Rosenzweig Show Hung and Ready to Go!

My show at the Rosenzweig Arts Center is up! Thanks to Renee Sheridan, Mark Huerkamp, and all the others who hung the show. I have quite a few pieces up, somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-80 images. Fortunately, the Arts Center is a large space. I have much of that space occupied for sure though!

Rosenzweig Arts Center Show

Opening in 2 days at 5:30 pm on August 1st (Thursday).

The Mysterious Unseen World Around Us: drawings and mixed media paintings by Joe A. MacGown

Upcoming MacGown Exhibition at Rosenzweig Arts Center in Columbus, MS

Green Number 4

I will be having a one man show at the Rosenzweig Arts Center at 501 Main Street, Downtown Columbus, MS during the month of August, 2013. There will be a reception from 5:30 to 7:00 pm the first Thursday of that month (1 August). Opening, Next Thursday - 5:30-7:00 PM More info is available at http://www.columbus-arts.org/gallery-1/2013-gallery-shows/august-joe-macgown/ The show will include both new and older art. Most original pieces will be available for purchase, and prints of some pieces will be available as well. Of course, that is assuming that you are weird enough to want to buy any of this stuff;) II will also include collaborations that I have done with Bernard Dumaine, Sal Hunter, Joseph Larkin, Ben Tolman, Gromyko Semper, Marcel Bakker, Sander Jansen, Peter Sibrin, Deborah Valentine, and Janelle McKain. These collabs will not be for sale. I don't want to part with them;) I uploaded a video of some of this stuff today on Youtube with weird freaky keyboard in the background composed and recorded by my son Joseph MacGown. Anyway, check out the video!

Upcoming MacGown Exhibition at Rosezweig Arts Center in Columbus, MS

I will be having a one man show at the Rosenzweig Arts Center at 501 Main Street, Downtown Columbus, MS during the month of August, 2013. There will be a reception from 5:30 to 7:00 pm the first Thursday of that month (1 August). More info is available at http://www.columbus-arts.org/gallery-1/2013-gallery-shows/august-joe-macgown/ The show will include both new and older art. Most original pieces will be available for purchase, and prints of some pieces will be available as well. Of course, that is assuming that you are weird enough to want to buy any of this stuff;) Below are a few examples of what you might see at the show.

Things happening, new art finished, more to come.....

Busy as hell almost all of the time, but somehow finding little pockets of time for art and yard work, which is artistic in its own way. I literally have over 30 pieces of art that I am working on here and there. Crazy! Wish I had more time. BUMMER!

Finally finished up a couple of pictures though. The first one I called "Gordenobyte". I did this one with acrylic paint, colored inks, and Rapidograph pens on primed 3/4 inch birch plywood. It started out bigger, 2 X 2 feet, but I completely hated where it was going, so I cut out the part I kind of liked. It was totally abstract to begin with, but gradually, I started to see something as I added detail. Got it too dark in places and thought I ruined it, but was able to work around that a bit.

Gordenobyte, by Joe A. MacGown

It finally started looking like some kind of fish or something. Anyway, I worked on it some, then put it up, stared at it at various times, then would come back and add something here and there. Eventually,  I stopped, and here you go!

Detail of "Gordenobyte"

The second one is called "March Madness". This was a crazy random painting thing. Started with a piece of 2 X 2 feet 1/4 inch birch plywood, which I primed white. Then put some spray paint on there, some random splashes of black and red house paint, pour motor oil on there - stuff like that. I moved the board around to let paint flow, put spray paint on top of the wet house paint, even set the oil on fire at some point. Had to wipe the soot off. Anyway, after it mostly dried, I ended up wiping off the excess oil. Later, I started adding some acrylic paint with a paint brush, basically just pulling out stuff that was already there. Here is the result.

March Madness by Joe MacGown

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. 

West Point Art Walk 2013

folks outside at the Art Walk

Had a great time at the Art Walk in West Point, MS on Saturday (April 13th)! This was a superb idea. Numerous artists were showing off their art inside and in front of various businesses in downtown West Point. I had mine in the office of Gallaway, Chandler, and McKinney Insurance on Commerce Street. Joining me at that business was Brooke Pettit, who does brightly colored painting, and Melody Vydas (http://melodyvydasdesign.com/), who does beautiful glass jewelry. Our host was Lisa Klutts, who also had some of her art for folks to see and/or buy. Lisa is a character for sure and a real go-getter. She seems to have her hands in everything in West Point. As of late, she is the driving force behind the Prairie Arts Festival, which is held every September. West Point recently acknowledged her wonderful work by voting her Citizen of the Year!! 

Lisa Klutts

Brooke Pettit

Yep, Awesome day in West Point. Met some really cool people and saw lots of folks that I already knew. Got some great reactions from people viewing my art and had some interesting conversations. I mostly brought prints, but also had two originals with me. Pretty good day with the prints, definitely worth the trip to West Point.

Me and a cool grandmother

Shelby Steelhammer, Courtney Hill, Eric Merkle, and Devon Bise (guys might not be in the right order)

Gathering of Artists at Rosenzweig Arts Center

The folks over at the Rosenzweig Arts Center (the RAC) in Columbus, MS started up a cool little arts group about a year ago called the "Gathering of Artists". The point of the group is to discuss art, do art, take field trips to see art, come up with ideas for community projects, give demos on various types of art, and anything else art related. How cool is that? They meet once a month at the RAC at 7pm every 4th Thursday. For more info, go to their blog at http://gatheringofartists.wordpress.com/ Even though I am a Starkvillian, I thought I would go check this awesomeness out. 

The ring leader of the group is Columbus artist Renée Sheridan. When I arrived for "gathering", she  welcomed me to the diverse group of local artists. I brought a couple of my pictures to introduce myself and to give them a feeling of who I am. 

Discussing art

The Gathering

Renée had come up with a project for the group tonight, which she called "being human". Her idea was to create an assemblage using a large mirror as the foundation. Each of us were to bring 3 items that held some personal meaning that we would then affix to the mirror. The mirror was chosen so the image of the viewer would be reflected, thereby making the viewer a part of the artwork. Neat idea. After everything dries, the assemblage will hang in the RAC.  For my part, I brought a turtle shell, a racing bib number, and a small collecting jar. Below of some pictures of the project.

glueing stuff

more glueing and placing

detail of the assemblage

shot of the assemblage

Renée brought some crazy glasses and nose mask deal, of which she had painted eyes on the lens of the glasses. This was part of her contribution. She said that she thought it was interesting that only humans wore masks. Before affixing it to the mirror, I got a before and after picture of her without and with the mask. 

Renee Sheridan

Yep, fun night. Ideas flowing. Lots of talented folks. The RAC is a wonderful space for artists to get together. Tonight we were in a large room in the basement. Upstairs is a very large gallery space (where I will be having a one man show in August!). They also have a smaller side gallery for sales of various pieces of art. And, upstairs is a small Auditorium for performances. In fact, I will be back over there tomorrow night at 7 pm to listen to Cary Hudson and Lauire Stirratt  who used to be a major part of the super awesome alternative-country, roots rock band Blue Mountain. Great band. Looking forward to hearing these two perform.  

I admit that as an artist living in Starkville, I am EXTREMELY jealous of what they have going on a the RAC and of the RAC itself!!! How can we get a place like this? I guess it takes some wealthy art partrons or something. Maybe some day.