Upcoming shows and stuff...

I will have art in several exhibitions coming up this spring and summer. Cool. Of course, the first will be the LUSO-American Surrealism of the 21st Century Exhibition at the LuminArte Gallery in Dallas, TX from 22 March through 26 April, 2014. Opening reception will be on 22 March from 5-7 pm. This group show will include some spectacular artists from both the USA and Portugal including France Garrido, Joe MacGown, K.D. Matheson, Shahla Rosa, Steve Smith, and Olga Spiegel from the USA and Victor Lages, Paula Rosa, Francisco Urbano, and Santiago Ribeiro from Portugal. Not sure exactly how this collaboration between these two countries came about, but no doubt about it, there will be some cool artwork present! I am planning on sending a couple of pieces, both mixed media on wood: "Going Green" and "Gordenobyte", 

Going Green

Gordenobyte

Check out the awesome poster that Steve Smith came up for with for the show (below)! I have seen a couple of press releases already. Here is a link to one [link]. 

Hopefully, next on the agenda will be a couple of pieces in the Cotton District Juried Arts Exhibition on 12 April. I submitted three pieces for the show, but you never know if any will be accepted. Depends on the juror, who is a different artist each year. This year's juror is David Lambert, a noted southern artist with a very unique style. Check out his web site: http://davidlambertart.com/  I have had great success the last few times I have entered things in this show, and have even won best of show a time or two including last year with my watercolor and ink piece entitled "Cancer". But, that means absolutely nothing with a different judge each year. You could win something one year, and not even be accepted the next! Its always a great show either way. So, if possible, make plans to come see it and the Cotton District Arts Festival in general. Lots of music, art, and food. Even a 5k race. 

"Cancer", Best of Show winner, 2013 Cotton District Juried Arts Exhibition

The three pieces I entered this year are "Convergence," "Going to the Circus," and "March Madness." The first two are done in a similar style and just recently finished, but March Madness is  quite different. It has a raw, street art feel to. People either freakin' love this picture or pretty much hate it. I like it and it was fun as hell to do. If you don't like it, I automatically put you into that "uncool" category. Sorry. Will do more of this type of painting in the future. But, really, my favorite of the three is "Convergence." Really liked how this turned out. I sure hope it gets in, just so people can see it!

Going to the Circus

Convergence

March Madness

On May 5th, from 5 to 7 pm, Laurie Burton, Joseph H. MacGown (my artistic son), and I will be having a small show and reception in Laurie's studio/gallery on Jackson Street here in Starkville, MS. Will write more about it as the date approaches. I have written about Laurie's works before, and I think this will be a fun little show. It will not be a big one, but we will have some interesting things on display, all of which will be for sale. We plan on having prints and smaller things for sale as well. Not to mention, refreshments! If you want a preview of Laurie's freaky sculpture, she has nine of them on display right now at the Union Gallery on the Mississippi State campus. There will be a reception for this show this Thursday, February 13th from 4 to 6 pm. Come on out! And, oh yeah, they always have a great spread (nothing alcoholic of course, on this campus). 

Sculpture by Laurie Burton

What else? Oh yeah, Alison Buehler of the Mississippi Modern Homestead Center here in Starkville asked me if would like to have a show at their awesome cool place this May/June. Well, yeah! Don't have dates yet, so will update that later. The center is something that she and her husband started a while back, and its pretty cool for this area. Lots of activities, rotating shows, interactive gardens, etc. Read more about the place at: http://msmodernhomestead.com/

Some other cool news.  I will have at least some artwork in an really trippy book called "The Encyclopedia of Fernal Affairs." This full color hardback book scheduled for late 2014 is being done by the Dreams and Divinities group, written by Gromyko Semper, Liba W. Stambollion, and Bruce Rimell, and designed and laid out by  Liba W. Stambollion. This encyclopedia will feature the surreal and fanciful works of 105 amazing international arts as they illustrate the imaginary "Garden of Fernal Delights." Read more about this fantastic book project and see select works by the artists involved at http://www.visionaryartexhibition.com/garden-of-fernal-delights.html

As for myself, I will have at least one work, "Green Silence," and possibly others, in this super trippindicular book. 

