Friday, April 17, 2015

Recent Local Shows successful at EMCC and MSU


"Secret Messages Revealed"

Had a great time at the reception on March 26 for my one man show entitled "Secret Messages Revealed" at the East Mississippi Community College campus in Scooba, MS. I enjoy talking to students about my art and this was no exception. I was actually a part of their "Pine Grove Arts Festival" celebration, in fact, I was an attraction almost! Cool. The art staff there at EMCC, Terry Cherry and Lisa Spinks, are really great folks who have stirred up a love of arts for the students there. An additional perc for doing the show was a guaranteed sale! Yep. They purchased my piece entitled "Inquisitive Fish." A nice one for sure.
Inquisitive Fish

Here are a few pictures of the reception. Notice the great frames! All done at Chalet Arts in Starkville, MS. Thanks!

















"Dreams and Delusions" 

Just this week, we had the opening at MSU for a small show called Dreams and Delusions, which featured me, Laurie Burton, and MSU student Ben Grace. This was only up for a couple of weeks or so, but lots of folks got to see it as it was held in the MSU Student Union Gallery, a place typically chock full of students. However, the reception itself was quite small, and largely consisted of people we invited on our FaceBook event page or personally invited. This was quite a contrast to the show at EMCC in which basically every art student in the department came to the opening. Very few MSU art students showed up, which I found disappointing. In general, I have found this to be this case here in Starkville, with MSU art students typically not attending shows in which they have no stake. We did have some interior design students come though, which was cool. Despite the low attendance, I still think it was a good show. The refreshments were very tasty! And, I got some of my runner buds to come by telling them about the free food. To be fair, though, I believe they enjoyed the art as well! We probably had less than 20 pieces up total, with Ben having 3 pieces, Laurie 4, and I maybe had about ten smallish pieces. This gallery space is small, but quite nice, and this is pretty good spot for small shows. But, guess what? Its not how always important how many people come to a reception, but rather, who those people are. As it turned out, I sold a third of what I had in there...YAY. 

Colten McMickens and Matt Thorne, two of our Entomology Museum Crew
Destine Lalas and Thomas Cermack
Ozzie Rendon (a long time friend and huge fan of my work) and Brent Funderburk, MSU art professor 
Joseph St. John, excited about something!
Sally Laughlin, looking at my piece called "Scavenger." She wanted to buy it, but someone else had just got it! 
Ben Grace, with Ozzie and Brent
Michelle Neumann and her daughter 
Jim Turner and Brent  Funderburk

Here are some photos I took of some of the pictures before the show got going. As with the show at Scooba, almost everything in this show was framed by Chalet Arts in Starkville! Thanks guys! And thanks to Emilie Cravens for letting us have this small show in the gallery!

one of Ben's awesome paintings
Bzzz, by MacGown
Chance Meeting by MacGown (above) and a 3d piece by Burton
Another Ben Grace Painting
Green Thing, painting by Ben
small studies by MacGown
March Madness by MacGown 
A Mermaid who has had a rough life! Nice painting by Laurie 
Mr. Manhattan find a Life, by MacGown
crazy fish picture by MacGown
a beautiful acrylic painting and small 3D piece, both by Laurie Burton

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Dreams and Divinities Exhibition, Dallas, TX –recap of reception

First of all, thanks  again to Liba Stambollian for organizing this fantastic finale to the traveling "Dreams and Divinities" exhibition and to Matt Anzak, director of LuminArte Gallery in Dallas, TX for hosting the show.  


(photo by Patrick Muni)
This show, entitled “Dreams and Divinities Equinox,” opened on March 21st in celebration of the Spring Equinox. The fantastic art was a blend of  Visionary Art, Surrealism, and Fantastic Realism. Pieces were inspired by cultural and spiritual references, Sacred Geometry, elements of nature, explorations into the subconscious mind, visions, dreams, and fantasy. 

