Laena Wilder at MIA

I love the Miami airport. It has always been a gateway to real and imaginary places. Recently there has been a new art installation Originsanddestinations.com that pulls your imagination by tagging it to real travelers. Laena Wilder has installed a series of giant semitransparent images of passengers on the windows of Gates D30, D27, D24, and D 21. There are 43 pieces of art that incorporate interviews with travelers passing through MIA, and telling us of where they are from, where they are heading, and what they care about. The exhibition will be up through March 2016. I do not think you should miss it. (Just don't miss your flight while getting absorbed in the stories).

Moma for 60 years of Picasso sculptures

I was able to meet up with my son and my sisters at the MoMA and catch a very wonderful  and whimsical Picasso sculpture exhibition. The sculpture was divided by rooms into epochs, because Picasso, trained as a painter, only dabbled in the arena of sculpture at various times of his life. Each of his episodic and exhaustive investigations into sculpture was inspired by a different material and the relationships in his life. He worked in classical clay and bronze, etching into stone, building with plaster and found objects, transforming thrown clay vessels, hammering pieces of found wood, and towards the end of his life, playing with the properties of a new material- sheet metal. Many of the sculptures decorated his houses and were made for him to live with. They were not shown or distributed to the public venues until after his death. Picasso as an artist was very playful and that was captured in this show. You could see the smiles on the museum visitor's faces.

Love the shovel body and spigot head

my sister and my son

 I didn't take a lot of pictures. We were busy looking and talking.

reminding me of Minoan sculptures, and the shores of Greece

these are beach pebbles Picasso etched classical faces into

Simplicity in the whole thing..ear and all.

If I could own any one of the works- I'd take this drawing

or this one.

Venus of the gas fire

During WW2 when the Nazis took Paris and Picasso refused to leave, he was denounced as degenerate and basically a prisoner on his own house. He secretly sculpted with clay in the bathroom, and at night smuggled small pieces to a foundry at the edge of town. Making bronze work was an act of defiance, a brave act. This small sculpture is actually an upturned, (and otherwise unaltered), gas pilot from his stove. Picasso, before Duchamp, turns a ready-made into art.

New York City big city of inspiration

Many generations are gathered for this one weekend to feast and jury grant applications for the Cowles Charitable Trust. I am thrilled to be a part of it. In addition to reading about and supporting inspiring humans and non-profits, I get to see my son, my mother, my sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews, and cousins!!! My heart is ready to explode in joy!

Mandalas and color theory

 The kids are learning to mix all the colors they need from a limited selection of primary pigments.

Initially they complained, but in the end they all made good work well within the limitation. While painting many of them got in the zone, and were very content, often startled by the call to clean up. I think it was the power of the mandala at work. Now they are painting larger works of their own design, and I believe that they might have learned something! If a student asks how to make a color- usually several others answer before I have to.

some pics from last night

Enma Saiz explaining ideas behind her painting

a good laugh

Veronica Fazzio with her video

My work in the back hallway

Erik Thompson-Green starting his performance

Me, throwing a little "art speak" into the mix

with Ariel Baron-Robbins, Oscar Fuentes, and Enma Saiz

I am grateful to the South Florida Art Center on Lincoln road for hosting the event, providing drinks, and getting all the people together... the music was really good too.

Field Exhibition part of the South Florida Art Center "art crawl"

Tomorrow- Wednesday- from 6 to 10pm the "fielders" will have their art on display on the second floor of the art center.  Once a week for the last 8 weeks I have gotten together with several other artists to hone our observational skills, and share insights into each other's works. There will be at least two performances in the course of the evening. I hope people stop by. I am also looking forward to time hanging with my new buddies: Enma Saiz- social activist and painter, Ariel Robbins- post photographer, Veronica Fazzio- performance artist, Pedro- painter of etherial abstractions, Eric Green- spontaneous performance artist, Oscar Fuentes - our leader and poet performer, Elysa Batista- wordsmith, Susan Feliciano- mermaid artist, Sharon- painter of canine and people portraits, Heloisa- collage artist from Brazil, and Deming- maker of the trippy photoshop images in Carnival Cruise line elevators.

setting up for the critique

Fielders

The Field is a nation wide program  http://www.artcentersf.org/the-field-miami/ that provides
"a unique forum for artists to share developing creative works and exchange feedback, peer to peer. The FieldWork structure reveals how each piece is perceived by others and fosters a detailed information exchange. Incisive and stimulating critiques are guided by an experienced facilitator. Comments focus on what’s happening in the work and how each choice shapes the work, keeping the authorship of   the artist constantly supported. FieldWork cultivates insight into composition and strengthens one’s ability to give critical commentary." 
Over the 8 weeks I found the workshop very inspiring and invigorating to my art practice. I wanted to present new work each week so I had to fit in time in my studio even though it was a busy time at my teaching job. I reworked at least one piece because of the feedback. Here is some of the work I finished:

Oil Pastel Final

I gave my high school drawing class four days last week to render the still life and show me what they could do in the medium. It was their test before we move on to another media. The room felt a bit of a scramble having a bulky pile of objects off to one side and unassailed for the time period. The tables had to be arranged at odd angles and that freaked out my other classes. I also am pretty frustrated with the lighting. There is no way except in a patchy tenuous teetering way to focus light where I want it. Shadow is so important to a still life. It is what animates it.
But here is what they did. Starting with my favorites:

love the cropped objects

who said you couldn't edit the heck out of the set up?

look at the line? The stylization here!

great sense of light

an eager graphic designer

I'd love to see this student paint

What crazy light reflecting off the plastic spotted cloth!

drapery looks convincing

a darkly romantic painter

Everything looks windblown, off to the side!

yikes! Where is this kid going?

Hard to believe they were all looking at the same thing!

The last one is my favorite too. They are all really satisfying to me. The kids used their eyes, they filled the page, they edited and  cropped. I had to give them all A's. Maybe I am too easy. I love their individuality and spunk as well as the grace and clumsiness. It is weeks like this that I love my job. Everyone is working for their best. I'm  hoping the kids can try this at home.