This week I have been prepping a submission packet for the FPAC Gallery in Boston and their upcoming summer show. This is not the stuff from which amusement park rides are made.
Piecing together an artist’s statement, resume, photographing some good images, and retouching some of my current ones was quite a bit of work. One treat was that as I lay down to bed last night/early AM, after burning the midnight oil to get ready for today’s deadline, I was witness to a fantastic lightning show in the dawn’s early light.
I will say, after dropping off my submission packet and wading through the work over the past week, I am starting to understand why the word “submission,” used for your entry into a show or journal is the same, “submission,” that describes the kind of hold a WWF Wrestler used to put on an opponent to get them to give up. “Submit!” the neighborhood bully might scream, kneeling on your forearms and getting ready to pummel your face.
Yes, I know it is now the WWE— but the days of the WWF are the golden ones. Give me pre-reality TV Hulk Hogan, and a little dose of Hulkamania, any day.
My trip over to the FPAC Gallery also allowed me to see the new show that is currently up— American Woman, with art by Joanne Kaliontzis (Digital Collage) and Carla Michel (Quilts and Fabric Art). The above images are taken from the Fort Point Arts Community website (Fortpointarts.org).
The show is spectacular— and resonates with me personally. My current work uses found objects to collage into larger images (both artists here do this extraordinarily well) and attempts to reconsider some of the influences on self- and cultural- image that the objects we see have on us— again both of these artists are doing this very, very well.
In addition, as I have been cutting out shapes of paper and gluing them to a canvas, it occurred to me that I had been creating a type of paper- or image-quilt. My mother is an amazing quilter and I have felt that this has influenced my work— her bringing together of different images and shapes and colors for a harmonious and uniform design that reveals more and more upon further inspection.
I can remember as a child looking for new designs in the tiny fabric pieces of our family quilts. Today, I often do the same when looking at my year-old reversible log cabin quilt that my mother made (see pic above). There are blue zebras and yellow bananas— tiny angels soaring with trumpets in clouds— so many things to look at and consider and enjoy, which is certainly something I strive for in my art. Undoubtedly, my mother’s eye for gardening, certain types of cooking (in teaching me both she emphasized over and over again ideas of color and shape), and quilting is a large influence on my work.
As a result, it was even more rewarding to catch this show. Carla Michel’s work with found imagery and actual quilting techniques is powerful— and works well alongside Kaliontzis. I thought a few times of James Rosenquist in considering her work— and he is someone I love, so this is high praise.
See http://fortpointarts.org/ for more information on their show. And keep your fingers crossed that my submission for consideration for the FPAC Summer Show doesn’t turn into a submission-hold Cobra Clutch type affair (above image from the WWF Wrestlefest Arcade http://www.setel.com/~mrob/festpage1.html).
Piecing together an artist’s statement, resume, photographing some good images, and retouching some of my current ones was quite a bit of work. One treat was that as I lay down to bed last night/early AM, after burning the midnight oil to get ready for today’s deadline, I was witness to a fantastic lightning show in the dawn’s early light.
I will say, after dropping off my submission packet and wading through the work over the past week, I am starting to understand why the word “submission,” used for your entry into a show or journal is the same, “submission,” that describes the kind of hold a WWF Wrestler used to put on an opponent to get them to give up. “Submit!” the neighborhood bully might scream, kneeling on your forearms and getting ready to pummel your face.
Yes, I know it is now the WWE— but the days of the WWF are the golden ones. Give me pre-reality TV Hulk Hogan, and a little dose of Hulkamania, any day.
My trip over to the FPAC Gallery also allowed me to see the new show that is currently up— American Woman, with art by Joanne Kaliontzis (Digital Collage) and Carla Michel (Quilts and Fabric Art). The above images are taken from the Fort Point Arts Community website (Fortpointarts.org).
The show is spectacular— and resonates with me personally. My current work uses found objects to collage into larger images (both artists here do this extraordinarily well) and attempts to reconsider some of the influences on self- and cultural- image that the objects we see have on us— again both of these artists are doing this very, very well.
In addition, as I have been cutting out shapes of paper and gluing them to a canvas, it occurred to me that I had been creating a type of paper- or image-quilt. My mother is an amazing quilter and I have felt that this has influenced my work— her bringing together of different images and shapes and colors for a harmonious and uniform design that reveals more and more upon further inspection.
I can remember as a child looking for new designs in the tiny fabric pieces of our family quilts. Today, I often do the same when looking at my year-old reversible log cabin quilt that my mother made (see pic above). There are blue zebras and yellow bananas— tiny angels soaring with trumpets in clouds— so many things to look at and consider and enjoy, which is certainly something I strive for in my art. Undoubtedly, my mother’s eye for gardening, certain types of cooking (in teaching me both she emphasized over and over again ideas of color and shape), and quilting is a large influence on my work.
As a result, it was even more rewarding to catch this show. Carla Michel’s work with found imagery and actual quilting techniques is powerful— and works well alongside Kaliontzis. I thought a few times of James Rosenquist in considering her work— and he is someone I love, so this is high praise.
See http://fortpointarts.org/ for more information on their show. And keep your fingers crossed that my submission for consideration for the FPAC Summer Show doesn’t turn into a submission-hold Cobra Clutch type affair (above image from the WWF Wrestlefest Arcade http://www.setel.com/~mrob/festpage1.html).
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