2009 Holiday Show and Sale

The big day has arrived and you wouldn’t know it from the shot above that there was a certain amount of nervous energy in the room.  It’s still early and not all of the artists have arrived.  The StudioWorks artists have been anticipating and working towards this day for many weeks.  What kind of day will it be?  With so many other things going on in town, will people come to our event?  The answer started arriving before lunch and kept building until the end of the day.  Following are images of some of the art offered for sale and the people who came to share this moment with us.

Yes, we had many different ornaments ranging from the traditional to the absurd.  All the artists had a hand in making them.  There was one item in particular that stood out.  Vickey Reed came up with the idea of creating “pickle” ornaments to go along with an old German Christmas custom she knew about.  Apparently, many other folks also knew about this tradition or discovered that it was novel and fun enough to adopt because we did well with these ceramic pickles.  It became a fun theme for the day!  For your viewing pleasure, here is a famous StudioWorks pickle ornament.

We also had other ceramic offerings in the form of faux food.  Remember that ceramic turkey Julie made?  Well, it was glazed and served with ceramic stuffing, cranberries, and various clay turkey innards!  The ceramic cookies for Santa plates were attractive and did well.

As the day progressed we had many supporters come by to shop and wish us well.  Friends, family, colleagues, a few board members, and even people we didn’t know came in to see what we were up to.  We had many nice paintings and drawings for sale.  Here’s an image with some of David Carr’s and Carol Thorp’s work sharing the wall.  Carol had her “Pinto” series up and it includes a ceramic horse ornament she made as well.  The StudioWorks artists also invited the visiting artists that shared their work with us over the year to exhibit with us.  Anne-Marie Alexander featured her wonderful embroideries and Joan Schulte presented her cards and photo collages.

Here’s Anne-Marie’s work.  The smaller pieces on the left are hanging on dyed chopsticks.  The larger work with the hand image won a blue ribbon at our state fair.

It was fun showing off the many things the artists had made over the course of the year. We also had some pretty good bargains from works that were part of our inventory.  Our friend and colleague, Dollie Johnson checks out the dyed silk scarves and later posed with Eric and his rhino sculpture she added to her StudioWorks collection.  Thanks from all of us Dollie!

Ed the Taxi Driver poses with Carol and her Saint Bernard with Cat sculpture he purchased.  Ed is an astute collector and likes to commission our artists to do works for him.  It’s a little known fact, but it is easy to commission an artist to create something special and they love to work on them.

Many of our colleagues that advocate for our artists attended.  Here’s an image of Jill Deuser in green with Sally, Eric, Norma, and David Mahoney.

The day exceeded our expectations and helped put us in the spirit of the season!  We still have many fine and inexpensive original artworks for sale and you can see them Monday through Friday from 8:00 am till 4:00 pm.  If you need holiday cards, we also carry those.  We have the latest Zoom Group series that includes images made by clients at the Garden House, St. Matthews Day Program, and StudioWorks too.  One last image and it caps the day.  Here’s Julie with her friend Greg and their distinctive head-gear.  Many thanks to all the fine people who helped us in so many ways!

Getting Ready

Our big sale was a couple days ago, but before we blog that we need to set the stage a bit.  Everyone was busy working up to the last-minute which is typical for a gallery.  We have a variety of Christmas ornaments for sale and the picture above shows a few that were painted and are now drying in the tub.  In addition to paintings, ceramic sculptures, and drawings, the StudioWorks artists also dyed silk scarves.  Here’s a view of a few ready for sale.  The leopard print purse on the right was made by Jeremy Smith.  He created his own company he calls “French Kitty” to produce similar fashion items!  Jeremy also made several leather wallets and coin purses too.

Of course, the gallery needs decorating and most of the artists helped set up our Christmas tree.  Julie, Sally, and Dorcas are getting in the spirit!  We plan to add a few lights to the window and use some of our Japanese lanterns as decorations too.  There are also tables to set up and food to prepare.  Labels with all the pertinent information also need to be made.

All the two-dimensional wall art needs to be reconsidered and reinstalled.  Our newest pieces will be framed and matted and offered for sale, but there will also be great deals available on works that have been in our inventory awhile.  If you are in the market for affordable original art than we might have something for you.  It should also be said that 80% of a sale goes to the artist.  The remaining 20% is retained by the gallery to help with art material costs.  Selling a work is great, but so too is the interaction between the artists and the art loving community.  Being able to talk and share the experience of creating a work of art is also a reward that generates a lot of personal pride as well.  We are big believers in the whole creative process.

Before ending this post and moving on, StudioWorks would like to thank our good neighbors at the Palace Theatre for inviting us to see their new “Nutcracker in a Nutshell” production.  All the artists had positive reviews of the show.  The tickets were an unexpected but welcomed gift!  For some, it was their first visit to this beautifully restored historic theatre.  To end this post, here’s a picture of Carol finishing her “Pinto” color ink drawing.

