DC, Charlotte, Martha's Mural, Flounder and First Friday

 Well, as many of you know, Martha and I have returned from our trip to DC, Virginia and North Carolina. While in DC we were able to get to a couple of art museums. We really enjoyed the Hirshhorn Modern Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery and of course who couldn’t appreciate the Rodin Sculpture Garden on the national Mall.  

At the Renwick, I was really impressed with the work of ‘furniture’ maker Matthias Pliessing, who uses boat building techniques to create curvaceous forms some of which are unbelievably complex (with up to 5,000 points of contact without the use of hardware of any kind) yet seemingly simple in form.  Sadly his work was on the floor that did not allow photos, so I can’t show his work to you. Martha and I were both equally impressed with the glass sculpture of Karen LaMont, who ‘uses clothing as a metaphor for human presence’. Her piece titled “Reclining Dress Impression with Drapery” was truly amazing.

As DC was only a stop on the way to the more important purpose of this trip… to see our new grandson in Charlotte, NC, we only stayed a day and a half before heading on to NC.  On the way to Charlotte by car, we stopped at Monticello in Virginia to see the impressive home designed by Thomas Jefferson himself. I was surprised to learn how many technological advances he had designed into the building with an eye toward energy conservation, convenience and practicality.  

Once in Charlotte it was all about the baby, my daughter and her husband. What a great visit. Their high rise eleventh floor apartment had a perfect view of downtown Charlotte. Besides having an impressive modern high rise skyline, a number of the downtown Charlotte office buildings give a nightly lightshow that was surprising at first and entertaining each night. The early morning view and daytime view were each enjoyable in their own ways.

We were so fortunate to be there on the day in which my daughter and her husband had planned for a local professional photographer to come and take three month photos of the baby and the new parents. What a treat that was.

On the way back to DC we stopped at the Washington Mansion in Alexandria Virginia … an enjoyable stop that was educational as well as having a lovely view of the Potomac from the grounds.

Since returning from our little trip it has been work, work and more work. But, there has been important progress on art activities none-the-less. Martha and her volunteers painted most of the mural on one of our local Public Utility Boxes in Wenatchee. Today she will return to Triangle Park to finish putting the final details on the images there-in.

At my end my friend James and I got the kiln rebuild project completed and I have begun using the kiln to fire some practice pieces. As I write the first batch of glazed ceramics are cooling in the kiln after firing all night.

Thursday, I worked on a glass project over at Terry Johnson’s studio. Cutting the lines into rubber on glass for later sand blasting is way more time consuming than I ever imagined going into it. But, after four hours or so, the design of the flounder was cut and ready to send to the sand blaster. We’ll see how it turns out.

Last night I was at the First Friday art opening at two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee.  The work of Larry Gay, the featured artist, is pretty impressive.  While there I met Anna James Miller who is the managing director of the Icicle arts Gallery in Leavenworth and her husband who teaches 3D art at Wenatchee Valley College. After speaking with them I’m thinking of taking a sculpting class at the WVC and will likely hook up with Anna at the gallery perhaps as soon as this Sunday, after taking a bike ride around the Leavenworth Valley.

After visiting with the artists and enjoying the art at Two Rivers I headed on over to Amanda’s Book store, the only other venue I got to as part of last night’s Wenatchee First Fridays event. It was fun to bump into some of the other folks making the art walk around town there and get caught up with old friends.

Well, enough for now as it is time to watch the opening day of the Tour de France… bievenue.

Tweet

Paris Cafe' At Night, Bicycle Art Tours, and Hatian Art From Recycled Metal

Well, the art world of Rod and Martha continues on. Monday I had to get up bright and early to attend the Wenatchee First Fridays meeting in Wenatchee. This meeting is held the first Monday after the First Friday… hopefully that makes sense to the reader. This is a meeting in which all the galleries and other venues which participated in First Friday events share and discuss how things went on the First Friday event just past and make plans for the upcoming First Friday of the following month. It was good to hear that some venues were seeing increased traffic and to hear the thoughts and ideas of the other representatives there.

