Weathering It Out at SPA

The Weathering it Out exhibit at SPA is very well done, with lots of interesting work. I had a great time putting up my piece, Pandora's Box (or Nature Spills Her Guts), featuring a huge number of buttons that had been through two floods in the basement at SPA, where they were stored. Several floods ago when I retrieved some boxes of these buttons, I noticed that the sludge that covered everything in the basement had settled inside the boxes, acting as a kind of thick ink that created "prints" of the buttons on the interior surfaces of the boxes (as you can see in the shots above and below, taken by Jack Rowell).


Here are some more great installation shots Jack took. Thanks to him for permission to include them in this blog!
Another fun thing that happened at the opening reception on Friday, January 27: Kevin Norbert Collins, of Inside Out Upholstery and Design, came by the studio and bought a small sculpture called Relax. We had a lot of fun attaching it to the shoulder of his jacket, and he decided that he should name it "Chip", as it was a chip on his shoulder!

Castleton Shots

2nd Tuesday will be giving artist talks and presenting a panel discussion at the Christine Price Gallery at Castleton State College this Thursday, February 2. We'll be meeting in the gallery for pizza; then each artist will give a brief talk about her work (except for Ann Young, who is in Patagonia, and Elizabeth Nelson, who has another commitment), followed by a panel discussion called "The How's and Why's of Creating an Art Group."

Thanks to Bill Ramage for sending me these shots of parts of 2nd Tuesday's exhibit at the Christine Price Gallery at Castleton State College. All my work in this show is three-dimensional constructions with wood and mixed media.

Elizabeth Nelson's paintings interspersed with some of my oracles.


Ann Young's paintings of New York City subway platforms and a coffee shop in the city, with my piece entitled Village.



Paintings by Cheryl Betz: A. Aflatunense II and I, and more of my Oracles.

Setting up at Castleton

On Tuesday, January 17 I borrowed a huge (and very cool) van from Big Heavy World in Burlington to transport a van-full of sculpture to the Christine Price Gallery at Castleton State College. My friend and colleague Ann Young helped me pack the work into the van, which involved bringing it up from basement storage at Flynndog in their big freight elevator, rustling out one of the seats that was frozen into the van’s floor (enthusastic mopping by a previous borrower had pooled water in the attachment points of the seats, and they were frozen in place), and packing it full of my sculpture and Ann’s paintings. It was impossible to get the camera back far enough in the cab to really get a sense of how packed every inch was. There are still two rows of seats behind what you see here, with art on and under them:


It was pretty nasty weather, with freezing rain (seems like freezing water was a theme here...), and we were late for our delivery due to the seat-melting activity. But Bill Ramage and Castleton student Victoria helped us unload and get the work into the gallery, where the other five artists in the exhibit had already arranged their work.


The exhibit, called 2nd Tuesday (after the name of our Art Group) will be up from January 23-February 17, and we'll be talking about our work and doing a panel talk on "The Hows and Whys of Creating an Art Group" on February 2 at 12:30 in the gallery. 2nd Tuesday members are Cheryl Betz, Alex Bottinelli, Maggie Neale, Elizabeth Nelson, Kathy Stark, Ann Young and me. I hope to put up an installation shot that the gallery is planning to send. Here's a fuzzy view of the installation in progress:


Thanks so much to Ann Young for her help, and to Big Heavy World and James Lockridge for letting us borrow their excellent vehicle!

All Aboard Again

Much of the work from the All Aboard exhibit at Flynndog in late 2010 will be going to Castleton State College for an exhibit called 2nd Tuesday, with artwork by the seven members of my Art Group: Cheryl Betz, Alex Bottinelli, Maggie Neale, Elizabeth Nelson, Kathy Stark, Janet Van Fleet (me), and Ann Young. The exhibit will be up from January 23 - February 17 at the Christine Price Gallery in the Fine Arts Center at Castleton. We'll each be giving a brief talk about our work on Thursday, February 2, at 12:30, followed by a panel discussion about the Hows and Whys of forming an art group.

Here's a Slideshare presentation I made about the All Aboard work. I hope you'll come out and see some of the work in its new spot in Castleton.

All Aboard

View more presentations from Janet Van Fleet

Wilma Lovely, Cabot Artist, is dead

It is with great sadness that I announce that my friend and fellow artist, Wilma Lovely, died on Tuesday morning. This photograph shows her seated between two of her artworks produced on large pieces of slate, created using recycled glass, jewelry, electrical wire, and other materials. Her "corner", where she created her work, is behind her.

