BILANCIA Reception

We celebrated our new studio venture with old and new friends last night.  Some guests have seen each other so often at Marlys' parties over the years, that they feel like friends outside of the party circuit.  I love it. 
 The conversion of Ed Knochel's house (Marlys' Dad) to this studio space took a long time.  After Ed's passing, Marlys worked hard to find homes for the family treasures, to salvage the useable stuff and find worthy recipients and to let go of the rest.  It was an emotional journey for her and for those who knew him; it was amazing to see the transformation of his home into a working and thriving art studio.  You will often hear us saying "Thank you, Ed/Dad" at any given moment.  He would be so happy to see his house being used and loved.

We actually have been working in the space for a couple months.  It feels good.  Lots of room, lots of light.  Lots of storage.  It is great to print alone and it is great to print together.  We collaborate well, discussing our ideas and processes.  We learn from each other, we admire each other's strengths and we realize how much we balance each other out.  That's why we decided to name our new collaboration Bilancia, which is vulgar Latin for balance.
We intend to have art soirees during the year, showcasing our new work and the prints from one of the print exchanges in which we participated.  This time we are showing "Passport Required" the print exchange of Arizona Print Group members.
Thanks to everyone who came by to share our excitement and the beginning of the Bilancia journey.  Thanks too, to Diana Hartley for hanging most of the art you see on the walls and to Fay Willis for her food and beverage assistance.  Photos from the party can be seen here on my flickr site.

BILANCIA Opening Reception

Tonight is the opening celebration for Bilancia, the expanded studio space Marlys Kubicek and I will share.  After Marlys' father died last year, she decided to open the whole house to artmaking and teaching.  Our collaboration is now called Bilancia and we will be printing (and Marlys will be painting) in our now spacious studio.  We have established Independent Study, Print Studio Rental and Printing with Assistance rates and will be offering small classes and workshops.  The location is in Phoenix, 5841 N. 21st Avenue (the southeast corner of 21st Avenue and Bethany Home Road).  Come by tonight 7-9pm and see what we've done to the place!

Last Call for Classes at Phoenix Center

I spoke with the good folks at the Phoenix Center and I still need a few more solarplate and  reduction linocut students for the classes to make.  If you have been procrastinating, sign up soon.  Reduction Linocut starts October 2nd (9 to noon) and Solarplate starts October 4th 6-8:30pm, and both run for 6 weeks.  Click here for the class link.

We Heart San Diego

Seeking to escape the heat and to see some dear friends, Steve and I took off Thursday for San Diego.  He lived there for several years two years after we were married.  You go where you find work and it was a great commuter setup for us.  For two or three years.  It got old after awhile but what never got old was our love of San Diego.  So many great things to do and places to go and wonderful art museums.  And on this trip we had an unusual drive by leaving later in the day.  We were escorted by a terrific storm to our left all the way across the desert.  And as beautiful the desert was with all those clouds, we never had to drive in anything more than a sprinkle. 

 Friday, we headed for our favorite spot in the city - Balboa Park.  After some Christmas shopping at the Mingei Museum we strolled through a wonderful and large exhibition of Toulouse Latrec at the San Diego Museum of Art.  I was thrilled to see so many lithographs and got some ideas for things to try in my reduction linocuts.  We take inspiration from many places and I can always find some here. 

Dr Lakra (Mexico)/Vhils (Portugal) Collaboration

JR  (France)

Saturday, after breakfast at Brians 24,  we took in a majority of the public art included in the Museum of Contemporary Art's current installation:  "Viva La Revolucion," where 20 artists from 10 countries created murals/graffiti art on buildings all over town.  We enjoyed seeing the works - many of them are accompanied by an audio commentary you can reach on your cellphone.  Great idea!  The show will be up until January 2nd 2011. 
Following the trail of art we discovered a couple of wonderful shops in Little Italy, Mixture and French Garden.  More shopping ensued followed by naps.    Gotta go - the day is calling.

GUEST SWIMMERS

The past four weeks were plum full of visitors who partook themselves of the joys of playing in the water of our swimming pool.  World travelers and locals, the enjoyment found in water play is universal.  The Chinese kids were teenagers 14 to 16.  One determined Chinese girl learned to swim in just two days.  It was amazing to watch her overcome her fear and practice in the shallow end before venturing off into the deep end.  I am sure you can draw your own analogy to life here.   Anyway, she was 14 and apparently you learn to swim in China at 15.
The Dutch girls visiting my neighbor with their parents,  reminded me of myself on vacation with my parents.  I lived underwater.  They too were in the pool next door whenever the could.   The twins were 8 years old and the eldest was 10 (if my addled brain remembers correctly.) The girls didn't speak English but underwater you can clearly understand what's being communicated. 

My local friends Diana and Daisy, 9, came for a photo session.  It was my first time meeting Daisy and she was a little tentative at first.  But she was totally game and we had a blast.  No one wanted to get out of the pool...we floated around with the satisfied/happy/tired feeling of an afternoon well spent.
After each session with the visitors, it always ended the same.  Looking at the photos on the computer.  Laughter abounds, groans and teasing...It makes me sad that summer is almost over.  But I have hundreds of memories/photos to inspire lots of art.  Thank you to all my swimmer friends.  It's been wonderful sharing the water with you.

Saturday Reduction Linocut Classes

Saturday Morning REDUCTION LINOCUT

I will be teaching a 6 week reduction linocut workshop at the Phoenix Center for the Arts beginning Saturday, October 2nd from 9 am to noon.  Registration is open now until the end of August.  Learn how to make the complicated simple as you print 4 colors from one plate. 

Monday Night SOLARPLATE ETCHING
Beginning Monday, October 4th I will be teaching a 6 week solarplate etching workshop from 6 pm to 8:30 pm. Beginners are welcome or come brush up on the process if you've been working in other media. 

The Phoenix Center is located at 1202 N. 3rd St, Phoenix AZ 85004.   Register online or call 602 262-4627.  Classes are limited to 7 students.


NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY FIFTH BIENNIAL PRINT EXHIBITION
I had a print juried in to the NAU Biennial this year.  The exhibition is in the NAU Art Museum in Old Main, a great old building and wonderful place to see some fabulous printmaking.  The exhibition opens August 24th and goes until September 25th.  They are having a reception on Thursday, September 2nd from 5 to 7 pm and I will be there.  I can't wait to see the other work in this show.  And I am happy to be escaping the heat of Phoenix for a couple days!

SB1070 Exhibit on CNN

La Ruta/The Route

You never know what will happen.  In June 2009 I created a print for the Passport Required print exchange, a project I coordinated for the Arizona Print Group.  I submitted my print, La Ruta/The Route, for the "SB1070 - An Artist's Point of View" exhibition at ALAC as I wrote about in previous posts.  Well, CNN picked up the story of the exhibition and as a result is showing 9 pieces from the show on their website, including mine and Marlys's.  Check it out here. 

Artists were invited to submit work on either side of the issue.  When I looked more closely, on my second visit to the gallery, there weren't really any pieces in support of SB1070.  Marlys' print was the most balanced as it considered both sides of the immigration problem. 

Dolce, Annie, Roberto, Daniel

At the second reception, the day after SB1070 went into effect, Annie Loyd introduced me to two kids about whom the Dream Act was envisioned.  Children whose parents brought them illegally into the US as very small children, who learned the language, excelled at school, and now are faced with obstacles to attending college.   Imagine if you lived your first 16 or 17 years here and then learn you can't continue your education or get a good job because of something beyond your control.  To learn more about the Dream Act click here.

 I appreciate all the supportive comments I have gotten since the CNN piece came out.  Thank you all.