First Annual Artspire La Crosse

I got to go back home to La Crosse last weekend to participate in the first annual ARTSPIRE. The event had a number of artists exhibiting as well as multiple stages, food trucks and they even unveiled a mural by internationally renowned muralist John Pugh. I was very honored to receive the show's top award, the Juror's Choice. The award came with a $1,000 dollar prize. Very generous for a first yeat show! It made the two days of scrambling to buy discount plywood, building a booth from scratch, and framing a tentful of artwork worth it. During the next week, I had the privilege to be asked by Mr. Pugh to help with the final stages of the mural. In all it was a very busy and eventful week, and it was great to be back home with friends and family.

"The Underpainting" Featured in Fine Art Connoisseur

I'm extremely honored to have artwork included in the March/April issue of Fine Art Connoisseur. My painting, "The Underpainting" will be included in a feature called "When Artists Depict Themselves." I'm humbled to be featured alongside some of my heroes and my blogstalkees, including Mia Bergeron, Teresa Oaxaca, Katie O'Hagan, Michelle Dunaway and many others. Julio Reyes and Candice Bohannon have a wonderful feature in there; it's a very inspiring read, and it couldn't have examined two nicer artists. I flew out to New York in 2012 just to catch his show at the Arcadia gallery, and it was quite honestly astounding. It was a whole new level of awareness radiating from his work on the walls. Anyway, check out their article! I finally tracked an issue down at the local Barnes & Noble, so it should be on newsstands near you!

Open Canvas 2013

This year I was invited to participate in Open Canvas in Milwaukee, WI.  Open Canvas is a popular fundraiser that benefits scholarships for local students.  It's invite-only, so I was excited to be asked late last year, even if I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.

It's quite an amazing event.  It takes place in the Pritzlaff Building, a recently renovated warehouse just off the river.  Almost 80 artists were invited this year from around Wisconsin and Illinois.  Artists are supplied paint and a 48" x 36" canvas, and are given about 9 hours to paint.

My station shortly after arriving that afternoon.
My two neighbors also happen to be Chicago artists.

Artists work with acrylic paint, and can use any subject matter they wish.  I figured I'd use a photo of my friend Tim, and hope that I could manage the acrylics.  While artists work, collectors and patrons can stroll around and watch the myriad works manifest.  Also, they had like 25 or so restaurants catering and a bar, all on the house!

Since my paint would dry quite quickly, I took the opportunity to work with vivid, broken color.  And the scale allowed me to work with large brushes and bold strokes.

My booth shortly after starting, and eating a ton of food. 

Once I got started, time flew by, and I didn't get much of a chance to check out many other artists.  Before I knew it, the sirens were going off signaling the end of the allotted painting time.  The works are auctioned off silent-style, and, one by one as the pieces close they are sold to the highest bidder, and in some cases a bidding war erupts in the final moments.  Quite an exciting event to be sure, and I really had no idea how the night would unfold.  My work was fortunate to be in such a bidding skirmish, while I obliviously knocked in the final details.

Here's a rough cell phone picture of my work at the end.  The lights were a bit hot, so the color is a tad blown out.  It ended up being a little less vivid.  If I can get a better picture I will post it.  That taboret is my poor liquor cart from home.  It held up to the soggy paint rags and messy palette quite well.

I had a great time.  I met so many great people, and everyone was so positive and excited and intrigued by the artwork.  Lots of people asked me about Tim throughout the night, and he proved to be a very popular painting.  I hope to be a part of the event again next year.

Richeson 75 Figure/Portrait Exhibition

Well, I guess it's the busy season in the exhibition world.  I was just notified that two of my works were selected for exhibition in the Richeson 75 Figure/Portrait Exhibition 2012.  This is quite a big national show, and happens to be right here in Wisconsin.  I haven't made the cut the last few years, so I'm pretty excited to be a part of it this year.  My two paintings, The Welder and The Call, were accepted into the show, and a third, Cave Man, will be published with the others in the book for the show.  No word on if any of them will appear in the movie adaptation.

The Call, another painting of my friend Tim.  

The Welder is feeling a little over-exposed.

Cave Man, a recent self-portrait.  This work will be included in the exhibition book that Richeson creates for their shows.  I wrote about the meaning behind this piece here. 

Here is a link where you can pre-order the exhibition book, if you are interested in that sort of thing.  Pre-order is the only way to be sure you get one, since they tend to sell out quickly once the show opens.

Recent Long Poses

The studio has a Long Pose session on the first and third Thursdays of the month.  Of course, the three-hour pose is fairly short compared to the multi-week poses in academia, but it's a little more accommodating than the 3–4 quicker poses we do on Wednesdays. It's just a great way to throw some paint down and exercise your art muscles.  I've definitely noticed improvement since we started doing these.

Here are a few of the my more recent studies, done over the last few months.  All three hours.

I decided to do a drawing on this one.  Even though Rena's red hair is great to paint, something just struck me about the values in this, with her straight, bobbed hair and dark-rimmed glasses.

Did this one yesterday evening.  Brittany came in with an awesome headwrap on, and asked if we wanted her to take it off.  When we asked what was underneath, she almost guiltily said, "a mohawk." Heck yeah, mohawk it is!

Patrice is always a great model, for any length of session.  Such a warm and genuine person.

"The Welder" Accepted to Salmagundi Club Exhibition

I just found out that I was accepted into the Salmagundi Non-Members Exhibition!  This show is put on by the venereble Salmagundi Club in New York City.  This is the second year I was accepted, and it's really an honor.  After last year, I thought there was no way I'd be able to pull it off again, and it really forced me to step up my game.  That trip was really life-changing, and I met so many wonderful people.  I really hope to be able to make it out there again.

I've really been pushing myself to take my work where it needs to go, and this trip was a huge part of that.  I'm really excited to share some of the pieces I have in the works soon.  I feel like I'm finally starting to say the things I need to say with my work.

My painting of my friend Josh is the piece I will be sending.  People really seem to single this one out and relate to it, and I'm fortunate that I was able to convince Josh to sit for me.  Well, I'm not sure if it was me or a few beers that did the convincing, but I'd say it worked out.  Thanks Josh!

Pfister Video Interview Posted

The Pfister has posted the video interviews with the six finalists to their Vimeo page.  You can click here to see them.  It appears that they edited out a lot of my psycho-babble, which somehow bounced between bizarre topics including arctic research stations, Stand By Me, and homunculi.  It's probably for the better since I was a little concerned about coming off as a lunatic after my interview, but it seems that the video crew covered for me.  This clip is pretty much a collection of the most mundane sentences in my interview.



Artist in Residence Finalist: Matt Ducket from PfisterHotel on Vimeo.