Dramatic Horses, Rolling Stones and Experiential Realism

 

Well, there is a lot going on for Martha and Rod this week. Martha has been busy refining her horse paintings and creating yet more Spanish Dancers. I really like how her horse paintings are coming. For years she avoided painting horses, then, I guess after doing a couple of her famous Dancing Zebras (the stripes are dancing women), she apparently got over her issues with painting horses. In point of fact horses present some unique challenges for drawing and painting… I know I drew a few some years ago. Also, I think the fact that she didn’t have anything for the Fur, Feathers and Scales show at Two Rivers Gallery kind of got to her that she really has left horses out of her work for too long.

And, speaking of Two Rivers Gallery, we had our First Friday opening reception on (what else) Friday. I was really pleased with the interest that my new digital paintings generated… particularly from some of the other artists there. Everybody wanted to know how I created these pieces. I love explaining this, but I really hope someone will love them enough to give them a good home.

Back to Martha and her painting, I would have to say that for Martha it’s easy to paint a horse with human like qualities in the eyes and expression, would that qualify as “Experiential Embodied realism”, I wonder.   The challenges of a realistic horse, however, are different indeed. She has done these horses both ways. They are all good, just different in style and intent. Right now she wants realism. And, I would say she is getting it right.

And, while she has been working on the horse paintings, I have been finding the right frames for her new works. Just this week, I put her newly completed Spanish Dancer which many readers will recall she did mostly while dancing live at the NuArt Gallery over Thanksgiving weekend into one of the frames I had picked up in CA a year or so ago. Now I’m refurbishing more of these frames from CA., that came from a closed-up frame shop there, to use with more of Martha’s new works. I think some of these are perfect for the new horse paintings.

Earlier this week, we had a young (well if 30 is young) Americorp/Vista Volunteer over to the house. We really appreciate the work he is doing for the Together For DrugFree Youth organization in writing grants to get funds to create more murals in the south side of Wenatchee where, there is a real need for more beautification to fight urban blight and gang tagging. We wanted to show our appreciation and offer our support for his efforts with a home cooked meal while he is so far away from his home in Atlanta. For this he was very appreciative. He loved the art in the house too, even my “Horse Lake House’ painting.  We all had a grand time together eating, talking and enjoying art, and, Martha and me learned a lot about AmeriCorps too.

This week, for those who remember the 60’s, is the 50^th anniversary of the Rolling Stones. So; to commemorate this milestone, I decided to create a MickJagger / Rolling stones mixed-media collage. This is a fun project. It should be done in a day or so. Hope I can remember where I put all the bits for this.

And, on another front, this week I submitted my ‘Pybus Project Begins’ video to a contest on the Wedia video sharing site. The video with the most likes wins a GoPro Camera. Wish me luck.

Well, enough for now. And, remember the immortal words of Scott Adams who said, “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”  Have a very artful day.

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Spanish Dancer, White Tails and Strange Mushrooms

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it’s been a great and busy week or so for the art and art projects of Rod and Martha. So much so that I am only now getting to writing this blog.

Monday of last week I finally got a chance to meet Koross Hoseini the phenomenal nature photographer whose work fills the Pelican Gallery in Leavenworth. His wife Sherri who runs the gallery agreed to carry some of my photos and the Monday before Thanksgiving was the day to deliver and meet Koross. He is a real friendly guy and I really enjoyed meeting him.

During the week, we found out that Two Rivers Gallery wants us to do the monthly TV presentation for the gallery on KWCC’s Laura Herrera Show. That was a hoot doing it this month and should be a fun gig going forward.

Of course, with Thanksgiving and the weekend Dancing Martha event at the NuArt Gallery looming we spent a fair amount of time preparing for that event. None-the-less I did get an outdoor photo adventure in on Black Friday. As much as I appreciate everyone out there shopping at the galleries on that day, I myself just had to get out and about and enjoy nature. And, Friday last presented a great opportunity to get out into the Sage Hills west of Wenatchee to see nature at work in her recovery from the fires of September.

The lower hills and ravines were full of deer early in the morning. I saw over a dozen of them in groups of three to four.  I stayed plenty far from them but was able to use my zoom to get some great close-up shots of some of these white tails. As the morning progressed they all seemed to be heading for higher ground and so did I, though I was looking for vistas and new growth of flora more than fauna. The higher up I got the greater the vistas and opportunities to take some panoramic shots.

