Exciting Fall Events Coming Up!

I just updated the list of upcoming events in the right sidebar. September, October, November, and December are always busy months for artists and this year is no exception. For me, the fall is always sort of "kicked off" with "Celebrate Agriculture With the Arts", held at Circle Gallery in Madera. The address is 1653 N. Schnoor Ave., and can be found fairly easily from the Cleveland Exit toward the north end of Madera. This is a very exciting show because things are grouped and judged in agricultural categories, rather than by artistic medium. The categories are as follows:

California Crops
Farm Machinery & Structures
Our Farm and Ranch Friends
Celebrate Agriculture--The Human Factor
Water, Agriculture's Lifeblood

Art media accepted include paint drawing, sculpture, fiber art, photography and jewelry and all media are judged against each other, within each of the 5 categories.The impressive awards, informative and inspirational remarks and lovely reception are always well-attended, enjoyable events and everyone is welcome to attend. This has always been one of my favorite shows --some years I've been lucky enough to win awards and sell my work, which is always nice. This year my 2 entries were both accepted and they are entered in California Crops ("Valley Vignette") and Our Farm and Ranch Friends ("Sunrises"). You'll have to come to the reception or the show to see them, but I will post photos after September 14th when Awards are announced. It is an evening reception usually from 5 or 5:30 till 8 PM or so. More details to follow but you might want to put this event on your calendar.

This year, my artistic fall actually starts with a show at the Fresno Art Hub. It is a joint show with Kate Jackson, a wonderful watercolorist, acrylic, and mixed media artist from Merced. Kate and I met years ago at the "Paint Yosemite" workshops and have wanted to do a show together for a while. Kate suggested a show centered around stamps and stamping and we both agreed that it would be both fun and challenging. There are a lot of possibilities with this topic--postage stamps, rubber stamps, stamping with found objects and much much more, as you will see when you attend one of the art hops during the time that Kate and I are featured artists. The name of the show will be shared within the next few days, as will more details and an event page. I'm having a lot of fun using different kinds of stamps in different ways on different pieces. The show will be up from August 30th till October 10th.

Save the dates September 7th and October 5th to attend Art Hop, with a special stop at the Fresno Art Hub. I will also have work at Chris Sorensen's those 2 nights; the September theme is "Geek Art" and October will be"The Dark Arts". These 2 will be a stretch for me, but I'll give it my best shot.

In October, Laura Fraedrich and I are going to have a show at "Mixed Messages" called "Baker's Dozens". For this show, we are each going to do 13 12" x 12" canvases of our favorite animals. Our styles are different, but complimentary, and I think this will be a very fun show! I'll bet you can guess which ones are Laura's and which ones are mine.

Dates for October include an opening reception on Sunday, October 1st from noon till 5 and an evening event on Friday, October 13th. We plan to make it a LUCKY FRIDAY the 13th because we hope some of the animals will be lucky enough to find out where their "furever" (not in all cases, of course--especially the birds and reptiles!) homes will be.

October 8th, a Sunday between the 2 animal events, will be the 6th Anniversary Celebration of "Mixed Messages" opening. The time will be from noon till 5 so you can come right from church or you can come out after lunch. Refreshments will be served and you'll be able to see brand new work along with some older pieces. The old "Art Hop" special prices of 25% off all framed pieces and 50% off shrink-wrapped prints and originals will be in effect on October 8th.

In November, Adam Albrecht will be the Featured Artist at MMA and he will be showing, sharing, and selling some of the new items he has been making. More details and dates to follow soon.

And in Late November/all of December, "Mixed Messages" will have a lot of gift items for your holiday shopping as well as another collaboration project between myself, Paul Parichan, and Melanie Schow. We are already beginning to work on Doves and Crosses for the holiday season.

So, you see why I say it will be a busy fall--hope you'll put some of these dates on your calendars now and watch for my details and full Event Pages on Facebook soon. My Facebook business page is "Mixed Messages" by Kathleen Mattox. If you haven't liked it yet, I hope you will. I just passed by 1000 Likes and will be doing a giveaway very soon.

Well, as my friend Shiela Boyd likes to say--"Sparkle and Shine!" And I will add--"Onward and Upward!"

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. . . .

. . . . as Annie would have said! I can't believe I haven't posted on my blog since January 12, 2012. That's over five months ago. This nonsense has to stop and I need to post at least once a week, if not more often. I find myself caught up in other writing activities--Facebook and my monthly newsletter--and I forget to pay attention to my blog. I will try to do better, starting today.

Classes, both adult and childrens', at the gallery have been fun!

