Channel your inner flame

NO BOUNDARIES Art Colony 2012

At the fifteenth art colony, eighteen artists from Hungary, Slovakia, Australia, Macedonia and the United States will paint, sculpt, design, blow glass and perform on Bald Head Island Nov. 2-16, 2012 at the No Boundaries International Art Colony. As usual,the colony will take place on beautiful Bald Head Island, just south of Wilmington, NC where artists will stay in Captain Charlie's historic light house keeper cottages. Participating International artists are; Stanislav "Stano" Buban from Slovakia, Eva Mayer from Hungary and also from Slovakia, and Sergej Andreevski from Macedonia. Local participating artists include: Shawn Best, Shannon Rayle Bourne, Michelle Connolly, Bonnie England, Stephanie Hagens, Fritzi Huber, Courtney Johnson, Catherine Lea, Leslie Stucker Pearson, Colleen Ringrose, Evelyn Boyd Scott, G. Scott Queen, Glenn Ziemke and NBI co-founders Pam Toll and Gayle Tustin.

The works of art created during these industrious two weeks will be on display and open to the public at ACME Studios and Gallery November 17-December 3, with an opening reception gala held on Saturday, November 17, 6p-9p with light reception fare and an informal meet and greet session with the artists. Acme Art Studios is located at 711 N. 5th Avenue in downtown Wilmington, NC.

Strands

Two of my mixed media encaustic paintings were in this exhibition:

STRANDS 2012
annual juried show at North Bank Artists Community Project in Vancouver, WA.

August 2-31, 2012
STRANDS - 1. A complex of fibers or filaments that have been twisted together to form a cable, rope, thread, or yarn.2.a. A single filament, such as a fiber or thread, of a woven or braided material.b. A wisp or tress of hair.3. Something that is plaited or twisted as a ropelike length: a strand of pearls; a strand of DNA. 4. One of the elements woven together to make an intricate whole, such as the plot of a novel. 1. (Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) a set of or one of the individual fibres or threads of string, wire, etc., that form a rope, cable, etc.2. (Clothing, Personal Arts & Crafts / Textiles) a single length of string, hair, wool, wire, etc.3. a constituent element in a complex whole one strand of her argument strand -  4.Strand – a very slender natural or synthetic fiberstrand – a very slender natural or synthetic fiber fibril, filamentbarb – one of the parallel filaments projecting from the main shaft of a feathercobweb, gossamer – filaments from a web that was spun by a spider chromatid – one of two identical strands into which a chromosome splits during mitosis myofibril, myofibrilla, sarcostyle – one of many contractile filaments that make up a striated muscle fiber rhizoid – any of various slender filaments that function as roots in mosses and ferns and fungi etc hypha – any of the threadlike filaments forming the mycelium of a fungus paraphysis – a sterile simple or branched filament or hair borne among sporangia; may be pointed or clubbed fiber, fibre – a slender and greatly elongated substance capable of being spun into yarn 5.strand – a poetic term for a shore (as the area periodically covered and uncovered by the tides) shore – the land along the edge of a body of water leave stranded or isolated with little hope of rescue; “the travellers were marooned” maroon desert, desolate, forsake, abandon – leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch; “The mother deserted her children” 2.strand – drive (a vessel) ashore land – bring ashore; “The drug smugglers landed the heroin on the beach of the island” 3.strand – bring to the ground; “the storm grounded the ship”…STRANDS - in other words – totally open to the interpretation of the individual artist!The 51 STRANDSentries were submitted by local artists, and  from  as far away as Arizona to Pennsylvania, and Texas to Alaska. Including artists; Barbara Burns, Margaret Zeps, Linda Barlow, Suzanne Hesh, Laura Rocke, Leslie Pearson, Maria Shell, Sandra Ciolino, Connie Utterback, Nicole Penoncello, Marilyn Casto, Joyce Gifford, Marcia Weiss, Shannon Weber, Aryana Londir, Alexanna Padilla Johnson, Stephanie Sailer, Jess Jones, and Mar Goman. The works are wonderful and eclectic from traditional to the avaunt garde, and are woven, quilted, embroidered, sewn, tapestried, knotted and knitted.