Some interesting discussion took place around the idea of bicycle tours both of the Arts on the Avenue which I had blogged about back in April I think it was or maybe early May, and of the First Friday venues. Someone from our local Transportation Council was there to talk about that very subject. I have since received some emails that perhaps in August we may have one First Friday that will have a horse and carriage to take people around to the various venues and more emails on the bicycle tour idea. We shall see how it all peeps out in the end, but all are good and interesting ideas to be sure.

While at the meeting I noticed some interesting metal artwork made in Haiti out of recycled materials. One of them caught my eyes as a possible birthday present for my lovely daughter who just had a baby in March. I am so happy to going to visit her and her husband and to hang out with the new baby. I’m thinking I might go back and pick up one of those art objects from McDees Art Center to take with me. Hopefully the metal won’t create too much of a stir for the TSA before we get on the plane.

Yesterday, while I was working hard at some of our rentals, Martha worked for several hours on her mural that she is doing at a friends house. He built a new shed in his yard and wanted to decorate it with something interesting. So; Martha is painting a Paris scene based mostly on a work by Van Gogh titled “Café at Night".

Later, last evening, while Martha was attending a meeting in town, I worked yet again on my kiln project this time with the help of a good friend who is an electrician. He checked all the work I had done, made some corrections and then tackled the electrical box of the kiln itself. After dissecting the innerds of the control box and even the switches themselves, he was able to reconstruct the wiring the way it was supposed to be and determine with certainty that the connectors inside one of the switches were welded together, but that the other one should function. That was good as I won’t have to buy quite as many parts, and we already knew that two of the three elements were fried.

So today, after planning further our trip to visit my grandson, Martha went to paint on her mural. I followed shortly thereafter to get a picture or two of her at work, and then came home and ordered the kiln parts. So far so good. It was nice to see when I got home that a collection of Grossbeaks were down below in the neighbor’s yard playing and having fun… or maybe just eating seeds. So; I snapped a few pictures and took a little video of them. The rain is falling again, but fortunately Martha has some substantial eves to cover her and her art work while she works on that mural.

Well I think I’s time to get to work on some of those mattes that I bought the other day to see if I can use the modified contraption of a matt cutter that I worked on last week. Wish me luck

Tweet

Burning Down the House and 'Out of the Box'

Well, yesterday Martha delivered her design proposal to Tina Flohr, for the City of Wenatchee Utility Box Art Program “Out of the Box”. The project is through the City of Wenatchee Arts Commission. The project is to promote the transformation of utility boxes in various areas within the City limits, from functional structures into colorful and inspired artworks.

 The idea of the project is to promote public art and increase cultural awareness. There are 50 utility boxes throughout the City, many of which may be utilized for projects in future years.  Once the designs are implemented, the intent is that these utility boxes will contribute to the vitality and attractiveness of the urban streetscape. The murals are to help tell the story of our community, allow public art to reach into specific neighborhoods at high visibility locations and will allow for participation by area artists, arts educators, schools and other community groups.

Martha’s designs are fully in keeping with the theme and show kids at play, cultural dancers and the local scenery of the area which should make a great contribution to the community where her mural will go.

If all goes according to plan she should be signing the contract today and we can begin making plans for implementation… he ha.

Meanwhile, I have been working, deconstructing and perhaps even destroying  the kiln that was given to us all in an effort to make it functional. I was able to determine that the upper element is usable but my efforts to rework the control box though going well at first, ran afoul when I shorted something out on a test and trip not one but four breakers at my workshop and rental apartment building in Wenatchee. At least I didn’t burn down the house. I did get a name and number of a guy in Tacoma to perhaps take it to for repair… I’m going to get the schematics online and give it another go first. Hopefully my next blog won’t be about burning down the house.

On a lighter note, over the weekend we moved the artwork of Scott Allen from our house to the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center in Cashmere in the morning. Martha taught the second of three installments of a clay modeling class. The students were doing really well with there heads. Later we installed Scotts work after taking down the art work of the Vale Elementary School kids. We kept the work of the award winners in another display so people could still come to see them for another month.

Yesterday, I also got a bit of a lesson from Terry Johnson on working with glass… very fascinating indeed. Ideas abound on things to do with glass. While there I offered to come with him when next he goes out to Quincy to do this gigantic mural for a fruit co. out there. I thought it would be great to get some photos and video of that process. It could make for a fun Youtube video.