The way the grasses and fungi sprout up out of burnt ground provided some interesting photo ops. The hills covered in a thin re-growth of green sprouting from blackened earth made for what I think was a beautiful contrast of color and texture. The rock outcroppings that would have been more obscured by sage before the fires presented some additional visual eye candy for this photographer.  I was pleased to find some positive responses to these photos from the folks at the Chelan Douglas Land Trust which owns much of the area that I photographed.

And, while I was out trudging around in the mist and rain taking pictures, Martha was over at Simply Unique, where we both now have some of our art and photos, for their grand opening. As soon as I got down from the hills I visited there to get a photo or two. Folks were exploring and enjoying this new venue for art and antiques. I hope we and all of the other venders there do well.

But, the big event of the week for us was the Dancing and Painting live event at the NuArtGallery in East Wenatchee on Saturday. That was a whole lot of fun from which I made another Martha Flores Dancing Artist movie which is on Youtube and GoWedia. We had a young artist who goes by the moniker of David V35 there with us and he was also painting live… though not dancing. He is a very talented artist whose work I really like. Look for future joint events with David V35 and Martha Flores / Rod Daut.

We had a free raffle there at NuArt and lots of people put their tickets in the drawing box. The lucky winner was a young lady from Puyallup and a 12” x 18” print of Martha’s signature piece “Flowering Consciousness” will be picked up by a relative as soon as we can get together on a time and day.

We were also fortunate to sell a serious piece of Martha’s art “Despair” that I had only just got framed up a few days prior to the event. I had a good feeling about that piece and sure enough it sold. Gary Doan related that the lady who bought is a repeat customer at NuArt. I really am glad it found a good home with someone who really appreciates art.

This Monday we recovered from the frenetic weekend staying in. But, that didn’t stop Martha from creating a few new masks and from putting a few more touches on the Spanish Dancer and horse painting she did while dancing on Saturday.

Yesterday was all work all day on a multi-page art show proposal for a large regional museum gallery show. This turned out to be pretty involved and is waiting to be completed.  It’ll get done… no worries on that.

Today, before sitting down to write this blog we had a very fruitful meeting with a young internet marketing specialist named Mike Endsley who is helping put together our strategies for getting Martha’s art out to the world in 2013. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Well, enough for now, have a very artful day and think a bit on the words of St. Francis of Assisi who said, “He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands his head and his heart is an artist.” I like that.

 

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NUART, New Ventures, Flames, Alien in the Museum and Eyes Over Venice

 

 

 

 

Well, this week I began working on a small scale mock-up of the new Steel Eagle project. Along this line, I also paid a visit to friend Terry Johnson’s studio to work on my welding technique. The end result of both the mock-up and the welding is that I am rethinking design to work with flat steel vs. steel rod for the armature. That should give me a much better surface with which to attach the sheet metal to the armature.

And while I have been working on the preliminary stages of my new Steel Eagle, Martha has found her small scale painting muse. I had ordered several 10”x10” canvases for her but they arrived after the submission deadline for the upcoming show in Twisp… dang! But she dived in head first and is making some really great small paintings. These should make a good alternative to buying prints for art buyers who would really love to own and original Martha Flores painting.

Thursday was the really big and busy day though for Martha and me.  First off we stopped in at the newest venue for artist to offer their work in Wenatchee… that being a place called Simply Unique. Heidi, the owner, was there and we delivered several of Martha’s small sculptures both bronze and ceramic and a number of paintings as well. After that it was off to Leavenworth for us.

On Wednesday, I posted a couple of videos on the new local GOWEDIA video sharing site. One of which was of Martha's Show at the Performing Arts Center in Wenatchee. It seems to be doing well there so far. To view go to: http://www.gowedia.com/videos/2012/nov/15/martha-flores-at-the-pac/

I had become aware that two restaurants in Leavenworth were supporting the Upper Valley mend organization which supplies the area food banks by committing to donate all proceeds from Thursday to support the cause. So, I thought that would be a great day to head to Leavenworth, have lunch and visit Sherri at Pelican Gallery and meet the new director of Icicle Arts Gallery.

And; so after lunch at Café Verona we visited with Sherri who so graciously agreed to carry some of my photos in her gallery. Thanks so much Sherri. And, then we stopped by Icicle Arts of which we are members and where Martha had a show in January and February of this year and visited with Alicia McKee. She is eager and committed to doing great job and has some ideas about expanding the reach of the gallery.  For more on my interview with Alicia look for an upcoming blog in Art in the Valley and Beyond in the Wenatchee World Online.  While there we got a chance to see the current exhibit by Colored pencil artist Vicki DeRooy – we really liked her art.

