Artma 2016

Artma, the biennial art auction event held in Denver to benefit research areas of childhood cancer was held again this year on February 20th. 
I've participated in every iteration since its inception, including this year, although just barely.  What with the upheaval of our move and the condensing of studio and home into a smaller home with ad hoc studio and storage space, I nearly didn't make the deadline.  In fact I actually missed the deadline, but the organizers still welcomed my last minute contribution. 

Flattened Buoy, Red 2012

The work I donated is a 2012 drawing done while on residency on Norton Island in Maine.  The pastel drawing is one of several I made inspired by the colorful buoys arrayed in the waters around the island and washed up on the shore.  Buoys were even re-purposed to mark the trails cutting through the woods of the island.  The drawings were kind of schematic dissections of the buoys; a not so strict rendering of them as if they had been flayed and flattened.

A group of buoy, and other, drawings in process on Norton Island in 2012.

Artma benefit art auction taking place Feb 8, in the Denver area

You may have thought, "Gee, 2014 is an even numbered year, and Artma must be just around the corner." If, indeed, you had that thought, then you were right on the money.  Artma, the biennial event and art auction to fund pediatric cancer research through the Morgan Adams Memorial Neuro-Oncology fund is happening on Saturday, February 8th, in Broomfield, CO. 

I'm very pleased to have contributed artwork for every Artma event since it's inception.  This year my contribution is a painting constituted of a grid of four smaller canvases.  This painting is part of the body of work that I've been creating as a response to my 2012 "residency" in Geneva, CH. 

If you're in the Denver area, I encourage you to visit the Artma site and find out more about the event and the artists participating.  Tickets are on sale now.

Trix of Memory, 2013, oil on canvas, 22"x28"

The Artma benefit Auction returns to Denver, Feb 11, 2012

slough (Grande 1) 2006

If you happen to be in Denver this coming weekend.  And if you happen to dig art auctions, love children and hate cancer, you should attend the latest installment of the Artma Art Auction.  The biennial fundraiser to benefit pediatric cancer research.

This year's event is taking place on Saturday, Feb 11 from 6-10pm at the Denver Studio Complex.  More information is at artmaonline.org

I've participated by donating a work for each of the .....six installments of the event dating back to 2000.  This year I've donated a work from 2006; slough (Grande 1), it's oil on canvas, measuring 30"x24".  It's one of two larger works on canvas that grew out of the group of small paintings on wood I was making in 2005 and 2006. 
I considered this group of paintings as my "Morandi" works.  It's a ridiculous thing to say and perhaps an insult to the man who spent a lifetime exploring the vast universe embodied within a very narrowly focused subject matter in his remarkable paintings. I merely spent a year working on this group before my attentions were led in other by the possibilities presented by the very subject matter I was examining.   The invocation of the man's name is intended as a tribute.  For me, the tie to Morandi in these works was that they were a return a form of direct representation - something I had avoided for several years.  Even though they may look abstract and random, they are devoted renditions of real forms; forms that were intimate for me, linked as they were to my livelihood of several years.  For the decorative painting I would do for clients in their homes, I would mix a variety of colors in yogurt containers.  After I was done with them, I would let the remnants of the paint dry inside the yogurt cups which allowed me to easily peel the paint out of the container and then reuse the container for a new color.  For some reason, I started pinning these colored disks of dried latex to my studio wall.  I had quite an array of them. After sometime of not paying attention, I discovered that these disks became misshapen and distorted as gravity worked them over while they were pinned to the wall.  These weird forms became the subjects of the slough paintings, then later, the subject and core material in the blesse sculptures that were to follow.   

Latex Essays for the Big Draw Event

A week or so ago, I mentioned the work I planned to submit for the Beacon Open Studios Big Draw Event (note the new BOS website.) Well, last weekend I made up these little latex paint sketches and these are the pieces I ended up submitting. They're all 6"x8" and are pieces of dried, cast latex paint (a couple with collaged paper)mounted on Masonite. Remember, The Big Draw is happening on June 5, 7-10pm.

Friends with Benefits

Blood and my impulse to make work are the two "commodities" that I've had in abundance throughout my life, and that being the case, these two attributes (along my compulsive need to please) are what I have always been most able to leverage in the interest charitable giving. 

