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Frieda Kahlo and Martha Flores Exhibits, Painting and Dancing and Making Movies

Well, While I have been out of town visiting kids and grand kids and other family and friends in So Cal., Martha has been busy busy busy with art and art activities back home… miss you baby.  Over the weekend she had guests from out of town that came to visit, stay the weekend at the house and pick up the artwork they had purchased awhile back.  These really nice folks live on the west side of the mountains and are thinking about opening their own gallery sometime… don’t know when. They really love Martha’s work.

During the week a surprise call came from some reps of the library in Quincy. They recalled Martha from years ago when she used to work out that way and once had a show at the library. Well, it seems that they saw her online… don’t know if it was the Martha’s Art House video, the video of her one woman show at the Performing Arts Center in Wenatchee or one or more of the blogs, but having seen her online and recalling her from her show there, they decided they would like to purchase one of Martha’s paintings for their permanent collection. They will be coming out to the house to look and buy art some time soon.

Today Martha has an early morning meeting at the Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center regarding the need to set-up a board for the Embracing Cultures Group… the ones who put on the Day of El Salvador event at the museum awhile back that was so successful.  Then later today at about 4pm she will be heading over to the Spring Hills Suites Marriott Hotel. There she will be part of the ARTNIGHT event in which she will be painting live and dancing at the same time.  Wish I could see that. I hope someone gets some good pics and forwards them to me.  There will also be live music, hence the dancing while Martha paints, and local wine. Oh well, can’t be in two places at once and I wouldn’t miss this time with my granddaughters for anything.

And, speaking of my granddaughters, one of my artistic activities this week has been making a video of two of the girls dancing. My granddaughter Ciara got a Jasmine out fit for her birthday and promptly put it on and started doing interpretive dance moves and her older sister Alexandra, not to be out done, started doing some of her hip hop moves. It was fun to watch and to photograph. So; I decided to make a little movie and put some music to it and then posted it on Youtube.http://www.youtube.com/user/56Daut?ob=5#p/u/7/WNjBAfzgbyQ

Also, since I have been down here I went with my sister, her friends, my son and his fiancé to the Frieda Kahlo photo exhibit. The photos were by Nickolas Muray. The Opening Reception was Saturday, September 24^th. We really enjoyed the exhibit and had a good night out on the town after.

And on a similar note my oldest son is planning to take me to the J. Paul Getty Museum this Saturday. I’m really looking forward to that, as I haven’t yet been to the new Getty Museum. I had been to the old museum in Malibu a few time and really enjoyed it. The new one is much bigger and grander by far. I can’t wait to see it. Hmm… maybe they would like to have a Martha Flores piece in their permanent collection…  You never know… right.

Well, enough for now. Enjoy the arts and the art of living.

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Heavey Metal Horse, Dancing Artist, On the Radio and Waterwheel Gone Dry

Well, Friday and Saturday were interesting days for Martha and I for art and art related activities. In the morning on Friday, I worked on some new digital art and contacted the director of the Cashmere Museum to follow up on our conversation of a few weeks ago about producing some post cards for the museum. He is interested and has some ideas and some old postcards they used to sell that he’d like me to take a look at. He, also, let me know that the work they were doing around the pioneer village / General Store is done and the caution tape is out of the scene. Which meant it was good to go back and get some photos of that without the darn caution tape ruining the shots.

Around that same time I received an email from Paul, the fellow in the town of Liberty who had me make up a bunch of post cards for him to sell to the tourist up there. He wants more pics from the concert up there and to schedule a time for me to take some new pictures for him. So; a printing I did go, with the plan to drop them off at Terry Signs for him to pick up the next time he is in Wenatchee.  Some of these shots from the party are pretty good, but I would have liked them a lot better if I had taken them with my own camera. As it happened back at the day/night of the concert, I used up the last of my memory shooting video of the band Rusted Souls and had to shoot a few stills for Paul with his  p/s camera.

Having printed up a few of these shots for Paul and having worked on my digital art a bit more, it was time to take Martha out to her scheduled interview on the La Super Z Spanish language Radio Station. First we stopped in at two Rivers Gallery where we visited with Russ and I shot some pics of Martha by her ‘I am the Earth’ painting.  This was fun, especially when I could get Martha to do a little dance for the camera. Photos of Martha are always best when I can catch her being playful and not posing for the camera. This was fun. Then it was off to the Radio station where I got a pic of her as she was heading into the KPQ building.

