New painting for Lincoln Arts Project show

Oil on 16 x 20 cradle board

One of Scott's former students, Pat Falco, and his friend Elliot Anderson have started a gallery in Boston. Their goal  is to bring quality, new art in from  young artists around the city into areas that might not normally see it. The resulting Lincoln Art Project Gallery has already hosted some unique shows including a showcase of concept  artists from Harmonix and a Type show.  When Scott and I heard about their plans to do an 'artist couples' show for Valentines day, we couldn't resist and thought it would be fun to create some portraits of each other for the show. I decided make Scott into a symbolist image about the relationship between artist and creative urge.

charcoal drawing and beginning washes of color 

Scott did a fantastic portrait of me looking very confident with my painting attire and, best of all, surrounded by books. It's a stunning graphic piece and I love that he sees me this way:

acrylic and pen on 16 x 20 cradle board

You can read Scott's blog about the process here.

And some press about the show, in which we are interviewed with some of the other artists, in the Weekly Dig here.

'Match'  at Lincoln Arts Project Gallery

Show Dates: February 8 - March 10

RECEPTION: Friday February 10, 7-10 PM

Gallery Hours: Wed - Fri 4-9 PM, Sat 2-8 PM or by appointment.

Replanting the Garden

Replanting the Garden brings together the work of 40 artists who were simply given the directive to make a piece in response to H. Bosch's GARDEN of EARTHLY DELIGHTS.



I ended up choosing something a little different: Eve Taming the Snake. Eve gets a bad rap when all she did was choose to accept awareness and knowledge of the world. Without Eve there is no art, no words no pain, no love, no beauty. Without Eve, we would not be able to delight in the earth, so I decided to paint a portrait that illustrates the respect I feel for her. She has cast off her forced role of the weak-willed woman, shaved her head and made that snake her own. My Eve isn't the tempted, she is the hunter. Next she will go rescue Prometheus.

Replanting the Garden, curated by Richard Saja, opened last week in Indianapolis' Big Car Gallery space. This is a wonderfully eclectic show and I was very happy to be included. You can see all the images at http://replantingthegarden.blogspot.com/ and purchase them through the Gallery or http://www.etsy.com/shop/BigCarGallery.

Richard Painted

And here's the finished Richard! I think it's one of my new favorite pieces, I had such a great time playing with skin tones, figuring out the fur and just messing with edges. After such a complicated piece like Legolas, it was very relaxing to just do a simple-ish portrait. Richard's wonderful, weird creations can be found at http://historically-inaccurate.blogspot.com/. This piece will be part of Richard's massive show at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont from May 17-October 29 of this year. So if you are in Vermont- stop by and tell me how it is! Last I checked, about 25 other artists are going to be displaying their own hybrid portraits in addition to Richard's own lovely creations, so it is definately worth the trip. Also- It has a 220-foot steamboat in its yard.

I'm in a show!

The Amazing and Talented Lana Crooks over at Crooked Art co-curated a fantastic show in her gallery in Chicago. I sure wish I could see it in person, because a few of these dolls look really stunning. in particular, these beauties by Joe Shea :
Just wow. I want.

Anywho, here are the gallery shots of my Jack and the Beanstalk set. I liked the feeling the wood showing through gave them, made them seem more like old handed down toys to me, so I left them unvarnished.



And a few detail shots of my own:




Check out the A.Okay Gallery website at http://aokayofficial.com.