Sunday, February 24, 2008

Introducing Teresa Zepeda

Teresa and I met in the printing studio at the local city college here in Santa Barbara, I don't remember how many years ago. I do remember this quiet gal working, perched over a large zinc plate working either with a very fine brush or making tiny marks with her etching tool.





Self-Portrait at 16, Etching, 14" x 11" image


Her prints always amazed me... they STILL amaze me though now she works in silkscreen instead of etching. What is wonderful, she uses the silkscreen process the same way you would create an aquatint in etching. It's kind of a reverse process working from white to black in value scale, brushing out {or stopping out} the colors as you go.

I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but perhaps print makers, it's pretty impressive thinking that she's putting down 15-24 colors in each print. This one of Sadie is a stunner!

Teresa moved to Sacramento a few years back and I only get to see her now and again. If I'm lucky, once a year. Tomorrow she plans to give a short silkscreen demo during her visit and I can hardly wait. I bought the equipment and have everything ready, I just need a refresher to feel confident when I dive in. I don't think for a minute that my work will be near the detail that Teresa is able to achieve... I have no confidence in my ability to be that patient. I'm just hoping for something at least half as good!

"Sadie" Multi Color Screen Print,14/20, 14.5" x 11" image, 21" x 15" paper


Friday, February 22, 2008

Day Tripping



Another beautiful day in the foothills of Santa Barbara. Storms are coming!

Bravo Liz Brady!

ART REVIEW :
Fluid inventions - Liz Brady's new exhibition,
"Water,' considers what it is to be wet

By Josef Woodard, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
COURTESY PHOTOS

February 22, 2008 11:22 AM

'Liz Brady's "Water'

When: through March 6
Where: Studio 3 East, 3 E. De la Guerra, upstairs
Hours: Noon to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday
Information: 568-1216

Liz Brady's "Swimmer Series"

Water holds a natural fascination for painters, being a substance at once real and elusive. In a way, water is an ideal point of focus for artists of certain impressionistic schools, not to mention those seeking to find new pathways between representation and abstraction.

Rick Stich is one Santa Barbara-based painter who has produced intriguing paintings on the subject, going back many years. Liz Brady is another.

Brady's new show, "Water," at Studio 3 East, confirms an earlier strong impression left by her show last year at Arts Fund Gallery. There, she was the recipient of the Individual Artist's Award. In the new show, it's enticing to see her paintings spread out in this uniquely open-feeling space, aloft over the din of State Street. The gallery feels like an idyllic perch, centrally located while also blissfully detached, in its way.

As with Stich's body of water work, Brady's paintings deal with water on multiple levels. Yes, there is the very stuff of water itself, challenging the artist to capture its look and behavior. But not far behind is the spirit of water, the nature of fluidity, and the further contextual complications when foreign bodies are introduced into the picture.

While the entire set of paintings functions as a composite whole, Brady breaks the group down into three separate series, denoted by the qualifiers "Water," "Swimmer," and "Objects." The paintings, and their subdivisions, work singly and as part of the larger, modular concept.

Tucked neatly in a niche in the gallery, "Water Series No. 3" is a diptych. Swirling arabesques in hues of watery green and blue achieve certain poise, by virtue of the sense of dialogue between the two paintings. Another set of three more disjointed paintings, by contrast, works up its stream through the mixture of continuity and tension.

We relate differently to the work, depending on its subject. The "Swimmer" series invites empathy (especially to the swimmers among us) in terms of the cryptic configurations of watery visual energies and teasing fragments of swimmer's limbs.

More mysterious relationships are at work in the "object" series. Stones, curiously adrift underwater, undulate alongside buoyant bubbles, which also suggest half-concrete objects rather than something gaseous.

Beyond the appeal of the art on its own terms, the series also serves as a fine example of the power of variation-on-theme in terms of series-based work. Once again, we return to an example of water and its fluidity -- always the same, never the same -- which circles back around to the conceptual overview of what Brady is so invitingly up to here.

Reprinted from the February 22nd edition of the Santa Barbara News Press

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Art and Politics

I received this article today, from the blog My Dance Place, regarding which Presidential candidates support the arts. It's both interesting and not so surprising. Scrolling down through the article there is a laundry list of each of the three main candidates stats.

Here they are, taken from the article, but I do recommend reading the the entire piece....

