Culture Pop! Not Your Typical Art Opening.

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I went to the Maitland Art Center (231 E Packwood Ave, Maitland, Florida) to sketch at Culture Pop. The evening featured the opening of “Contemporary and Historic Landscapes,” with works by Bruce Marsh, Dawn Roe and pieces on loan from the Cornell Fine Arts Museum. In addition to being among the first to see new exhibitions, guests also enjoy live music, poetry readings, complimentary food & cash bar with fine wines, craft beer and more.

Activities on the campus grounds included open artist studios and a pop-up exhibit by one of the A&H’s Artists-in-Action, Martha Lent. I decided to sketch The Actomatics, who had set up their band equipment on what used to be an abandoned shuffleboard court. They had a string of white Christmas Light strung across the top of all the instruments and it made for a magical display. Shadow, who was on the keyboards, introduced herself. There was unfortunately very few people in the audience. Besides myself there were only three other people seated in the folding chairs. That didn’t hinder the spirits of Shadow, Rick an of Shadow, John and Rick however. They performed a magnificent set of all original tunes. As a true artist, you don’t always need an audience. Some birds sing for the pure joy of singing. I sketch and write, not knowing if a word is heard, or a sketch seen.

Several times, I was offered complimentary appetizers from Creations Catering and Events. The server was a young woman who is an artist herself. She was very curious about the Wacom tablet I was using to sketch. She is excited about the new Apple iPad Pro that came out and she is hoping it might find its way under her tree this Christmas.

In the Mayan Courtyard, there were literary readings by the DIY MFA Readers: Danielle Kessinger, Misty Watkins and Karen Price. I didn’t make it over that way to sketch. As I left, I did get a chance to see Martha Lent’s large colorful paintings, as she took the art off the walls and loaded it into her car. I admire her large bold works which make me wish that I was working so large.

A heated Critique and Conversaiton at the Maitland Art Center.

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Gilbert Vicario was the Guest Panelistat the Artist Critique and Conversation at the Maitland Art Center on March 24th. Gilbert is  the Senior Curator at Des Moines Art Center. Natalie Chikhi who came to 0rlado from France was the first artist to show her work. She had a projector to show us digital images of her work. She creates environmental installations using simple materials. The one piece of hers that I have seen in person involved string converging to a point inside a storage container behind Snap Space. The title of the piece was “Nothingness”.  Another piece used colorful sheets of paper to create a wave like pattern on a gallery floor. She spoke for a while about the challenges in her life, and concluded that the difficult and challenging moment in life are often the most creative.

Martha Lent is the artist who I decided to include in the sketch. She came from a graphic design background and has started producing very large paintings. Gilbert’s comments were rather insipid but he did feel that her smaller works were more refined and complete. I rather admire Martha’s bold large work. It must be liberating to use the whole arm and wrist motion to put down a large stroke rather than the hand and finger movements I use to get color on a sketch.

The one critique that got me the most upset was when Daniella Degulimo showed her work. Danielle went to UCF where she got a BFA in painting. She used to do large paintings of things like the BP oil spill, industry versus the environment and urban sprawl. Recently however she has started a series of smaller works on paper that tackle the same themes. These studies use mixed media and have a bold fresh approach. She showed 15 at the critique and wants to complete at least a hundred to show then all together. Gilbert cut her off and said that she was falling into an art trap by wanting to show a large number of pieces together. I completely disagree. I feel she should do 100 then 200 and keep going. She uses photos she takes of the Orlando sprawl she finds and Gilbert basically felt that the photos might be all she needs. He said, “The materials don’t make it art.” In those few words, he dismissed all of her efforts. I was more than a bit annoyed. I was fuming. I feel she should continue the series but perhaps do more studies on location. Daniella has also done sculptures using straws that replicate the Buckminster Fuller dome. Some of the studies had segmented patterns of the dome incorporated into the sketch. Gilbert dismissed these patterns as being over used and representative of a long lost ideal. I don’t think he is enough of an authority to make that assessment. The entire night he seemed detached and even bored. He never once got out of his chair to inspect the art from a closer vantage point.