The list of artists in this show included some super talented and well known folks from around the world including Liba Waring Stambollion, Peter Gric, Andrew Gonzalez, Joe MacGown, Martina Hoffmann, Emma Watkinson, Otto Rapp, Adam Scott Miller, Cody Seekins, Patrick McGrath Muniz, Sandra Yagi, Bruce Rimell, Raul Casillas, Miguel Tio, David Heskin and Aloria Weaver, Chris Dyer, Erich Moffit, Hector Pineda, Carrie Ann Baade, Zeljko Djurovic, Roku Sasaki, Elisabeth Slettnes, Android Jones, Marcus McAllister, Gabriela Garza Padilla, Martin Stensaas and Sunny Strasburg. 

I made the quick trip to Dallas with another Starkville artist, Laurie Burton, and although we were there only a short time, we greatly enjoyed the show and meeting some artists and attendees. We started out Saturday by visiting some other galleries and antique stores in the vicinity of Luminarte Gallery. One of the private galleries we found was owned by French artist Jacques Lamy (www.jacqueslamy.com). This guy was super awesome and had some wonderful pieces of art from abstract to almost surreal. Really enjoyed talking with him and seeing his artwork!! 


Jacques Lamy!

Work by Jacques 
Works by other artist at Lamy's gallery
Just a door or so down we found another beautiful gallery (or two or three). Check this stuff out! A small sampling of stuff in the Design District of Dallas. 








But, back to Dreams and Divinites! We arrived at the reception at 7 PM and met the owner Jamie Labar and director Matt Anzak. Super nice folks! Directly after that we met two other artists with works in the show, Patrick McGrath Muniz and Andrew Gonzalez. These guys are ridiculously amazing artists, both well respected worldwide, and it was wonderful to meet them both in person. And, they were humble genuine guys who just happen to be incredible artists. 
Patrick, Andrew, and me in front of Patrick's painting

Patrick and his wife



I really enjoyed this show. There were some similarities of styles with some of the "visionary" works, but in general, most of the artists were very unique. All of the artists were at the top of their game with technique beyond reproach. I even felt like my works fit in nicely to the blend of styles and genres. This was a good show for me to attend in that I was able to observe the reactions of viewers seeing my work side by side with artists who are known and respected worldwide. The response I received was overwhelmingly positive. I now feel like I definitely fit in with this crowd, even though my art is quite different than any there. It did not hurt me that I already had some pieces in the gallery. As a result, I actually had more pieces present than any other artist, with five total. Matt Anzak seized on this and actually placed my four larger pictures in a prime spot, where they received a lot of attention. Thanks Matt!


Two of my pieces, Ossiforestation and Convergence
Two more of my pieces, As Above, So Below and Zabulation
The piece on the left is mine, "Going Green" is the title


Here are a few pictures from the show! Enjoy! If possible, check this show out in person at Luminarte Gallery on 1727 E. Levee Street, Dallas, TX. It will be up for a couple of months. 



Liba Stabollian's work!
Gorgeous painting by Roku Sasaki
Luis Tamani Amasifuen's painting!
top piece by Michael Divine and bottom by Otto Rapp
3D work by Magi Calhoun
Martina Stensaas (left), Luist Masifuen (middle) and Martina Hoffman (right)
Aloria Weaver (left) and David Heskin (right)
Kathi Schmieder, Andrew Gonzalez, Patrick Muniz, and Kathi's Husband
Sandy Yagi (top) and Erich Moffitt (bottom)

Work by Zeljko Djurovic
Gorgeous works by Raul Casillas Roma. Very detailed and full of color and things.  

Amazing work by Carrie Anne Bade

Zeljko Djurovic and Martina Stensaas

Chris Dyer and Bruce Rimmell
Andrew Gonzalez's works 
Marcus McAllister
Visionary self portrait by Adam Scott Miller
A wonderful painting by Patrick McGrath Muniz
Andrew Gonzalez talking with fellow visionary artist Greg Pettit
A beautiful digital/collage work by Andrew Jones
Cody Seekin's interesting painting on the left and of course Roku's work on the right
An intriguing work by Miguel Tio
Work by Bruce Rimmell
Andrew Gonzalez 

Martina Hoffman
Otto Rapp's piece
Another gorgeous piece by Andrew Gonzalez
Chris Dyer did this crazy piece