Young at Art

Hi, I have had a couple of busy weeks in the art world, so let's get started. Last week I was invited to the NCC Art Show, (The North Central Conference High School Art Show) in Clarion to be a guest speaker, a judge and present a mini-workshop. I had a blast, this occured on my birthday, what a great way for an artist to spend their birthday! I woke up in the "Obama Suite" at the Clarion Inn, yup, same room Obama stayed in, looked out the window to see light snow...but no problem, it was going to be a great day. I made my way to the Methodist Church where I was going to give a talk about Tie Dye, something I know a bit about. We dispensed with all the boring talk and got right to showing tie dyes, lots of questions and oohing and awwing. There were approx 150 students and teachers there, at the end of the presentation they sang "Happy Birthday" to me, very cool. After the talk we broke up into smaller sections for mini-workshops, I did mine on "spin art" and talked about how I create art and how my mind works in the art world, again, lots of questions and lots of fun. After all the students came through for the discussions, we broke for lunch and the room became filled with artists wanting to create more spin art, look at tie dyes and ask questions, again, very cool. After lunch was the awards ceremony, I was the judge and presenter. The show was very difficult to judge, there were a lot of excellent pieces in the show. There were 10 schools and I was to choose the best from each school as well as the best 2-D, 3-D and Best of Show. I think I did a good job, had a lot of variety in my choices but was not a concious effort to do so. Here is a listing of the winners. Ruth Kazmerzak from Hampton Dumont had a photo of a waterfall, amazing work, great depth, color and compositon. One of those "wish I had taken that" type photos. Maria Pettinger from Humboldt had a painting of a tree done in a very impressionistic style, she had a painting of a smaller tree attached to it, great idea, really drew you in to take a closer look, fantastic color and a nice size piece. Katie Ouverson from Clear Lake had a portrait done in pastels on cardboard, a very interesting piece, loved the idea of using cardboard as a canvas, had great color and composition, beautiful expression on the face. Adrianna Anderson from Eagle Grove had a portrait drawing, very nice work, technically well done, anime style, this one was really good as she knew when to stop and not "overdo" the drawing, left some lines out for your mind to fill in, excellent work. Jenny Barcenas from Clarion-Goldfield had a nice ceramic bowl, with a leaf design throughout the work, great piece, nice glaze, well done. Celeb Schmidt from Webster City had a bust of a dragon, very well done, nice size piece, had a lump in the throat like he had just eaten and a look on the face of "Yup, I ate it" nice whimsical piece, great glazing, overall a great looking piece. Jacob Doyle from St. Edmonds had a sculpture of a man carrying a skateboard, loved the style on this piece and the simple one color and not overdone figure, great work. Mary Tiso from IFA High School had three small vases, nice delicate looking pieces with a glaze that was not "over done" very well presented at a group, nice work. Katie Miller from Bishop Garrigan had a black and white painting of two hands interlocked, well done, loved the style and the large size of this piece. Emily Grandgerette of Algona had a painting of a person, it was amazing, you could see right through them, blending in with the background like they were not even there, did not count, did not exsist, great work. Some people thought it was creepy but I saw it as a great concept, very well done. These were the best in school winners. The winner for 3-D was Jeanne McCall from Bishop Garrigan who had a sculpture of two people holding hands with sayings written all over the two figures and wire wrapped around both pieces. Interesting piece, I liked how it drew you in to read it and got you thinking about how the wire interacted with the people, one of those pieces that makes you think even after you walk away, very well done. The winner of Best 2-D was Katie Mathis from Clear Lake who did a drawing of a man in a suit, but this was no ordinary picture. It asked as many questions as it answered, possibly more. The figure was in a strange position makeing it appear as if he were on the ground, twisted like he had been beaten or possibly killed, liked the fingerprints all over the drawing, giving it an almost "crime scene" look and feel, really liked this piece, very well done. Best of Show was Brittany Hanson from Humboldt with a sculpture of an abandoned farm building. The building was make of clay with twigs being used to patch the holes in it, the main roof was license plates, like a tin roof and patched with whatever was available, the lower roof was old barnwood. I really liked the "feel" of this piece, it said "This is Iowa, good or bad this is who we are" she captured the beauty of an abandoned building, something most people pass by and view as an eyesore. The building looked as if it could fall down at any time, really captured my attention. Very well done and what a great expression of something we all see. Those are the winners, hope I got all the names right. I would like to thank Lori Frakes from Clarion-Goldfield for asking me to judge this show, I had a blast. Upon returning from the NCC Show, I helped Brent Houzenga take down "Iowa Thing" at Permanent Collections Gallery Art. I really enjoyed this show and was sorry to see it go, did not feel like it had been there for that long. Thanks Brent, looking forward to seeing more of your art down the road. Next I had a Fort Dodge Area Camera Club meeting that night. We had a couple more new members, had some great discussions and looked at pictures from the old Sears building and our "April Showers" assignments. This group is getting better and better all the time. If you are interested in photography I strongly suggest you join us, we learn a lot and have a lot of fun. Contact me if you are interested as our next meeting will not be held at the regular time and place. Thanks! This past weekend I had my birthday party, what a great time. Rob Lumbard was excellent. He said that is the most fun he has had playing at Byron's! I raffled off one of my tie dye tapestries to pay Rob, great idea that went over very well. I did manage to break a world record, still waiting for verification but I did mangage to get 26 cocktail umbrellas in my beard, the old record was 17. I didn't just break it, I shattered it. Thanks to everyone who helped me accomplish this, what a fun night. So...what's coming up? More art by young artists. Permanent Collections Gallery Art will be hosting a reception on wednesday April 27 from 5 to 8pm for the Fort Dodge Senior High Art Show. Kevin Crimmins made an excellent poster for it. There is some amazing art in this show, hope you get a chance to stop down and check it out, the show will be up through mid May. The show is called "Visions of the artists in training"! The ICCC art department will host a public reception for the Iowa Central Annual Juried College Art Show from 5 PM to 7 PM on Thursday, April 28th. The juror, Josh Ryther, Art Professor from Grandview College will announce the awards and make comments at 6 PM. We hope you will all attend and vote on the “People’s Choice” Award. Refreshments will be served. I also took more photos over the weekend, really addicted to infrared photography, and NOPE I do not want to be cured. This weekend the photos were a bit creepy but beautiful so I am working on a series called "Creeping Beauty" this is gonna be fun, have them posted on my facebook page. Well, that is it for now, hope you enjoyed another "long blog" but that is art and that is the way I see it, thanks for reading. Peace