22 posts tagged “ohio”
So the big news this week is I finally got a studio! I will be sharing a studio with Shannon Okey at the Lake Erie Screw Factory...hehe, screw. I figure that this will keep me from bumming around when I need to do actual work, as well as provide me with a cat hair free environment. Larger work to come? Quite possibly since space is no longer an issue. I will also have my studio open to the public, especially for the Open Studio events that my friend, and Screw Factory neighbor, Gina puts on. The building itself is an active warehouse and factory, but at night resembles the movie Mute Witness. At least I conquered the ancient freight elevator, and if I get really drunk, maybe I'll take some of the forklifts for a spin! Hoping to have moved in by late June, still need some dry wall and my "day job" work schedule is going to be crazy the next few weeks or so.
On a totally unrelated topic, did you know the singer from Glass Tiger wrote a motivational book? I'm glad I don't have cable, because yesterday I got sucked into some VH1 Classic and got this damn song stuck in my head. The video is a perfect example of what happens when Canadian musicians do too much cocaine at the peak of bad 80s fashion.
This weekend is your last chance to catch "Poise, Posture and Profanity" and it will also be the last time I show in the Cleveland area for quite a long time. Never fear, City Artists at Work is taking place this Saturday and Sunday with extended gallery and studio hours.
Saturday May 16th, 11AM - 6PM
Sunday May 17th, 12PM - 5PM
I will be hanging around William Rupnik Gallery (formerly Artchitecture) in the late afternoon Saturday, so come say howdy! Lots of my artist friends will be showing work at their studios and such throughout midtown; you can find a full list of artists and buildings open to the public at www.CityArtistsatWork.org
On Saturday, May 2nd if you feel like swinging by, stalking, or chatting, I will be at William Rupnik Gallery to meet with a few collectors and take more photos of the show for my archives. It goes down in the afternoon and the City Artists at Work is doing the whole tour shebang the weekend of the 16th & 17th too.
Speaking of photos, I'm so excited I am getting a new camera, I've had the same one for 9 years! Nothing is that wrong with it (okay it is a bit wonky when you have to take the batteries out and put them back in just to get the power to turn on) but it has become clear I need something really ace, especially if I am doing larger work that can't fit on a flatbed scanner.
There's an interview with me here on CoolCleveland.com which is neat; no one in the area ever reviews my shows because I didn't go to Cleveland Institute of Art (I went to the other CIA), so it is nice to get some write-ups here and there. Thank you Cleveland Bachelor and Hello My Name Is Art, again. Most of all thank you to you people who buy art, in Cleveland, in a recession. I'm still amazed!
Other than that, I finished two commissions in record time, I'm transcribing interviews for the Red Hot Chili Peppers book that will be coming out soon, and have barely had time to wipe my butt while my apartment looks like a Whitney & Bobby crack den -- again. Truthfully this has been an awful week in different ways and I cannot wait until Friday when hubby and I start our 8th Anniversary celebrations. A girl never needed champagne so bad, but, I'm thinking a Lady in White might do the trick.
Hello My Name Is Art was nice enough to do this little plug for "Poise, Posture and Profanity" opening this Friday. He "gets" me, which is nice. Below are some partial shots I took of us laying out the show. Should be fun, and I think a couple pieces may have sold already....
In the meantime I just finished a few commissioned 5x7s. I'm really nervous because it is of someone I know, and they don't know a mutual friend put me up to it as a surprise present. Doing work of real people is way harder for me than doing work of actual living people -- way stressful.
It was a short trip, but I'm back from Amish country. No photos this year, husband and I tried as much as we could to do nothing of interest and just lounge like beached whales. Our hotel was great as usual and all decorated for Christmas; husband describes the place as a 5 star hotel with a slightly creepy religious vibe. Hey for $80 a night you really can't beat it, I think it is even better than some of the fancy-pants rich jerk places I've stayed at. Although it is for retired folks and families with children, husband and I always seem to do the sort of vacations that old coots would do. We get strange looks quite often though I'm not sure why exactly. Maybe I'd fit in better if I had little girls named Kaylee and Britney, seriously, there were at least 7 or 8 girls running around the place named Kaylee!
Most of the time was spent eating, sitting in the hot tub, and doing old coot things like drinking coco in the library while doing this jigsaw puzzle...
Yeah that's right baby, I was sitting there trying to put this thing together! Well, really the reasoning was that our hotel had free cookies and coco before dinner, and we didn't want to look like jerks just taking the stuff and scrambling back to the room. There is no alcohol allowed or sold in any of the public areas of these hotels -- we learned this last year and found the local taverns in record time -- so this year we came prepared with bottles of Champagne and spent many hours going through cable channels we never see at home. "Operation Repo" is now our new favorite show. We felt sort of weird and guilty boozing it up and watching crap TV while paintings about faith, hard work, and bible passages were placed around our room. I was also intrigued by the amounts of young adult books based on Amish girls and sexual tension that were being sold in the lobby. Well, not always sexual tension, but they seemed very Sweet Valley High in a more innocent way. Plots lines included: the girl who loves animals and the boy she likes who goes hunting, and the boy whose mother dies and he vows never to love another woman again (kinda creepy actually). I come to find out Amish romance novels are also really huge, who knew?
