NUART Dancing/Painting, Singing and Potting Videos, Joseph in Technicolor, and B.B. King

Well, it’s been a busy and fruitful week for Martha and I and our art projects this week. Since our last posting we attended the Second Saturday event at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center which was well attended and had two musical treats. Kirk Lewellen played original music written by him on guitar and alternately the crowd was treated by Sharon Brodder singing show tunes most notably “Can’t Stop Lov’n Dat Man” from the musical Show Boat. A video of Sharon singing can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7FUJebI-8k&feature=channel_video_title

 And, as for videos, the same day I posted the video of Sharon I also posted a video I put together of Terry Johnson decorating one of his pots with sculpting on the side. The Terry Johnson video which is informative and a bit humorous as well as, Terry can be, can be viewed at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnAL8hUb7MY&feature=relmfu  The video was taken on Saturday before the Cashmere event while we were continuing the 38^th anniversary art sale at Terry Signs and Studio. Sales were good and it was good to see more people coming in. Terry continues to give free pottery lessons to anyone who is interested… what a guy!

Meanwhile Martha has been diligently working on the sculptures for the library in Quincy and in fact some folks associated with the Library there came out one day this week to see how that project is coming. They enjoyed looking at all of Martha’s art and a few of my photos I am told.

Martha also, taught an art class at Catholic Family and Child Services for the Child Care Providers Class there. And, of course her weekly art class with the residents at the local Emergency Housing Facility where they are making Christmas Tree ornaments out of clay, which I will be firing in the kiln as soon as they are dry.

In preparation for the upcoming Dancing While Painting event at the NUART Gallery which Martha will be doing this Saturday Nov. 26^th in the East Wenatchee Mall, we picked up some new canvases from the Craft Warehouse as well as some acrylic paint. This so; Martha will have everything she’ll need at the ready for Super Saturday, which is what I have been told the day after Black Friday is now called. After buying the canvases we went to NUART and visited Gary Doan the owner and making final plans for the big day.

My own art work had to take a back seat this week after posting the videos as I had plenty to keep me busy upgrading one of our rentals and seeing clients. But, that was all worthwhile and very fulfilling. And, although this is the first chance I have had to write all week, I have been checking our blog stats and am pleased to see that new people are reading this blog from more countries all over the world… who would have thought. Also, the two videos described above and my other recent video titled “Tearing Down the House”      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95WzkG615x8 have had quite a few views.

Also, this week it was nice to get out and see B.B. King at the Town Toyota Center with a friend while Martha was at “Joseph and Technicolor Dream Coat”  with some folks who had a child in the performance at Wenatchee High School. I was able to take a few pics at the B.B. King show with my phones camera, but alas… not as good as would have been the case with my good camera.

Well, enough for now and back to work even though its Saturday… ahh, the life of a landlord… hahaha.

Tweet

Friday Night Fun, Lance Dooley Sculpture, Commemorative Watercolor and More Music by Selena

Well, I have to say that our experience at the Icicle Arts opening for the Lance Dooley exhibit on Friday was well worth the trip.  It came at the end of a fine day of art related activities for us. In the morning I had put some of my photos from our photo safari http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/weblogs/arts-in-the-valley-and-beyond/2011/jul/22/photo-safari/  into a blog that has produced a few complimentary responses from folks who have read it and enjoyed the pictures.

Later having worked on some projects at home with the materials that Terry Johnson, The Crazy Potter, had given to me I prepared to head out to Cashmere to help Artie Bowman put the gallery back together after they had new carpet installed. Martha who had an important meeting met up with me there awhile later.

While at the gallery I took a few pics of some of the artwork by Yuri Konyshev whom we had just met and attempted to speak with in Leavenworth the day before.

Yuri’s English is quite limited and we struggle to find a common language to communicate. Martha tried to speak with him in French as a lot of Russians study French in school there, but to no avail. He laughingly tried just as hard to communicate with us in German. Unfortunately my one year of German in High School failed me miserably, but we sure did enjoy his art and he was a quite a pleasant fellow that we would really have loved to speak with more successfully.

So, with that experience in mind, I made a point of snapping a few photos of his work at CAAC. I also,

got a few pics of some of the other watercolors there,

 before getting down to the business at hand of reinstalling much of the work that had been moved around due to the carpet install.

All good things coming to an end it was also the end of my showing on the Thank You Wall at CAAC.  So, as Martha was meeting us there to then go on to Leavenworth, I had her bring enough materials to pack up my work. I decided to bring it all home as I would like to bring some completely new work for the upcoming show there, and I really want to put some of the art I have had at CAAC into Two Rivers Gallery and change out the piece I have over at Amanda’s Book Store in Wenatchee.

After all the work in Cashmere, it was time to head out to Leavenworth to the Icicle arts Gallery. 

 The sculptures of Lance Dooley were really impressive. I really like his drawings as well.

