As I've mentioned off and on during the last few weeks, I have a lot of stuff brewing these days - classes, workshops, exhibitions, etc.  I thought it might be helpful to have a list of the information in case you're interested in attending any of them (I hope you will!)

Here's the list along with links and info on how to sign up.

Lecture:

Red Tent Meeting, Thursday January 6^th, 7:30 – 8:30 PM, At Illumination, 109 W. 15th St. Richmond, VA, 23224.

A fabulous opportunity to gather with women to talk about women's bodies and other issues near and near to us.  I’ll be talking about my work, and showing images, then we’ll all have a chance to share stories about our bodies and how we feel about them.  Follow the link to sign up, or just show up that night!

Classes:

Beginning Pastels, Tuesdays for 6 weeks beginning January 11, 6:30 – 9:00 PM, Visual Arts Center, Richmond. 

A wonderful opportunity to learn to draw with pastels, a lovely, forgiving, juicy medium, perfect for beginners!  Sign up online or call 353-0094.

Naked Self Portraiture:  Drawing Inward to Draw Outward, Fridays every other week, beginning February 11, 7 – 9:30 PM, Khalima’s Dance Studio (for women only). 

Part exploration of the soul, part exploration of the body, this class will give you time and permission to see yourself as you truly are with loving eyes.  We’ll draw and paint and sculpt with simple materials like Playdoh and finger paint, easy for the inexperienced artist and challenging enough for  the professional artist as well.  We’ll go inward through Authentic Movement and guided meditation to find the essence of who we are outwardly on the inside.  Come prepared to disrobe, to explore, to laugh, and to discover richly, deeply your own gorgeous self, inside and out.

Body Shop: An exploration of the body through image and word.  Friday, February 25, 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM, my studio on Southside Richmond.  Co-led by Valley Haggard

What messages do we tell ourselves about our bodies? Are our perceptions accurate? Do the words we use to describe our own bodies - or the bodies of other women - promote our happiness or keep us stuck in judgment and self-recrimination? Through the processes of drawing, writing and sharing, we will explore the impact that our body image has on our inner and outer lives. In this intensive three-and-a-half hour workshop, we will gently but honestly uncover how we really feel about the woman beneath our clothes. 

Intermediate Pastel Drawing, Tuesdays for 6 weeks beginning March 15, 6:30 – 9:00 PM, Visual Arts Center, Richmond. 

Bring your own project to work on in a supportive, instructive atmosphere.  Excellent for those with some experience with pastels already.  Sign up online or call 353-0094.

Exhibits

Celebrate Gay Marriage, Foundry Gallery, Washington, DC, January 5 – 29, 2011, opening reception January 8, 6:00 – 8:00 PM. My piece Susie Kissing Sally will be on display there.

Artists and Writers, Flippo Gallery, Randolph Macon College, Ashland, VA, February 18 – April 1, 2011, Opening Reception, February 20, 3:00 – 5:00 PM.  4 pairs of writers and artists including Valley Haggard and I will be displaying our collaborative efforts at the Flippo Gallery in Ashland.  Valley will have a piece in Belle Magazine in February telling about our combined efforts and how being painted nude has changed her life.

Fruits and Veggies, Bon Air Library, Richmond, VA, March 1 – 30, 2011.  Exhibit of pastel drawings of fruits and vegetables.  No nudity allowed in the publically-funded sphere, so I’ll show my fruits instead!

 Solo Exhibit (as yet unnamed), Petersburg Regional Arts Center, April 6 – May 9, Opening Reception, April 8, 7:00 – 9:00 PM.  A small collection of my female nudes at this lovely art center in the heart of downtown Petersburg.

All Fleshed Out (working title), Crossroads Art Center, September 19 – November 1, 2011, Opening Reception September 23, 6:30 – 9:30.  A gigantic exhibition of my paintings and drawings of Female Nudes, Transgender Nudes, and experiential activities highlighting how we feel about our bodies.


I hope you'll join me for some of these many rich experiences.  I'm excited about all that is happening and look forward to sharing the joy and excitement from each in the months to come!

Taking down Sacred Flesh after two glorious months!

Yesterday morning Chris and I went to Visual Art Studio and took down Sacred Flesh after its two month run.  It's so bizarre taking a show down...  After months of conception, planning, painting, advertising, talking, emailing, marketing, sharing, the show gets hung.  It's a long, arduous, 6-7 hour process, yet it's ultimately a very satisfying experience because the result is so gratifying - a opportunity to see all the work in one place - the concept comes to life!

Then the Opening Night!  What a thrill!  It's kind of like a wedding.  So many wonderful friends and family members take the time out of their busy lives to come see the work you've put your soul into for months/years.  It's an opportunity to share the work with the public and to gauge their reaction.  Openings are one of my very favorite things to do!

Then the show hangs for a month or two.  Sacred Flesh was up for 2 months.  There are scheduled artists' talks, luncheons, impromptu visits to meet friends.  The energy continues unabated, helped along by wonderful emails from people who have seen the show.  So many things have evolved from this show, but I'll talk about those in another post.

Then, finally, after all that time, it's time for the show to come down.  Before leaving home, we loaded the Highlander and the truck with cardboard and other packing material, tools, and containers and headed to the gallery.  The owner was on Thanksgiving vacation still so we let ourselves in.  I took some photographs to remember the show by then we started taking the pieces off the wall.  Down came the labels and the women's stories.  Down came the paintings.  We packed up the catalogs and prints.  Then we began hauling the work to the truck and the car.  What took 7 hours to do only took 45 minutes to undo.  We were home within an hour and a half of leaving!

We carried the left over paintings into the studio where we left them propped up against walls and easels and tables.  We waited until today to put them away neatly.

One of the things artists are sometimes (understandably) shy about talking about is that shows don't usually sell out so there is often artwork to store or to hang in ones own house.  I've noticed that I actually get depressed when I take down a show. I know I did yesterday.  I don't like the feeling of bringing home so much work into which I poured my soul and having to find a place to store it.  I want it to have found new homes!  To have been loved and cherished and taken home!  It's painful to put it away where it won't be seen for months.  I hang much of it up in my house, but I only have so many walls, and I have to have room for the furniture too!

So yesterday was a bit sad and depressing.  I didn't notice at first, but Chris and I were hanging some artwork (we bought a hanging system for our house and were working on installing it then hanging pictures on it) and I was totally grumpy.  I felt like jumping down his throat for no reason.  Finally I realized that I was feeling let down like I frequently do when a show is over.  It passes, and my vitality returns, but it hurts for a bit.  Thankfully Chris was kind and gentle and understanding (as he almost always is - I'm a lucky woman!) so it passed, but ouch!

It's a powerful thing to have an art show. To be see so thoroughly by the public.  To have ones soul scrutinized, analyzed, judged, admired, despised, reviled, loved.  It's a vulnerable thing.  Fortunately I believe in my work completely so the negative comments generally roll off my back, and the positive ones serve to reinforce the rightness of what I'm doing.  (Some might call it selective hearing!  That's not a bad thing to have as an artist!)