Glazing Clay

In the short Thanksgiving work week, the StudioWorks artists were busy glazing their bisque- clay pieces in anticipation of our December 4th event.  Pictured above is our large electric kiln which is housed at the Mellwood Art Center.  It takes a lot of clay to fill this machine up.  Here’s another view from inside the kiln.  What you see are small sculptures and ornaments that have been bisqued and are now pottery hard.

It looks like a pretty good firing with no visible breakage.  In addition to the sculptures and ornaments, there will be a few ceramic plates with ceramic cookies for Santa.  The next step is getting the work back to our studio and decorated with clay glazes.  Here’s an image of Kevin Molloy assisting our artists as they glaze their creations.  After this occurs, the works will be returned to the kiln for firing.  In the extreme heat, the glazes will fuse and become glassy.  Depending on the glaze, the surface of the work can be either dull or shiny.  Much depends on  the artist’s intentions and how well the work was glazed and fired.  With ceramics, you can always expect surprises!  We are hoping there will be some attractive color combinations in this batch.

Everyone has put something into the kiln.  The StudioWorks artists enjoy working with clay and have good success with this medium.  In closing, I have included some images of our artists busy glazing their work.  Let’s begin with Eric Huggins and the sweet little pig he made.  The pig’s tail is an old electrical element from our kiln that was replaced with new wiring.

Terry Bishop is the picture of concentration as he works on an ornament.  We spread newspaper over our tables to try to contain the occasional spill.

I like this last picture.  It shows Carol Thorp’s tiger piece becoming “tiger-colored”.  Seeing her preparatory drawing next to the work is a nice example of her working process.  We have a few more bisque works to glaze and then the last firing before the sale.  It’s all very exciting!

Visiting the Titanic Exhibit

On Friday, November 20, a small group from the StudioWorks crew visited the Louisville Science Center.  A traveling  exhibit on the ill-fated ocean liner, the RMS TITANIC was in town and a few of our artists were keen on seeing the show.  Brad Bohannon seemed the most interested, but it didn’t take much arm-twisting to talk more friends into going.  Nancy A. (whose birthday it was!), David Mahoney, Sally Hardman, Anna Tanzilla, and myself took two cars to the museum.  The remaining StudioWorks artists who are interested will be going later during the show’s run in town.

Of course no photography was allowed inside the exhibition area.  The exhibit consists of large photographs of the steamship being built, artistic interpretations of what happened, and contemporary color images taken deep under the ocean.  Under vitrines were a variety of artifacts recovered from the wreck.  Some of the somewhat ordinary objects belonged to known passengers on the boat and “told” a more personal story.  Each visitor to the exhibition is given a card with the name of an actual Titanic passenger on it.  At the end of the show, a board with those passenger names  and their fates is posted and in this way, you can see if in fact “you survived”!  Brad and David were especially interested…but sadly, they learned because their person was one of many third class passengers…well, they didn’t make it.  Watching and listening to the small video monitors via telephone handsets was also a fun activity for our clients.

Here’s the Titanic visitors, along with Anna Tanzilla (second from the left) in front of  the Louisville Science Center’s parabolic mirror.  We had some fun bouncing our voices off this dish!  As a way of rating our experience with the Titanic…it’s an expensive ticket and it would have been nice if a discount were available for groups smaller than ten people.  The exhibit area itself is dark and the floor surface changes elevations as you travel through the show.  We had a couple of people with us where walking balance is an issue.  Overall, the artifacts and images modestly held people’s interests.  The novelty of being somewhere different was probably just as stimulating.

After the outing, Anna Tanzilla helps Dorcas paint a wooden Christmas ornament.  We would like to thank Anna for all the help and assistance she has given StudioWorks and Zoom Group.  Anna is a practicum student through the University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work.  Anna is helping us construct artistic biographies of the individual StudioWorks artists that we hope to use a variety of ways.  As the artists take advantage of exhibition opportunities, their resumes start to build.  Next semester, Anna, will be broadening her research on topics of interest to our community.  As the year winds down, we would like to make sure we say “thank you”!

“The Holy Owl”

Except for a nice frame, this painting is done!  Artist Sally Hardman holds her latest canvas for all to see.  She’s proud of it and looking forward to hanging it on our gallery walls.  Everyone has been working hard to get ready for our Dec. 4, show and sale.

Sally’s owl piece is acrylic paint on canvas and this is the third version of this particular design.  She did two other watercolor and mixed media drawings on paper before she started working on the canvas.  Sally likes owls and did a few ceramic ornaments in addition to these colorful works.  Here is the first, more abstract idea that Sally started with.

Here’s Sally’s first study casually photographed on the StudioWorks’  floor.  The central idea of an owl sitting on a stone wall was carried through all the designs.  Something else was needed to keep the main subject from just floating on the page.  And now for the second drawing. 