The big excitement of the towns around us was the dead body found in a field over the weekend. Shot in the head, and set on fire no less. Super creepy! Sounds like a movie to me!
Yesterday was an interesting opening, some really good work by others in the show (full photo recap over here). Mostly I was busy trying not to sweat balls; keep my hair from going frizz-o in the humidity; ignore some of the rude art-goers who offended my friends; and ignore the comment about "oh did you do those big eyed people?" phrased as a not-so nice question. If you know me, you know I hate "big eye art" as I'm just really sick of seeing it everywhere. I also got interviewed by someone for something that they told me would be up on YouTube rather soon. One thing about me: you ask me vague generic questions, I'll give you rambling answers. Doesn't help when I don't know where I'm supposed to be looking, and the gal with the mic is a foot shorter than me. So yes, I'm sure it is me being dorky and I will probably avoid watching it.
Whatever, I sold a few pieces right as the doors opened, and it was a pretty good turn out. I label it a success and it always helps to have my friends there to entertain me. The best line from one friend, as someone remarked about my Prada bag and the fact I was brave enough to bring it, "wait, Bella, are we in COLLINWOOD!?" Original artistic haps and new ideas are dirty at first honey, welcome to the real deal. This ain't Laguna Beach where you can buy some Wyland sculptures.
Looky here, I'm striking a pose...
Sometimes I see parts of Cleveland that I wonder, "why don't they bomb it and start over?" Endearing? Not really. An assault on the senses? Yes maybe just a tad. These are always the parts that good ole MapQuest will send you through in any city, really.
Well it was a fine weekend indeedy down in Columbus. I never really walked around or did much there, so it was nice to get a tour of some parts at least. I tell you, High Street is amazing, and I've already made plans for two more trips before June to hang out with friends and start working on some giclee prints with those fine good-looking folks at Mahan Gallery.
Well, being this was the first weekend of not complete crap weather, the art walk on Saturday was pretty insane! It was difficult just walking a normal pace for one block. Already at 6pm the street was starting to fill up...
And hey, look at that. You can't see but I was totally rocking my Sisters of Mercy t-shirt. Everyone thinks this painting is a portrait of us; I don't see the resemblance especially since I don't have black hair or a button nose...
Our friends Sherri and Todd...
Friends Bill and Natasha, they go way back with both our families.
We walked around a bit more after the show; our friends Piss and Vinegar debuted their t-shirts over at Tiger Tree store. We stopped in real quick at Magnolia Thunderpussy, but we'll be back there soon to take our time on another trip for sure. The next day Bill and Natasha took us to their favorite place on High Street called Betty's. The wallpaper and pin-up art is worth it besides yummy grub...
In all the Short North Arts District is pretty hopping. It makes me sad Cleveland can't have just one huge place to put everything that is walkable like this -- instead of being spread out and spotty as hell. And I may also note that nowhere the whole weekend did I ever see Ohio State Buckeye clothing on anyone -- nowhere! So why do dorks in Cleveland wear Buckeyes gear when it isn't even their team? I'm from Ann Arbor so I don't care, but I thought it was amazing in a good way.
Of course now our friends want us to move to Columbus.
I spent my Saturday morning going to a real auction. And it was fun. Long, but very fun. Gray's Auctioneers opened not long ago in my neighborhood, and after checking out the website my husband decided to take a look at a cabinet we had our eyes on. After realizing our turntable wasn't going to fit, we fell in love with a mid century dining room set instead. Funny the furniture you think you want, and what you end up getting. We got ourselves a paddle and sat for the fun. Way more social than Ebay, plus you are able to inspect everything before you grab a paddle to bid which is nice. That dining room set looks way better in person.
Artist Scott Miller was showing in the lobby, they had champagne, chocolate and goat cheese, plus the auction itself was pretty mellow and actually quite funny. "I just sold a freaking boat!" the auctioneer would yell at various points. If something was going for a stupid low price with no bids, "I'll throw in a bottle of wine, come one, bottle of wine and $40 you take it home". Here are some photos....
Overall I'm shocked at how low all the prices were, on top of the weird crap people were buying. Hey, nautical stuff is still king I guess. Some nice jewelry, art, and I may indeed go back.
Galleries catching fire, people getting art stolen on opening night, galleries getting broken into. WTF is going on lately around the USA?
Friends and fellow artist collective raw umber had their artwork hanging in true art gallery in collinwood. i just found out that the gallery got broken into and nearly every piece of art was stolen from the space.
i
personally had 7 pieces up in the show. former apollonova artists
bernadette and becky both lost quite a few pieces as well. i am sad and in shock. this a big loss for us.
should anyone have any information on this event or the whereabouts of our artwork we would be very happy to know.
we will keep you updated if we find out anything new.
thank you for supporting the arts. we appreciate your positivity. now and in the future.
-beth
The cruel irony is that this was the gallery's last show.
