"Subconscious Meandering" Reception June 2nd, 5-7pm

The reception for my exhibition entitled "Subconscious Meandering" is less than one week away! The reception will be held next Thursday, June 2nd from 5-7 pm at the Depot Gallery on the Mississippi State University Campus. The gallery is located above the Welcome Center in the Barnes and Nobles Building beside the Football Stadium. The show will be up all summer from 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday from 3 May to 31 August 2011.

Some of the artwork included will be collaborative works that I have done with several artists from around the world including Bernard Dumaine, Marcel Bakker, Debra Valentine, Gromyko Semper, Janelle McKain, Ben Tolman, Joseph Larkin, Sally Hunter, and Peter Sibrin.

If you can make the reception, great, if not, the show will be up all summer.

A nice write-up by Steve Nalley about the exhibit was in yesterday's issue of the Starkville Daily News : http://starkvilledailynews.com/node/5823

More info about the show: http://www.visit.msstate.edu/gallery/

and on the MSU Art Dept. Blog: http://caad.msstate.edu/wpmu/artnews/2011/05/

"Lithophillic Hallucinations", collaboration with Filipino artist Gromyko Semper and me.

Joe MacGown Art Exhibition -Depot Gallery, MSU

My exhibition entitled "Subconscious Meandering" featuring some of my surreal drawings and paintings is up and running at the Depot Gallery on the Mississippi State University Campus. The gallery is located above the Welcome Center in the Barnes and Nobles Building beside the Football Stadium. The show will be up all summer from 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday from 3 May to 31 August 2011.

There will be an opening reception on Thursday, 2 June 2011 from 5 PM to 7 PM. Come join me for some refreshments while you view my somewhat strange artwork! Feel free to ask questions about how and why I draw the stuff I do.

Some of the artwork included will be collaborative works that I have done with several artists from around the world including Bernard Dumaine, Marcel Bakker, Debra Valentine, Gromyko Semper, Janelle McKain, Ben Tolman, Joseph Larkin, Sally Hunter, and Peter Sibrin.

If you can make the reception, great, if not, the show will be up all summer.

More info about the show: http://www.visit.msstate.edu/gallery/

and on the MSU Art Dept. Blog: http://caad.msstate.edu/wpmu/artnews/2011/05/

Cotton District 5k

Had a great day at the Cotton District Arts Festival in Starkville, MS yesterday! As I have the last few years, I submitted some artwork to the Juried show. I have had pretty good success with this show the last five years, especially considering that a different juror judges the show each year. This year, my piece entitled "Manic Depression" won first place in the Drawing/Mixed Media category!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to view my artwork, and the other art in the show.

Joe MacGown Art Exhibition -Depot Gallery, MSU

I will be having an exhibition entitled "Subconscious Meandering" featuring some of my surreal drawings and paintings at the Depot Gallery on the Mississippi State University Campus. The gallery is located above the Welcome Center in the Barnes and Nobles Building beside the Football Stadium. The show will be up all summer from 8 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday from 3 May to 31 August 2011.

Some of the artwork included will be collaborative works that I have done with several artists from around the world including Bernard Dumaine, Marcel Bakker, Debra Valentine, Gromyko Semper, Janelle McKain, Ben Tolman, Joseph Larkin, Sally Hunter, and Peter Sibrin.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, 2 June 2011 from 5 PM to 7 PM.

If you can make the reception, great, if not, the show will be up all summer.

More info about the show: http://www.visit.msstate.edu/gallery/

Cotton District Arts Festival 2011

The 2011 Cotton District Arts Festival will be held tomorrow (April 23rd), and it looks like it will be a pleasant day for it! I entered 3 pieces of artwork in the juried show and all 3 were accepted! The three I entered were Manic Depression, Vent, and Out of the Fold. Hopefully, one or more of these will win something in the show! This year's juror is Terry Cherry, an accomplished watercolorist and art teacher extraordinare at East Mississippi Community College in Scooba, MS. If you get a chance, come by the festival and check out the juried show, which will be held in the Visual Arts Building on University Drive. Awards will be presented at 9:30, but the arts festival will be all day!

Manic Depression 48 X 48 inches

Out of the Fold, 19 X 24 inches

Vent, 20 X 20 inches

Energy Art Show in Russia and new collaboration

The Energy Art Movement recently had a competition and all gold medal finalists get to have their pieces exhibited in the City Exhibition Center "Dialog" in Novgorod, Russia.


I only entered one picture in the competition, a piece I did a number of years ago entitled "Infinity" and was lucky enough to be a gold medalist. Based on various feedback, web stats, etc., this piece has proven to be my most viewed image on the web. Unfortunately, due to the ridiculously high mailing costs by Fed Ex or UPS, I decided not to send the original to Russia. However, I did send a high quality print that I matted and framed with plexiglass. This show presents a wonderful opportunity to show my work side by side with other artists doing some very exciting work. For more info about the Energy Art Movement, visit their web site at: http://www.energyartmovement.org/

Infinity

In other cool news, I just finished up a collaborative drawing with Marcel Bakker. Marcel in an awesome artist! He started the drawing by doing the top portion, then covering it with card stock except for a one inch strip. He then mailed it to me and I completed the bottom section. I entitled the piece "Garden of Unearthly Delights". You can see more of Marcel's work at: http://mbkkr.deviantart.com/

Garden of Unearthly Delights

Collaborations and new artwork

Been working on a collaboration with Marcel Bakker the last couple of weeks. I am drawing the bottom half of a drawing of which he did the top half. He covered the top half with paper only leaving an inch wide strip for me to work with. We call this type of collaboration an Exquite Corpse. I started doing these with some other artists a couple of years ago when I joined a club on the Deviant Art web site called "The Exquisite Corpse". This particular drawing is being done in ink and is about 11 x 17 inches (more or less). When I finish, I will upload the final image. The last two we did were colored images. I started one, and he started the other. I painted an abstract painting, very simple, then scanned it, and emailed it to Marcel. He then used a pen to draw a picture based on the color patterns. Since it was an Exquisite Corpse collaboration, he only drew one side, then covered it except for an inch wide strip and mailed it to me. I finished it up, took off the paper, then got to see the final image. We called this one "The Abyss of the Mind".

The Abyss of the Mind

Marcel also did a color image, emailed to me, and I did half, then mailed him the other half so he cold finish it up. Both of these two images turned out very nicely. In fact, one of them, "Just West of Eden", received a Daily Deviation on the Deviant Art web site and has already been viewed over 15,000 times on that site alone.

Just West of Eden

I got a better image of one of my latest pieces. I decided to call it "Vent", as in, the main figure appears to be "venting" or relieving himself of some sort of physical stress. This particular one is 24 x 24 inches in size. I did this one on birch plywood that I had primed with white latex paint. I then applied thinned acrylic paint. After it dried, I used a pen to pull out detail. I decided to leave some areas with no ink on this one.

Vent