Sunday, July 28, 2013

Show at Artcentric Gallery

Had a great time at the opening reception of my show at Artcentric Gallery in Troy, NY. We had live music by Lost Radio Rounders too. They were great http://www.lostradiorounders.com/ !



Tuesday, July 23, 2013

new piece... about conflict

Here's a new piece. It's entitled "A Different Kind of War" (5" x 7"). The background is a microphotograph of a fingerprint. The Vietnamese soldier is from an old Life magazine. The sci-fi guy and solar system elements "round out" the piece. The elements remind me of the contrast in the way we wage wars these days. My work is typically narrative and surreal and sometimes hints of an imaginary, sci-fi world which can include "invasions", but it is also typically not politically conflict-related. After doing this piece I did realize that I have done three explicitly conflict-related pieces. I've decided to show all three here:

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Thank you note to Jonathan Talbot

I received a high res image from my friend and former student Dr. Robert Twining of the cover of the July issue of the journal "Learning & Memory" for which I did the cover art. As I stated in my note to Jonathan, I am very proud of this accomplishment. I thought I would share my note to him on this blog:

"Here's a high res image of the cover in its final form. I love the color they chose (perfect match with the lips). I am so proud of this accomplishment in my life (too bad there's no monetary "reward"). In a way, I feel like it is the culmination of what I learned thanks to you and what I "bring to the table" artistically (and informed by my various backgrounds). Getting published in a journal like this is a BIG accomplishment when you are "in the field" like I used to be in graduate school. I would have never thought "in a million years" back then that I would have been an artist "worthy" of doing a cover for such a prestigious journal. Some 25 years later... Pretty cool. The fact that one of my former students (Dr. Roberrt C. Twining) was the catalyst for the project is pretty awesome too. BTW, I love the fact that it involves a collage with a transfer too. Thanks again Jonathan!"

Well, I guess I can't upload a .tiff file to this blog. See the image at: http://learnmem.cshlp.org/content/20/7.cover-expansion

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Collagists represented!

Very happy to share with you that two of my favorite collagists will be featured in the fall issue of The Artist Catalogue http://www.theartistcatalogue.com/
Joe Castro and Michael Harford have both been accepted for inclusion into this impressive publication! And Joe's work will be featured on the cover! Congratulations to both of these fine artists!
http://mightyjoecastro.com/
http://coffeemessiah.blogspot.com/

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Central Adirondack Art Show revisited

SOoo... the piece I entered into this show is entitled "Two Birds, with One Stoned". I made it on April 20, 2013 (i.e., 4/20). Some of you will understand the play on words in the title. I often try to make my titles as creative as I can and consider the titles to be part of the work. The paperwork for this show included triplicate forms for which I wrote my name, address and the title of the artwork. I was careful to make it very clear that the title was "Two Birds, with One Stoned". When I went to the opening reception, the title was not correct both in the program (where it was listed in a general list and in the "winners" list) and was not correct on the wall tag. Did the organizers simply make a mistake which is somewhat understandable (assuming the title was the standard cliche)? Or was there some censorship of the title? A friend of mine who is familiar with the folks at View told me that it was DEFINITELY censorship of a suggestive title. That would really be too bad if it is the case. For god sakes, we need to lighten-up a little as a society, I think. It's reminiscent of the last time I heard Tom Petty's song with the lyrics "Let's get to the point; and roll another joint". The "joint" was bleeped out on the radio. WTF!? Is that really "dangerous" enough to censor? BTW, another show that I am currently a part of has once again, spelled my name with a "ph" instead of a "v"... even though EVERY e-mail and form I have sent has my named spelled with a "v". Argh!

Central Adirondack Art Show

I went to the opening reception of the 62nd Central Adirondack Art Show in Old Forge, NY on Friday evening. What an absolutely beautiful new facility they have there! Here are some photos from the event (in the order shown, by Greg Klein; Evelyn Balder; Ruth Crotty; Dan Bacich; Ron Haas; Your Truly). The wooden "chips" are traditional for this show and indicate prize-winners.