Nov
18
2008
Last Friday, I attended the opening a show at the Launch Pad Gallery in Portland. I was inspired by the quality of the art as well as the appropriateness of the message. Rebecca Shelly’s theme is one that fits our current economic struggles, suggesting that growing our own food can help lead to more independence [...]
Tags: mixed media painting, Portland art, Rebecca Shelly, victory gardens
Nov
09
2008
Early in my art career I had a resistance to the still-life genre, perhaps because my college professors created pretty boring set-ups of mangled mannequins, bicycle wheels, broken chairs and all sorts of uninspiring material. I’ve always been more inspired by working from my imagination or a symbolic narrative. However, since I’ve started teaching art, [...]
Tags: art history, cezanne, morandi, o'keefe, still-life, van gogh
Nov
09
2008
Though I was pretty elated on Tuesday night, it’s taken a few days for the news to completely sink in. Everyone I knew was practically holding their breath until the results were official. Yes, the odds were in our favor, but after the shenanigans played on recent elections, it was hard to believe that the [...]
Tags: America, election, hope, Obama
Nov
03
2008
For some time, I have been interested in ideas related to mixing abstract elements of pattern with more realistic interpretations of subjects. Perhaps the most famous artist to be successful at this idea is Gustav Klimt. Almost any appreciator of art will be familiar with his iconic painting, “The Kiss”. For a more contemporary inspiration, [...]
Tags: collage, mixed media, pattern, Thaneeya McArdle