In the second work, Sally made some major changes that made her artwork stronger.  The colors become more vibrant and this carries over into the final painting.  To solve the “floating owl on a page” she introduced some shapes that suggest a wall or building behind the bird.  In the final version, a back-lit archway becomes a key element and not just a backdrop.  Among the techniques that Sally practiced were making the brushstrokes that represented the feathers on the owl.  There where days when Sally didn’t feel like working on this piece.  So, we were all proud  when she returned to it for completion!

Terracotta and Turkey

The push is on to make as many art works as we can for our December show and sale.  Because clay takes time to dry and has a longer process, the StudioWorks artists have been concentrating on making small sculptures and ornaments.  It’s about as close to Santa’s workshop as we are likely to see.  While we are working, it is also important to try and have a bit of fun along the way!  I think we do.  The first image is of clay ornaments drying on a table.  Julie Baldyga’s famous women singers series hangs on a wall in the background.

Here we have artist Sally Hardman inscribing a design onto a terracotta tile.  The StudioWorks artists also made decorations from a low-fire white clay as well.  Staff artist, Vickey Reed, does a good job of teaching many different hand-building techniques.  Here’s a detail of some of the small, red clay sculptures made over the course of the week.

These pieces were made by several different artists.  Among this grouping are sculptures made by Carol Thorp, Eric Huggins, Jeremy Smith, Natalie Lanier and more.  The next step will be to bisque these pieces in the kiln.  After that, they will be glazed and fired a final time under high heat.

The title of this post promised turkey and here it is!  This is a sculpture that Julie Baldyga recently made and it’s hollow and drying slowly.  I hope this turns out because everyone who sees it gets a big smile on their face.  There are pastel drawings that proceeded the sculpture.  The smaller pastel is on newsprint and the larger image was made of better quality paper.  I forget the person’s name who is reaching for the turkey, but Julie likes to put her friends into her artworks.

These drawings correspond closely with one another.  Of late, Julie has been using a dark background with star patterns.  In her singer series, the star designs also become stage lights and photo flashes.  One last image of Julie’s work table.  Below the portrait of  “Doris Day” are small, bisqued clay heads that Julie has painted with acrylics.  It’s a comical sight seeing these figures with their hands on their chins resting in a plastic dish!

Recent Ceramic Animals

Animals are right near the top as favorite subject matter for the StudioWorks artists.  We had two really nice ceramic sculptures come out of the two most recent kiln loads.  Carol Thorp is sitting proudly displaying her “Saint Bernard with Cat” sculpture along with her new glasses.  Carol came across the idea in a coloring book and elaborated upon the idea.  She did a number of color pencil drawings first, one of which became the design for a Christmas card.  Carol likes big dogs and the gentleness of the Saint Bernard allowing a cat to curl up and sleep on him seemed to need expression three dimensionally.  Here is one of Carol’s drawings of this subject.

Carol teamed up with Vickey Reed, our ceramics specialist, and made two smaller studies first.  This helped get a sense for the pose and it also allowed Carol a way to think about how the larger piece was going to be made.  The work is made from a low-fire terracotta with glazes that are appropriate for this clay body.  The colors on the rug that the animals are lying on enliven the piece.  Both the dog and cat sport fiber optic whiskers that were recycled from an old novelty lamp.  Carol’s animal sculptures are in demand and this particular work is already spoken for!

The second ceramic sculpture was made by Eric Huggins and he also does a good job fabricating animals.  Here are a pair of Indian Rhinos.  The smaller work was a test piece, but since the firing, it became the baby of the larger rhinoceros.  Both pieces are also made from low-fire clay bodies.

Eric spent a lot of time making sure that he got the rhino’s skin folds just right.  This particular kind of rhinoceros is famous in art history.  Albrecht Durer, a renowned German renaissance artist made a legendary woodcut of the Indian rhino that many consider the best ever made of this animal.  Eric’s interpretation is pretty good too!  The scale is smaller than Carol’s sculpture and just the right size to fit on a special shelf.  The StudioWorks artists are working and preparing for our Holiday Exhibit and Sale which begins on December 4th.  We will focus on some other amazing artworks as the time draws nearer for this exciting opportunity in our gallery/studio.

Halloween Fun

Halloween is an especially big holiday for the StudioWorks artists and is observed in many ways.  Our artists made pumpkin inspired artworks by directly painting on the gourds, drawing and painting them on paper, and by making pinch-pot jack-o-lanterns from clay.  The small display of painted pumpkins in our gallery’s window drew many admirers.

The most fun, however, comes from having costume parties with friends and staff!  This past week we had two of them and here are a few images.  As you can see there was some variety in who showed up.  Darth Vader and Elton John were excellent hosts and arranged treats and activities for our crew.  Among the guests included royalty, ghouls, witches, a cheerleader,  Raggedy-Ann, a hunter, a goddess, a flapper, the masked Phoenix, and assorted scary characters.  Here is an image from our second party.

