Thursday, February 16, 2012

Healing Waters, Harvest Pride, Giant Birds and Artful Adventures









Well, yesterday was quite the day for the art adventures of Martha and Rod.  Our day began first thing with a trip to the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center. There we met up with Brenda Abney the Director of the museum and headed out to the City Yard to take a look at the parade float that is in storage there. This is the same float that we and a group of friends used a couple of years ago for the Apple Blossom Parade and which was used by another group last year while we did the Giant Puppets for the parade.

The group that Martha is part of that wants to use the float this year is the Embracing Cultures group for which Martha has been designing and making colorful birds to represent the national birds of the various countries represented. So far we have one four and half foot or so bird taking shape in our home studio. The float is in a trailer and it looks to be in OK shape, but I’ll need to come back and charge the battery up to get it started.

After leaving the city yard we paid a visit to Terry Johnson at his Terry Signs Studio to see about enlisting his support with the float project. He was all good with that and shared that several years ago he had been a float judge for the Apple Blossom Parade. I hadn’t known about that; so that was interesting news. He offered to let us use some of his outside space and whatever we needed. Thanks Terry… you’re the best. While there I showed Martha the Seal project I am working on which will eventually have a diver along with it.

Upon returning home we loaded up the car with the Harvest Pride sculpture for the Quincy Library and several small to medium sized prints and original paintings of Martha’s to take to the Soap Lake Art Guild for her talk there in the evening. Martha continued to work on the giant bird project through the day while got to do more mundane repairs and such at one of our rentals. Ugh… the work never ends.

Ahh…. but then it was time for the fun stuff again as we took to the road. First stop Quincy. We were a bit early, so we had time to take a look around the new library designed by Brad Brisbane, a fellow member of Two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee, and all the art that they have acquired so far. They had work by a number of artists that we know. There were paintings by Diane Sanford, Jan Cook Mack and Moises Napoles that we enjoyed. There was also a large oil  by an artist named Don Nutt who we were not familiar with that depicted Native Americans on horseback overlooking the Columbia River as they watched the first white men coming down the river by boats. We, also saw where Martha's family constilation sculpture sits high atop a piller near the Children's Section of the library. And, of course there was an oil landscape by Brad Brisbane, his  ‘Crowning Glory’ as Roxa Kreimeyer of the Quincy Library Foundation later described it. It is a great piece and it sits in a place of honor, as well it should, as he is the designer of the building.

When Roxa did arrive, we set to the task at hand of installing the ‘Harvest Pride’ sculpture in its own special alcove.  It sits nicely between two farm themed paintings by Consuelo Soto Murphey.  As we looked and appraised the setting, Roxa asked if we could make a pedestal to raise it up just a bit more and Martha offered to come back and secure the loose vegetables in the basket as Roxa had a concern that at some point some kids might fiddle with them. So; the work goes on and all with joy.

After, the visit with Roxa, we hit the road yet again this time out to Soap Lake, a place neither of us had been to before. Martha who used to work for Grant County Mental Health many years ago, thought she had been there, but had really only been as far as the northern outskirts of Ephrata. Once there… again a bit early, we drove around a bit and got out of the car to take a close look at the ‘Calling the Healing Waters’ Sculpture and Sundial by artists David Govedare and Keith Powell, a project that was completed and installed just in 2009  and which sits right at the shore of the lake.

After touring the town a bit more we went to the Masquers Theater where the Art Guild of the Soap Lake Area holds their ‘3rd Wednesday’ art presentations. They were in the middle of their board meeting when we arrived (early) so we quietly set up the art we had brought with us for the presentation. It’s a nice live theater building with a great Marquee outside that is visible from the moment you enter town. And, as it turns out Soap Lake has a very active community theater program which performs there regularly. The next play there we were told will be ‘Sex Please, We’re Sixty’ a comedy… what else could it be with that title. It starts in March… and it looks hilarious on their web site http://www.masquers.com/ … we might just take another trip out there to see it time permitting.

Once set up and after everybody had plenty of finger sandwiches and cookies… I love cookies, we all filed into the theater and Martha was introduced by Allen Lundberg. She then gave an entertaining presentation capped off with a rousing and dramatic recital of one of her poems and then took a few questions. Everybody loved the art and listening to Martha. While visiting with the crowd after the talk, I met Don Nutt who had painted that large oil of the Native Americans and the first white explorers that we had seen at the Quincy Library. He invited us to come up and visit him at his ‘Cariboo Trail Studio Art Gallery & Visitor Center’ in Coolee City.  Another day - another adventure to come. It was fun visiting with Don and the other folks there, I even met someone from L.A. and we chatted a bit about the old stomping grounds. It never ceases to amaze me when I find fellow Angelinos in various far flung places such as Soap Lake.