Two things on my plate, currently, beside keeping up with the day to day gallery business and upkeep:

1. Decide on a subject, compositional format, and color scheme for my painting for the Madera Ag Show. Photos are due August lst, so I still have plenty of time but I need to get started on it. I want to incorporate some of the new innovations that I've used on my most recent paintings.

2. Try to get motivated to start and work on a series of related paintings for the purpose of doing a series and in preparation for a potential show coming up.

And a third coming up a little later this summer:

3. I'm going to be judging my second show soon and judging is a whole new experience for me. I have to apply all I know artistically and more in analyzing a large number of paintings and synthesizing my thoughts and feelings into a form that can be expressed and explained verbally and in writing . . . . and make sense! It's a challenge. I enjoyed my first experience in Tulare and I look forward to my second. I learned a lot from the first experience, especially about how much placement and lighting can affect the outcome. Last time, I overlooked a couple of paintings that I shouldn't have due to their placement on the wall and lighting issues, I think. This time, I'll be more careful to give every entry my most careful consideration. I am going to be "directed/guided" by the principles and elements of design and how strongly they come across in the entries and in the theme of the show.

The Madera Ag Show

Last Tuesday was judging for the Madera Arts Council "Ag Show" and the reception and awards were on Thursday evening, September 16th. There were about 74 accepted entries and the judge was Paul Buxman, a artist and farmer from Reedley. I love his work, but I wasn't sure he'd love mine. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Fowl Weather Friends" received a second in the Poultry category. Good friend Grace Rankin's wonderful Rooster got first place and fellow Timberline artist Janet Morita's beautiful white chickens got third place. Here is a photo of my entry:











My second entry was entered in the "Vines' category and it is called "Rose Window" because it is a painting of bottles of (Rose) wine in front of a Rose Window. A play on words, as is often the case. :)

Painting a half sheet painting still feels very strange to me--I'm not in MY element while doing it, but it is nice to have paintings in a variety of sizes available. The poultry painting is my normal full sheet, framed to 30" X 38" and Rose Window is framed to 22" X 29". This is Rose Window:


The Ag Show is held at the Circle Gallery in
Madera and is a show well worth viewing. For
future reference, the categories offered are these:

Citrus

Dairy

Farm Machinery & Structures

Fruits & Nuts

Irrigation

Livestock

Poultry

Vegetables

Vines

Entries are made by category rather than by medium, so this is a unique show in that respect.

Blogger. . . . and Blogging!

How can a month or six weeks go by so quickly? I guess time DOES fly when you're having fun! And I have been having a lot of fun, though I can't say that I've been as productive as I might have been. I have taught 3 one day classes in the last 3 weeks and also gone to Berkeley for a 3 day workshop with Charlotte Huntley. And I've been trying to make myself do the things I've promised others that I'd do, but I'm having a hard time with getting them done. That's my goal for this week: to try to do what I've promised to others so that I can get back on track with doing my own creative things.

I like being involved in gallery projects etc. because I like the people that I work with. But the distractions, if that's what they truly are, derail me from my own projects. And right now, I've got to finish a painting for the Madera Ag Show. Slides or CDs are due on July 12th and one of the 2 paintings is no where near completion. That doesn't leave me much time for adjustments, evaluation, photography and getting the CD to Madera. Here we go again! Hello and goodbye yet again, I guess. More blogging as soon as I can--and more word on whether I catch up on my obligations, too!

Forgot to mention what prompted the title of this post--when I finally sat down to post after over a month away, I found a lot of changes in Blogger in terms of design possibilities etc. so that "derailed" me again as I explored a few of them before making this post! With 3 blogs to work on, I need to keep up with changes etc. and I haven't been doing that lately.

Dear Bleaders (to quote Julie from "Julia/Julie")

Dear Blog Readers aka "Bleaders":

Sorry I've left you hanging this long about whether Sherry and/or Clementine reigned victorious at the Madera Ag Show 2009. Well, actually neither of them was totally victorious, but I feel that it was a serious triumph in that they both were accepted into the show AND they both received an award. I am happy to report that Sherry received a second in the "Vines" category and Clementine received a third in the "Citrus" category. Let's hear it for Sherry and Clementine----yeah!

Thank you all for asking about them and those of you who saw them at the show last night, thank you for your kind compliments and for enjoying them in the spirit of fun and enjoyment in which they were created.

I've now twittered, facebooked, blogged and slept in (NOT in that order!) so I need to get back to the closet cleaning so that I can move on to the creating. More soon--

Figureatively speaking (pun intended!)--

Kathleen

What to Do?