After our visit to Leavenworth, the day wasn’t over yet for me. I still had the Two Rivers Gallery board meeting to attend. There we addressed nearly three hours worth of ideas. Plans and issues, but for Martha and me the upshot was that we are now committed to going on TV every month to promote the gallery and our First Friday event. Ahh… Martha … a star is born. My good buddy in Seattle is really wanting ac copy of our first TV appearance… it cracked him up so much. That should be a lot of fun for us and hopefully we will develop a following. We will plan on bring some art work with us each time and continue are humorous banter that both the host Laura Herrera and those who watched us enjoyed so much.

On Friday things were a bit more sedate. I worked on press release about Martha’s dancing and Painting Live show at the NUART Gallery in East Wenatchee on Saturday Nov. 24^th. Some readers may recall that Martha painted three acrylic paintings while dancing to Latin Music last year on Black Friday from which a video was produced which can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qGR5qiAB7E . 

 

Later, I worked on submitting images for printing on metal and bamboo. One of the images that I am having printed on metal is what I am calling "Alien in the Museum". I’m really hoping those images will come out great on those substrates. And, while I worked on the upcoming show and my prints, Martha was paining in the studio and then went off to teach her art class at Recovery Innovations in Wenatchee.  

 

 

   and as always martha is creating one and inventive concepts in her art like this one which for now I have dubbed  "Overlooking Venice" by Martha Flores.

Well, enough for now. Have a very artful day and as as Horace once said, "A picture is a poem without words". I think Martha would agree.

 

 

 

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Beautiful 'Young Woman' 3D Light and Rod and Martha on TV

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it’s been a full week for art and art projects for Rod and Martha.

Last week on October 31^st Halloween Day we were guests on a local talk show at KWCC TV hosted by Laura Herrera. It was a lot of fun and we were able to talk about the upcoming First Friday reception at the Two Rivers Gallery where we are showing and the various art events and shows we are involved with and to show some of our art. All in all it was a good and entertaining TV. Or, so my friends who watched attested to.

A couple of times during the week I went on over to the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center to get photos of the staff there putting up the Lightening Fires photo exhibit in which I had five photos of the September Fires which presented some unusual photographic opportunities for a good number of local photographers. One of my photos of the firemen in the exhibit had also been picked up by some news agencies and was on Yahoo news from what I was told.

Friday was the opening at both the museum and the gallery.  Our artwork was well received at the gallery. I went to the reception at the museum early before the crowd so can only hope my photos were appreciated. I suspect they were. Visitors to Two Rivers really loved Martha’s ‘Blonds and Penguins’ and her ‘Young Woman’. Both are acrylic on 40 x 40 canvases.

There was a bit of buzz as well around my abstract digital photo art. One ‘Cascadian Collage’ was a multi  stage process starting with a photo of the art deco upper floors of an old hotel, the Cascadian  in Wenatchee, which I had then altered using several filters in Photoshop. I had then printed several copies of it on plain paper and manually cut and pasted them together forming a unique pattern. Then, having attached them to a board I photographed the design, I put it back into Photoshop and used the liquid paint brush function to finish the piece as it was finally printed and framed. It was a lot of work, but it turned out pretty well and I found that other artists were most interested in it and how I did it. My ‘Great Idea’ three dimensional looking light photo was similarly of interest to others especially other photographers. I was asked a few times to describe how I created the ‘The Begining’ digital painting from a photograph, which was fun to explain as well. Who knows maybe a sale will come the week after First Friday to one of these viewers as has happed before.

Saturday, Martha was invited to show some of her art a local church fund raiser. She sold a few cards and prints and had a good time painting three water colors while she was there.

And, while Martha was painting, socializing and selling art at the church, I decided to get out into the hills for a fall hike and to get some photos. This was my first opportunity to get out into the hills all season and to try out the panorama function on my new camera. It was a good day to be out and about. I got some shots of an owl flying low to the ground a large bird of prey flying high and several deer working their way up a hillside and of course a few of those panoramic shots. I’m thinking some more trips up into the hills may be called for.

 

And, while I took a break from photography and art on Sunday, Martha was working on several new oils in the upstairs studio, one of which will be a variation on the ‘Flowering Consciousness’ theme as in Martha’s signature piece by that name. This one should be fun to follow and see how it turns out when it is done as will the mother and child water color.

 

 

Well, enough for now as soon I will need to go to a fund raising luncheon for ‘The Arts on the Avenue’ at our local Golf and Country Club…. ahhh the work never ends, but then as Elbert Hubbard said, “Art is not a thing, it is a way”… and what a way it is. 