While Martha was being interviewed on the radio I took the prints over to Terry Signs for Paul and took a few candid shots of him and his wife Karen who happened to be there to keep him on the straight and narrow  (just kidding) while he was creating wonderful new works of art.

He’s onto some interesting new stuff on the wine bottle theme.

 After all this fun in town it was time, alas, to pick-up Martha and get to some real work. For this meeting Martha was needed to translate for me and after we were done, we were both too tired to head on over to the Fiestas Mexicanas at Lincoln Park. I had hoped to go there and see if they were still using the large mural sized unstretched canvas painting s that Martha had done for the festival about ten years ago when it was called the Fiestas Patrias in commemoration of the revolutions that lead to the independence of Mexico and several other Latin American nations from Spain. It would have been nice to get some photos of these, if they still use them, as I no longer have or know where I have photos of those paintings.

Saturday, was a very full day indeed. First I traveedl to Manson by Motorcycle, to do a follow up meeting there, then, back to Wenatchee to photo Martha and the other giant puppets at the Taste of the Harvest Festival. Unfortunately by the time I got there she had already left her Native American Indian Woman outfit aside to go and get ready to teach her afternoon clay modeling class at the Cashmere Arts and Activities Center.

 I snapped a picture or two of the puppets and checked out the event. My good friend Rebecca Barrett and her husband John were working at a booth that was selling jewelry made by young girls in India who had been rescued from a life of enslavement for immoral purposes. So, of course I bought some pieces for gifts.

Then it was off to Cashmere to meet up with Martha and help her with her class.  As I parked out front, the police were just leaving. It seems that Vic Dietering the docent for the day didn’t know how to shut off the alarm. As it was it went off again, so; it was good I arrived when I did to shut it off.

Once Martha got there and started her class, I got photos of the class and of some of the work of her students. I am particularly impressed with the development of her student Rebecca Calkins. Becky is really coming along and doing some very impressive work.

While in Cashmere I dropped off Gallery brochures at Country Boys BBQ and the Village Motel. The new owner of the motel wants to see some more of my photos for possible post cards to sell there.  And, finally I was off to the Cashmere Museum to take some more photos of the waterwheel and the General Store. I was lucky enough to meet Fred the grounds keeper who turned on the water wheel for me.

 It hadn’t been run for a month or so, and so it was bone dry. I took photos any way… some of which are pretty good. But; he asked if I would come back today (Sunday) in the afternoon.

By then, he was sure he could have water actually running in the waterwheel which hopefully will make for some even better photos complete with water splashing out of the scoops. We shall see. Let’s hope it works and the photos that come out of the next visit are worth it.

Well, enough for now and let’s all have a very artful day.

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I'll Gladly Pay on Tuesday for... Raku Glass and the Midnight Plane from Texas

Well, yesterday was quite the day for art and art related activities. First thing in the morning 8:30 am it was time for the monthly post First Friday meeting of the WFF at Café Mela in Wenatchee. A lot of discussion of flyers and posters, self printing per venue vs. a group paid printing… also, the expansion of the WFF from just the core of the ‘Old downtown’ to a broader area was actually voted on and decided. Sadly one of the members will d/c participation for the time being… that being Pak-It-Rite…

oh well, maybe in the spring. It was a lot of fun going in there with the bicycle riders for the August First Friday event, which made for a fun video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJAdzEg2fYI&feature=channel_video_title .

Then it was to my new favorite morning thing to do which is riding the loop with Dr. Ed Farrar and the ‘B’ Team riders whom Jan Cook Mack will be painting a mural of in the spring. Having completed my ride, I headed over to Terry Johnson’s to see what he was up to and to look at what we can do about trying to get that melted glass out of the stainless steel bowl that I over cooked, so to speak, allowing the glass to fill the bottom third of the bowl in such a way that it seems pretty impossible to get it out.

He had an idea and we put it in the kiln to see if it would work.  I had a lot of other work to do for the day and couldn’t stay but planned to pop over  later if I could work it in.

Having completed some important work at home, I packed up some medium to small framed prints of Martha’s paintings to take over to the NUART Gallery in East Wenatchee. Gary Doane the owner is now carrying a small number of Martha’s prints in the gallery. Gary is really nice guy and by coincidence one of his employees knew Martha from the art work projects she has down locally with kids and families in the emergency housing program. It had taken her a bit the day before to catch on that the art I was bringing in was by the same person. But, when it gelled it was funny and sort of like ‘old home week’ or something… even though Martha wasn’t there with me.