The whole exhibit was well put together and included a video of Lance demonstrating how he works. And, of course the views from the gallery overlooking the Wenatchee River in Leavenworth only added to the ambiance of the gallery.

While we were there Martha met a number of folks she knew and in fact she and Lance recollected that they had met before and renewed their acquaintance.

Anna Miller, the Director of the Icicle Arts Gallery, was very pleased to meet Martha and spoke with her about showing there and teaching some classes as well.  Artie Bowman, met with Lance as well and had quite a conversation… a future Lance Dooley show in Cashmere perhaps… only time will tell.

Having had a really fine time in Leavenworth on Friday night, it was on to other things for Saturday. 

 Martha worked on a sad but meaningful project. A new friend had told her the story of how she lost a child some time back and asked Martha to produce a commemorative piece for her from some photos of her son. Martha put her heart into it a better part of the day Saturday… and I say it should be a fitting tribute to and memorable celebration of the life that was this young man.

Today, while watching the Tour de France, I posted yet another video of the young singer Selena Rose singing at the art opening at a previous opening at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center where she had performed A Kiss of the Fist is Better Than None… http://www.youtube.com/user/56Daut?ob=5#p/u  I had skipped that one when I posted video of her previously. Having looked at it again I realized that it really needed to be posted so it is now on 56DAUT on Youtube along with the other songs she performed for the Scott Allen opening.

Well, enough for now, and on to more artful adventures and experience for Rod and Martha.

Tweet

Dance Hall, Gutemala Girls, Plein Air Art, Live Performance and Making Movies

Well, it’s been another busy week for Rod and Martha and our various art projects. Martha has been painting and preparing her Guatemalan Girls paintings for the upcoming El Salvador Day in Wenatchee. She has been heavily involved with planning meetings on this as well.  Also, she has been continuing her work with the kids at the local emergency housing facility in Wenatchee… doing art work with them. As I am writing this she is there picking up some more clay figures the kids there have made so that I can fire them in the kiln here at home.

And, on the subject of the kiln we have gone through our initial trial and error stage of firing various objects with varied success. Martha had a friend with a lot of kiln experience come by and she left both a collection of various cones for the kiln and detailed instructions for firing various objects. We followed her step by step instruction with good success yesterday and so today we will fire more glazed items for the kids.

Also, this week I took a trip out to Leavenworth to meet with Anna Miller the director of the Icicle Arts Gallery. I had met her and her husband Brian at the previous week’s First Friday show at the Two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee. I took pics of the environment and the gallery and the art there in while I was there. I also, made a commitment to myself to get back on my bike and ride around Leavenworth while I was there. It is such a beautiful ride. And ride it I did yesterday and I took some more picks with my small camera while I was out there.

Later that same day Martha doned her Giant Puppet outfit once again. This time to entertain the folks at the Apple Sox baseball game. and, of course, I was there to get some pics and video and made a movie which is on Youtube as well.http://www.youtube.com/user/56Daut?ob=5#p/u/7/eXq9dOmUzjQ

I’ve also, been very much involved in trying to put together a youth oriented community center in Cashmere this week. In fact we will be meeting with a representative of Junior Achievement on Friday about possibly having JA as a major component of the project.  The center would go into the upper floor of the same building as the Senior Center in Cashmere. My concept would make use of the fact that there is a dance floor up there. I’m interested to do some historical research to see exactly what was there. Was it a dance studio for classes or, as I suspect, a penny a dance place maybe back in the 1940’s or so. Those were very popular back then. I’m thinking that a JA run facility where young people can have art classes, performances and other really positive youth oriented activities would be great there.

As I was just writing Martha came back with more clay works to fire and firing they are a doing at this moment. Let’s hope they come out good.

This week was also, the board meeting for Two Rivers Gallery. The meeting went well and we got done in a reasonable amount of time. Updates on the possibility of a bike tour of all the First Fridays venues as well as a possible horse drawn carriage tour of the various venues was presented and discussed. The big upcoming thing though is the Plein Air Art contest for the opening of the newest park in the hills above Wenatchee… that being the new Saddle Rock Park which has been a popular place for locals and visitors to hike and photo and sometime paint for years.

Saturday night was of course the Second Saturday event at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center in lovely Cashmere, Washington. We were so fortunate to not only feature the artwork of Scott Allen from Seattle, but to have Kirk Lewellen, who has written and performed with groups that have performed at the Monterey music festival and Various Blues Festivals and on and on, playing guitar for us. I took several photos of the art and of Kirk and his guitars as well as some video of Kirk playing.  From these, I made a movie and have posted it on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/56Daut?ob=5#p/u/6/jlh5kGuZy6A and sent links to Facebook and such. It was fund and entertaining at the show and as much fun making the movie.

Well, I think it’s time to wrap up and look to doing some real work. So bye for now.

Tweet