Green Silence

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

Savannah College of Art and Design Visit

Took the artsy Joseph kid to the Savannah College of Art and Design to check out the school during SCAD days and partake in a really cool XC recruiting visit set up by the coach. Arrived in town Thursday night and heading out midday Sunday. Man, this place is rocking as far as art goes! The facilities and basic equipment and supplies are just incredible for all of the many art programs offered here. Not, to mention, Savannah is just a really cool town.

at dusk near the SCAD Art Museum

SCAD Admissions Building

Cool buildin 

another cool building

cool church

SCAD also has a pretty good XC team that is only going to get better with the gungho awesome running joker coach guy Patrick Reagan now leading the runners. This hyper little dude is awesome fast and appears to be able to get his runners faster as well! To get the full experience, the XC coach had the recruits running together in various parts of town, hanging out with the team some, and actually spending a couple of nights in a dorm. Pretty cool.

While here, we also toured various facilities such as the painting and drawing building in Alexander Hall and the film and sound design building. Crazy awesome places. The art being done by these students is very good too, which indicates that some decent instructors are here. I like the fact that there was a tremendous diversity of artwork being done. In other words, everything did not look alike.

awesome hanging thing done by a student

Joseph looking at awesome hanging thing

in one of the film studios

film studio

poster design for a movie written and done by students 

getting a spiel about the wonderful film dept. by a former MSU grad

Editing classroom populated by IMacs

Student art

Lobby of Alexander Hall

Light Bulb Sculpture

corridor in ceramics wing

corridor with ceramic art examples by students 

one of the ceramics rooms  

one of the print making rooms

one of many hallways full of art in the ginormous Alexander Hall, which used to be some kind of warehouse

A beautiful print about 20 X 30 inches. I cannot convey in words how beautiful this piece was!

student art

Student sculpture (wood with bandaids)

large painting by student 

more art in another hallway

cool painting! 

paintings

hallway with art

for those who like the use of white space, check this out

nice expressive portrait 

large pen drawing

some Asian styled art

more student art

student art 

Asian landscapes

We even experienced the college dining experience, eating at two different cafeterias: The Hive and J. O. s. Both served excellent food with healthy choices such as vegetarian and organic selections being the norm. With on staff chefs, some rather tasty entree's were served as well. For hungry runner dudes, the fact that these were all you could eat buffets was an added bonus.

Anyway, its a long drive to Savannah, but a pretty cool place!

Some folks visit my studio

A couple of art folks came out to my house and studio Saturday morning to check out some of my art and maybe get an idea of how I do things. And, Joseph, who has been really getting into the art scene lately, also had some trippy stuff and ideas to show. The two visitors were Laurie Burton, local artist and Tania Mottos, a young lady from El Salvador who is doing an internship here in Starkville. Joseph and I visited Laurie's studio last weekend, so she seemed pretty excited to be checking out our space and art. 

After apparently driving down a couple of wrong roads, which is not unusual when people visit us for the first time due to strange intertwining country roads in the area, they arrived. And in a fancy car! Convertible Camaro. Don't see many of those out on these gravel roads. It was very cool. I got Joseph to take a picture of me in front of it!

Laurie's fancy car!

I started the tour with my house, so they could check some art that I had made using the local fossil shells and cedar, and also some of my collaborative work that I have done with other artists from around the world. Laurie was really digging the fossil shell mosaics, and you could see the wheels turning in her head. Laurie makes really cool mosaics with glass and other things.

As we headed outside, I showed them my handmade cedar benches and carved tikis. Fairly cool in a basic primitive way and quite different from the art that I typically do. We finally made it to the studio, where both Joseph and I showed them some of our art and talked about some of our methods. We both like to explore different media and techniques. Sometimes the results are pretty good, sometimes, we just make a mess!

Joseph, Laurie, and Tania - one of my "Fish" paintings in the center

Laurie, me, and Tania - one of Joseph's collages at right

Looking at stuff