, a small community a few miles SE of Starkville. It was chilly and we ate chili! Had a fire, cool people and fun drumming lead by Robert Damm and Bonnie Renfroe! We will do this again!
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| Winter Solstice Drum Circle, photo by JC Long |
I had a solo show featured about 40 of my trippy ink drawings at the Columbus Arts Council Gallery for the month of January with a reception on January 7th. It was a super cold and rainy day so I greatly appreciated everyone who braved the weather to come see it!
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| Me giving a short talk about my art |
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| Larry the Eel Wrangler, one of the pieces in the show |
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| Three of the pieces I later framed and included in the show |
The next event where you can find some of our art will again be at 929 Coffee Shop in Downtown Starkville on the evening of February 12. Joseph will be set up with some other awesome folks.
I will be showing off some of my insect drawings and other biological themed pieces for Pollinator Day at the Natural History Museum in Jackson, MS on Thursday March 16. I will also have some prints for sale.
On Saturday, March 26, from 9-5. we will have a booth set up at Hubfest in Hattiesburg, MS. After picking up there, we will head back to Starkville to participate in the first Midnight Bazaar from 8 pm to midnight at the Old Farmer's Market location in Downtown Starkville! This should be fun.
I am organizing a Scientific Illustration Show, which will be held from March 31 to April 30, 2022 at the Mississippi University for Women Gallery. This exhibition will feature works by me (insect illustrations), Ashley Baker (entomological themed outreach illustration), Madison Rice (medical illustrations), Wes Neal (Illustrations of fish), Sam Biebers (illustrations of animals and plants), and Dylan Karges (archaeological illustrations). An opening date has not yet been set.
And then on May 7-8 we will be set up in Tupelo, MS for the annual Gumtree Festival. Come see us!
Our art studio/retreat concept is growing. We finished off our new house, which opening up the old one for visiting artists to stay in and in part to use as an office and prep room. We are filling it with art as well turning it into the de facto gallery for now. We have already and two folks stay including Hunter Bounds, an artist out of Hattiesburg, MS and later Dan Otte, an eminent entomologist and illustrator. Upcoming guests include Roch Faustch and his apprentices. Roch is out of Spokane and is a fantastic surreal painter as well as a master craftsman.
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| View of our new house from pond side |
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| Living room of new house. I finally have a place to hang my Manic Depression piece and some instruments |
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| A view of the living room in the old house (art house) |
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| Main bedroom in art house with art all over the place |
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| Joseph's old room is coming along |
We also finished building a small art cabin, which serves as a secondary studio and potential space for visiting artists to stay.
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| Interior of art cabin, starting to populate the walls with Joseph's art |
With the house and cabin down, we are focusing on the future gallery. Currently we have a roof over the main portion and the portion. Just finished joists for porch deck, and now adding decking. This will likely be a long term project and it will be some time before the main portion has walls, etc.
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| A view of the pavilion from the house. You can see the art cabin in distance across the pond |
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| It is satisfying to finally have some time to put decking down. |
Every day has been super productive and we are hoping to continue this manic creating stuff!! Thanks to all of our wonderful art supporters who are making this art compound dream a reality.
