Cotton District Arts Festival 2013

 Another super nice Cotton District Arts Festival this year. Beautiful, beautiful day! Started out in upper 30's as Joseph and I showed up to run the Old Cotton Mill 5k that morn, but was in the mid 60's by afternoon. Joseph was the overall winner in the race, and I was the 2nd overall male in the race. We won awesome sweet pottery for race awards. Pottery was designed specially for the race by Robert Long, MSU art professor extraordinaire! See more about the race on my running blog site at http://joemacgownrunning.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/old-cotton-mill-5k-2013/

So, the day started well. As we were milling about for the running awards, we got to hear the exquisite classical guitar music of Stephanie Jackson! 

Following the running awards ceremony, I headed to the juried arts awards ceremony at 9:30 AM. I was not overly optimistic about my chances in the juried show this year because there were some very nice pieces in the show. But, to my surprise, my piece entitled "Cancer" won best of show! Cool, cool! The award comes with a nice check. Sweet. I was especially surprised because "Cancer" was my least favorite of the three I that I entered, which also included "Mayan Awakening" and "Inquisitive Fish". Apparently, others agreed, as I had 3 folks interested in buying "Mayan Awakening", and indeed, by lunch time, it was sold! Good day!  This year's juror was talented painter Nan Cunningham (www.nancunningham.com). Here is some info about Nan that I grabbed from the Starkville Arts Council web site. [An Auburn University graduate and faculty member of Arrowmont School, Tennessee, John C.Campell, North Carolina and The Alabama Art Education Center, Cunningham is in high demand for her creative workshops and expressive presentations. She happily shares the knowledge gathered in over 50 years before the easel and judges art competitions throughout the region. Jean Cocteau expressed Nan's philosophy nicely, "Art is not a past time but a priesthood."]

Mayan Awakening - SOLD!

My piece, "Cancer" - Best of Show

I thought the show was strong this year, and there were several pieces that I really liked. One (of many) was a very impressionistic painting of and old barn, which was framed in barn wood. Another was a relief sculpture type deal with raised cedar panels that represented a monarch butterfly wing. Very nice. I have done some wood/fossil shell mosaics, and this made me want to do more with that. 

my Inquisitive Fish below a beautiful painting of a barn

cool butterfly 

Joseph with a couple of friends at the juried show

After the awards ceremony, I headed to one of the stages to hear Joseph sing in the Starkville High Choir. Man, they sounded great! Lots of talented singers! Good music abounded at the festival with the likes of Bill Cooke and many others. Multiple stages were set up, so I could not hear everything, but I definitely enjoyed what I heard. 

some of the SHS choir

With the festival being held in conjunction with Super Bulldog Weekend, and with the beautiful weather, there were thousands of attendees, and many seemed to be buying. Artsits with booths did very well today.

a view of the festival

We hung all afternoon looking at art and listening to music and poetry. Joseph helped man a booth for a club he is in called Operation Smile. They are raising money for cleft palette research. Members of the club had made hand crafted gift items, such as magnets, bookmarks, and other similar items. They raised quite a bit of money! 

Operation Smile - Mrs. Wilson, Joseph, Julie MacGown, and Emily Damm

After the festival, we headed to the MSU Amphitheater to listen to a band we like called Cage the Elephant. I saw a couple of my high school classmates, Jeanne Butler and Patty George (now Permenter) who were in town for the Super Bulldog Weekend. Hung out with them, and  several thousand college aged students. Joseph quickly found his friends and I did not see any more of him during the concert. After three early bands, Cage the Elephant performed. Very cool. Lots of energy. That singer dude was a trip! Danced around like a leprechaun on crack. Love their music, and aside from the several thousand drunk or otherwise affected students, it was a a great concert! 

Great day! Lots of art and music from sunup to almost midnight. 

New Art from Joe, "Cancer"

I just finished a new painting/drawing.  It is entitled "Cancer".  I started the piece by applying watercolor washes to a piece of cold press illustration board, the nice thick stuff. Then, started adding detail with a Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pen. Came back with some colored pencil, and some more pen. The picture was originally 24 X 30 inches, but I did not like some areas, so cropped it to the final size of 15 X 15 inches. This may sound crazy, but it was not really unusual for me, as I have done this same thing many times. Sometimes, the entire image just does not work for me, but there may be something salvageable. Anyway, in this case, I thought it was appropriate that I cut away a large portion of a drawing called Cancer. To me, this was similar to the way in which we often try to treat cancer, continuously cutting it away, but often not getting it all. Maybe this was a dark topic, I don't know. Many people tell me that my art is dark, but I don't usually feel that way about it. However, this one is not really happy and is about the insidious growth of cancer both physically in our bodies and metaphorically in our society.

Cancer, by Joe MacGown

Some people have told me that they think the "growths" in this image look rather happy, instead of appearing to be devious, insidious, angry creatures. Now that I think about it, if cancer could be personified, would that being (or creature) feel bad about doing what it does? Probably not. Do parasites feel bad about feeding on something that nourishes them? Do they feel at all? We as humans often eat meat, and even express feelings of happiness when devouring a juicy steak. Does that mean we are bad people? Or, does that simply mean we are doing what is natural to us. So, if cancer cells were thoughtful living creatures, why not show them as being happy, or show them with various mixed emotions.  I was not feeling particularly unhappy when drawing this. And, I was not thinking about cancer at the time I was drawing this. However, after I was about halfway through, it suddenly came to me that this could be interpreted as a a cancerous type growth. In fact, the way this drawing spread across the board was cancer-like in its movement. For us humans, as the recipient of a cancerous growth, there can be no worse form of pervasive evil. Cancer strikes down the weak to the strong, with no rhyme or reason. My father died of cancer a few years ago. He lived with me at the time, and I saw first hand what it does to a person. Interestingly, he was an artist, scientist, and musician. Even at the end, he was taking cells from his body to examine under a high powered compound microscope in vain attempts to find some answer.  I guess in the end, this image should be perceived as slightly dark, at least from our human vantage point.

An earlier state of Cancer, before I had cut and cropped large areas away.