Starkville Area Arts Council Holiday Showcase 2014 –HUGE SUCCESS

Last night from 5:30-7 PM we had the opening reception for the 2014 Holiday Showcase exhibition here in Starkville, MS. The event was again held at the Greater Starkville Development Partnership office, which the Starkville Area Arts Council uses for gallery space currently. We featured a diverse array of works by local artists. Attendance at last night's reception was SPECTACULAR! Wonderful! Thanks to all who came out. Wall to wall people. This was by far the largest attendance I have ever seen at a show at this venue. And, I believe we sold at least 10 pieces of art! Stephanie Jackson performed amazing classical guitar music in the background, which really lent a beautiful musical atmosphere to the evening. Erin Davies did a wonderful job decorating the area and taking care of food for the reception. Erin even invited some lovely sorority girls clad in festive red dresses to greet people as they came in.  That was a nice touch I thought. And, the winning design of the 2015 Cotton District Arts Festival Poster was unveiled with the winner being Paige Cannon.

Greeters

This was the first show with the new co-chairs (me and Briar Jones) for arts in public places (AIPP) here in Starkville. One of our goals was to shake things up a bit, as shows the last few years had become "stale" with relatively poor attendance, generally with artists and members of the AIPP committee being the main attendees. Obviously, that greatly defeats the point of having a reception for an art show. So, basically we wanted to invite a wider variety of artists and do a better job about getting the word out there to the public. Inviting more and more artists will give us the ability to be more selective when picking art out for shows, making it more competitive and pushing artists to only submit quality works. In this area, we are headed in the right direction I think. Also, we are now requiring earlier deadlines for submissions so we can have images available for promotional use. This is critical. And, I believe this was key to the huge success of last night's reception. We had material to post on blogs, Facebook event pages, Twitter feeds, Google, for newspapers, mailing cards, posters, and other material. Lots of folks helped such as Mark Wood at Chalet Arts (printing of cards and posters, framing lots of the art), Erin Davies and Jim Turner, who both helped me distribute posters and cards in the community, and the entire AIPP committee who helped with the reception and the hanging of the show. Thanks to everyone who helped put this fantastic show and reception together.

Great show. And, a learning experience. The next ones will be even better. Enjoy these photos from the show.

The Garden of Fernal Delights Launch - May 30th 2015

Great news! As I mentioned in a previous post, I will have three pieces of my art in upcoming book entitled "The Garden of Fernal Delights." The book will include the artwork of 114 international artists! My pieces include "Green Silence", "Gordenobyte", and the illustration for the chapter heading for the "K" section of the book. Cool! The Fernal genesis is the brainchild of Gromyko Semper, and the book concept and design is by Liba W. Stambollion, and it is curated by Liba Stambollion and Gromyko Semper. 

Green Silence, by Joe A. MacGown 

"K" by Joe A. MacGown

Gordenobyte, by Joe A. MacGown

Additionally, some of the works will be including in a traveling show that will open at Bash Gallery in San Francisco on May 30th, 2015 and run through June 30th, 2015. After the USA it will move on to Asia. Keep posted for the listing of future shows. The launching exhibit includes 36 of the 114 artists involved in the book project. It is logistically too difficult to exhibit work from the entire Fernal family.  Nonetheless, as the shows unfolds, pieces will sell, new pieces will be added.  It will evolve and even take on new artists from the group.

Guess what! I am one of the 36 artists will have artwork in this show! Way cool. Unfortunately, my piece "Gordenbyte" will not be included in the show because it sold this year at Luminarte Gallery in Dallas, TX at the opening of the LUSO-American Surrealism 2014 exhibition featuring the works various surreal artists from the USA and Portugal. Of course, I am happy to have sold it:) The show will feature these 36 artists as well as video jockeys, musicians, and various performers. A carnival is planned as part of the show! What? Yes. Crazy. 

The night of the opening there will be the book launch of the limited edition Encyclopedia of Fernal Affairs. This book is 250 pages and lavishly illustrated and written by the 114 artists. It both co-creates and catalogues the Fernal Garden of Delights. Artists will be present for book signings. I wrote sections about the art I submitted, as did some of the other artists. This book will be awesome. Everyone should buy this book. Seriously. Read more about the Fernal Art project at: http://www.visionaryartexhibition.com/garden-of-fernal-delights.html

Poster Design for the Fernal Delights Project

Artist List for the San Francisco Launch
(look up these artists on Google, you will be amazed by their works)

Amanda Sage

Bette Burgoyne

Brigid Marlin

Bruce Rimell

Carol Prusa

Carrie Ann Baade

Charles Wish

David Heskin & Aloria Weaver.