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Blonds and Penguins, Heavy Metal, New Media and Kickstarter Video

 

 

 

Well, it’s been a busy and productive week for Martha Flores and me.

Artistically, Martha has continued to refine her new works like the ‘Blonds and Penguins’ acrylic on canvas and I, having been inspired by my recent success in selling new art on new media like metal, have been working on image transfer processes to media such as metal, tile and canvas.

So far I’d have to say that Bonny Lhotka’s digital seminars make it look much easier than it is. But, I may get it right yet… like anything it takes practice. And, along this line I have been getting to know the heavy metal cutting equipment of my good friend the wonderfully creative artist Terry Johnson. With the right equipment any job becomes easier.

Which brings me to my heavy metal project… the completion of the Steel Eagle project, or should I say the conversion of the Steel Eagle project.  Some readers may recall that in the early part of the year Martha and me put together a float for the 2012 Washington State Apple Blossom Grand Parade. And, as part of that project we created several giant birds for the float.  Martha created several tropical birds while I build a giant Steel Eagle. And, although the eagle’s internal structure was build of ¼ inch steel rods welded and tied together with bailing wire, the skin was mostly duct tape, cardboard and paper Mache’ all covered with hundreds upon hundreds of individually cut feathers made from paper.  

All, of that worked well for the parade float both in terms of time and weight (the eagle had to be lifted and place on the top of the highest point on the float (think 2x4 frame covered with plywood). But, the dream which is now a goal with a foreseeable outcome has always been to have an entirely metal eagle. And so, the plan now is to remove the cardboard, paper Mache’ and duct tape and create a metal skin and individually cut metal feathers. The additional equipment and materials cost enough that I have decided to develop a Kickstarter proposal with accompanying video to generate interest and find backers for the project.

To this end I put together the initial materials list and priced out the tools and materials at our local Lowes and took video along the way. I also, took video at the studio (Terry Johnson’s) where I will work on the project. I’ve never put together a Kickstarter proposal or this type of video before; so I was quite pleased to meet a young fellow named Robert at the local after hour’s business meet and great who does just that. That is he puts together grant proposals. Currently he is working on a proposal to get funding for painting murals in South Wenatchee as part of an anti gang program. Now, that’s a great idea. He was, also, very interested in my Steel Eagle project and offered to introduce me to a local business person who could be a help in this project.

And, as though, all of that were not enough, while I was taking video of metal and tools and meeting and greeting folks that could help with the Steel Eagle, Martha was at an all day Washington State Arts Commission conference in Seattle with her good friend Selina Danko who works for the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center and who writes grants for the Wenatchee Arts Consortium.  This is the group that has put on some really great art programs for kids in our local schools which Martha has been involved with over the past few years.  thinking of Martha in Seattle, I took the time to play a bit with one of my Seattle shots taken from Beacon Hill last year.

Meanwhile, I put together a new zip file art portfolio for Martha including pieces such as her "Imerging woman" oil on Canvas, to send off to a gallery near you. Let’s hope for the best on that.

Well, that is probably enough for now… I’m exhausted just thinking about all of this myself. Think creative and have a very artful day.

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Over the Hill and Far Away / New Art and Gallery Hopping

 

 

 

Well, it’s been an interesting week for art, art projects and adventures for Martha Flores and me.

Martha has needed some glaze and other materials including some fabric for projects here at home and the studio and I have wanted to check out some galleries in and around Seattle. So; we planned to make the rounds out there, but first we checked with our good friend and artist Terry Johnson to see if he needed anything from the Pottery Store. It’s always good to see what new and creative things he is doing in his studio.

And, so Friday we headed out to the west side of the mountains purchase list for she and Terry in Martha’s hand and the addresses of all the galleries we wanted to check out loaded into my new Smart phone. Included in the list was a glass studio in the Fremont District that we didn’t end up getting to, so that will have to wait for another trip.

First on the list the necessary materials from the fabric store and pottery store. That done we headed over to Alkie, where I have scuba dived in the past and was able to show Martha around as she hadn’t been there before. As we worked our way around the point to visit Alkie Arts, we were pleasantly surprised to learn the area there west of Downtown Seattle was almost named New York…are you kidding me I thought. It would have to have been called New New York. Well, I’m glad that cooler heads prevailed on that. But, perhaps because of that early historical quirk, there is along the walkway near the shore a smaller version of the Statue of Liberty.

Needless to say, I had to take some tourist shots of that, which I had some fun with back at home on the computer and posted to Facebook.