I generally participate in one or two art auctions or events each year where I donate an existing artwork.
I've mentioned before, my commitment to the biennial Artma event in Denver - and of course, I pierce a vein whenever I'm able (which I'll be doing again later this week.)
I recently set up a page here on the blog dedicated to the sale of Depletion Drawings which can be purchased through Paypal and will in part benefit Habitat for Artists.  Those drawings embody a vein of concentration that I was able to tap in to while meditating in my isolated 6x6 space.  That was a wonderful opportunity to step in deeper by stepping outside of the norm.  (I appreciate the images and reflections Sharon Butler has shared about her time spent in her Beacon Habitat during the same period, which I gather was equally beneficial to her.)
Anyway, these drawings are meaningful to me as many of them crystallized elements that I've since been exploring more fully, and I think they're rather successful as drawings.  So here's your chance to lay claim to a bit of my working process, while at the same time supporting two interesting causes:  HFA and Me.

  Depletion Drawing 26, 2008

There are a couple fundraising benefits coming up in which I'm participating, and in which one could find some great small pieces created by a variety of artists, all at a very easy sum of dough:

rococollage, 6x6" oil on canvas with printed paper collage.

The Rochester Contemporary Art Center in Rochester, NY is hosting its fourth (I think) 6x6x20 benefit starting on June 5, 2010. Thousands of 6"x6" artworks are available to purchase for $20. Works will be available to purchase online through RoCo's website beginning on June 7 at 10 am. 

On June 5, here in Beacon, the Beacon Open Studios Big Draw event will be taking place at the Marion Royeal Gallery at 462 Main St to raise funds for the city wide open studio weekend in September.

 smoken words, 6x8" marker and oil on white board.

I'll be submitting a couple of selections from a recent group of white board drawings, a few of which are pictured here.  I don't know which ones I'll actually submit for the event, and if I do submit any of the ones pictured, I don't know that they'll look the same by that point.

THENTHAN, 6x8" marker on white board.

some trees 6x8" marker, collage on white board

Artma Auction takes place in Denver, Feb 6, 2010 6-10 pm

Repose oil on canvas 30"x36" 1998

The biennial Artma art auction event is happening again in Denver next Saturday, Feb 6.  from 6 to 10 pm.  The event benefits the Morgan Adams Neuro-Oncology Fund at the Children's Hospital in Denver.

My contribution to this year's event is a bit of a throwback.  It's a piece from 1998 called Repose.

Remember, bid high, bid often and have a great time.

PS 122 Gallery Benefit Exhibit

Genesis 29, 2007.

Genesis 29 is my contribution to PS 122 Gallery's annual benefit exhibition which opens on December 13. All the work in the exhibit - 150 artists worth - is priced at $122. This should prove to be a

a great opportunity to pick up some artwork and a ridiculously low price. The proceeds will, of course, benefit PS 122 Gallery, which is located at 150 First Ave in NYC.

There will an opening reception on the 13th from 5-7, and the exhbit will be on view for one week, through Dec. 21.

Tote Bag, through May 3 at Open Space, Beacon, NY

Kalene and Dan at Open Space here in Beacon gave me and over a hundred other artists plain canvas shopping bags to paint, cut, sew and otherwise manipulate for an exhibit and auction to benefit Clearwater, an environmental educational and advocacy organization in the Hudson Valley.
Tote Bag, the exhibit which will run through May 3 , boasts a fun range of bags created by artists from all over the place, including many from Beacon, NYC, Brooklyn and handfuls from Chicago, Denver and more from across the US and Europe. Bags can be purchased online for $100.


For my bag, I decided to dye my bag a dark color and create a contour riff of my ligature pieces using a white tub and tile silicone caulk - not a very green medium, but as it is a material I have to buy occasionally, it's a bit serves to repurpose and use up a surplus that I already had.

Artma benefit, Feb 23, 2008

Ligature:umiekjr, 2007 oil on canvas 11"x14"

The above image is the piece that will be included in this year's Artma auction which will be taking place in Denver on February 23 from 6-10pm.


This piece is among the work that, as a body, is the latest iteration of of the work begun with the spamwerk paintings and more immediately, the Ligature studies, all of which are born from my recent habit of collecting subject lines from spam email.