Having installed the framed prints at NUART it was off to Wenatchee again, where I checked in on the glass / steel bowl project. Terry had taken it out and tried to get the glass to come out and so did I. No go! My next approach is to fire it at home at high temp and try to get the glass to melt out into a Raku fired bowl. This could produce something new and interesting, or just become a big mess that I will have no fun cleaning up. We shall see.

 While at Terry’s I did take a pic of his latest 2d creation and of the characters hanging out at his studio and sign shop. There are always some characters hanging out there. I had a few more matted but unframed prints of Martha’s art in the back of the car and knowing Terry has a collection of new and used frames in the store room there, I browsed through the collection and low and behold I found a perfect fit for one of Martha’s prints… Yahoo! 

Don’t worry, Terry, I’ll gladly pay you on Tuesday for that frame today. No seriously I’ll get that refreshment to you ASAP.

Having picked up the glass and steel bowl to work on at home, I headed out to prepare for the arrival of Martha who was coming in on the Midnight plane from not Georgia but Texas. I really needed to organize all the art and art project materials I have been working on which… just seem to find their way into everything while Martha is away. Having done with that it was time for the monthly Board meeting of Two Rivers Gallery.

These meetings are important and necessary, but as with all such meetings, they can seem to carry on a bit too long. It was good to hear that First Friday had done so well and kudos were given for all the things that so many of the board members and members at large had done over the month to further the improvement and success of the gallery.  Martha had called while I was in the meeting and was at SEATAC waiting for her flight to Wenatchee, so as soon as the meeting was over I zipped home to put the last few art project bits and pieces away before heading to the airport to pick her up. Hey Na Hey Na my Martha  is back.                                                                                         (Terry Johnson's glass and Martha's prints)

Well enough for now, and a pleasant and artful day to you all.

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Fantastic Woodwork, Fine Art and that Famous Cashmere Bronze Hog

Well, yesterday was my day to gallery sit at Two Rivers Galery.  So, instead of riding from East Wenatchee on bike to meet up with Ed Farrar and the ‘B’ Team to ride the loop. I drove over with bike in the back of the car and my computer and camera up front.  I got there early and took photos of the new show with particular emphasis on the wood sculptures of
Milo Mirabelli

and the

 oil paintings of Ruth Couraud Mattson. Of course I got some good pic of the other fine art work and photography in the gallery.  Then, after a really beautiful morning ride with the group, I opened up the gallery and took my computer in with me so I could get some work done while I was there. It’s usually pretty slow there in the morning.

As it turned out John Barrett was there working on a new lighting system for one of the two front rooms. I was glad it was him and not me as it looked like a real pain of a job… have at it John. I should add that he seemed to be doing a fine job of it.

While I was there a few folks dropped by and I was able to let them know about our First Friday exhibit which is tonight. Some gallery members came by, and I gave them some info on the Two Rivers Facebook page and my two blogs and Youtube page which they were interested to know about but knew nothing of until yesterday. This underscored to me how we at the gallery need to do better at getting the word out to our members about such things for the artist community of Two Rivers Gallery.

Also, while I was there, Mr. Mirabelli himself dropped by. It was very interesting talking with him. I wish we could have chatted more, but shifts were changing and things were going on and then I had to leave. His work is really phenomenal. It’s hard to imagine the precision with which he cut and polished the wood pieces that he has on display. It was fascinating to find out that though he lives here in Wenatchee, he had his studio in Greys Harbor for many years and has his work in galleries across the country. I really want to spend some more time with him and learn more about he and his art. Perhaps I’ll have the chance at First Friday tonight.

Meanwhile, by popular demand, I did get to and finished the task of putting together this year’s Martha Flores Art Calendar and ordered them from the printer. Anyone interested should let me know soon as there will be a limited supply and they will surely all be gone by the time the yearly calendar turns to 2012.

On my way back from Wenatchee, I stopped in to see Terry Johnson at his studio. He is working on something totally knew… a floral painting. But, in that unique Terry Johnson style. I won’t say anything more about that till it’s done and I take a photo of it. It’s fun watching it in production take it’s ever evolving form. While there, I went into the back room where Terry keeps some frames and mattes to look around. I found a matt that I thought would be perfect for one of Martha’s pieces… a large Spirit of the Forest print.

We had only one print made of this. When I got home it was perfect for the print and only had to be trimmed on the outer (straight cut) perimeter to fit into the frame that it would go in. Got it done and Martha will be happy about that when she gets back from Texas on Wednesday.

