Italy: An Artist's Eye!

Ahhh Italy! What a wonderful adventure. Italy, a boot shaped land whose eastern coast, is lined with a set of mountain ranges that make this part of Italy a very hilly place! Experiencing Italy's unique history, landscape and culture was facinating! The Pryamid Atlantic Art Center of Sliver Spring, Md. sponsored this study tour organized and led by Lynn Sures in cooperation with the Museo Della Carta E Della Filigrana in Fabriano Italy a beautiful city filled with history. While there I joined a small group of 5 artists interested in studing Fabriano's traditions of paper making, book binding, and intaglio etching. We heard lectures created hand made leather bound books, hand made paper and marblized paper. We toured the medieval towns of Gubbio, Assisi, Urbino, and Sirolo Beach on the Adriatic Sea ! Afterwards I went on my own to Firenze (Florence)and here is a taste. Italy's is a landscape of beautiful vistas the local wine and food were a taste feast for the eyes and palette! Each thumbnail to right unfolds a different leg of my journey. So check them out!

Blue Mountain Journey!

What an great 2007 "October Surprize" to be one of 15 artists selected to be in residence at the Blue Mountin Center (BMC) retreat for writers, artists, and composers! Located in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, BMC is a wonderful place to work. It is situated on the lovely Eagle Lake. The month long residency afforded me the opportunity to continue working on new ideas for Steal Away, the artist book I completed in 2006. (Check out my Steal away to freedom adventure below.) Take a look my Photo Journal and feel the spirit of the BMC vistas and environs that inspired me!

To Little Rock With Love!

In the winter of 2007, Set Theory was mounted at the spacious, airy University of Arkansas Little Rock (UALR) Art Gallery. The 33 works in Set Theory chronicled my artistic journey from 1988 thru 2006. It included sets of my favorite drawings, prints, paintings and artist books I created on on paper, wood or canvas and were shaped by the use of vibrant colors, random mark making including numbers, and visualizations personal memories, the sacred in art and expressive/geometric abstraction!

This Adventure began in the spring of 2004 when I was reunited with a dear friend and fellow artist, AJ Smith. We first met and printed together at Bob Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop in NYC in the 1970's. AJ Smith has been professor of art & printmaking at UALR for more than 20 years! Anyway, after doing a printmaking workshop for students and meeting his collegues, I was invited to have the show by gallery director, Brad Cusman. Having 3 years to prepare for it was a lesson in how patience/time pays off. Hey, they published a lovely full color brouchure with an essay by Elaine Helen Jackson; they invited me to lecture and arranged a NPR radio interview. The Set Theory show kicked off the art department's and the University's celebration of the 50th anniversery of the Little Rock 9 and the desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School!

Steal Away to Freedom !

In the spring of 2005 I travelled back and forth as the Teague Blackburn Visiting Artist at the Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI). EPI is located in Lafayette College in Easton PA. While there EPI's bookmaking and printmaking staff assisted me in the creation of Steal Away, an accordion styled artist book of 11 abstract etchings and 11 narrative collages. I created Steal Away's imagery during the spring of 2005. Because I wanted this to be an inter-disciplinary work, I produced an audio CD based on first person narratives of former slaves and period songs to accompany my art. Together the visual images and audio intergrate to better illustrate the struggle for liberty and the pursuit of happiness during slavery times in the American South. As a tease Listen to the introduction. See and Hear more of Steal Away.

Autumn Passages!

Wow, it's the fall of 2005 and i'm on my way to North Carolina A&T State University(NCAT) in Greensboro North Carolina. I was commissioned to create a of Public Art work for NCAT'S New Science Building's lobby! The University produced this video to document my work on "Autumn Passages", a multi-paneled painting. The commission included a 2 month residency and solo exhibition of my Chance and Other Muses show first shown in 2004 at the Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba House, in NYC! NCAT is one of America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I spent 2 great months on campus creating Autumn Passages and Getting to know the "Aggies" of NCAT.

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