Friday, January 31, 2014

Powerful Isolation, Garifuna Woman, Joyful Art and Inflorescence


 

 


 
 
 
Well, art just keeps happening around here especially for Martha.

Since returning to town from our holiday adventures out of state and out of the country Martha has been busy as all get out with art projects, classes and planning meetings for even more such art related events.

Her newest art work includes some of the most powerful and dramatic paintings that I have seen from her for some time. One of these new works in particular just jumps right out at you and hits you with a real deep since of importance. It just screams out with a sense of awareness, thought and, I think, an emotion of ‘Isolation’, even before one truly grasps the subject. And, she has just finished a similarly powerful painting of a ‘Garifuna Woman’. Both of these works were inspired by our recent trip to Roatan, Honduras in Central America.

These works right along with and juxtaposed to some very pleasing and lighthearted horse paintings, a painting of girl with flowers and several paintings of nurturing mothers with children just goes to show the various styles and variety of emotional expression that Martha is capable of depicting in her art.

On the busy artist in the community front, she, just this week attended a planning meeting for the upcoming Art Lovers Sunday at the Pybus Public Market to be held on February 9th.  Martha will be one of the artists participating in the event as well.  She’ll have her newly created hand painted hand bags and a few small paintings for sale and will be offering a free self portrait / drawing class for kids while she is there.  

Also, this week she attended a planning meeting at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center for the new Youth Art Room which they hope to have up and running by this April.  And, if all of that were not enough, Martha was just appointed to be on the City Arts Commission for the City of Wenatchee which will mean monthly meetings and the opportunity to have a real voice in the planning of various art projects throughout the city.

I don’t know how she does it but this week she also taught an art class for a group of Brownies at the Sunnyslope Elementary School in Wenatchee and just last night held a small art class for kids here at the home studio. Whew! I’m tired just thinking about it.

This week too we picked up her art from Lemolo’s Café in Wenatchee and a nice check as well for one of her works (“Inflorescence”) that sold while we were out of town. This past week I too had to pick up artwork from a long standing show at the Confluence Technology Center as they will be doing some remodeling and painting around the area where my work was showing. Some of these pieces my end up going into my upcoming show at the Black Bird Bistro in Leavenworth. I was to be featured in February, but due to scheduling issues my show was postponed till March.

This coming month Martha will be teaching an art sculpture class, ‘Modeling the Human Form’ CED 585, at the Wenatchee Valley Community College on February 11th and 18th from 6 to 8pm each night and will be teaching a ‘Confidence in Art’ class at the Icicle Arts Gallery in Leavenworth on February 8th from 12-4pm.

Well, that’s probably enough for now. So; keep being creative in every way you can and remember the words of Henri Matisse who said, “A work of art must carry within itself its complete significance and impose that upon the beholder before he recognizes the subject matter.” Wow! Now that is something to ponder.




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