Barack Obama:
-Supports increasing funding for the NEA from $125 million to $175 million annually
-Wants to expand both public and private partnerships between schools and arts organizations
-Supports the creation of an "Artists Corp" to work in low-income communities
-Promotes cultural diplomacy (send performance artists abroad)
-Welcomes international artists into the US
-Wants to provide health care to artists and their family members
-Supports ensuring tax fairness for artists
-As Senator, co-sponsored and passed legislation to honor the legacy of Katherine Dunham
-Supports the Artists-Museum Partnership Act, which allows artists to deduct the fair market value of their work when making charitable contributions

Hillary Clinton:
-Supports the NEA's mission and increasing Federal funding for the NEA
-Wants to reform No Child Left Behind to strengthen funding for arts education in public schools
-Believes in international cultural exchange as a form of diplomacy
-Supporter of Public Broadcasting
-Created the Finger Lakes Trading Cooperative, an initiative that links local businesses with artisans in upstate NY
-Helped to develop affordable living/work space for artists in Buffalo
-Entered a statement to the Senate Congressional Record in support of creative arts therapies
-As First Lady, was the honorary chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities

John McCain:
-In 1999, voted NO on funding for the National Endowment of the Arts
-Does not support abolishing the NEA
-Voted in favor of the Helms Amendment to withdraw Federal funding grants to art considered "obscene"
-An honorary member of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, 1997-present
-2007, proposed a bill to protect Indian arts and crafts

Oh boy! There is so much listed to comment on. The one thing that really sticks out is the Artists-Museum Partnership Act.

I love the idea of getting paid fair market value for a painting when giving a donation, for several reasons.... 3 of them being, most often the donation is 100% to the organization with no percentage to the artist (although that is changing), getting the nominal deduction for materials really doesn't help with the tax write off that many organizations think you are receiving by giving to them and lastly, with many auctions the artwork sells for far more than the market value because of the cause that it is benefiting.

Now, I'm not a disgruntled artist and I certainly LOVE to support the non profits when they are fund raising, however sometimes I feel it is in my own best interest to just write a check to the organization rather than donate my livelihood. I know, I know, I read this and think that it's not in the spirit of giving, but even large corporations are getting the tax benefit from donating large sums of money to the non profits. It's not because they want something back for what they are giving, it's just a benefit and encourages them to be generous. I would like to feel that good about my generosity too! and yes, claim it on my tax return.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

A fine Thursday

It's a studio work day today, replete with smells, sounds of brushes on wood, and yes, doggies. I heard from Susan Street Fine Art this week that I am on the schedule for a two person show this May. I have several large paintings in progress that will be perfect and a few more in my head to make the collection complete. The date will be forthcoming once everything is formalized. It's exciting and will help me to focus on finishing these large works in my studio. AND it's always nice to know they will have a home, even if temporary, living outside the studio walls.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Exhibition Announcement

AFS Gallery is pleased to present the exhibition:

three
An exhibition of collaborations

Exhibition Dates: February 23 – March 29, 2008
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 23, 6-8pm

Participating Artists
Tony Askew, Stacie Bouffard, Susan Clevenger, Colleen Darling, Julia Ford, Colin Gray, Chloe Gray, Gretel Huglin-Ridge, Colleen Kelly, Isabella Kelly-Ramirez, Carol Kemp, Jill Littlewood, Margaret Matson, Penny Mast McCall, Syd McCutcheon, Lori Moore, Judy Nilsen, Sara Norquay, Laurie Pincus, Mary Price, Alf Ramirez, Ron Robertson, Ian Smith, Julia Smith, Mary Stanley, Dug Uyesaka, Tina Wilson, Sara Woodburn, Seyburn Zorthian

Art From Scrap
302 East Cota Street
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805.884.0459

Sunday, February 10, 2008

wise words

In order to be all that you are meant to be, you must stop doing the things that diminish you.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

You Make My Day!

I'm so touched to find that Sarah over at Little Paper Bird nominated my ramblings as something that can make her day. Sarah is a wonderful book maker, binder, paper folder, creator. I highly recommend visiting her blog and photo stream. It is always a source of inspiration.

So.... here are the award rules:
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make your day
2. Acknowledge the post of the award giver
3. Tell the award winners that they've won by commenting on their blogs

Five blogs that do make my day {and often} are:

Amy Karol writer of Bend the Rules Sewing and blogger at Angry Chicken. She's a crafter extraordinaire.

Camilla Engman
always an illustration inspiration!

Heather Armstrong at Dooce the writing is serious fun and always entertaining.

Ree at The Pioneer Woman great photos, wonderfully written, and a little Ethel Merman on the side.

Mien at Red Red Day always writes heart warming comments and has a clean, beautiful aesthetic.

Lastly, the gals at Small Stump, where to start, I just love this site.

Okay... well, that's 6 but who's couting?!

I thank all these bloggers for their tirelessness in bringing a smile to their readers, entertaining and informing us, creating and sharing beauty, and being part of a web of amazing women.

In gratitude, truly.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Introducing Liz Brady

My dear friend from college , Liz Brady, is having her first solo exhibition which unofficially opens today. The artist reception will be Thursday, February 7th from 5-8pm at Studio 3 East in downtown Santa Barbara. Here is the invitation with her beautiful painting...


Sorry, the type is hard to read in this reproduction... here are all the pertinents:

Show Runs: feburary 7th thru march 6th, 2008
Preview: feburary 1 thru 6 by appointment only
Opening Reception: feburay 7th 5pm to 8pm
Closing Reception: march 6th 5pm to 8pm

Upstairs @ 3 east de la guerra, #3
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Hours: Tue-Sat, 12-5pm
Phone: 805-568-1216
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