ABC's of Cleaning

Cleaning out is actually a wonderful way to restore a creative spirit.  All those “almost” projects pile up and act like spider webs, catching unsuspecting, delicate ideas and wrapping them in dusty confinement.

If you’ve been paying attention, you know I’ve been busy.  LUX Center for the Arts hosted an exhibit for me in May & June for which I created a series of paintings titled Private Property.  Four days after taking that one down, I opened an exhibit at The Burkholder Project with an entirely different group of paintings called A Larger View.  The day after that opening reception I hosted my community’s Art on the Green, part of our Independence Day festivities. 

I’m not complaining, I’m just sayin…

All this creative hustle and bustle has created quite a pile-up in my studio.  In an effort to multi-task my multiple events, I managed to build multiple mountains of half-finished, almost-but-not-quite-done projects.  You may know the kind:  you start “A”, but you can’t get “A” done because “B” needs doing immediately, and then there’s  “C” which got started last week and is now in the way, so you scoot “C” over on top of “A”, and then your eye is caught by bright and shiny “D”, which looks like waaaay more fun than anything else you’ve started. Using this formula, I’ve run through the alphabet several times over, piling ever higher and wider. At one point I couldn’t tell where one project ended and another one started. My creative space was one long interrelated complicated … mess.

Mom was right, a place for everything and everything in its place

I can’t work in that kind of situation.  Tripping over piles of artistic detritus doesn’t inspire me to creative heights.  My studio is small enough without walls of rummage closing in on me.  I'm not saying I need spic'n'span surfaces and shelves of books alphabetized by author, but it would be nice to know under which pile my 4' x 8' work table could be found.

All surfaces accounted for

So, 4 days and 3 large garbage bags of pieces-parts later, I’m all tucked in and ready to go again. My second hand nearly new taboret is cleaned, painted and stuffed full of all the right stuff. I’ve got room to move, and better yet, room to think.  Those delicate webs of lovely ideas have been released and are dancing in my imagination, waiting patiently for me to respond. 
I can hardly wait.

Hot off my shiny clean easel  © Patricia Scarborough  12 x 16 pastel, as yet untitled

De LUX Reception

Friday night was the opening reception for my new collection of oils and pastels titled "Private Property" at LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Ne.

Ho-lee Cow.
Huge thanks to the staff at LUX for their dedication and hard work.  The exhibit looks amazing if I do say so myself.  LUX is a classy space, and seeing these paintings beautifully presented was a real thrill.  To top it off, the snacks were delicious. They even managed to get the weather to cooperate.
A sampling of the evening:

These are the fellas to whom I am most grateful. (Thanks Ann, for the great photo!) Their support and appreciation keeps me going.

You might recognize a couple of them from last week's post. 

"Private Property" will be on exhibit at LUX Center for the Arts through June 25th.  Stop in, and spend some time.  See what I see in the overlooked spaces of private property.

Memory Lane

Greetings Friends-

Some of you may have noticed that Handsome Husband and I have been away.  We made a delightful trip to the land of vacationers with Uncle Brudah and Sis.  It was great to get away, and always great to come home again.

The four of us had a great time monkeying around, and reminiscing about old times.  And because it's also just a few days before my opening at LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, HH and I were also thinking back to my first exhibit there, just a short 15 years ago. 
Because I'm still fairly jet lagged from our trip, I'll leave you with two of our favorites from that very first LUX  exhibit.  Both paintings are of family members, the first our ancient dog, the second our very fine sons at a very young, very hip age.  It's fun to see how we've all changed. 

                                                       

©Patricia Scarborough  "Bob, 6:00 am"  24 x 18 pastel

©Patricia Scarborough  "Photo Op"  24 x 18 pastel 

Collection of the Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Ne.

Gentle reminder..."Private Property" will open Friday, May 6th at LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Ne. and run through June 25th.  If you can make it to the opening reception Friday, May 6th from 5 - 8 pm, that'd be lovely.

You enjoy, and I'll haul my tired bones to the laundry pile.

Details Details

This week I delivered my upcoming exhibit, titled "Private Property", to it's destination at LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Ne. Its a very cool space and I wanted to make a good impression on the staff. I'd worked for months to put together a collection of paintings that would show not only my skills as a painter, but also my readiness to be on that particular stage.

There's alot to putting an exhibit together.  Creating the artwork may be the easiest link.  The devil's in the details, y'know.

My newsletter went out last week reminding my readers of this exhibit.  Despite my checking, re-checking and double-checking the re-check, I put the wrong date down for the opening reception.  There is no Friday, May 5th in this year of our Lord 2011.  Try Friday May 6th instead. And I assumed (you know what that means) that the exhibit would run from the beginning of the month.  Not so. The very official dates for the exhibit are May 6th (yes, it's that Friday) through June 25th.

Last year I took Alyson Stanfield's advice and made fabric enclosures for delivering artwork.  Made from blankets, they were royal red and leopard print, very hip and cool, because I'm a hip and cool artist, oh yessiree. Alyson explained that delivering artwork in proper packaging was an important detail that shouldn't be overlooked. I scored on that point.  My artwork would be delivered in style.

These homemade slips are hip and cool, however, they are not waterproof. A detail of a detail overlooked. I woke up early on delivery day to the deep throbbing sounds of thunder, interspersed with the crisp rat-a-tat-tatting of hail on the house. Or maybe that was just rain being driven by 30 mile per hour winds. It was hard to tell.

My vision of driving up to LUX's front door looking like a capable accomplished artist took a definite U-turn.
After a bit of fretting and fuming, I realized that there are some details a person can control, and some they can't.  Despite all my whining and griping, the weather falls into the latter category.  The more painful realization was that no amount of nifty red and leopard-spotted art bags were going to out-cool soggy artwork. 

Do you suppose it was bad form to show up with 12 paintings stashed in garbage bags?


Taking a deep, humbling breath, I packed the car with paintings nestled in leopard spots and deep, ruby-red fabric  - and white plastic garbage bags with bright  blue draw-strings. Very un-cool, despite my best efforts to tie the draw-strings in a sassy bow.

You're invited to the opening reception on Friday May 6th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm. (If you come on Friday, May 5th you will be 6 years late.)  If it's raining, not to worry.  There's a pile of garbage bags in the gallery's store room. I'm sure they'll share.

©2010 Patricia Scarborough  "Good Morning Spring"  8x10 oil