May 26, 2023
'Dreaming' On Exhibit At The Daum Museum
The Daum Museum Of Contemporary Art is, across Greater Missouri’s art communities, spoken of almost reverently. It is, after all, not a ‘club’ or synonymously named collection of local artists trying to sustain a facility for displaying art, but an actual professional art gallery. It receives funding through a community college situated next to Missouri’s state fair facilities in Sedalia, as well as through a healthy endowment, through donations from patrons and from memberships. In other words, it doesn’t rely on entry fees and sales to keep the lights on, so it doesn’t have to accept works for exhibits if it doesn’t want to. It has nine galleries over three levels, 9,300 square feet of exhibition space, and a permanent collection of close to 1,500 works by artists including Andy Warhol, Helen Frakenthaler, Peter Volkos and Ansel Adams.
So it was with some awe that I was invited to exhibit there as part of its Synthesis exhibit. The Daum conceived of Synthesis as a way to identify and support local artists who help define our cultural landscape (words taken from its website). Members of just four art communities, including the Columbia Art League of which I am a member, were invited to submit works. Only after those submissions were screened were artists invited to exhibit. Not thinking anything would come of it I submitted two works for the Daum to consider and was gobsmacked when one, ‘Dreaming In Color’, was accepted. As I dropped the work off I still wasn’t sure they were serious, let alone would actually hang it. I admit, even after seeing it on their website, as I walked into the opening reception last night I was still skeptical I would actually see it hanging there.
Hey. Turns out it’s hanging there. It’s real.
‘Dreaming In Color’ began as a photographic capture from last summer’s Chalk Art Festival in Jefferson City’s Memorial Park. I have found that the colors and the dramatic poses the artists take as they create their work at this annual event provides a wealth of source material. As I’ve done with other works, I expanded the artist’s work to cover the entire foreground, stylized and re-blended the artist themself, got rid of the distracting background, this time replacing it with a star field created in an earlier work. It’s printed on metal with a bamboo frame.
Synthesis is exhibited along with intriguing works by C. Finley, a local artist who went away, lived in Rome for a spell, developed a most impressive style utilizing geometric shapes and vibrant color, and returned with an exhibit entitled ‘The Long Way Home’. It’s well worth the trip to Sedalia in and of itself. Synthesis runs through August 20. All summer to get there. But time flies. Dreams fly.
- CH
So it was with some awe that I was invited to exhibit there as part of its Synthesis exhibit. The Daum conceived of Synthesis as a way to identify and support local artists who help define our cultural landscape (words taken from its website). Members of just four art communities, including the Columbia Art League of which I am a member, were invited to submit works. Only after those submissions were screened were artists invited to exhibit. Not thinking anything would come of it I submitted two works for the Daum to consider and was gobsmacked when one, ‘Dreaming In Color’, was accepted. As I dropped the work off I still wasn’t sure they were serious, let alone would actually hang it. I admit, even after seeing it on their website, as I walked into the opening reception last night I was still skeptical I would actually see it hanging there.
Hey. Turns out it’s hanging there. It’s real.
‘Dreaming In Color’ began as a photographic capture from last summer’s Chalk Art Festival in Jefferson City’s Memorial Park. I have found that the colors and the dramatic poses the artists take as they create their work at this annual event provides a wealth of source material. As I’ve done with other works, I expanded the artist’s work to cover the entire foreground, stylized and re-blended the artist themself, got rid of the distracting background, this time replacing it with a star field created in an earlier work. It’s printed on metal with a bamboo frame.
Synthesis is exhibited along with intriguing works by C. Finley, a local artist who went away, lived in Rome for a spell, developed a most impressive style utilizing geometric shapes and vibrant color, and returned with an exhibit entitled ‘The Long Way Home’. It’s well worth the trip to Sedalia in and of itself. Synthesis runs through August 20. All summer to get there. But time flies. Dreams fly.
- CH
May 12, 2023
'Beach Poppies' Receives 1st Place Honor
At 2023 Jefferson City Art Club Fine Arts Show
The Jefferson City Art Club Adult Fine Arts Show, now at Capital Arts, is one of the most important exhibitions of the year because it attracts many of the best local artists who display their best recent work. This year is no exception, as the gallery is filled to the brim with outstanding art. Please bear in mind that it doesn’t bring in all the best artists – exhibitions like this never can. There are always some artists who view such exhibitions as beneath them, and others who feel too intimidated to enter. But there are enough of them that the annual show continues to be a centerpiece of the exhibition schedule and one I look forward to.
