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Nov 21 2013

Field Trip! Star Moxley’s Costumes at Enso

By Field Trips

I took a little break from painting hot air balloons today to go see the exhibition of Star Moxley’s costumes at Enso gallery.
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I’d missed the opening, and her subsequent walk and talk-through, and the whole Idaho Shakespeare Festival reception. Frankly it was just getting ridiculous, and then mom said she was going to go and photograph the costume that Lina wore as the Woman in Black.
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So I decided “Foray III submission deadline be damned,” I was going too. Good thing. The show closes tomorrow.

Star is a mix-master, a mashup queen, a genius at spinning hay into gold thread, whispering pigs ears into silk purses, and making chennile bedspreads into boleros.
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I appreciate her playful intermingling of materials and high/low mix of quality and I know she loves the second hand hunt as much as I do.

One of the things you figure out about Boise after you’ve lived here a little while is that nobody in this town is more than one degree of separation from you. One degree. If you live here, you know I’m not lying. Ask anybody. Star has designed costumes for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival since they began, and my daughter Lina’s acting career began with the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. One degree, I’m telling you.

Anyway, Lina has worn costumes designed by Star for a couple of Shakespeare Festival productions including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but the reason I didn’t want to miss going today was the dress she wore as the Woman in Black was in this exhibition. Gorgeous.
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The dress isn’t bad either.

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Lina lives in Chicago now and I miss seeing her every day, but it felt good to be in the same room with a ghost of her presence. Pretty cool too since everyone knows the Woman in Black wasn’t really there at all. Was she?

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Tomorrow it’s back to painting. Tonight I’ll enjoy the visions of Star’s patterns dancing across my blog.

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Take a seat and join me!

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Nov 15 2013

Le Boi-cycle

By 2D & 3D

Having the book signing this week for Local Color – Boise 150 at Rediscovered Books reminded me what a big job it was, of all the time and effort we invested this year producing the catalog and putting on the exhibition. But more importantly it reminded me that the whole point of the project was our wish to show our affection for Boise through our artwork.

Every piece in this show was a little love letter to Boise and mine addressed two of Boise’s best loved features: her four seasons, and the Greenbelt which literally runs through the heart of town. The way I enjoy the Greenbelt most is cruising it on my bike, and so for “Le Boi-cycle” my bike became the Greenbelt.

I had a metal toy bicycle which I painted with acrylic paint meant for painting on metal, and I glued on tiny people from the hobby store — the ones that live in tiny railroad towns.

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And then I painted a watercolor painting of the little 3D model and THAT is the piece which was in the Local Color exhibition and catalog.

Le Boi-cycle

Around the runners, around the puddles, around and around go the wheels of my bike. It’s spring. Past the blackbirds trilling on cattails, dodging squirrels and commuter ducks, around the green tailored grounds where small white balls ruin perfectly good walks. It’s summer. Spinning past students, and the stadium cheering in blue and orange, geese honking overhead. It’s fall. Crunching through snow and sli-i-iding on ice, rounding the bend…and there are deer. It’s winter. Around and around go the wheels of my bike. Around and around the seasons cycle.

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This one’s for you Boise. SWAK

Nov 14 2013

Local Color – Boise 150

By Exhibitions, Field Trips

All this year Boise has been celebrating her Sesquicentennial, and all Boiseans, even very small children who still call Pasta Putanesca, bisketti, can pronounce the word that means Boise is 150 years young. Woot woot!

In honor of this Happy Birthday the Treasure Valley Artists’ Alliance applied for and received a grant to curate an exhibition of artwork by local artists about Boise, and produce a catalog to accompany the exhibit. We called it Local Color – Boise 150.
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Each artist whose work was selected also wrote a few sentences about Boise as portrayed in their artwork, and that statement is on the page with their art in the catalog. This is my painting titled “Le Boi-cycle”…

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and Mike’s titled “Boise Blue Doors”…

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Mike and I wrote the grant. Jacqueline Crist selected the art for the exhibit. I arranged and hung the exhibit with assistance from Sue Latta, and my mom, Shirley McCarter, both of whom are also featured in the catalog. Debra Smith edited the artists’ writing, and Will Spearman and I designed and curated the catalog itself.

It was a huge learning experience, in fact we’re still learning from it. We had an event at Rediscovered Books last night along with three other writers/editors who produced books for the Sesquicentennial. Debra Smith who is not only the catalog’s editor, but a dear friend did the presentation for Local Color.
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Thank you Deb! I’m one of those people who would rather share a mochalottachocolatte with God (and you know what that would mean) than engage in public speaking.

By the way, we still have copies of the Local Color catalog available for sale: $19.95/copy plus standard shipping in the US and Canada. Contact me if you’re interested, and Mike and I will both sign your copy. Woot woot!