A good time was had by all.  Many thanks to Vickey and Kevin for making the arrangements and baking the cupcakes!  We can’t wait to do this again next year.  Thanks also to our Zoom Group friends who stopped by to share in the fun.  In closing, here’s a color pencil drawing by Terry and two scary witches.  I wonder if one of them is a good witch?

 

“Hold the Light”, Part 2

After the tar paper mural, Tres and Helene came to our studio/gallery on 4th Street to continue exhibit preparations.  We joined the ends of our work tables together, spread out the newspaper, and rolled out long lengths of rice paper.  The StudioWorks artists using food color and Japanese brushes made abstract, calligraphic marks on the absorbent paper.  The studio quickly became a flurry of activity.

Several long lengths of paper were quickly covered.  There was a fun feeling of teamwork as our artists got into the collaborative spirit.  For some of our artists, this was a novel approach to making art that required a bit of ego checking, but everyone made the adjustment.

As the rice paper paintings were completed, they were taped to the plate-glass window to dry.  Visitors walking past our store front were treated to the sight of these colorful artworks.  Within StudioWorks, the back lighting coming from the street made the rice paper paintings glow with jewel-like intensity.  This became an irresistible subject for photography and many images were snapped.

Tres and Helene had one more surprise in store for our artists.  The pair produced Japanese rice paper lanterns from a box.  These were also decorated in the same way using the food color pigments.  During the installation of the exhibit at the Weber Gallery, low-wattage electric lights were placed within the lanterns.  The sight of these illuminated lanterns made the opening especially memorable.  The long rice paper lengths were carefully cut apart and individually matted.  A special light box made with a bamboo frame became a dramatic centerpiece in the gallery and displayed the now smaller paintings.  The opening was enjoyable and many of our artists were able to attend and see the work in a new context.  The exhibit opened on October 1 and ran until the 31st.

Many thanks to the Council on Mental Retardation and their wonderful Weber Gallery.  The Council was instrumental in bringing Tres and Helene to Louisville to collaborate with StudioWorks.  To April, Madonna, Carol and the Council staff, we sincerely appreciate your hard work on behalf of our program.

“Hold the Light”, Part One

Because this exhibit is currently up (if only for a few more days), StudioWorks thought this would be a good project for our first post.  In many ways, this is the prototype for the type of partnership and collaborative project we enjoy doing.  We were invited by our good friends at Louisville’s Weber Gallery to do a mural and joint exhibition with Tres (put an accent mark over the “e”) Taylor and his wife, Helene who live in Birmingham, Alabama.  In addition to working with the Weber Gallery, Taylor was a participating artist at this year’s  St. James Art Fair.

Tres Taylor is essentially a self-taught artist who acknowledged his own creativity after first working in other professions.  His preferred materials are acrylic house paints, wood filler, and varnish over tarred roofing paper.  These materials would also be used by the StudioWorks artists to create our mural.  Taylor’s work is figurative and has a spiritual bent to it.  Before we met, a theme and title “Hold the Light” was chosen.  Taylor also found a quote by Aaron Rose that served as an inspiration for the project and it goes like this:  “In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.”  As it turned out, this would be an extraordinary experience.

The StudioWorks artists chose to interpret the theme in a couple of ways.  The first was by creating tye-dyed shirts for the occasion.  Since light itself is made up from many wave lengths of different colors (think prism or rainbow), we chose to embody light in this way.  As far as imagery for the mural went, our artists decided to create fanciful self-portraits and did preliminary drawings for them.  Although most of the artists did not stick with their original ideas, it did get people thinking and in the mood to do the work.

Eight of the fourteen StudioWorks artists were available to work on the chosen day.  The painting was done off-site at the Weber Gallery.  Long tables were set up, drop cloths were placed down, and the tar paper was rolled out.  The composition took the form of eight niches.  Bright colors, like stained-glass windows, were applied first.  After drying a bit, the various self-portraits began to take form within the niches.  Staff, volunteers, and Tres and Helene assisted the artists when needed.  Wood filler was later added to the mural to give the painting a richer and thicker surface.  The tactile quality of this material was not to the liking of many of our artists.  But after a period of adjustment, they were willing to try something unfamiliar to them.  Introducing new materials to our artists is always a good goal.  You never know who might like a particular medium until they are given an opportunity to try it.

When the painting was completed, we celebrated by taking the piece outside and snapping several photographs to document the event.  Later the individual portraits would be cut and presented separately in the show.  Our workshop experience didn’t end here.  On the very next day, Tres and Helene came to our space and we did more painting.  This time we worked on rice paper and decorated Japanese lanterns.  Images from that experience will form the second part of our “Hold the Light” post.