Back from Art ForMS

I've been back from Canada for a week now, but I've been busy with painting a commissioned work that is for a client's mother-in-law's Mothers' Day gift (hurrah, apostrophes - I'll post the image later - pretty swell little picture, if I may say so); taking my car in for transmission fluid leak repair; working a few hours at the Williams-Sonoma; getting back into the swing of things here...

Anyway, back from Canada, Calgary, where I attended the event, Art ForMS, put together by my friend Mali as part of Team Docktor's (teamdocktor.com/art-forms) MS, fundraising activities. The event was - or perhaps I should say, "is," since this is expected to be the first, annual - an auction, principally a silent auction, but also with several works in a live auction, almost exclusively of art: painting, sculpture, print, jewelry, photography, glass, ceramic, belt, quilt, other... from artists from around Calgary as well as from further afield... like from Austin, Texas. In fact I had a couple other Austin artists' works to keep mine company on the walls, some fine, fine, prints from Chelsea Ward and Michael Sullivan. I'll give Mali official Austinite status, too, since, after all, I know her from school here and she lived here for a goodly while: she had a couple paintings as well as a print-triptych.

All around, the art in the show was pretty high on the quality front, so none of the wall-company was bad.

The place that hosted Art ForMS, DaDe Art and Design Lab, has my nomination for, "coolest place in Calgary." It's located in what appears to once have been a mechanic's shop (it has garage doors) in a historic area of town, Inglewood (really, I guess it's the old, main street of what used to be its own, outlying town); an art, contemporary furnishings, and antique Asian furnishings gallery - easy, laid-back cool. Also got to spend time with the owners, Darcy Lundgren and Greg Fraser - very gracious hosts, swell fellows. Mali is working on the DaDe website, so hopefully there will be some more pictures, particularly of Darcy's artworks, constructions of paper on canvas painted in a Pollock-like manner, soon.

Speaking of more art work soon, here's an interlude of works in progress that I was going to post before I left town - some progress has been made since then on these, but I'll save that for another post.

Also speaking of more artwork soon, I'll have to tell Mali she should put up some of her new paintings on her website.

At any rate, Art ForMS was a great party: lots of folks excited about seeing the art (the folks who bought mine were excited about them, so that's pretty excellent - in fact, I heard that one couple was even more excited about the work they'd acquired after I met them and talked with them about it, so that was tres excellent... since I feared the inverse case...); lots of art to see; all lots sold; successful fundraising; lots of interesting people to visit (good turn out despite cold and rain); wine, food, ginger ale, cheese, jelly, wine... So yeah, you Calgarians who missed out, make sure you don't miss it next year.

In all likelihood, there will be more about my Calgary excursion later, but look at the time!

Camera Obscura

That is, the camera has gone missing, so I'm afraid I don't have pictures of some new works in progress (which haven't really progressed very far anyway) and haven't been able to take pictures of the old tetrachromes that I'm planning to put up on yessy.com... or for the related blog entry which will be titled something like, "from the antiquities vault."

At any rate, Katell Keineg has a new album out!

I decided to do the object-free, object-travel-free purchase bit at cdbaby.com/cd/katellkeineg2. I still find the digiformat weird. So far, I've been enjoying the album - I've only listened a couple times and while doing other things, e.g. typing a blog entry - need to sit down to give it a focused listen. My i-pod just finished synching...

Alternative Venue

I realized when I was visiting B.B. Keville, New Alternatives Skin Care, yesterday, that I'd forgotten to mention that she'd invited me to put up some paintings at her New Beginings Wellness Center, http://www.newbeginningswellnesscenter.net/, 3355 Bee Caves Road Suite 606, 293-8077, so I have a few paintings on view there which you might drop by to see if you're in the neighborhood... maybe on your way to a facial or craniosacral massage...

I've yet to have the latter, my sister gave me a gift certificate for one and she says it's pretty excellent, but B.B. does a nice bit of face rubbing, and, like I'd mentioned before, has done some good work in the treatment of facial blight for me.

