Tag Archives: opening reception

It’s All About the Story, Vol. 3: Lee Smith

It is time to take a short break from sharing new images of my art dolls and sculpture for a week, and talk instead about the new show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.  A couple of weeks ago I shared a somewhat different piece with a small figure on a swing that I created out of fabric maché.  That piece was for the show now installed at HGA, “It’s All About the Story, Volume 3: Lee Smith.”

Invite Card for "It's All About the Story, Volume 3: Lee Smith

Invite Card for “It’s All About the Story, Volume 3: Lee Smith.

Each February we team up with one of the many noted authors who prompted the Wall Street Journal to name Hillsborough, NC as “America’s Little Literary Town”, and do a show of art inspired by that author’s work. This year we responded to Lee Smith’s collection of short stories, Mrs Darcy and the Blue Eyed Stranger. These interpretations take form in every media present in the gallery from painting and sculpture, to pottery, glass and jewelry.

The opening reception for this show is this Friday, 6-9pm.  The Gallery will also host a reading by Lee on Sunday, March 8th from 4-6pm. Be sure to stop in and see this yearly melding of visual and literary art.

 

 

 

“Art All Around” and a work in progress

I shared my “Cirque III” hanging art doll a few weeks ago, but here she is again.

art doll Cirque III

Cirque III

The show I created her for “Art All A Round”, is now installed at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.  This unique group show is hung quite differently.  We are in the middle of a floor project in the HGA feature gallery, in fact I spent this morning along with several of my gallery partners doing demolition on the old tile floor. Since the feature gallery is not available, we hung the art for “Art All A Round” all around the gallery.  These pieces featuring circles, and round themes are specially labeled. We have also generated a key with images of all the pieces for visitors to use as a guide map, or perhaps treasure hunt is more accurate. The opening reception for “Art All A Round” is this Friday from 6-9pm.

While I’m on the subject of my pieces for our group themed shows at HGA I thought that I’d share a bit of work in progress images of my piece for next month’s show. Each February for three years now we have paired up with one of Hillsborough’s many talented authors for our “It’s All About the Story” show.  This year we are working with Lee Smith.  I’m trying a few different things this year.  Here’s a peek…

Armature of work in progress

Armature of work in progress

Tree skeleton covered in burlap

Tree skeleton covered in burlap

Trunk covered with fabric mâché paisley

Fabric Mâché, paisley tree?

I’ll share the rest next month.

Resolutions 2015 at HGA

Tonight is the opening reception for “Resolutions 2015” our inaugural juried art show at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts.  We had a wonderful response to our Call-To-Artists and had nearly 100 artists from every part of North Carolina submit just shy of 200 pieces of work.

Resolutions 2015

The juried pieces were installed in HGA’s Feature Gallery on Monday, and they look wonderful.  The show’s opening reception is this evening from 6-9 pm.  Guest awards juror, Dr. Timothy Riggs, will present his award choices and some impressions of the show.

Resolutions 2015 peek

Join us at the gallery tonight and meet the guest artists.  Vote for your favorite in our “People’s Choice.”

 

Three Dolls Going to a Garden Party

If you been following along with my progress on some outdoor figure pieces, your patience can finally be rewarded.  I will be installing three “garden dolls” at the UNC Botanical gardens tomorrow in the annual Sculpture in the Garden invitational show.  But, before they take the trip to Chapel Hill, here’s a few shots of them in my own garden.

Garden art doll figure - Sow

Sow

garden art doll - Tend

Tend

garden doll - gather

Gather

The reception for the Sculpture in the Garden show is Saturday from 4:30 – 7pm. The show will be on display throughout the fall. There is always a wide variety of media, styles, and sizes of work represented.

An Invitaion

Postcard for July Featured Artists at HGA

Postcard for July Featured Artists at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts

It’s time once again to invite you all to the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts to see what I’ve been working on in the studio. Of course if you’ve been reading along here on the blog, you’re already quite up to date, but nothing is better than seeing the work in person. Not to mention, a mid-summer opening during the Last Friday festivities in Hillsborough always provides lots do do and see.

As you see on the postcard for Attention to Detail, my figure sculpture art dolls are featured this year along side the paintings of Linda Carmel, and Marcy Lansman. Stop by and find how we each attend to detail in our work.

The show installs next Monday, and will accompany an entire gallery re-hang, so there will be new work from all HGA artists.  The opening reception is next Friday, July 25th from 6-9 pm.

I’ll be keeping this post short, as I have just enough time to get out in the studio and finish up one or two pieces that I left unfinished while away traveling last week.  Check out all of the new work next week, talk to an artist or two, and enjoy some refreshment. See you there.

Thinking Inside The Box

In my last post I mentioned that creating a piece for a theme can sometimes prove more of a challenge than expected. Each year we host two themed shows to start off the calendar at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts. This year’s January show is titled 22 Squared. We installed this show yesterday morning, and there are as many interpretations of that title as there are artists in the gallery.

Now, you’d think that such a non-specific open-to-interpretation title would be easy to create for. But I was stumped. Most of my current work consists of art doll figure sculptures. I didn’t want to just create a doll, and put her into some contortionist pose, place her in or on a frame, or balancing on a box. Nothing stuck me.

Instead, I decided to take a step back, and think on the square. For a 3D artist this would mean a box. So I started by creating a wooden shadow box. Next, came a glass front for the box. Instead of a simple sheet of glass, I pulled out my stained glass stash and made a somewhat steampunk looking front.

For the interior, I thought on boxes themselves. What do we use them for? We use them to carry, to hold, to protect, to hide, or to contain. The box that I had made looked like it would protect something valuable, but also obscure and hide a bit of the contents. The steampunk flavor of the glass front lead me to a clockwork heart. We certainly try to protect and shield our hearts. This mechanical pacemaker needed someone to tend and maintain it. I recycled a simple figure from a previous piece to wind this delicate time piece and become The Clock Keeper. The interior was made complete with the addition of an antique looking paper with a pattern of watch faces that I applied to the back before installing the contents.

The Clock Keeper

The Clock Keeper

22 squared will be on display at the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts from January 27th to February 23rd. The opening reception is this Friday the 31st from 6-9 pm.