The gallery there in Alkie was very nice and we enjoyed visiting with the owner Diane Venti who allowed me to take some photos and to enter the inner sanctum where she was preparing to ship out the art sold at the previous nights Second Thursday Art Walk. We didn’t get to meet her husband and metal artist Tom Wyrick, but we did get to meet her son and all around helper.

We really like the venue and the art therein. We both really liked the original oils by Cheryl Zahniser and I especially liked the piece titled “Kim”.

 

I was very interested in what Micahael Birawer was doing with his paintings of iconic Seattle scenes in his own unique way. His work is ‘really hot’ right now according to Diane and his work is the only work she sells canvas prints of vs. original art.

We gave our cards with links to our new web sites to Diane and she told us about some of the other galleries in the area that are part of the West Seattle Art Walk and gave us a map to check them out.

So, at that point we decided to go up the hill to the area where most of the other galleries were located and we weren’t disappointed.  Our first stop there was the ARTSWEST Playhouse and Gallery. There we were pleasantly surprised to find a few paintings by local Wenatchee Artist Diana Sanford. This venue is mostly a local theater with a nice Foyer available for display of art.

Next and just around the corner was the Twilight Artist Collective. This was the kind of art gallery that really appeals to a younger hipper crowd or to an old guy like me that has found memories of little independent ‘record stores/head shops’ from back in the day. When I said this out loud to Cheryl Robinson, one of the three co-owners of the gallery, she liked that comment and I was glad of that.  Cheryl has a BFA from Arizona State and works in a variety of media herself from pencil and paper to metal and beeswax. I wish I could have seen what she does with beeswax. But, what she had on hand of her own work at the moment was limited to some cards with birds and such on a wallpaper like background.

She let us know the gallery is for sale, as her two partners are moving on to kids and family focus and it is priced at a mere $30,000. That would be fun but this gallery would do better with younger owners I suspect. All in all, though, our visit to west Seattle and a few of its galleries reminded us that this area is more of what we were envisioning when we took on the adventure of moving from L.A. to Washington. At the time, though, we were actively involved in our counseling careers and we went where we both found counseling work at the same time in the same town… which turned out to be Wenatchee. Wenatchee has been good to us, but it is very different from Seattle and West Seattle.

After, visiting just a few of the art venues in West Seattle we decided to forgo the Fremont District for this trip as it was getting late in the afternoon on a Friday and we really needed to get to Kirkland where we planned to visit the Parklane Gallery.

Those readers who know of my recent videos of the Table Top Mountain fire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksqfemj6rCw and of ones mans effort to prepare for fire from the town of Liberty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmxPPE-fshI  may be interested to know that the owner of the property in Liberty from where I took my video from, is the son of one of the principal members of the Parklane Gallery. Her husband Larey and I have been communicating back and forth for a bit now and I was especially interested to check out their co-op gallery.

When we got to Parklane we stopped first to check out some of the art in the lane. There we found a beautiful bronze by Ross Mattson who readers in Wenatchee may know from his impressive “Petra” bronze in front of the Performing arts Center.

The first gallery we stopped at was the Howard/Mandville Gallery which is just a couple of doors down the lane from the Parklane Gallery. At Howard Mandville we were pleased to see a smaller version of “Wings Bronze” by Gary Lee Price. I have always appreciated the large scale version of this that is part of the Arts on the Avenue in Wenatchee. They also had a smaller version of his “Journey of the Imagination”. For the most part this is a very traditional upscale type of gallery. One that I imagine home decorators will take their clients to pick out art for their newly remodeled homes. The large collection of catalogues with artist’s names on them may have something to do with that assessment.

Finally, we made it to the Parklane Gallery. And, although we did not expect to meet Larey McDaniels, as he was to perform with the Seattle Symphony that night, we were lucky in that we got there early enough that we caught him there. It was great to visit with him as well as to check out the variety of art they have there.

In the front of the gallery was the 12x12 show which is one of the few shows they do each year that is open to non-members and member alike. Each piece in that show must measure 12” by 12” including frames to be in the show. We were invited to bring something in before it opened but we really had nothing available in those measurements... another time perhaps. The other show they do there that is open to non-members is a 3d show... the next of those coming up in 2013 sometime.

We really were intrigued by the “Lost Memories” digital art piece by Del Hoffman. In fact this piece really inspired me to venture into some further digital art experimentation myself.  

And so, the art continues at home in the studio for Martha where she is painting away and at my computer

 

"Cascadian Collage"  by Rod Daut

                                                  "YoungWoman" by Martha Flores

where I am ever exploring further into digital creations based on my ownphotos. Look for more along that line in the near
future at a gallery near you.                              

                                                                                        

Have a very artful day.

 

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