Well, I think it’s time to get to that kiln project… wish me luck.

Tweet

The Beat Goes On, Straw Bale Art House and Electric Elements

Well, the week started off well with an invitation to lunch with our artist friends in the neighborhood, who had Ruth Allan, a well known local potter of some renown, over and some artist friends from Oregon visiting as well. The folks from Oregon showed us the online video of their bed and breakfast and artist retreat in Oregon. Alas the b&B / artist retreat is for sale.  Apparently after fifteen years or so of providing ceramics workshops to participants from all over the country, they have tired of it as they found themselves doing more administrative work than art…hmmm… sounds familiar.

The place was pretty interesting and must have been quiet a joy and challenge at the beginning as they built a straw bale house and a cultured natural landscape with an eye toward sustainability of the environment. Their concern for the environment seemed to play into their decision to DC the workshops too as the participants were coming from so far away rather than the more local participation they had envisioned early on - all that hydrocarbon footprint stuff related to air travel and such.

Everybody enjoyed hearing about the giant puppet project we had been involved in all year and they checked out some of the videos at 56DAUT on Youtube. After the lunch and a couple of drinks, they all came to our house to look at Martha’s studio and take a gander at my 2.5 D recycled materials art project. And, of course we all went out to visit the ‘Great Wall of China’ project from a couple of years ago and the vineyard I recently planted on the lower level of our property.  All in all it was a fun visit with some very interesting artsy folks.

As the week has progressed, I have – between managing functional issues with our rentals and other mundane sorts of stuff – been working on getting the kiln that was gifted to me up and running. To that end I had a good friend and fellow diver, who is an electrician, come take a look at it and the wiring situation at my house.  As it has turned out two of three elements are fried and the control panel parts were ‘maybe’ functional. So far, the thing is not working as I gave it test run last night after completing the wiring stuff arrrrg!!! Frustration. Now, it is to determine if the new breaker and subsequent wiring of an outlet is the problem, or is it that even that one ‘good’ element is also not good after all. Oh well, on it goes.

Meanwhile, Martha has completed her design for the Big Electrical Box Mural Project and presented it to the folks in charge of accepting the design yesterday.  At least one of us is getting somewhere with art projects. I am envious as I have gotten so far with the recycled art project and getting my prints matted and framed and then progress stopped as I have been doing so many other things too many to list here.

One of those projects deserves to be mentioned, that being that I did get a full length movie done of the giant Puppet Project.  I need to get that over to Bill Rietvelt at the Wenatchee Museum and Cultural Center…hope you like it Bill. And, I have been getting the word out there about the live performance of Selena Rose at the upcoming Scott Allen art show opening in Cashmere. I am really looking forward to a full and lively event as it will be live streamed on the Art News Network channel on Livestream.com.

 I am hoping to get a chance soon to practice using the matt cutter over at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center that Vicky Hilberg has taken over there. Martha has suggested practicing on some cheap material instead of actual matt board as there is a learning curve with these things and some waste is expected early on in that curve. She’s probably right and so, I need to get some of that cheap material over there and practice. I really am chomping at the bit though to get a matt cut for a particular art photo of mine that is just screaming to be matted and framed. Add to that, that I will need to have some new material ready to put up at Two Rivers Gallery in Wenatchee at the end of the month… ahhh… pressure. Will it get done on time or won’t it. That is the question.

And, so for today it is back to the drawing board on that kiln and maybe another consult with my electrician friend.  As the song says, “The Beat Goes On”.

Tweet

Ttraining Adults with Art and The Earth Is Me

As I am writing this blog martha is on her way to quincy to do a training with prpspective child care providers, where she will be using art in at least part of the program. This for both helping them learn to relax and destress themselves and to give them more skills with which to bprovide a better experience for the children they will be  caring for. This following on the heals of what has already been a very full and art education week for Martha as she provided special art opportunities to kids at the Columbia Elementary School in Wenatchee. As written in our other blog:

The Giant Puppet Project done and the Puppets put to rest Martha Flores was at it again with another great community art project. This week she has been working with the third grades classes of Mrs. Zobel and Mrs. Saltsman at Columbia Elementary on  the “The Earth Is Me” project.  Martha described this as a study in abstract self-portraiture. The project is part of the Resident Artist Program provided by the Wenatchee Art Education Consortium. And as I am writing this Martha is finishing up with the third grade class of Miss. Heffron also at Columbia Elementary. What a great project. Out of this project will come the seed designs of what will be the mural to be painted on the large PUD electrical box at Triangle Park.

