Joe MacGown's Surreal and Semi Strange Visions Opening was Awesome

The reception for my show at the Mississippi Modern Homesteading Center in Starkville, MS went pretty well, especially considering most MSU students had vacated town. And, I had basically been involved with three local shows here in town in the last two weeks, so some folks had seen much of what was in this show. But, I had new stuff. Interesting, the crowd here was quite different than those attending the last few shows. I greatly enjoyed interacting and answering questions to the attendees. And, it was nice to have several guys from my Starkville Striders running club here .and my on and off again lady Audrey Sheridan Thanks! 

As I mentioned, this show will be up until July 15th, but only when the center is open. If someone wants to see it, I think we could arrange something. I did not expect to sell any originals here, and I was not surprised. But, I did sell quite a few prints and a few copies of my book. Thanks to all of you who purchased something! 

And, yep, Debra Wolf, who recently started a Starkville Area Arts Council blog, wrote a wonderful piece about my Manic Depression piece. Check it out here: http://www.starkvillearts.net/blog/personal-preference-debra-wolf

Here are a few picts from the show. 

Dominique, Brent, Audrey Sheridan, and Joseph looking on

Greg Martin and Laurie Burton

Jorge and Juan Villarreal

Audrey Sheridan and the running crew

Jorge & Juan Villarreal, Audrey Sheridan, and Brent Wallace (holy moly, look at those smokin' legs!)

Joseph MacGown

Kevin with his new acquisitions

Laurie Burton and Joe Mulrooney!

Lucas Muniz and Juan

Lucia

The Mullrooneys and Mike Buehler

This Buehler has great taste

Thumbs up

Shirley Ross (right) and her mom in law

Jessica Cheek

Victoria Cheek

Victoria Cheek and Joseph

Thanks again to the Buehler's and Jessica Cheek for giving me the opportunity to have this local exhibition at the Mississippi Modern Homesteading Center, and to Chalet Arts for all the framing and other awesome stuff they have done for me for this show and others. Without Mark Wood, Lorie Wood, Alan Fortenberry, and the rest of the crew at Chalet Arts, I could not have framed this show, had prints available, and books printed. You guys rock!

crazy fish painting activities and other art stuff

Started a crazy manic fish painting late Friday afternoon and early evening. The weather was fantastic, so I painted outside and also in my smallish barn/storage/workshop type building. 

in the barn area

Fun. 2 X 4 feet on primed masonite. Used some spray paint, house paint, and some acrylic paint. Kind of slapped the paint on there and it started looking like a fish creature deal. Had some Ids music playing from inside the studio. I love the Ids! One of my favorite bands. I guess they must be fairly obscure, because no one seems to know about them. 

Got a couple picts of the progress of the fish deal. Will update as it comes along. 

After some supper, got back in the studio to work on some stuff. One thing was my weird acrylic and oil pastel deal. Here are some photos of it. 

closeup of face

After a while, I moved to the other table and put in a little time on a bigger picture. This one is on a 42 inch by 40 feet long roll of awesome art paper. May never finish, or at the very least, it will be like 20 years from now. Have not made much progress, but like some happenings so far. 

start of really big drawing

While I was working on that, Audrey, who was also doing some random artwork, decided she want to paint on my shoulder. So, yeah. She took a photo of her work on my shoulder. Interesting concept, art being done on artist doing artwork. 

Audrey Sheridan did some painting on my back. Here is the result.

another view of Audrey's art on my while I was doing art

Not sure why, but I seem to love painting and drawing fish and other fishlike things. Some people might think its some sexual bullshit, but honestly, I just think fish and fishlike creatures look cool as hell. Jellyfish too. Nothing wrong with freakin jellyfishes! Fascinating creatures.

Also worked on this thing for a bit. Kooky creature guy. Part of bigger picture.

Opening Reception for my show at the RAC a done deal

The opening for my show at the Rosenzweig Arts Center (RAC) in Downtown Columbus, MS was last night (August 1st, 2013) from 5:30-7:00 PM. I thought it went really well. Lots of folks showed up. In fact, people starting arriving before 5 PM and some did not leave until about 8 PM. They  basically had to turn the lights off to get us out of there! 

Sign on outside window

The crew at the RAC did a wonderful job with the show. It was hung nicely with some natural flow and certain pieces grouped together in meaningful ways. Lots of good food and wine and even homemade ice-cream with toppings! Cookies, brownies, all sorts of goodies.  They had a video that I had prepared of my work with music composed and performed by my son Joseph playing on a widescreen TV. That was pretty cool. Special thanks to everyone at the RAC, especially Renee Sheridan, who coordinated much of this show! Also thanks a million to Mark Wood, owner of the Chalet, who has helped me with framing and printing for several years now. Without him, I could not have these shows!

I would guess I had at least 75 originals framed and hung, and lots of prints for sale. Sold at least one bigger original and quite a few prints. Hopefully, more will sell throughout the month.

People hanging out

I met some very interesting people at the show, such as Bernie Imes who is a noted photographer; April Wallace, also a photographer; and many others. I finally got to meet Ali Fratesi and her boyfriend Dustin Pinion, a wonderful young couple who are practicing organic farming. They have apparently liked my art for some time, and finally got a chance to come to a show!

April Wallace (blue dress), me, and Bernie Imes chatting 

Dustin Pinion and Ali Fratesi

Also saw some old friends such as Tiffany Holder, who drove all the way down from the Smokey Mountains, and Susie McGovern, who now lives in North Carolina. Great to see those crazy chics. 

Me and Susie McGovern

Tiffany Holder and me

My high school art teacher, Nelle Elam, and her buddy Fay Fisher were there checking out the scene, as was awesome Starkville artist Liz Johnston.

Fay and Nelle

Some of my running buddies made it over for the show including Brent Wallace, Arash Taheri, Jorge Villarreal, Will Kallfelz, and Chad Anderson! Brent and Chad are also artists, so I think they appreciated the show.

Brent Wallace, trying to figure out what this picture means

Chad Anderson in deep thought, and Greg Sheridan looking like a cool man about town

Audrey Sheridan and Will Kallfelz hamming it up

Arash Taheri. Need I say more?

Jorge Villarreal

Folks seemed to enjoy the art. Many had questions, especially about how I did the color pieces and also how the collaborative works were done. People were super interested in the idea of doing collaborative pieces with other artists from around the world!

Martin Rendon talking with Renee Sheridan

guests viewing some collaborative artwork

Evan O'Donnel

Finally left the show just after 8 pm. Took Joseph and Audrey out to eat at Harvey's before heading home! A nice finish to a great evening.