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

Paul Buckley, abstract artist, sculptor, and art collector extradinaire

The other day, I wrote about a visit to Laurie Burton's studio, which was sweet, as was she. But, Laurie is only one of many local super cool and very talented art folks in our Golden Triangle region.  This place is littered with talent. I have a theory that if you knocked on any random door, you would likely find a person who has some sort of artistic, musical, or literary talent. Amazing.

After we left Laurie's, I dropped Joseph off somewhere and headed home. I ending taking a different route home due to where I dropped him off. I realized that this route would take me right past the home of Paul Buckley. So, what the heck, I called him and asked if I could stop by and check out his studio and art. No notice or anything, other than about 3 minutes. Paul answered the phone and was like, "man, come on over..." Three minutes later, I was parked in front of Paul's awesome cabin like home. The place is set in the woods and has a porch completely surrounding it!

Paul is a scientist by day, but the rest of the time, he is an artist. He paints, he sculpts, he creates amazing assemblages from found objects, and creates various other types of art. Paul also loves art and collects a bunch of it. His house is its own unique art gallery. In fact, we don't have a local gallery that would come close to what he has in his home! Great artist and great supporter of the arts.

Cool sculpture on Paul's porch done by another artist

some of Paul's acquisitions

Paul's place is almost overwhelming. Its so full of art, you don't know where to begin. Simply amazing.  Colorful 2D images, cool sculptures with lots of nice vertical elements, things hanging from the ceiling, stained glass, bits of random pieces of "junk" that are now part of the show and/or destined to become a part of some piece of artwork, and colorful photographs laying about. When I arrived, he had some trippy music playing in the background. Man, this place! Freakin awesome. An artist's and art lover's paradise.

A view of the main living area, with artwork everywhere.

If you don't know Paul, you should find a way to meet him. This guy, I don't know, sixty something years old, is like a hyper mountain goat or something. Moving all the time, thinking, creating, wishing he had a thousand more years to create. I tried to take a picture of this trippy mugg, but was able to only get a somewhat blurry image, because he is always in movement! 

Paul on his deck

Looking at Paul's works reveals his passion for art. He pours his soul into his work. If you really look at his work, you can see his ups and downs in life. And this guy is a manic artist for sure. Although he sells his fair share of paintings, he has stacks of new ones ready to go. 

Paul's studio, with his works on the walls

Paul's abstract paintings are full of passion, intensity, and energy! Color! Movement! It is easy to picture this skinny, bearded joker in his element slamming down paint, expressing his innermost emotions while listening to wonderful music. Beautiful! His 3D pieces are equally fascinating. Many of these are assemblages are made of found or junk material. Sometimes, the components of his pieces have significant personal meaning to him. I won't elaborate to what those meanings may be, but they are ever present. Here is a nice example of one of these pieces. 

One of Paul's sculptures

As of late, Paul has been working on collaborative projects with some other local artists including the likes of Patrick Tranum and Libby Pollard. He showed me a mosaic piece that he and Libby had done together, and a large 3D sculpture collab that he and Patrick had completed. Hopefully, I can do an collaboration of some type with him one day. 

Paul uses any method possible to get his artistic thoughts down. I noticed several really cool pieces that were combinations of painting and collage. Very effective pieces. Here is one below.  

One of Paul's collages

Man, what an awesome Saturday afternoon of art in Starkville! Yeah, I guess I could have driven to New Orleans or Memphis and visited some crazy art gallery, but it sure was nice to find this kind of talent and passion right here in Starkville!