After visiting a bit in the theater we all headed over to the new ‘Healing Water’ art gallery across the street. There I got a chance to visit with the owner Bridget Ann Oie who showed me some of her photos of the soap of Soap Lake and explained a bit about the lake and its medicinal qualities to me. The gallery was nice and had some interesting pieces by a number of artists. Who knew in Soap Lake... well, it is a pretty new gallery.

Well, that was quite enough for one day…. believe me. And, now to work helping Martha with those giant birds. Have a very artful day.




Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Farmer the Spanish Dancer and Amarilus in Winter






Well, it’s been a wonderfully fulfilling and challenging week for art and art activities this past week.

To begin with we went to a fundraiser at the St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Wenatchee. It was actually the first time I had been to the new church since they moved from the old building which is now a community center.  It was great to see some of the folks I used to work with at Children’s Home Society and others I hadn’t seen for awhile. What was especially nice for Martha with regard to art was that some of the paintings and clay figures that Martha’s fifth grade art students had done at St. Joseph’s were there as part of the auction… very nice.

But, for us the really big story of the week was the completion of the Harvest Pride Sculpture for the Quincy Library. This is a great relief for both of us to have this done. Now, the plan is to take it with us next Wednesday on our way to Soap Lake where Martha will give a brief talk at the Art Guild of Soap Lake.



And, of course Martha has continued to create even more sculptures while we have been getting the big project done. I really like the Spanish Dancer she created. This being a much smaller piece that the Harvest Pride piece, it was easily made, dried, fired and glazed all in a matter of days.

Also, this week, I put a few more touches (notice I didn’t say ‘finishing’ touches) on my painting of the Horse Lake House which I photographed prior to it’s being torn down. Some may recall that I posted a photo of this painting previously… it has changed some since then. And, While all these things have been going on Martha has continued to teach art to the folks at the emergency housing program in Wenatchee and I am glaze firing some of their small clay items as I write.

A special thanks to Terry Johnson for the use of his large kiln for the firing of the Quincy sculpture… Terry we couldn’t have done it without you! While at Terry’s studio at Terry Signs I was able to get some more video of him as he began one of his very creative paintings. As this project has gone on I have been over there a few time and seen a number of the great pieces he has worked on both for pure art and his custom sign painting and pin striping business. What a talent!

The other great thing for us this week is that Martha will have her artist reception at the Icicle Arts Gallery tomorrow night – February 10th at 5pm. We are both very excited about this and are hoping for a really good turnout. The art is completely different from the works at the Two Rivers Gallery for which she is also the featured artist this month, so hopefully everyone who loves Martha’s art will come as well as folks who have never seen her work before.

Right now Martha is getting ready to go teach art at Catholic Family and Child Services and I just found out she’ll be teaching the “I am the earth” art class at the Osborn Elementary School in Leavenworth in March. And, she’ll be teaching a class through Two Rivers Gallery at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center in May. Wow! So many things going on.

Well, enough for now. Have a very artful day. And, remember, spring is just around the corner.




Friday, February 3, 2012

Sculptures and Glazing Hot Love Poems






Well, tonight is First Friday at Two Rivers Gallery the co-op gallery we belong to. And, as it is February and the theme is for the month is love, Martha has been working on refining her love poems to recite at the gallery reception tonight. In the course of the preparation for this we looked for and found old love poems and art poems we had written to each other over the years. That was fun and rewarding in it-self.

 Not all of those poems will be read tonight, but we have wanted to find some of those for some time for the book of art and poems that has been in the works for quite a while. Yeah! on finding those poems.

Meanwhile, the work has continued on the Harvest Pride Sculpture for the Quincy Library. And, I can say now that it is almost done. It should be ready by next week. And as we have been working on the firing and glazing of that piece Martha has been busy making even more sculptures.

And, as if that weren’t enough, we have had a number of fired works that were never glazed. So, for this month’s show we have finally gotten back to glazing those pieces. Martha fell in love with the glazing I developed for the small sculpture that is already in the Quincy Library and asked that help her do that same treatment to one of her sculptures that we had never glazed. It looks great and Martha put her own spin on the technique I developed for the smaller piece.

Shortly we will be taking some of these works over to the gallery to be installed in time for tonight’s show. Wow! So much to do and so little time to do it all.
So, enough for now till our next blog have a very artful day




Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Check out my new photo. http://ping.fm/bFoe7



I just entered the 'Vanguard 'Nature' Competition' photo competition. http://ping.fm/dC22n



I just entered the 'Vanguard 'Nature' Competition' photo competition. http://ping.fm/KQfjx