Critique and Conversation

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The March Critique and Conversation was held in the Germaine Marvel Building at the Maitland Art Center (210 W. Packwood Avenue, Maitland FL.) The lead panelist was Rebecca Sexton Larson who curates the exhibits in the Maitland Art Center. The guest for the evening was Gallerist Mindy Solomon who has just moved her gallery from Saint Petersburg to Miami. Each artist was given 15 minutes to show their work and get feedback. The critiques were ruthless and informative. The walls of the room were covered with crude mural art that will come down once renovations begin.

The first artist to show her work was Rima Jabbur who is a photo-realist painter. She used a projector to show her paintings. Mindy pointed out the sad truth that photo-realist work isn’t in demand. Abstract work with calming colors is all the rage. There was much discussion on researching galleries. Finding the right gallery is as important as finding the right mate. Rima had one big break when she painted a black man in the pose of Manet’s Olympia. A curator at the Louvre was putting together a show on how Manet’s work has influenced artists, and he found Rima’s painting on the internet. Because of that random internet search, her painting hung in the Louvre.

Jennifer Coop who is a graduate of my Alma matter, SVA, showed photos of her daughter playing hide and seek. Jennifer is a single mom and these artistic shots were essentially her baby album, documenting her daughters life. She explained that there was some angst in the work, but neither panelist saw that angst. The imagery was sinewy and playful. Mindy proclaimed the photos masturbatory and self serving. But from what I saw, they were quite lovely. Jennifer immediately left after her critique, so I never got to see the photos up close.

Martha Lent showed very large paintings of tropical landscapes and a vintage sailboat. Mindy suggested that Martha look for galleries in tourist areas where people might want to buy a painting to remember their trip. Key West was offered up as a possibility along with Charleston S.C. I found it sad that representational work seemed only worthy of being a tourist’s keepsake.

Tony Corbitt showed some of his quick oil studies done on location. Tony is known for doing speed paintings of celebrity faces at events. Tony said, “Art isn’t Art until it is sold, up until then it is an obsession and a storage problem.” Mindy seemed to feel that his studies weren’t detailed enough. A painting of cows in a barn was done primarily in sepia tones and white. She complained that all the whites seemed uniform. “There a million kinds of whites” she said. She complained about the dark frames he put the work in. “When in doubt use white or gold” she said referring to the frames. Tony works quickly from life considering the painting done when he leaves. She explained that Monet often returned to the same location at the same time of day so that he could capture the light. Every critique she threw at Tony’s work could just as well relate to what I do. It would be nice to spend more time on each piece but what I’m documenting is usually over within two hours time. “Fast shouldn’t be part of the vocabulary” she said. She gave me much food for thought.

Danielle DeGuglimo creates paintings that depict chaos, the urban blight that we endure for convenience. I had seen her painting inspired by the Gulf oil spill before. The imagery is surreal and a bit unsettling with grid planes to define the space. She works her paintings obsessively adding layer after layer of paint. She has started documenting each day’s work with photos so she can see what she gained and lost in the course of each day. Mindy wanted to see a stronger center of interest. “Push things beyond normal perception” she said.

The last artist to show her work, I had mistaken for a journalist in the audience. Cat Snapp has just finished graduate school where she did print making, and now she is on the road to find her voice. Most of her pieces were small and jewel-like using bold black and white. A much larger piece was constructed of square wood block prints which were then sewn together like a quilt. The image was double sided with the bold black prints having a primal feeling, “They will suck the life out of you” was scrawled across one side of the piece. Mindy felt that the writing and the bold imagery were at odds. Other pieces also had poetic verse but the words were obscured and at times impossible to read. Art is seldom about camouflage and subterfuge. There was beauty and meaning in the writing so there was no reason to hide it. With my work, I never feel a sketch is complete until I’ve written about the experience.