Obama posters

There are some powerful images gracing posters for the Obama campaign. The images are becoming very recognizable, particularly this one by Shepard Fairey:


There is a version of this same poster that says Hope, too. It is nice seeing positive imagery like this for a presidential campaign coming from artists. These artists are coming together in The Manifest Hope Gallery to "highlight themes of the progressive grass-roots movement surrounding the Obama Campaign - Hope, change, progress, unity and patriotism."

A show of these images opens on Sunday at The Manifest Hope Gallery, housed within Denver’s Andenken Gallery. The description of the show is as follows:

"Manifest hope will showcase some of the finest modern contemporary artists, acclaimed NY painters and sculptors, activated grass roots and street artists, and present the most widely recognized pieces seen throughout the 2008 presidential primary campaign, as well as newly commissioned works and previous works on loan from some of the United States top artists."

http://www.manifesthope.com/

This is not the first recognizable image by Fairey. I hadn't linked the Obama poster with these other images at first, but looking at his portfolio on-line is like popping in a new CD and realizing you know some of the songs already. Like this one:

and this one:



And some that are political in nature, but with a positive message. This one seems to state his main theme:

Sharon Lockhart's photos

I've been thinking about a series of photos of children that is part of the 2008 Carnegie International.  The series is called "The Pine Flat Series", by well-known California artist Sharon Lockhart.  Below is one of the portrait photos, titled "Sierra".  All the portraits in the series are large scale, with no scenery, just the figures looking mostly unposed, all of children. They are very intriguing photographs, and this one is my favorite.  I have been asking myself a question while I look at photos and paintings of individuals.  When does a portrait become more than just an image of a specific person, but art?  

"Sierra", photograph by Sharon Lockhart from the "Pine Flat Series"

Framed

Found a perfect frame today at Michael's, and it was 50% off on sale! Michael's always has great sales on picture frames, including custom framing. This was a ready-made frame, which worked because my painting was a regular frame size. (Having spent too much on custom frames in the past, now I make paintings within regular frame dimensions which saves a lot of money in the end.) It is an open-back frame, so I had to hammer and screw little braces on the back, and tie on framing wire. I am very happy with the way it completes the painting. It has black and a dark cherry wood color in it, and relates perfectly to the colors in the painting. Tomorrow I'll drop it off at the gallery, and it's out of my hands!

Studios

Since I'm getting very excited about creating a new studio space, I have been looking at famous artists' studios. Doing this, I came across something amazing.

This is NOT Chuck Close in his studio:


Nor is this Jackson Pollock in his studio:


These are miniature replicas of artists' studios by artist Joe Fig. And these are just zoom-ins of the interiors-- he has made the exteriors too. Check them out on his web site, here under "sculpture":
http://www.joefig.com/

I recently had a painting photographed for an upcoming gallery show. They are putting together a catalog for the show, featuring 250 Pittsburgh artists in celebration of the city's 250th anniversary. The show itself is at FE Gallery in Lawrenceville. The gallery is small, and the artwork will be hung "salon style" to fit it all in (like the paintings are hung at the Louvre all over the walls) but it will be fun to see 250 current local artists' work all at once like that. I expect to see a lot of variety.

They required professionally photographed art for the catalog, which is going to be sent to galleries nation-wide. I had the photography done by Alex Patho Sr. and Alex Patho Jr, and had several other paintings photographed as well. The results were far superior to the images I had previously taken on my digital camera (which recently broke in my purse). The digital photos that the Pathos took are such high quality, they could make actual-sized prints of my paintings if I ever wanted those, including prints on canvas. This is the painting being used for the catalog and show:

This weekend, I have to get my painting framed in order to drop it off at the gallery on Sunday. The painting is 3 ft. tall and 2 ft. wide. This falls within the show's size limitations (needed to exhibit 250 artworks in a small gallery). I have not decided what kind of frame I will use. I am also considering attempting to make a simple strip frame, but I could also imagine something more substantial around it. I'll have to look at what is available.

Meanwhile, Tom and I are in the process of moving from our tiny apartment to our first (also tiny) house. We want it to be a creative place, and once we are done painting walls and ceilings and pulling out some carpets, we are going to designate space where he can comfortably write and where I can comfortably paint. I am very excited to make it a home, and to have a nice studio space. We have some work to do yet though.