I think it’s great that the kids in the school get to help design the mural that will contribute to the beautification of the community. How great is that? I can just see them now and for some years to come as they may pass by and say to themselves or anyone around them, “hey, that looks like the part I drew with Ms. Flores at School.” This can’t help by add a real sense of pride in and belonging to their community.

As I took pictures of the art work of the kids in these classes and met briefly with their teachers, I could see how proud the teachers were of their students and could see that Martha Flores was so happy to be able to share her artistic knowledge and experience with these budding young artists. I can’t wait to see what the murals that come from these children’s watercolors look like out in town.

Meanwhile, on another note, Artie Bowman is preparing for next month’s show exhibiting the work of Scott Allen who recently exhibited at the Robert Graves Gallery at Wenatchee Valley College. Quite a coupe for Artie and folks at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center. On top of that, she is very pleased that CAAC will have the young singer songwriter Selena Rose Martinez (who recently performed at May’s First Friday opening at the PAC here in Wenatchee), at their upcoming Second Saturday Opening on June 11^th . Hooray, for Cashmere. That should be quite a treat. This young lady has one of the sweetest voices I have heard in years.

Tweet

Selena, Saving the Earth and Cutting Heavy Metal

Well, today Martha and I are making headway with our art projects. Martha is as I write working with the third graders at Columbia Elementary School in Wenatchee on a two day art project called “I Am the Earth.”  Tomorrow I will go there and get photos of the kids and their work.

 Later today Martha will meet with the fifth graders at Columbia School to get volunteers for her upcoming project through the city of Wenatchee and the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center which will be to paint a mural on one of those big ugly electrical boxes in town. The one they will do is at Triangle Park, the same park where the staging area of the Apple blossom Grand Parade is held each year http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvNCccsDAcw .

That should be a great project for the fifth graders and a real opportunity for them to contribute to the beautification of their community. I’m sure that project will offer some good photo opportunities as well and I will continue to blog both here and in the World Online about these great kid oriented art projects.

On another note, I have been emailing back and forth with Selena Rose the local 16yr old musical phenom about performing for the Scott Allen Second Saturday Art show Opening at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center on June 11^th. I hope we can get her. She has to ask her [parents….how cute is that.

At my end, I pound that Terry Johnson has exactly the kind of metal cutting equipment that I need to cut one of those chrome metal frames that I want to make a star/sun out of for my recycled material 2.5d mural, and so I will be heading over to terry’s this morning as soon as I finish posting this blog. Also, when I visited Terry yesterday I saw how his Picasso Pot is coming… it’s looks great so far. Hope it comes out well. But, as Terry explained, he sometimes gets anxious to progress on a project and then doesn’t wait long enough between steps and can thereby ruin a piece. So; he has to keep himself busy with multiple pieces going at the same time so he doesn’t get in too much of a hurry with any one project and end up rushing it to ruination.

Isn’t it like that though with so many things for all of us. A good lesson to be learned there.  And, so there it is for today for Rod and Martha and our art projects for today. And, so now it is off to work on art and then to docent at the Two Rivers Gallery.

Tweet

Chrome and Mother Earth Blame It On La Rain

Well, I think we can say we got a few things done artistically over the weekend. Friday I put together my large 2.5d art piece on the theme of saving the earth made completely with on hand recycled materials. I used an old plywood panel that used to be a homemade door to storage space in our storage room downstairs. Martha and the foster kids used to paint on it. Each time we would get a new foster kid they would add to the accumulating mural on this and the other door panels down there.

I had taken them down some time back as they had become more of a hindrance than a help anymore. To this one panel which had some tropical forest images and a Martha-esc mother earth face in the forest, I attached seven chrome frames that had been for recessed lighting in our downstairs TV room and pool table area. I put two of them in diamond configuration around the face and the rest as forming a body over the mural of the earth forest scene. Recycling man made materials and to show that the materials eventually go back to the earth I painted the little springs that used to allow the chrome frames to drop down from the ceiling in order to replace light bulbs, to match the mural behind the frames. Even the screws I used were old screws I had lying around. No new materials were purchased for this piece and no toxic materials such as glues or adhesives of any kind were used. That done I put it under the overhang of the garage roof just before the weekend of rain began.