THE JURORS : 

Sally Sellers has been creating textile art since 1989.  She has been juried into the major textile exhibition, including Quilt National, Crafts National, Visions, Fiberart International, and the Museum of American Folk Art’s Quilted Constructions.  Her work has been featured in dozens of publications and is included in more than forty public collections. www.SallySellers.com

Bonnie Bucknam’s large-scale quilts have been featured in exhibitions around the country and abroad since the 1980s. Known for her striking use of color and form as well as her use of both hand and machine-quilting in her work, she has accrued multiple awards and accolades, including Best of Show at Quilt National 2011 and Viewer’s Choice Award at Rio Parchwork Design. www.handwerktextiles.com

Closing Reception Tonight

There will be a closing reception of my solo exhibition: "Speak, Memory", tonight at the Hanover Gallery. The gallery is located on the corner of 3rd and Hanover, downtown Wilmington. 200 Hanover Street. Be there or be square ;)

A happy day indeed

WWWWD?

Demo for CAM

Tonight at the Hanover gallery I did an encaustic demo for the Cameron Art Museum's CAM Contemporaries. This group also got to select an original encaustic piece to keep as part of the museum's gala incentive.

58th Annual Juried Art Exhibition

My mixed media encaustic piece "The Sum Of" was selected for the 58th Annual Juried Art Exhibition at the SunTrust Gallery in Durham, NC. The gallery is located on 101 Morris Street, Durham, NC 27701 Exhibition Dates: October 23 – November 23, 2012 Public Reception during Durham Third Friday: November 16, 2012, 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Juror Lecture (Juror Sarah Powers of the VAE): October 25, 2012, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.

A Cairn at Vizcaya

A Day at the Villa

We are busy getting ready for the first wedding at Vizcaya Villa.

Demo

Tonight I gave another talk and demo for Richard Conn's art appreciation class at the CFCC Hanover Gallery. Fun was had by all.

Totem Tree Exhibition

An opening reception of the Totem Tree Paintings will be at 2TEN Haustudio, 15930 NC 210 Hwy E in Ivanhoe, NC 28447.

Touch, Anoint, Heal

My mixed media encaustic painting "Baptism" will be in the traveling exhibition called Touch, Anoint, Heal: God With Us. Only 30 pieces out of 300 entries were selected. Read more about the exhibition in this article in Ruminate Magazine:

A Juror’s thoughts on selecting work for the next CIVA traveling exhibition

The title of this post comes from the CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) exhibition for which I have been given responsibility as juror. Since receiving this opportunity I have meditated and prayed over its title continually. I have prayed for the artists who would submit their work, and I have prayed that, amongst the artwork submitted, there would be a powerful connection to the exhibition’s ethos. Through this process I have regularly asked myself, What is the significance of the union of these three words: touch, anoint, heal?

As a visual artist and Christ-follower, the intrinsic act of forming and shaping is of supreme importance to me. Re-forming or re-creating the stuff of creation is an integral part of what it means for us to be formed in God’s image. God created the universe from nothing, ex nihilo, but it is important to realize that he formed his greatest creation, humans, ex creatas… out of the dust. God was the first sculptor, the first shaper of the raw materials of his created world. In the beginning, he was the first to get his hands on the stuff of his creation, and it surely hasn’t been the last time.

Likewise, we who call ourselves artists deal with physical stuff. We fling it, shape it, manipulate it, trash it, retrieve it, layer it, adhere it, remove it and even yell at it. Physical stuff, the stuff that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, thought of and, yes, touched, is not an accident, but a blessed existence. God created a physical creation and called it good, and we experience the physical world through our physical selves. Even the invisible worlds of spirit and thought are communicated by means of our physical experience. It is impossible to disassociate humanity from the physical creation.