I'm in a quandry. I have been reading a lot about how to improve my blog. The reason that I'm in a quandry is that I am not attracting followers in the droves that some other people do.

Blogs are intended to do at least one of 3 things: 
                                   
                                   INFORM
                                   ENTERTAIN or 
                                   INSPIRE

I can only assume that people are not following my blog because I am failing to be informative enough or entertaining enough or inspiring enough. So, which one do I really aim to do on this blog? That is an excellent question. I know that sometimes I strive to inform you about how I do things and/or why and sometimes I hope to inspire you with ideas that you may not have thought of before. I rarely seek to entertain you, at least not intentionally.

So, what can I do to gain followers? I am going to have to try to be more informative or more inspiring  and I think that the one that I lean towards most is providing inspiration. My goal in the next few weeks is to provide more inspiration to other artists in the hope that I can attract more regular followers and then have more interaction with them and continue to be inspired (and inspiring!) myself.  I will try to blog about each topic in more depth so that my posts are not so superficial.

I also think that I need to "get out there more" and read and comment on a  lot of other blogs again  and also more actively try to encourage people to read and respond to my blog. There's a fine line between spending time in the studio painting and creating and trying to inspire others to try new things or think about things in a new way by posting about such things here on this blog. Hmmmmmmm.

So much to think about, really. . . .

But at least I have some new thoughts and some new goals and I will try to act on them. For today, I'll show you some photos that may be inspiring to you. Tomorrow evening is the reception for the Madera Ag Show at Circle Gallery on Schnoor Avenue in Madera. My 2 entries were accepted and tomorrow night, we'll find out the results of the judging which took place yesterday.

The first entry is a 3D mannequin named "Clementine", after a type of tangerine. She is entered in the citrus category and here are detail, front, and back views of her.

The second mannequin is called "Sherry", and she is entered in the Vines category because she is about Wine. Here are front and back views of Sherry. The words on her skin are words that apply to both wine and women, much like my painting called "Parallels".

Both mannequins were purchased from the Sierra Vista Gottschalk's store, shortly before it closed it's doors. Both were cleaned, painted, collaged upon, and embellished to personify the category that they were to be entered in.

They were a lot of fun to do though it's a bit harder to collage on a curved, 3 dimensional surface than to work on a flat piece of paper. I used mat medium and super heavy mat medium as the "glue" to attach the magazine scraps and collage and rice paper pieces and then painted, stamped, pinned, sewed and otherwise attached the details. On Clementine, the part that took the most time was beading the 40+ ribbons that make up the asymmetrical "skirt" and "sleeve". I spent a lot of time considering the design and the balance. Actually, I employed everything I know about the principles and elements of design in executing these 2 creatively unusual pieces.

Hopefully, I've said something to inform you and to inspire you in this post. The bottom line is: Don't be afraid to try anything that you can conceive of as a possibility. Explore! Experiment! Play! Have fun! And enjoy the final product! 

In conclusion, I have made 2 other women--Candy, because she is pink and sweet--and Florence, because she is covered with flowers. My intent is to make (sew) an apron to go with each of the 4 women and the apron will accompany them when they leave my home and go to someone else's. These women can be purely decorative and artistic elements or they can hold an item of clothing or jewelry. In any case, I've loved creating them and carrying them through to completion. I look forward to doing more--hopefully, one for "Nudes in November" at Chris Sorensen's Studio on South Van Ness in Fresno.

Onward and Upward! Sparkle and Shine! Celebrate Creativity on a daily basis. . . .and "Live Art!"

Catching Up

Where do the hours go? Sometimes at the end of the day, when I try to think back on what I did that day, I can't account for all the hours that have passed. Everything takes so much time, it seems. Either I'm getting slower these days, doing a lot more, or doing it all more thoroughly! I'm not sure which it is.

I've actually almost finished a full sheet painting in the last 2 days and have a second one about half done. I'm back to work on the series of women--I ultimately want 12 of them, all with the same 3 women (a blonde, a redhead, and a gray-haired one) and a meaningful quotation or thought. I have 3 done--Parallels (between wine and women), Be-Ribboned (about friendship), and Angel Dance (garden angels). Angel Dance is being photographed this week because I've had a lot of requests for cards and/or prints of it.

Now I'm working on one about celebrating and one about mermaids and I have one about food and friends in mind to do next. All with the ultimate goal of making a calendar out of the 12 of them but that's not going to happen in time to be the calendar for 2010. I am trying to come up with an idea to make it something that can be used for more than one year or have the images be frameable or useful after the year is over. So many ideas, so little time!?