I also got two of my art photos framed up and had to create a matt for one of them. It has a musical theme so I ended up creating this grunge sort of matt for it. It might not be for everyone, but the buyer of this kind of piece could like that. I may change it though.

Saturday after selling used stoves from my apartments to the second hand appliance guy in town, I took the framed up musical themed art photo to the newly remodeled music store in Wenatchee. I chatted it up with the guys there until the owner who turned out to be Steve Clemm the prosecuting attorney of Douglas County… I never knew he was a musician and music store owner till then.

Steve looked at the piece with some apparent interest, but alas didn’t buy it…saying that it was the slow time yada yada and implying that having just spent BIG bucks on the new building that $150 for an art piece was a bit stiff.  Seems a bit shaky there Steve.

After this I went across the street to Terry Johnson’s studio, where he was working on some really great new ceramics. One is what is shaping up to be a very elegant and tall pot which he has painter Picasso on. He has done well before with a Picasso themed painting that sold at the gallery in Cashmere not too long ago. While there he showed me a new kiln he just acquired. I think that brings it up to about 13 kilns that he has. He asked me to change out the plug on the chord for him so it would be compatible with his outlets…

Later it was home to get ready for Saturday night’s opening of the art show at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center. I took the new art photo down there and my lap top so I could live stream the opening. I actually was successful in livestreaming the entire show including quite a bit of the live musical performance of Mary Mendenhall as well as walking around the show and speaking with the patrons and interested parties while broadcasting around the world. I really like Mary’s rendition of “The Rose” from the movie of the same name made famous by Bette Midler in the late ‘70s. Her playing of the mandolin for this piece was perfect for the song.

Sunday I tried to make a movie from the video that was recorded by Livestream… no go on that. And, in downloading it from Livestream I lost it apparently to the Livestream library…. Argh…. And, still all the video clips and movies I have placed into the Art News Network, are still not showing up as available to other to watch from the site. I need to follow up with Livestream help on that. Maybe for that function one has to buy the more advanced Livestream program vs. the free one I use…I dunno. I did get a Wenatchee World Blog done and added some photo material to the Wenatchee First Fridays site as an administrator. However, I was a bit frustrated in that none of the photos from Saturday night could be used for the Wenatchee World Blog. Every time I tried to upload one of those pics, the window came up saying page unavailable. When I tried to add pics from other locations no problem. I’m thinking that the pics from that particular memory stick got corrupted somehow. They look fine on my screne but couldn’t add to Arts in the Valley and Beyond Blog. We shall see if I able to add any of them to this blog. If not then, that memory stick is a gonner. If so, then maybe it was just a glitch with the other blog site… I dunno.

Martha and I were house bound all day as it turned out on Sunday due to the freaking rain. Geez… it seemed like we were having Seattle weather… all..day…long.  But, we stayed in and got some art stuff done. I updated the art book I have been working on… adding some more art pics and poetry.

Martha hadn’t even seen the last additions to this I had done as she was in Texas when last I worked on it and we have been so caught-up with building giant puppets and installing art shows and such every week that we hadn’t had this kind of time to sit around and do this stuff together… I guess we can blame it on ‘la rain’.  Having done that Martha pulled out some new paintings she had done lately that I hadn’t seen. I did some temp framing in glass frames, as they are on a kind of board that wants to warp if not pressed together, so I could take photos of them. We got that done and the pics look pretty OK.

Then it was on to yet another thing… again, blame it on ‘la rain’. We used our office software to mimic the exact format of the materials Martha is to use for a Hispanic parenting class she is to teach. Problem being the materials she is supposed to use, haven’t all been translated to Spanish. We wanted to keep the format so we did and Martha translated the material herself. She shared that the people who are sponsoring this class are looking at paying big bucks to someone to do the same thing….hmmm… maybe there could be some $ there. Now, there’s an idea. Always thinking creatively ya know.

Tweet