Mandy Lee Studio

I finally go the phone call- I’m in! I’m now a member of Poudre Studio Artists (PSA). It’s a group of artists working above the Main Gallery at the Poudre River Arts Center.  Well, I’ll be a member when I sign the lease and move in. I’m so looking forward to this move forward.  So much to do and I have plenty of time!

The other news is that I’ve started a Mixed Media group, and have people signed up! If you are in the vicinity of Fort Collins and want to hang out and make art, feel free to join us over at http://www.meetup.com/Mixed-Media-Artists-Guild. We have two meetings a month, but for right now, the meetings cover the same topics, so come to one or the other, or both!

Many celebrities are beginning to show their multitude of talents in the arts; from singing and dancing, to writing and cooking. But not many can act and paint.

Stallone Next to his work.

To be honest, I kinda like the free expression of the splatters and drips. And, as I have been learning in my business class, value is an entirely subjective term. People are shocked that this painting sold for $50,000. Sometimes the value of a piece is not based on what the artist or gallery thinks it’s wort, but how much the buyer is willing to pay. I think this is a lesson for all emerging artists, for they are the ones who tend to undervalue their work the most.

Make the buyer want your work more than you want to keep it. Learn to sell your work the right way. Learn the words and phrases necessary to make the connection between buyer and art. It’s not selling out. It’s not being greedy or capitalistic. It’s getting your art- your message, voice, idea, thought, belief, soul- out there and doing its job. It’s making people happy, think, intrigued,changed,talking, looking, seeing, understanding. For bad or for worse.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1232958/Dont-day-job–Sylvester-Stallone-tries-hand-fine-art-mixed-results.html

If I’m going to write about Janice Lowry, I need to also commemorate Nancy Spero. She was one of the pioneering feminist artists of the last century. Her work explored the power of women in all areas and portrayed women almost exclusively in her later works with a primitive hand that often times borrowed from Greek, Egyptian, and African style in a way that was celebratory of life. Spero also addressed modern day issues women faced in the here and now, illustrating current events to remind us of the strength of the feminine in the face of male and societal oppressors such as the torture of women in Nicaragua, the Holocaust, and the atrocities of the Vietnam War. She was a master of painting, drawing, printmaking and collage, often using a variety of media in large scale scrolls she became known for. She passed away on October 18th, 2009 at the age of 83.

Spero was featured in the Season 4 (2007) episode Protest of the Art:21–Art in the Twenty-First Century television series on PBS.

A couple weeks ago, Janice Lowry passed away. She was a brilliant assemblage artist, striving to make use of everyday objects in new ways with new connections. She also was an avid journaler- having kept an art journal of some sort since 1974. Her journals and sketchbooks were accepted to the Smithsonian’s National Archives back in 2007. She was also, though she didn’t know it, one of the most influential people in my life as an artist and a human being.

I know someone will pull together a beautiful, thought provoking and fun show or book or both on her life and work in the near future. Where ever she is, she’s pain fee, smiling brighter than the sun, and laughing with great joy.

For more about her life and work, visit her website: http://www.janicelowry.com/.

No. Really. What the hell is that island?

Don’t just think outside the box. Deconstruct it, learn for it, and recreate it.

In his Berlin studio, Arturo Herrera discusses the importance of accepting failure in order to be able to learn and grow as an artist.

Arturo Herrera’s work includes collage, work on paper, sculpture, relief, wall painting, photography, and felt wall-hangings. Rooted in the history of abstraction, Herrera’s playful work taps into the viewer’s unconscious, often intertwining fragments of cartoon characters with cut-out shapes and partially obscured images that evoke memory and recollection.

Straight Talk with Carmen from Carmen Torbus on Vimeo.

I don’t know Carmen, but I think she makes some amazing art. Plus her name is fantastic!