Wilma had been in declining health for several years, but continued to make new work until fairly recently (along with the crocheted afghans and knitted hats she made for friends and people in need). Wilma's work will live on after her. You may see some of it at her website.

Here is her obituary from the Times-Argus.

CABOT - Wilma Lodascia Lovely, 87, died Jan. 10, 2012, at her residence.

She was born July 8, 1924, in Calais, the daughter of the late Claude R. and Corrine (Gallison) George. She graduated from Junior Order of United American Mechanics School in Tiffin, Ohio.

On Nov. 7, 1943, she married Lloyd Lyle Lovely in Barre. They made their home in Cabot for many years.

After the death of her sister, June, she helped to raise the four Sullenberger children.

She was a member of the United Church of Cabot, Cabot Ambulance Service and Twin Town Homemakers in Cabot. She enjoyed making recycled art, knitting and gardening.

Survivors include two sons, David Lovely, of Cabot, and Ronald Lovely, of Plainfield; four daughters, Rose Talbert, of Cabot, Claire Lines, of Corning, N.Y., Marcy Martin, of Cabot, and Lisa Guy, of Williamstown; one brother, Frank George, of White River Junction; 22 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her husband in 2004; a son, Steven Lovely; and three siblings, Claude R. George Jr., David George and June Sullenberger.

Visiting hours will be held Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Lovely home, 233 Elm St. in Cabot.

Funeral services will be held Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012, at 2 p.m. at the United Church of Cabot. Burial will be at a later date in the family lot in the Durant Cemetery in lower Cabot.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in her memory may be made to the Central Vermont Special Olympics, c/o Marcy Martin, P.O. Box 45, Cabot, VT 05647, or to the Cabot Ambulance Service, P.O. Box 32, Cabot, VT 05647.

Northern Vermont Funeral Service in Hardwick is in charge of arrangements.

And More Dots

How COULD I have failed to mention the current expedition of Damien Hirst, with Dot paintings at Gagosian galleries all over the world??? My son just reminded me. Here's a photo of the man himself in front of some of his (mostly minion-made) dots, from this article:


There's also a New York Times article to have a look at. And here's Banksy's take on the whole extravaganza:


I can't help it; I still think dots are delightful, effervescent, happy-making and charming. Not terribly deep, but very wonderful.

Dots

I once wrote, "there's almost nothing that can't be improved by the addition of polka dots," and I still think so. So does Gerard Manley Hopkins:

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise Him.

Or Her...

A friend at the Ecotarium just sent me a link to an article about a new exhibit in Queensland, Australia by Yayoi Kusama, one of my favorite dotty artists. Here are before and after photos of the exhibit that invited children and others to add dots to a completely white space. Go to the article in the Daily Mail Online to see the work as it unfolded.

Print Project

Last night I went to the opening for the 30/30 Anniversary Print Project at the Amy Tarrant Gallery in Burlington. It was absolutely packed with people, so packed that it was hard to make your way from one side of the room to the other! (I guess that’s what happens when you have 32 artists exhibiting in one room.) Here’s the blog with images by each of the artists, and here’s how my print turned out. As I look at this piece, I wonder what is the effect (or importance) of the gridlines created by wire in most pieces in this series of disks and buttons. There’s definitely a difference when the disks are tethered (or connected), versus floating. Your thoughts?

Collectors

A couple who bought the wall piece I talked about in this post sent a photograph of the piece installed in their home. They chose to mount it in a horizontal orientation, a good choice for this wall.


They also sent a very cool image showing the dramatic effect of the afternoon sun on the piece:


Along with some other purchases he made, another collector asked me to make a 12 x 12" Priest painting to add to his collection. I’m quite pleased with the chunky, chewiness of The Priest of Licorice, a re-working of a 2001 piece.


And, plucked from a group of new Button Garments I made in December, a bridal couple moved into their new home in Burlington.

More Work on the Wall

A big chunk of the Alphabet disk installation was purchased, so, as planned, I’ve moved into a group of wall/disk pieces using numbers. They call to mind, though in a decidedly different flavor, John Anderson’s amazing murals at the Burlington airport, which also use letters and symbols.



Another thematic area I’ve explored is four Seasons, which I showed at SPA in the Holiday show. Here are Winter and Fall:


I'll be showing this work from this series I call Discography at the Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio in Montpelier from February 7 through March 19, 2012.