Just before sitting down to write this I learned that one of my four works – ‘Beach Poppies’ - has received first place in the professional photo art category. I’m thrilled to hear this! It’s always an honor for an artist when their work is so recognized, especially when so many great artists are represented. I just wish more photo and digital artists were submitting their work. I know they’re out there; they’re just running beneath the radar. And they shouldn’t be.
Until a few years ago, photo art wasn’t recognized by the Club as part of its annual show. Even straight photography, which had only just been accepted, had to be, by the Club’s rules, “Right out of the camera, untouched by computer”, which, this far into the twenty-first century, is just bananas. I and others have worked hard to demonstrate that the computer is indeed a medium for creating art, and the Club has responded with categories for both digital art and for “Photo Based Digital Art”. It seems a shame not to take greater advantage of it!
Here's a rundown of my works on exhibit …
‘Beach Poppies’ – This is quite a large metal print, 12x24 in a bamboo frame, and it’s priced accordingly. The photographic capture was made at Daytona Beach last summer, and it was one of the most popular works derived from that excursion. I actually sold a much smaller, unframed version of this work last fall to a local artist, so on that evidence alone I knew it would go over well. I’d say first place is going over well.
‘Edsel’ – In order to maintain the proper proportions of the work it had to be cropped in an irregular way. 10x16 does not lend itself to standard framing. The metal print even required a custom cut. I’ve experienced this in the past with automotive art, and I’ve found the best way to display it is standing on a small easel vs. hanging on a wall. It makes for a striking desktop display. I continue to believe automotive art is a ‘thing’. In order to do it right different parts of the car have to be separated and treated with different artist’s techniques, then blended back together. It’s not as easy as it looks, folks.
‘Finals Crammin’ At The Coffee Shop’ - For my money this is the best work of the four. In the first place, this work is more representative of the direction I’m taking my art right now. The subtlety and contrast of the lines and shading produces intrigue and complexity out of an ordinary scene. In the second place, the whole point of photo ART is that it move as far away from straight photography as possible. The more abstract or surreal, the better. It’s more art than photo. But each year, the works that seem to be the most like straight photography are the works that receive the highest awards. That tells me that the art community, which judges and hands out award honors, doesn’t quite yet grasp what photo art is. It’s including it, fine, that’s great, but it still doesn’t quite get it. And lastly, an ink jet version of this work actually SOLD at another gallery in another community! Awards are terrific, but sales actually signal when a work clicks. When a patron ‘gets it’. And somebody ‘got’ this one. And it’s very clearly not a photograph.
(FYI, ink jet works come with no guarantee of exclusivity. Metal works, once sold, I will never reproduce again in that size – the buyer has a one of a kind).
‘The Eighth Day’ – Another work taken from last fall’s Chalk Art festival, this work is arguably more digital art than photo art. Only the figure and the chalk art immediately beneath her were taken from the original photographic capture. Everything else was a blank canvas. I expanded the chalk art to cover the entire foreground, to depict in it the shade of an unseen tree and extend it to the horizon. The sky is digitally painted, the structure in the distance drawn with digital shapes. The title refers to the act of creation. On The Eighth Day, the artist reinvented the world. And so it goes.
The exhibition runs through June 17, reception on May 18 at Capital Arts. Come by and see some great art!
- CH
Just before sitting down to write this I learned that one of my four works – ‘Beach Poppies’ - has received first place in the professional photo art category. I’m thrilled to hear this! It’s always an honor for an artist when their work is so recognized, especially when so many great artists are represented. I just wish more photo and digital artists were submitting their work. I know they’re out there; they’re just running beneath the radar. And they shouldn’t be.
Until a few years ago, photo art wasn’t recognized by the Club as part of its annual show. Even straight photography, which had only just been accepted, had to be, by the Club’s rules, “Right out of the camera, untouched by computer”, which, this far into the twenty-first century, is just bananas. I and others have worked hard to demonstrate that the computer is indeed a medium for creating art, and the Club has responded with categories for both digital art and for “Photo Based Digital Art”. It seems a shame not to take greater advantage of it!