NEWS FLASH! Both of my 3D submissions were accepted into the Madera Ag Show! The hurdle of rejection due to experimention or "thinking too far outside the box" does not have to be jumped! Now, to finish them up, get them there and see what happens when people see them. They are both mannequins from the now-defunct Gottschalks' stores--all done up with paint, collage, pen, ribbon, beads and more. :) LOTS of fun to do--eye candy for the eyes and mind, in my estimation. :)

A Mannequinless Moment

Candy, Florence, Clementine, and Sherry are quietly resting after their long and difficult births. And so am I. Three weeks ago I didn't own any mannequins and now I own several and have almost completed four of them. I delivered my entry to the Madera Ag Show last Friday at 4:40, 20 minutes before the deadline for submissions. Whew. And now it remains to be seen if they will be accepted or not. I am quite pleased with how they turned out and will be alright with the outcome, whatever it is. This is a breakthrough attempt for me, entering 2 "unknowns" into a competition that I've traditionally done well in, in the past. Clementine is in the Citrus category and Sherry is in Vines. The Ag Show is very unique in that entries are done by agricultural category rather than by medium.

Last Saturday, I did a demo with Julie Mitchell at Willowbridge Books in Oakhurst. It was fun and people enjoyed making faces with Julie out of self-hardening paper clay. I'd almost forgotten how much fun I had when I made my one and only spirit figure in Julie's class.

Recently, Roy and I have been enjoying watching the hummingbirds and finches from our bedroom patio. For a long time, there were only 3 hummies but this morning there were 15! So, as we say each year, it must be the week of the hummingbird family reunion. They are such fun to watch as they dart around in formation, from feeder to feeder, methodically and quickly emptying the numerous feeders filled by Roy on a very regular basis. I don't like to cook for anyone, least of all for the birds!  LOL 

More about Candy and Clementine. . . .

Candy, remember, is mannequin #1. She is named Candy because (I'm repeating myself, here!) she's pink and white and very sweet. :) And even though she's not a painting, I'm going to count her as my large painting for the week once she is complete. She has taken more time than some paintings do but it's really been fun and interesting and productive, too. I learned a lot about working on a 3D surface and I'm trying out some new mediums also--such as Clear Gesso and self-levelling gel medium. All I need to do now, I think, is finish the beaded ribbons hanging from her waist. I am about 1/4 of the way around her and I do like the effect. I just took the photos about 5 minutes ago in my studio and I apologize for the photography and the busy backgrounds. It was the best I could do tonight. Also, you'll see the beading isn't done but you'll get the idea anyway.

Clementine (mannequin #2) is going to be one of my entries into the Madera Ag show, which has a July 10th deadline for image submission. She is larger and more complex and took a lot more time than Candy did. And she went through a lot of awkward stages and I'm still not totally enthralled with her. But there are parts I like very much so I'm going to go ahead with her, finish her, photograph her, enter her--and see what happens. She may not be accepted, but I think it's worth a try. The 3-D-ness of her will add a different note and perhaps someone who raises citrus fruit will fall in love with her. :)

I'm not going to photograph her yet because she also is not quite finished, plus I think she should remain a surprise until the entries go in and maybe even until the show happens, if she is accepted. I am beading ribbons on her also and they will take some time to finish. So once I've posted for today, I'm back to the needle, the ribbons, and the beads!

Fun, fun, fun! "Flora" may be next!

A new month and a new "half year"!

And a resolution to get back to posting on a regular basis! I've been very busy and there's no way I'll ever "catch up" here in any sort of order. So, rather than put off getting back to it, I'm just going to start from NOW and move ahead. If I have the opportunity, I'll try to tell you about some of the things that have been happening in the last 2 months when I don't have a daily happening to report.

Right at the moment, I'm not working on a painting but rather on a 3-D collage on a mannequin from the old Gottschalk's store. Several of the stores have been selling their fixtures in the closing up process and I've purchased several. I've been laughing lately about having a car full of "bodies" and now that they have been brought inside, I'm still laughing whenever I pass by the patio room and see the room full of bodies. I have several versions/types of torsos and I have one just about finished and a second in progress. I'm trying to do the second one as my entry for the Madera Ag Show.

Entries are due, in Madera, on a CD next Friday so I feel that I still have LOTS (?) of time. That's sort of a private--or not so private--joke since last year I started "Trois" two days before the CD was due! Photographed it ON the due date and drove it up to Madera before the gallery closed. That's not the way it should be done, but it's often how it gets done. (At least for me.)

Today's photos will show you the "morgue", so to speak, but not the finished project. The one shall remain a surprise but I'll try to share the first one I finished in tomorrow's post. Onward and upward, right?