Dengkoy Miel

Eli TiunineErnst Fuchs

Gabriela Garza Padilla

Gaia Orion

Gromyko Semper

Hanna Faith Yata

Hector Pineda

Heidi Taillfer

Iain Whittaker

Joe MacGown

Kathileen Schmieder

Leeroy New

Leslie Ditto

Liba Waring Stambollion

Madeline Von Foerster

Mark Henson

Martina Hoffman

Maura Holden

Michel Bassot

Mike Davis

Otto Rapp

Patrick McGrath Muniz

Sandra Yagi

Sergey Tyukanov

Steven Kenny

Vladimir Ovtcharow

Wessi

Zeljko Djurovic

Starkville Area Arts Council Holiday Showcase coming up! 6 November 2014

Only a couple of weeks until our Starkville Area Arts Council Holiday Showcase group exhibition opens.  We will put the show up on November 3rd at 5 PM, but the opening will be at 5:30 PM on Thursday November 6th. That is the day you should come out! Wine, refreshments, art, and we will even have the amazing classical guitarist Stephanie Jackson performing!!! Of course, this is a great opportunity to meet the artists involved and to purchase some art before Christmas!

Butterfly Flowers by Mike Box

We have a diverse group of talented artists committed to showing their works with art ranging from stained glass to photography to traditional oil paintings. We will also run the range of styles from surreal to traditional still life paintings.

Flower painting by Kathryn Ramsey

"Posse" by Laurie Burton

Artists who are planning on exhibiting include: 

• Mike Box - awesome painter dude!
• Laurie Burton - trippy surrealist and realist
• Libby Cagle - abstract artist, beautiful color
• Linda Cambre - well known landscape painter
• Kathyrn Davis - beautiful stained glass artist
• Walter Diehl - photographer extraordinaire
• Fay H. Fisher - lovely pastel artist
• Wanda Hunter - awesome painter
• Briar Jones - does beautiful, fresh watercolor landscapes
• Dylan Karges - does awesome pastel paintings and intriguing ceramic works
• Kat Lawrence - superb photograher! 
• Duane Lyon - builder of cool stuff
• Joe MacGown - trippy surreal dude
• Michelle Neumann  - maker of amazing ceramic pieces
• Kathryn Ramsey - does beautiful colored pencil works, especially flowers
• Bonnie Renfroe - great ceramic artist! also does some wonderful paintings

Photo of an African lion by Kat Lawrence (she photographed this in the wild in Africa!)

Recaps of Recent Shows

Endangered Visions Exhibition in the Philippines 

Well, I sent one picture to international exhibition entitled "Endangered Visions" in Manila, Philippines. The amazingly talented and prolific Filipino artist Gromyko Semper curated this show and invited me to participate. My submission was called "Going to the Circus." It sounds like the show was a huge success and was well received. Lots of top level artists were involved, and I feel pretty good about being asked to participate. I probably should have sent more than one piece, but its pretty expensive to ship art and a bit of a gamble. As a result, I tend to ship smaller pieces such as this one. Fortunately it made it! I would have liked it more if it had sold, but from here I believe it and some others will be traveling to another venue. So, some folks in the Philippines and elsewhere got to see some art from a Mississippi artist. Thats what its all about really.

"Going to the Circus"

A few of the many extraordinary works at the Manila show

A picture of "Going to the Circus" in Manila

Starkville Area Arts Council Abstract Show

I had three pictures in a local abstract show here in Starkville as I mentioned in previous posts, one of which sold! Cool. In fact, I believe 4 or 5 pieces in the show sold. That is great news for our arts group. I hope future shows do even better.

Erin standing in front of the wall with a couple of my works (far right)

My abstract piece that sold!

The Meridian Museum of Art BiState Competition

I entered 3 pieces in the annual BiState Art Competition held at the Meridian Museum of Art in Meridian, MS this year, but only one, "Blue Fish", was accepted. I was somewhat surprised as it was the weakest piece in my opinion compared to the other two, "Pagan Totem Goddess" and "Convergence." In fact, "Convergence" won best of show and first place in the painting drawing division at the most recent Cotton District Arts Festival here in Starkville. Go figure. Anyway, sometimes I think it comes down to which one reduces the best for submissions to these shows, as well as juror preference. However, in this case, if you had these pieces side by side I think it would be hard to pick "Blue Fish" as the best one. Its cool, don't get me wrong, but honestly it was just a little quick study I did. Well, it did not win anything apparently, but, it sold for $500. Funny.

Blue Fish