The 2014 Show

For the show this year at Rodger LaPelle Galleries, I added my thoughts and drawings on some rice paper that I first pasted to the wall.  This photo is what it looked liked as a whole.  I believe I pulled off the subtleness I was looking for.  What is happening on the wall, I hope complemented the paintings.  

The following photos are the individual affects of the rice paper, and what I wrote.  Much of which is destroyed.   Some of the writings and drawings from the wall were paired with the art they were next to and sent to the folks who bought them.  Or stored in the back of Rodger's gallery. 

Nap Time was in the window, on the side.  David Lynch's work took center stage.

 

Here is my entry 'Artist's statement'.  I didn't think it need too much explanation.

 

And here are some photos from First Friday

Thank you for looking!

A Night with Gianandrea Noseda and the Philadelphia Orchestra

I've been staring at the calendar trying to figure if it was Saturday or Friday night i went to the Orchestra with Nick. My good friend Beth was sick and couldn't use her subscription tickets so we benefited. the sketchbook page says the tenth but that is wrong. it shows how bad i am with dates and times of things. This was only a few days ago. I'm pretty sure it was... no I'm not sure. that's the benefit of working a Monday through Friday job. you know what day it is when you do things.

Enough gabbing about that. Here is what this blog is really about:

 We got in to the hall and were sat in the fifth row back. What was awesome about this was that i still had enough light on me that i could DRAW THE DURING THE WHOLE  PERFORMANCE. This is rare usually i get a few sketches in during warm up and then they start. i can't see the page to put my pen on and i put it away. I love the dude with the Skrilla hair cut. he's playing... a Viola i think.  But the absolute best part was Gianandrea Noseda- the conductor! OH MY GODS! his movement. he was like a fledgling bird trying to lift off. Not some easy idea of flight. The organic struggle that makes it hard. he didn't stop moving! i couldn't catch his movements at all.

 I tried and tried. I could hear his harsh "DAH! DAH!" his sweat flying from his fore head. his ARMS! defied anatomy. They bent in places we don't have joints! But with strength, fluidity, and grace.

 His legs came together or apart bent and shot up. None of it i could capture with my pen.

 It looks like a dance on the paper. It was so much more. A dance of a professional.

 I had taken many more pages of my sketchbook and switched to a new one. The old sketchbook pages used up. (lucky i came prepared!) i tried to take my eyes from the conductor to get more of the players.  in the upper right hand corner there you will see the little organ player. the whole thing seemed to be about the organ, but it was used sparingly and with great effect. it wasn't some showy complicated solo of ego.

This is one of the last pages. i couldn't keep my eyes from the conductor. i'm getting more and more frustrated at the inability to express the energy the movements.  They were both subtle and great so when i lifted my eyes back to him everything was changed. It was not like drawing an animal who will go back to the same position over and over. Even a human will. HE WAS NOT HUMAN WHILE CONDUCTING. maybe he was just extra human. Needless to say, i am in love with Gianandrea Noseda now.

The pages here represent less then half of what i drew that night. Scanning is a pain in the ass, but really it is more of the same sort of drawings.

I Is CAT!

Nick over heard this conversation.

  

(cat's aren't impressed by chatty bunnies)

 (cats are curious though)

No the cats have not eaten Penelope, but it's like they speak a different dialect of the same language.

Penelope's Origin Story

When I was a kid I loved animals...

Now days, I am constantly struggling against my urge to be on a farm with my love of the city. 

Not only do i want all the animals and grow all my food, i want to make all my clothes and do all the crafts. obviously this isn't possible. One of the millions of crafts i do to minimal ability and doneness is spinning yarn.

 one day i had a rush of ideas that went something like this : i barely spin wool so i NEED an animal that makes wool. i could have an urban farm and treat the with animals love and we could take the wool and spun wool and things i've crochet and sell them at the farmers market. We could have chickens and grow our own food.  We'll just convert one of those empty lots. 

Of course none of these ideas are practical.
but not being a practicable person i had to look up all the cute wool animal pictures. That 's when i came across angora rabbits. 

Which led me down a whole other set of illogical bad ideas, like turning my basement into a rabbit farm. eventually i found out about house rabbits. Things i had assumed about rabbits were wrong. lots of things. (check out binkybunny.com for rabbit info) Even after i had worked with rabbits in a children's museum. One thing leads to another and i end up on petfinder.com. where i saw a photo of a tiny long haired rabbit named 'snow white'

I went through maybe a week or two convincing myself i could not have a bunny. We have four cats. and a fish. I'm busy.... we'll not as busy as i should be. It's a huge responsibility.

One day I realized, because we have four cats, we can't travel without getting a sitter anyways. I researched that rabbits and cats actually do get along pretty well.

 And then i realized i was an adult, we have the space and funds and i could have a rabbit if i wanted one.

 

I think i was feeling particularly confident that day. 

 So i filled out the application and was pre-approved for adopting 'snow white'. The whole time getting ready for her and doing more research i kept having doubt and telling myself  'it's not responsible'. 

Lucky for me Nick was cool with me adding to our fur babies. He helped me feel more confident about the decision to rescue her. 

When i say 'rescue' i mean 'rescue'. well, sort of. the real person who rescued her was an animal control officer who didn't want her to be 'put down'. 

We now call her Penelope but before she was even 'Snow white'  she was '240'. I know this because there is a prison style tattoo in her ear.

 She was owned by a breeder who instructed her boyfriend to drop 240 and it's kit off at the Gloucester County animal shelter to be euthanized. This is because she had a cold. Often breeders cram too many animals together and if one gets sick it can easily transfer threw the whole herd. Her baby was weened and was adopted out before i met her.

 

Penelope working before she retired as a breeding rabbit. Female rabbits drop their eggs after they have been fertilized. They can get pregnant the same day they give birth. There is no way to know how many litters she had or how old she is.  Penelope is now spayed.

I can't believe the amount of emotions I've had around my bunny. i suppose it has something to do with not having children of my own. my fur babies have been dogs and cats and i have never felt so protective as i do with Penelope.  She is getting along with the cats... either they are frightened of her, have a mild curiosity of her, or lick her like she's a kitten.  I just love to sit and watch her hop around and nibble her food.

 Penelope. About a week after we got her.

It's ok to change life goals.

A change in life plans...

I'm not as sure of where I am going in life as I used to be. I used to have a very sketchy plan of how to live life as an artist. With the very secret plan that i would become known enough not to have to move my own works of art, push for sales, or worry about paying rent. Part of that dream included being known a little bit.  people would want to talk to me at parties. I'd have to choose between what parties i went to. folks would stop by the house to chat. I'd get a gallery in NYC if it killed me.  Every little scrap of paper i scribbled on would be precious. Except... I don't really like going to a lot of parties. I like to be in bed by 11. I really like Philadelphia.... And the art world has changed so much does NYC matter all that much?

I've become even more lazy. I don't have to fight for time in my studio anymore. Whether with a loved one or with splitting studio time with work. Or maybe what I have been doing in my studio isn't very exciting. I don't need gobs of people praising my work. But what am i working towards? Another show at Rodger's? and don't get me wrong I am very grateful for those opportunities. But I do a show that i think is very thrilling and it's a tiny blip on the radar. Do i need to change people's lives and have them talk about my work?  

I was paper-making the other day and i fell in love with doing a processes. that rhythm you need to gain to make it work and the all most mindlessness combined with problem solving aspects of it. Maybe I need to do more print making.

I better figure it out quick. What ever it is. I have a show in June.