Here's a rundown of my works on exhibit …
‘Beach Poppies’ – This is quite a large metal print, 12x24 in a bamboo frame, and it’s priced accordingly. The photographic capture was made at Daytona Beach last summer, and it was one of the most popular works derived from that excursion. I actually sold a much smaller, unframed version of this work last fall to a local artist, so on that evidence alone I knew it would go over well. I’d say first place is going over well.
‘Edsel’ – In order to maintain the proper proportions of the work it had to be cropped in an irregular way. 10x16 does not lend itself to standard framing. The metal print even required a custom cut. I’ve experienced this in the past with automotive art, and I’ve found the best way to display it is standing on a small easel vs. hanging on a wall. It makes for a striking desktop display. I continue to believe automotive art is a ‘thing’. In order to do it right different parts of the car have to be separated and treated with different artist’s techniques, then blended back together. It’s not as easy as it looks, folks.
‘Finals Crammin’ At The Coffee Shop’ - For my money this is the best work of the four. In the first place, this work is more representative of the direction I’m taking my art right now. The subtlety and contrast of the lines and shading produces intrigue and complexity out of an ordinary scene. In the second place, the whole point of photo ART is that it move as far away from straight photography as possible. The more abstract or surreal, the better. It’s more art than photo. But each year, the works that seem to be the most like straight photography are the works that receive the highest awards. That tells me that the art community, which judges and hands out award honors, doesn’t quite yet grasp what photo art is. It’s including it, fine, that’s great, but it still doesn’t quite get it. And lastly, an ink jet version of this work actually SOLD at another gallery in another community! Awards are terrific, but sales actually signal when a work clicks. When a patron ‘gets it’. And somebody ‘got’ this one. And it’s very clearly not a photograph.
(FYI, ink jet works come with no guarantee of exclusivity. Metal works, once sold, I will never reproduce again in that size – the buyer has a one of a kind).
‘The Eighth Day’ – Another work taken from last fall’s Chalk Art festival, this work is arguably more digital art than photo art. Only the figure and the chalk art immediately beneath her were taken from the original photographic capture. Everything else was a blank canvas. I expanded the chalk art to cover the entire foreground, to depict in it the shade of an unseen tree and extend it to the horizon. The sky is digitally painted, the structure in the distance drawn with digital shapes. The title refers to the act of creation. On The Eighth Day, the artist reinvented the world. And so it goes.
The exhibition runs through June 17, reception on May 18 at Capital Arts. Come by and see some great art!
- CH
May 3, 2023
Ice Cream, Not Granola, At 'Touch'
The Columbia Art League’s new ‘Touch’ exhibit took a bit of contemplating. Artists were encouraged to submit works that, indeed, beg to be touched. That seemed to count out any 2D mediums, but the director quickly explained, no no, we just we just hoping people to WANT to touch it, not that they can. Seemed to suggest ‘texture’. But the phrase the director used that struck home was, “…that it’s so delicious people can’t help but want to touch it …”.
Ah hah – now I get how I can apply that. Not granola, ice cream. Smooth and creamy, like porcelain.
‘Violet Tears’ doesn’t reflect the direction I’ve taken of late, and also violates my inclination to avoid florals, but it fits the theme – it’s ice cream. It’s porcelain. That’s the “good news / bad news” of an exhibit theme; maybe it encourages a new work but doing so may force an artist to drop what they’re doing to cater to it. Or, maybe it gives the artist an opportunity to exhibit a work that has not shown before. So many florals I’ve done fall into that category – often received well via social media, rarely shown the light of day IRL.
It is properly labeled DO NOT TOUCH. Reception is May 12, and there’s free wine. Downtown Columbia on a Friday night.
- CH
Ah hah – now I get how I can apply that. Not granola, ice cream. Smooth and creamy, like porcelain.
‘Violet Tears’ doesn’t reflect the direction I’ve taken of late, and also violates my inclination to avoid florals, but it fits the theme – it’s ice cream. It’s porcelain. That’s the “good news / bad news” of an exhibit theme; maybe it encourages a new work but doing so may force an artist to drop what they’re doing to cater to it. Or, maybe it gives the artist an opportunity to exhibit a work that has not shown before. So many florals I’ve done fall into that category – often received well via social media, rarely shown the light of day IRL.
It is properly labeled DO NOT TOUCH. Reception is May 12, and there’s free wine. Downtown Columbia on a Friday night.
- CH