More Beneficial

B.B. Keville at New Alternative Skincare http://www.newbeginningswellnesscenter.net/, who has been most helpful in healing a face-skin condition that saw fit to afflict me, asked me the other day, when I visited for a bit of face rubbing, if I might donate a picture for a benefit to be held for her old friend and veteran, Austin music fellow, Will Sexton, that is going on next Monday (Feb. 15) at Antone's http://www.antones.net/index.php?content=shows, to help cover expenses from his recent stroke.


So, I've sent, "Summer Pastoral." I thought about sending one of the Pouffy-Pants Hummingbird paintings, but I'm kind of reluctant to seperate them and I want, "Going Courting," just at present, as reference for another picture (by the way, you can see these at the Libertine Gallery site). Yes, I need to get some more small, 11x14 and 10x10 inch paintings underway... yes, I need to get some paintings underway!

At any rate and nevertheless, "Summer Pastoral," came up pretty insistently to my mind as the one to send. I really want it to make its way out into the world and find a good home.

Show Down

Alternatively titled...

ME, ME, ME

...since it shall include a number of pictures of myself.

So, yeah: just took the Brick Oven show down this past Sunday from which sold, "Black and White," "Even In..." and "Incensed Sensibility," all of which you may scroll down to see in the post titled, "Current Body of Work - installation one." My next scheduled gig is at Hyde Park (I think the one in Hyde Park) in June and July, but I need to see if I can line something up in the meantime... and get some more paintings started... and find a full-time job... blech!

At any rate, the self portraits here aren't merely an excercise in obsessive vanity: my friend from art school (yes, I only made and kept one) who now lives in Calgary, Mali Docktor, is arranging a an art auction to benefit the MS Society of Canada to which I'm donating a few things, requested I send a photo of myself for the site http://www.teamdocktor.com/art-forms.html.

This, above is the one she chose - incidentally my favorite which you get to see here in full-color-exclusive edition. It is a sort of redux of the picture I took for such purposes several years ago (which is overexposed a bit so I could probably get away with using it still). Perhaps I'll include the older image in another post - I quite like it - along with the painting in the background, "Three Seasons and Spring at the Heian Shrine," which I started back in the Color Panel phase but didn't complete until sometime during the Flower-Pattern period. I want to do another version of it at some point in time.

A few more I particularly like:

I forgot to put it here, and I'm not sure how to plunk a picture down en media res without difficulty, but I'm sending, "Pond, Evening," for the auction - you can scroll down to also see... oh, wait, you'll have to go to the Libertine Gallery site, http://www.libertinegallery.com/images/JP/JPpondEveningb.jpg (maybe I'll post that image closer to the event) - along with several prints, which are posted here. Mali asked if I might send a particular print, but I only have a test proof (a not too presentable test proof) of that one, so I sent a few others instead. Anyway, a couple intaglios and one linoleum print.

Again, be sure to check out Mali's Team Docktor site, http://www.teamdocktor.com/art-forms.html, which has more information.

Shuffled Around

Not a big shuffling, but I thought I'd rearrange some of the paintings at the Brick Oven for the last month or so of the show. I'd originally planned to use the front room as a sort of retrospective room and the back for newer work, but I though some of the older stuff could stand to be seen in the higher traffic areas a bit. Plus I really want someone to buy:
It's one about which I continually hear, "Oh, I love that one," but as yet has not been taken off on its way into the world, so I'm hoping... Happily, I've sold a few things from the show: "Incensed Sensibility," "Even In..." and most recently, "Black and White," about which I've wondered, "does anyone but me like this one?" (a personal favorite, in truth), thus I'm pleased of some positive feedback on that one.

Showed Up

The Brick Oven Restaurant show is up now (1608 West 35th Street). If I say so myself, which I do, the work looks quite good in the place, an old house, intimate in scale, and with motled, tan-ish walls.

Here are pictures of the most recently finished paintings. The cat is still in want of a decent picture: I've tried several lighting situations, but as yet...