Shells, Water Foul, Sculptures and Congressional Art Competition

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it has been a busy three months since the last installment of the Rod Daut and Martha Flores Art blog.  There has been so much going on that it really would be impossible to put it all in one blog. So; to keep it short and sweet, I will highlight the most stand out events and creations.

 

First and foremost is the creative explosion of new works by Martha in which she has taken her creative genius in some very new and different directions. At the top of this list of new works in new directions I would place her Marine themed art.  These works are crazy creative and a joy and pleasure to look at. As some readers may know, I am a scuba diver and have a great and fond love of the sea and all its beauty both above and below the surface; so these new works hit two or more joy buttons for me as I am sure they will for many others as well.

 

Also, her new bird paintings, some of which are now at the Icicle Arts Gallery in Leavenworth for the upcoming Bird and Wenatchee Watershed show which opens in May, are also new in style and content.

 

I love these and if the response online is any indication these will be quite a hit for Martha. Her new flower paintings are not a completely new genre for her, but are new in style and general feel as one can see from this photo.

 

Another new artistic venture for Martha has been her individually painted handbags, a number  of which were sold at their unveiling at the Pybus Public Market for the February art event which featured several local artists and their works in the center of the Market. That was fun and it was great to visit with our local artists and friends while getting to see what they were doing artistically and otherwise.

 

During the month of February someone requested some photos of Martha’s sculptures which made us realize we were remiss in not having a complete photo collection of her various sculptures both bronze and clay. So; one day we spent a few hours gathering the pieces and creating a photo catalogue of the works.

 

That done it was time to get out of doors and enjoy the late winter environment by the river and up in the hills by Saddle Rock. What a joy it is to live in such a beautiful and diverse natural environment.

 

And while Martha has been creating new works like mad, I have enjoyed exploring art installations in Airports while traveling. Of particular interest was the “instrument”,

created by Living Lenses -the team of Po Shu Wang and Louise Bertelson, which is a sight and sound wonder, that is electronically controlled by a computer keypad. People, like these young kids and their dad type an email or text message on the keyboard which is then converted to brail and from brail translated to particular sounds which come out the horn in low audible tones that are best heard while standing close to or under the horn. This wonderfully creative and interactive artwork kind of reminds me of my French Horn playing days in Jr. High… but I digress.

 

I also found some
interesting artwork in the Palm Springs terminal like “Tang” the epoxy paint creation by Tom Holland, which I spied in late March as I headed further south to Indio and the desert of the Coachella Valley which I explored on foot and capping the trip off with a photo safari along the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea which is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault, offered some particularly enjoyable photo opts for wildlife of the winged variety. The main reason for this trip I should say was to meet my newest granddaughter, but the photos and the precious experiences related to her I will keep to myself and my family.

 

Back home it was time to pick up my photo art from the Black Bird Bistro in Leavenworth where my art was featured for the month of March. We had a good time installing and uninstalling the art and enjoyed the food and coffee there.

 

Also, this month we picked up my work from both the Confluence Technology Center, where it has resided for a couple of years, which needed to be picked up due to some remodeling and repairs going on there, and, just yesterday I finally picked up my painting of the ‘Cherry Springs Ranch House’ (also known as the ‘Horse Lake House’) which has resided at the Chelan Douglas Land Trust for about a year.

 

And, all through this time Martha has continued to provide a wonderful art learning experience for several young artists in training in her studio class room. The kids love it and Martha has a ball teaching and playing with them

 

Next up Martha will be a judge for this year’s Congressional Art Competition for High School Artists which will entail the two of us heading over to Green River Community College next Friday for the judging and the district-wide reception to be held at 4pm the same day. Related to this event we were at our local Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce last night with Congressional Representative Dave Reichert with whom we not only talked about art but also shared some related experiences along the lines of foster parenting.

Well, this is certainly enough for now. Go forth and be creative and recall the words of Pablo Picasso who said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up

 

 

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