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Jul 03 2014

Chalk Art Festival 2014

By Exhibitions

Tomorrow, for the second year in a row, I will be enjoying the beautiful Idaho summer morning air in Ann Morrison Park with a cup of joe in one hand, and a large piece of chalk in the other, as I lay out my design for this year’s Idaho Statesman’s Chalk Art Festival.

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Last year was Boise’s Sesquicentennial and my design featured a vintage firework:

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As a “featured artist” you do feel a little like a circus act with people stopping to take your picture. But this is Boise, and everyone is friendly and chatty, so for an extrovert like me it’s not a bad way to spend the morning.

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2014 is the 150th Anniversary of the Idaho Statesman newspaper — our Chalk Art Festival sponsor — and so to celebrate its birthday I am doing another vintage firework this year:

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If you’re in Boise and feeling chatty tomorrow morning, early — I’ll start around 8:00 am — come on down to Ann Morrison park and say hello.

Then stay to cheer on the over 90 artists who registered to compete (as a featured artist I’m not part of the competition) for a variety of prizes, including the chance to be one of next year’s featured artists.

See you in the morning!

Dec 15 2013

Eye of the Beholder

By 2D & 3D

I could have saved this for a Second Helpings post, but it’s actually a multipurpose post because it’s subject is also Christmas themed, and it shows how I work in both 2D and 3D and sometimes the two approaches inform each other.

Meet my multifaceted friends:

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If the Chambers were tiny wooden reindeer cut out of some 1960’s hobbyshop kit we would look just like this: Ma, Pa, Sissy, and Lil Smack.

You don’t even have to ask. You already know that I found them in a secondhand shop, unpainted, unloved. Missing a googley eye here and there. $1.99 for the ziplock bagful. There were more than just the first four…

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Lil Smack had a friend. (Both of them have issues making eye contact.) And then there were a couple more that found their way to me as well. Herding instinct is a powerful thing.

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It should also come as no surprise that I saw through their plain brown exteriors to their true, technicolor personalities waiting to burst out. Acrylic paint and tiny brush to the rescue once again.

I bring these guys out every Christmas and finagle them into the decorations some place different every time. This year they’re in the new cozy dining room:

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I had so much fun painting these reindeer that in turn they inspired a 2D painting which hung in TVAA’s first Foray exhibit two years ago. The painting was done in a combination of watercolor and acrylic. It’s one of my pieces which is available as an archival giclee print. The title of the painting is “Democrats in Idaho.”

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You might have to actually live here to understand why that’s funny, but you don’t have to live here to look at these guys and have them make you smile. Nevermind their inability to return the eye contact!

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!