This morning I’ll be off to Leavenworth to take photos of the rest of the recycled art pieces in the Icicle Gallery and at the Sleeping lady Resort. That should be fun and then to the Cashmere Museum to hopefully get Fred the head Groundskeeper to fire up (if that’s the right term) the






Waterwheel per Dean Rainey the Museum Director, to get some photos of it in action with water falling from it and glistening in the sun.



 I’ll attempt while I am there to get some photos of the general store exhibit from a different vantage point to see if I can get a good shot without the construction work barricade and yellow tape getting into the picture. I might just have to come back in a few weeks for that when the work is done.

All this for the Cashmere Town and Museum post card project I am working on… I hope it goes well and the Museum starts selling my postcards. Besides the Museum shots so far I also have some cool pics of that famouse Bronze Hog at a local BBQ joint in town. It's quite the attraction there for tourists to take photos of their kids climbing all over it.

Well, enough for now. It’s time to get ready to either ride with the ‘B’ Team and then head to Leavenworth… or take the bike out to Leavenworth and ride out there before I photo the art… hmmm… decisions descisions. It’s all good and I’ll let you know in my next blog what I decided.

 

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Forest Nymph Masks and Dancing Lights

Well, it’s been a busy and fun few days of art activities.

On Sunday I finished wiring up a new photo piece of mine of the Orange Flowere and took it and  Martha’s and my art over to Two Rivers Gallery for the September show. It’s hard to believe that First Friday is upon us.  I still need to get some prints and cards over there as well.

Over the last few days, I put the finishing touches on the two masks that Martha made. I took them over to Terry Johnson’s Studio in Wenatchee where I took some new photos of a sign he made for an Antique shop. It was pretty cool. While there he let me use his under glazes to put the color to the faces and the foresty, flowery and butterfly like features of the two masks. Then, he let me have some clear glaze to put on them at home and gave me instructions on how to use them and fire them.

Having done so and having let them cool over night, I took them out of the kiln yesterday. They looked pretty good… no explosions or breaks… yeah!!! I took some pics and emailed them off to Martha who is still playing with the grand daughters in Texas. She liked them… Yahoo!!

Today, I sent a PDF with the art book I have been working on for Martha to my son in California who knows all about E-Publishing. We’ll see what he says. Hope he has time to look at it as he is in the middle of wedding planning… nah… I’m sure his fiancé and sister are handling all of that… he should have plenty-o-time.

On another note, I also sent some more pics off to the fellow in Liberty who bought 30 post cards I made from photos I took around his place at the art sale and Concert in the Woods the week before. He was planning to sell them over this past weekend at the Miners Rally up there.

I hope he did well with that and the selling of his guitar bird houses. These are pretty cool in themselves and yet another thing he sells to the tourists up there.

This morning I downloaded the photos I took yesterday up in Cashmere. I had no bike to ride in the morning as it is in the shop. So; to make good use of time, I headed up to Cashmere on the motorcycle… with camera, and took a bunch of photos of the art and surroundings around the museum there and of some other public art in the town and of horses up in the canyon. I’m hoping to find some buyers for post cards made from some of these like I did with the photos from the town of Liberty. We shall see.

 If nothing else, it was a fun adventure and I did take some good pics that could be made into nice framed prints if not post cards. Perhaps some of these could be placed at the gallery in Cashmere.  One thing I didn’t get that I really need to go back there for would be a better shot of the old General Store exhibit at the museum.

The angel I took the photos I have would have been perfect… except for the fact that just off to the left is some yellow do not cross tape and some hazard saw horses where they are doing some work. I’ll have to go back and get shots from a very different angle or wait till the work is done and retake the shots I have.

AI did another photo experiment I did a few nights ago. This involved some time laps photography that resulted in some very interesting nightlight cityscapes and some very colorful dancing lights a night. I’ll just have to put a pic or two here and let them speak for themselves.

My latest idea for the kiln involves the old glass light covers that used to be in the recessed lighting fixtures in our den. Those are the same fixtures that I got the chrome frames from for the recycled art piece which is presently at the O’Grady’s Pantry at the Sleeping Lady Lodge near Leavenworth. My idea is to set them one at a time over a stainless steal bowl heat it up and let them bend somewhat into the bowl, but not too much. I’ll try using some colored glass bits in them to create a nice colored pattern and some texture. We’ll see how it comes out. Wish me luck with that and the other things to come ahead.

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