Touch is the most intimate of senses. With touch a relationship is formed; a connection is made. Touch can happen accidentally, but it is most powerful when it is intentional. Touch communicates. It makes the unspoken concrete. Touch is the bridge between the fleeting thought and the tangible object.Whether it be T.S. Eliot setting down and reworking phrases on paper or whether it be Bruce Herman laying down paint and then sanding back through the layers to reveal a richness of history, the intangible musings of the individual become the shared experiences of the many; all because something was touched. To touch is to connect.

Christian tradition inherited the ritual act of anointing from the Jews. From the placing of lamb’s blood over their doorposts in Egypt to the pouring of oil over Israel’s kings, the ritual of anointing has been used to visually and symbolically set something or someone apart. Anointing with oil is still practiced in many Christian rituals, i.e. baptisms, ordinations and healing services. In a manner of speaking the act of anointing finds its secular counterpart in significant sporting events. Can anyone name a victorious Super Bowl coach who has not been “anointed” by Gatorade within recent history? Even in this contemporary, secular example, the setting apart of the individual and the physicality of the act cannot be ignored. We anoint someone in order to ritually set that individual apart. This anointing becomes an act of solemn covenant and communal proclamation, an agreement and statement by a community on behalf of the anointed. To anoint is to set apart.

Healing is humiliating. In order to be healed, we must first recognize that something is broken; there is something that we ourselves cannot fix. We are used to brokenness. After all, we live in a fallen and broken world. The creation still reveals the glory of God, but it is ravaged by the consequences of our rebellion. Jesus actively laid his hands on many who in faith sought his blessing and healing, and the mere touch of his hem, when grasped ahold of in faith, was enough to heal the woman in the crowd stricken with bleeding. To heal is to restore to wholeness.

As I examine the three hundred plus images submitted for the exhibition, I can’t help but look for the union, the indwelling; the wholeness of the three words in the work. I find myself pondering a call to be artist healers, each of us anointed to bring wholeness, justice, and shalom to our neighbors.

about Richard Cummings

Richard Cummings first became associated with Ruminate when his assemblage work appeared in Issue 19: Sustaining in March of 2011. He is easily distracted and enjoys sparkly things, things that move, and things with sugar. Still, Mr. Cummings finds time to write about art and time to be a professional artist, designer, and educator. He is an associate professor of art at College of the Ozarks and is also the director of the college's Boger Gallery.

Demo at CFCC

We had a great time tonight waxing it up at the Hanover Gallery. I did an encaustic demo for Richard Conn's art appreciation class. We were surrounded by my work in the gallery so I didn't need to do a PowerPoint. Then the students got some hands on experience and made a small piece to take home.

Maria V. Howard Arts Center

My mixed media encaustic painting "Force Equations" will be exhibited at the Maria V. Howard Arts Center in Rocky Mount, NC. The piece is included in the Center's 55th National Juried Art Show. 122 artists from 20 states submitted 428 entries for considerations in this year's exhibit. Of these entries, 55 works were selected by Juror Dan Early. A reception and award ceremony will be held Sunday, October 7, 2012.

The gallery is located at 270 Gay Street, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. The exhibition will be open until January 20, 2013.

Long Yarns Poster

Black Door Gallery - Opening Reception

Long Yarns - Fiber Art Stories, Fables, and Lessons

Three of my mixed media encaustic pieces were accepted into the Long Yarns exhibition which is a component of the 2012 North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival at the Museum and Arts Center in Sequim - Dungeness Valley (MAC) at 175 West Cedar St. Sequim WA 98382.

October 5 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. First Friday Art Walk Reception

Oct 5 - 7 North Olympic Fiber Arts Festival fiberartsfestival.org

October 6 12 p.m. – 3 p.m. Artists’ Reception

Oct 27 Exhibition Closes

A Daily Confession of Faith

As I make these bowls each day, I am reminded of God's faithfulness and my completeness in Christ.

So Thankful

Grace: 1 a : unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification b : a virtue coming from God c : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace.

Leslie Pearson

www.lesliekpearson.com

www.lesliepearson.blogspot.com

Yep

Collage Experiment

Layered distressed papers and wax. 12" x 12".