Well, it’s hard to believe that it’s been as long as it has
since I last posted in this blog. In fact this is the first posting of the
year. The First Friday opening and
Reception for Martha as featured artist at Two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee was
quite a success … lots of people came and enjoyed the art of all the artists
and raved about Martha’s work. And on the morning of the opening in Wenatchee, I took more of Martha's paintings up a long and winding road to Bryan at the Icicle Arts Gallery in Leavenworth for yet another show where she is featured artist.
At the Two Rivers Gallery opening that night it was nice that folks who had never been in the gallery
before came and some bought art from a number of the artist represented…
including Martha and myself… Yeah!
Everybody had a really good time as well and that is always nice. We were so happy that some friends from
Seattle came for the show as well and stayed over the weekend.
Since that event we have been busy working on other projects
like the large clay figure of a Hispanic farmer happily showing the fruits
(vegetables) of his labor in a basket for the new Quincy library. Over the
weekend it was time to install the Vicki Hillberg show at the Cashmere Arts and
Activities Center.
On the twelfth was the board meeting for the Two Rivers Gallery
which I attended. Jan Theriault the board president was very pleased to say
that last week’s first Friday was the most well attended that he can
recall. He joked that he didn’t know
that Martha knew so many people.
Among other things we discussed the ongoing development of
the Troll under the bridge project. This was the first time we actually got to
see the drawing by board member Russ Helper.
We also discussed the upcoming First Friday love theme as February is
the month of Valentine’s day. Martha will continue to be featured artist and will
recite some of her love poems. That should really make for another unique show.
Since then we have taken the clay figure she’s been working
over to the Terry Johnson Studio as that is where it will have to be fired due
to the large size of the piece. We sent
a photo to one of the prime members of the art committee for the Quincy Library
and the response was outstandingly positive…yeah! One idea was to make a mold of it and then
make the final piece from cement, but Martha would really like to try firing
it… so after hollowing it out to make it better for firing, we must now just wait for the clay to dry and then fire
it ever so slowly and ever so carefully. I really can’t wait to see how it
turns out. While at Terry’s I got some last pics of the piece and of the small
painting he did for his grandchild.
Meanwhile, Martha has continued to do her usual work
teaching art to the folks at the emergency housing program and I have been
firing the small clay figures that the students there make. Added to that
Martha did a workshop for the kids (fifth graders I think) at the St. Joseph’s Catholic
school in Wenatchee. That went well. The kids really liked it. And, for me, I
have been working off again and on again on my acrylic painting of the Horse Lake
House that I photographed just before it was torn down in the fall. You may
recall that I also produced a video of the destruction - “Tearing Down the
House” which is on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95WzkG615x8&list=UUNvpiC1XcVKVH-EiXJCMCsA&index=7&feature=plcp.
The Painting is coming along… getting certain aspects just
right has been a bit of a challenge as I had various perspective and light/dark
issues to contend with. On top of the fact that I just haven’t painted in so
long and of course Martha is the REAL painter in the house, which has its
plusses and minuses. On the plus she is a great critic and can give me good
suggestions of how to solve a problem. On the other, I judge and compare what I’m
doing to her work in my own head and will always come up short comparing my
painting to Martha’s… note to self as artist … don’t compare my work to Martha’s.
Well, that’s probably enough for now, or this will be way to
long. Happy new year to all and a very artful as well.
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