Sunday Funday

Today we celebrated and/or mourned the lack of snow in City Park!  It was a beautiful day of friends, games and good beer and food!   We were introduced to Polish horseshoes in which I believe I excelled at:)  Overall, a relaxing day celebrating amazing weather here in Denver.

confessions of a sketchbook

If my sketchbooks could talk, they would tell the story of my travels, trinkets, transportation and my OCD.  I love to be able to keep the small things of my travels and life and collage them into sketchbooks and then doodle/draw/design around the collage.   I started this when I traveled in 2014 through Germany, Greece and Italy.  It was an easy way to keep track of the tangible memory of my adventures.  I continue this and will go through about 2-4 sketchbooks a year (the one below is a calendar I bought in Berlin, that I turned into a sketchbook).  Below are a few of my 'sketches' out of many!  These are from my travels to Prague and Budapest this past summer.

Lower Level Creative Space Exhibition

The first ever formal exhibition of Lower Level Creative Space was tonight!  Excellent work by Julia Kinne!  It was a low attended event all around for the this First Friday's, but those days you get to really sit and talk to people about the work and art in general.  Which is fantastic!  We met some potential artists that will exhibit, which is thrilling and lots of awesome artists that passed through.  Santa Fe arts district really exudes artistic community which is the number one reason I wanted to be in this area.  Every month Lower Level CS will have new artists trying to achieve their dream in the arts.   It is gonna be awesome!

T'was the night before an opening...

I am excited to announce the opening of Lower Level Creative Space!  A space where people can exhibit their work in the Santa Fe Arts District in Denver, Colorado.   Seven weeks ago I had an urge to clean up, white wash and create a space to exhibit work adjacent to my studio space.   The first artist to show their work is Julia Kinne.  A friend and fellow Iowa alumna her work radiates color, pattern, passion and true ambition to find a better you.  Her paintings which include small installations into them compose a garden of visual delight and exude liveliness.   Her work will be up all month and exited to see it daily as I pass through the garden to get to my studio.  

Among Julia being the featured artist, Amy Good, Krystal Moore and myself will always have work exhibited.  The cohesive ability to find good and radiate good in all of our work is prevalent when you enter the space.  Lower level yes, but lofty and filled with passion creates a feeling all of its own.  

It is my hope to continue to build relationships with artists and network with people to create exhibitions that not only give opportunity to an artist, but to enhance the district with a free space that commits to community and artists.  

I am thankful for the ambition and drive to transform this space.  I see a future filled with lots of fun and great art!

LA

Making a mark- Berlin 2015

One year down, one year to go.
It is amazing how much one can grow in 365 days.  Just finished my second Berlin residency for my MFA through Transart Institute.  This residency, made it all real.  I am a real artist, making real art and trying to make a real difference.  I always have identified myself as a painter, to make marks that make sense or not, but to apply a pigment to a substrate.  When I perform that action, is it making a difference?  If I make a mark that I say means something and put confidence into it, is it making a difference?  This is the lesson I have learned, EVERY mark makes a difference.   Not only in the art world but in the world in general.
We as humans have lost the encouragement to make a mark.  We choose instead the instant gratification of posting/reading/writing/talking about it.  Evading the mark, forgetting the doing. When you actually have the intent to make the world a better place, the marks add up to create something wonderful.   We are all human, we are all on the planet together, and we can make a difference. Together.  When will we have confidence in being our own person, and stop conforming to a clique to justify ourselves?  When will we see that the lack of knowledge is the basis of misunderstanding.
My project that I have started here in Berlin, Rooted in RED, is a social project, I am literally painting red ochre pictographs on urban landscapes.  Not to deface property, but to create awareness of how we can achieve a one-ness through color, specifically red ochre.  I had so many doubts and questions that I didn't know where to start.  Then I realized, Rome wasn't built in a day!  So I  made a
'mark' and the more of these 'marks' I make, I realize it does make a difference.  If we all can make a genuine mark in our life,  you leave the world a better place.  When you refuse to do,  you are losing what life is about.  If we were meant to have our own world, we would, but we don't, we share it with billions of people so every negative action you take bring everyone down.  All of us. Every single one of us.
My goal isn't to preach, this isn't religious, or to campaign this isn't politics, my goal is to unite by making one mark at a time.

the beginning teaser

Film by Stephanie Reid

Footage from heart cam of Lindey Anderson

loosening affairs

Together Sanja, a fellow Transartist, and I are co-curating a show titled "loose affairs" in Berlin this summer.  We are just getting the submissions in and this is fabulous!  Wonderful submissions and great art to be seen.    Berlin will be another magnificent year and I am looking forward to seeing everyone and seeing what work may turn out from this exceptional art intensive.  There is something amazing about the community in which you surround yourself in, whether it be my artistic community or literally the town I live in, it seeps into your being.  Below is the symbol that I have created for my We are RED series and will be showcased starting in Berlin.