Friday, June 25, 2010

have art, will travel

It's been two weeks since I last posted, but once again, I have a good reason. Terry and I did a little traveling and went to three Phish shows in the span of six days. The shows were great, and we were able to sneak in some time with friends and family as well. I knew we were going to be gone for a while, and I didn't like the idea of being away from artwork for so long...normally I just give myself a break from my daily time in the studio whenever we go away, but usually we're only gone a couple of days at the most (and I try to make up for it the best I can before we go away and after we get back). This time, I decided to try something new: I brought along some watercolor pencils and a little sketchbook. I have had these pencils for years and I only recently picked them up to work on Tim's tattoo design (they had been sitting in a drawer in my studio before then). I had the impulse to pack them the night before we left, so I followed it...and I am glad I did. It was great to be able to whip out a quick drawing or two each day while we were gone, and since things were so portable, I could do it in the car while we were stuck in traffic or while waiting for dinner to be ready at my sister's house. I even did a little sketch of the clouds overhead while we were in the parking lot before one of the Phish shows, and now I am working on a painting of that very drawing. I think this may change the way I approach going away for the weekend!

Friday, June 11, 2010

tattoo you

My friend Tim is a nurse in Ohio. We were very close during junior high and high school, then we lost touch (the way many old friends do), and we've recently reconnected through Facebook (again, the way many old friends do). We went through an interesting period of our lives together and I am grateful for it. I can still picture us walking around the suburban streets of Long Island with our spiked hair, our respective dads' military-issue jackets (mine was Army, his was Air Force), our combat boots/Converse All-Star high tops, our new wave/punk t-shirts, our black nail polish. We must have been quite a sight because we turned more than a few heads. We'd spend our time talking, laughing, listening to music, doing all the things teenagers do...we were just in slightly different packaging from everyone else (and that was part of the fun).

Tim has quite a few tattoos and he asked me if I would design one for him; he said it would be more meaningful to him to have the work of someone who had been important in his life, rather than just having his usual tattoo artist work something up. I was extremely flattered and more than a little nervous about the prospect. Designing a tattoo is something I had never done before. Tim said he wanted something based on "The Dance of the Pleiades", which I had to admit I wasn't familiar with. He emailed me an image to use as a jumping off point, and we spoke on the phone to bounce around some ideas. He gave me the date for his appointment and the exact dimensions he needed the work to be, which I found very helpful...a deadline and parameters can be great when you're not sure what you're doing. I told him repeatedly, "Now, if you don't like what I come up with, just tell me..."

I got to work eventually (I was too daunted to start right away for some reason) and came up with a simple interpretation. I kept looking at it and wondering: Will he like it? Is this what he's looking for? What if I need to rework it and I run out of time? I colored the design two different ways, scanned what I had, took a deep breath, and emailed everything to him. I heard from him within minutes...and he was thrilled. WHEW! The images reached him at the end of a rough day, so it was all the more gratifying for both of us. I am really excited to see how it looks when it's actually on his wrist/forearm, and hopefully I will have some pictures to post before too long. Thanks for the memories, old friend. I am honored to have my artwork be a permanent part of your life.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

show time correction!

I just checked the Freeport Square Facebook page, and it turns out that the "Two Year Anniversary" show runs the entire month of June (the 3rd through the 30th). The artists' reception is still on June 18th; they chose that date because that's their exact two year anniversary. So, if you're in Freeport at some point during the month of June, please stop by and check things out! The show (as is always the case at Freeport Square) is pretty diverse.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

what goes up must come down

My show at North Star Music Cafe came down yesterday, and I have to say I really enjoyed having my work on display there all month. The place is so fun and funky, the food is good, and the staff couldn't have been nicer. The young woman behind the counter called out as I was leaving, "I'm sorry to see your work go!" I was truly knocked out by the kind words of support and encouragement I got from some of the patrons there as well. I hope to be able to show at North Star again sometime in the future!

On the way to pick up my work from Portland, I dropped off three pieces at Freeport Square Gallery for their "Two Year Anniversary" group show. When I walked in, Sebastian (one of the owners) said, "We were just talking about you!" I told him to get out of town, but he insisted that it was the truth (they hadn't seen me in a while and were wondering what I had been up to...fortunately I've had a few shows to keep me busy). The three pieces I chose for this show are pretty different from one another, they are all older works (two from 2002, the other from 2006), and they haven't been shown in a while (one piece has never been on display). I'm not sure when everything goes up and comes down, but I know that shows at Freeport Square tend to run for two weeks...and the opening reception for this particular show is Friday, June 18th.